WEBVTT 00:00:00.322 --> 00:00:21.054 - Welcome to the August 25th, 2026 meeting of the MCCSE Board of Trustees. 00:00:32.258 --> 00:00:40.798 - We ask that you come to order. I will drink water later. Tonight, we begin with the excellence spotlight 00:00:40.798 --> 00:00:49.663 - in celebration of excellence in our school community. Ms. Harmon. Thank you. Thank you, President Kinberman, 00:00:49.663 --> 00:00:52.510 - Dr. Winston, members of the board. 00:00:53.666 --> 00:00:59.221 - It's my privilege to present the August Excellence Spotlight. This monthly recognition is a standing 00:00:59.221 --> 00:01:04.941 - feature of each regular board meeting and serves as a dedicated moment to honor individuals whose daily 00:01:04.941 --> 00:01:10.001 - contributions exemplify the mission, vision, and core values of the Monroe County Community 00:01:10.001 --> 00:01:16.051 - School Corporation. First, I'd like to recognize Josh Willis, Clear Creek, who serves Clear Creek, Arlington, 00:01:16.051 --> 00:01:20.286 - and Marlin, and he provides exceptional support across those three campuses. 00:01:20.866 --> 00:01:26.823 - where he serves as the physical education teacher. He brings professionalism, composure, and a consistently 00:01:26.823 --> 00:01:32.504 - welcoming presence to every building he supports. His ability to collaborate seamlessly with staff and 00:01:32.504 --> 00:01:38.020 - students paired with his steady and positive demeanor strengthens each school community. Thank you, 00:01:38.020 --> 00:01:41.054 - Josh. I believe he's here. Is that right? There, yeah. 00:01:46.562 --> 00:01:53.598 - Next, I'd like to recognize the Tri-North Trojan Ambassadors. They are eighth grade student leaders 00:01:53.598 --> 00:02:00.985 - who mentor and support seventh graders through Trojan transition and Trojan time. Guided by Haley Morris 00:02:00.985 --> 00:02:08.161 - and Morgan Terry and built on the foundation established by Maria Cusis, the ambassadors help younger 00:02:08.161 --> 00:02:13.790 - students build confidence, connections, and an understanding of the armor code. 00:02:14.178 --> 00:02:19.613 - Their work strengthens school culture and develops future student leaders, making them deserving recipients 00:02:19.613 --> 00:02:24.947 - of an excellent spotlight. We're proud to recognize both Josh Willis and the Tri-North Trojan Ambassadors 00:02:24.947 --> 00:02:29.979 - as the August 2026 Excellent Spotlight Honorees, their exemplary service and commitment elevate our 00:02:29.979 --> 00:02:34.206 - schools and enrich the experience of the students and families we serve. Thank you. 00:02:42.530 --> 00:02:46.971 - Thank you, Ms. Harmon, and congratulations to all those who were recognized tonight. And now, if we 00:02:46.971 --> 00:02:51.102 - could have the recipients that are here come down to the front, we'd like to take a picture. 00:04:01.506 --> 00:04:11.041 - like we need to have like jokes to tell during this time or like something to break the ice. Some music, 00:04:11.041 --> 00:04:20.213 - a little music. I think there's a... Somebody can pull out a bad dad joke. All right I want to again 00:04:20.213 --> 00:04:29.022 - thank the recipients for coming and as always we won't be offended if they take this opportunity 00:04:29.186 --> 00:04:36.565 - to leave, although you are, of course, also welcome to stay. We will now receive our quarterly update 00:04:36.565 --> 00:04:44.161 - on the activities of the MCCSE Foundation from Mrs. Helm. The foundation, she's not here, I didn't think 00:04:44.161 --> 00:04:51.612 - so. We're gonna skip the foundation update. Next, we will have public comment. Thank you for all those 00:04:51.612 --> 00:04:57.182 - who signed up and acknowledged the guidelines to speak to the board tonight. 00:04:57.986 --> 00:05:08.981 - As a reminder, Mrs. Butcher will ring the bell once to signal that you have 30 seconds remaining for 00:05:08.981 --> 00:05:20.412 - your comments and five bells to signal that your time has concluded. The first speaker tonight is Linnea 00:05:20.412 --> 00:05:24.222 - Amy. Hello, my name is Linnea Amy. 00:05:24.386 --> 00:05:30.346 - And I, along with Cynthia Port and Amy Jackson, will be reading for the board a letter written by Brown 00:05:30.346 --> 00:05:36.077 - University professor, former MCCSE board member and parent, Jacinda Townsend, who could not be here 00:05:36.077 --> 00:05:41.923 - this evening. Once you love MCCSE, you'll always want the best for it. And so as a former MCCSE board 00:05:41.923 --> 00:05:47.654 - trustee, I write to you as you continue to consider the much delayed redistricting that has been on 00:05:47.654 --> 00:05:51.838 - the table since before my children even entered the corporation in 2011. 00:05:52.482 --> 00:05:58.306 - I write to you as well as a current board member of Integrated Schools, a national organization whose 00:05:58.306 --> 00:06:04.187 - mission is to foster racially and socioeconomically integrated school communities, and as former board 00:06:04.187 --> 00:06:09.897 - president of the Ann Arbor Public Schools, where successful attempts at equity included the kind of 00:06:09.897 --> 00:06:16.177 - school merger that MCCSE affected in the Child's Templeton consolidation and in copious use of inter-district 00:06:16.177 --> 00:06:20.574 - transfers. As many of you are well aware, school integration peaked in 1987. 00:06:20.674 --> 00:06:27.021 - and is now horrifyingly at pre-Brown versus Board of Education levels. A common narrative used by school 00:06:27.021 --> 00:06:33.307 - segregationists is that school segregation follows housing segregation. But in fact, if we look at data 00:06:33.307 --> 00:06:39.411 - and research, we find the opposite. Housing segregation follows school segregation and not the other 00:06:39.411 --> 00:06:45.516 - way around. Seattle and Louisville are great examples of this. As those school districts became more 00:06:45.516 --> 00:06:47.934 - integrated, so did residential housing. 00:06:48.450 --> 00:06:55.053 - as white wealthy parents sued Jefferson County public schools over and over again, making JCPS effectively 00:06:55.053 --> 00:07:01.409 - abandon its 50-year effort to remain desegregated several years ago, the city of Louisville has become 00:07:01.409 --> 00:07:07.642 - wildly resegregated. To say that Bloomington needs to solve its wealth disparity issues before MCCSC 00:07:07.642 --> 00:07:14.430 - does is to ignore data such as that written about by Philip Teagler and Michael Hilton, who write that quote, 00:07:14.850 --> 00:07:21.014 - School district boundaries and school assignment policies are key drivers of residential segregation. 00:07:21.014 --> 00:07:27.057 - School boundary lines sort families by race and class, becoming a key factor in residential choices 00:07:27.057 --> 00:07:33.100 - and a priority for white policymakers seeking to preserve the segregated status quo." End quote. We 00:07:33.100 --> 00:07:39.324 - all know that a prospective buyer can, in two clicks on Zillow, determine what school district a house 00:07:39.324 --> 00:07:44.158 - is zoned for. We all know how this works. Please don't let this be your excuse. 00:07:44.290 --> 00:07:52.494 - It is a false one. Our next speaker is Cynthia Port. I've also heard this excuse, that some children 00:07:52.494 --> 00:08:00.048 - won't be comfortable with other children, that some children might be ashamed of their shoes 00:08:00.048 --> 00:08:08.170 - in a socioeconomically integrated setting. This came right out of the mouth of a former trustee, or 00:08:08.170 --> 00:08:10.526 - that some children might not 00:08:11.618 --> 00:08:18.496 - might not invite the less wealthy children or children of color to their birthday parties straight out 00:08:18.496 --> 00:08:25.241 - of the mouth of a former superintendent. That the burden of school integration shouldn't rest on the 00:08:25.241 --> 00:08:31.919 - shoulders of people who, quote, are being constantly told what to do, unquote. To which I say this, 00:08:31.919 --> 00:08:39.198 - tell that to Thurgood Marshall. Tell that to Ruby Bridges. Tell that to anyone in my generation who endured. 00:08:39.650 --> 00:08:45.644 - As someone who was the only black kid in her school for two years, I'm going to tell you that I don't 00:08:45.644 --> 00:08:52.049 - remember at this point whose birthday party I went to. What I remember is that I got the same good education 00:08:52.049 --> 00:08:58.219 - as other children. What I remember is that I have never not ever felt that my intellectual needs weren't 00:08:58.219 --> 00:09:04.213 - being addressed and challenged in a school. What I know is that I'm well educated enough to know that 00:09:04.213 --> 00:09:06.270 - this particular objection is bull. 00:09:07.682 --> 00:09:13.611 - To point to tiny social issues in all this is to deny that the most important thing a school does is 00:09:13.611 --> 00:09:19.717 - prepare a child for their future. No child in year 12 is going to care what kind of shoes another child 00:09:19.717 --> 00:09:25.822 - was wearing. They're going to care whether they're doing math at grade level and whether they're headed 00:09:25.822 --> 00:09:31.399 - to college. Which brings me to another objection segregationists love to present when opposing 00:09:31.399 --> 00:09:33.630 - socioeconomically integrated schools. 00:09:34.178 --> 00:09:40.689 - The idea that Title I schools are special sites of assistance for under-resourced children. I present 00:09:40.689 --> 00:09:47.136 - to you more from Philip Teigler, executive director of the Poverty and Race Research Action Council, 00:09:47.136 --> 00:09:53.646 - who writes of the way, quote, progressive state legislatures have generally bypassed desegregation in 00:09:53.646 --> 00:09:59.838 - favor of compensatory funding for districts with greater student need and lower property wealth. 00:10:00.546 --> 00:10:06.945 - Teegler suggests that these funding systems support segregation and penalize districts that attempt 00:10:06.945 --> 00:10:13.536 - to de-concentrate poverty, and all herein put it in starker terms than that. Title I schools shouldn't 00:10:13.536 --> 00:10:19.935 - even exist. They are built to fail. They're a way of concentrating children into public outposts of 00:10:19.935 --> 00:10:26.335 - poverty. They're a way for bottle recycling Prius drivers to say, well, we gave them extra teachers 00:10:26.335 --> 00:10:30.110 - and they still can't learn. Rather than integrate schools, 00:10:30.370 --> 00:10:38.027 - so that there aren't 25 students in a class of 30 who are still sounding out the alphabet in second 00:10:38.027 --> 00:10:45.683 - grade. And next we have Amy Jackson. Tagler and Hilton also write of the racial and economic makeup 00:10:45.683 --> 00:10:53.034 - of public schools having, quote, a profound intergenerational effect on residential segregation 00:10:53.034 --> 00:10:59.006 - or integration by affecting students' academic outcomes and career prospects. 00:10:59.362 --> 00:11:05.780 - their interracial attitudes, and their desire to live and work in integrated settings as adults," unquote. 00:11:05.780 --> 00:11:11.899 - And in my work on the Board of Integrated Schools, I hold that sentence near and dear to my heart. As 00:11:11.899 --> 00:11:18.197 - someone who graduated high school in 1988, I am a beneficiary of peak integration. My high school, which 00:11:18.197 --> 00:11:24.435 - we used to refer to as a county consolidated, was the biggest in the state. My neighbor drove a Porsche 00:11:24.435 --> 00:11:28.574 - to school. We were friends with kids who lived in Section 8 housing. 00:11:29.538 --> 00:11:35.488 - There were kids whose parents were engineers and kids who shoveled manure in the mornings. Everyone 00:11:35.488 --> 00:11:41.855 - was at that high school and everyone got to be in community with everyone else. There was little division. 00:11:41.855 --> 00:11:47.805 - We all rub shoulders. It is something I've been able to carry with me in life that I've found to be 00:11:47.805 --> 00:11:54.231 - unique. The ability to be comfortable with just about anyone of any religion or race from any socioeconomic 00:11:54.231 --> 00:11:55.838 - background in any country. 00:11:56.770 --> 00:12:02.742 - In fact, the only environments I'm not comfortable in as an adult are the ones that aren't racially 00:12:02.742 --> 00:12:08.834 - and socially integrated. We lost our way on this as our country became more diverse on a macro level, 00:12:08.834 --> 00:12:15.104 - but just as segregated at the level of community. And that's why the pendulum has swung into this really 00:12:15.104 --> 00:12:21.076 - dark air. But friends, you only have to maintain your part of the fence. MCCFC is a beloved part of 00:12:21.076 --> 00:12:26.750 - the fence for me. I know Bloomington is a place where people are trying to do the right thing, 00:12:27.298 --> 00:12:34.961 - trying to be the brightest light in that Indiana torch of stars. I urge you to consider this while making 00:12:34.961 --> 00:12:42.406 - decisions about redistricting. Jacinda Townsend. Thank you to everyone for their comments tonight. And 00:12:42.406 --> 00:12:49.635 - I'd personally add in absentia, thank you to our former colleague, Jacinda Townsend for writing in. 00:12:49.635 --> 00:12:52.382 - We now move on to the consent agenda. 00:12:52.962 --> 00:13:00.617 - For our consideration, the consent agenda includes the following. Memorandum from the executive session 00:13:00.617 --> 00:13:08.198 - and minutes from the board meeting held on July 28th, 2026. Financial report, July 2026. Appropriation 00:13:08.198 --> 00:13:15.780 - balance report, July 2026. Register of claims, August 25th, 2026. Payroll register and payroll claims, 00:13:15.780 --> 00:13:22.110 - July 2026. Request to declare as surplus an authorized disposal of out of date items. 00:13:22.626 --> 00:13:30.715 - Do I have a motion regarding the approval of the consent agenda? So moved. Do I have a second? Second. 00:13:30.715 --> 00:13:38.647 - It's been moved by Ashley and seconded by Tiana that we approve the consent agenda as presented. All 00:13:38.647 --> 00:13:47.129 - those in favor of approving the consent agenda signify by saying aye. Aye. Any against say no. Abstentions. 00:13:47.129 --> 00:13:51.998 - Motion carries. Next for our consideration are the donations. 00:13:52.226 --> 00:13:59.783 - We have received over $41,000 in donations. Thank you to all of our donors. Your generosity is greatly 00:13:59.783 --> 00:14:07.120 - appreciated. Do I have a motion to accept the donations? So moved. Do I have a second? Second. It's 00:14:07.120 --> 00:14:14.456 - been moved by April and seconded by Erin Wyatt that we accept the donations as presented. All those 00:14:14.456 --> 00:14:20.766 - in favor of approving the donations signify by saying aye. Aye. Aye. Against, say no. 00:14:22.178 --> 00:14:31.853 - Any abstentions? The motion carries. Now on to new business. We'll begin with the personnel report. 00:14:31.853 --> 00:14:41.721 - For our consideration is the personnel reports. Do I have a motion to approve the personnel report as 00:14:41.721 --> 00:14:46.462 - presented? So moved. Do I have a second? Second. 00:14:47.234 --> 00:14:53.070 - It's been moved by Ashley and seconded by April that we approve the personnel report as presented. Dr. 00:14:53.070 --> 00:14:58.793 - Henderson. Thank you, President Cooperman, Dr. Winston, and members of the Board of School Trustees. 00:14:58.793 --> 00:15:04.686 - This evening, I would like to call your attention to the following administrative appointments, changes 00:15:04.686 --> 00:15:10.352 - of status, and retirements. Thomas Henderson is joining MCCSC after serving as a strength coach for 00:15:10.352 --> 00:15:15.678 - Indiana University Health. Thomas holds a master's degree in sports leadership and will serve 00:15:15.810 --> 00:15:22.357 - both as a physical education teacher and an assistant athletic director at Bloomington High School South. 00:15:22.357 --> 00:15:28.842 - In addition, Jacqueline Casebeer, her position is changing from assistant principal halftime at Highland 00:15:28.842 --> 00:15:35.142 - Park Elementary School and halftime at Templeton Elementary School to assistant principal halftime at 00:15:35.142 --> 00:15:38.910 - Templeton Elementary School and halftime at IM MCCSC online. 00:15:40.226 --> 00:15:46.084 - We also have a couple of certified staff changes of status that I'd like to draw your attention to this 00:15:46.084 --> 00:15:52.112 - evening, and we'll have an opportunity to introduce those folks to you following approval of the personnel 00:15:52.112 --> 00:15:57.970 - report this evening. Christopher Herz continues with MCCSC after serving the corporation as the strings 00:15:57.970 --> 00:16:03.716 - coordinator. Christopher holds a master's degree in violin and arts leadership from the University of 00:16:03.716 --> 00:16:08.222 - Rochester, and he will serve as the assistant director of orchestras for MCCSC. 00:16:09.698 --> 00:16:15.735 - and also Marianne Ritter. Marianne Ritter continues with MCCSC after serving the corporation as a strings 00:16:15.735 --> 00:16:21.659 - teacher at Bachelor Middle School. Marianne holds a bachelor's degree in music education and a master's 00:16:21.659 --> 00:16:27.126 - degree in secondary education from Indiana University, and she will serve as the MCCSC director 00:16:27.126 --> 00:16:33.050 - of orchestras. And finally this evening, I want to call your attention to one support staff retirement, 00:16:33.050 --> 00:16:36.638 - Laura Massey, who has most recently served as a preventionist, 00:16:36.866 --> 00:16:43.416 - at Benford Elementary School is retiring after 37 years of dedicated service to MCCSC. On behalf of 00:16:43.416 --> 00:16:50.162 - MCCSC, I'd like to extend a special thank you for Laura's many years of dedicated service and wish her 00:16:50.162 --> 00:16:56.712 - well in her next adventures. At this time, I request that you please approve the recommendations as 00:16:56.712 --> 00:17:03.590 - presented in your board packet in the personnel report. Thank you, Dr. Henderson. Do I have any comments 00:17:03.590 --> 00:17:04.638 - from the board? 00:17:13.346 --> 00:17:21.684 - The congratulations especially to our retirees. Did you say 37 years? Thank you Is there anyone here 00:17:21.684 --> 00:17:29.940 - tonight that you wanted to give time to Following the approval of personnel report. I would like to 00:17:29.940 --> 00:17:38.196 - introduce our assistant orchestra director and our orchestra director Do I have a motion to approve 00:17:38.196 --> 00:17:42.654 - the personnel report I think we did that. Thanks guys 00:17:43.010 --> 00:17:49.995 - It's a team effort tonight. All those in favor of approving the personnel report signify by saying aye. 00:17:49.995 --> 00:17:56.912 - Aye. Any against say no. Any abstentions. Motion carries. Thank you again President Cooperman. At this 00:17:56.912 --> 00:18:03.628 - time I'd like to invite Christopher Hurst our new assistant director of orchestras up to the podium 00:18:03.628 --> 00:18:06.046 - to say a couple words to the board. 00:18:15.874 --> 00:18:24.159 - evening members of the board and first thank you all so much for of course your dedication and support 00:18:24.159 --> 00:18:32.282 - of the orchestra program it's been an absolute honor to first teach in the beginning strings program 00:18:32.282 --> 00:18:40.889 - as part of our elementary strings program starting back in 2021 and last year being hired as the assistant 00:18:40.889 --> 00:18:44.830 - orchestra director and now assistant director of 00:18:45.122 --> 00:18:54.107 - with different responsibilities. I'm really honored and privileged to be serving our students musical 00:18:54.107 --> 00:19:03.268 - journeys and really excited for the opportunities going forward. Thank you so much. Thank you. Finally, 00:19:03.268 --> 00:19:12.076 - I'd like to invite Mary Ann Ritter up to the podium, our Orchestra Director. Good evening. I'd like 00:19:12.076 --> 00:19:14.014 - to thank Dr. Winston, 00:19:14.146 --> 00:19:21.307 - and President Cooperman and members of the board tonight for this opportunity. The MCCSC orchestra program 00:19:21.307 --> 00:19:28.402 - has a long history of success and I look forward to being a part of that and also seeing what new heights 00:19:28.402 --> 00:19:35.429 - we can reach in the future. Thank you again and I hope to see all of you at a concert this year. Thanks. 00:19:35.429 --> 00:19:41.118 - Thank you and congratulations to both of you. Next we will move on to the contracts. 00:19:41.570 --> 00:19:47.994 - Do I have a motion to approve the contracts and quotes as presented? Do I have a second? Second. It's 00:19:47.994 --> 00:19:54.354 - been moved by Ashley and seconded by Asia that we approve the contracts and quotes as presented. Mr. 00:19:54.354 --> 00:20:00.778 - Irwin. Thank you, President Cooperman. I have three specific agreements for tonight that I do want to 00:20:00.778 --> 00:20:07.202 - highlight. The first one is CBRE listing agreement. I provided background information on that listing 00:20:07.202 --> 00:20:09.406 - agreement for facilitating the use 00:20:09.858 --> 00:20:16.187 - are facilitating the sale of the old Herald Times building because I felt like it was important information 00:20:16.187 --> 00:20:22.164 - for everyone to know as as to why they were chosen for that for that endeavor. Not only did they meet 00:20:22.164 --> 00:20:28.024 - our RFQP requirements, but they have the resources and the connections to help us with this type of 00:20:28.024 --> 00:20:33.943 - property with selling it. They've done business here locally successfully, and we're excited to have 00:20:33.943 --> 00:20:36.990 - a quality group helping us with with this endeavor. 00:20:37.506 --> 00:20:43.075 - Another one that I want to highlight is our CSO agreement, a familiar and trusted partner of the MCCSC, 00:20:43.075 --> 00:20:48.431 - but also well-respected and established across Indiana. They were recommended after a very thorough 00:20:48.431 --> 00:20:54.000 - review and interview of the responding firms for our facility's master planning process, and CSO brings 00:20:54.000 --> 00:20:59.623 - a wealth of knowledge and experience that will be invaluable to that process as well. And then the third 00:20:59.623 --> 00:21:02.622 - one that I want to highlight is the Skillman Agreement. 00:21:03.426 --> 00:21:09.168 - That is a new partner for us, but another highly respected and regarded firm in Indiana. They have worked 00:21:09.168 --> 00:21:14.802 - well with CSO and many other school corporations and specialize in construction management, estimating, 00:21:14.802 --> 00:21:20.327 - scheduling, and bidding. And they will be very impactful throughout the process for Facilities Master 00:21:20.327 --> 00:21:26.015 - planning. And we look forward to engaging with them as well. We're going to talk a little bit more about 00:21:26.015 --> 00:21:31.702 - Facilities Master planning later on in our quarterly update. But I recommend all contracts as presented. 00:21:31.702 --> 00:21:32.894 - Thank you, Mr. Erwin. 00:21:32.994 --> 00:21:39.739 - Are there comments from the board? I just have a quick question. Did we do a facilities master planning 00:21:39.739 --> 00:21:45.836 - some years back, a few years back? And was it CSO who did that, or was it a different entity? 00:21:45.836 --> 00:21:51.997 - Do we know? During Dr. DeMuth's tenure, there was a facilities master plan that was done many, 00:21:51.997 --> 00:21:59.326 - many years ago. OK. So it's been quite a while. Yeah. OK. Thank you. But you're recalling that CSO has also done 00:21:59.650 --> 00:22:08.694 - some facility assessments. Ah, that is I did remember years ago as well for us. I just didn't know from 00:22:08.694 --> 00:22:17.738 - the facilities perspective. Okay. Thank you. Other comments or questions? All right. All those in favor 00:22:17.738 --> 00:22:26.782 - of approving the contracts and quotes signify by saying aye. Aye. Against? Abstentions? Motion carries. 00:22:30.498 --> 00:22:38.128 - Next for our consideration is the authorization to advertise the 2026 budget. Do I have a motion to 00:22:38.128 --> 00:22:45.681 - approve the authorization to advertise the 2027 budget as presented? I might have said six before. 00:22:45.681 --> 00:22:53.387 - It's seven. Mm-hmm. Thank you. I really wanted, but I'm not going to do it. Oh, six, seven. OK. It's 00:22:53.387 --> 00:23:00.254 - been done. Six, seven. Now I need a motion to approve. OK. Thank you. Do I have a second? 00:23:00.418 --> 00:23:07.344 - Second. It's been moved by Aaron Wyatt and seconded by April that we approve the authorization to advertise 00:23:07.344 --> 00:23:13.950 - the 2027 budget as presented. Mr. Irwin. Yeah, it's wild to think we're already here talking about the 00:23:13.950 --> 00:23:20.492 - 2027 budget and we're at that time of year again. So what I'm going to highlight tonight and just our 00:23:20.492 --> 00:23:27.161 - authorization to advertise the budget is talking about timelines, processes, normal procedures, so that 00:23:27.161 --> 00:23:29.406 - everyone is just reminded of that. 00:23:29.602 --> 00:23:35.766 - And that's kind of where I start tonight. And it's just a reminder of that process. So when you look 00:23:35.766 --> 00:23:42.418 - at this timeline of key dates, August is when we asked for permission to advertise. In between the September 00:23:42.418 --> 00:23:48.826 - meeting is when we would actually advertise the budget and the capital projects plan and bus replacement 00:23:48.826 --> 00:23:55.051 - plan. And then we'd have our hearing with another presentation over the budget in September. Adoption 00:23:55.051 --> 00:23:55.966 - is in October. 00:23:56.770 --> 00:24:02.183 - And then in that in-between time, between October adoption, in December is when the DOGF is working 00:24:02.183 --> 00:24:07.650 - through our budget. And then in December is typically when we receive what's called our 1782 notice, 00:24:07.650 --> 00:24:13.172 - which is just our budget notice, where they have then worked the numbers, brought them back to us. We 00:24:13.172 --> 00:24:18.747 - have 10 days to respond about whether or not we agree with what it is that they've come back with. And 00:24:18.747 --> 00:24:23.998 - then that budget becomes final. So that's just a reminder of that normal process that we follow. 00:24:24.194 --> 00:24:29.877 - and I'm gonna talk a little bit more about some of those details here as we keep going. So with that 00:24:29.877 --> 00:24:35.617 - publication date, it's planned right now in our schedule for September 8th, and it has to be at least 00:24:35.617 --> 00:24:41.356 - 10 days prior to our public hearing, which is set for September 22nd, so our next regularly scheduled 00:24:41.356 --> 00:24:47.265 - board meeting. The bus replacement plan and the capital projects plan, those are also posted to Gateway, 00:24:47.265 --> 00:24:51.710 - and then they're also posted to our school website. I use the term form three, 00:24:51.938 --> 00:24:57.704 - And that's simply just a notice to the taxpayer. That's the form as you walk through the budget forms 00:24:57.704 --> 00:25:03.414 - the way that it's numbered. And that's commonly referred to that here just kind of in our world. But 00:25:03.414 --> 00:25:09.180 - that's an advertise with all of our major funds and our levies and our meeting notices. And then from 00:25:09.180 --> 00:25:14.889 - an accuracy and monitoring, this year the DOGF release was called Budget 2.0. So that is the program 00:25:14.889 --> 00:25:20.542 - that we used in order to work with the Department of Local Government Finance to submit our budget. 00:25:20.994 --> 00:25:27.368 - In that, in years past, we've always talked about when we input assessed value or certified net assessed 00:25:27.368 --> 00:25:33.924 - values into the budget, we've always used 85% of their previous year's AV. And this year when they released 00:25:33.924 --> 00:25:39.994 - that new program, they went ahead and did it for us because that's what they recommend that you do. 00:25:39.994 --> 00:25:45.518 - And we'll talk a little bit more about why that is as we get through this. But again, when 00:25:45.518 --> 00:25:49.342 - we are advertising, we are setting the ceiling on our budgets. 00:25:50.210 --> 00:25:56.362 - in our levies. So as soon as those go out, you can work down, but you can't work up from that number. 00:25:56.362 --> 00:26:02.634 - And so again, we'll talk a little bit more about just some of those rules of thumb and normal processes 00:26:02.634 --> 00:26:09.087 - that we follow. And then like you said, there's that regular ongoing monitoring of revenues, expenditures, 00:26:09.087 --> 00:26:12.766 - and the process of budgeting that we walk through each year. 00:26:15.394 --> 00:26:22.334 - So this slide, what it's showing you is a comparison right now of the budget that we plan to advertise 00:26:22.334 --> 00:26:29.342 - for 2027 in comparison to our current year 2026 budget of what was approved last year through the DLGF. 00:26:29.342 --> 00:26:36.215 - And so when you look at each one of those funds, there is one on there that there's nothing there and 00:26:36.215 --> 00:26:38.910 - that's our school pension debt service. 00:26:39.074 --> 00:26:44.371 - We make our last payment on that this year. Last year we had a budget for that and a levy for that. 00:26:44.371 --> 00:26:49.934 - This year we do not because that debt is retired. So that's why you see a zero there for that. The other 00:26:49.934 --> 00:26:55.443 - budgets that you look at our education fund are both of our referendum funds and our debt service fund. 00:26:55.443 --> 00:27:00.900 - The budgets are a little smaller than last year. And that wouldn't surprise you as we continue to talk 00:27:00.900 --> 00:27:06.462 - about the things that it is that we're navigating as a school corporation. But then our operations fund, 00:27:06.690 --> 00:27:12.282 - That budget is actually bigger than what it was last year. And a lot of that has to do with, again, 00:27:12.282 --> 00:27:17.986 - planning for and making room for the expectation of escalation of prices for utilities, for services, 00:27:17.986 --> 00:27:23.746 - for goods, and all of those pieces. But also, we did some fund simplification that we talked about how 00:27:23.746 --> 00:27:29.506 - we pulled back in some of the things from 21st Century Grant going away, Extended Day, Adventure Camp, 00:27:29.506 --> 00:27:32.414 - some of those things coming back to that home fund. 00:27:32.642 --> 00:27:39.481 - makes that budget increase as it relates to just accounting for the known and expected expenditures 00:27:39.481 --> 00:27:46.798 - within that fund. So that's the one fund that individually has a higher budget than last year, but overall 00:27:46.798 --> 00:27:53.706 - budget submission is right now a little over three million in decrease from what it was in 2026 here 00:27:53.706 --> 00:28:00.750 - this current year. Couple of other quick highlights as it relates to this is again, the education fund 00:28:00.750 --> 00:28:01.502 - is smaller 00:28:01.602 --> 00:28:08.402 - When we're looking at our estimation of revenue, so how much particular do we expect to receive in tuition 00:28:08.402 --> 00:28:15.139 - support, our enrollment projections, staffing changes, all those things, those factor in to the wholesale 00:28:15.139 --> 00:28:21.495 - number that you're seeing there for the education fund. Our operations fund, we're continuing to go 00:28:21.495 --> 00:28:27.978 - with the state set max levy. That is one of two funds where we have a max levy or operating levy that 00:28:27.978 --> 00:28:29.630 - we're allowed to collect. 00:28:29.986 --> 00:28:35.914 - And that budget is increased, as I said, to account for those escalation of expenses and then just moving 00:28:35.914 --> 00:28:41.674 - back things with extended day, adventure camp and so on. With both of our referendums, we plan for the 00:28:41.674 --> 00:28:47.379 - continuation of our voter approved rates, 18 and a half cents and eight and a half cents respectively 00:28:47.379 --> 00:28:53.027 - between those two referendums as they continue to support the initiatives of the referendums. And in 00:28:53.027 --> 00:28:56.830 - our debt service, we're advertising our max allowable cash balance. 00:28:57.026 --> 00:29:03.181 - Again, that fund has a max allowable. It's kind of like the operations has a max levy. The debt service 00:29:03.181 --> 00:29:09.632 - fund has a max allowable operating balance that you can have. So again, when we advertise, we're advertising 00:29:09.632 --> 00:29:15.551 - high and knowing that we can work down. And so with that in debt service, we advertise high for our 00:29:15.551 --> 00:29:21.528 - max operating balance in that fund. We did not sell any debt during 2026. And so that is something I 00:29:21.528 --> 00:29:23.422 - wanted to make note of as well. 00:29:23.682 --> 00:29:30.072 - And then the last piece on there, as I again make mention of the bus replacement and capital projects 00:29:30.072 --> 00:29:36.337 - plan, those are have to be submitted in order to have the ability to expend operations fund dollars 00:29:36.337 --> 00:29:42.727 - on those types of expenditures. They are plans. They are not set in stone. They encompass a number of 00:29:42.727 --> 00:29:49.305 - years. The capital projects plan over a three year period of possible expenditures, the bus replacement, 00:29:49.305 --> 00:29:50.558 - a five year period. 00:29:51.010 --> 00:29:57.253 - And so that is something that we work through with the transportation department, our operations team, 00:29:57.253 --> 00:30:03.374 - as we look at that to try to make them as up to date and looking at the big picture of what we think 00:30:03.374 --> 00:30:09.920 - could possibly happen over those years. But those will be posted to Gateway and also to our school website. 00:30:09.920 --> 00:30:16.102 - What I'm going to show you next, this is just a form that actually gets released. When I say the form 00:30:16.102 --> 00:30:20.830 - three, this is the top portion of that form. And what it's giving you is just 00:30:21.282 --> 00:30:27.522 - The information about when our hearing date is, location, adoption date and location. And then it has 00:30:27.522 --> 00:30:33.763 - numbers on there as it relates to when I talked about the operations fund has a max levy. That is our 00:30:33.763 --> 00:30:40.126 - max levy for our operations fund. And that is obviously what I said we were advertising for. The number 00:30:40.126 --> 00:30:42.206 - below it talks about tax credits. 00:30:42.530 --> 00:30:48.499 - That's not a positive number. That's the amount of property tax that they expect us to not receive due 00:30:48.499 --> 00:30:54.699 - to either property tax caps. But in this case for us, it's mostly SEA-1 losses related to the supplemental 00:30:54.699 --> 00:31:00.552 - homestead deduction. So that's their estimate of what it is that they expect. And so that's on every 00:31:00.552 --> 00:31:06.694 - school corporation's Form 3 is the information that you see. So we plug in Monroe County Community School 00:31:06.694 --> 00:31:11.678 - Corporation and our information. And this looks the same for every school corporation 00:31:11.778 --> 00:31:19.068 - when they post it to Gateway. The bottom portion of the form looks like this. And so obviously, 00:31:19.068 --> 00:31:27.192 - column one, as it shows, is the fund name. But column two is our budget estimate. Those are the guardrails 00:31:27.192 --> 00:31:34.786 - of which we expect our spending to stay within over the next year. And then again, in column three, 00:31:34.786 --> 00:31:39.038 - those are the ceilings of the levies that we would need 00:31:39.170 --> 00:31:46.111 - in order to raise funds to support those budgets. And then what you're seeing is our current tax levies 00:31:46.111 --> 00:31:52.985 - in column five. And then the percentage changed from that. The operations fund one is the MLGQ for the 00:31:52.985 --> 00:31:59.925 - operations fund this year is 6%. It shows 9.39% for us. And it's because last year we levied for school 00:31:59.925 --> 00:32:07.000 - pension debt. They take that levy out of your operations fund. So the levy that you're seeing for current 00:32:07.000 --> 00:32:07.934 - on operations 00:32:08.162 --> 00:32:14.112 - That is less what it is that we needed to be able to make our pension debt payments. And so it's truly 00:32:14.112 --> 00:32:20.004 - a 6% raise from what it is that we would have been allowed last year had we not had the pension debt. 00:32:20.004 --> 00:32:25.839 - A couple of quick reminders and just touching back on some things that I know that I've reminded you 00:32:25.839 --> 00:32:31.789 - of several times, but as we look at this, we're advertising high and we're setting the ceiling for the 00:32:31.789 --> 00:32:35.486 - budget. That is a normal thing that all school corporations do. 00:32:35.906 --> 00:32:41.702 - Column two and column three. Those are the ceiling numbers from the form three that I showed you. We 00:32:41.702 --> 00:32:47.442 - are creating in column two. That is the budget. That is what we're asking for an appropriation. And 00:32:47.442 --> 00:32:53.238 - when I use the word appropriation, that is the state saying what is your authority to spend and they 00:32:53.238 --> 00:32:59.035 - agree that you have that amount of funds that you could spend and still have cash on hand at the end 00:32:59.035 --> 00:32:59.838 - of that year. 00:33:00.930 --> 00:33:06.999 - It's guardrails for spending. It is not the expectation that we would expend every one of those dollars, 00:33:06.999 --> 00:33:12.837 - but that is what the budget is setting, are those guardrails. And then again, with column three, our 00:33:12.837 --> 00:33:18.790 - advertised total levy, that will come down. Again, we advertise high, and we did that last year. We've 00:33:18.790 --> 00:33:24.570 - done that in years past. That is to protect our budget so that if AV were to change after it's been 00:33:24.570 --> 00:33:27.518 - certified, it protects us to make sure that we get 00:33:27.714 --> 00:33:34.274 - the appropriate level of levy that we need to support our budgets. And so that is a part of best practices 00:33:34.274 --> 00:33:40.773 - that when I look at bullet point one from the DOGF is that we advertise those ceilings to protect against 00:33:40.773 --> 00:33:47.332 - those unknowns. The DOGF themselves have put in the 85% as a default in the budget. And again, the budgets 00:33:47.332 --> 00:33:53.770 - are the guardrails. And again, as we look at the budget, those are estimates based on known expenditures 00:33:53.770 --> 00:33:56.222 - or expenditures that we know will come. 00:33:56.482 --> 00:34:01.689 - and revenue and it's based on historical trends and things that we know that have changed within any 00:34:01.689 --> 00:34:07.051 - given year. I can't look at just historical trends and create a budget from that because any given year 00:34:07.051 --> 00:34:12.619 - rules change. We've talked about that a lot at different board meetings and so there's a lot of information 00:34:12.619 --> 00:34:17.877 - that goes into how we determine what is the appropriate amount of revenue we expect to receive in any 00:34:17.877 --> 00:34:21.022 - given fund or the amount of expenses that we expect as well. 00:34:21.666 --> 00:34:27.606 - So I know I've thrown a lot of information at you, but again, I just wanted to preview and remind you 00:34:27.606 --> 00:34:33.662 - guys of these things. And then as we move forward into next month, I'll give a little bit more in-depth 00:34:33.662 --> 00:34:39.718 - presentation as it relates to the budget itself and the process that we go through when we create those 00:34:39.718 --> 00:34:45.657 - budgets. So with that, I'm asking for your approval to advertise. Thank you, Mr. Erwin. Are there any 00:34:45.657 --> 00:34:47.870 - questions or comments from the board? 00:34:56.930 --> 00:35:08.088 - All those in favor of the motion to approve the authorization to advertise the 2027 budget as presented 00:35:08.088 --> 00:35:19.245 - signify by saying aye. Aye. Against? Abstentions? Motion carries. Next is the first reading of policies 00:35:19.245 --> 00:35:22.142 - 5341 emergency health card 00:35:22.306 --> 00:35:30.689 - Five three three zero use of medication and two three four zero field trips and other corporation-sponsored 00:35:30.689 --> 00:35:38.450 - trips Thank You president Kuperman I am presenting policy five three four one emergency health card 00:35:38.450 --> 00:35:47.454 - policy five three three zero use of medication and policy two three four zero field and other corporation-sponsored 00:35:48.226 --> 00:35:55.987 - trips for their first reading. These policies have been updated to align language in accordance with 00:35:55.987 --> 00:36:03.748 - our new health care management system, school care. I so recommend. Thank you, Ms. Harmon. Are there 00:36:03.748 --> 00:36:11.431 - questions or comments from the board? This is a first reading. No action is required. As mentioned, 00:36:11.431 --> 00:36:17.886 - this will be brought back to the board for a second and final reading in September. 00:36:21.314 --> 00:36:27.896 - Tonight we have several informative presentations. We will begin with a back-to-school update from Ms. 00:36:27.896 --> 00:36:34.287 - Harmon. Thank you again, President Cooverman, Dr. Winston, members of the board. I'm really excited 00:36:34.287 --> 00:36:40.741 - tonight to share our annual back-to-school update. It's a look at how our staff and students started 00:36:40.741 --> 00:36:45.662 - the 26-27 school year and some of the highlights from these first few weeks. 00:36:46.882 --> 00:36:52.820 - As a starting point, I really wanted to talk about what happens before. So before a single student walks 00:36:52.820 --> 00:36:58.815 - through the doors, our custodial and maintenance teams were already hard at work behind the scenes across 00:36:58.815 --> 00:37:04.753 - the corporation. They're responsible for keeping nearly 2.4 million square feet of classrooms, hallways, 00:37:04.753 --> 00:37:10.522 - restrooms, common areas, clean, safe, and ready to learn. To put it in perspective, just sharing some 00:37:10.522 --> 00:37:13.406 - numbers here, given to me by Dr. Henderson's team, 00:37:13.602 --> 00:37:22.013 - They replaced and repaired 2,650 square feet of sidewalk, installed 17,604 square feet of new epoxy 00:37:22.013 --> 00:37:30.423 - and carpet flooring, screened and recoded 36,609 square feet of hardwood gym floors, and spread 575 00:37:30.423 --> 00:37:38.834 - cubic yards of playground mulch. This is the kind of work that happens every summer, mostly unseen, 00:37:38.834 --> 00:37:42.366 - but it's what makes opening day possible. 00:37:44.290 --> 00:37:50.545 - From there, thinking about August 3rd and 4th, where every building had dedicated time to collaborate, 00:37:50.545 --> 00:37:57.104 - prepare, and plan for the year ahead. It's a shift from our usual corporation-wide kickoff events. Instead, 00:37:57.104 --> 00:38:03.481 - that time was used in buildings to plan as a whole school, collaborate as grade level and content teams, 00:38:03.481 --> 00:38:09.736 - set up classrooms, and build excitement for the opening day. These are a few photos of just the energy 00:38:09.736 --> 00:38:12.894 - and teamwork that went into those two days and also 00:38:13.346 --> 00:38:22.724 - As tradition, we take staff photos at every school, so just giving you some time to see those as well. 00:38:22.724 --> 00:38:27.550 - These photos capture the staff across our buildings. 00:38:30.914 --> 00:38:36.366 - Again, before the day the school year officially starts, staff were ready. It was time to welcome students 00:38:36.366 --> 00:38:41.512 - and families back in before the first bell. At the elementary level, families and students visit the 00:38:41.512 --> 00:38:46.709 - day before school starts for a meet and greet, which is a chance to meet their teacher and find their 00:38:46.709 --> 00:38:52.008 - classroom ahead of day one. And at the middle and high school level, we held seventh grade and freshman 00:38:52.008 --> 00:38:57.511 - orientations, building tours and orientation activities that help our incoming seventh graders and freshmen 00:38:57.511 --> 00:39:00.670 - get comfortable navigating their school before the first day. 00:39:02.594 --> 00:39:10.774 - and then students come. And so turning to enrollment, as of our unofficial count on August 18th, we 00:39:10.774 --> 00:39:19.037 - are serving approximately 9,800 K through 12 students, 530 pre-K and preschool students. We have 668 00:39:19.037 --> 00:39:23.454 - students taking class at Hoosier Hills Career Center. 00:39:23.810 --> 00:39:30.496 - and 187 learners enrolled in our adult education program. We're in our second year of our MCCSE online 00:39:30.496 --> 00:39:37.182 - with approximately 69 students. Again, these are still unofficial numbers and will be finalized in the 00:39:37.182 --> 00:39:43.932 - coming weeks, but they give us an early picture of the year ahead. And then I just wanted to share some 00:39:43.932 --> 00:39:50.878 - of those pictures of students starting school and just a peek into it. So just a couple of slides of that. 00:40:00.386 --> 00:40:07.531 - None of this happens without students getting to school safely every day. And that's thanks 00:40:07.531 --> 00:40:15.529 - to our transportation team and, of course, their parents who are also bringing them to school. But our 00:40:15.529 --> 00:40:23.450 - transportation routed 6,476 students to a bus. They managed 3,000, I'm sorry, 762 bus stops and drive 00:40:23.450 --> 00:40:24.926 - 7,427 miles a day. 00:40:25.314 --> 00:40:33.541 - Also as a highlight date, our electric bus usage has saved 96,031 pounds of CO2 as well. You can see 00:40:33.541 --> 00:40:41.686 - buses roll out in this short video that's just looping for you on the first day of school. I'd also 00:40:41.686 --> 00:40:50.238 - like to highlight our Child Nutrition Department, and it's had a busy and exciting summer getting ready. 00:40:50.530 --> 00:40:57.243 - Menu planning, they successfully taste tested a couple of new items at adventure camp, tricks muffins 00:40:57.243 --> 00:41:03.957 - and hush puppies. And those were very popular and have been added to the menu, as well as a brand new 00:41:03.957 --> 00:41:10.538 - pizza at the high school level. After just one week of school, high school prepared 45 pizzas a day 00:41:10.538 --> 00:41:17.120 - and 360 slices, a lot of pizza. On grants and innovation, our child nutrition program was awarded a 00:41:17.120 --> 00:41:19.358 - competitive farm to school grant. 00:41:19.906 --> 00:41:25.221 - which will fund training and resources to grow our local food offerings, starting with a Harvest of 00:41:25.221 --> 00:41:30.590 - the Month item in partnership with IU Health and Hoosier Hills Career Center Culinary Program. And I 00:41:30.590 --> 00:41:36.171 - think I'd like to also note that our department operates six USDA child nutrition programs, the National 00:41:36.171 --> 00:41:41.858 - School Lunch Program, the School Breakfast Program, the Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program, the Afterschool 00:41:41.858 --> 00:41:47.386 - Snack Program, and the Summer Food Service Program. And soon they'll be adding the Child and Adult Care 00:41:47.386 --> 00:41:49.406 - Program at the Early Learning Center. 00:41:53.410 --> 00:42:00.117 - Beyond the classroom, our fall athletic season is in full swing, and students are back in clubs, 00:42:00.117 --> 00:42:07.101 - art programs, and activities that makes our schools feel like home. We can see here students playing 00:42:07.101 --> 00:42:14.361 - the flute, our soccer players warming up on their new field, which is also then on the right, our ribbon 00:42:14.361 --> 00:42:20.446 - cutting for that field as well. It's a great reminder that school is about so much more 00:42:20.770 --> 00:42:26.831 - than the classroom, it's about belonging and the activities that engage our students. Finally, a quick 00:42:26.831 --> 00:42:32.951 - highlight about keeping our students in safe remains our highest priority. Most recently, we've updated 00:42:32.951 --> 00:42:39.130 - our school safety terminology to align with the standard response protocol or SRP, which is a nationally 00:42:39.130 --> 00:42:45.133 - recognized framework, you can see there on the right, and have shared and established clear protocols 00:42:45.133 --> 00:42:48.958 - for communicating with staff and families through parent square. 00:42:49.442 --> 00:42:56.352 - And we are conducting emergency notification tests. Many of you probably received one on Friday, August 00:42:56.352 --> 00:43:03.263 - 21st at 12 p.m. and all of the ways. And we'll have another one. All the ways. All the ways. Wanna make 00:43:03.263 --> 00:43:10.107 - sure all the ways work. Friday, January 8th at 12 p.m. as well. That's making sure our systems and our 00:43:10.107 --> 00:43:16.951 - communication with families are working exactly as they should. And as a closing point, right, we have 00:43:16.951 --> 00:43:18.014 - so many through 00:43:18.434 --> 00:43:26.373 - Reasons to be the best that we can be from our staff to our students as well every student every day 00:43:26.373 --> 00:43:34.233 - Thank you Are there any questions or comments from the board? I mean, I feel like I just um want to 00:43:34.233 --> 00:43:42.014 - say thank you to everyone who made this day possible the opening day and then the days that follow 00:43:42.146 --> 00:43:49.590 - It's clearly so much labor that goes into just ensuring that our buildings are ready to open, that they're 00:43:49.590 --> 00:43:56.895 - safe, that our kids are well fed. I have asked my child not to eat pizza every day at lunch, but there's 00:43:56.895 --> 00:44:04.408 - not much I can do about that. He does branch out occasionally. But I just think there are so many wonderful 00:44:04.408 --> 00:44:09.278 - pieces and parts to every single one of our schools in this district. 00:44:09.634 --> 00:44:17.185 - Thank you to every single person out there who has made that possible this year and every year, 00:44:17.185 --> 00:44:25.050 - but for now, this year. Thank you again, Ms. Harmon. In addition to thanking everyone that made the 00:44:25.050 --> 00:44:32.995 - first day possible, I really enjoyed this report. Thank you for putting it together. We will move on 00:44:32.995 --> 00:44:37.950 - to designing and building to sustain excellence. Dr. Anderson. 00:44:39.266 --> 00:44:44.757 - Thank you. Good evening again, President Cooper and Doctor Winston and members of the Board of School 00:44:44.757 --> 00:44:50.301 - Trustees. Tonight I am honored and excited to provide you with our August 2026 quarterly update of the 00:44:50.301 --> 00:44:56.007 - designing and building to sustain excellence initiative. So this evening we will start off with a project 00:44:56.007 --> 00:45:01.390 - that you've seen in this presentation before. That's the Bloomington High School North Athletic and 00:45:01.390 --> 00:45:06.880 - Parking project. The first slide here is just a reminder of the architects rendering of the new entry 00:45:06.880 --> 00:45:08.926 - into the football and tracks complex. 00:45:09.090 --> 00:45:16.583 - to be able to compare that to how that actually came to life as the project was completed. So this photograph 00:45:16.583 --> 00:45:23.531 - shows you that new entryway. Part of the project also involved the relocation of what was referred to 00:45:23.531 --> 00:45:30.546 - at North as the lower lot for many, many years to the field just South of the football field and track 00:45:30.546 --> 00:45:34.974 - complex between that area and the actual school building itself. 00:45:35.970 --> 00:45:42.894 - This move increased the number of parking spaces and reduced the distance between the parking area and 00:45:42.894 --> 00:45:50.019 - the football and track complex, as well as reducing the distance from the parking area to the auditorium, 00:45:50.019 --> 00:45:56.875 - natatorium, and main gym spaces. And it also improved the ability to supervise that parking area. The 00:45:56.875 --> 00:46:03.597 - batting cages were replaced and relocated, and a new turf soccer field and bleachers were installed 00:46:03.597 --> 00:46:05.278 - as part of this project. 00:46:05.506 --> 00:46:11.822 - as well as concessions area that was added to the building next to soccer and baseball fields to better 00:46:11.822 --> 00:46:18.016 - serve fans in that space as well. Additionally, a new athletic building was added to the football and 00:46:18.016 --> 00:46:24.332 - track complex that contained an updated and larger concessions area shown here on the screen along with 00:46:24.332 --> 00:46:30.466 - new men's, women's and family restrooms. You can see that is a drastic improvement over the restroom 00:46:30.466 --> 00:46:34.110 - facility that used to be out there at the football complex. 00:46:35.266 --> 00:46:43.020 - And a team room for visiting teams as well as some of our home teams during the season on non-contest 00:46:43.020 --> 00:46:50.622 - events when they're out there practicing. And we were also able to repaint the auxiliary gym, which 00:46:50.622 --> 00:46:58.300 - was a dull yellow and is now a very nice bright white that matches the main gym. This project is 99% 00:46:58.300 --> 00:47:04.990 - complete with just some minor punch list items and a few landscaping finishing touches. 00:47:05.122 --> 00:47:11.355 - left to wrap that project up. I want to move on to the Bloomington High School South Auditorium and 00:47:11.355 --> 00:47:18.148 - Main Gym project. That auditorium project started with the removal of old seats and carpeting in preparation 00:47:18.148 --> 00:47:24.443 - for new floor paint under the seating area. So you can see that new epoxy floor paint there. Next up 00:47:24.443 --> 00:47:31.112 - was the installation of the framework and new carpeting. And then finally the installation of new seating, 00:47:31.112 --> 00:47:33.854 - which really brought this space to life and 00:47:34.082 --> 00:47:39.196 - turned out to be just an absolutely beautiful space. If you haven't had an opportunity to see that, 00:47:39.196 --> 00:47:44.361 - if you're over at South and have a chance to pop in there and look at the auditorium, I think you'll 00:47:44.361 --> 00:47:49.576 - be really impressed with how that turned out. It's a beautiful project. In addition to that, the main 00:47:49.576 --> 00:47:55.202 - gym floor at South was also completely refinished. This particular project was not included in the statistics 00:47:55.202 --> 00:48:00.724 - that Mrs. Harmon shared a while ago about the square footage of gym floors that were screened and resealed. 00:48:00.724 --> 00:48:03.230 - This is a totally separate project that involved 00:48:03.458 --> 00:48:10.296 - the entire floor being sanded down to remove the old finish, including all of the old painted lines 00:48:10.296 --> 00:48:17.613 - and graphics. So you can see what that floor looks like before they stain, paint, and install new graphics 00:48:17.613 --> 00:48:24.656 - and then put the final finish on. So the new Bloomington High School South main gym floor appears here 00:48:24.656 --> 00:48:29.374 - with updated graphics, updated paint, and really, really turned out. 00:48:29.762 --> 00:48:37.234 - beautifully as well. That project is also 100% complete. Next up the transportation canopy and detention 00:48:37.234 --> 00:48:44.492 - pond project that is being pursued right now in the southwest corner of the bus lot. Um, that area is 00:48:44.492 --> 00:48:51.892 - receiving a new solar canopy that will provide charging infrastructure for 16 electric buses. This next 00:48:51.892 --> 00:48:55.806 - photograph shows the trenching that is being done. Um, 00:48:56.162 --> 00:49:01.818 - to bury the electrical connections that will connect to the chargers and they'll eventually connect 00:49:01.818 --> 00:49:07.587 - over to a new transformer on the pad that's framed up there. I was over there today and that actually 00:49:07.587 --> 00:49:12.904 - is poured and the transformers are in place, but I didn't have time to get a new picture into 00:49:12.904 --> 00:49:18.617 - the presentation for tonight. So that's moving along quite well also. These additional chargers will 00:49:18.617 --> 00:49:23.198 - all be connected to our intelligent charging grid that power our electric buses. 00:49:23.810 --> 00:49:29.682 - Also, a stormwater detention pond is being added in the southwest corner of the property as a part of 00:49:29.682 --> 00:49:35.611 - this project, and it is currently about 20% complete with canopy construction starting in October once 00:49:35.611 --> 00:49:41.425 - the infrastructure is all set in place. And finally, this evening I'd like to highlight a few of our 00:49:41.425 --> 00:49:47.355 - other hardscape projects that were completed over the summer. Concrete repairs were made at University 00:49:47.355 --> 00:49:52.766 - Elementary School in the upper left hand corner there. That concrete area there was in really 00:49:52.866 --> 00:49:59.320 - bad shape with a lot of cracking and peeling and flaking of the top surface of that along with the band 00:49:59.320 --> 00:50:05.525 - trailer parking area and a bus pickup location at Bloomington High School North there on the center 00:50:05.525 --> 00:50:12.165 - and upper right. Additionally, a new sidewalk was added to Rogers Elementary School and the early learning 00:50:12.165 --> 00:50:18.371 - playground area was fenced in to ensure our youngest learners have a safe and secure place to enjoy 00:50:18.371 --> 00:50:19.550 - their recess time. 00:50:20.322 --> 00:50:26.178 - And then down on the lower area there, you'll notice that the main intersection and bus lanes on the 00:50:26.178 --> 00:50:32.150 - Rogers Benford campus were completely replaced with new pavement, pedestrian walkway and traffic lines 00:50:32.150 --> 00:50:38.064 - were all repainted. And we were also able to replace some curbing and stairway landing at Clear Creek 00:50:38.064 --> 00:50:44.209 - Elementary School, eliminating some trip hazards there as well. So these hardscape projects that occurred 00:50:44.209 --> 00:50:48.094 - during the summer at these various campuses are all 100% complete. 00:50:48.866 --> 00:50:55.470 - I think it's also important to point out that while these projects are a direct benefit to the students 00:50:55.470 --> 00:51:01.884 - and families we serve in the MCCSE, as well as all of the visiting teams, performing arts ensembles, 00:51:01.884 --> 00:51:08.362 - and families who visit our facilities from other school corporations, these projects also support our 00:51:08.362 --> 00:51:14.775 - local economy. Out of the 22 contractors that were involved in the projects that I just highlighted, 00:51:14.775 --> 00:51:18.014 - 20 or 91% of those are based in Indiana. 16 or 72% 00:51:18.434 --> 00:51:24.520 - are based right here in Bloomington. And only two or 9% of all the contractors are from out of state. 00:51:24.520 --> 00:51:30.547 - And that is due to the specialized products, services, and expertise required for certain aspects of 00:51:30.547 --> 00:51:36.514 - these projects that don't exist within the state. So not only is this benefiting our students, it's 00:51:36.514 --> 00:51:42.601 - also benefiting the local economy, both locally and in the state of Indiana. So we're really proud of 00:51:42.601 --> 00:51:44.510 - that as a part of this as well. 00:51:45.570 --> 00:51:52.195 - I'd also like to remind everyone that all of these projects are 100% bond funded. Zero referendum funds, 00:51:52.195 --> 00:51:59.072 - zero educational funds, and zero operational funds were utilized in the completion of any of these projects. 00:51:59.072 --> 00:52:05.760 - And if anybody would like to learn more about our bond funded designing and building to sustain excellent 00:52:05.760 --> 00:52:12.448 - projects, both current or completed, you can utilize the QR code on this slide or visit mccsc.edu forward 00:52:12.448 --> 00:52:14.782 - slash building for more information. 00:52:16.610 --> 00:52:22.679 - Thank you for the opportunity to present this information to you this evening. Thank you, Dr. Anderson. 00:52:22.679 --> 00:52:28.514 - Questions or comments from the board? Yeah, I was going to say thank you, and thank you to also the 00:52:28.514 --> 00:52:34.407 - construction. You're like the construction manager. Sam Fleener. Yeah. I know you. Sam Fleener, yes. 00:52:34.407 --> 00:52:40.418 - 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 00:52:40.418 --> 00:52:43.102 - North-South game and got to see the wonderful 00:52:43.202 --> 00:53:11.870 - I think it was also like a change to not hear the audible gasp from the south 00:53:13.154 --> 00:53:20.245 - at the South graduation, right? When the bleachers would typically, you stand up or you sit down and 00:53:20.245 --> 00:53:27.337 - it shifts and you would always hear the entire crowd just like, because it sounds like it's going to 00:53:27.337 --> 00:53:34.638 - fall down, right? So I think it's a worthy investment for sure. Of course. I just want to take a moment 00:53:34.638 --> 00:53:41.800 - to give an additional shout out to Sam Fleener. Any one of those projects is a lot to manage. Any two 00:53:41.800 --> 00:53:43.134 - of those projects. 00:53:43.426 --> 00:53:49.451 - would be a lot to manage. But to manage all of those 22 projects in the midst of his day-to-day 00:53:49.451 --> 00:53:55.979 - responsibilities is a lot. He doesn't do it alone, and he'll be the first to tell you that it does take 00:53:55.979 --> 00:54:02.443 - a complete team. But his leadership, his oversight, his guidance, and the degree to which he holds our 00:54:02.443 --> 00:54:08.720 - contractors accountable and responsible to meet deadlines is second to none. And so I want to go on 00:54:08.720 --> 00:54:12.862 - record of acknowledging Mr. Fleener. And I also want to recognize 00:54:13.122 --> 00:54:20.201 - our team that supports Mr. Fleener throughout the process. Certainly the work that Mr. Irwin does in 00:54:20.201 --> 00:54:27.349 - making sure that we have the finances to be able to secure projects, the oversight that Dr. Henderson 00:54:27.349 --> 00:54:34.498 - provides, the support that Mrs. Harmon provides to make sure that we're addressing our academic needs 00:54:34.498 --> 00:54:39.614 - as our first priority, and certainly you won't be surprised to know that 00:54:39.778 --> 00:54:47.688 - Dr. Dowling also plays a role in supporting this body of work. And so we meet on a regular and consistent 00:54:47.688 --> 00:54:55.300 - basis to oversee the facility needs of the corporation within the notion of our academic and our arts 00:54:55.300 --> 00:55:02.986 - needs as well. So kudos to our entire team. Thank you, Dr. Winston. Thank you, Mr. Fleener. Thank you, 00:55:02.986 --> 00:55:05.374 - Dr. Henderson, for that report. 00:55:05.538 --> 00:55:13.055 - The last presentation is the quarterly report on our two-year strategy of sustaining excellence and 00:55:13.055 --> 00:55:21.099 - financial transparency. Mr. Irwin? Yeah, I'm appreciative of the next opportunity here to give you another 00:55:21.099 --> 00:55:28.917 - update. We're 18 months into a 24-month strategy and how time is going quickly. But I'm excited to give 00:55:28.917 --> 00:55:31.774 - you this update about where we stand. 00:55:32.002 --> 00:55:37.333 - I start in a familiar place as I normally do, just because, and I've said this in past board meetings, 00:55:37.333 --> 00:55:42.664 - I don't take for granted that people have always seen every presentation that we've given. I know that 00:55:42.664 --> 00:55:47.840 - the presentations are online, but I always like to start here, because I think it's a reminder. And 00:55:47.840 --> 00:55:53.015 - then there's some appreciation afterwards to see the progress that we've made as well. But when you 00:55:53.015 --> 00:55:58.191 - look at this slide, the numbers individually inside of each portion of a bar, that's the individual 00:55:58.191 --> 00:56:00.158 - fund balance of that respective fund. 00:56:00.450 --> 00:56:07.239 - And then the numbers at the top or as you move to the right at the bottom, that's the cumulative total 00:56:07.239 --> 00:56:14.094 - of what those three funds would be. And those are our three largest funds as a school corporation would 00:56:14.094 --> 00:56:20.949 - be had we had not taken any action before we started this two-year strategy. So I do that as a reminder 00:56:20.949 --> 00:56:27.870 - to people to know we've had to make a lot of hard decisions, but we had to make a lot of hard decisions. 00:56:28.066 --> 00:56:34.209 - and I think that's the point and we've done that. So with that, the next slide is something that I think 00:56:34.209 --> 00:56:40.117 - is important too. I spend a lot of time at board meetings and I know I throw a lot at you and you're 00:56:40.117 --> 00:56:45.967 - probably like, when is he gonna stop? But I put this information out because I think it's important 00:56:45.967 --> 00:56:51.993 - people understand how things continue to change. The picture is constantly evolving. And so when I put 00:56:51.993 --> 00:56:57.726 - these things on here, these are things that I see as major drivers in the changes that we've seen 00:56:57.986 --> 00:57:04.102 - even since the last time we gave this update in May. So the first one is the one that I keep up there 00:57:04.102 --> 00:57:10.277 - every time, but that's just we've had more months come in. So more things are actual unless things are 00:57:10.277 --> 00:57:16.453 - projected at this point in the year. The other thing is we're continuing to monitor our estimates with 00:57:16.453 --> 00:57:22.869 - student ADM and because student tuition support and student enrollment is our number one source of funding 00:57:22.869 --> 00:57:26.526 - as a public school corporation. And so that's a major driver 00:57:26.946 --> 00:57:32.996 - in the projections of our school corporation and the corresponding demographic changes is that we talked 00:57:32.996 --> 00:57:39.104 - a lot about not only across the nation and the state of Indiana, are there are there demographic declines 00:57:39.104 --> 00:57:44.866 - with population? But here locally, we experience it greater so than than other places in the state. 00:57:44.866 --> 00:57:50.628 - And so that's something that very much has to be at the forefront of our of our planning and paying 00:57:50.628 --> 00:57:52.414 - attention to that information. 00:57:52.962 --> 00:57:58.925 - Number three, we talked a lot about at past board meetings, but that's just the MOGQ. I talked about 00:57:58.925 --> 00:58:05.302 - that actually just earlier tonight. So with the state sets, the max levy growth quotient for our operations 00:58:05.302 --> 00:58:11.738 - fund, that was 6% this year. That was a change from what we felt recently, which is 4%. But then afterwards, 00:58:11.738 --> 00:58:17.701 - I'm projecting only 4% afterwards because I'm not going to project something higher. That has been a 00:58:17.701 --> 00:58:21.598 - bit of an anomaly than what we've experienced the last few years. 00:58:21.698 --> 00:58:27.646 - I would rather be on the conservative side of that. And then also we know that this year we had that 00:58:27.646 --> 00:58:33.654 - one time flexibility of spreading the SEA-1 losses due to the supplemental homestead deduction across 00:58:33.654 --> 00:58:39.956 - our debt service and operations fund. And moving forward in 2027 and beyond, it all goes to the operations 00:58:39.956 --> 00:58:46.140 - fund. And so these projections assume that as well. We have our current staffing level set for the 26-27 00:58:46.140 --> 00:58:49.438 - school year, and that's reflected in these projections. 00:58:49.602 --> 00:58:55.564 - which is a very important part of our number one expenses as a school corporation are the people that 00:58:55.564 --> 00:59:01.643 - we employ to serve children. And so that's something that is very much important when you look at these 00:59:01.643 --> 00:59:07.488 - projections. And then the actual input of reimbursement from the taxable general obligation bond in 00:59:07.488 --> 00:59:13.391 - 2026 to support fund balances and then moving forward the planned amounts for 27 and 28. We continue 00:59:13.391 --> 00:59:17.950 - to keep at the forefront the use of one time funds and how it's played a role 00:59:18.050 --> 00:59:25.539 - helping us to achieve this strategy. The other one number six is policy analytics is a familiar partner 00:59:25.539 --> 00:59:32.741 - that you guys know that we work with and they are constantly on a regular basis evaluating tax base 00:59:32.741 --> 00:59:39.294 - changes and how legislation affects the moving pieces that interact with our budget and so 00:59:39.970 --> 00:59:46.602 - Right now, the net assessed value and expected tax revenue of how that impacts our referendums 00:59:46.602 --> 00:59:53.722 - is incorporated into these projections. Certified net assessed value this year, right now what's been 00:59:53.722 --> 01:00:01.052 - that has been certified now is relatively flat from where originally we were thinking it might be closer 01:00:01.052 --> 01:00:07.614 - to a 4.4% decline. It's relatively flat for this year, but their current estimations are that 01:00:08.258 --> 01:00:14.826 - we'll see it continue to go down as the impacts of SEA1. Remember, those deductions continue to increase 01:00:14.826 --> 01:00:21.707 - over time, which further counteracts whether or not there's any gross assessed value uptick, those deductions 01:00:21.707 --> 01:00:28.276 - are pulling down. So whether or not gross assessed value goes up, those deductions get bigger and bigger 01:00:28.276 --> 01:00:34.594 - and they pull it down. And then the last one, I talked about this at the last meeting, is that we've 01:00:34.594 --> 01:00:37.534 - now started to create a much more dynamic view 01:00:37.666 --> 01:00:43.776 - but that we are adding escalators in there for things for expenses that are outside of our direct control. 01:00:43.776 --> 01:00:49.543 - We don't control how much fuel costs. We don't control how much people charge for services. We don't 01:00:49.543 --> 01:00:55.481 - control some of the things that what they cost that we buy. And it's important that we continue to plan 01:00:55.481 --> 01:01:01.248 - for the escalation of those expenses. And so that's been factored into this next chart as we look at 01:01:01.248 --> 01:01:07.358 - where it is that we expect to be. So again, I go through those seven things because they are major drivers 01:01:07.714 --> 01:01:13.457 - and where it is that we are now and where we project to be. And so again, I want to remind us of that 01:01:13.457 --> 01:01:19.200 - as we continue to move forward. So with that, without further ado, as it was looking at, this picture 01:01:19.200 --> 01:01:24.943 - still is showing us what it is that we want to see. And that's progress of where we want to be as far 01:01:24.943 --> 01:01:30.799 - as we talked a lot about a position of financial strength. And so cash balance projections, if you look 01:01:30.799 --> 01:01:32.094 - at my middle takeaway, 01:01:32.290 --> 01:01:37.678 - is that they're showing still that we are progressing towards a position of financial strength. And 01:01:37.678 --> 01:01:43.443 - that's what we intend to do and intend to be. And we need that because we are one of the biggest employers 01:01:43.443 --> 01:01:48.938 - in this county. We educate thousands and thousands of children. And it's really important that we are 01:01:48.938 --> 01:01:54.326 - in a solid place so that we can continue to be a place of certainty for them in a world where a lot 01:01:54.326 --> 01:01:59.767 - of times we experience a lot of uncertainties. And so we want to continue to push ourselves to be in 01:01:59.767 --> 01:02:00.414 - that place. 01:02:01.090 --> 01:02:07.235 - The arrival and strategic use of one-time funds, they are continuing to work as intended. They very 01:02:07.235 --> 01:02:13.380 - much support the picture that you see, and they allow us that runway to make structural changes. As 01:02:13.380 --> 01:02:19.525 - well as I've talked about, you can achieve balance, but if you don't have the proper safety nets or 01:02:19.525 --> 01:02:25.732 - that position of financial strength in place, you still need to work your way to get there. So those 01:02:25.732 --> 01:02:29.726 - one-time funds are very vital in helping us to do both, balance, 01:02:29.890 --> 01:02:35.905 - with those appropriate safety nets. And the third point that is furthest to the left is that we have 01:02:35.905 --> 01:02:42.039 - to continue to monitor those demographic trends. Those are things that we can't entirely predict. They 01:02:42.039 --> 01:02:48.054 - are completely outside of our control as it relates to some of the pieces that interact with us, but 01:02:48.054 --> 01:02:51.806 - in the legislative piece as well. And those interact with one, 01:02:51.938 --> 01:02:57.500 - tuition support, so our largest source of revenue in the legislative piece very much interacts with 01:02:57.500 --> 01:03:03.229 - how how we are able to collect property taxes or how that impacts property tax collection. And so that 01:03:03.229 --> 01:03:08.790 - is something that is our number two source of revenue as a public school corporation. So we have to 01:03:08.790 --> 01:03:14.575 - continue to monitor that. But we're very, very pleased with the progress that we made. And we know that 01:03:14.575 --> 01:03:20.248 - this has been a collective effort of everyone across the organization. And so we're very appreciative 01:03:20.248 --> 01:03:21.694 - of that of that progress. 01:03:22.914 --> 01:03:29.345 - This slide you've seen a number of times. I leave it there just as that reminder. I'm not gonna go through 01:03:29.345 --> 01:03:35.656 - every point of this, but we have outlined what we believe are effective and ineffective uses of one-time 01:03:35.656 --> 01:03:41.727 - funds, and then continue to provide some concrete examples of what those are so that people continue 01:03:41.727 --> 01:03:47.738 - to understand that. We talked about strategic fund management, strategic use of one-time funds, but 01:03:47.738 --> 01:03:50.142 - putting a little bit more definition to 01:03:50.338 --> 01:03:57.365 - our perspective on operating from a position of financial strength. In our education fund, our goal 01:03:57.365 --> 01:04:04.602 - is 18 to 20% of expenditures. And there's some different rationale and context that's really important 01:04:04.602 --> 01:04:11.769 - to these numbers because numbers without context can be very misleading. And so when we look at this, 01:04:11.769 --> 01:04:19.358 - the reason that we're looking for 18 to 20% is one, the education fund is our largest fund. It has regular, 01:04:19.714 --> 01:04:25.339 - Revenue coming in, tuition support comes in on a monthly basis, but it supports a large amount 01:04:25.339 --> 01:04:31.852 - of expenditures and the cash flow needed to operate the school corporation on a day-to-day and month-to-month 01:04:31.852 --> 01:04:37.833 - basis. It helps guards us against the unknowns of student population variability. Like I said in the 01:04:37.833 --> 01:04:43.754 - last slide, monitoring demographic trends is really important. And so as those changes happen to us 01:04:43.754 --> 01:04:48.254 - every six months, if we don't have those sitting in a position of strength, 01:04:48.354 --> 01:04:54.938 - it puts us in a place of uncertainty immediately if we're not there. And then again, it guards us against 01:04:54.938 --> 01:05:01.150 - delays and or reductions in state revenue. And I'll talk about it and I'll connect it back as I get 01:05:01.150 --> 01:05:07.486 - to the bottom piece too. But it helps us as we in our other funds go periods of time without revenue. 01:05:07.486 --> 01:05:08.542 - So in our in our 01:05:09.026 --> 01:05:15.524 - Tax levied funds, so our operations fund and a referendum fund that are not statutory limited. Remember 01:05:15.524 --> 01:05:21.771 - I told you during my budget presentation earlier that the debt service fund has a operating balance 01:05:21.771 --> 01:05:28.332 - limit. Those ones we're looking for at least 23 to 25% of expenditures. But when you're looking at that, 01:05:28.332 --> 01:05:34.767 - some of those funds go almost six months without revenue and regularly occurring expenses on a monthly 01:05:34.767 --> 01:05:38.078 - basis. And so when you're getting out to month four, 01:05:38.370 --> 01:05:44.415 - five, almost six of no revenue into those funds. It's really important that your other funds, 01:05:44.415 --> 01:05:50.974 - most importantly the education fund, is in a really healthy place because it continues to allow us to 01:05:50.974 --> 01:05:57.534 - have the cash on hand to meet the in and out ongoing needs of the school corporation. It also puts us 01:05:57.534 --> 01:06:04.222 - in a place where as legislative trends and changes happen, and we talked a lot about that over the last 01:06:04.962 --> 01:06:10.925 - at least a year, a little over a year since I've been here and before that as well, is that when those 01:06:10.925 --> 01:06:16.945 - things change on us, it allows us again, to have a longer period of time to change if we need to change 01:06:16.945 --> 01:06:23.198 - how we're operating as a public school corporation and be in a place of certainty. So it's really important 01:06:23.198 --> 01:06:29.103 - that we not only achieve balance, but we continue to operate and move towards a position of financial 01:06:29.103 --> 01:06:34.718 - strength because it's what we need to do to provide that certainty for the people that we employ 01:06:34.882 --> 01:06:41.754 - and the children that we educate. My last piece, and I end on this as far as this part of the presentation, 01:06:41.754 --> 01:06:48.244 - but I just continue to put that reminder out there that the every dollar, every student website is up 01:06:48.244 --> 01:06:54.797 - there that has a ton of information on it. And a lot of that information is public available data, but 01:06:54.797 --> 01:06:57.406 - that information is in different places. 01:06:57.634 --> 01:07:03.200 - So we continue to bring it into one place and then we've created links so that if people want to navigate 01:07:03.200 --> 01:07:08.556 - gateway, they want to go into some of these different state websites, they can find it there too. But 01:07:08.556 --> 01:07:13.807 - we try to be as helpful as possible as it relates to getting that information and understanding how 01:07:13.807 --> 01:07:19.006 - we how we function as a public school corporation, how we're funded and where our expenses go. So. 01:07:19.330 --> 01:07:26.014 - With that, that concludes that part of the presentation. The next part of the presentation, I told you 01:07:26.014 --> 01:07:32.633 - we're gonna talk a little bit about facilities master planning, but this is a really important piece. 01:07:32.633 --> 01:07:39.382 - And like I said, we put out an RFQP for facility master planning services and we had some good response 01:07:39.382 --> 01:07:46.065 - to that. And we went through a pretty rigorous process as it relates to evaluating partners that would 01:07:46.065 --> 01:07:49.310 - help us to move through that process and have the 01:07:49.410 --> 01:07:55.299 - resources and the expertise to help us do that well and so we you guys already approved that kind of 01:07:55.299 --> 01:08:01.247 - those contracts with CSO and Skillman but we're excited about that partnership with those two and how 01:08:01.247 --> 01:08:07.253 - they're going to help us through that process because this is very closely tied to when we think about 01:08:07.253 --> 01:08:13.085 - financial balance and sustainability but it's also very much tied to sustaining excellence and so I 01:08:13.085 --> 01:08:16.350 - know Dr. Winston is going to talk more about that here. 01:08:18.498 --> 01:08:25.271 - Sarah, can you grab the clicker for me? Thank you so much, Matt. I appreciate that. So nobody's more 01:08:25.271 --> 01:08:32.111 - excited about this than I am. I'm beyond thrilled, although Matt thinks he's more excited. I'm pretty 01:08:32.111 --> 01:08:39.153 - geeked about it as well. When you think about schools, our schools exist to educate children, not simply 01:08:39.153 --> 01:08:45.054 - to occupy buildings. And when we think about our facilities, they should really reflect 01:08:45.410 --> 01:08:51.963 - and support the academic experiences that we want for our children. That's really the goal. It's the 01:08:51.963 --> 01:08:58.580 - kinds of experiences that we want for every child that walks through our doors. As we begin to embark 01:08:58.580 --> 01:09:05.457 - on the creation of a 10-year, yes, 10-year facilities master plan, our why for having a facilities master 01:09:05.457 --> 01:09:11.166 - plan is so that we have a collaboratively developed roadmap that's developed based upon 01:09:11.714 --> 01:09:17.987 - the wishes and the desires and the needs and the priorities of our community. So you're going to see 01:09:17.987 --> 01:09:24.323 - a collaborative process whereby we have community members, we have parents, we have teachers, we have 01:09:24.323 --> 01:09:30.658 - principals, we have students helping us to talk through what are the educational experiences that are 01:09:30.658 --> 01:09:36.932 - most important and most valuable for our students, not just for today, but for tomorrow as well. And 01:09:36.932 --> 01:09:40.286 - so that's the opportunity that we have in front of us 01:09:40.514 --> 01:09:47.395 - completing this roadmap. As we develop our facilities master plan, our community rooted educational 01:09:47.395 --> 01:09:54.896 - priorities will continue to remain the foundation for every decision that gets made and every recommendation 01:09:54.896 --> 01:10:01.778 - as we go forward. I like this particular graphic because it really represents our community and the 01:10:01.778 --> 01:10:07.902 - community as the foundation and as the forefront of making sure that the voices from all 01:10:08.738 --> 01:10:15.459 - aspects of our community and every corner of our community are heard and listened to and incorporated 01:10:15.459 --> 01:10:22.115 - into the kinds of educational experiences that we want for our children. And in fact, you know, when 01:10:22.115 --> 01:10:28.902 - we think about our schools and we think about the role that education plays, how do we ensure that our 01:10:28.902 --> 01:10:35.755 - children have the best learning environments, not just today, not just tomorrow, but for years to come? 01:10:35.755 --> 01:10:38.654 - That's the significance of the work that we 01:10:38.786 --> 01:10:44.686 - have in front of us, and it has the opportunity to be quite transformational. But we can't do that without 01:10:44.686 --> 01:10:50.366 - good data, without good information. And that's where our community partners are going to come in. Our 01:10:50.366 --> 01:10:55.990 - architectural partners are going to be able to help us take a look at that. You'll see down below the 01:10:55.990 --> 01:11:01.504 - designing and building to sustain academic excellence. This will become a part of that body of work 01:11:01.504 --> 01:11:07.294 - as well. In many ways, when I think about this work and I think about the role that the community plays, 01:11:07.554 --> 01:11:13.200 - This work has already begun in some ways when we established our Strong Schools Strong Community Advisory 01:11:13.200 --> 01:11:18.527 - Council back in the spring. We've spent a lot of time talking with our council about the vision for 01:11:18.527 --> 01:11:23.853 - education. You know, what are the opportunities that exist here in our school corporation? So we've 01:11:23.853 --> 01:11:29.180 - actually already laid the foundation for how we will choose to prioritize the needs of our students 01:11:29.180 --> 01:11:34.826 - through the voices of our community members and the voices of our parents and the voices of our students. 01:11:34.826 --> 01:11:35.838 - When I think about 01:11:36.258 --> 01:11:41.603 - This body of work, I think about it in terms of three priority areas that kind of are overarching or 01:11:41.603 --> 01:11:46.947 - three pillars. On the left-hand side, you see academic excellence. That's what we talk about all the 01:11:46.947 --> 01:11:52.610 - time. And when we talk about academic excellence, we're just talking about what does high quality teaching 01:11:52.610 --> 01:11:58.060 - and learning look like? What are the kinds of experiences that we want our students to have? What does 01:11:58.060 --> 01:12:03.670 - that mean for the arts, for the athletics, for academics, for literacy, for numeracy? Academic excellence 01:12:03.670 --> 01:12:05.310 - is certainly at the forefront. 01:12:05.794 --> 01:12:12.245 - But then we talk about our objective data and information. How will we make informed decisions guided 01:12:12.245 --> 01:12:18.758 - by data? That center column is really highlighting the kinds of information and the kinds of data that 01:12:18.758 --> 01:12:25.272 - we're going to be looking at. Comprehensive building assessments, that's the first phase of developing 01:12:25.272 --> 01:12:32.039 - a facilities master plan. Looking at our capacity, how many students can we comfortably and safely educate 01:12:32.039 --> 01:12:35.454 - in a building? What should the utilization look like? 01:12:35.906 --> 01:12:42.496 - Looking at that kind of data, what kind of financial sustainability needs to be at the forefront of 01:12:42.496 --> 01:12:49.218 - some of our decisions? What about the demographic trends that exist in Bloomington and Monroe County? 01:12:49.218 --> 01:12:55.941 - We all know that the population has been declining for the last several years here in Bloomington and 01:12:55.941 --> 01:13:02.795 - Monroe County. We also know that the birth rates are low, and we are seeing that evidenced by declining 01:13:02.795 --> 01:13:04.574 - numbers of kindergartners. 01:13:05.314 --> 01:13:10.823 - We've been monitoring our kindergarten enrollment for the last several years. And when you compare and 01:13:10.823 --> 01:13:16.386 - contrast that to the number of high school graduates, we see how the lower birth rate in our community, 01:13:16.386 --> 01:13:21.734 - and it's happening across the country, is impacting us. And so that kind of data must be considered 01:13:21.734 --> 01:13:27.297 - at the forefront as we are thinking about what do we need our schools to be able to do for our students 01:13:27.297 --> 01:13:33.020 - a year from now, five years from now, and 10 years from now. And the way to get there is through community 01:13:33.020 --> 01:13:33.662 - engagement. 01:13:33.954 --> 01:13:39.640 - And so the third pillar really focuses on the role in which our community will play in assisting us 01:13:39.640 --> 01:13:45.383 - in establishing those priorities. I'm very excited about the work that's happening in our curriculum 01:13:45.383 --> 01:13:51.353 - office that's being led by Mrs. Harmon. That's going to be at the forefront and we're going to be having 01:13:51.353 --> 01:13:57.323 - conversations with our community around what do they want to see, how do we make sure that that happens, 01:13:57.323 --> 01:14:02.782 - and we're going to find a variety of ways to engage folks. So it's a very exciting opportunity. 01:14:03.170 --> 01:14:09.368 - And so on the next slide, really just talking about why do we need a facilities master plan? Well, as 01:14:09.368 --> 01:14:15.506 - we establish our goals and priorities academically, we want to make sure that we have the facilities 01:14:15.506 --> 01:14:21.583 - to support those priorities. And so the overarching question that we will consistently come back to 01:14:21.583 --> 01:14:27.903 - time and time again, what learning environments best support student success today and into the future? 01:14:27.903 --> 01:14:30.334 - We have a long tradition of excellence. 01:14:30.690 --> 01:14:36.412 - in our school corporation. We have excellence in academics, we have excellence in the arts, and we have 01:14:36.412 --> 01:14:41.913 - excellence in athletics. We want to make sure that we continue to be strong in each of those areas. 01:14:41.913 --> 01:14:47.690 - And so we will consistently in each of those areas come back and talk about is this learning environment 01:14:47.690 --> 01:14:53.412 - conducive to the kinds of excellence that we want to provide for our students going forward. Developing 01:14:53.412 --> 01:14:57.758 - the long-term roadmap, I mentioned that it's a 10-year facilities master plan. 01:14:58.146 --> 01:15:03.746 - Not every school corporation does this and not everybody does it well. We are very well positioned to 01:15:03.746 --> 01:15:09.346 - do it exceedingly well with the kind of partnership that we have with Skillman and CSO. We think that 01:15:09.346 --> 01:15:14.946 - they are the right partners for us and for right now. And having that collaborative team that's gonna 01:15:14.946 --> 01:15:20.491 - help us focus on safety needs of our schools, that's gonna help us take a close look at our building 01:15:20.491 --> 01:15:26.366 - conditions. I've already talked about capacity and utilization. All of those are part of the conversation. 01:15:26.594 --> 01:15:33.996 - And then certainly we have to pay attention to the demographic trends. The next thing I want to kind 01:15:33.996 --> 01:15:41.837 - of highlight is just the overall benefit of having a long-term plan. We'll be able to take the demographic 01:15:41.837 --> 01:15:49.458 - trends that are happening in our community into consideration as we establish what our future footprint 01:15:49.458 --> 01:15:55.614 - should look like. A couple of years ago, our board commissioned a demographer to do 01:15:55.970 --> 01:16:03.821 - review and in his review he anticipated that we would begin to lose enrollment numbers over the next 01:16:03.821 --> 01:16:11.749 - 10 years in fact and so it's really important that we take that into consideration as we are planning 01:16:11.749 --> 01:16:19.989 - the future of our facilities. We're going to have to adjust our projections accordingly. And I've already 01:16:19.989 --> 01:16:21.310 - spoken about how 01:16:22.242 --> 01:16:28.577 - board decisions in the future can be informed by this body of work. It's going to be an opportunity 01:16:28.577 --> 01:16:35.229 - for us to think about the financial implications. It's going to help us take a closer look at what kinds 01:16:35.229 --> 01:16:41.754 - of buildings and facilities are necessary to strengthen what we're doing in the arts. We just approved 01:16:41.754 --> 01:16:48.215 - a new director of orchestra, an assistant director of orchestra this evening. It'll be important that 01:16:48.215 --> 01:16:50.686 - their voices are at the table as well. 01:16:51.266 --> 01:16:57.252 - Later this evening, the board's going to engage in a conversation about redistricting. It is certainly 01:16:57.252 --> 01:17:03.180 - important to note that a facility's master plan process can be very instrumental in helping to inform 01:17:03.180 --> 01:17:09.224 - good decision making as it relates to redistricting and then overall long-term sustainability. So there 01:17:09.224 --> 01:17:15.152 - are a lot of benefits to engaging in a facility's master plan. As I prepare to close out, I just want 01:17:15.152 --> 01:17:20.382 - to highlight what to expect from the process. The process is going to include engagement, 01:17:21.090 --> 01:17:27.804 - Looking at the demographic trends, both for our city, for our county, but also our enrollment numbers, 01:17:27.804 --> 01:17:34.322 - we are continuing to monitor those very closely. Looking at the financial alignment of the expected 01:17:34.322 --> 01:17:41.231 - resources, it's very important that we don't exceed our capacity financially and that we don't overburden 01:17:41.231 --> 01:17:47.945 - our taxpayers. That's at the forefront of our conversations as well. It's more than just improving our 01:17:47.945 --> 01:17:50.878 - facilities, but it's certainly strengthening 01:17:51.074 --> 01:17:56.405 - what our facilities look like and making sure that our students are prepared for the future that we 01:17:56.405 --> 01:18:02.055 - can't even anticipate today. And then quality data and information will inform and guide those decisions. 01:18:02.055 --> 01:18:07.439 - The exciting part for me is that this board and administrative team has been characterized by strong 01:18:07.439 --> 01:18:12.823 - community engagement over the past two years in particular, and it will be even more important as we 01:18:12.823 --> 01:18:18.260 - develop our facilities plan. It will be imperative that members from throughout our diverse community 01:18:18.260 --> 01:18:19.326 - have an opportunity 01:18:19.458 --> 01:18:25.143 - to help us establish our academic direction so that we can have state of the art facilities aligned 01:18:25.143 --> 01:18:30.942 - specifically to our academic needs and the goals that we have for our children. We will work with our 01:18:30.942 --> 01:18:36.627 - lead architectural consultants to engage our community in a variety of ways throughout the process. 01:18:36.627 --> 01:18:42.483 - I think it's important to remind everyone that a facilities master plan is simply not about buildings. 01:18:42.483 --> 01:18:46.974 - It is about creating learning environments that allow every student to thrive. 01:18:47.362 --> 01:18:53.937 - Today's students and the students of tomorrow. By grounding our work at academic excellence, objective 01:18:53.937 --> 01:19:00.639 - data, and meaningful community partnership, we will develop a roadmap that reflects both our educational 01:19:00.639 --> 01:19:07.277 - mission and the values that are important to our community. I am excited about what we will do together 01:19:07.277 --> 01:19:13.086 - as we create the next facilities master plan for MCCSE. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Winston. 01:19:18.594 --> 01:19:25.624 - Our next update will be in November. Thank you. And thank you, Mr. Irwin, for your report. Are there 01:19:25.624 --> 01:19:32.655 - any questions or comments from the board? Well, I was going to say thanks, Matt. I really appreciate 01:19:32.655 --> 01:19:39.755 - those seven things that you post up. I can't remember. I didn't even move down to the master plan, so 01:19:39.755 --> 01:19:45.950 - I really can't remember. I'll be honest. But I really appreciate that and that reminder. 01:19:48.674 --> 01:19:55.349 - And I'm excited about your master plan. Very good. Have you already start reaching out to community 01:19:55.349 --> 01:20:02.292 - members to be a part of the? Not yet. Tonight is our first public discussion of it. In the next several 01:20:02.292 --> 01:20:09.167 - weeks, I would anticipate we'll begin that process. How do we think we'll determine who serves on that 01:20:09.167 --> 01:20:16.510 - task force or committee? I'm very open to hearing suggestions and thoughts on that. We have not even begun to 01:20:16.866 --> 01:20:22.542 - strategize as to what that will look like. But we would want to have representation from all of our 01:20:22.542 --> 01:20:28.446 - buildings throughout the corporation. And we definitely want to have some parents and community members 01:20:28.446 --> 01:20:34.406 - at the table. So when we sit down with our architectural partners, we'll start thinking through. They've 01:20:34.406 --> 01:20:40.253 - got a lot of experience in doing this, so they may have some great ideas that we need to consider. But 01:20:40.253 --> 01:20:46.270 - at this moment in time, we haven't begun that process. But certainly, we are open to hearing suggestions. 01:20:49.090 --> 01:20:58.396 - a list of people that weren't able to participate in the strong schools. Yes, the strong schools that 01:20:58.396 --> 01:21:07.611 - might be. We do. Yeah, we absolutely could begin with that group as well as our master program. So I 01:21:07.611 --> 01:21:14.910 - think we have lots of possibilities. Thank you again, Dr. Winston and Mr. Owen. 01:21:16.546 --> 01:21:22.051 - Tonight we will begin a new segment in our meetings called committee reports. At each January 01:21:22.051 --> 01:21:27.966 - reorganizational meeting, board members elect to serve on corporation committees. Tonight and almost 01:21:27.966 --> 01:21:34.349 - each month following, those serving on committees will provide the public with an update on their respective 01:21:34.349 --> 01:21:40.088 - committee's work. The first committee update is from the Insurance Committee. Our Vice President, 01:21:40.088 --> 01:21:42.782 - Ross Grimes, sits on the Insurance Committee. 01:21:42.978 --> 01:21:49.545 - Unfortunately, he was unable to be at our meeting tonight due to a prior commitment. And so I have some 01:21:49.545 --> 01:21:55.985 - talking points from the insurance committee. And then I think I have some help answering questions if 01:21:55.985 --> 01:22:02.362 - you do have questions about insurance. The highlights are we are focusing on programs that make sure 01:22:02.362 --> 01:22:09.118 - members get high quality care at the lowest cost and many times at lower or no member out of pocket costs. 01:22:10.082 --> 01:22:16.077 - Next, we are looking at specific needs of our members, our claims categories, and how benefits are being 01:22:16.077 --> 01:22:21.787 - used so that we can help members utilize their health insurance benefits and drive better outcomes. 01:22:21.787 --> 01:22:27.497 - Sometimes that looks like the clinic or us engaging members directly to make sure they are aware of 01:22:27.497 --> 01:22:33.550 - specific health insurance benefit programs we have that align with their current needs and circumstances. 01:22:33.550 --> 01:22:38.974 - And finally, we believe these types of efforts will improve the member experience and outcomes 01:22:39.138 --> 01:22:49.032 - lower their out-of-pocket expenses, and reduce future liabilities of the plan, thus improving the chance 01:22:49.032 --> 01:22:58.549 - for lower health insurance premium increases in the future. Any questions or comments from the board 01:22:58.549 --> 01:23:06.558 - about insurance? Everyone's least favorite subject to talk about, ask me how I know. 01:23:09.090 --> 01:23:19.070 - I was just waiting for you to ask the insurance questions. This is outside my wheelhouse. This kind 01:23:19.070 --> 01:23:29.150 - of insurance. I think that's right. I won't take that as a reflection on my delivery of the talking. 01:23:31.970 --> 01:23:41.208 - If there are no further comments from the board on insurance, then we will open the floor for 01:23:41.208 --> 01:23:51.231 - our conversation regarding the redistricting study commission's findings. Would anyone like to begin? 01:23:51.231 --> 01:23:59.486 - April, would you like to begin? I'm waiting for someone else to begin. We can wait. 01:24:10.370 --> 01:24:19.148 - If you need to grease the wheels, we just start. Yeah, I can begin order. I just feel like I am always 01:24:19.148 --> 01:24:27.842 - the beginner. It's a gift. Oh, OK. Is that what it is? So, you know, I'm glad that we're here finally 01:24:27.842 --> 01:24:36.535 - to have this conversation. I know it was somewhat delayed, but I think it's. Obviously, there's a lot 01:24:36.535 --> 01:24:39.518 - here to take in, right? So we have 01:24:40.386 --> 01:24:49.012 - some of the data and findings from the demographic report that we got prior to the redistricting study 01:24:49.012 --> 01:24:57.471 - and prior to the merger conversations. And then the sort of deep body of work that the Redistricting 01:24:57.471 --> 01:25:06.097 - Study Commission has provided for us as well. And I think I want to start by saying that there weren't 01:25:06.097 --> 01:25:09.950 - really any surprises for me in the sense that 01:25:10.946 --> 01:25:17.509 - I don't think that I was surprised by any of the things that came back in part because, you know, I 01:25:17.509 --> 01:25:24.531 - think many of us had actually done that research, a lot of that research prior. I think it was interesting 01:25:24.531 --> 01:25:31.094 - to think about, well, one, I think we had an expert in our GIS mapping individual who came on board 01:25:31.094 --> 01:25:37.854 - sort of midway through that process who was able to help us really think through how do we create maps 01:25:37.986 --> 01:25:44.054 - Because that was one of the things that we put a call out for and no one had responded prior, right? 01:25:44.054 --> 01:25:50.122 - And so I think that led to us finding this individual who was able to assist us in thinking through, 01:25:50.122 --> 01:25:56.251 - how do we map? What do those maps look like? How could we potentially begin to think about overlaying 01:25:56.251 --> 01:26:02.259 - some of our student data onto like census block data and things like that? So I think that was very 01:26:02.259 --> 01:26:04.542 - helpful and came out of this process. 01:26:06.882 --> 01:26:16.484 - I do think that many of the assumptions that I moved into this process with were either confirmed or 01:26:16.484 --> 01:26:25.991 - sort of held steady with the work that came out of this. And I'll say more about those in a moment, 01:26:25.991 --> 01:26:33.406 - but the one thing that struck me as I was sort of like re-looking at our data 01:26:36.066 --> 01:26:45.276 - was that our disparity in free and reduced lunch data has actually shrunk considerably. Even in the 01:26:45.276 --> 01:26:55.038 - past, I guess I've been on the board now for six years or something, so five years, so even in that time, 01:26:55.394 --> 01:27:03.456 - When I was running, I remember that the numbers I had to work with were something like 93% free and 01:27:03.456 --> 01:27:11.518 - reduced lunch at Fairview and something like 7% at Childs. The disparity was massive. And with some 01:27:11.518 --> 01:27:19.661 - of the moves that have happened, like moving Alps into Fairview, which was again, sort of enormously 01:27:19.661 --> 01:27:21.918 - controversial at that time, 01:27:22.274 --> 01:27:29.487 - we've seen those numbers change. So that fair view at this point is only around 53% free and reduced 01:27:29.487 --> 01:27:36.986 - lunch. Now, again, I don't wanna use free and reduced lunch as a singular marker of socioeconomic status 01:27:36.986 --> 01:27:44.127 - because we do know that the parameters for free and reduced lunch are fairly narrow. But looking at 01:27:44.127 --> 01:27:51.269 - these numbers again today, I was kind of struck by the fact that at the highest, we have 61% and at 01:27:51.269 --> 01:27:52.126 - the lowest, 01:27:52.514 --> 01:28:03.080 - we have 14%. So the gap has shrunk considerably. And I think, I mean, I have a lot of theories as to 01:28:03.080 --> 01:28:13.331 - why that might be the case. But it did kind of make me scratch my head a little bit and say, huh, 01:28:13.331 --> 01:28:22.014 - we've like, the disparity is already starting to shrink. And what to make of that? 01:28:22.338 --> 01:28:29.077 - what that means for this process, what it means for the number of students that might then have to be 01:28:29.077 --> 01:28:35.683 - redistricted if that were the case. I mean, I think it changes things to some extent from just from 01:28:35.683 --> 01:28:40.638 - a numbers perspective. So I don't know, I'm just gonna stop there for now. 01:28:51.810 --> 01:28:58.382 - I'll just jump in to comment quickly on the shrinking of the disparity that you mentioned, April. I 01:28:58.382 --> 01:29:02.654 - did notice that even from the commission's report, which I think 01:29:02.786 --> 01:29:09.735 - listed our highest rate of free and reduced lunch as 74% down to our highest rate as 61%. I suspect 01:29:09.735 --> 01:29:16.823 - that some of that is a change in the federal guidelines for who qualifies for free and reduced lunch. 01:29:16.823 --> 01:29:24.119 - So it doesn't necessarily represent a change in socioeconomic status of our schools, but rather a change 01:29:24.119 --> 01:29:31.902 - in who's eligible and who's being left on the margins of the free and reduced lunch program. And also, as we do 01:29:32.194 --> 01:29:39.536 - consider the rates of free and reduced lunch. For Fairview specifically, I would suggest that we get 01:29:39.536 --> 01:29:47.313 - calculations on what their rate would be without the ELTS program. I think that when we moved that program 01:29:47.313 --> 01:29:54.873 - to Fairview, we did maybe a better job of integrating that program into the population at large in that 01:29:54.873 --> 01:30:01.342 - school. But they're still siloed within the classroom. So I don't know if that is a fair 01:30:01.858 --> 01:30:10.500 - model for integration and I would be curious to know what the numbers are if you remove the help students 01:30:10.500 --> 01:30:18.898 - from that number. I think those are great points. I want to pull on that thread just a little bit more 01:30:18.898 --> 01:30:27.214 - with regards to when we're looking at the free and reduced lunch numbers if we could also do a couple 01:30:27.214 --> 01:30:31.454 - of other things to look at the demographics as well 01:30:31.618 --> 01:30:42.451 - of the schools so what those look like for the different demographics that we have within that we we 01:30:42.451 --> 01:30:53.391 - have data for to see how those correlate with those numbers as well and I would also like to know how 01:30:53.391 --> 01:30:59.934 - those how those numbers look within the schools that we have 01:31:01.794 --> 01:31:10.165 - Like our, oh goodness, what are they called? Is that one? No, the special programming schools. So how 01:31:10.165 --> 01:31:18.536 - do those, what do the demographics look like within our special programming schools with relationship 01:31:18.536 --> 01:31:27.153 - to free and reduced lunch? And I'm gonna add another caveat to that. How many of those students in those 01:31:27.153 --> 01:31:28.958 - schools are opting in 01:31:29.186 --> 01:31:36.798 - from outside of their catchment zones and vice versa. So we also know what that looks like because I 01:31:36.798 --> 01:31:44.334 - think that those pieces can also impact our free and reduced lunch numbers within certain areas. So 01:31:44.334 --> 01:31:52.473 - for example, we've got schools like Fairview who has the arts program. So does that mean that more students 01:31:52.473 --> 01:31:57.598 - are likely to come into that school outside of that catchment zone? 01:31:57.698 --> 01:32:08.306 - that are driving down those numbers as well. So just more data on that I think is helpful. Could you 01:32:08.306 --> 01:32:19.230 - repeat your very first data question? Yes. So I would like to know with regards to our free and reduced 01:32:19.230 --> 01:32:27.422 - lunch what the demographics are for those schools as well. So white students, 01:32:27.650 --> 01:32:35.268 - Black students, Hispanic students, Asian students, students with special, students with disabilities, 01:32:35.268 --> 01:32:42.886 - all of those factors because there's probably some correlation that's living in between those numbers 01:32:42.886 --> 01:32:50.354 - versus free and reduced lunch notes. So I just wanna see what those look like. Does that, if I need 01:32:50.354 --> 01:32:56.478 - to get more precise, just let me know and I can throw you something in the email. 01:32:56.642 --> 01:33:04.139 - You would like that for every elementary school? Yeah, I would. I mean, if we're going to be talking 01:33:04.139 --> 01:33:11.858 - about redistricting and whether or not we need to look at the whole for the elementary school students, 01:33:11.858 --> 01:33:19.281 - I think that's vital to knowing how those correlate or don't correlate. So you would like us to run 01:33:19.281 --> 01:33:24.254 - some data that examines free and reduced lunch across demographics 01:33:24.706 --> 01:33:33.052 - as broken down by race and special service categories? Yes. OK. As well as a sub to that, then those 01:33:33.052 --> 01:33:41.481 - schools that have the special programming. So we know how many students are coming in or out of those 01:33:41.481 --> 01:33:50.654 - schools that don't go there. Transfer data. Or those that are in those catchment zones. That was a wrong word. 01:33:56.386 --> 01:34:07.889 - 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 01:34:07.889 --> 01:34:18.765 - 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 01:34:18.765 --> 01:34:24.830 - was done by the commission was. You all came up with all. 01:34:25.954 --> 01:34:39.762 - It was amazing. And the input and the time that I was taking the care, it definitely shows in the report. 01:34:39.762 --> 01:34:52.919 - Some of my thoughts on redistricting. I am always very mindful of barriers that are created, usually 01:34:52.919 --> 01:34:55.134 - unintentionally. 01:34:57.442 --> 01:35:12.178 - efforts to help or like in this case balance our socioeconomic economic status numbers. So that's been 01:35:12.178 --> 01:35:25.054 - my main point of concern is just ensuring that we are not creating barriers because while 01:35:25.186 --> 01:35:36.693 - While the numbers could look good, the supports that are available to some of our students in that free 01:35:36.693 --> 01:35:47.094 - and reduced lunch category, including like after school, I'm always mindful of thinking about 01:35:47.094 --> 01:35:52.958 - how redistricting is going to impact transportation. 01:35:53.826 --> 01:36:04.142 - for some of our students where personal transportation is a barrier and they are completely reliant 01:36:04.142 --> 01:36:14.561 - on our transportation and how that allows them to participate in before and after school activities, 01:36:14.561 --> 01:36:23.742 - tutoring and all those types of things that go on. But overall, what I would like to see 01:36:24.194 --> 01:36:41.782 - are some very specific maps and details to the impacts and maybe some of the impacts that we aren't 01:36:41.782 --> 01:36:52.862 - really looking at right now. I don't know that I have anything 01:36:53.058 --> 01:37:00.856 - new to add to the discussion except to kind of highlight just the unknown. And I echo what board member 01:37:00.856 --> 01:37:08.955 - Jester is saying about being mindful and unintended consequences. As I was preparing for tonight's meeting, 01:37:08.955 --> 01:37:16.678 - just thinking about how if we moved people further away from, because neighborhood schools can be good 01:37:16.678 --> 01:37:22.302 - for some people and not so good for other people, but then the reality is, 01:37:22.466 --> 01:37:29.662 - If you're moved farther away from a school where you are living, what does that mean for transportation, 01:37:29.662 --> 01:37:36.583 - after school supports, tutoring, all the things that you mentioned? And so I think there are so many 01:37:36.583 --> 01:37:43.573 - things to consider. Some of the data that Board Member Parani was wondering about and just looking at 01:37:43.573 --> 01:37:51.454 - the changes in free lunch and what that has meant so far. But I think that just goes to show the enormity of this. 01:37:51.586 --> 01:38:00.494 - No matter what, I think we all can agree that concept of integrated schools is something that is worthy 01:38:00.494 --> 01:38:09.572 - of our time and attention, but also thinking about what Dr. Winston was saying about our 10-year forecast 01:38:09.572 --> 01:38:18.394 - in terms of possible declining birth rates and people leaving the community. So I think no matter what 01:38:18.394 --> 01:38:19.422 - the reason, 01:38:19.970 --> 01:38:27.162 - we're going to have to look at redistricting. But I think as a board, some of the key findings, we have 01:38:27.162 --> 01:38:34.078 - yet to define clear parameters and what our non-negotiables are. And so I think that's gonna be our 01:38:34.078 --> 01:38:41.201 - biggest challenge. But I know that it's taking us time because we need to gather this information. And 01:38:41.201 --> 01:38:44.382 - I just would hope that people understand that 01:38:44.642 --> 01:38:50.798 - It is gonna take patience. I know that it seems like we've been talking about this for a long time, 01:38:50.798 --> 01:38:57.139 - but we don't want to make any decisions that could really negate the whole effort of us trying to make 01:38:57.139 --> 01:39:03.418 - this more balanced and causing more harm to certain people. And of course, there's always going to be 01:39:03.418 --> 01:39:09.820 - some things that are unavoidable, but I think we just need to keep having this conversation, but making 01:39:09.820 --> 01:39:14.622 - progress towards it. But what I'm challenging us to do is really come up with 01:39:14.946 --> 01:39:22.264 - what those parameters are, because it is difficult. So we have all these different maps that could be 01:39:22.264 --> 01:39:29.653 - used, but until we decide exactly what it is we're trying to accomplish, that's the thing that I think 01:39:29.653 --> 01:39:37.042 - that we really need to drill down. But I think that it's definitely worth continuing to pursue. So one 01:39:37.042 --> 01:39:40.414 - thing I'll add on to what Dr. Wyatt just said, 01:39:42.818 --> 01:39:49.797 - So definitely like the census block helped us, gave us the data to provide like a method for looking 01:39:49.797 --> 01:39:56.777 - at attendance zones and things like that. You're right, as a board we haven't made like decisions or 01:39:56.777 --> 01:40:03.825 - even know what is the percentage of the socioeconomic status we're trying to reach. I mean, I go back 01:40:03.825 --> 01:40:10.804 - and forth. I've enjoyed reading this and reading all the comments that people have made. But I think 01:40:10.804 --> 01:40:12.670 - as a board we have to know 01:40:12.866 --> 01:40:19.787 - What are our clear, like, financial targets? I mean, what is the cost savings with this as well? Because, 01:40:19.787 --> 01:40:26.447 - I mean, as you all were talking, too, about if you move students to another school, are schools going 01:40:26.447 --> 01:40:32.977 - to close? I mean, what's the capacity of that building? All of that, too, I think is something that 01:40:32.977 --> 01:40:39.637 - we should think about as well. I think, I mean, part of moving this conversation forward, I think, is 01:40:39.637 --> 01:40:41.726 - even beginning to understand if 01:40:42.562 --> 01:40:50.490 - the board is on a similar page or not in order to move the conversation forward, right? Is there enough 01:40:50.490 --> 01:40:58.419 - will of the board to even consider continuing to think about redistricting or not, I think? And I would 01:40:58.419 --> 01:41:06.195 - say that we should probably, existing attendance zones I think should not be treated as an inherently 01:41:06.195 --> 01:41:12.446 - neutral position. I think that there's this thought that redistricting is like a, 01:41:13.698 --> 01:41:20.222 - is a controversial decision. But I would argue that maintaining the kind of status quo or the districts 01:41:20.222 --> 01:41:26.620 - as they sit is also potentially controversial, right? It is not a neutral position to say, we're just 01:41:26.620 --> 01:41:33.144 - not going to redistrict. We will just stay as it is. The status quo is inherently sort of controversial 01:41:33.144 --> 01:41:39.668 - as well, I think, especially when we think about the fact that we truly haven't done or engaged in true 01:41:39.668 --> 01:41:40.734 - redistricting in 01:41:41.154 --> 01:41:51.415 - a very, very long time, and whether or not we're solving for population density, for moving populations 01:41:51.415 --> 01:42:01.577 - of individuals or groups, whenever you have a district that has lagged for so long in looking at their 01:42:01.577 --> 01:42:10.654 - boundary or catchment zones, I think you're going to end up with problems. It is very clear 01:42:11.042 --> 01:42:19.298 - from the research that we do have inequities within our catchment zones. That is clear from the data. 01:42:19.298 --> 01:42:27.392 - And I would say that if we look at the research, it also tells us that there is not great harm that 01:42:27.392 --> 01:42:35.486 - comes from redistricting. There might be harm from a community perspective because people have very 01:42:35.486 --> 01:42:40.990 - sort of vastly differing opinions. But when you look at the data on 01:42:41.634 --> 01:42:49.090 - the students themselves, they're not truly adversely affected. And some might argue that there isn't 01:42:49.090 --> 01:42:56.694 - massive amounts of gain either in some of those studies. But I do think that when it comes to thinking 01:42:56.694 --> 01:43:02.526 - about the reasons why we might redistrict, I think we need to get really clear 01:43:02.658 --> 01:43:09.714 - on those things. I think, yes, SES balance is part of that. I think at this point in our MCCSE narrative, 01:43:09.714 --> 01:43:16.371 - we know that we're in a very different fiscal position now than we were even a couple of years ago. 01:43:16.371 --> 01:43:23.228 - And so we also need to think about things like, you know, capacity of our buildings, utilization. What 01:43:23.228 --> 01:43:30.750 - does that look like? What does that mean? If we're going to continue to have numbers that are shrinking, I think 01:43:31.010 --> 01:43:37.380 - the Facilities Master Plan is gonna be immensely important to these conversations. And then, yes, I 01:43:37.380 --> 01:43:43.877 - think we probably do need to get down to some data points, like what is an acceptable or an allowable 01:43:43.877 --> 01:43:49.992 - gap in the percentage points of free and reduced lunch between our schools? Is it 25, is it 30, 01:43:49.992 --> 01:43:56.616 - is it 40, is it 37? Those kinds of things. What is our sort of maximum number of students that we might 01:43:56.616 --> 01:43:58.782 - actually want to transfer, right? 01:43:59.330 --> 01:44:07.154 - 10% is too much? Is it 5%? Is it 20%? Like, what is the maximum sort of number of students that we would 01:44:07.154 --> 01:44:14.904 - consider transferring, right? And then what would that transfer look like? I mean, I think, I know Ross 01:44:14.904 --> 01:44:22.356 - and I will not speak for him specifically, but I just know that he's talked in other conversations, 01:44:22.356 --> 01:44:27.870 - even when we were sort of talking about the merger, about something like, 01:44:28.386 --> 01:44:36.213 - you know, moving sixth grade to middle school, right? What does that do as it sort of shifts the number 01:44:36.213 --> 01:44:44.040 - of students in our buildings, as it makes space? I don't know. I mean, I think there are lots of things 01:44:44.040 --> 01:44:51.942 - for us to consider, but the makeup of the board has changed since we started these conversations, right? 01:44:51.942 --> 01:44:57.662 - We've had a superintendent change. We've had multiple board member changes. 01:44:58.306 --> 01:45:05.277 - And I am not even sure at this moment if the board, if the will of the board is to continue to move 01:45:05.277 --> 01:45:12.248 - forward with this discussion. So I think for me, even tonight, walking away with some clarity about 01:45:12.248 --> 01:45:19.358 - that particular issue would be progress, in my opinion. I agree. But I also kind of want to come back 01:45:19.358 --> 01:45:26.329 - to the point you made about doing nothing is also a decision, or maintaining the status quo is also 01:45:26.329 --> 01:45:27.166 - a decision. 01:45:27.522 --> 01:45:36.207 - So I was also thinking about the parameters to Tiana and Erin's point about I think we're honestly since 01:45:36.207 --> 01:45:44.644 - 2024 we've heard from the community that we need to have better parameters and in the literature they 01:45:44.644 --> 01:45:48.862 - call it they they use the terms goals and criteria 01:45:48.994 --> 01:45:56.327 - or at some places in the report, they say operational definitions. I heard that loud and clear, and 01:45:56.327 --> 01:46:03.954 - just as sort of a, as a test for myself, I try to make a list of measurable criteria that could be used 01:46:03.954 --> 01:46:11.507 - to evaluate different options. And I won't bore you with my list of criteria, but some of them overlap 01:46:11.507 --> 01:46:15.614 - with some of the things that you all have said tonight. 01:46:15.746 --> 01:46:22.017 - things like transportation time, cost savings, utilization. The one for me that was hard to figure out 01:46:22.017 --> 01:46:28.227 - how to quantify was access to activities. I really, I agree that I think that's really important, the 01:46:28.227 --> 01:46:34.437 - access to programming and activities, but I couldn't figure out how to quantify it, so it didn't make 01:46:34.437 --> 01:46:38.942 - my list of eight, but I think we should be mindful of it. I also tried to 01:46:39.106 --> 01:46:47.061 - plug in some sort of metrics for how would you define, if we say utilization is one of the criteria 01:46:47.061 --> 01:46:55.096 - by which we would evaluate whether a model was successful or not, kind of what, how would you define 01:46:55.096 --> 01:47:03.449 - a good utilization model and a bad or out of bounds? And I actually think that we have the data to start 01:47:03.449 --> 01:47:08.222 - to set those metrics already. I plugged some in from my own 01:47:08.322 --> 01:47:15.937 - thinking about it, but I do think that we have, I don't know if utilization, I kind of guessed on that 01:47:15.937 --> 01:47:23.626 - one, but something like one of my criteria was annual long-term financial impact. And just knowing what 01:47:23.626 --> 01:47:25.918 - our budget is, I just used AI. 01:47:26.050 --> 01:47:32.340 - disclosure to figure out what would be a meaningful cost savings for a budget of our size. And so I 01:47:32.340 --> 01:47:38.629 - was able to say like, aren't my metric for saying this has a significant financial savings would be 01:47:38.629 --> 01:47:45.044 - greater than 3% annual savings. That was kind of my high. That's just one example. I think I do think 01:47:45.044 --> 01:47:51.460 - that we have enough to start setting those parameters and metrics as a board now. I think we've heard 01:47:51.460 --> 01:47:55.422 - loud and clear from the community and from the literature that 01:47:55.554 --> 01:48:02.469 - that we need those parameters as we start to evaluate different options. I think that doing nothing 01:48:02.469 --> 01:48:09.522 - is one of the options, but even if that's our choice, we still need some metrics for determining that 01:48:09.522 --> 01:48:16.437 - that's a good choice. Personally, I would also like to broaden the definition of the project beyond 01:48:16.437 --> 01:48:23.836 - redistricting. I'd be curious to know what you all think about this. Something like the term redistricting 01:48:23.836 --> 01:48:25.150 - and restructuring, 01:48:25.314 --> 01:48:31.489 - that might capture Ross's and others' ideas about moving sixth grade to middle school. The report considered 01:48:31.489 --> 01:48:37.212 - things like closing schools, which I guess falls under redistricting, but honestly, I hadn't thought 01:48:37.212 --> 01:48:42.877 - of it like that before, but didn't consider things like school mergers. It explicitly said that was 01:48:42.877 --> 01:48:48.543 - something that they did not consider. And I would sort of like to consider all of the possibilities 01:48:48.543 --> 01:48:51.262 - for meeting whatever the goals are that we set. 01:48:51.394 --> 01:48:59.651 - I think a term that might be broader than redistricting would better capture that. I like also when 01:48:59.651 --> 01:49:07.496 - April was talking about, you know, seeing where we're at as a board, I think that's important. 01:49:07.496 --> 01:49:15.753 - Early on, I mean, I thought about it. I mean, I'm a parent too in this district and why I bought my 01:49:15.753 --> 01:49:20.542 - house. I mean, I am a fan of neighborhood schools. I was. 01:49:20.674 --> 01:49:27.500 - That's how I was raised too. But when I listened to them read Jacinda's end, we got the email, so I 01:49:27.500 --> 01:49:34.463 - don't know if I'm supposed to say that, but anyhow, that email. And I studied and read a lot of those 01:49:34.463 --> 01:49:41.426 - reports and that research that she had mentioned. And it makes sense, because I think about during my 01:49:41.426 --> 01:49:48.388 - time, and I'm coming up on my 30-year high school reunion, fairly young still, but that's OK. And how 01:49:48.388 --> 01:49:49.822 - our classrooms were. 01:49:49.922 --> 01:49:57.041 - I mean, being only two, I mean, you see I'm black, two black kids in a classroom and not having other 01:49:57.041 --> 01:50:04.369 - people that look like you or going to schools that were further away. Like some of my friends went hours 01:50:04.369 --> 01:50:11.767 - away because they needed that integration. And if we can do something here, regardless of me, our schools 01:50:11.767 --> 01:50:16.094 - aren't that far apart. I was thinking about it, I'm like now, 01:50:16.770 --> 01:50:22.368 - none of the schools are that far apart. And I get it that we're looking always at free and reduced lunch. 01:50:22.368 --> 01:50:27.913 - And I have a thing with that too, because sometimes when we think about free and reduced lunch, we don't 01:50:27.913 --> 01:50:33.300 - think about the temporary places people are on free and reduced lunch. Because when people quit their 01:50:33.300 --> 01:50:38.633 - jobs and have one income, they qualify for free and reduced lunch. But they were at a high threshold 01:50:38.633 --> 01:50:43.967 - earlier. So I don't want to make assumptions just because people are on free and reduced lunch. They 01:50:43.967 --> 01:50:46.238 - can't get their kids different places too. 01:50:46.498 --> 01:50:52.658 - But I mean, after all this, I say, I could go on forever, I'm gonna quiet down, is that I'm more for 01:50:52.658 --> 01:50:58.756 - redistricting than I was before. Because I was going back and forth and I've had conversations with 01:50:58.756 --> 01:51:04.855 - board members about it, but I think it's more benefit than not. And even talking to some of my kids 01:51:04.855 --> 01:51:11.137 - about it and helping understand where they're at. Because I mean, I told you 30 years ago I graduated, 01:51:11.137 --> 01:51:14.430 - so it's totally different for me than it is for them. 01:51:14.594 --> 01:51:20.523 - explaining it to them and asking questions really helped me to look at it at a different perspective 01:51:20.523 --> 01:51:26.452 - as well. And just because we're talking about neighborhood schools, I think, you know, this has been 01:51:26.452 --> 01:51:32.439 - one of the sort of common refrains that we've heard. It was one of the biggest resistance points when 01:51:32.439 --> 01:51:38.310 - we, when it came to the merger. And I think, you know, one of the things that I really had hoped in 01:51:38.310 --> 01:51:43.358 - that conversation that would be clear is that, you know, there is a, I think there's, 01:51:43.650 --> 01:51:49.774 - distinction to be made between a school that is a neighborhood school versus a school that might be 01:51:49.774 --> 01:51:56.021 - your very closest school assignment and those two things may not especially in a town like this right 01:51:56.021 --> 01:52:02.329 - Templeton could very well be your neighborhood school or it could be Fairview or it could be depending 01:52:02.329 --> 01:52:08.636 - on where you live within certain catchment zones you're on the edge of one school or another right and 01:52:08.636 --> 01:52:09.310 - so I think 01:52:09.634 --> 01:52:15.552 - this sort of distinction between what really is a neighborhood school, what defines it, what do people 01:52:15.552 --> 01:52:21.815 - mean when they say that versus the closest school assignment because sometimes the closest school assignment 01:52:21.815 --> 01:52:28.135 - was not a person's neighborhood school and yet they were talking about their assignment to their neighborhood 01:52:28.135 --> 01:52:33.995 - school, which was not their closest school. So I think that one, there needs to be a distinction made 01:52:33.995 --> 01:52:39.166 - between what school is closest to me versus what school I consider my neighborhood school 01:52:39.330 --> 01:52:46.247 - And then what sort of underlies the differentiation between those two things, right? If you are closer 01:52:46.247 --> 01:52:53.029 - to Templeton, but you consider blank school your neighborhood school, right? And I think ultimately, 01:52:53.029 --> 01:53:00.013 - I think that became a point that was embattled for us, like the board, the community, there was a sense 01:53:00.013 --> 01:53:06.729 - of like sort of being embattled about neighborhood schools. And I'd like for us to just maybe as we 01:53:06.729 --> 01:53:08.542 - begin to think about this, 01:53:11.138 --> 01:53:20.185 - You know, I wanna make it very clear that I do not think that people who favor neighborhood schools 01:53:20.185 --> 01:53:29.322 - are always motivated by segregation or bias, whether it's implicit or explicit, right? However, what 01:53:29.322 --> 01:53:38.459 - I will say is that the literature and the research and the data does support that neighborhood-based 01:53:38.459 --> 01:53:39.454 - assignment 01:53:39.842 --> 01:53:47.360 - can and does have a segregated effect, right? So however you feel about it, if you live in areas that 01:53:47.360 --> 01:53:54.730 - are segregated, your neighborhood assignments will be segregated in their schools, right? And so if 01:53:54.730 --> 01:54:02.322 - we can begin to sort of like pull those two things apart, like an ideological position versus just the 01:54:02.322 --> 01:54:06.302 - sort of data demonstrates that these things are true, 01:54:06.594 --> 01:54:12.936 - then maybe we can begin to have conversations about closest school versus neighborhood school and other 01:54:12.936 --> 01:54:19.584 - sorts of things. And then also, as you pointed out, in a town this size, we're not talking about Louisville. 01:54:19.584 --> 01:54:25.682 - We're not talking about busing across enormous distances, right? And so I think that's just another 01:54:25.682 --> 01:54:32.025 - thing for us to really consider when we think about redistricting and the time and access. I think that 01:54:32.025 --> 01:54:35.806 - we have greater ability to mitigate some of those things than 01:54:36.834 --> 01:54:47.138 - districts like Louisville or something else right and I think that we have to also keep in mind as well 01:54:47.138 --> 01:54:57.541 - when we're when and if we get to a point of considering maps of of recognizing that redlining did happen 01:54:57.541 --> 01:55:03.486 - here in this community and as as such we have pockets where 01:55:04.450 --> 01:55:11.711 - we can draw a map and it can still stay the same because of that. And so just thinking through all of 01:55:11.711 --> 01:55:18.972 - those things and which neighborhoods had those racial restriction covenants in their deeds and all of 01:55:18.972 --> 01:55:26.162 - those things, because we can look at the GIS. However, we have to keep that in mind as well as we're 01:55:26.162 --> 01:55:33.566 - looking through and fully recognizing that a certain groups of people were not allowed in those spaces. 01:55:34.178 --> 01:55:41.156 - and as such did not get to have that generational wealth and now they can't get in those places because 01:55:41.156 --> 01:55:48.134 - of this. So I think we have to consider that in tandem with everything else. I like the idea of talking 01:55:48.134 --> 01:55:54.910 - about parameters too, because thinking about how many, because even with the merger, I wasn't on the 01:55:54.910 --> 01:56:01.754 - board, but the Templeton Childs merger, a lot of people just transferred out of those schools so they 01:56:01.754 --> 01:56:03.230 - wouldn't be affected. 01:56:03.426 --> 01:56:10.268 - 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. 01:56:10.268 --> 01:56:16.488 - I think that's right. I think one of mine was like the percentage. And I did for what it's worth. I 01:56:16.488 --> 01:56:22.832 - know that the report had these community considerations that they wanted us to take into account. And 01:56:22.832 --> 01:56:27.870 - I think it's important to do this with community buy in. So for me personally, I 01:56:28.162 --> 01:56:36.424 - used all the community considerations in my list of criteria, I might weight them slightly less. So 01:56:36.424 --> 01:56:44.687 - for example, I had socioeconomic status as weighted at 20% and neighborhood schools weighted at 5%. 01:56:44.687 --> 01:56:51.710 - But I would still take it into consideration. I also, one of the things that I found 01:56:51.970 --> 01:56:57.463 - might be missing in the report, and maybe this would require more community feedback, is that I don't 01:56:57.463 --> 01:57:02.847 - necessarily see operational definitions for those things. So for neighborhood schools, for example, 01:57:02.847 --> 01:57:08.340 - there was one place where it was referred to as median distance from the student's residence to their 01:57:08.340 --> 01:57:10.494 - assigned school, which I think might be 01:57:10.658 --> 01:57:17.967 - how they're defining neighborhood schools. But I didn't necessarily see parameters for that. If neighborhood 01:57:17.967 --> 01:57:25.344 - schools are important to someone, how far is too far from their home for them to consider that a neighborhood 01:57:25.344 --> 01:57:32.318 - school? I think we would either need to go back to the community to ask them to define those parameters 01:57:32.318 --> 01:57:40.030 - or imagine parameters for ourselves if we were willing to take those into consideration. Which for myself, I would 01:57:40.194 --> 01:57:47.012 - take those things into consideration. I also had the percentage of students reassigned. I think that 01:57:47.012 --> 01:57:53.830 - was something else that was important to the community members that sat on the commission. That also 01:57:53.830 --> 01:58:00.580 - is something, actually we did that one 10%. That is also something I would consider as we evaluated 01:58:00.580 --> 01:58:07.668 - different options for change, even though I personally would still weight the board's priorities higher, 01:58:07.668 --> 01:58:08.478 - but I still 01:58:08.802 --> 01:58:22.566 - I want to take those things into consideration. I think to April's point, I think that it's kind of, 01:58:22.566 --> 01:58:36.466 - more specifically, defining those parameters is very necessary at this point. And as the commissioner 01:58:36.466 --> 01:58:38.238 - pointed out, 01:58:38.626 --> 01:58:49.665 - There were some places where there were no parameters in place. So we were completely unable to look 01:58:49.665 --> 01:59:00.704 - at those type of impacts. But I think that that is a good starting point. Being more specific in the 01:59:00.704 --> 01:59:08.574 - definition of the parameters. That way, when we're looking at the maps, 01:59:09.474 --> 01:59:22.529 - We're looking at specific impacts and being able to kind of really delve into the reality of something. 01:59:22.529 --> 01:59:35.459 - Right now, I feel like we have a lot of possibilities. And I think some are good. But yeah, being able 01:59:35.459 --> 01:59:38.974 - to come together as a group 01:59:39.362 --> 02:00:08.478 - Well, as April said, it would be good to know where folks stand. 02:00:08.610 --> 02:00:19.359 - Is everyone prepared to say where they stand currently on this topic to know if we have a go forward 02:00:19.359 --> 02:00:30.746 - strategy either to begin the go forward strategy to start looking at this further or if it's not something 02:00:30.746 --> 02:00:38.302 - we want to pursue and then what those parameters look like in terms of 02:00:39.234 --> 02:00:46.876 - creating why we don't think that it is. I think and I'm just from hearing it sounds to me like at least 02:00:46.876 --> 02:00:54.371 - there's enough interest to consider moving forward with creating and thinking through what parameters 02:00:54.371 --> 02:01:02.013 - look like and and because I think we can't really there's not a lot that we can task the administration 02:01:02.013 --> 02:01:07.230 - with until we begin to define those parameters right so thinking about 02:01:07.618 --> 02:01:12.846 - You know, right now, if we look at our numbers based on, and that is why earlier I said, I know our 02:01:12.846 --> 02:01:18.073 - free and reduced lunch rates are not telling the whole story right now because they're sort of very 02:01:18.073 --> 02:01:23.510 - narrowly defined at this moment and because of some of the changes that have been made, right? So right 02:01:23.510 --> 02:01:28.947 - now it shows a gap in our school district of 47% from the highest to the lowest. That is much different 02:01:28.947 --> 02:01:32.606 - than we've had in the past, right? And so it would be like, you know, 02:01:33.314 --> 02:01:40.529 - What is the sort of maximum allowable gap? What are, so we, and even like what are the parameters that 02:01:40.529 --> 02:01:47.603 - we, is it those eight? Is it something else? Like what are the things? I think that that is probably 02:01:47.603 --> 02:01:54.607 - a task for us to do in like a working session. Like we would need a work session to do that, right? 02:01:54.607 --> 02:02:01.822 - I don't think we're gonna get to those things today. So I don't know, I mean, how, yeah, so to answer, 02:02:01.986 --> 02:02:09.753 - Ashley's question person, if that's okay, April, then I'll kind of circle back to maybe what our options 02:02:09.753 --> 02:02:16.855 - are from here. My position is that some kind of redistricting, reorganization, or restructuring 02:02:16.855 --> 02:02:24.030 - is inevitable. Even if we were willing to say socioeconomic balance is not part of our criteria, 02:02:24.130 --> 02:02:30.475 - even if cost-effectiveness alone were our only criteria, which I don't think it should be, but even 02:02:30.475 --> 02:02:37.264 - if that were it, I think this report said that our current utilization rate is 69% across the corporation, 02:02:37.264 --> 02:02:44.116 - and at the industry standard it is 85. So even if we were only talking about redistricting, reorganization, 02:02:44.116 --> 02:02:50.588 - and restructuring to adjust for declining enrollment and financial realities, I personally think it's 02:02:50.588 --> 02:02:54.078 - inevitable. So the way I would answer the question is, 02:02:54.338 --> 02:03:03.683 - If the question is, do we move forward with defining parameters and applying those parameters or metrics 02:03:03.683 --> 02:03:13.029 - to options for change, my answer to that would be yes. I am on board with that. Same. I agree. I already 02:03:13.029 --> 02:03:21.662 - stated it. Just confirming. I agree, though. But definitely, I mean, that's what I was thinking. 02:03:24.162 --> 02:03:30.803 - Oh, thanks, Diana. I've been thinking about it for a long time. So I think that in the past, we have 02:03:30.803 --> 02:03:37.576 - sometimes made small task forces to bring something back to the board, whether that's a resolution or, 02:03:37.576 --> 02:03:44.284 - and it could be a working resolution that we take friendly amendments to. Could we talk about that in 02:03:44.284 --> 02:03:51.122 - a working session? Could we talk about parameters for this? The board, yeah. Yeah, OK. So we could also 02:03:51.122 --> 02:03:53.950 - have a working session with the full board 02:03:54.370 --> 02:04:01.192 - Um, I think the latter would be my perspective to have the full board in a working session on this topic 02:04:01.192 --> 02:04:07.689 - only because I feel like we do get siloed so often as a result of indoor law, et cetera, et cetera. 02:04:07.689 --> 02:04:14.446 - I'm less interested in a resolution at this moment and more interested in just getting together to sort 02:04:14.446 --> 02:04:21.267 - of hammer out some of those things to see where we land. I would be on board with that as well. I agree. 02:04:21.267 --> 02:04:24.126 - Doing the work, a resolution, you know, so. 02:04:24.482 --> 02:04:32.524 - I would be in agreement with April. Can we just request that, that we have a working session to set 02:04:32.524 --> 02:04:40.888 - these parameters? I'd like to formally request that of whoever. I will formally direct you to schedule. 02:04:40.888 --> 02:04:45.150 - Should we vote? All right, I'm going to take a vote. 02:04:45.250 --> 02:04:52.185 - 100% sure we need to, but let's. Well, then I think we have to make a motion. OK. But I don't think 02:04:52.185 --> 02:04:59.189 - it has to be just to set a working session. I just need a collective directive from the board as the 02:04:59.189 --> 02:05:06.263 - entity. Yes. Yes. Does anyone not want Dr. Winston to organize a working session? Will there be food? 02:05:06.263 --> 02:05:13.406 - Just kidding. Kid. Kid. Hearing no objections, I feel comfortable saying that the board would like you 02:05:13.602 --> 02:05:20.718 - to request you to organize a working session for us, please, to discuss parameters for redistricting, 02:05:20.718 --> 02:05:27.694 - reorganization, or restructuring. Ahead of that, can I ask one more question? And this is something 02:05:27.694 --> 02:05:34.879 - that probably I don't know that there's an answer to this right now. But when we think about per pupil 02:05:34.879 --> 02:05:41.855 - cost allocations by building, so we always have cost x amount to educate a student at this building 02:05:41.855 --> 02:05:43.390 - versus this building. 02:05:45.986 --> 02:05:54.673 - Can we, can we maybe have a little bit more information on the sort of breakdown of why and how those 02:05:54.673 --> 02:06:03.361 - things come to be in the sense that like, is, and I guess, I don't know, I suppose there probably are 02:06:03.361 --> 02:06:12.048 - transportation costs and things like that already folded into that. Is that true? Like when you think 02:06:12.048 --> 02:06:15.966 - about per people costs per school? Yes. Okay. 02:06:16.738 --> 02:06:23.365 - So I'm going to think about this question. But I have a question about this particular data that I'm 02:06:23.365 --> 02:06:29.926 - not quite sure I know how to articulate yet, but it's going to come. So. President Cooberman, may I 02:06:29.926 --> 02:06:36.487 - just kind of clarify what I jotted down in terms of my understanding of the directive? Yes, please. 02:06:36.487 --> 02:06:43.049 - You would like me to organize a work session to establish parameters that would allow us to examine 02:06:43.049 --> 02:06:46.526 - redistricting, reorganization, and or restructuring. 02:06:47.778 --> 02:06:56.729 - That's the collective, not you, but I just want to make sure I capture that. Anyone want to amend that? 02:06:56.729 --> 02:07:06.110 - That's accurate, Dr. Winston. Thank you. Thank you. Any last thoughts before we close out this conversation? 02:07:14.082 --> 02:07:20.721 - I just want to say thank you to the board for doing the homework on this and coming prepared to share 02:07:20.721 --> 02:07:27.295 - your comments. I know there was a lot for us to read and think through, and I really appreciate that 02:07:27.295 --> 02:07:33.803 - everybody came to the table tonight with both a willingness to share and the background to do that. 02:07:33.803 --> 02:07:40.377 - Thank you. I think that was a productive discussion. Next, we will have an update on the policy task 02:07:40.377 --> 02:07:42.590 - force from Board Member Hennessy. 02:07:43.458 --> 02:07:52.169 - Thank you, President Cooperman. So the Policy Task Force is a recently organized task force. And essentially, 02:07:52.169 --> 02:08:00.167 - it consists of myself, board member Jester, and board member Arouge. Arouge. It's fine. You're good. 02:08:00.167 --> 02:08:08.403 - I really can't hear what you said, but it's good. Oh, you're so pitiful over there. But I think we have 02:08:08.403 --> 02:08:11.966 - just started to look at all of our policies. 02:08:12.482 --> 02:08:21.132 - body of our policies has not been reviewed since probably 2012, so almost 15 years at this point. Barring 02:08:21.132 --> 02:08:29.292 - the additions, addendums, and edits that come based on state legislature and other things that come 02:08:29.292 --> 02:08:37.697 - up. Obviously, we are not entirely legal experts, so we are not pretending to be that, but we are just 02:08:37.697 --> 02:08:40.798 - reviewing our policies to ensure that 02:08:40.962 --> 02:08:48.590 - There aren't conflicts or things that are outdated, things that might need to be sort of stripped because 02:08:48.590 --> 02:08:55.859 - something no longer exists in that way. And so we are doing a thorough review. We've met twice since 02:08:55.859 --> 02:09:03.056 - our last board meeting, once to kind of set up what our working time will look like. And the second 02:09:03.056 --> 02:09:06.366 - time to begin going over some of our reviews. 02:09:06.786 --> 02:09:14.145 - Our goal really is to take chunks of our policies. And essentially, if there's something that does need 02:09:14.145 --> 02:09:21.504 - to be revised, reviewed, or taken up by this board, we will bring back those policies to the board with 02:09:21.504 --> 02:09:28.934 - sort of policy revisions made. So for a first reading potentially, that way we can then have discussion, 02:09:28.934 --> 02:09:33.534 - comments, and whatever else needs to happen as a result of that. 02:09:34.370 --> 02:09:42.201 - We do know that we have access to ISBA and their policy consultants and legal team. And so we will consult 02:09:42.201 --> 02:09:49.520 - with them along the way if there are things that are confusing to us or that are, you know, we just 02:09:49.520 --> 02:09:56.839 - need some legal guidance on, but otherwise we intend to continue to do the work as a team and bring 02:09:56.839 --> 02:10:03.646 - that stuff back to you all. We are currently working our way through the 0000 and the 1000s. 02:10:04.066 --> 02:10:12.395 - And we will likely have some policies next time for revision, mostly based on things that are either 02:10:12.395 --> 02:10:20.642 - redundant and or, you know, there's two conflicting policies and one needs to be sort of integrated 02:10:20.642 --> 02:10:23.198 - as the primary. Any questions? 02:10:29.538 --> 02:10:35.488 - April, is there the opportunity if a board member that's not on the task force would like you to look 02:10:35.488 --> 02:10:41.729 - at a specific policy? Is that an option? Absolutely. I mean, we plan to look at all of them. So if there's 02:10:41.729 --> 02:10:47.679 - something that you find and you want to flag, please do send it over to us. I think at the end of our 02:10:47.679 --> 02:10:53.921 - work, once we've reviewed everything in total, we may also have recommendations of things that potentially 02:10:53.921 --> 02:10:56.254 - don't exist that we think should exist. 02:10:56.418 --> 02:11:04.642 - And so those would be different kinds of conversations that I think this board could have. Thank you, 02:11:04.642 --> 02:11:12.704 - April. And next on our agenda is the superintendent comments and report. Do you have any additional 02:11:12.704 --> 02:11:18.590 - information to share with us tonight, Dr. Winston? Yes, I have a couple. 02:11:20.226 --> 02:11:26.045 - So we are pleased to announce that music teacher Lisa Voss of Grandview Elementary School has been recognized 02:11:26.045 --> 02:11:31.599 - in the top 25, 2027 Indiana teachers of the year. So we're very excited for her. For more than 60 years, 02:11:31.599 --> 02:11:36.889 - this program has worked to inspire, rejuvenate and celebrate the teaching profession by recognizing 02:11:36.889 --> 02:11:42.338 - outstanding teachers from across the state. We are so honored to have such an excellent teacher in our 02:11:42.338 --> 02:11:45.406 - midst from Grandview Elementary. Congratulations to Lisa. 02:11:47.202 --> 02:11:52.976 - In the communications area, we have a number of updates. There are several publications that are being 02:11:52.976 --> 02:11:58.694 - released soon. The first is the MCCSE Expect Excellence in Education View Book that's on the table in 02:11:58.694 --> 02:12:04.580 - front of every board member. So we're very excited about this publication. This is part of our continued 02:12:04.580 --> 02:12:10.354 - effort to promote our schools and the hundreds of offerings that are available to all of our students. 02:12:10.354 --> 02:12:14.558 - This new publication will be shared far and wide throughout our community. 02:12:14.818 --> 02:12:21.409 - It will be our singular publication that covers pre-K through adult education with numerous examples 02:12:21.409 --> 02:12:27.934 - of excellence in our schools. When viewing this new publication, you will see more exemplars of the 02:12:27.934 --> 02:12:34.460 - amazing experiences provided to our students. And I believe it's online and available now online on 02:12:34.460 --> 02:12:37.918 - the website. Okay, soon will be online. In addition, 02:12:38.306 --> 02:12:43.993 - We are soon to finish our second annual MCCSE newspaper that will be distributed to our families and 02:12:43.993 --> 02:12:49.680 - the larger Bloomington community in the next few weeks. This issue looks to be even more informative 02:12:49.680 --> 02:12:55.311 - and impactful than our inaugural edition last fall. We are so pleased with the local businesses who 02:12:55.311 --> 02:13:01.167 - generously donated to support the MCCSE newspaper. We plan to have our newspapers in circulation around 02:13:01.167 --> 02:13:02.462 - the Labor Day holiday. 02:13:04.482 --> 02:13:11.662 - We recorded our second MCCSE School Voices podcast last week. In this podcast, we celebrated and recognized 02:13:11.662 --> 02:13:18.444 - the impact of our early childhood program through the eyes of one of our early childhood teachers and 02:13:18.444 --> 02:13:25.358 - a guest parent, and we also had our music teacher of the year, Lisa Voss, present. If you haven't added 02:13:25.358 --> 02:13:32.472 - MCCSE School Voices to your podcast list yet, I encourage you to do so. You can find it on Apple Podcasts, 02:13:32.472 --> 02:13:34.334 - as well as other platforms, 02:13:34.434 --> 02:13:42.018 - or wherever you get your podcast. Isn't that how they say it? And the final communication update that 02:13:42.018 --> 02:13:49.677 - I want to share is our CFO corner. Beginning in September, Mr. Irwin is going to be highlighted in our 02:13:49.677 --> 02:13:57.187 - CFO corner, which will be brief video updates on school funding matters. It's our intention to align 02:13:57.187 --> 02:14:03.582 - these videos with some of our podcast content as well. And I will have him as a guest 02:14:03.810 --> 02:14:10.073 - on one of my upcoming podcast episodes. It's my hope that the coordination of our podcasts and videos 02:14:10.073 --> 02:14:16.397 - will heighten our community's understanding of what we do and why we do it and how we pay for it. Stay 02:14:16.397 --> 02:14:23.090 - tuned for more exciting updates on this. Student athletes. Our fall student athletes are in full competition 02:14:23.090 --> 02:14:29.291 - mode. Last Monday, we had a ribbon cutting ceremony for the North Soccer Field and Athletic Complex, 02:14:29.291 --> 02:14:31.870 - and then we watched our students compete. 02:14:32.578 --> 02:14:38.223 - North and South football had their Crosstown rivalry game last Friday. Kudos and congratulations to 02:14:38.223 --> 02:14:43.980 - South. During halftime, we recognize the Bloomington North High School Boys track team for their 2026 02:14:43.980 --> 02:14:49.794 - Indiana High School Athletic Association state championship. There are so many more games being played 02:14:49.794 --> 02:14:55.778 - across our corporation. I encourage our families and the community to find time to support the excellence 02:14:55.778 --> 02:15:00.350 - of our student athletes and attend a game, match or tournament this school year. 02:15:01.794 --> 02:15:07.938 - And finally, I want to provide an important update on an important matter. President Cooperman, board 02:15:07.938 --> 02:15:14.504 - trustees, and members of our community, I would like to take a few minutes to provide some clarity regarding 02:15:14.504 --> 02:15:20.649 - the proposed changes to policy 8910 and my decision to withdraw that recommendation a couple of weeks 02:15:20.649 --> 02:15:26.733 - ago. There's been some misunderstanding about the intent behind the recommendation, and I do believe 02:15:26.733 --> 02:15:31.070 - it is very important to correct the record. First and most importantly, 02:15:31.266 --> 02:15:36.950 - The recommendation was not an effort to eliminate or reduce AFSCME bargaining rights. It was not intended 02:15:36.950 --> 02:15:42.527 - to diminish AFSCME or its leadership, and it was in no way intended to support or replicate the actions 02:15:42.527 --> 02:15:48.104 - of the Indiana General Assembly that have reduced the scope of teacher bargaining rights. Nothing could 02:15:48.104 --> 02:15:53.520 - be further from our intent. The recommendation came from our genuine effort to better understand the 02:15:53.520 --> 02:15:58.078 - differences in our existing bargaining processes and, from a management perspective, 02:15:58.242 --> 02:16:04.317 - to clarify what appropriately belongs in a collective bargaining agreement. In particular, we were seeking 02:16:04.317 --> 02:16:10.392 - to remove management and operational language from the bargaining agreement and establish clear boundaries 02:16:10.392 --> 02:16:16.353 - around matters that are appropriately the responsibility of management. Prior to the July board meeting, 02:16:16.353 --> 02:16:22.144 - members of my team met with local AFSCME leadership to discuss the proposed resolution and changes to 02:16:22.144 --> 02:16:26.686 - policy 8910. Based upon that conversation, we believed the intent and rationale 02:16:26.818 --> 02:16:32.993 - for the recommendation were understood and that there was a general understanding and support of the 02:16:32.993 --> 02:16:39.169 - proposed changes. At the July board meeting, however, it became clear to us that we had not achieved 02:16:39.169 --> 02:16:45.528 - the level of shared understanding that we believed we had. I also used the terms parity and equity when 02:16:45.528 --> 02:16:51.887 - describing the recommendation. I now understand that those words were interpreted very differently from 02:16:51.887 --> 02:16:52.926 - what I intended. 02:16:53.314 --> 02:16:59.711 - particularly in the context of changes to teacher bargaining rights at the state level. I understand 02:16:59.711 --> 02:17:06.108 - why that created significant concern. Our intent was not to reduce rights and our recommendation was 02:17:06.108 --> 02:17:13.011 - not connected to actions regarding teacher bargaining rights. I regret that we did not make that distinction 02:17:13.011 --> 02:17:19.535 - sufficiently clear. I also want to acknowledge directly that the process moved too quickly. We did not 02:17:19.535 --> 02:17:21.118 - take the sufficient time 02:17:21.474 --> 02:17:28.963 - to fully understand the perspectives of our labor partners before bringing the recommendation forward. 02:17:28.963 --> 02:17:36.306 - As superintendent, I alone take full responsibility for that. Following the July meeting, members of 02:17:36.306 --> 02:17:43.941 - my team met with AFSCME leadership to listen and better understand their concerns and their perspective. 02:17:43.941 --> 02:17:47.358 - I, too, spoke with local and state leadership. 02:17:48.258 --> 02:17:55.316 - Those conversations gave me a much richer and deeper understanding of how the recommendation was being 02:17:55.316 --> 02:18:02.169 - perceived and why there was such a strong reaction to it. I regret all of that. Leadership requires 02:18:02.169 --> 02:18:09.296 - us to listen when we learn that our intent has not been understood as we intended it. After considering 02:18:09.296 --> 02:18:16.766 - those perspectives, I have concluded that withdrawing the recommendation was in fact the appropriate action. 02:18:17.858 --> 02:18:23.960 - So I want to leave the board and our community with three simple points. First, this was never an effort 02:18:23.960 --> 02:18:29.888 - to take bargaining rights away from AFSCME. Second, it was never intended to support or replicate the 02:18:29.888 --> 02:18:36.281 - state's reduction of teacher bargaining rights. And third, the management objective was to clarify bargaining 02:18:36.281 --> 02:18:42.093 - boundaries and remove management and operational language from the agreement. I acknowledge that we 02:18:42.093 --> 02:18:47.614 - did not communicate clearly enough and we moved far too quickly in bringing the recommendation 02:18:47.842 --> 02:18:54.544 - forward. I own that. I have listened. I have gained a better understanding of the concerns that were 02:18:54.544 --> 02:19:01.380 - raised, and I do believe that withdrawing the recommendation was and is the right thing to do. I value 02:19:01.380 --> 02:19:08.281 - our relationship with AFSCME. I respect our employees and their representatives, and I remain committed 02:19:08.281 --> 02:19:15.183 - to open, respectful, and productive labor relations throughout MCCSC. Thank you very much for affording 02:19:15.183 --> 02:19:16.510 - me this opportunity 02:19:17.026 --> 02:19:26.923 - to clear the record. Thank you Dr. Winston. Are there comments from the board? Thank you for allowing 02:19:26.923 --> 02:19:36.918 - this moment. I just want to say that you know there are these moments when things happen right and and 02:19:36.918 --> 02:19:46.718 - I sort of I watch both from my position as a board member and from my position as a community member 02:19:46.946 --> 02:19:59.831 - And I just want to say, I mean, it sometimes is frustrating to see the rate at which the backlash comes 02:19:59.831 --> 02:20:12.469 - without sometimes full understanding. And I think that those moments are important because they allow 02:20:12.469 --> 02:20:16.062 - for us to sort of take stock 02:20:16.290 --> 02:20:26.218 - and to pivot or to change. All of this to say, really, I just want to say that this is a moment of true 02:20:26.218 --> 02:20:36.145 - leadership from Dr. Winston and from her administrative team. And I think that I hope that when we walk 02:20:36.145 --> 02:20:45.118 - away from this tonight, that what the community sees and what the community hears is a leader 02:20:45.346 --> 02:20:52.819 - who truly did listen to the responses in the room, the responses from her board members, the responses 02:20:52.819 --> 02:21:00.147 - from her community members, and she pivoted, right? And so I just want to say with, you know, I have 02:21:00.147 --> 02:21:07.548 - such great respect for you, Dr. Winston, and for your administrative team, and I think that there was 02:21:07.548 --> 02:21:15.166 - never any malicious intent here. I think that there were a lot of wires that got crossed, unfortunately, 02:21:15.426 --> 02:21:22.209 - And as you said, and I just I just want to take a minute to say thank you for the statement for the 02:21:22.209 --> 02:21:28.992 - work that you did on the heels of that incident and for the decision that you came to. Thank you. I 02:21:28.992 --> 02:21:35.911 - appreciate that. Yeah, I just want to echo this is definitely a sign of a great leader. So thank you. 02:21:35.911 --> 02:21:42.830 - Absolutely. I appreciate your open mind and your open heart and your accountability. And I just think 02:21:42.830 --> 02:21:44.254 - this is just another 02:21:46.306 --> 02:21:55.911 - good great leader you are thank you very kind and very generous all of you and I think it was the right 02:21:55.911 --> 02:22:05.608 - choice and like the rest of the board I appreciate your reflection on this thank you are there any other 02:22:05.608 --> 02:22:12.350 - comments from the board on anything that happened tonight or otherwise I 02:22:12.450 --> 02:22:20.109 - Seconds out. Temperature check in the future. It is very cold in here. Also, there's that. OK. The next 02:22:20.109 --> 02:22:27.547 - regularly scheduled board meeting will be held on Tuesday, September 26. We are, yeah, 2026. I'm not 02:22:27.547 --> 02:22:31.966 - doing numbers anymore tonight. We are adjourned. Thank you.