WEBVTT 00:00:00.354 --> 00:00:06.679 - Welcome to the December meeting of the MCCSE Board of School Trustees. We ask that you please come to 00:00:06.679 --> 00:00:13.253 - order. Before we move in to honor the excellence of MCCSE's dedicated employees, students, and volunteers 00:00:13.253 --> 00:00:19.578 - who make a difference, I just want to make a quick motion to amend our agenda for tonight. This would 00:00:19.578 --> 00:00:25.966 - be an amendment that would fall under district updates at the very top. So this would be 6.01, pushing 00:00:25.966 --> 00:00:27.454 - everything down by one. 00:00:28.418 --> 00:00:36.587 - and we'll just call it restatement of district values. Do I have a second? Second. Okay, thanks for 00:00:36.587 --> 00:00:44.838 - that second and we'll now vote in favor of adding that to the agenda. All those in favor of amending 00:00:44.838 --> 00:00:53.252 - the agenda to add 6.01 restatement of district values, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed? 00:00:53.252 --> 00:00:58.398 - Any abstentions? The motion carries and the agenda is amended. 00:00:59.362 --> 00:01:06.411 - For now though, we will move into our time of excellence. Ms. Harmon. Thank you, President Hennessy, 00:01:06.411 --> 00:01:13.948 - Dr. Winston, the Board of Trustees and community members. It is my pleasure to share this month's excellent 00:01:13.948 --> 00:01:21.485 - spotlight. This spotlight is a feature of every regular Board of School Trustees meeting and is a dedicated 00:01:21.485 --> 00:01:22.462 - time to honor 00:01:22.690 --> 00:01:28.616 - the excellence occurring every day through the dedication of MCCSE employees, students, and volunteers 00:01:28.616 --> 00:01:34.484 - who make a difference in our school community and foster environments that reflect the MCCSE mission, 00:01:34.484 --> 00:01:36.670 - vision, and core values. For December 00:01:36.834 --> 00:01:42.488 - our student recognition, we're proud to recognize Violet Hall, a senior at Bloomington High School South 00:01:42.488 --> 00:01:47.981 - for her incredible achievement and inspiring determination. Violet was born without the lower part of 00:01:47.981 --> 00:01:53.420 - her right arm, yet she continues to break barriers in athletics. She recently completed in the World 00:01:53.420 --> 00:01:58.859 - Para Championships in New Delhi, India, where she placed fifth in the 200 meter final racing against 00:01:58.859 --> 00:02:00.798 - athletes with similar disabilities. 00:02:01.154 --> 00:02:07.188 - Violet's perseverance and success make her an outstanding role model for our community. Congratulations, 00:02:07.188 --> 00:02:13.050 - Violet, on this remarkable accomplishment. I do not believe she was able to make it tonight. I'm also 00:02:13.050 --> 00:02:18.796 - honored to recognize Theresa Tish Hammack, custodian at Lakeview Elementary School for the December 00:02:18.796 --> 00:02:24.600 - Excellence Spotlight. I can't think of it. This is the principal speaking. She can't think of anyone 00:02:24.600 --> 00:02:30.462 - more deserving of this recognition. She goes above and beyond for students and staff every single day 00:02:30.562 --> 00:02:36.180 - ensuring that Lakeview's building is always in pristine condition. Her dedication and hard work create 00:02:36.180 --> 00:02:41.742 - an environment where learning can thrive. Beyond her commitment to cleanliness and organization, Tish 00:02:41.742 --> 00:02:47.469 - brings a unique talent for decorating that adds a special touch to our school. Her creativity transforms 00:02:47.469 --> 00:02:53.087 - spaces into warm, welcoming environments that truly make Lakeview feel like home. Thank you, Tish, for 00:02:53.087 --> 00:02:57.886 - everything you do. And also, Tish was not able to make it tonight. Thank you very much. 00:02:58.274 --> 00:03:05.275 - Dr. Winston, I think you have some people to recognize as well. I do, I do. We have the Superintendent 00:03:05.275 --> 00:03:12.208 - Sustaining Excellence Awards. The first award is the 2025 Congressional, excuse me, the Congressional 00:03:12.208 --> 00:03:19.413 - App Challenge winner for District 9. Jiping Leo and Jean Herr, students at Bloomington High School South, 00:03:19.413 --> 00:03:26.415 - were winners of the Congressional App Challenge for Indiana District 9 for their app, iFind. Their app 00:03:26.415 --> 00:03:27.774 - acts like LinkedIn, 00:03:28.098 --> 00:03:35.179 - for high school internships, connecting local organizations with potential high school interns, as well 00:03:35.179 --> 00:03:42.260 - as allowing students to document their internship accomplishments for peers and internship supervisors. 00:03:42.260 --> 00:03:49.341 - I think we could already use this. Their app will be honored by Representative Erin Hoken and displayed 00:03:49.341 --> 00:03:53.630 - on the House.gov webpage. Congratulations to Ji Ping and Jean. 00:03:54.018 --> 00:04:05.559 - I would also like to honor you with the Superintendent's Sustaining Excellence Award. So if the two 00:04:05.559 --> 00:04:17.445 - of you could come forward, please. Go ahead. Can we give them a round of applause? We are going to ask 00:04:17.445 --> 00:04:20.446 - you to join us right now. 00:04:26.178 --> 00:04:37.305 - Congratulations. Come on up. They're amazing teacher. The producer of many award winners. It makes it 00:04:37.305 --> 00:04:48.432 - really easy. Our district is full of awesome students and families and teachers to support them. Come 00:04:48.432 --> 00:04:53.886 - to the microphone. We'll stand with you. Come on. 00:04:54.562 --> 00:05:06.599 - First of all, I'd just like to thank Dr. Milks for teaching us in AP Bio. She's a really great teacher 00:05:06.599 --> 00:05:18.519 - and she also supported us when we were confused along the process for making our app and we saw a lot 00:05:18.519 --> 00:05:22.142 - of advice from her and she was 00:05:22.274 --> 00:05:31.385 - really supportive about that. So we want to thank her. And I'd also like to thank the school corporation 00:05:31.385 --> 00:05:40.149 - for giving us the ability to engage in these STEM opportunities as high schoolers. And I don't think 00:05:40.149 --> 00:05:49.694 - I would have been able to do it if I was in another school environment. So thank you. Thank you so very much. 00:05:50.210 --> 00:05:56.733 - And Dr. Milks, we so appreciate you as well. We really do. We have one more award to acknowledge, another 00:05:56.733 --> 00:06:03.255 - Superintendent Sustaining Excellence Awards for the Riley Champion. On December 2nd, the Riley Children's 00:06:03.255 --> 00:06:09.409 - Foundation announced its 2026 Riley Champions. The Riley Champions program was created to recognize 00:06:09.409 --> 00:06:15.562 - and honor remarkable Riley hospital patients who translate their courage during a medical challenge 00:06:15.562 --> 00:06:19.070 - in the philanthropic action in their community. Tonight, 00:06:19.362 --> 00:06:25.394 - We want to congratulate our MCCSE champion, but also award the Superintendent's Sustaining Excellence 00:06:25.394 --> 00:06:31.486 - Award. Bennett Pace is a fourth grade student at Childs Elementary. And I'm not sure, is Bennett here? 00:06:31.486 --> 00:06:37.814 - Okay, Bennett's unable to be here this evening. But his principal is Steven Marshall at Childs Elementary. 00:06:37.814 --> 00:06:42.782 - So if we can give Bennett just a round of applause for this amazing accomplishment. 00:06:49.346 --> 00:06:58.033 - That concludes our Superintendents Sustaining Excellence Awards. Oh, excellent. Thank you very much. 00:06:58.033 --> 00:07:06.719 - And I did just want to recognize one other individual tonight on our board, actually. So I will just 00:07:06.719 --> 00:07:14.718 - say that Tiana Berouge, or now Dr. Tiana, has just this past week defended her dissertation. 00:07:14.914 --> 00:07:23.443 - and has now completed her defense and probably one of the fastest turnarounds of, you know, editing 00:07:23.443 --> 00:07:31.972 - that maybe has ever happened in the world. Apparently, she'd sent in her edits the very next day or 00:07:31.972 --> 00:07:39.819 - something like that. Is that true? I will not. I'm a work in progress. Well, we just wanted 00:07:39.819 --> 00:07:43.742 - to say congratulations to big, big, you know, 00:07:43.874 --> 00:07:51.121 - endeavor and i've i've known you for a while in this process and so uh happy to see you on the other 00:07:51.121 --> 00:07:58.799 - side so congratulations thank you we're very proud of you all right we will now proceed to public comments 00:07:58.799 --> 00:08:05.974 - thank you to all who signed up uh as it is just jenny noble cochera i'm not going to go through the 00:08:05.974 --> 00:08:12.862 - whole thing i think you know the rules um ding dings all the ding dings you know all right cool 00:08:17.218 --> 00:08:25.160 - Good evening President Hennessey, Dr. Winston, MCCSE School Board of Trustees, and Monroe County community 00:08:25.160 --> 00:08:32.879 - members. As April said, my name is Jenny Noble Caccia, and I'm the proud president of MCA, our teachers 00:08:32.879 --> 00:08:40.673 - union. As you're aware, agenda item 5.02 addresses the desire for MCCSE to eliminate the Title I teacher 00:08:40.673 --> 00:08:46.462 - supplemental pay stipend of $2,000 per year. Our teachers are fully cognizant 00:08:46.882 --> 00:08:53.902 - of the myriad shortages in state funding and the financial implications that come as a result of that 00:08:53.902 --> 00:09:00.235 - shortage. We also recognize the language included in this resolution that, and I quote, the 00:09:00.235 --> 00:09:07.255 - board acknowledges the need for the federal and state agencies to increase funding to more adequately 00:09:07.255 --> 00:09:14.207 - permit supplemental teacher compensation for teachers in Title I priority schools and authorizes the 00:09:14.207 --> 00:09:16.478 - superintendent and her designees 00:09:16.866 --> 00:09:25.394 - to investigate such possibilities or alternative sources. We have roughly 225 teachers who will no longer 00:09:25.394 --> 00:09:33.680 - receive the supplemental pay, it will be a decrease for them. And so the question that I'm asking here 00:09:33.680 --> 00:09:42.047 - on their behalf is what are the alternative sources? It seems to us that the legislature with this just 00:09:42.047 --> 00:09:44.702 - has one more notch on their belt 00:09:44.962 --> 00:09:52.595 - of public education dismantlement. So the teacher appreciation grants from the state, they're only going 00:09:52.595 --> 00:10:00.300 - to go to potentially 13% of our teachers. And that's only if the IDOE deems them eligible. So my question 00:10:00.300 --> 00:10:07.932 - to our community, to the school board, and to our administration is what then can be done to help retain 00:10:07.932 --> 00:10:10.622 - the teachers who work hard every day 00:10:10.978 --> 00:10:19.287 - directly with the population of our most school-dependent kids. Thank you. Thank you very much. As there 00:10:19.287 --> 00:10:27.359 - are no other public comments, we will now proceed to the consent agenda. Now for our consideration is 00:10:27.359 --> 00:10:35.272 - the agenda that includes the following, the minutes from the regular board meeting held on November 00:10:35.272 --> 00:10:36.222 - 18th, 2025. 00:10:36.610 --> 00:10:43.110 - the overnight and out of state field trips, the financial report from November 2025, the appropriation 00:10:43.110 --> 00:10:49.610 - balance report from November 2025, the register of claims from December 16th, the payroll register and 00:10:49.610 --> 00:10:56.236 - payroll claims November 2025. Do I have a motion regarding the approval of the consent agenda? So moved. 00:10:56.236 --> 00:11:02.673 - Do I have a second? Second. It's been moved by Ross and seconded by Tiana that we approve the consent 00:11:02.673 --> 00:11:03.998 - agenda as presented. 00:11:04.194 --> 00:11:11.099 - All those in favor of the motion to approve the consent agenda, signify by saying aye. Aye. Any against? 00:11:11.099 --> 00:11:17.675 - Any abstentions? The motion carries. Next for our consideration are the donations. We have received 00:11:17.675 --> 00:11:24.645 - nearly $5,000 in donations. We just want to say thank you to all of our donors. Your generosity is always 00:11:24.645 --> 00:11:30.366 - appreciated. Do I have a motion to accept the donations? So moved. Do I have a second? 00:11:31.970 --> 00:11:38.684 - It's been moved by Ross and seconded by Asia that we accept the donations as presented. All those in 00:11:38.684 --> 00:11:44.934 - favor of the motion to approve the donations, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Any against? 00:11:44.934 --> 00:11:51.648 - Any abstentions? The motion carries. Next for our consideration is the personnel report. Do I have a 00:11:51.648 --> 00:11:58.363 - motion to approve the personnel report as presented? So moved. Do I have a second? Second. It's been 00:11:58.363 --> 00:12:01.886 - moved by Ross and seconded by Ashley that we approve 00:12:02.114 --> 00:12:08.196 - the personnel report as presented. Dr. Henderson. President Hennessey, Dr. Winston and members of the 00:12:08.196 --> 00:12:14.517 - Board of School Trustees at this time, I request that you please approve the recommendations as presented 00:12:14.517 --> 00:12:20.600 - in your board packet in the personnel report. Okay, thank you very much. Do we have any comments from 00:12:20.600 --> 00:12:26.801 - the board on this? Okay, seeing none, all those in favor of the motion to approve the personnel report, 00:12:26.801 --> 00:12:31.870 - please signify by saying aye. Aye. Any against? Any abstentions? The motion carries. 00:12:32.706 --> 00:12:40.366 - Next is the recommendation to adopt the resolution 2025-26 supplemental pay for teachers in priority 00:12:40.366 --> 00:12:48.026 - schools under Title I guidelines. Do I have a motion to adopt the resolution as presented? So moved. 00:12:48.026 --> 00:12:55.989 - Do I have a second? Second. It's been moved by Ross and seconded by Asia that we accept or that we adopt 00:12:55.989 --> 00:12:59.326 - the resolution as presented. Dr. Henderson. 00:13:00.866 --> 00:13:07.331 - President Hennessey, Dr. Winston, members of the Board of School Trustees, it is recommended that the 00:13:07.331 --> 00:13:14.176 - board adopt resolution 2025-26, supplemental pay for teachers and priority schools under Title I guidelines 00:13:14.176 --> 00:13:20.641 - as presented in your board packet. I so recommend. Thank you, Dr. Henderson. Do we have any questions 00:13:20.641 --> 00:13:27.043 - or comments from the board? I just want to say, especially in light of Jenny's comment, that I don't 00:13:27.043 --> 00:13:30.846 - think that this was an easy decision for any of us and that 00:13:31.010 --> 00:13:40.963 - Um, I personally, I regret that we are in the position where we have to consider this. Thank you, Aaron. 00:13:40.963 --> 00:13:50.442 - Anyone else? I just want to second that. Um, just not comfortable with it. I know we have to do it, 00:13:50.442 --> 00:13:58.878 - but I don't like it. Yeah, I hear that. Still sums it up about as well as you can. Yeah. 00:13:59.874 --> 00:14:06.696 - And I suppose on the heels of that, just to say that it's a hard decision because we so greatly appreciate 00:14:06.696 --> 00:14:13.326 - the teachers that serve at our Title I schools, as we appreciate all of our teachers. But we understand 00:14:13.326 --> 00:14:19.766 - that that comes with special challenges. Indeed. And we implemented this because we understood those 00:14:19.766 --> 00:14:25.886 - particular challenges, especially in retention. But I do think that we know that at this point, 00:14:27.682 --> 00:14:37.177 - we are in this spot where we have to make these kinds of fiscal decisions in order to, you know, be 00:14:37.177 --> 00:14:46.672 - able to make other sorts of, of sort of offerings. And so, yeah, I agree. Uh, any other comments or 00:14:46.672 --> 00:14:51.230 - a discussion around this particular item? Okay. 00:14:52.066 --> 00:15:00.240 - All those in favor of the motion to approve resolution 2025-26 supplemental pay for teachers and priority 00:15:00.240 --> 00:15:08.105 - schools under Title I guidelines signify by saying aye. Aye. Any against? Any abstentions? The motion 00:15:08.105 --> 00:15:16.047 - carries. We now move to contracts. Do I have a motion to approve the contracts as presented? So moved. 00:15:16.047 --> 00:15:18.206 - Do I have a second? Second. 00:15:18.818 --> 00:15:24.244 - It's been moved by Ross and seconded by Ashley that we approve the contracts as presented. Mr. Irwin, 00:15:24.244 --> 00:15:29.671 - anything to highlight for us? I just want to highlight one contract that's with Ivy Tech Bloomington. 00:15:29.671 --> 00:15:35.150 - Just thankful for their partnership. They're providing Shreve Hall at no cost to us in order to do the 00:15:35.150 --> 00:15:40.576 - commencement ceremony for ASC students. Just thankful for that continued partnership. I recommend all 00:15:40.576 --> 00:15:45.790 - contracts as presented. All right, thank you. Are there any comments or questions from the board? 00:15:51.490 --> 00:16:01.316 - All those in favor of the motion to approve the contracts as presented, please signify by saying aye. 00:16:01.316 --> 00:16:10.756 - Aye. Any against? Any abstentions? The motion carries. We will now move to Policy 3220.01 Teacher 00:16:10.756 --> 00:16:18.366 - Appreciation Grant, which will be presented to repeal this policy. Ms. Harmon. 00:16:20.130 --> 00:16:26.462 - Thank you President Hennessy, Dr. Winston, and members of the board. Policy 3220.01 Teacher Appreciation 00:16:26.462 --> 00:16:32.915 - Grant is first presented for repeal. HEA 1001, Section 19 of this act repeals the former language relating 00:16:32.915 --> 00:16:39.247 - to the teacher appreciation grants, which removes the requirement for the school board to adopt a policy 00:16:39.247 --> 00:16:43.710 - concerning distributions of grants to teachers in the school corporation. 00:16:43.938 --> 00:16:51.177 - Section 198 of HEA 1001 establishes a new teacher appreciation grant program administered by the Indiana 00:16:51.177 --> 00:16:58.072 - Department of Education. According to our bylaws, policy 3220.01 is presented for the first reading 00:16:58.072 --> 00:17:05.380 - and will be presented a second time for a recommendation to repeal at the January 27, 2026 board meeting. 00:17:05.380 --> 00:17:10.206 - Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Harmon. So again, just for those listening, 00:17:10.338 --> 00:17:18.151 - This is a policy, a first reading of a policy for repeal. And this is because the state has issued a 00:17:18.151 --> 00:17:26.506 - new policy with regard to teacher appreciation grants. And so the other one on file must first be repealed. 00:17:26.506 --> 00:17:34.396 - And so that is the reason for this sort of action at this moment. Are there any comments or questions 00:17:34.396 --> 00:17:39.966 - from anybody at this time? Okay. We move on to district updates and now 00:17:40.258 --> 00:17:48.339 - Number 6.01 is the amended item from earlier in this meeting. And so this is the motion to amend restatement 00:17:48.339 --> 00:17:55.827 - of district values, number 6.01. And so I'll just take a moment to read this. The social, emotional, 00:17:55.827 --> 00:18:03.315 - educational, physical and psychological safety of our students is the utmost importance to our board 00:18:03.315 --> 00:18:06.206 - of school trustees and administration. 00:18:06.562 --> 00:18:13.143 - As such, we committed at the start of this year, on January 28th, 2025, to upholding the dignity and 00:18:13.143 --> 00:18:19.789 - rights of all students in our care. Part of that commitment is bolstered by the following. MCCSE does 00:18:19.789 --> 00:18:26.435 - not ask for or document students' immigration status when students enroll, and MCCSE must educate all 00:18:26.435 --> 00:18:33.146 - students who reside within MCCSE boundaries, regardless of immigration status. MCCSE complies with all 00:18:33.146 --> 00:18:35.166 - privacy laws, including FERPA, 00:18:35.266 --> 00:18:41.192 - which stands for Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, which governs the privacy of educational 00:18:41.192 --> 00:18:47.117 - records of our students. MCCSE complies with laws governing limiting access to school facilities and 00:18:47.117 --> 00:18:53.102 - educational records, including by federal, state, or local government agents such as U.S. Immigration 00:18:53.102 --> 00:18:59.438 - and Customs Enforcement or ICE agents. Only agents with appropriate warrants, as verified by administrators 00:18:59.438 --> 00:19:03.134 - and guided by MCCSE legal counsel, may be permitted to access, 00:19:03.490 --> 00:19:09.547 - may be permitted access to school buildings or records. But the other part of that commitment on our 00:19:09.547 --> 00:19:15.603 - part is to provide support and care in our buildings in those moments when our community is impacted 00:19:15.603 --> 00:19:21.660 - by events that happen on or off our campuses. This kind of support in response to global or national 00:19:21.660 --> 00:19:28.017 - crises, local disruption, illness and death of our school community members, or threats to the well-being 00:19:28.017 --> 00:19:33.054 - of our students is part and parcel of what we endeavor to provide whenever possible 00:19:33.378 --> 00:19:39.506 - as we think about the whole student. The board and the administration always seek to respond with compassion 00:19:39.506 --> 00:19:45.296 - and transparency whenever possible in the timeliest manner. We can only provide the community with the 00:19:45.296 --> 00:19:51.031 - information available to us at any given moment. However, when we have access to the information that 00:19:51.031 --> 00:19:56.765 - would keep our students and community safe, we would provide that information if possible. Now and as 00:19:56.765 --> 00:20:01.150 - always, MCCSE continues to dedicate itself to being a safe place for students 00:20:01.442 --> 00:20:09.690 - meaning that the corporation is a place for students to learn, thrive and seek assistance, information 00:20:09.690 --> 00:20:17.698 - and support when they need it. And that concludes our restatement of our district values as regards 00:20:17.698 --> 00:20:25.946 - to those issues. And so we can close that item unless there's any just comment or question or anything 00:20:25.946 --> 00:20:30.270 - from board members at this moment. Okay, seeing none. 00:20:30.978 --> 00:20:40.084 - We will move on to 6.02, which will be student supports, literacy, numeracy, foundations, and interventions. 00:20:40.084 --> 00:20:41.086 - Ms. Harmon. 00:20:56.514 --> 00:21:03.132 - Good evening again, President Hennessey, Dr. Winston, and members of the board. Thank you for the opportunity 00:21:03.132 --> 00:21:09.148 - to share tonight. This evening's presentation focuses on student support, specifically how literacy 00:21:09.148 --> 00:21:15.345 - and numeracy and intervention systems work together to support every learner across MCCSE. What you'll 00:21:15.345 --> 00:21:21.361 - see tonight is not a collection of disconnected initiatives, but a coherent aligned system designed 00:21:21.361 --> 00:21:24.670 - to meet students where they are and to help them grow. 00:21:25.538 --> 00:21:31.453 - As you listen, I invite you to keep one thing in mind. Every structure, every decision, every data point 00:21:31.453 --> 00:21:37.142 - ultimately comes down to one thing, a student sitting in a classroom, learning, trying, and building 00:21:37.142 --> 00:21:42.832 - confidence. With that in mind, here's tonight's agenda. We're going to begin with what we're calling 00:21:42.832 --> 00:21:48.634 - Instruction in Action, and it's a brief video just to really highlight what learning looks like in our 00:21:48.634 --> 00:21:49.310 - classrooms. 00:21:49.826 --> 00:21:56.035 - Then we want to speak a little bit about coherence and alignment, which explains how our work fits together 00:21:56.035 --> 00:22:01.899 - across classrooms, buildings, and the corporation. And then we'll move into foundational literacy and 00:22:01.899 --> 00:22:07.706 - numeracy, highlighting instructional practices, professional learning, and results, and then finally 00:22:07.706 --> 00:22:13.972 - examine our database decision-making and interventions, showing how data supports not drives the instruction 00:22:13.972 --> 00:22:18.974 - in our classrooms. So with that, I'm going to go ahead and play a brief video for you. 00:23:26.818 --> 00:23:33.535 - good when you see it. It just really feels good to see learners out there with their teachers engaging 00:23:33.535 --> 00:23:40.057 - hands-on with each other and talking to each other and really see how math and reading kind of come 00:23:40.057 --> 00:23:46.644 - to life for all of our learners. I particularly just love that ending scene with the teacher calling 00:23:46.644 --> 00:23:50.622 - the students back in. Okay, thank you. So with that in mind, 00:23:51.298 --> 00:23:56.822 - This slide kind of captures our guiding belief that coherence and alignment are foundational to our 00:23:56.822 --> 00:24:02.402 - work. Our mission, vision, and goals are not separate from instructional decisions. They drive them. 00:24:02.402 --> 00:24:08.092 - Every instructional choice, professional learning opportunity, and intervention strategy aligns to one 00:24:08.092 --> 00:24:13.672 - shared purpose, our mission, which is empowering students to maximize their educational success. And 00:24:13.672 --> 00:24:19.583 - so we have one mission, one direction, one team, one plan. This shared direction allows us to move forward 00:24:19.583 --> 00:24:20.798 - together as one team. 00:24:20.962 --> 00:24:26.946 - while maintaining high expectations for all of our learners. When these systems are aligned, teachers 00:24:26.946 --> 00:24:32.989 - can focus on what matters most, and that's our students and instruction. When we think about coherence 00:24:32.989 --> 00:24:38.915 - alignment, what does that really mean? We believe it makes a stronger, more affectionate educational 00:24:38.915 --> 00:24:44.958 - experience for all, and the research supports that. Aligned systems are increased student achievement, 00:24:44.958 --> 00:24:47.070 - are crucial for school improvement, 00:24:47.458 --> 00:24:53.657 - Reinforce shared instructional vision ensures vertical alignment as well. And so for MCCSE coherence 00:24:53.657 --> 00:24:59.856 - means student experience consistent expectations. Teachers receive targeted support and leaders make 00:24:59.856 --> 00:25:06.239 - decisions grounded in evidence, not guesswork. And when we look at that in terms of sustaining academic 00:25:06.239 --> 00:25:12.499 - excellence, this slide captures how our work fits together and highlights that across the corporation 00:25:12.499 --> 00:25:16.734 - and each of our buildings, these are our shared instructional goals. 00:25:17.730 --> 00:25:23.236 - and that they are tied back to our mission and vision. At the core are foundational literacy and numeracy. 00:25:23.236 --> 00:25:28.536 - These are the skills that make all other learning possible. When students can read with confidence and 00:25:28.536 --> 00:25:33.733 - reason mathematically, they are prepared to access every subject and every opportunity that follows. 00:25:33.733 --> 00:25:39.085 - By strengthening these foundations early, we set students on a path toward long-term success, including 00:25:39.085 --> 00:25:44.385 - college and career readiness. The skills students build in our elementary classrooms become the habits 00:25:44.385 --> 00:25:45.054 - of thinking, 00:25:46.018 --> 00:25:51.743 - problem-solving, and perseverance they carry forward. This approach allows us to remain focused, aligned, 00:25:51.743 --> 00:25:57.414 - and intentional, ensuring that our work today continues to pay dividends for students tomorrow. Tonight, 00:25:57.414 --> 00:26:02.491 - you're going to hear directly from our Director of Elementary Education, Lily Albright, about 00:26:02.491 --> 00:26:08.108 - how foundational literacy and numeracy come to life in classrooms and how students experience this work 00:26:08.108 --> 00:26:08.702 - every day. 00:26:09.346 --> 00:26:14.932 - And then in a future presentation, our director of secondary education, Eric Gilpin, will come back 00:26:14.932 --> 00:26:20.629 - to share more regarding secondary education in college and career readiness. Before I turn it over to 00:26:20.629 --> 00:26:26.214 - Ms. Albright, I do want to talk a little bit about how we make sure there's coherence and alignment 00:26:26.214 --> 00:26:32.024 - is in place. So we have a bidirectional internal system of accountability. It means we have intentional 00:26:32.024 --> 00:26:35.710 - support, impactful practices, and targeted professional learning. 00:26:35.938 --> 00:26:41.414 - And this kind of highlights some of those elements, and that it's a shared responsibility between us, 00:26:41.414 --> 00:26:46.782 - students, teachers, curriculum directors, and even members of the board. We engage in instructional 00:26:46.782 --> 00:26:52.312 - snapshots, and that's our way of talking about we go into classrooms, we see what's happening, we want 00:26:52.312 --> 00:26:58.002 - our work to be relevant and founded in that and see real classroom practice. That we look at the building 00:26:58.002 --> 00:27:01.438 - and district level to monitor data and see what's working well. 00:27:02.274 --> 00:27:08.422 - We have regular leadership meetings that focus on instruction and our alignment to our vision. And that 00:27:08.422 --> 00:27:14.629 - one plan monitoring refers to our school improvement plans, which we refer to as one plan to again focus 00:27:14.629 --> 00:27:20.363 - our intentionality and that aligned vision. These structures ensure that support is intentional, 00:27:20.363 --> 00:27:26.275 - not reactive, and decisions are made collaboratively with students' outcomes at the center. We also 00:27:26.275 --> 00:27:29.822 - know that strong instruction begins with strong leadership. 00:27:30.050 --> 00:27:35.405 - We want to engage our leaders in targeted professional learning focused on data literacy, assessment 00:27:35.405 --> 00:27:40.706 - literacy, and database decision making to ensure that they can support teachers effectively, asking 00:27:40.706 --> 00:27:46.167 - the right questions, interpreting data accurately, and guiding instructional next steps. These set the 00:27:46.167 --> 00:27:51.999 - stage for the work you'll hear about tonight in foundational literacy and numeracy, where aligned instruction 00:27:51.999 --> 00:27:57.566 - and professional learning come to life in classrooms. I'd now like to invite Lily Albright to the podium 00:27:57.954 --> 00:28:04.816 - present on foundational supports and MCCSE. Thank you Ms. Harman, President Hennessy, Dr. Winston, members 00:28:04.816 --> 00:28:11.357 - of the board. I'm Lily Albright, the proud director of elementary education and it is genuinely a joy 00:28:11.357 --> 00:28:17.962 - to share this next part of our presentation with you. Foundational literacy and numeracy are where our 00:28:17.962 --> 00:28:24.631 - youngest learners discover what it feels like to crack the code, to play with numbers, and to feel that 00:28:24.631 --> 00:28:27.902 - spark of confidence when something finally clicks. 00:28:28.450 --> 00:28:34.834 - It's important to note and remember that behind each chart, each data point, there's a child learning 00:28:34.834 --> 00:28:41.092 - to believe I can do this. And our educators are building those moments every day. As I walk through 00:28:41.092 --> 00:28:47.351 - each section, I want you to notice something that was very intentional. You will hear directly from 00:28:47.351 --> 00:28:53.735 - our students, our teachers, and our principals. Educator voices are woven throughout the presentation 00:28:53.735 --> 00:28:58.366 - because they tell the story. Their quotes show not only what we're doing, 00:28:58.658 --> 00:29:05.228 - but how it feels in classrooms. The joy, the momentum, and the pride in learning. I will begin with 00:29:05.228 --> 00:29:11.863 - a student quote related to our work on foundational literacy. One of our elementary students said, I 00:29:11.863 --> 00:29:18.630 - am a good reader. My teacher helps me by encouraging me to sound out a word, and then if I still don't 00:29:18.630 --> 00:29:25.200 - know it, she helps me figure it out. She's a good teacher. When students talk about reading in this 00:29:25.200 --> 00:29:28.222 - way, feeling supported, confident, and proud, 00:29:28.578 --> 00:29:35.990 - that tells us our foundational literacy structures are working. In literacy, our focus is on evidence-based 00:29:35.990 --> 00:29:43.539 - practices, systematic and explicit phonics and phonemic awareness instruction, decoding and word recognition, 00:29:43.539 --> 00:29:50.745 - rich and meaningful vocabulary instruction, building content knowledge, small group instruction grounded 00:29:50.745 --> 00:29:56.030 - in data, and use of resources such as UFLY, Morphing Magic, and Quick Reads. 00:29:56.770 --> 00:30:03.119 - These practices come directly from the science of reading and decades of research on how children learn 00:30:03.119 --> 00:30:09.223 - to read. To support this work, we provide ongoing job-embedded learning for our teachers, including 00:30:09.223 --> 00:30:15.816 - coaching cycles and planning, goal setting and modeling, literacy block, structure refinement and guidance, 00:30:15.816 --> 00:30:22.042 - and a strong partnership with expert Dr. Jamie Peebler, who's developed professional learning focused 00:30:22.042 --> 00:30:24.606 - on vocabulary and language comprehension. 00:30:25.506 --> 00:30:32.114 - Teachers are applying these practices with growing confidence and you can feel the momentum. We're excited 00:30:32.114 --> 00:30:38.352 - to build on this momentum with the adoption of a new evidence-based English language arts curriculum 00:30:38.352 --> 00:30:44.775 - for the 2026-27 school year. And we'll share more about that in an upcoming board meeting. We're really 00:30:44.775 --> 00:30:51.198 - proud of our early literacy gains this year. We saw a 3.7 increase in third grade proficiency on iRead. 00:30:51.682 --> 00:30:59.176 - Three schools reaching 100%, which is remarkable, and half of our second graders who took the test early 00:30:59.176 --> 00:31:06.741 - last year passed. And that early success gives them a strong head start. These results reflect consistent 00:31:06.741 --> 00:31:13.949 - instruction, a strong literacy block, and teachers who bring skill and joy to their work. This slide 00:31:13.949 --> 00:31:20.158 - includes a few comments from principals and teachers about foundational literacy work. 00:31:20.578 --> 00:31:26.186 - I know it's a lot of text, but their voices matter. They're the ones bringing this work to life for 00:31:26.186 --> 00:31:32.018 - our students. I won't read everything on the slide, but I want to highlight a few important themes that 00:31:32.018 --> 00:31:37.737 - come through clearly. The quotes speak to the structures that are in place to analyze data and adjust 00:31:37.737 --> 00:31:43.625 - instruction. They note how UFLY is empowering students through intentional instruction and the way their 00:31:43.625 --> 00:31:47.102 - vocabulary instruction has become richer and more meaningful. 00:31:47.938 --> 00:31:55.287 - These are teachers who feel supported, prepared, and excited, and that energy is reaching students. 00:31:55.287 --> 00:32:02.782 - That is what we strive for. We know that when teachers feel energized and supported and inspired, our 00:32:02.782 --> 00:32:10.866 - students feel it too. When asked about foundational numeracy, an elementary student said, I liked subtracting 00:32:10.866 --> 00:32:13.438 - and adding decimals and fractions. 00:32:13.826 --> 00:32:20.132 - We do exit tickets to see what we're good at and what we still need help with. My teacher goes through 00:32:20.132 --> 00:32:26.315 - the slides to help us and she teaches us at the teacher table. This quote highlights three important 00:32:26.315 --> 00:32:32.621 - parts of our approach. First, students see math as engaging and accessible, something they like doing. 00:32:32.621 --> 00:32:38.804 - Second, they understand the purpose of exit tickets. Even at a young age, they know that these quick 00:32:38.804 --> 00:32:42.110 - checks help teachers figure out what they've mastered 00:32:42.434 --> 00:32:49.038 - and what they still need support with. And third, the student is describing high quality small group 00:32:49.038 --> 00:32:55.641 - instruction. The teacher table is where targeted teaching happens, where students get the just right 00:32:55.641 --> 00:33:02.375 - support they need in response to real time data. So in one short quote, this student captured the full 00:33:02.375 --> 00:33:09.502 - cycle of our foundational numeracy work. Joyful learning, meaningful assessment, and responsive instruction. 00:33:10.050 --> 00:33:17.843 - It's exactly the kind of experience we want every student to have in every single classroom. Our numeracy 00:33:17.843 --> 00:33:25.268 - best practices include conceptual understanding supported by manipulatives, explicit instruction and 00:33:25.268 --> 00:33:32.767 - key skills, strong number sense routines, student-centered exploration, purposeful use of small group 00:33:32.767 --> 00:33:39.678 - instruction. We're building deep, durable math understanding, not just procedural compliance. 00:33:40.194 --> 00:33:46.427 - Our professional learning and support in math includes a new reveal math curriculum that's aligned to 00:33:46.427 --> 00:33:52.843 - Indiana standards, learning labs each semester with instructional coaches and peers where teachers visit 00:33:52.843 --> 00:33:59.198 - each other's classrooms and collaborate with other teachers in their grade level across MCCSC, coaching 00:33:59.198 --> 00:34:04.759 - cycles to support planning and modeling, and a partnership with expert Dr. Laurie Ferry to 00:34:04.759 --> 00:34:09.342 - guide instructional shifts. Our work in math mirrors our work in literacy, 00:34:09.634 --> 00:34:16.821 - emphasizing explicit instruction, conceptual understanding, aligned curriculum, and job-embedded professional 00:34:16.821 --> 00:34:23.420 - learning. Our 2025 iLearn math results show progress. Grades three through eight are now 12.9% above 00:34:23.420 --> 00:34:29.758 - the state average. This is a testament to aligned curriculum, committed teaching, and consistent 00:34:29.758 --> 00:34:36.422 - research-based instruction. And while we're proud of this growth, we're not satisfied. We know we can 00:34:36.422 --> 00:34:39.166 - and will do even better for our students. 00:34:40.450 --> 00:34:46.776 - Teachers are seeing results in their classroom every day. These quotes highlight their commitment to 00:34:46.776 --> 00:34:53.039 - the use of small group time, their appreciation of the new curriculum, and their acknowledgement of 00:34:53.039 --> 00:34:59.364 - the power of learning labs and grade level collaboration. The final section of our presentation this 00:34:59.364 --> 00:35:06.066 - evening focuses on database decision making, a structure that's woven throughout our foundational literacy 00:35:06.066 --> 00:35:09.886 - and numeracy practices. One of our elementary students said, 00:35:10.338 --> 00:35:17.575 - I know I'm learning because my brain tells me that we're learning and stuff. When I read this student 00:35:17.575 --> 00:35:24.742 - quote, I couldn't help but smile. There's something so honest and insightful about it. For students, 00:35:24.742 --> 00:35:32.121 - learning is often based on how they feel, whether a lesson made sense, whether they had fun, or whether 00:35:32.121 --> 00:35:39.358 - something finally clicked in their mind. And that feeling matters. It tells us learning is happening. 00:35:40.162 --> 00:35:47.096 - But for teachers and for our system, that can't be the whole picture. We need to know exactly what students 00:35:47.096 --> 00:35:53.580 - know and can do. We need to know where they're thriving, where they're struggling, and what specific 00:35:53.580 --> 00:36:00.128 - skills need attention. And that understanding must be rooted in something more than a feeling. It has 00:36:00.128 --> 00:36:06.998 - to be rooted in data. To ensure our decisions are rooted in data and that our interventions are effective, 00:36:06.998 --> 00:36:09.694 - we're collecting data on a regular basis, 00:36:10.146 --> 00:36:17.023 - collaborating to respond to that data and monitoring student response to our instruction. And to do 00:36:17.023 --> 00:36:23.900 - this, we focus on improving our data literacy, assessment literacy, and knowledge of the monitoring 00:36:23.900 --> 00:36:30.777 - cycle. This system has improved our interventions, making them more intentional and more responsive 00:36:30.777 --> 00:36:37.792 - than ever. The diagram on this slide illustrates how this multi-tiered system of support functions as 00:36:37.792 --> 00:36:38.686 - a proactive, 00:36:39.202 --> 00:36:46.335 - and responsive system to support the whole child. It shows the cyclical nature of the process and highlights 00:36:46.335 --> 00:36:52.944 - the role that data and collaboration play. This process is used across all our elementary buildings, 00:36:52.944 --> 00:36:59.619 - which gives us a clear common language, a consistent way to identify student needs, and an actionable 00:36:59.619 --> 00:37:03.742 - structure for implementing, monitoring, and refining supports. 00:37:04.546 --> 00:37:11.304 - Let's look at how that process plays out in our schools as it relates to foundational literacy specifically. 00:37:11.304 --> 00:37:17.876 - First, a screener is administered to all students. In this case, we use Dibbles, which stands for dynamic 00:37:17.876 --> 00:37:24.200 - indicators of basic early literacy skills. We do this three times a year, the gain of year, middle of 00:37:24.200 --> 00:37:30.462 - year, and end of year. The results will show if a student is below, at, or well below the benchmark. 00:37:30.882 --> 00:37:37.459 - And using these results, instructional leaders at each school identify groups. Interventions are delivered 00:37:37.459 --> 00:37:43.668 - based on individual student needs. And students who are identified as performing below or well below 00:37:43.668 --> 00:37:50.184 - are progress monitored every two to three weeks to determine if our instructional strategies are working. 00:37:50.184 --> 00:37:56.454 - Then we either stay the course or adjust our instruction. These last two steps are repeated as needed 00:37:56.454 --> 00:37:58.974 - until the next screener is administered. 00:38:00.194 --> 00:38:06.187 - This slide indicates how the process continues as the year progresses. It represents the process following 00:38:06.187 --> 00:38:12.012 - the middle of the year screener, where we anticipate to have fewer students performing below benchmark. 00:38:12.012 --> 00:38:17.725 - The process remains the same throughout the year, meeting students where they are, depending on their 00:38:17.725 --> 00:38:23.382 - response to instruction. Finally, the Dibble screener will be administered a third time near the end 00:38:23.382 --> 00:38:25.566 - of the year and the process continues. 00:38:26.626 --> 00:38:33.498 - When you talk with teachers and administrators about database decision making, you'll hear things like, 00:38:33.498 --> 00:38:40.106 - our approach to data has made us more intentional. Progress monitoring is now integral to our work, 00:38:40.106 --> 00:38:46.780 - and Dibbles is helping us pinpoint exactly what students need. This is what it sounds like when data 00:38:46.780 --> 00:38:53.982 - moves from being a requirement to a tool that teachers value and trust. This slide features our final quote, 00:38:54.754 --> 00:39:01.520 - It is one that illustrates one elementary student's perspective about assessments. This young student 00:39:01.520 --> 00:39:08.551 - said, we're not just learning and then forgetting. We take assessments to see what we remember. Sometimes 00:39:08.551 --> 00:39:15.316 - the assessments are hard, but if I've already learned it, not so much. This year is really fun. These 00:39:15.316 --> 00:39:21.949 - words really capture the heart of what intentional assessment can look like through a child's eyes. 00:39:21.949 --> 00:39:22.878 - For students, 00:39:23.266 --> 00:39:30.265 - Assessments aren't about scores or pressure. They're about noticing their own growth. They help students 00:39:30.265 --> 00:39:37.264 - see what they remember, what they can do, and what they're getting better at. The joy this student feels 00:39:37.264 --> 00:39:44.396 - comes from a sense of progress and understanding that learning builds over time. This student's commitment 00:39:44.396 --> 00:39:52.062 - reflects something powerful. Students feel the difference when assessment is used well. It makes learning clearer. 00:39:52.226 --> 00:39:58.164 - more purposeful, and yes, more fun. And for teachers, that same information allows them to 00:39:58.164 --> 00:40:04.689 - be more intentional and more responsive. It's the combination of the student experience and teacher 00:40:04.689 --> 00:40:11.344 - decision making that makes our database decision system work. I hope that what you've seen tonight is 00:40:11.344 --> 00:40:18.000 - the power of coherence, strong instruction, and a committed team of educators. I'm so appreciative of 00:40:18.000 --> 00:40:20.414 - your continued support of this work, 00:40:20.578 --> 00:40:26.825 - and of our incredible educators who bring it to life. We're proud of where we are and even more excited 00:40:26.825 --> 00:40:32.951 - about where we're going. Thank you. Thank you so much. Any questions or comments from the board? I've 00:40:32.951 --> 00:40:39.198 - got a quick one. When you do the breakdown in groups based on at below or substantially below, is there 00:40:39.198 --> 00:40:45.385 - also something for the kids that are substantially above? Yes. OK. Yeah. So I noticed that was missing 00:40:45.385 --> 00:40:49.950 - in the slide. Yeah. When you're planning for groups, that's part of it. OK. 00:40:50.274 --> 00:40:58.884 - those who are at grade level and those who are performing above and what's the best instructional match. 00:40:58.884 --> 00:41:07.084 - That's right. Great. You got it. Other questions? I just have a comment. Thank you so much. I am in 00:41:07.084 --> 00:41:09.790 - the unique position that happens 00:41:10.018 --> 00:41:16.738 - occasionally on the board where I'm experiencing the same thing as a parent as what I'm learning about 00:41:16.738 --> 00:41:23.327 - on the board. So I have a kindergartner this year who's going through this and learning to read. And 00:41:23.327 --> 00:41:29.982 - I've also been talking to parents of other kindergartners from outside of MCCSC. And I am just always 00:41:29.982 --> 00:41:36.702 - so amazed by how much more data I have as a parent, how much more data my kids' teachers have, and how 00:41:37.058 --> 00:41:44.980 - well, they use that to help our students read, especially as compared to other schools. And I'm so grateful 00:41:44.980 --> 00:41:52.608 - for it. And my little guy, Emmett, is so proud of himself because he is learning to read. And honestly, 00:41:52.608 --> 00:42:00.310 - his teacher works some kind of magic that we could never do at home. And the data is a big part of that. 00:42:00.310 --> 00:42:06.398 - So I think it's amazing. Love that. Anything else? Comments, questions? All right. 00:42:06.562 --> 00:42:14.129 - Well thank you very much for that update. We appreciate it and thank you Ms. Harmon as well. Next we 00:42:14.129 --> 00:42:21.621 - will move on to Dr. Dowling who will present an update on the work of the Redistricting Commission. 00:42:21.621 --> 00:42:29.189 - Thank you President Hennessy, Dr. Winston and members of the Board of School Trustees. Thank you for 00:42:29.189 --> 00:42:33.534 - this opportunity to provide a redistricting study update. 00:42:36.002 --> 00:42:42.410 - As always, I start with a project charter. I'm not gonna go into further detail here because I'll actually 00:42:42.410 --> 00:42:48.578 - be talking a lot about the project charter later when I talk about the commission's report. Here's our 00:42:48.578 --> 00:42:54.626 - timeline for our redistricting study for the work we've had so far. The board passed a resolution in 00:42:54.626 --> 00:43:00.794 - February 2024 to study redistricting. In November of 2024, our demographer Preston Smith from Business 00:43:00.794 --> 00:43:03.070 - Information Services, he presented on 00:43:03.874 --> 00:43:10.446 - information about our school corporation, including 14 scenarios for redistricting. In the December, 00:43:10.446 --> 00:43:17.409 - 2024 board meeting, the board identified two priorities for redistricting. These priorities are to balance 00:43:17.409 --> 00:43:23.916 - socioeconomic status and to review cost effectiveness. In March of 2025, the commission was formed. 00:43:23.916 --> 00:43:30.423 - The commission's work began in April of 2025. We began by looking at our project charter. We've had 00:43:30.423 --> 00:43:32.766 - nine commission meetings from April 00:43:33.058 --> 00:43:39.063 - from 2025 to December of 2025. During that work, there was discussion, there was review of research 00:43:39.063 --> 00:43:45.188 - connected to the board priorities and our community considerations, which I'll highlight in a second. 00:43:45.188 --> 00:43:51.373 - We studied 50 different scenarios, including the 14 from our demographer, Preston Smith. Here I'd like 00:43:51.373 --> 00:43:57.498 - to highlight the considerations that helped guide our work. These came directly from public input and 00:43:57.498 --> 00:44:01.822 - from selection from our commission members. These public considerations 00:44:02.210 --> 00:44:08.323 - that were incorporated into our redistricting study include capacity, resource allocation, class sizes, 00:44:08.323 --> 00:44:14.259 - minimizing student reassignment, transportation, and the concept of community schools. For tonight's 00:44:14.259 --> 00:44:20.314 - agenda, I will be highlighting three different topics. First, I want to talk about the last commission 00:44:20.314 --> 00:44:26.485 - meeting in December where we focused on secondary redistricting scenarios. I'd like to give an important 00:44:26.485 --> 00:44:31.070 - thank you to our commission members as we've had our last commission meeting. 00:44:31.746 --> 00:44:37.517 - when I will highlight from December. And I also like to get into a little bit more detail about what 00:44:37.517 --> 00:44:43.688 - the reducing study commission report will look like. First, looking at our December 3rd commission meeting, 00:44:43.688 --> 00:44:49.745 - we focused on secondary scenarios. We studied eight middle school scenarios. We studied eight high school 00:44:49.745 --> 00:44:55.802 - scenarios. These scenarios were taken directly from our elementary scenarios, which we previously studied 00:44:55.802 --> 00:45:00.830 - in October and November. All these scenarios are being built at the census block level. 00:45:01.986 --> 00:45:07.407 - And most importantly, the insights and findings from commission members on these secondary scenarios 00:45:07.407 --> 00:45:12.990 - will be included in our commission report. At this time, I'd like to give a thank you to our commission 00:45:12.990 --> 00:45:18.572 - members. It's really hard to articulate in words how grateful we are for their work. They attended nine 00:45:18.572 --> 00:45:24.047 - meetings. They give up nine evenings of their life to spend their evening to study redistricting with 00:45:24.047 --> 00:45:29.790 - us and share their insights. As I mentioned earlier, we've looked at 50 different redistricting scenarios. 00:45:29.954 --> 00:45:35.101 - And that's really just a sampling of the number we could have looked at, but it's quite a number. We 00:45:35.101 --> 00:45:40.453 - know that at least 25 hours of work they've given to our commission, and most importantly, they provided 00:45:40.453 --> 00:45:45.600 - critical insights in our study about redistricting. They've also really been instrumental in helping 00:45:45.600 --> 00:45:51.053 - us to identify our top considerations, again, which came directly from public input. During our commission 00:45:51.053 --> 00:45:56.353 - meetings, we discussed research, engaged in dialogue about redistricting, and as I mentioned, we looked 00:45:56.353 --> 00:45:59.870 - at a number of scenarios. And we are really grateful for their work. 00:46:00.034 --> 00:46:05.484 - and their insights. Now I'm going to spend some time talking about what our commission report will look 00:46:05.484 --> 00:46:10.882 - like. And I'm going to go back to our project charter because that's really helped guide our work. I'm 00:46:10.882 --> 00:46:16.227 - going to read our purpose here because I think it helps define it. Directly from our project charter, 00:46:16.227 --> 00:46:21.677 - our purpose of the project is to study redistricting as a mechanism to balance the socioeconomic status 00:46:21.677 --> 00:46:26.969 - within the school corporation schools while simultaneously considering the cost effectiveness of the 00:46:26.969 --> 00:46:29.118 - current model and any potential changes. 00:46:31.266 --> 00:46:37.386 - Looking at the goals and metrics of our commission, these are within the scope of our study, were to 00:46:37.386 --> 00:46:43.506 - study potential redistricting considerations to achieve improved socioeconomic status balance across 00:46:43.506 --> 00:46:49.808 - schools, to study factors that inform cost effectiveness of MCCSE buildings, to study potential impacts 00:46:49.808 --> 00:46:56.292 - of redistricting on students and families, to study potential impacts of inter-district and inter-district 00:46:56.292 --> 00:46:59.806 - transfer policies on school populations and demographics, 00:47:00.194 --> 00:47:06.257 - And finally, to study building utilization rates and potential strategies for managing building usage 00:47:06.257 --> 00:47:12.617 - for at least the next 10 years based on predicted demographic trends. Looking at the expected deliverables 00:47:12.617 --> 00:47:18.858 - of our commission, these are again what were defined within the scope of our study. Deliverables include 00:47:18.858 --> 00:47:24.861 - a study and analysis of district-wide maps of catchment zones, including the redistricting scenarios 00:47:24.861 --> 00:47:29.022 - I highlighted earlier, along with the scenarios from our demographer. 00:47:29.538 --> 00:47:35.772 - with a focus on studying maps that balance socioeconomic status across schools with an acceptable variance, 00:47:35.772 --> 00:47:41.659 - includes a review of factors that impact cost effectiveness of redistricting efforts, and a review of 00:47:41.659 --> 00:47:47.489 - a consolidated district overview of building usage and capacity. Getting into some details about our 00:47:47.489 --> 00:47:53.318 - end product, which will be an informational report for the board's further consideration, the report 00:47:53.318 --> 00:47:58.686 - will include an evaluation of redistricting scenarios and their impacts, factors that inform 00:47:59.106 --> 00:48:04.361 - cost effectiveness, and a corporation-wide analysis of building use and capacity. Getting into a little 00:48:04.361 --> 00:48:09.767 - bit more specifics about the board report, excuse me, the commission report, which will be for the board's 00:48:09.767 --> 00:48:15.274 - consideration. The first section will be an introduction. It'll really detail the purpose of the commission. 00:48:15.274 --> 00:48:20.377 - The second section will be a review of research, the research that the commission has studied, which 00:48:20.377 --> 00:48:25.480 - are directly tied to the two boards' priorities, along with the community's four considerations. The 00:48:25.480 --> 00:48:28.158 - third section will be our methodology. It'll outline 00:48:28.578 --> 00:48:34.318 - how the scenarios were created, how they were evaluated and studied by our commission members. Our fourth 00:48:34.318 --> 00:48:39.787 - section will be the results. It will be a review of each commission meeting and how each meeting was 00:48:39.787 --> 00:48:45.473 - built upon the previous meeting and it will detail what we studied and reviewed at each of the meetings. 00:48:45.473 --> 00:48:51.105 - And finally, our last section will be our key findings and summary. It won't be recommendations, rather 00:48:51.105 --> 00:48:55.166 - it will be what insights we have learned throughout the commission process 00:48:55.426 --> 00:49:01.763 - and gained from our commission members that they studied these redistricting scenarios. Talking about 00:49:01.763 --> 00:49:08.100 - next steps. Commission leadership has begun writing, summarizing the commission's work. The next step 00:49:08.100 --> 00:49:14.312 - will be to share that draft of that commission report with the school board and the public sometime 00:49:14.312 --> 00:49:21.022 - this spring. And finally, the school board will consider the report and provide further direction to MCCSE. 00:49:23.810 --> 00:49:33.262 - Thank you. At this time, I'd be happy to take any questions. Thank you, Dr. Dowling. Do we have any 00:49:33.262 --> 00:49:42.809 - questions or comments? Thank you for all your work. Okay. Nope. All right. Great. Thank you so much. 00:49:42.809 --> 00:49:48.670 - Our final presentation is a facilities report. Dr. Henderson? 00:49:56.674 --> 00:50:03.044 - Dr. Winston and members of the Board of School Trustees, thank you for the opportunity to speak to you 00:50:03.044 --> 00:50:09.229 - this evening about facilities management and many of the unseen heroes that make it possible for us 00:50:09.229 --> 00:50:15.847 - to deliver excellent educational experiences to our students in clean, well-maintained and safe buildings. 00:50:15.847 --> 00:50:22.217 - Tonight I'm going to provide you with a high-level overview of facilities management, highlighting the 00:50:22.217 --> 00:50:24.382 - complexity and scope within MCCSC. 00:50:24.930 --> 00:50:31.454 - I'll also speak to our current practices and weave in some information and interesting facts about who 00:50:31.454 --> 00:50:38.106 - does this important work. I'll also discuss why we need to continue to support these efforts and provide 00:50:38.106 --> 00:50:44.693 - you with a few examples of the kinds of upgrades and improvements that we make here in the MCC SC. When 00:50:44.693 --> 00:50:51.154 - teachers, staff and students are in clean, well maintained buildings, they're in a better position to 00:50:51.154 --> 00:50:53.118 - focus on teaching and learning 00:50:53.442 --> 00:51:01.819 - and more likely to have positive experiences every day. Effective facilities management directly supports 00:51:01.819 --> 00:51:10.433 - student learning, teacher productivity, school pride and perception, as well as the opinion of our community 00:51:10.433 --> 00:51:18.573 - members when they make use of our school spaces. Managing 2.47 million square feet of buildings, three 00:51:18.573 --> 00:51:22.366 - million square feet of parking lots and drives, 00:51:22.626 --> 00:51:32.344 - and 533.4 total acres district wide is a large undertaking. This includes 76,982 linear feet of sidewalks 00:51:32.344 --> 00:51:41.879 - and 19,907 linear feet of tracks and walking trails. These statistics underscore the vast scope of work 00:51:41.879 --> 00:51:51.230 - that our team handles daily. These tasks become even more demanding during times of inclement weather 00:51:51.362 --> 00:52:00.248 - like we have recently experienced. On average, we go through 39,200 pounds of sidewalk ice melt per 00:52:00.248 --> 00:52:09.311 - year, along with 250 tons of parking lot road salt. If you notice on this slide, that's basically the 00:52:09.311 --> 00:52:18.374 - equivalent of maintaining 15 Walmart super centers, plus their parking lots and grounds with a school 00:52:18.374 --> 00:52:20.862 - district's team and budget. 00:52:21.954 --> 00:52:29.346 - not Sam Walton's budget. As you can see from the statistics on this slide, we have a wide range of age 00:52:29.346 --> 00:52:36.810 - when it comes to our facilities. You'll notice our newest is four years old and our oldest is 102 years 00:52:36.810 --> 00:52:44.202 - old with an average of 47 years old. Ensuring ongoing functionality of our infrastructure in the midst 00:52:44.202 --> 00:52:47.934 - of budget constraints means that we have to develop 00:52:48.066 --> 00:52:55.367 - a long-range plan to ensure that we manage our facilities needs efficiently over time and within our 00:52:55.367 --> 00:53:03.029 - financial realities. To introduce this next section, let's start by defining what we mean when we utilize 00:53:03.029 --> 00:53:10.330 - the term facilities management and define the core components we'll cover in each of these six areas 00:53:10.330 --> 00:53:17.342 - in the next slides. Facilities management is the comprehensive process of planning, maintaining, 00:53:17.442 --> 00:53:24.325 - and improving school buildings and grounds to support education. The six core components we focus on 00:53:24.325 --> 00:53:30.936 - are structural and mechanical systems, interior and exterior maintenance, safety and compliance, 00:53:30.936 --> 00:53:37.751 - sustainability efforts, utilities management, and asset lifecycle management. Heating, ventilation, 00:53:37.751 --> 00:53:44.566 - and air conditioning systems ensure that our staff and students have comfortable classrooms despite 00:53:44.566 --> 00:53:46.270 - the outside temperature. 00:53:46.850 --> 00:53:53.226 - and that we are exchanging outside air at rates that ensure excellent air quality inside our buildings. 00:53:53.226 --> 00:53:59.417 - Our plumbing systems serve to supply water fountains, restrooms, kitchens, and lab spaces, while our 00:53:59.417 --> 00:54:05.915 - electrical systems not only ensure light in classrooms and hallways, but it also powers the technological 00:54:05.915 --> 00:54:11.678 - infrastructure that keeps our teachers and students connected to valuable Internet resources. 00:54:12.386 --> 00:54:19.022 - Additionally, those same electrical infrastructure systems also power the control systems for our security 00:54:19.022 --> 00:54:25.657 - and fire alarm systems, as well as our HVAC systems. Additionally, our teams are responsible for oversight 00:54:25.657 --> 00:54:32.293 - of our roofing systems, including roof drains, gutters and downspouts, as well as the structural integrity 00:54:32.293 --> 00:54:35.518 - of our buildings to include both doors and windows. 00:54:38.018 --> 00:54:44.928 - Many of our routine upgrades, as well as repairs to our interior and exterior finishes, are performed 00:54:44.928 --> 00:54:51.973 - by our own staff. They not only work on the buildings, but they also help care for landscaping, grounds 00:54:51.973 --> 00:54:58.815 - and athletic facilities, as well as all of the lots and walks around our buildings. Our staff, along 00:54:58.815 --> 00:55:06.063 - with local and state regulatory agencies, inspect our fire alarm and fire suppression systems on regularly 00:55:06.063 --> 00:55:07.486 - scheduled intervals. 00:55:08.194 --> 00:55:18.253 - We take proactive measures to ensure air quality and safety by replacing 1728 air filters annually. 00:55:18.253 --> 00:55:28.816 - And we respond to over 4,000 work orders from topics relating to lights, locks, leaks, and HVAC systems. 00:55:28.816 --> 00:55:31.934 - MCCSC is a leader among public 00:55:32.130 --> 00:55:38.489 - public school corporations in the state of Indiana and the nation in the installation of solar panels 00:55:38.489 --> 00:55:45.284 - to reduce energy consumption. And we are constantly evaluating the savings that can be gained from replacing 00:55:45.284 --> 00:55:51.767 - old fluorescent lighting with higher efficiency and longer lasting LED lighting as we make improvements 00:55:51.767 --> 00:55:58.313 - to our facilities. We actively pursue opportunities to recycle and are investigating ways to potentially 00:55:58.313 --> 00:56:01.118 - incorporate composting to reduce food waste. 00:56:01.922 --> 00:56:08.279 - We also monitor the life cycle of our equipment, including repair and replacement parts availability 00:56:08.279 --> 00:56:14.889 - to ensure that we are not continuing to keep outdated, inefficient equipment in service. Our maintenance 00:56:14.889 --> 00:56:21.435 - and building operations staff consists of 20 skilled maintenance staff members and 101 custodians. Much 00:56:21.435 --> 00:56:28.170 - of the work these individuals do is completed when our staff and students are not present in the building, 00:56:28.170 --> 00:56:30.814 - starting oftentimes early in the morning, 00:56:31.138 --> 00:56:42.774 - or extending late into the evening. Some interesting statistics to consider. We go through 16,297,800 00:56:42.774 --> 00:56:54.524 - feet of toilet paper per year in our buildings. That's 3,080 miles, or roughly a trip from Bloomington 00:56:54.524 --> 00:57:00.798 - to Phoenix, Arizona and back. Paper towels, 14,763,000 00:57:00.994 --> 00:57:10.089 - beat per year. 2249 diluted gallons of disinfectant, 2600 gallons of glass cleaner and 42,405 gallons 00:57:10.089 --> 00:57:19.273 - of neutral floor cleaner are consumed every year in the MCC SC to make sure our buildings are safe and 00:57:19.273 --> 00:57:29.438 - clean. Quality facilities support quality instruction. The operations staff is the backbone of our school system. 00:57:30.018 --> 00:57:35.987 - These hidden heroes take care of daily tasks that keep our buildings safe, clean, and maintained so 00:57:35.987 --> 00:57:41.955 - that our teachers can concentrate on providing our students with excellent educational experiences. 00:57:41.955 --> 00:57:48.103 - The director of building operations and the director of construction facilities and safety, along with 00:57:48.103 --> 00:57:54.429 - our skilled maintenance staff, monitor the uptime rates of our HVAC systems, our pool filtration systems, 00:57:54.429 --> 00:57:58.846 - our fire alarm systems, our plumbing systems, and our electrical systems. 00:57:59.714 --> 00:58:05.747 - They respond quickly when any problems arise. They also monitor the quantity of work orders received 00:58:05.747 --> 00:58:12.019 - and how long it takes us to resolve the issues identified by staff. The directors and I frequently visit 00:58:12.019 --> 00:58:18.052 - schools and when we're there, we take the opportunity to speak to staff members and principals about 00:58:18.052 --> 00:58:24.085 - any concerns or needs that they have with regard to their buildings. In conclusion this evening, I'd 00:58:24.085 --> 00:58:26.654 - like to again share why this work matters. 00:58:27.266 --> 00:58:34.872 - On this slide, you can see several recent examples of the investment that MCCSC makes in a variety of 00:58:34.872 --> 00:58:42.852 - spaces. Maintaining high quality facilities allows us to uphold our board's priority to sustain excellence 00:58:42.852 --> 00:58:50.682 - in our schools. As such, ensuring the state of the art academic, athletic and performing arts facilities 00:58:50.682 --> 00:58:55.902 - continues to be one of Dr. Winston's top priorities. We see every day 00:58:56.002 --> 00:59:02.294 - that our facilities directly support our students by providing high quality educational spaces where 00:59:02.294 --> 00:59:08.524 - our children can learn and grow. Again, thank you for the opportunity to highlight the often unseen 00:59:08.524 --> 00:59:14.879 - but critically important work of our operations team. Thank you, Dr. Henderson, for that. Wow, I just 00:59:14.879 --> 00:59:21.047 - keep wanting to call it a performance tonight, but it's not. What are they? Presentations. My god. 00:59:21.047 --> 00:59:25.470 - All right. Thank you for that presentation. Any comments or questions? 00:59:29.954 --> 00:59:38.273 - We will move on then to comments and committee reports. Does the board have any comments or reports 00:59:38.273 --> 00:59:46.758 - that you would like to share? Okay. Going once, going twice. No comments or reports. All right. Well, 00:59:46.758 --> 00:59:55.742 - thank you everyone for your silence. We appreciate it. And finally, Dr. Winston, do you have any additional 00:59:55.742 --> 00:59:58.238 - information to share with us? 00:59:58.562 --> 01:00:08.474 - I do not have any silence. Oh. I'm kidding. I'm kidding. No, I'm kidding. I just have a couple of things 01:00:08.474 --> 01:00:18.292 - I briefly want to share. I really want to take a moment just to acknowledge our deep, deep appreciation 01:00:18.292 --> 01:00:27.166 - and recognition of our facilities team. The last couple of weeks, we've had inclement weather 01:00:27.938 --> 01:00:35.705 - unexpected in great levels with freezing, thawing, refreezing, and very unsafe conditions for our buses, 01:00:35.705 --> 01:00:43.102 - for our employees, and for our students. And what many people don't know and what Dr. Henderson was 01:00:43.102 --> 01:00:50.795 - really alluding to is the fact that while many of you are sleeping, they are out getting business taken 01:00:50.795 --> 01:00:57.822 - care of. And so I definitely want to just begin with just that acknowledgment of appreciation. 01:00:57.954 --> 01:01:07.250 - when he talked about the number of tons, how many tons of ice melt did you say? 250 tons or something 01:01:07.250 --> 01:01:16.454 - like that? Yeah, that's just unbelievable. And yet they do it quickly, they do it without complaint, 01:01:16.454 --> 01:01:26.023 - and probably not as much appreciation as our entire community should share with them. I say that because 01:01:26.023 --> 01:01:27.390 - I do recognize 01:01:27.746 --> 01:01:34.304 - that we've had three days of weather in December when, generally speaking, we don't get those days in 01:01:34.304 --> 01:01:40.733 - December. We usually get them after the holiday break. So there's been a lot of unexpected aspects. 01:01:40.733 --> 01:01:47.226 - And there's been a lot of frustration, quite frankly, in our community. There are family members who 01:01:47.226 --> 01:01:53.976 - don't quite understand the decisions that have been made, the factors that go into that decision making, 01:01:53.976 --> 01:01:55.262 - and the painstaking 01:01:56.002 --> 01:02:02.905 - hours and time that it takes to kind of get to that point in time. I can assure you that Dr. Henderson 01:02:02.905 --> 01:02:09.942 - and I and other members of our facilities team are up at 2.33 o'clock every one of these days that we've 01:02:09.942 --> 01:02:16.845 - had to have conversations and discussions around what are we hearing from our meteorologists? What are 01:02:16.845 --> 01:02:23.614 - the roads looking like? Are directors in our facilities and maintenance and construction departments 01:02:24.130 --> 01:02:31.454 - and transportation, they're out driving the roads while you all are sleeping. They're driving the roads 01:02:31.454 --> 01:02:38.496 - in the country. And many times, I know that I get lots of inquiries and questions about, I look out 01:02:38.496 --> 01:02:45.608 - my window and I can see the streets. Why are we closed? Why are we having e-learning? And I can look 01:02:45.608 --> 01:02:53.566 - out my window too. And if I use that as the only metric for determining whether or not we have in-person school, 01:02:54.018 --> 01:03:01.928 - We would have in-person school every day of the week because I happen to live in town. I happen to live 01:03:01.928 --> 01:03:09.687 - within the city limits. But I do think sometimes it's easy to overlook the fact that we have hundreds 01:03:09.687 --> 01:03:17.293 - and thousands of children who don't live within the city limits. And we have country roads that are 01:03:17.293 --> 01:03:23.454 - not paved and that are full of snow and full of ice. It may melt during the day. 01:03:24.034 --> 01:03:32.362 - where it gets up to 31 degrees, 32 degrees and it melts. But guess what? When that temperature goes 01:03:32.362 --> 01:03:40.857 - back down to single digits, it freezes again. And it would be irresponsible of me as a superintendent 01:03:40.857 --> 01:03:49.351 - and irresponsible of our entire team to put our children in harm's way because looking out my window, 01:03:49.351 --> 01:03:52.766 - the roads look clear, but I've got staff 01:03:53.122 --> 01:04:01.441 - riding in the country from Lakeview to Unionville, around the lake. We have children there, and we have 01:04:01.441 --> 01:04:09.520 - over 10,000 children that we transport every day. Well, we have over 10,000 children that we educate 01:04:09.520 --> 01:04:17.518 - every day, and most of them are transported. But we also have 2,000 employees, many of whom live in 01:04:17.518 --> 01:04:20.798 - the country, outside of the city limits, 01:04:21.474 --> 01:04:28.997 - And so I share this with you because I want everyone to understand that it's one of the hardest decisions 01:04:28.997 --> 01:04:36.235 - that a superintendent has to ever make. You would think it's the budget. I kind of thought it was the 01:04:36.235 --> 01:04:43.545 - budget too. But it's about the safety and security and well-being of the individuals employed here and 01:04:43.545 --> 01:04:49.790 - that we educate. And so I want to just take a moment to kind of highlight a few aspects 01:04:50.178 --> 01:04:58.164 - of that decision making. I have responded to many emails over the last few days and I welcome every 01:04:58.164 --> 01:05:06.629 - one of those emails because I do recognize that families have been upended, they have been inconvenienced 01:05:06.629 --> 01:05:14.695 - by the decisions and the choices that our corporation has needed to make and frustrated. Many of the 01:05:14.695 --> 01:05:19.806 - emails that I received show a sense of frustration, some anger, 01:05:20.290 --> 01:05:27.788 - some confusion. And so I do think that it's a great opportunity to highlight those pieces of information 01:05:27.788 --> 01:05:35.001 - that we already have on our website. How we go about making our decisions, the factors that are part 01:05:35.001 --> 01:05:42.284 - of that, that's consistently been posted on our website. But I thought it would be helpful to provide 01:05:42.284 --> 01:05:49.854 - some additional guidance to folks. And so it is not our desire to disrupt your families and the routines. 01:05:50.530 --> 01:05:57.793 - I've already said that we don't take these decisions lightly. The numerous factors that we do take into 01:05:57.793 --> 01:06:04.846 - consideration, it includes what's been forecast and what's actually happening out there. We are also 01:06:04.846 --> 01:06:11.900 - looking at what are the meteorologists telling us? We have a direct line to meteorologists that tell 01:06:11.900 --> 01:06:19.582 - us what's happening now and what's going to happen in six hours, what's going to happen in the next 24 hours. 01:06:19.714 --> 01:06:26.026 - We have to weigh that out, and we have to balance that out. We're not just looking at temperature, because 01:06:26.026 --> 01:06:31.985 - some folks were like, well, it's only one degree. It's only two degrees. Why are kids not in school? 01:06:31.985 --> 01:06:38.120 - Well, the other piece that we have to pay attention to is the windshield. I don't know if you recognize 01:06:38.120 --> 01:06:44.196 - it, but the windshield got down to 10 and 11 degrees below zero. I will not have children standing and 01:06:44.196 --> 01:06:48.798 - waiting for a bus in that kind of temperature. And if it means I get 100 more 01:06:49.250 --> 01:06:55.075 - Frustrated and angry emails then I would say bring those on that would be irresponsible. I don't want 01:06:55.075 --> 01:07:00.900 - my child You don't want your child standing in those kinds of conditions But we also have to pay very 01:07:00.900 --> 01:07:06.725 - close attention to what our local law enforcement individuals are sharing with us. We're Very much in 01:07:06.725 --> 01:07:12.779 - communication with them with city and county highway officials. I know yesterday It was our understanding 01:07:12.779 --> 01:07:18.718 - and what actually did happen is that the country roads were not going to begin being cloud until 7 a.m. 01:07:19.458 --> 01:07:26.432 - Our buses are already out of the lot well before 7 AM because we have schools that start at 7 45. And 01:07:26.432 --> 01:07:33.269 - so we've got to give consideration to that. Our transportation staff, they've got to be able to get 01:07:33.269 --> 01:07:40.790 - here to get to the buses to then drive them. And we also are in very close communication with our surrounding 01:07:40.790 --> 01:07:47.695 - school districts. In most instances, there's a lot of consistency from one school corporation to the 01:07:47.695 --> 01:07:48.926 - next corporation. 01:07:49.090 --> 01:07:56.007 - And that is not by happenstance. And so I took a few extra minutes to kind of share these things with 01:07:56.007 --> 01:08:02.855 - you because I do think it's important that our entire community understands the factors that go into 01:08:02.855 --> 01:08:09.840 - this decision making. We are always gonna be looking at the needs of all of our children, particularly 01:08:09.840 --> 01:08:16.756 - those that are in the county roads and in the country. My responsibility is every one of them. And so 01:08:16.756 --> 01:08:17.502 - as I said, 01:08:17.666 --> 01:08:26.847 - the roads in town may clear pretty quickly and the recognition is that the county roads can in fact 01:08:26.847 --> 01:08:36.303 - and are often hazardous. I even have had my team members send me video footage of where you are in the 01:08:36.303 --> 01:08:46.494 - country and I've had them drive me around to show me what our road coverage looks like within the city limits, 01:08:46.626 --> 01:08:53.309 - and outside of the city limits because I didn't want to just go based on what folks were telling me. 01:08:53.309 --> 01:09:00.257 - I wanted to be able to see it firsthand as well. That's how seriously we take these decisions. And let's 01:09:00.257 --> 01:09:06.940 - talk about timing. It is always our desire to give as much forewarning and notice to our families as 01:09:06.940 --> 01:09:13.822 - we possibly can. When we can, we will tell you the day before. We were pretty fortunate back in January 01:09:13.922 --> 01:09:21.548 - when we had four consecutive days of horrendous weather, which I think people may have forgotten. 01:09:21.548 --> 01:09:29.407 - I have not. It was pretty pivotal for me those first few days. And we were able to let families know 01:09:29.407 --> 01:09:37.188 - pretty soon. The last few incidents of inclement weather, it wasn't as clear cut. And it was pretty 01:09:37.188 --> 01:09:39.678 - complicated and pretty complex. 01:09:40.386 --> 01:09:46.816 - Unfortunately, we weren't able to make the decisions as quickly as we wanted because the storm was moving. 01:09:46.816 --> 01:09:53.065 - The meteorologists are telling us, well, we think you're in this line, but it could vary. And so I want 01:09:53.065 --> 01:09:59.374 - you to know that our desire is to tell you as quickly as possible. I would rather not be up at 3 o'clock 01:09:59.374 --> 01:10:05.383 - in the morning because you don't go back to sleep after that. And then the other piece that I think 01:10:05.383 --> 01:10:09.950 - is oftentimes missed is that there are requirements in the state of Indiana 01:10:10.402 --> 01:10:17.000 - that we must have 180 instructional days. And so there's been a lot of questions about e-learning. And 01:10:17.000 --> 01:10:23.791 - why are we doing e-learning? Why are we doing a delay? We will fulfill our requirement and our obligation 01:10:23.791 --> 01:10:30.325 - to meet our instructional days. And e-learning is a tool and is an option that we haven't always had. 01:10:30.325 --> 01:10:36.795 - But we do have that available to us. And we don't take those days lightly either. We much prefer our 01:10:36.795 --> 01:10:40.190 - children in classrooms because we know they're safe. 01:10:40.994 --> 01:10:47.143 - They're going to be well-educated. They're going to get the highest quality of instruction with in-person 01:10:47.143 --> 01:10:52.886 - learning. Everybody knows that. And yet, we also know that our teachers are so talented. They can, 01:10:52.886 --> 01:10:58.804 - in fact, provide high-quality instruction virtually, but it is not our preference. We only do so when 01:10:58.804 --> 01:11:04.663 - we don't have better options available to keep our children safe. When we do call an e-learning day, 01:11:04.663 --> 01:11:10.174 - families can be confident that their children will continue to receive meaningful instruction. 01:11:11.202 --> 01:11:17.867 - we will recognize that our e-learning days do, in fact, meet the Indiana Department of Education standards 01:11:17.867 --> 01:11:24.283 - for instructional time. We are not going to compromise on our commitment and our requirement to ensure 01:11:24.283 --> 01:11:30.762 - that our children stay on track academically and that they have access to learning. So while we do know 01:11:30.762 --> 01:11:37.115 - that weather-related delays and closures can be an inconvenience for all of us, and some of us can be 01:11:37.115 --> 01:11:39.358 - sleep deprived as a result of that, 01:11:39.586 --> 01:11:47.647 - We appreciate the patience and the trust that our families have placed in us as we work to keep every 01:11:47.647 --> 01:11:55.551 - student and every staff member safe during these days. And in closing, we recognize that January is 01:11:55.551 --> 01:12:03.533 - not here yet. We have built in some snow days. We've built in two snow days. And we've not used them 01:12:03.533 --> 01:12:08.670 - last week or this week for very obvious reasons, because we know 01:12:09.122 --> 01:12:15.992 - The best or the worst is probably yet to come. So I just wanted to share that information. And before 01:12:15.992 --> 01:12:23.266 - I give my final, final comment, I wanted to see if any board members have any questions, comments regarding 01:12:23.266 --> 01:12:30.001 - the decision making. I mean, they get updates from me early in the morning, too. Now, they may not. 01:12:30.001 --> 01:12:37.006 - Well, I'm not going to say what they do or don't do at 3 o'clock in the morning in terms. But I usually 01:12:37.006 --> 01:12:38.622 - get feedback from them. 01:12:38.914 --> 01:12:44.977 - at an appropriate time regarding their acknowledgement of the recommendation. Is that fair? No, 01:12:44.977 --> 01:12:51.608 - it is fair. And I will say, I mean, you know, I always, it's painful for me to think about you all doing 01:12:51.608 --> 01:12:57.924 - this stuff in the middle of the night. It's, you know, I responded to emails as well saying many of 01:12:57.924 --> 01:13:04.240 - the same things, you know, that we have people out there driving, our teams are working hard. These 01:13:04.240 --> 01:13:07.966 - are not decisions that anyone makes lightly or flippantly. 01:13:09.058 --> 01:13:15.821 - for all sorts of reasons, but no one also wants to field these emails, too, right? I think the decisions 01:13:15.821 --> 01:13:22.519 - are always made with safety in mind, always. And so if the decision's been made, it's because it's been 01:13:22.519 --> 01:13:29.539 - determined to be the most safe sort of call in that moment. So I, too, just appreciate all of our facilities 01:13:29.539 --> 01:13:36.109 - and the work that they do, the work that you all have done this past week. I don't have any questions 01:13:36.109 --> 01:13:38.814 - about it. Dr. Anderson, is there anything 01:13:38.914 --> 01:13:45.981 - I think oh no I was just gonna say basically the same thing that I can tell that a lot of thought and 01:13:45.981 --> 01:13:52.909 - consideration goes into it and I appreciate that and I missed April's last call for comments on the 01:13:52.909 --> 01:13:59.976 - facilities update so I did also just want to say that I can't say enough how much I appreciate all of 01:13:59.976 --> 01:14:06.558 - the work our facilities crew does and I don't want to make a whole meeting about my kids but I 01:14:06.658 --> 01:14:12.732 - Do you just want to say also that there are custodial staff at my kid's school that are such an important 01:14:12.732 --> 01:14:18.462 - part of their day that even, again, Emmett is having a hard time at lunch. And the way I get him to 01:14:18.462 --> 01:14:24.306 - go to school is by saying, remember, you get to see this custodial staff at lunch. And he gets really 01:14:24.306 --> 01:14:30.438 - excited about that. So not only are they out there before school starts, but they're also such an integral 01:14:30.438 --> 01:14:34.334 - part of the community throughout the day. I really appreciate that. 01:14:34.978 --> 01:14:40.862 - Dr. Peterson is there anything you would like to add that I haven't addressed? Well the only thing that 01:14:40.862 --> 01:14:46.633 - I would like to remind the board and the community of is harking back to the presentation that we had 01:14:46.633 --> 01:14:52.460 - last school year on transportation and that's a statistic that I didn't really share in the facilities 01:14:52.460 --> 01:14:58.231 - presentation tonight because it's really more transportation related than it was building maintenance 01:14:58.231 --> 01:14:58.910 - related but 01:14:59.042 --> 01:15:07.760 - to remind the community that our district spans approximately 350 square miles. And our buses travel 01:15:07.760 --> 01:15:16.651 - 8,267 miles every single day, not counting deadhead mileage, right, when they're unladen with students 01:15:16.651 --> 01:15:26.060 - on board, not counting field trips and extracurricular trips during the day. And last year's extracurricular 01:15:26.060 --> 01:15:27.614 - trips amounted to 01:15:27.810 --> 01:15:35.373 - an additional 92,187 miles traveled. So we're not only giving consideration to the school day, but we're 01:15:35.373 --> 01:15:42.865 - also giving consideration to events that are scheduled in the evening, transporting students frequently 01:15:42.865 --> 01:15:50.500 - long distance outside of our district into areas where snow may be worse than what it is here. So there's 01:15:50.500 --> 01:15:54.174 - a lot of factors that go into those decisions, but 01:15:54.722 --> 01:16:01.128 - That's just a little addition to the scope of the work that we do on a daily basis. I am going to need 01:16:01.128 --> 01:16:07.409 - you to convert that number of miles we travel every day to how many times back and forth to Phoenix. 01:16:07.409 --> 01:16:13.753 - I can do that. No. I actually wanted to say, I really appreciate that aspect of your presentation and 01:16:13.753 --> 01:16:19.972 - delivery. I always love knowing the data, but I do like that the toilet paper can go to Phoenix and 01:16:19.972 --> 01:16:24.574 - back. That's going to stay in my mind forever. I'm never going to forget. 01:16:24.738 --> 01:16:31.031 - how much toilet paper we use in a year, right? Okay, anything else, Dr. Winston? On the weather, no, 01:16:31.031 --> 01:16:37.449 - but I just wanna reiterate to our families, thank you for your feedback, thank you for your questions, 01:16:37.449 --> 01:16:44.054 - it allows us to continue to keep you informed as to how we make our decisions. As we wrap up the semester 01:16:44.054 --> 01:16:50.846 - and look toward the close of 2025, my heart is full. I want to extend my deepest gratitude to our incredible 01:16:50.846 --> 01:16:53.214 - staff, our students and our families, 01:16:53.442 --> 01:16:59.656 - for making this semester such a meaningful and successful one. To our parents and guardians, thank you 01:16:59.656 --> 01:17:05.689 - for your unwavering support that you show our teachers, our staff, and our entire school community. 01:17:05.689 --> 01:17:11.721 - Your partnership is truly appreciated and we are honored to educate the most precious resource that 01:17:11.721 --> 01:17:17.875 - we have in our community, your children. To our students, you are absolutely extraordinary and we are 01:17:17.875 --> 01:17:21.374 - so excited to be able to celebrate you every time we can. 01:17:21.922 --> 01:17:28.601 - Each of you bring your own strengths, your own talents, and beautiful uniqueness to our schools. You 01:17:28.601 --> 01:17:35.611 - are the reason we grow, the reason why we improve, and the reason why we strive for excellence. Together, 01:17:35.611 --> 01:17:42.356 - we continue to sustain excellence, one moment, one act of kindness, one day at a time. I want to wish 01:17:42.356 --> 01:17:49.630 - everyone a peaceful, joy-filled, and restorative break. Happy holidays. And we can't wait to welcome you back 01:17:50.050 --> 01:17:56.731 - in the new year, January 5th, 2026. That concludes my report. Thank you, Dr. Winston. And we do so appreciate 01:17:56.731 --> 01:18:02.926 - all of our staff, all of our students, all of our families that make this district what it is and all 01:18:02.926 --> 01:18:09.060 - of our community members who continue to contribute, whether or not they have kids in this district, 01:18:09.060 --> 01:18:14.526 - whether or not they're employed by this district. We do have such a great community here. 01:18:15.362 --> 01:18:22.754 - So we have had a very patient and probably very bored and tired reindeer in our audience tonight. So 01:18:22.754 --> 01:18:30.073 - I think the next regularly scheduled board meeting will be held on Tuesday, January 27th, 2026. Our 01:18:30.073 --> 01:18:37.758 - reorganizational meeting will be held on Tuesday, January 6th. And with that, this meeting is adjourned.