- Welcome to the August 25th, 2026 meeting of the MCCSE Board of Trustees.
- We ask that you come to order. I will drink water later. Tonight, we begin with the excellence spotlight
- in celebration of excellence in our school community. Ms. Harmon. Thank you. Thank you, President Kinberman,
- Dr. Winston, members of the board.
- It's my privilege to present the August Excellence Spotlight. This monthly recognition is a standing
- feature of each regular board meeting and serves as a dedicated moment to honor individuals whose daily
- contributions exemplify the mission, vision, and core values of the Monroe County Community
- School Corporation. First, I'd like to recognize Josh Willis, Clear Creek, who serves Clear Creek, Arlington,
- and Marlin, and he provides exceptional support across those three campuses.
- where he serves as the physical education teacher. He brings professionalism, composure, and a consistently
- welcoming presence to every building he supports. His ability to collaborate seamlessly with staff and
- students paired with his steady and positive demeanor strengthens each school community. Thank you,
- Josh. I believe he's here. Is that right? There, yeah.
- Next, I'd like to recognize the Tri-North Trojan Ambassadors. They are eighth grade student leaders
- who mentor and support seventh graders through Trojan transition and Trojan time. Guided by Haley Morris
- and Morgan Terry and built on the foundation established by Maria Cusis, the ambassadors help younger
- students build confidence, connections, and an understanding of the armor code.
- Their work strengthens school culture and develops future student leaders, making them deserving recipients
- of an excellent spotlight. We're proud to recognize both Josh Willis and the Tri-North Trojan Ambassadors
- as the August 2026 Excellent Spotlight Honorees, their exemplary service and commitment elevate our
- schools and enrich the experience of the students and families we serve. Thank you.
- Thank you, Ms. Harmon, and congratulations to all those who were recognized tonight. And now, if we
- could have the recipients that are here come down to the front, we'd like to take a picture.
- like we need to have like jokes to tell during this time or like something to break the ice. Some music,
- a little music. I think there's a... Somebody can pull out a bad dad joke. All right I want to again
- thank the recipients for coming and as always we won't be offended if they take this opportunity
- to leave, although you are, of course, also welcome to stay. We will now receive our quarterly update
- on the activities of the MCCSE Foundation from Mrs. Helm. The foundation, she's not here, I didn't think
- so. We're gonna skip the foundation update. Next, we will have public comment. Thank you for all those
- who signed up and acknowledged the guidelines to speak to the board tonight.
- As a reminder, Mrs. Butcher will ring the bell once to signal that you have 30 seconds remaining for
- your comments and five bells to signal that your time has concluded. The first speaker tonight is Linnea
- Amy. Hello, my name is Linnea Amy.
- And I, along with Cynthia Port and Amy Jackson, will be reading for the board a letter written by Brown
- University professor, former MCCSE board member and parent, Jacinda Townsend, who could not be here
- this evening. Once you love MCCSE, you'll always want the best for it. And so as a former MCCSE board
- trustee, I write to you as you continue to consider the much delayed redistricting that has been on
- the table since before my children even entered the corporation in 2011.
- I write to you as well as a current board member of Integrated Schools, a national organization whose
- mission is to foster racially and socioeconomically integrated school communities, and as former board
- president of the Ann Arbor Public Schools, where successful attempts at equity included the kind of
- school merger that MCCSE affected in the Child's Templeton consolidation and in copious use of inter-district
- transfers. As many of you are well aware, school integration peaked in 1987.
- and is now horrifyingly at pre-Brown versus Board of Education levels. A common narrative used by school
- segregationists is that school segregation follows housing segregation. But in fact, if we look at data
- and research, we find the opposite. Housing segregation follows school segregation and not the other
- way around. Seattle and Louisville are great examples of this. As those school districts became more
- integrated, so did residential housing.
- as white wealthy parents sued Jefferson County public schools over and over again, making JCPS effectively
- abandon its 50-year effort to remain desegregated several years ago, the city of Louisville has become
- wildly resegregated. To say that Bloomington needs to solve its wealth disparity issues before MCCSC
- does is to ignore data such as that written about by Philip Teagler and Michael Hilton, who write that quote,
- School district boundaries and school assignment policies are key drivers of residential segregation.
- School boundary lines sort families by race and class, becoming a key factor in residential choices
- and a priority for white policymakers seeking to preserve the segregated status quo." End quote. We
- all know that a prospective buyer can, in two clicks on Zillow, determine what school district a house
- is zoned for. We all know how this works. Please don't let this be your excuse.
- It is a false one. Our next speaker is Cynthia Port. I've also heard this excuse, that some children
- won't be comfortable with other children, that some children might be ashamed of their shoes
- in a socioeconomically integrated setting. This came right out of the mouth of a former trustee, or
- that some children might not
- might not invite the less wealthy children or children of color to their birthday parties straight out
- of the mouth of a former superintendent. That the burden of school integration shouldn't rest on the
- shoulders of people who, quote, are being constantly told what to do, unquote. To which I say this,
- tell that to Thurgood Marshall. Tell that to Ruby Bridges. Tell that to anyone in my generation who endured.
- As someone who was the only black kid in her school for two years, I'm going to tell you that I don't
- remember at this point whose birthday party I went to. What I remember is that I got the same good education
- as other children. What I remember is that I have never not ever felt that my intellectual needs weren't
- being addressed and challenged in a school. What I know is that I'm well educated enough to know that
- this particular objection is bull.
- To point to tiny social issues in all this is to deny that the most important thing a school does is
- prepare a child for their future. No child in year 12 is going to care what kind of shoes another child
- was wearing. They're going to care whether they're doing math at grade level and whether they're headed
- to college. Which brings me to another objection segregationists love to present when opposing
- socioeconomically integrated schools.
- The idea that Title I schools are special sites of assistance for under-resourced children. I present
- to you more from Philip Teigler, executive director of the Poverty and Race Research Action Council,
- who writes of the way, quote, progressive state legislatures have generally bypassed desegregation in
- favor of compensatory funding for districts with greater student need and lower property wealth.
- Teegler suggests that these funding systems support segregation and penalize districts that attempt
- to de-concentrate poverty, and all herein put it in starker terms than that. Title I schools shouldn't
- even exist. They are built to fail. They're a way of concentrating children into public outposts of
- poverty. They're a way for bottle recycling Prius drivers to say, well, we gave them extra teachers
- and they still can't learn. Rather than integrate schools,
- so that there aren't 25 students in a class of 30 who are still sounding out the alphabet in second
- grade. And next we have Amy Jackson. Tagler and Hilton also write of the racial and economic makeup
- of public schools having, quote, a profound intergenerational effect on residential segregation
- or integration by affecting students' academic outcomes and career prospects.
- their interracial attitudes, and their desire to live and work in integrated settings as adults," unquote.
- And in my work on the Board of Integrated Schools, I hold that sentence near and dear to my heart. As
- someone who graduated high school in 1988, I am a beneficiary of peak integration. My high school, which
- we used to refer to as a county consolidated, was the biggest in the state. My neighbor drove a Porsche
- to school. We were friends with kids who lived in Section 8 housing.
- There were kids whose parents were engineers and kids who shoveled manure in the mornings. Everyone
- was at that high school and everyone got to be in community with everyone else. There was little division.
- We all rub shoulders. It is something I've been able to carry with me in life that I've found to be
- unique. The ability to be comfortable with just about anyone of any religion or race from any socioeconomic
- background in any country.
- In fact, the only environments I'm not comfortable in as an adult are the ones that aren't racially
- and socially integrated. We lost our way on this as our country became more diverse on a macro level,
- but just as segregated at the level of community. And that's why the pendulum has swung into this really
- dark air. But friends, you only have to maintain your part of the fence. MCCFC is a beloved part of
- the fence for me. I know Bloomington is a place where people are trying to do the right thing,
- trying to be the brightest light in that Indiana torch of stars. I urge you to consider this while making
- decisions about redistricting. Jacinda Townsend. Thank you to everyone for their comments tonight. And
- I'd personally add in absentia, thank you to our former colleague, Jacinda Townsend for writing in.
- We now move on to the consent agenda.
- For our consideration, the consent agenda includes the following. Memorandum from the executive session
- and minutes from the board meeting held on July 28th, 2026. Financial report, July 2026. Appropriation
- balance report, July 2026. Register of claims, August 25th, 2026. Payroll register and payroll claims,
- July 2026. Request to declare as surplus an authorized disposal of out of date items.
- Do I have a motion regarding the approval of the consent agenda? So moved. Do I have a second? Second.
- It's been moved by Ashley and seconded by Tiana that we approve the consent agenda as presented. All
- those in favor of approving the consent agenda signify by saying aye. Aye. Any against say no. Abstentions.
- Motion carries. Next for our consideration are the donations.
- We have received over $41,000 in donations. Thank you to all of our donors. Your generosity is greatly
- appreciated. Do I have a motion to accept the donations? So moved. Do I have a second? Second. It's
- been moved by April and seconded by Erin Wyatt that we accept the donations as presented. All those
- in favor of approving the donations signify by saying aye. Aye. Aye. Against, say no.
- Any abstentions? The motion carries. Now on to new business. We'll begin with the personnel report.
- For our consideration is the personnel reports. Do I have a motion to approve the personnel report as
- presented? So moved. Do I have a second? Second.
- It's been moved by Ashley and seconded by April that we approve the personnel report as presented. Dr.
- Henderson. Thank you, President Cooperman, Dr. Winston, and members of the Board of School Trustees.
- This evening, I would like to call your attention to the following administrative appointments, changes
- of status, and retirements. Thomas Henderson is joining MCCSC after serving as a strength coach for
- Indiana University Health. Thomas holds a master's degree in sports leadership and will serve
- both as a physical education teacher and an assistant athletic director at Bloomington High School South.
- In addition, Jacqueline Casebeer, her position is changing from assistant principal halftime at Highland
- Park Elementary School and halftime at Templeton Elementary School to assistant principal halftime at
- Templeton Elementary School and halftime at IM MCCSC online.
- We also have a couple of certified staff changes of status that I'd like to draw your attention to this
- evening, and we'll have an opportunity to introduce those folks to you following approval of the personnel
- report this evening. Christopher Herz continues with MCCSC after serving the corporation as the strings
- coordinator. Christopher holds a master's degree in violin and arts leadership from the University of
- Rochester, and he will serve as the assistant director of orchestras for MCCSC.
- and also Marianne Ritter. Marianne Ritter continues with MCCSC after serving the corporation as a strings
- teacher at Bachelor Middle School. Marianne holds a bachelor's degree in music education and a master's
- degree in secondary education from Indiana University, and she will serve as the MCCSC director
- of orchestras. And finally this evening, I want to call your attention to one support staff retirement,
- Laura Massey, who has most recently served as a preventionist,
- at Benford Elementary School is retiring after 37 years of dedicated service to MCCSC. On behalf of
- MCCSC, I'd like to extend a special thank you for Laura's many years of dedicated service and wish her
- well in her next adventures. At this time, I request that you please approve the recommendations as
- presented in your board packet in the personnel report. Thank you, Dr. Henderson. Do I have any comments
- from the board?
- The congratulations especially to our retirees. Did you say 37 years? Thank you Is there anyone here
- tonight that you wanted to give time to Following the approval of personnel report. I would like to
- introduce our assistant orchestra director and our orchestra director Do I have a motion to approve
- the personnel report I think we did that. Thanks guys
- It's a team effort tonight. All those in favor of approving the personnel report signify by saying aye.
- Aye. Any against say no. Any abstentions. Motion carries. Thank you again President Cooperman. At this
- time I'd like to invite Christopher Hurst our new assistant director of orchestras up to the podium
- to say a couple words to the board.
- evening members of the board and first thank you all so much for of course your dedication and support
- of the orchestra program it's been an absolute honor to first teach in the beginning strings program
- as part of our elementary strings program starting back in 2021 and last year being hired as the assistant
- orchestra director and now assistant director of
- with different responsibilities. I'm really honored and privileged to be serving our students musical
- journeys and really excited for the opportunities going forward. Thank you so much. Thank you. Finally,
- I'd like to invite Mary Ann Ritter up to the podium, our Orchestra Director. Good evening. I'd like
- to thank Dr. Winston,
- and President Cooperman and members of the board tonight for this opportunity. The MCCSC orchestra program
- has a long history of success and I look forward to being a part of that and also seeing what new heights
- we can reach in the future. Thank you again and I hope to see all of you at a concert this year. Thanks.
- Thank you and congratulations to both of you. Next we will move on to the contracts.
- Do I have a motion to approve the contracts and quotes as presented? Do I have a second? Second. It's
- been moved by Ashley and seconded by Asia that we approve the contracts and quotes as presented. Mr.
- Irwin. Thank you, President Cooperman. I have three specific agreements for tonight that I do want to
- highlight. The first one is CBRE listing agreement. I provided background information on that listing
- agreement for facilitating the use
- are facilitating the sale of the old Herald Times building because I felt like it was important information
- for everyone to know as as to why they were chosen for that for that endeavor. Not only did they meet
- our RFQP requirements, but they have the resources and the connections to help us with this type of
- property with selling it. They've done business here locally successfully, and we're excited to have
- a quality group helping us with with this endeavor.
- Another one that I want to highlight is our CSO agreement, a familiar and trusted partner of the MCCSC,
- but also well-respected and established across Indiana. They were recommended after a very thorough
- review and interview of the responding firms for our facility's master planning process, and CSO brings
- a wealth of knowledge and experience that will be invaluable to that process as well. And then the third
- one that I want to highlight is the Skillman Agreement.
- That is a new partner for us, but another highly respected and regarded firm in Indiana. They have worked
- well with CSO and many other school corporations and specialize in construction management, estimating,
- scheduling, and bidding. And they will be very impactful throughout the process for Facilities Master
- planning. And we look forward to engaging with them as well. We're going to talk a little bit more about
- Facilities Master planning later on in our quarterly update. But I recommend all contracts as presented.
- Thank you, Mr. Erwin.
- Are there comments from the board? I just have a quick question. Did we do a facilities master planning
- some years back, a few years back? And was it CSO who did that, or was it a different entity?
- Do we know? During Dr. DeMuth's tenure, there was a facilities master plan that was done many,
- many years ago. OK. So it's been quite a while. Yeah. OK. Thank you. But you're recalling that CSO has also done
- some facility assessments. Ah, that is I did remember years ago as well for us. I just didn't know from
- the facilities perspective. Okay. Thank you. Other comments or questions? All right. All those in favor
- of approving the contracts and quotes signify by saying aye. Aye. Against? Abstentions? Motion carries.
- Next for our consideration is the authorization to advertise the 2026 budget. Do I have a motion to
- approve the authorization to advertise the 2027 budget as presented? I might have said six before.
- It's seven. Mm-hmm. Thank you. I really wanted, but I'm not going to do it. Oh, six, seven. OK. It's
- been done. Six, seven. Now I need a motion to approve. OK. Thank you. Do I have a second?
- Second. It's been moved by Aaron Wyatt and seconded by April that we approve the authorization to advertise
- the 2027 budget as presented. Mr. Irwin. Yeah, it's wild to think we're already here talking about the
- 2027 budget and we're at that time of year again. So what I'm going to highlight tonight and just our
- authorization to advertise the budget is talking about timelines, processes, normal procedures, so that
- everyone is just reminded of that.
- And that's kind of where I start tonight. And it's just a reminder of that process. So when you look
- at this timeline of key dates, August is when we asked for permission to advertise. In between the September
- meeting is when we would actually advertise the budget and the capital projects plan and bus replacement
- plan. And then we'd have our hearing with another presentation over the budget in September. Adoption
- is in October.
- And then in that in-between time, between October adoption, in December is when the DOGF is working
- through our budget. And then in December is typically when we receive what's called our 1782 notice,
- which is just our budget notice, where they have then worked the numbers, brought them back to us. We
- have 10 days to respond about whether or not we agree with what it is that they've come back with. And
- then that budget becomes final. So that's just a reminder of that normal process that we follow.
- and I'm gonna talk a little bit more about some of those details here as we keep going. So with that
- publication date, it's planned right now in our schedule for September 8th, and it has to be at least
- 10 days prior to our public hearing, which is set for September 22nd, so our next regularly scheduled
- board meeting. The bus replacement plan and the capital projects plan, those are also posted to Gateway,
- and then they're also posted to our school website. I use the term form three,
- And that's simply just a notice to the taxpayer. That's the form as you walk through the budget forms
- the way that it's numbered. And that's commonly referred to that here just kind of in our world. But
- that's an advertise with all of our major funds and our levies and our meeting notices. And then from
- an accuracy and monitoring, this year the DOGF release was called Budget 2.0. So that is the program
- that we used in order to work with the Department of Local Government Finance to submit our budget.
- In that, in years past, we've always talked about when we input assessed value or certified net assessed
- values into the budget, we've always used 85% of their previous year's AV. And this year when they released
- that new program, they went ahead and did it for us because that's what they recommend that you do.
- And we'll talk a little bit more about why that is as we get through this. But again, when
- we are advertising, we are setting the ceiling on our budgets.
- in our levies. So as soon as those go out, you can work down, but you can't work up from that number.
- And so again, we'll talk a little bit more about just some of those rules of thumb and normal processes
- that we follow. And then like you said, there's that regular ongoing monitoring of revenues, expenditures,
- and the process of budgeting that we walk through each year.
- So this slide, what it's showing you is a comparison right now of the budget that we plan to advertise
- for 2027 in comparison to our current year 2026 budget of what was approved last year through the DLGF.
- And so when you look at each one of those funds, there is one on there that there's nothing there and
- that's our school pension debt service.
- We make our last payment on that this year. Last year we had a budget for that and a levy for that.
- This year we do not because that debt is retired. So that's why you see a zero there for that. The other
- budgets that you look at our education fund are both of our referendum funds and our debt service fund.
- The budgets are a little smaller than last year. And that wouldn't surprise you as we continue to talk
- about the things that it is that we're navigating as a school corporation. But then our operations fund,
- That budget is actually bigger than what it was last year. And a lot of that has to do with, again,
- planning for and making room for the expectation of escalation of prices for utilities, for services,
- for goods, and all of those pieces. But also, we did some fund simplification that we talked about how
- we pulled back in some of the things from 21st Century Grant going away, Extended Day, Adventure Camp,
- some of those things coming back to that home fund.
- makes that budget increase as it relates to just accounting for the known and expected expenditures
- within that fund. So that's the one fund that individually has a higher budget than last year, but overall
- budget submission is right now a little over three million in decrease from what it was in 2026 here
- this current year. Couple of other quick highlights as it relates to this is again, the education fund
- is smaller
- When we're looking at our estimation of revenue, so how much particular do we expect to receive in tuition
- support, our enrollment projections, staffing changes, all those things, those factor in to the wholesale
- number that you're seeing there for the education fund. Our operations fund, we're continuing to go
- with the state set max levy. That is one of two funds where we have a max levy or operating levy that
- we're allowed to collect.
- And that budget is increased, as I said, to account for those escalation of expenses and then just moving
- back things with extended day, adventure camp and so on. With both of our referendums, we plan for the
- continuation of our voter approved rates, 18 and a half cents and eight and a half cents respectively
- between those two referendums as they continue to support the initiatives of the referendums. And in
- our debt service, we're advertising our max allowable cash balance.
- Again, that fund has a max allowable. It's kind of like the operations has a max levy. The debt service
- fund has a max allowable operating balance that you can have. So again, when we advertise, we're advertising
- high and knowing that we can work down. And so with that in debt service, we advertise high for our
- max operating balance in that fund. We did not sell any debt during 2026. And so that is something I
- wanted to make note of as well.
- And then the last piece on there, as I again make mention of the bus replacement and capital projects
- plan, those are have to be submitted in order to have the ability to expend operations fund dollars
- on those types of expenditures. They are plans. They are not set in stone. They encompass a number of
- years. The capital projects plan over a three year period of possible expenditures, the bus replacement,
- a five year period.
- And so that is something that we work through with the transportation department, our operations team,
- as we look at that to try to make them as up to date and looking at the big picture of what we think
- could possibly happen over those years. But those will be posted to Gateway and also to our school website.
- What I'm going to show you next, this is just a form that actually gets released. When I say the form
- three, this is the top portion of that form. And what it's giving you is just
- The information about when our hearing date is, location, adoption date and location. And then it has
- numbers on there as it relates to when I talked about the operations fund has a max levy. That is our
- max levy for our operations fund. And that is obviously what I said we were advertising for. The number
- below it talks about tax credits.
- That's not a positive number. That's the amount of property tax that they expect us to not receive due
- to either property tax caps. But in this case for us, it's mostly SEA-1 losses related to the supplemental
- homestead deduction. So that's their estimate of what it is that they expect. And so that's on every
- school corporation's Form 3 is the information that you see. So we plug in Monroe County Community School
- Corporation and our information. And this looks the same for every school corporation
- when they post it to Gateway. The bottom portion of the form looks like this. And so obviously,
- column one, as it shows, is the fund name. But column two is our budget estimate. Those are the guardrails
- of which we expect our spending to stay within over the next year. And then again, in column three,
- those are the ceilings of the levies that we would need
- in order to raise funds to support those budgets. And then what you're seeing is our current tax levies
- in column five. And then the percentage changed from that. The operations fund one is the MLGQ for the
- operations fund this year is 6%. It shows 9.39% for us. And it's because last year we levied for school
- pension debt. They take that levy out of your operations fund. So the levy that you're seeing for current
- on operations
- That is less what it is that we needed to be able to make our pension debt payments. And so it's truly
- a 6% raise from what it is that we would have been allowed last year had we not had the pension debt.
- A couple of quick reminders and just touching back on some things that I know that I've reminded you
- of several times, but as we look at this, we're advertising high and we're setting the ceiling for the
- budget. That is a normal thing that all school corporations do.
- Column two and column three. Those are the ceiling numbers from the form three that I showed you. We
- are creating in column two. That is the budget. That is what we're asking for an appropriation. And
- when I use the word appropriation, that is the state saying what is your authority to spend and they
- agree that you have that amount of funds that you could spend and still have cash on hand at the end
- of that year.
- It's guardrails for spending. It is not the expectation that we would expend every one of those dollars,
- but that is what the budget is setting, are those guardrails. And then again, with column three, our
- advertised total levy, that will come down. Again, we advertise high, and we did that last year. We've
- done that in years past. That is to protect our budget so that if AV were to change after it's been
- certified, it protects us to make sure that we get
- the appropriate level of levy that we need to support our budgets. And so that is a part of best practices
- that when I look at bullet point one from the DOGF is that we advertise those ceilings to protect against
- those unknowns. The DOGF themselves have put in the 85% as a default in the budget. And again, the budgets
- are the guardrails. And again, as we look at the budget, those are estimates based on known expenditures
- or expenditures that we know will come.
- and revenue and it's based on historical trends and things that we know that have changed within any
- given year. I can't look at just historical trends and create a budget from that because any given year
- rules change. We've talked about that a lot at different board meetings and so there's a lot of information
- that goes into how we determine what is the appropriate amount of revenue we expect to receive in any
- given fund or the amount of expenses that we expect as well.
- So I know I've thrown a lot of information at you, but again, I just wanted to preview and remind you
- guys of these things. And then as we move forward into next month, I'll give a little bit more in-depth
- presentation as it relates to the budget itself and the process that we go through when we create those
- budgets. So with that, I'm asking for your approval to advertise. Thank you, Mr. Erwin. Are there any
- questions or comments from the board?
- All those in favor of the motion to approve the authorization to advertise the 2027 budget as presented
- signify by saying aye. Aye. Against? Abstentions? Motion carries. Next is the first reading of policies
- 5341 emergency health card
- Five three three zero use of medication and two three four zero field trips and other corporation-sponsored
- trips Thank You president Kuperman I am presenting policy five three four one emergency health card
- policy five three three zero use of medication and policy two three four zero field and other corporation-sponsored
- trips for their first reading. These policies have been updated to align language in accordance with
- our new health care management system, school care. I so recommend. Thank you, Ms. Harmon. Are there
- questions or comments from the board? This is a first reading. No action is required. As mentioned,
- this will be brought back to the board for a second and final reading in September.
- Tonight we have several informative presentations. We will begin with a back-to-school update from Ms.
- Harmon. Thank you again, President Cooverman, Dr. Winston, members of the board. I'm really excited
- tonight to share our annual back-to-school update. It's a look at how our staff and students started
- the 26-27 school year and some of the highlights from these first few weeks.
- As a starting point, I really wanted to talk about what happens before. So before a single student walks
- through the doors, our custodial and maintenance teams were already hard at work behind the scenes across
- the corporation. They're responsible for keeping nearly 2.4 million square feet of classrooms, hallways,
- restrooms, common areas, clean, safe, and ready to learn. To put it in perspective, just sharing some
- numbers here, given to me by Dr. Henderson's team,
- They replaced and repaired 2,650 square feet of sidewalk, installed 17,604 square feet of new epoxy
- and carpet flooring, screened and recoded 36,609 square feet of hardwood gym floors, and spread 575
- cubic yards of playground mulch. This is the kind of work that happens every summer, mostly unseen,
- but it's what makes opening day possible.
- From there, thinking about August 3rd and 4th, where every building had dedicated time to collaborate,
- prepare, and plan for the year ahead. It's a shift from our usual corporation-wide kickoff events. Instead,
- that time was used in buildings to plan as a whole school, collaborate as grade level and content teams,
- set up classrooms, and build excitement for the opening day. These are a few photos of just the energy
- and teamwork that went into those two days and also
- As tradition, we take staff photos at every school, so just giving you some time to see those as well.
- These photos capture the staff across our buildings.
- Again, before the day the school year officially starts, staff were ready. It was time to welcome students
- and families back in before the first bell. At the elementary level, families and students visit the
- day before school starts for a meet and greet, which is a chance to meet their teacher and find their
- classroom ahead of day one. And at the middle and high school level, we held seventh grade and freshman
- orientations, building tours and orientation activities that help our incoming seventh graders and freshmen
- get comfortable navigating their school before the first day.
- and then students come. And so turning to enrollment, as of our unofficial count on August 18th, we
- are serving approximately 9,800 K through 12 students, 530 pre-K and preschool students. We have 668
- students taking class at Hoosier Hills Career Center.
- and 187 learners enrolled in our adult education program. We're in our second year of our MCCSE online
- with approximately 69 students. Again, these are still unofficial numbers and will be finalized in the
- coming weeks, but they give us an early picture of the year ahead. And then I just wanted to share some
- of those pictures of students starting school and just a peek into it. So just a couple of slides of that.
- None of this happens without students getting to school safely every day. And that's thanks
- to our transportation team and, of course, their parents who are also bringing them to school. But our
- transportation routed 6,476 students to a bus. They managed 3,000, I'm sorry, 762 bus stops and drive
- 7,427 miles a day.
- Also as a highlight date, our electric bus usage has saved 96,031 pounds of CO2 as well. You can see
- buses roll out in this short video that's just looping for you on the first day of school. I'd also
- like to highlight our Child Nutrition Department, and it's had a busy and exciting summer getting ready.
- Menu planning, they successfully taste tested a couple of new items at adventure camp, tricks muffins
- and hush puppies. And those were very popular and have been added to the menu, as well as a brand new
- pizza at the high school level. After just one week of school, high school prepared 45 pizzas a day
- and 360 slices, a lot of pizza. On grants and innovation, our child nutrition program was awarded a
- competitive farm to school grant.
- which will fund training and resources to grow our local food offerings, starting with a Harvest of
- the Month item in partnership with IU Health and Hoosier Hills Career Center Culinary Program. And I
- think I'd like to also note that our department operates six USDA child nutrition programs, the National
- School Lunch Program, the School Breakfast Program, the Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program, the Afterschool
- Snack Program, and the Summer Food Service Program. And soon they'll be adding the Child and Adult Care
- Program at the Early Learning Center.
- Beyond the classroom, our fall athletic season is in full swing, and students are back in clubs,
- art programs, and activities that makes our schools feel like home. We can see here students playing
- the flute, our soccer players warming up on their new field, which is also then on the right, our ribbon
- cutting for that field as well. It's a great reminder that school is about so much more
- than the classroom, it's about belonging and the activities that engage our students. Finally, a quick
- highlight about keeping our students in safe remains our highest priority. Most recently, we've updated
- our school safety terminology to align with the standard response protocol or SRP, which is a nationally
- recognized framework, you can see there on the right, and have shared and established clear protocols
- for communicating with staff and families through parent square.
- And we are conducting emergency notification tests. Many of you probably received one on Friday, August
- 21st at 12 p.m. and all of the ways. And we'll have another one. All the ways. All the ways. Wanna make
- sure all the ways work. Friday, January 8th at 12 p.m. as well. That's making sure our systems and our
- communication with families are working exactly as they should. And as a closing point, right, we have
- so many through
- Reasons to be the best that we can be from our staff to our students as well every student every day
- Thank you Are there any questions or comments from the board? I mean, I feel like I just um want to
- say thank you to everyone who made this day possible the opening day and then the days that follow
- It's clearly so much labor that goes into just ensuring that our buildings are ready to open, that they're
- safe, that our kids are well fed. I have asked my child not to eat pizza every day at lunch, but there's
- not much I can do about that. He does branch out occasionally. But I just think there are so many wonderful
- pieces and parts to every single one of our schools in this district.
- Thank you to every single person out there who has made that possible this year and every year,
- but for now, this year. Thank you again, Ms. Harmon. In addition to thanking everyone that made the
- first day possible, I really enjoyed this report. Thank you for putting it together. We will move on
- to designing and building to sustain excellence. Dr. Anderson.
- Thank you. Good evening again, President Cooper and Doctor Winston and members of the Board of School
- Trustees. Tonight I am honored and excited to provide you with our August 2026 quarterly update of the
- designing and building to sustain excellence initiative. So this evening we will start off with a project
- that you've seen in this presentation before. That's the Bloomington High School North Athletic and
- Parking project. The first slide here is just a reminder of the architects rendering of the new entry
- into the football and tracks complex.
- to be able to compare that to how that actually came to life as the project was completed. So this photograph
- shows you that new entryway. Part of the project also involved the relocation of what was referred to
- at North as the lower lot for many, many years to the field just South of the football field and track
- complex between that area and the actual school building itself.
- This move increased the number of parking spaces and reduced the distance between the parking area and
- the football and track complex, as well as reducing the distance from the parking area to the auditorium,
- natatorium, and main gym spaces. And it also improved the ability to supervise that parking area. The
- batting cages were replaced and relocated, and a new turf soccer field and bleachers were installed
- as part of this project.
- as well as concessions area that was added to the building next to soccer and baseball fields to better
- serve fans in that space as well. Additionally, a new athletic building was added to the football and
- track complex that contained an updated and larger concessions area shown here on the screen along with
- new men's, women's and family restrooms. You can see that is a drastic improvement over the restroom
- facility that used to be out there at the football complex.
- And a team room for visiting teams as well as some of our home teams during the season on non-contest
- events when they're out there practicing. And we were also able to repaint the auxiliary gym, which
- was a dull yellow and is now a very nice bright white that matches the main gym. This project is 99%
- complete with just some minor punch list items and a few landscaping finishing touches.
- left to wrap that project up. I want to move on to the Bloomington High School South Auditorium and
- Main Gym project. That auditorium project started with the removal of old seats and carpeting in preparation
- for new floor paint under the seating area. So you can see that new epoxy floor paint there. Next up
- was the installation of the framework and new carpeting. And then finally the installation of new seating,
- which really brought this space to life and
- turned out to be just an absolutely beautiful space. If you haven't had an opportunity to see that,
- if you're over at South and have a chance to pop in there and look at the auditorium, I think you'll
- be really impressed with how that turned out. It's a beautiful project. In addition to that, the main
- gym floor at South was also completely refinished. This particular project was not included in the statistics
- that Mrs. Harmon shared a while ago about the square footage of gym floors that were screened and resealed.
- This is a totally separate project that involved
- the entire floor being sanded down to remove the old finish, including all of the old painted lines
- and graphics. So you can see what that floor looks like before they stain, paint, and install new graphics
- and then put the final finish on. So the new Bloomington High School South main gym floor appears here
- with updated graphics, updated paint, and really, really turned out.
- beautifully as well. That project is also 100% complete. Next up the transportation canopy and detention
- pond project that is being pursued right now in the southwest corner of the bus lot. Um, that area is
- receiving a new solar canopy that will provide charging infrastructure for 16 electric buses. This next
- photograph shows the trenching that is being done. Um,
- to bury the electrical connections that will connect to the chargers and they'll eventually connect
- over to a new transformer on the pad that's framed up there. I was over there today and that actually
- is poured and the transformers are in place, but I didn't have time to get a new picture into
- the presentation for tonight. So that's moving along quite well also. These additional chargers will
- all be connected to our intelligent charging grid that power our electric buses.
- Also, a stormwater detention pond is being added in the southwest corner of the property as a part of
- this project, and it is currently about 20% complete with canopy construction starting in October once
- the infrastructure is all set in place. And finally, this evening I'd like to highlight a few of our
- other hardscape projects that were completed over the summer. Concrete repairs were made at University
- Elementary School in the upper left hand corner there. That concrete area there was in really
- bad shape with a lot of cracking and peeling and flaking of the top surface of that along with the band
- trailer parking area and a bus pickup location at Bloomington High School North there on the center
- and upper right. Additionally, a new sidewalk was added to Rogers Elementary School and the early learning
- playground area was fenced in to ensure our youngest learners have a safe and secure place to enjoy
- their recess time.
- And then down on the lower area there, you'll notice that the main intersection and bus lanes on the
- Rogers Benford campus were completely replaced with new pavement, pedestrian walkway and traffic lines
- were all repainted. And we were also able to replace some curbing and stairway landing at Clear Creek
- Elementary School, eliminating some trip hazards there as well. So these hardscape projects that occurred
- during the summer at these various campuses are all 100% complete.
- I think it's also important to point out that while these projects are a direct benefit to the students
- and families we serve in the MCCSE, as well as all of the visiting teams, performing arts ensembles,
- and families who visit our facilities from other school corporations, these projects also support our
- local economy. Out of the 22 contractors that were involved in the projects that I just highlighted,
- 20 or 91% of those are based in Indiana. 16 or 72%
- are based right here in Bloomington. And only two or 9% of all the contractors are from out of state.
- And that is due to the specialized products, services, and expertise required for certain aspects of
- these projects that don't exist within the state. So not only is this benefiting our students, it's
- also benefiting the local economy, both locally and in the state of Indiana. So we're really proud of
- that as a part of this as well.
- I'd also like to remind everyone that all of these projects are 100% bond funded. Zero referendum funds,
- zero educational funds, and zero operational funds were utilized in the completion of any of these projects.
- And if anybody would like to learn more about our bond funded designing and building to sustain excellent
- projects, both current or completed, you can utilize the QR code on this slide or visit mccsc.edu forward
- slash building for more information.
- Thank you for the opportunity to present this information to you this evening. Thank you, Dr. Anderson.
- Questions or comments from the board? Yeah, I was going to say thank you, and thank you to also the
- construction. You're like the construction manager. Sam Fleener. Yeah. I know you. Sam Fleener, yes.
- Thank you for all of that. I mean, it's nice to visit. I was at North. I mean, I happened to be at the
- North-South game and got to see the wonderful
- I think it was also like a change to not hear the audible gasp from the south
- at the South graduation, right? When the bleachers would typically, you stand up or you sit down and
- it shifts and you would always hear the entire crowd just like, because it sounds like it's going to
- fall down, right? So I think it's a worthy investment for sure. Of course. I just want to take a moment
- to give an additional shout out to Sam Fleener. Any one of those projects is a lot to manage. Any two
- of those projects.
- would be a lot to manage. But to manage all of those 22 projects in the midst of his day-to-day
- responsibilities is a lot. He doesn't do it alone, and he'll be the first to tell you that it does take
- a complete team. But his leadership, his oversight, his guidance, and the degree to which he holds our
- contractors accountable and responsible to meet deadlines is second to none. And so I want to go on
- record of acknowledging Mr. Fleener. And I also want to recognize
- our team that supports Mr. Fleener throughout the process. Certainly the work that Mr. Irwin does in
- making sure that we have the finances to be able to secure projects, the oversight that Dr. Henderson
- provides, the support that Mrs. Harmon provides to make sure that we're addressing our academic needs
- as our first priority, and certainly you won't be surprised to know that
- Dr. Dowling also plays a role in supporting this body of work. And so we meet on a regular and consistent
- basis to oversee the facility needs of the corporation within the notion of our academic and our arts
- needs as well. So kudos to our entire team. Thank you, Dr. Winston. Thank you, Mr. Fleener. Thank you,
- Dr. Henderson, for that report.
- The last presentation is the quarterly report on our two-year strategy of sustaining excellence and
- financial transparency. Mr. Irwin? Yeah, I'm appreciative of the next opportunity here to give you another
- update. We're 18 months into a 24-month strategy and how time is going quickly. But I'm excited to give
- you this update about where we stand.
- I start in a familiar place as I normally do, just because, and I've said this in past board meetings,
- I don't take for granted that people have always seen every presentation that we've given. I know that
- the presentations are online, but I always like to start here, because I think it's a reminder. And
- then there's some appreciation afterwards to see the progress that we've made as well. But when you
- look at this slide, the numbers individually inside of each portion of a bar, that's the individual
- fund balance of that respective fund.
- And then the numbers at the top or as you move to the right at the bottom, that's the cumulative total
- of what those three funds would be. And those are our three largest funds as a school corporation would
- be had we had not taken any action before we started this two-year strategy. So I do that as a reminder
- to people to know we've had to make a lot of hard decisions, but we had to make a lot of hard decisions.
- and I think that's the point and we've done that. So with that, the next slide is something that I think
- is important too. I spend a lot of time at board meetings and I know I throw a lot at you and you're
- probably like, when is he gonna stop? But I put this information out because I think it's important
- people understand how things continue to change. The picture is constantly evolving. And so when I put
- these things on here, these are things that I see as major drivers in the changes that we've seen
- even since the last time we gave this update in May. So the first one is the one that I keep up there
- every time, but that's just we've had more months come in. So more things are actual unless things are
- projected at this point in the year. The other thing is we're continuing to monitor our estimates with
- student ADM and because student tuition support and student enrollment is our number one source of funding
- as a public school corporation. And so that's a major driver
- in the projections of our school corporation and the corresponding demographic changes is that we talked
- a lot about not only across the nation and the state of Indiana, are there are there demographic declines
- with population? But here locally, we experience it greater so than than other places in the state.
- And so that's something that very much has to be at the forefront of our of our planning and paying
- attention to that information.
- Number three, we talked a lot about at past board meetings, but that's just the MOGQ. I talked about
- that actually just earlier tonight. So with the state sets, the max levy growth quotient for our operations
- fund, that was 6% this year. That was a change from what we felt recently, which is 4%. But then afterwards,
- I'm projecting only 4% afterwards because I'm not going to project something higher. That has been a
- bit of an anomaly than what we've experienced the last few years.
- I would rather be on the conservative side of that. And then also we know that this year we had that
- one time flexibility of spreading the SEA-1 losses due to the supplemental homestead deduction across
- our debt service and operations fund. And moving forward in 2027 and beyond, it all goes to the operations
- fund. And so these projections assume that as well. We have our current staffing level set for the 26-27
- school year, and that's reflected in these projections.
- which is a very important part of our number one expenses as a school corporation are the people that
- we employ to serve children. And so that's something that is very much important when you look at these
- projections. And then the actual input of reimbursement from the taxable general obligation bond in
- 2026 to support fund balances and then moving forward the planned amounts for 27 and 28. We continue
- to keep at the forefront the use of one time funds and how it's played a role
- helping us to achieve this strategy. The other one number six is policy analytics is a familiar partner
- that you guys know that we work with and they are constantly on a regular basis evaluating tax base
- changes and how legislation affects the moving pieces that interact with our budget and so
- Right now, the net assessed value and expected tax revenue of how that impacts our referendums
- is incorporated into these projections. Certified net assessed value this year, right now what's been
- that has been certified now is relatively flat from where originally we were thinking it might be closer
- to a 4.4% decline. It's relatively flat for this year, but their current estimations are that
- we'll see it continue to go down as the impacts of SEA1. Remember, those deductions continue to increase
- over time, which further counteracts whether or not there's any gross assessed value uptick, those deductions
- are pulling down. So whether or not gross assessed value goes up, those deductions get bigger and bigger
- and they pull it down. And then the last one, I talked about this at the last meeting, is that we've
- now started to create a much more dynamic view
- but that we are adding escalators in there for things for expenses that are outside of our direct control.
- We don't control how much fuel costs. We don't control how much people charge for services. We don't
- control some of the things that what they cost that we buy. And it's important that we continue to plan
- for the escalation of those expenses. And so that's been factored into this next chart as we look at
- where it is that we expect to be. So again, I go through those seven things because they are major drivers
- and where it is that we are now and where we project to be. And so again, I want to remind us of that
- as we continue to move forward. So with that, without further ado, as it was looking at, this picture
- still is showing us what it is that we want to see. And that's progress of where we want to be as far
- as we talked a lot about a position of financial strength. And so cash balance projections, if you look
- at my middle takeaway,
- is that they're showing still that we are progressing towards a position of financial strength. And
- that's what we intend to do and intend to be. And we need that because we are one of the biggest employers
- in this county. We educate thousands and thousands of children. And it's really important that we are
- in a solid place so that we can continue to be a place of certainty for them in a world where a lot
- of times we experience a lot of uncertainties. And so we want to continue to push ourselves to be in
- that place.
- The arrival and strategic use of one-time funds, they are continuing to work as intended. They very
- much support the picture that you see, and they allow us that runway to make structural changes. As
- well as I've talked about, you can achieve balance, but if you don't have the proper safety nets or
- that position of financial strength in place, you still need to work your way to get there. So those
- one-time funds are very vital in helping us to do both, balance,
- with those appropriate safety nets. And the third point that is furthest to the left is that we have
- to continue to monitor those demographic trends. Those are things that we can't entirely predict. They
- are completely outside of our control as it relates to some of the pieces that interact with us, but
- in the legislative piece as well. And those interact with one,
- tuition support, so our largest source of revenue in the legislative piece very much interacts with
- how how we are able to collect property taxes or how that impacts property tax collection. And so that
- is something that is our number two source of revenue as a public school corporation. So we have to
- continue to monitor that. But we're very, very pleased with the progress that we made. And we know that
- this has been a collective effort of everyone across the organization. And so we're very appreciative
- of that of that progress.
- This slide you've seen a number of times. I leave it there just as that reminder. I'm not gonna go through
- every point of this, but we have outlined what we believe are effective and ineffective uses of one-time
- funds, and then continue to provide some concrete examples of what those are so that people continue
- to understand that. We talked about strategic fund management, strategic use of one-time funds, but
- putting a little bit more definition to
- our perspective on operating from a position of financial strength. In our education fund, our goal
- is 18 to 20% of expenditures. And there's some different rationale and context that's really important
- to these numbers because numbers without context can be very misleading. And so when we look at this,
- the reason that we're looking for 18 to 20% is one, the education fund is our largest fund. It has regular,
- Revenue coming in, tuition support comes in on a monthly basis, but it supports a large amount
- of expenditures and the cash flow needed to operate the school corporation on a day-to-day and month-to-month
- basis. It helps guards us against the unknowns of student population variability. Like I said in the
- last slide, monitoring demographic trends is really important. And so as those changes happen to us
- every six months, if we don't have those sitting in a position of strength,
- it puts us in a place of uncertainty immediately if we're not there. And then again, it guards us against
- delays and or reductions in state revenue. And I'll talk about it and I'll connect it back as I get
- to the bottom piece too. But it helps us as we in our other funds go periods of time without revenue.
- So in our in our
- Tax levied funds, so our operations fund and a referendum fund that are not statutory limited. Remember
- I told you during my budget presentation earlier that the debt service fund has a operating balance
- limit. Those ones we're looking for at least 23 to 25% of expenditures. But when you're looking at that,
- some of those funds go almost six months without revenue and regularly occurring expenses on a monthly
- basis. And so when you're getting out to month four,
- five, almost six of no revenue into those funds. It's really important that your other funds,
- most importantly the education fund, is in a really healthy place because it continues to allow us to
- have the cash on hand to meet the in and out ongoing needs of the school corporation. It also puts us
- in a place where as legislative trends and changes happen, and we talked a lot about that over the last
- at least a year, a little over a year since I've been here and before that as well, is that when those
- things change on us, it allows us again, to have a longer period of time to change if we need to change
- how we're operating as a public school corporation and be in a place of certainty. So it's really important
- that we not only achieve balance, but we continue to operate and move towards a position of financial
- strength because it's what we need to do to provide that certainty for the people that we employ
- and the children that we educate. My last piece, and I end on this as far as this part of the presentation,
- but I just continue to put that reminder out there that the every dollar, every student website is up
- there that has a ton of information on it. And a lot of that information is public available data, but
- that information is in different places.
- So we continue to bring it into one place and then we've created links so that if people want to navigate
- gateway, they want to go into some of these different state websites, they can find it there too. But
- we try to be as helpful as possible as it relates to getting that information and understanding how
- we how we function as a public school corporation, how we're funded and where our expenses go. So.
- With that, that concludes that part of the presentation. The next part of the presentation, I told you
- we're gonna talk a little bit about facilities master planning, but this is a really important piece.
- And like I said, we put out an RFQP for facility master planning services and we had some good response
- to that. And we went through a pretty rigorous process as it relates to evaluating partners that would
- help us to move through that process and have the
- resources and the expertise to help us do that well and so we you guys already approved that kind of
- those contracts with CSO and Skillman but we're excited about that partnership with those two and how
- they're going to help us through that process because this is very closely tied to when we think about
- financial balance and sustainability but it's also very much tied to sustaining excellence and so I
- know Dr. Winston is going to talk more about that here.
- Sarah, can you grab the clicker for me? Thank you so much, Matt. I appreciate that. So nobody's more
- excited about this than I am. I'm beyond thrilled, although Matt thinks he's more excited. I'm pretty
- geeked about it as well. When you think about schools, our schools exist to educate children, not simply
- to occupy buildings. And when we think about our facilities, they should really reflect
- and support the academic experiences that we want for our children. That's really the goal. It's the
- kinds of experiences that we want for every child that walks through our doors. As we begin to embark
- on the creation of a 10-year, yes, 10-year facilities master plan, our why for having a facilities master
- plan is so that we have a collaboratively developed roadmap that's developed based upon
- the wishes and the desires and the needs and the priorities of our community. So you're going to see
- a collaborative process whereby we have community members, we have parents, we have teachers, we have
- principals, we have students helping us to talk through what are the educational experiences that are
- most important and most valuable for our students, not just for today, but for tomorrow as well. And
- so that's the opportunity that we have in front of us
- completing this roadmap. As we develop our facilities master plan, our community rooted educational
- priorities will continue to remain the foundation for every decision that gets made and every recommendation
- as we go forward. I like this particular graphic because it really represents our community and the
- community as the foundation and as the forefront of making sure that the voices from all
- aspects of our community and every corner of our community are heard and listened to and incorporated
- into the kinds of educational experiences that we want for our children. And in fact, you know, when
- we think about our schools and we think about the role that education plays, how do we ensure that our
- children have the best learning environments, not just today, not just tomorrow, but for years to come?
- That's the significance of the work that we
- have in front of us, and it has the opportunity to be quite transformational. But we can't do that without
- good data, without good information. And that's where our community partners are going to come in. Our
- architectural partners are going to be able to help us take a look at that. You'll see down below the
- designing and building to sustain academic excellence. This will become a part of that body of work
- as well. In many ways, when I think about this work and I think about the role that the community plays,
- This work has already begun in some ways when we established our Strong Schools Strong Community Advisory
- Council back in the spring. We've spent a lot of time talking with our council about the vision for
- education. You know, what are the opportunities that exist here in our school corporation? So we've
- actually already laid the foundation for how we will choose to prioritize the needs of our students
- through the voices of our community members and the voices of our parents and the voices of our students.
- When I think about
- This body of work, I think about it in terms of three priority areas that kind of are overarching or
- three pillars. On the left-hand side, you see academic excellence. That's what we talk about all the
- time. And when we talk about academic excellence, we're just talking about what does high quality teaching
- and learning look like? What are the kinds of experiences that we want our students to have? What does
- that mean for the arts, for the athletics, for academics, for literacy, for numeracy? Academic excellence
- is certainly at the forefront.
- But then we talk about our objective data and information. How will we make informed decisions guided
- by data? That center column is really highlighting the kinds of information and the kinds of data that
- we're going to be looking at. Comprehensive building assessments, that's the first phase of developing
- a facilities master plan. Looking at our capacity, how many students can we comfortably and safely educate
- in a building? What should the utilization look like?
- Looking at that kind of data, what kind of financial sustainability needs to be at the forefront of
- some of our decisions? What about the demographic trends that exist in Bloomington and Monroe County?
- We all know that the population has been declining for the last several years here in Bloomington and
- Monroe County. We also know that the birth rates are low, and we are seeing that evidenced by declining
- numbers of kindergartners.
- We've been monitoring our kindergarten enrollment for the last several years. And when you compare and
- contrast that to the number of high school graduates, we see how the lower birth rate in our community,
- and it's happening across the country, is impacting us. And so that kind of data must be considered
- at the forefront as we are thinking about what do we need our schools to be able to do for our students
- a year from now, five years from now, and 10 years from now. And the way to get there is through community
- engagement.
- And so the third pillar really focuses on the role in which our community will play in assisting us
- in establishing those priorities. I'm very excited about the work that's happening in our curriculum
- office that's being led by Mrs. Harmon. That's going to be at the forefront and we're going to be having
- conversations with our community around what do they want to see, how do we make sure that that happens,
- and we're going to find a variety of ways to engage folks. So it's a very exciting opportunity.
- And so on the next slide, really just talking about why do we need a facilities master plan? Well, as
- we establish our goals and priorities academically, we want to make sure that we have the facilities
- to support those priorities. And so the overarching question that we will consistently come back to
- time and time again, what learning environments best support student success today and into the future?
- We have a long tradition of excellence.
- in our school corporation. We have excellence in academics, we have excellence in the arts, and we have
- excellence in athletics. We want to make sure that we continue to be strong in each of those areas.
- And so we will consistently in each of those areas come back and talk about is this learning environment
- conducive to the kinds of excellence that we want to provide for our students going forward. Developing
- the long-term roadmap, I mentioned that it's a 10-year facilities master plan.
- Not every school corporation does this and not everybody does it well. We are very well positioned to
- do it exceedingly well with the kind of partnership that we have with Skillman and CSO. We think that
- they are the right partners for us and for right now. And having that collaborative team that's gonna
- help us focus on safety needs of our schools, that's gonna help us take a close look at our building
- conditions. I've already talked about capacity and utilization. All of those are part of the conversation.
- And then certainly we have to pay attention to the demographic trends. The next thing I want to kind
- of highlight is just the overall benefit of having a long-term plan. We'll be able to take the demographic
- trends that are happening in our community into consideration as we establish what our future footprint
- should look like. A couple of years ago, our board commissioned a demographer to do
- review and in his review he anticipated that we would begin to lose enrollment numbers over the next
- 10 years in fact and so it's really important that we take that into consideration as we are planning
- the future of our facilities. We're going to have to adjust our projections accordingly. And I've already
- spoken about how
- board decisions in the future can be informed by this body of work. It's going to be an opportunity
- for us to think about the financial implications. It's going to help us take a closer look at what kinds
- of buildings and facilities are necessary to strengthen what we're doing in the arts. We just approved
- a new director of orchestra, an assistant director of orchestra this evening. It'll be important that
- their voices are at the table as well.
- Later this evening, the board's going to engage in a conversation about redistricting. It is certainly
- important to note that a facility's master plan process can be very instrumental in helping to inform
- good decision making as it relates to redistricting and then overall long-term sustainability. So there
- are a lot of benefits to engaging in a facility's master plan. As I prepare to close out, I just want
- to highlight what to expect from the process. The process is going to include engagement,
- Looking at the demographic trends, both for our city, for our county, but also our enrollment numbers,
- we are continuing to monitor those very closely. Looking at the financial alignment of the expected
- resources, it's very important that we don't exceed our capacity financially and that we don't overburden
- our taxpayers. That's at the forefront of our conversations as well. It's more than just improving our
- facilities, but it's certainly strengthening
- what our facilities look like and making sure that our students are prepared for the future that we
- can't even anticipate today. And then quality data and information will inform and guide those decisions.
- The exciting part for me is that this board and administrative team has been characterized by strong
- community engagement over the past two years in particular, and it will be even more important as we
- develop our facilities plan. It will be imperative that members from throughout our diverse community
- have an opportunity
- to help us establish our academic direction so that we can have state of the art facilities aligned
- specifically to our academic needs and the goals that we have for our children. We will work with our
- lead architectural consultants to engage our community in a variety of ways throughout the process.
- I think it's important to remind everyone that a facilities master plan is simply not about buildings.
- It is about creating learning environments that allow every student to thrive.
- Today's students and the students of tomorrow. By grounding our work at academic excellence, objective
- data, and meaningful community partnership, we will develop a roadmap that reflects both our educational
- mission and the values that are important to our community. I am excited about what we will do together
- as we create the next facilities master plan for MCCSE. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Winston.
- Our next update will be in November. Thank you. And thank you, Mr. Irwin, for your report. Are there
- any questions or comments from the board? Well, I was going to say thanks, Matt. I really appreciate
- those seven things that you post up. I can't remember. I didn't even move down to the master plan, so
- I really can't remember. I'll be honest. But I really appreciate that and that reminder.
- And I'm excited about your master plan. Very good. Have you already start reaching out to community
- members to be a part of the? Not yet. Tonight is our first public discussion of it. In the next several
- weeks, I would anticipate we'll begin that process. How do we think we'll determine who serves on that
- task force or committee? I'm very open to hearing suggestions and thoughts on that. We have not even begun to
- strategize as to what that will look like. But we would want to have representation from all of our
- buildings throughout the corporation. And we definitely want to have some parents and community members
- at the table. So when we sit down with our architectural partners, we'll start thinking through. They've
- got a lot of experience in doing this, so they may have some great ideas that we need to consider. But
- at this moment in time, we haven't begun that process. But certainly, we are open to hearing suggestions.
- a list of people that weren't able to participate in the strong schools. Yes, the strong schools that
- might be. We do. Yeah, we absolutely could begin with that group as well as our master program. So I
- think we have lots of possibilities. Thank you again, Dr. Winston and Mr. Owen.
- Tonight we will begin a new segment in our meetings called committee reports. At each January
- reorganizational meeting, board members elect to serve on corporation committees. Tonight and almost
- each month following, those serving on committees will provide the public with an update on their respective
- committee's work. The first committee update is from the Insurance Committee. Our Vice President,
- Ross Grimes, sits on the Insurance Committee.
- Unfortunately, he was unable to be at our meeting tonight due to a prior commitment. And so I have some
- talking points from the insurance committee. And then I think I have some help answering questions if
- you do have questions about insurance. The highlights are we are focusing on programs that make sure
- members get high quality care at the lowest cost and many times at lower or no member out of pocket costs.
- Next, we are looking at specific needs of our members, our claims categories, and how benefits are being
- used so that we can help members utilize their health insurance benefits and drive better outcomes.
- Sometimes that looks like the clinic or us engaging members directly to make sure they are aware of
- specific health insurance benefit programs we have that align with their current needs and circumstances.
- And finally, we believe these types of efforts will improve the member experience and outcomes
- lower their out-of-pocket expenses, and reduce future liabilities of the plan, thus improving the chance
- for lower health insurance premium increases in the future. Any questions or comments from the board
- about insurance? Everyone's least favorite subject to talk about, ask me how I know.
- I was just waiting for you to ask the insurance questions. This is outside my wheelhouse. This kind
- of insurance. I think that's right. I won't take that as a reflection on my delivery of the talking.
- If there are no further comments from the board on insurance, then we will open the floor for
- our conversation regarding the redistricting study commission's findings. Would anyone like to begin?
- April, would you like to begin? I'm waiting for someone else to begin. We can wait.
- If you need to grease the wheels, we just start. Yeah, I can begin order. I just feel like I am always
- the beginner. It's a gift. Oh, OK. Is that what it is? So, you know, I'm glad that we're here finally
- to have this conversation. I know it was somewhat delayed, but I think it's. Obviously, there's a lot
- here to take in, right? So we have
- some of the data and findings from the demographic report that we got prior to the redistricting study
- and prior to the merger conversations. And then the sort of deep body of work that the Redistricting
- Study Commission has provided for us as well. And I think I want to start by saying that there weren't
- really any surprises for me in the sense that
- I don't think that I was surprised by any of the things that came back in part because, you know, I
- think many of us had actually done that research, a lot of that research prior. I think it was interesting
- to think about, well, one, I think we had an expert in our GIS mapping individual who came on board
- sort of midway through that process who was able to help us really think through how do we create maps
- Because that was one of the things that we put a call out for and no one had responded prior, right?
- And so I think that led to us finding this individual who was able to assist us in thinking through,
- how do we map? What do those maps look like? How could we potentially begin to think about overlaying
- some of our student data onto like census block data and things like that? So I think that was very
- helpful and came out of this process.
- I do think that many of the assumptions that I moved into this process with were either confirmed or
- sort of held steady with the work that came out of this. And I'll say more about those in a moment,
- but the one thing that struck me as I was sort of like re-looking at our data
- was that our disparity in free and reduced lunch data has actually shrunk considerably. Even in the
- past, I guess I've been on the board now for six years or something, so five years, so even in that time,
- When I was running, I remember that the numbers I had to work with were something like 93% free and
- reduced lunch at Fairview and something like 7% at Childs. The disparity was massive. And with some
- of the moves that have happened, like moving Alps into Fairview, which was again, sort of enormously
- controversial at that time,
- we've seen those numbers change. So that fair view at this point is only around 53% free and reduced
- lunch. Now, again, I don't wanna use free and reduced lunch as a singular marker of socioeconomic status
- because we do know that the parameters for free and reduced lunch are fairly narrow. But looking at
- these numbers again today, I was kind of struck by the fact that at the highest, we have 61% and at
- the lowest,
- we have 14%. So the gap has shrunk considerably. And I think, I mean, I have a lot of theories as to
- why that might be the case. But it did kind of make me scratch my head a little bit and say, huh,
- we've like, the disparity is already starting to shrink. And what to make of that?
- what that means for this process, what it means for the number of students that might then have to be
- redistricted if that were the case. I mean, I think it changes things to some extent from just from
- a numbers perspective. So I don't know, I'm just gonna stop there for now.
- I'll just jump in to comment quickly on the shrinking of the disparity that you mentioned, April. I
- did notice that even from the commission's report, which I think
- listed our highest rate of free and reduced lunch as 74% down to our highest rate as 61%. I suspect
- that some of that is a change in the federal guidelines for who qualifies for free and reduced lunch.
- So it doesn't necessarily represent a change in socioeconomic status of our schools, but rather a change
- in who's eligible and who's being left on the margins of the free and reduced lunch program. And also, as we do
- consider the rates of free and reduced lunch. For Fairview specifically, I would suggest that we get
- calculations on what their rate would be without the ELTS program. I think that when we moved that program
- to Fairview, we did maybe a better job of integrating that program into the population at large in that
- school. But they're still siloed within the classroom. So I don't know if that is a fair
- model for integration and I would be curious to know what the numbers are if you remove the help students
- from that number. I think those are great points. I want to pull on that thread just a little bit more
- with regards to when we're looking at the free and reduced lunch numbers if we could also do a couple
- of other things to look at the demographics as well
- of the schools so what those look like for the different demographics that we have within that we we
- have data for to see how those correlate with those numbers as well and I would also like to know how
- those how those numbers look within the schools that we have
- Like our, oh goodness, what are they called? Is that one? No, the special programming schools. So how
- do those, what do the demographics look like within our special programming schools with relationship
- to free and reduced lunch? And I'm gonna add another caveat to that. How many of those students in those
- schools are opting in
- from outside of their catchment zones and vice versa. So we also know what that looks like because I
- think that those pieces can also impact our free and reduced lunch numbers within certain areas. So
- for example, we've got schools like Fairview who has the arts program. So does that mean that more students
- are likely to come into that school outside of that catchment zone?
- that are driving down those numbers as well. So just more data on that I think is helpful. Could you
- repeat your very first data question? Yes. So I would like to know with regards to our free and reduced
- lunch what the demographics are for those schools as well. So white students,
- Black students, Hispanic students, Asian students, students with special, students with disabilities,
- all of those factors because there's probably some correlation that's living in between those numbers
- versus free and reduced lunch notes. So I just wanna see what those look like. Does that, if I need
- to get more precise, just let me know and I can throw you something in the email.
- You would like that for every elementary school? Yeah, I would. I mean, if we're going to be talking
- about redistricting and whether or not we need to look at the whole for the elementary school students,
- I think that's vital to knowing how those correlate or don't correlate. So you would like us to run
- some data that examines free and reduced lunch across demographics
- as broken down by race and special service categories? Yes. OK. As well as a sub to that, then those
- schools that have the special programming. So we know how many students are coming in or out of those
- schools that don't go there. Transfer data. Or those that are in those catchment zones. That was a wrong word.
- Thank you for clarifying. I don't know if I did, but. Well, I'll take a stab at it, and then I'll recirculate
- that. It was a big one. Sorry. I'll take a go at it. First off, I want to say how amazing the work that
- was done by the commission was. You all came up with all.
- It was amazing. And the input and the time that I was taking the care, it definitely shows in the report.
- Some of my thoughts on redistricting. I am always very mindful of barriers that are created, usually
- unintentionally.
- efforts to help or like in this case balance our socioeconomic economic status numbers. So that's been
- my main point of concern is just ensuring that we are not creating barriers because while
- While the numbers could look good, the supports that are available to some of our students in that free
- and reduced lunch category, including like after school, I'm always mindful of thinking about
- how redistricting is going to impact transportation.
- for some of our students where personal transportation is a barrier and they are completely reliant
- on our transportation and how that allows them to participate in before and after school activities,
- tutoring and all those types of things that go on. But overall, what I would like to see
- are some very specific maps and details to the impacts and maybe some of the impacts that we aren't
- really looking at right now. I don't know that I have anything
- new to add to the discussion except to kind of highlight just the unknown. And I echo what board member
- Jester is saying about being mindful and unintended consequences. As I was preparing for tonight's meeting,
- just thinking about how if we moved people further away from, because neighborhood schools can be good
- for some people and not so good for other people, but then the reality is,
- If you're moved farther away from a school where you are living, what does that mean for transportation,
- after school supports, tutoring, all the things that you mentioned? And so I think there are so many
- things to consider. Some of the data that Board Member Parani was wondering about and just looking at
- the changes in free lunch and what that has meant so far. But I think that just goes to show the enormity of this.
- No matter what, I think we all can agree that concept of integrated schools is something that is worthy
- of our time and attention, but also thinking about what Dr. Winston was saying about our 10-year forecast
- in terms of possible declining birth rates and people leaving the community. So I think no matter what
- the reason,
- we're going to have to look at redistricting. But I think as a board, some of the key findings, we have
- yet to define clear parameters and what our non-negotiables are. And so I think that's gonna be our
- biggest challenge. But I know that it's taking us time because we need to gather this information. And
- I just would hope that people understand that
- It is gonna take patience. I know that it seems like we've been talking about this for a long time,
- but we don't want to make any decisions that could really negate the whole effort of us trying to make
- this more balanced and causing more harm to certain people. And of course, there's always going to be
- some things that are unavoidable, but I think we just need to keep having this conversation, but making
- progress towards it. But what I'm challenging us to do is really come up with
- what those parameters are, because it is difficult. So we have all these different maps that could be
- used, but until we decide exactly what it is we're trying to accomplish, that's the thing that I think
- that we really need to drill down. But I think that it's definitely worth continuing to pursue. So one
- thing I'll add on to what Dr. Wyatt just said,
- So definitely like the census block helped us, gave us the data to provide like a method for looking
- at attendance zones and things like that. You're right, as a board we haven't made like decisions or
- even know what is the percentage of the socioeconomic status we're trying to reach. I mean, I go back
- and forth. I've enjoyed reading this and reading all the comments that people have made. But I think
- as a board we have to know
- What are our clear, like, financial targets? I mean, what is the cost savings with this as well? Because,
- I mean, as you all were talking, too, about if you move students to another school, are schools going
- to close? I mean, what's the capacity of that building? All of that, too, I think is something that
- we should think about as well. I think, I mean, part of moving this conversation forward, I think, is
- even beginning to understand if
- the board is on a similar page or not in order to move the conversation forward, right? Is there enough
- will of the board to even consider continuing to think about redistricting or not, I think? And I would
- say that we should probably, existing attendance zones I think should not be treated as an inherently
- neutral position. I think that there's this thought that redistricting is like a,
- is a controversial decision. But I would argue that maintaining the kind of status quo or the districts
- as they sit is also potentially controversial, right? It is not a neutral position to say, we're just
- not going to redistrict. We will just stay as it is. The status quo is inherently sort of controversial
- as well, I think, especially when we think about the fact that we truly haven't done or engaged in true
- redistricting in
- a very, very long time, and whether or not we're solving for population density, for moving populations
- of individuals or groups, whenever you have a district that has lagged for so long in looking at their
- boundary or catchment zones, I think you're going to end up with problems. It is very clear
- from the research that we do have inequities within our catchment zones. That is clear from the data.
- And I would say that if we look at the research, it also tells us that there is not great harm that
- comes from redistricting. There might be harm from a community perspective because people have very
- sort of vastly differing opinions. But when you look at the data on
- the students themselves, they're not truly adversely affected. And some might argue that there isn't
- massive amounts of gain either in some of those studies. But I do think that when it comes to thinking
- about the reasons why we might redistrict, I think we need to get really clear
- on those things. I think, yes, SES balance is part of that. I think at this point in our MCCSE narrative,
- we know that we're in a very different fiscal position now than we were even a couple of years ago.
- And so we also need to think about things like, you know, capacity of our buildings, utilization. What
- does that look like? What does that mean? If we're going to continue to have numbers that are shrinking, I think
- the Facilities Master Plan is gonna be immensely important to these conversations. And then, yes, I
- think we probably do need to get down to some data points, like what is an acceptable or an allowable
- gap in the percentage points of free and reduced lunch between our schools? Is it 25, is it 30,
- is it 40, is it 37? Those kinds of things. What is our sort of maximum number of students that we might
- actually want to transfer, right?
- 10% is too much? Is it 5%? Is it 20%? Like, what is the maximum sort of number of students that we would
- consider transferring, right? And then what would that transfer look like? I mean, I think, I know Ross
- and I will not speak for him specifically, but I just know that he's talked in other conversations,
- even when we were sort of talking about the merger, about something like,
- you know, moving sixth grade to middle school, right? What does that do as it sort of shifts the number
- of students in our buildings, as it makes space? I don't know. I mean, I think there are lots of things
- for us to consider, but the makeup of the board has changed since we started these conversations, right?
- We've had a superintendent change. We've had multiple board member changes.
- And I am not even sure at this moment if the board, if the will of the board is to continue to move
- forward with this discussion. So I think for me, even tonight, walking away with some clarity about
- that particular issue would be progress, in my opinion. I agree. But I also kind of want to come back
- to the point you made about doing nothing is also a decision, or maintaining the status quo is also
- a decision.
- So I was also thinking about the parameters to Tiana and Erin's point about I think we're honestly since
- 2024 we've heard from the community that we need to have better parameters and in the literature they
- call it they they use the terms goals and criteria
- or at some places in the report, they say operational definitions. I heard that loud and clear, and
- just as sort of a, as a test for myself, I try to make a list of measurable criteria that could be used
- to evaluate different options. And I won't bore you with my list of criteria, but some of them overlap
- with some of the things that you all have said tonight.
- things like transportation time, cost savings, utilization. The one for me that was hard to figure out
- how to quantify was access to activities. I really, I agree that I think that's really important, the
- access to programming and activities, but I couldn't figure out how to quantify it, so it didn't make
- my list of eight, but I think we should be mindful of it. I also tried to
- plug in some sort of metrics for how would you define, if we say utilization is one of the criteria
- by which we would evaluate whether a model was successful or not, kind of what, how would you define
- a good utilization model and a bad or out of bounds? And I actually think that we have the data to start
- to set those metrics already. I plugged some in from my own
- thinking about it, but I do think that we have, I don't know if utilization, I kind of guessed on that
- one, but something like one of my criteria was annual long-term financial impact. And just knowing what
- our budget is, I just used AI.
- disclosure to figure out what would be a meaningful cost savings for a budget of our size. And so I
- was able to say like, aren't my metric for saying this has a significant financial savings would be
- greater than 3% annual savings. That was kind of my high. That's just one example. I think I do think
- that we have enough to start setting those parameters and metrics as a board now. I think we've heard
- loud and clear from the community and from the literature that
- that we need those parameters as we start to evaluate different options. I think that doing nothing
- is one of the options, but even if that's our choice, we still need some metrics for determining that
- that's a good choice. Personally, I would also like to broaden the definition of the project beyond
- redistricting. I'd be curious to know what you all think about this. Something like the term redistricting
- and restructuring,
- that might capture Ross's and others' ideas about moving sixth grade to middle school. The report considered
- things like closing schools, which I guess falls under redistricting, but honestly, I hadn't thought
- of it like that before, but didn't consider things like school mergers. It explicitly said that was
- something that they did not consider. And I would sort of like to consider all of the possibilities
- for meeting whatever the goals are that we set.
- I think a term that might be broader than redistricting would better capture that. I like also when
- April was talking about, you know, seeing where we're at as a board, I think that's important.
- Early on, I mean, I thought about it. I mean, I'm a parent too in this district and why I bought my
- house. I mean, I am a fan of neighborhood schools. I was.
- That's how I was raised too. But when I listened to them read Jacinda's end, we got the email, so I
- don't know if I'm supposed to say that, but anyhow, that email. And I studied and read a lot of those
- reports and that research that she had mentioned. And it makes sense, because I think about during my
- time, and I'm coming up on my 30-year high school reunion, fairly young still, but that's OK. And how
- our classrooms were.
- I mean, being only two, I mean, you see I'm black, two black kids in a classroom and not having other
- people that look like you or going to schools that were further away. Like some of my friends went hours
- away because they needed that integration. And if we can do something here, regardless of me, our schools
- aren't that far apart. I was thinking about it, I'm like now,
- none of the schools are that far apart. And I get it that we're looking always at free and reduced lunch.
- And I have a thing with that too, because sometimes when we think about free and reduced lunch, we don't
- think about the temporary places people are on free and reduced lunch. Because when people quit their
- jobs and have one income, they qualify for free and reduced lunch. But they were at a high threshold
- earlier. So I don't want to make assumptions just because people are on free and reduced lunch. They
- can't get their kids different places too.
- But I mean, after all this, I say, I could go on forever, I'm gonna quiet down, is that I'm more for
- redistricting than I was before. Because I was going back and forth and I've had conversations with
- board members about it, but I think it's more benefit than not. And even talking to some of my kids
- about it and helping understand where they're at. Because I mean, I told you 30 years ago I graduated,
- so it's totally different for me than it is for them.
- explaining it to them and asking questions really helped me to look at it at a different perspective
- as well. And just because we're talking about neighborhood schools, I think, you know, this has been
- one of the sort of common refrains that we've heard. It was one of the biggest resistance points when
- we, when it came to the merger. And I think, you know, one of the things that I really had hoped in
- that conversation that would be clear is that, you know, there is a, I think there's,
- distinction to be made between a school that is a neighborhood school versus a school that might be
- your very closest school assignment and those two things may not especially in a town like this right
- Templeton could very well be your neighborhood school or it could be Fairview or it could be depending
- on where you live within certain catchment zones you're on the edge of one school or another right and
- so I think
- this sort of distinction between what really is a neighborhood school, what defines it, what do people
- mean when they say that versus the closest school assignment because sometimes the closest school assignment
- was not a person's neighborhood school and yet they were talking about their assignment to their neighborhood
- school, which was not their closest school. So I think that one, there needs to be a distinction made
- between what school is closest to me versus what school I consider my neighborhood school
- And then what sort of underlies the differentiation between those two things, right? If you are closer
- to Templeton, but you consider blank school your neighborhood school, right? And I think ultimately,
- I think that became a point that was embattled for us, like the board, the community, there was a sense
- of like sort of being embattled about neighborhood schools. And I'd like for us to just maybe as we
- begin to think about this,
- You know, I wanna make it very clear that I do not think that people who favor neighborhood schools
- are always motivated by segregation or bias, whether it's implicit or explicit, right? However, what
- I will say is that the literature and the research and the data does support that neighborhood-based
- assignment
- can and does have a segregated effect, right? So however you feel about it, if you live in areas that
- are segregated, your neighborhood assignments will be segregated in their schools, right? And so if
- we can begin to sort of like pull those two things apart, like an ideological position versus just the
- sort of data demonstrates that these things are true,
- then maybe we can begin to have conversations about closest school versus neighborhood school and other
- sorts of things. And then also, as you pointed out, in a town this size, we're not talking about Louisville.
- We're not talking about busing across enormous distances, right? And so I think that's just another
- thing for us to really consider when we think about redistricting and the time and access. I think that
- we have greater ability to mitigate some of those things than
- districts like Louisville or something else right and I think that we have to also keep in mind as well
- when we're when and if we get to a point of considering maps of of recognizing that redlining did happen
- here in this community and as as such we have pockets where
- we can draw a map and it can still stay the same because of that. And so just thinking through all of
- those things and which neighborhoods had those racial restriction covenants in their deeds and all of
- those things, because we can look at the GIS. However, we have to keep that in mind as well as we're
- looking through and fully recognizing that a certain groups of people were not allowed in those spaces.
- and as such did not get to have that generational wealth and now they can't get in those places because
- of this. So I think we have to consider that in tandem with everything else. I like the idea of talking
- about parameters too, because thinking about how many, because even with the merger, I wasn't on the
- board, but the Templeton Childs merger, a lot of people just transferred out of those schools so they
- wouldn't be affected.
- If we're going to redistrict, make sure it's doing what we want it to do. So I think that's a good parameter.
- I think that's right. I think one of mine was like the percentage. And I did for what it's worth. I
- know that the report had these community considerations that they wanted us to take into account. And
- I think it's important to do this with community buy in. So for me personally, I
- used all the community considerations in my list of criteria, I might weight them slightly less. So
- for example, I had socioeconomic status as weighted at 20% and neighborhood schools weighted at 5%.
- But I would still take it into consideration. I also, one of the things that I found
- might be missing in the report, and maybe this would require more community feedback, is that I don't
- necessarily see operational definitions for those things. So for neighborhood schools, for example,
- there was one place where it was referred to as median distance from the student's residence to their
- assigned school, which I think might be
- how they're defining neighborhood schools. But I didn't necessarily see parameters for that. If neighborhood
- schools are important to someone, how far is too far from their home for them to consider that a neighborhood
- school? I think we would either need to go back to the community to ask them to define those parameters
- or imagine parameters for ourselves if we were willing to take those into consideration. Which for myself, I would
- take those things into consideration. I also had the percentage of students reassigned. I think that
- was something else that was important to the community members that sat on the commission. That also
- is something, actually we did that one 10%. That is also something I would consider as we evaluated
- different options for change, even though I personally would still weight the board's priorities higher,
- but I still
- I want to take those things into consideration. I think to April's point, I think that it's kind of,
- more specifically, defining those parameters is very necessary at this point. And as the commissioner
- pointed out,
- There were some places where there were no parameters in place. So we were completely unable to look
- at those type of impacts. But I think that that is a good starting point. Being more specific in the
- definition of the parameters. That way, when we're looking at the maps,
- We're looking at specific impacts and being able to kind of really delve into the reality of something.
- Right now, I feel like we have a lot of possibilities. And I think some are good. But yeah, being able
- to come together as a group
- Well, as April said, it would be good to know where folks stand.
- Is everyone prepared to say where they stand currently on this topic to know if we have a go forward
- strategy either to begin the go forward strategy to start looking at this further or if it's not something
- we want to pursue and then what those parameters look like in terms of
- creating why we don't think that it is. I think and I'm just from hearing it sounds to me like at least
- there's enough interest to consider moving forward with creating and thinking through what parameters
- look like and and because I think we can't really there's not a lot that we can task the administration
- with until we begin to define those parameters right so thinking about
- You know, right now, if we look at our numbers based on, and that is why earlier I said, I know our
- free and reduced lunch rates are not telling the whole story right now because they're sort of very
- narrowly defined at this moment and because of some of the changes that have been made, right? So right
- now it shows a gap in our school district of 47% from the highest to the lowest. That is much different
- than we've had in the past, right? And so it would be like, you know,
- What is the sort of maximum allowable gap? What are, so we, and even like what are the parameters that
- we, is it those eight? Is it something else? Like what are the things? I think that that is probably
- a task for us to do in like a working session. Like we would need a work session to do that, right?
- I don't think we're gonna get to those things today. So I don't know, I mean, how, yeah, so to answer,
- Ashley's question person, if that's okay, April, then I'll kind of circle back to maybe what our options
- are from here. My position is that some kind of redistricting, reorganization, or restructuring
- is inevitable. Even if we were willing to say socioeconomic balance is not part of our criteria,
- even if cost-effectiveness alone were our only criteria, which I don't think it should be, but even
- if that were it, I think this report said that our current utilization rate is 69% across the corporation,
- and at the industry standard it is 85. So even if we were only talking about redistricting, reorganization,
- and restructuring to adjust for declining enrollment and financial realities, I personally think it's
- inevitable. So the way I would answer the question is,
- If the question is, do we move forward with defining parameters and applying those parameters or metrics
- to options for change, my answer to that would be yes. I am on board with that. Same. I agree. I already
- stated it. Just confirming. I agree, though. But definitely, I mean, that's what I was thinking.
- Oh, thanks, Diana. I've been thinking about it for a long time. So I think that in the past, we have
- sometimes made small task forces to bring something back to the board, whether that's a resolution or,
- and it could be a working resolution that we take friendly amendments to. Could we talk about that in
- a working session? Could we talk about parameters for this? The board, yeah. Yeah, OK. So we could also
- have a working session with the full board
- Um, I think the latter would be my perspective to have the full board in a working session on this topic
- only because I feel like we do get siloed so often as a result of indoor law, et cetera, et cetera.
- I'm less interested in a resolution at this moment and more interested in just getting together to sort
- of hammer out some of those things to see where we land. I would be on board with that as well. I agree.
- Doing the work, a resolution, you know, so.
- I would be in agreement with April. Can we just request that, that we have a working session to set
- these parameters? I'd like to formally request that of whoever. I will formally direct you to schedule.
- Should we vote? All right, I'm going to take a vote.
- 100% sure we need to, but let's. Well, then I think we have to make a motion. OK. But I don't think
- it has to be just to set a working session. I just need a collective directive from the board as the
- entity. Yes. Yes. Does anyone not want Dr. Winston to organize a working session? Will there be food?
- Just kidding. Kid. Kid. Hearing no objections, I feel comfortable saying that the board would like you
- to request you to organize a working session for us, please, to discuss parameters for redistricting,
- reorganization, or restructuring. Ahead of that, can I ask one more question? And this is something
- that probably I don't know that there's an answer to this right now. But when we think about per pupil
- cost allocations by building, so we always have cost x amount to educate a student at this building
- versus this building.
- Can we, can we maybe have a little bit more information on the sort of breakdown of why and how those
- things come to be in the sense that like, is, and I guess, I don't know, I suppose there probably are
- transportation costs and things like that already folded into that. Is that true? Like when you think
- about per people costs per school? Yes. Okay.
- So I'm going to think about this question. But I have a question about this particular data that I'm
- not quite sure I know how to articulate yet, but it's going to come. So. President Cooberman, may I
- just kind of clarify what I jotted down in terms of my understanding of the directive? Yes, please.
- You would like me to organize a work session to establish parameters that would allow us to examine
- redistricting, reorganization, and or restructuring.
- That's the collective, not you, but I just want to make sure I capture that. Anyone want to amend that?
- That's accurate, Dr. Winston. Thank you. Thank you. Any last thoughts before we close out this conversation?
- I just want to say thank you to the board for doing the homework on this and coming prepared to share
- your comments. I know there was a lot for us to read and think through, and I really appreciate that
- everybody came to the table tonight with both a willingness to share and the background to do that.
- Thank you. I think that was a productive discussion. Next, we will have an update on the policy task
- force from Board Member Hennessy.
- Thank you, President Cooperman. So the Policy Task Force is a recently organized task force. And essentially,
- it consists of myself, board member Jester, and board member Arouge. Arouge. It's fine. You're good.
- I really can't hear what you said, but it's good. Oh, you're so pitiful over there. But I think we have
- just started to look at all of our policies.
- body of our policies has not been reviewed since probably 2012, so almost 15 years at this point. Barring
- the additions, addendums, and edits that come based on state legislature and other things that come
- up. Obviously, we are not entirely legal experts, so we are not pretending to be that, but we are just
- reviewing our policies to ensure that
- There aren't conflicts or things that are outdated, things that might need to be sort of stripped because
- something no longer exists in that way. And so we are doing a thorough review. We've met twice since
- our last board meeting, once to kind of set up what our working time will look like. And the second
- time to begin going over some of our reviews.
- Our goal really is to take chunks of our policies. And essentially, if there's something that does need
- to be revised, reviewed, or taken up by this board, we will bring back those policies to the board with
- sort of policy revisions made. So for a first reading potentially, that way we can then have discussion,
- comments, and whatever else needs to happen as a result of that.
- We do know that we have access to ISBA and their policy consultants and legal team. And so we will consult
- with them along the way if there are things that are confusing to us or that are, you know, we just
- need some legal guidance on, but otherwise we intend to continue to do the work as a team and bring
- that stuff back to you all. We are currently working our way through the 0000 and the 1000s.
- And we will likely have some policies next time for revision, mostly based on things that are either
- redundant and or, you know, there's two conflicting policies and one needs to be sort of integrated
- as the primary. Any questions?
- April, is there the opportunity if a board member that's not on the task force would like you to look
- at a specific policy? Is that an option? Absolutely. I mean, we plan to look at all of them. So if there's
- something that you find and you want to flag, please do send it over to us. I think at the end of our
- work, once we've reviewed everything in total, we may also have recommendations of things that potentially
- don't exist that we think should exist.
- And so those would be different kinds of conversations that I think this board could have. Thank you,
- April. And next on our agenda is the superintendent comments and report. Do you have any additional
- information to share with us tonight, Dr. Winston? Yes, I have a couple.
- So we are pleased to announce that music teacher Lisa Voss of Grandview Elementary School has been recognized
- in the top 25, 2027 Indiana teachers of the year. So we're very excited for her. For more than 60 years,
- this program has worked to inspire, rejuvenate and celebrate the teaching profession by recognizing
- outstanding teachers from across the state. We are so honored to have such an excellent teacher in our
- midst from Grandview Elementary. Congratulations to Lisa.
- In the communications area, we have a number of updates. There are several publications that are being
- released soon. The first is the MCCSE Expect Excellence in Education View Book that's on the table in
- front of every board member. So we're very excited about this publication. This is part of our continued
- effort to promote our schools and the hundreds of offerings that are available to all of our students.
- This new publication will be shared far and wide throughout our community.
- It will be our singular publication that covers pre-K through adult education with numerous examples
- of excellence in our schools. When viewing this new publication, you will see more exemplars of the
- amazing experiences provided to our students. And I believe it's online and available now online on
- the website. Okay, soon will be online. In addition,
- We are soon to finish our second annual MCCSE newspaper that will be distributed to our families and
- the larger Bloomington community in the next few weeks. This issue looks to be even more informative
- and impactful than our inaugural edition last fall. We are so pleased with the local businesses who
- generously donated to support the MCCSE newspaper. We plan to have our newspapers in circulation around
- the Labor Day holiday.
- We recorded our second MCCSE School Voices podcast last week. In this podcast, we celebrated and recognized
- the impact of our early childhood program through the eyes of one of our early childhood teachers and
- a guest parent, and we also had our music teacher of the year, Lisa Voss, present. If you haven't added
- MCCSE School Voices to your podcast list yet, I encourage you to do so. You can find it on Apple Podcasts,
- as well as other platforms,
- or wherever you get your podcast. Isn't that how they say it? And the final communication update that
- I want to share is our CFO corner. Beginning in September, Mr. Irwin is going to be highlighted in our
- CFO corner, which will be brief video updates on school funding matters. It's our intention to align
- these videos with some of our podcast content as well. And I will have him as a guest
- on one of my upcoming podcast episodes. It's my hope that the coordination of our podcasts and videos
- will heighten our community's understanding of what we do and why we do it and how we pay for it. Stay
- tuned for more exciting updates on this. Student athletes. Our fall student athletes are in full competition
- mode. Last Monday, we had a ribbon cutting ceremony for the North Soccer Field and Athletic Complex,
- and then we watched our students compete.
- North and South football had their Crosstown rivalry game last Friday. Kudos and congratulations to
- South. During halftime, we recognize the Bloomington North High School Boys track team for their 2026
- Indiana High School Athletic Association state championship. There are so many more games being played
- across our corporation. I encourage our families and the community to find time to support the excellence
- of our student athletes and attend a game, match or tournament this school year.
- And finally, I want to provide an important update on an important matter. President Cooperman, board
- trustees, and members of our community, I would like to take a few minutes to provide some clarity regarding
- the proposed changes to policy 8910 and my decision to withdraw that recommendation a couple of weeks
- ago. There's been some misunderstanding about the intent behind the recommendation, and I do believe
- it is very important to correct the record. First and most importantly,
- The recommendation was not an effort to eliminate or reduce AFSCME bargaining rights. It was not intended
- to diminish AFSCME or its leadership, and it was in no way intended to support or replicate the actions
- of the Indiana General Assembly that have reduced the scope of teacher bargaining rights. Nothing could
- be further from our intent. The recommendation came from our genuine effort to better understand the
- differences in our existing bargaining processes and, from a management perspective,
- to clarify what appropriately belongs in a collective bargaining agreement. In particular, we were seeking
- to remove management and operational language from the bargaining agreement and establish clear boundaries
- around matters that are appropriately the responsibility of management. Prior to the July board meeting,
- members of my team met with local AFSCME leadership to discuss the proposed resolution and changes to
- policy 8910. Based upon that conversation, we believed the intent and rationale
- for the recommendation were understood and that there was a general understanding and support of the
- proposed changes. At the July board meeting, however, it became clear to us that we had not achieved
- the level of shared understanding that we believed we had. I also used the terms parity and equity when
- describing the recommendation. I now understand that those words were interpreted very differently from
- what I intended.
- particularly in the context of changes to teacher bargaining rights at the state level. I understand
- why that created significant concern. Our intent was not to reduce rights and our recommendation was
- not connected to actions regarding teacher bargaining rights. I regret that we did not make that distinction
- sufficiently clear. I also want to acknowledge directly that the process moved too quickly. We did not
- take the sufficient time
- to fully understand the perspectives of our labor partners before bringing the recommendation forward.
- As superintendent, I alone take full responsibility for that. Following the July meeting, members of
- my team met with AFSCME leadership to listen and better understand their concerns and their perspective.
- I, too, spoke with local and state leadership.
- Those conversations gave me a much richer and deeper understanding of how the recommendation was being
- perceived and why there was such a strong reaction to it. I regret all of that. Leadership requires
- us to listen when we learn that our intent has not been understood as we intended it. After considering
- those perspectives, I have concluded that withdrawing the recommendation was in fact the appropriate action.
- So I want to leave the board and our community with three simple points. First, this was never an effort
- to take bargaining rights away from AFSCME. Second, it was never intended to support or replicate the
- state's reduction of teacher bargaining rights. And third, the management objective was to clarify bargaining
- boundaries and remove management and operational language from the agreement. I acknowledge that we
- did not communicate clearly enough and we moved far too quickly in bringing the recommendation
- forward. I own that. I have listened. I have gained a better understanding of the concerns that were
- raised, and I do believe that withdrawing the recommendation was and is the right thing to do. I value
- our relationship with AFSCME. I respect our employees and their representatives, and I remain committed
- to open, respectful, and productive labor relations throughout MCCSC. Thank you very much for affording
- me this opportunity
- to clear the record. Thank you Dr. Winston. Are there comments from the board? Thank you for allowing
- this moment. I just want to say that you know there are these moments when things happen right and and
- I sort of I watch both from my position as a board member and from my position as a community member
- And I just want to say, I mean, it sometimes is frustrating to see the rate at which the backlash comes
- without sometimes full understanding. And I think that those moments are important because they allow
- for us to sort of take stock
- and to pivot or to change. All of this to say, really, I just want to say that this is a moment of true
- leadership from Dr. Winston and from her administrative team. And I think that I hope that when we walk
- away from this tonight, that what the community sees and what the community hears is a leader
- who truly did listen to the responses in the room, the responses from her board members, the responses
- from her community members, and she pivoted, right? And so I just want to say with, you know, I have
- such great respect for you, Dr. Winston, and for your administrative team, and I think that there was
- never any malicious intent here. I think that there were a lot of wires that got crossed, unfortunately,
- And as you said, and I just I just want to take a minute to say thank you for the statement for the
- work that you did on the heels of that incident and for the decision that you came to. Thank you. I
- appreciate that. Yeah, I just want to echo this is definitely a sign of a great leader. So thank you.
- Absolutely. I appreciate your open mind and your open heart and your accountability. And I just think
- this is just another
- good great leader you are thank you very kind and very generous all of you and I think it was the right
- choice and like the rest of the board I appreciate your reflection on this thank you are there any other
- comments from the board on anything that happened tonight or otherwise I
- Seconds out. Temperature check in the future. It is very cold in here. Also, there's that. OK. The next
- regularly scheduled board meeting will be held on Tuesday, September 26. We are, yeah, 2026. I'm not
- doing numbers anymore tonight. We are adjourned. Thank you.