WEBVTT 00:00:00.130 --> 00:00:09.246 - Welcome to the September 22nd, 2026 meeting of the MCCSE Board of School Trustees. We ask that you please 00:00:09.246 --> 00:00:17.932 - come to order. We will begin tonight with hearing the 2027 budget hearing. I now declare the hearing 00:00:17.932 --> 00:00:27.134 - open. Have we received any comment cards for this meeting? No, okay. No cards. Mr. Irwin, you may proceed. 00:00:29.090 --> 00:00:34.832 - Thank you. We'll talk through the 2027 budget and I'll look at the agenda that we have here tonight. 00:00:34.832 --> 00:00:40.745 - We're going to start with the timeline. Look at the timeline of events as we move through the budgeting 00:00:40.745 --> 00:00:46.715 - process. We'll get into the process of budget building and what that looks like for us. We'll go through 00:00:46.715 --> 00:00:52.514 - the examples of the DOGF forms. We'll give some comparisons of 2026 and 2027 and then we'll take some 00:00:52.514 --> 00:00:53.822 - big picture takeaways. 00:00:57.410 --> 00:01:03.461 - So this is the same slide that you saw last month. Just move forward to where we are now. So we have 00:01:03.461 --> 00:01:09.871 - our authorization to advertise the budget back in August's board meeting. We advertise the budget, capital 00:01:09.871 --> 00:01:16.041 - projects plan, bus replacement plan on September 8th. And then here we are tonight. This is our budget 00:01:16.041 --> 00:01:22.091 - hearing. As we move forward in the timeline, next month is actual budget adoption for 2027. And then 00:01:22.091 --> 00:01:25.566 - what you see there at the end is the 1782 notice arrives. 00:01:26.402 --> 00:01:31.835 - in December, that is simply just our budget. Notice that we get from the DOGF. So in that time period 00:01:31.835 --> 00:01:37.268 - between October and December, our DOGF rep is going to work our budget. She's going to give that back 00:01:37.268 --> 00:01:42.648 - to us and then say, here's what we've come up with. Do you agree? We have 10 days to respond to that 00:01:42.648 --> 00:01:48.081 - information or to make any adjustments that we want to make to the budget. And then it becomes final. 00:01:48.081 --> 00:01:53.727 - So that's just an update on the timeline. Where we're going to spend a lot of our time tonight is talking 00:01:53.727 --> 00:01:54.846 - through some of this 00:01:55.170 --> 00:02:00.508 - And it's just the processes that are involved in us building out the budget. There's a lot of different 00:02:00.508 --> 00:02:05.229 - lines that are built into it. But overall, the three key points are there. The first one is 00:02:05.229 --> 00:02:10.516 - it's a data-driven approach. So our past expenditures and our expenditures currently through this year 00:02:10.516 --> 00:02:15.699 - are that starting point of what it is that we're looking at. And that makes a lot of sense for a lot 00:02:15.699 --> 00:02:20.883 - of different reasons. We're also looking at our current revenue and our past revenue. Again, looking 00:02:20.883 --> 00:02:22.782 - at that data from the last few years 00:02:23.554 --> 00:02:29.238 - to see how it matches up with what it is that we're seeing currently in 2026 and what it is that we 00:02:29.238 --> 00:02:34.979 - expect to happen moving forward. We're identifying trends, things that the trends that we think will 00:02:34.979 --> 00:02:40.833 - continue and the trends that we don't think will continue. And some of those trends might not continue 00:02:40.833 --> 00:02:46.745 - because guidance has changed. And so that's something that we very much think about. An example of that 00:02:46.745 --> 00:02:53.054 - would be the distribution of license excise tax or commercial vehicle excise tax or financial institution tax. 00:02:53.538 --> 00:02:59.510 - those different revenues that we received into the school corporation, there's guidance that tells us 00:02:59.510 --> 00:03:05.540 - where those funds or where that revenue has to be placed. And over periods of time for the last couple 00:03:05.540 --> 00:03:11.394 - of years, that guidance has continued to change. No different this year, that guidance continues to 00:03:11.394 --> 00:03:17.366 - change. And so that impacts how we budget and what revenue that we expect to receive in any given fun 00:03:17.366 --> 00:03:18.654 - demographics. Student 00:03:19.266 --> 00:03:24.470 - enrollment as our number one source of funding as a public school corporation and we continue to monitor 00:03:24.470 --> 00:03:29.524 - what our student enrollment counts are as well as the demographics of our area and we've talked a lot 00:03:29.524 --> 00:03:34.579 - about that at different board meetings so I won't go too far into depth on that. But it's a big piece 00:03:34.579 --> 00:03:39.585 - of what it is that we're looking at as far as data goes that impacts what we expect as it relates to 00:03:39.585 --> 00:03:44.540 - revenue especially into our education fund. Facility needs we complete building walks we're getting 00:03:44.540 --> 00:03:48.158 - ready to talk more about our facilities master planning process tonight. 00:03:48.546 --> 00:03:54.657 - that really impacts what it is that we think that we'll need to continue to upkeep in the ongoing day-to-day 00:03:54.657 --> 00:04:00.319 - of the operations fund, but that long-term big-picture view of our debt service fund and our bonding 00:04:00.319 --> 00:04:05.926 - capacity to upkeep with our facilities. The tax-based studies, policy analytics. You guys know that 00:04:05.926 --> 00:04:11.700 - we partner with them in order to not only continue to be on top of knowing what's happening within the 00:04:11.700 --> 00:04:13.438 - tax base that we exist within, 00:04:13.570 --> 00:04:19.816 - but how the legislation that's passed interacts with our tax base and how that impacts us as a school 00:04:19.816 --> 00:04:25.940 - corporation. That very much is a huge piece of data that is really important to us determining what 00:04:25.940 --> 00:04:32.125 - is the appropriate budget in any given line, especially in our referendum funds and our debt service 00:04:32.125 --> 00:04:38.249 - fund and our operations fund. Flexibility is the second key point. We're building out a budget just 00:04:38.249 --> 00:04:42.046 - because we expect revenue to happen or just because we expect 00:04:42.306 --> 00:04:48.635 - expenditures to happen, that doesn't mean that they will actually happen for sure, right? We're not 00:04:48.635 --> 00:04:55.090 - being able to fortune tell that piece. And so it's important that we create flexibility in the budget 00:04:55.090 --> 00:05:01.419 - lines that yes, we're pretty certain as that this is a very accurate and conservative estimate, but 00:05:01.419 --> 00:05:08.254 - we need flexibility based on the variety of outcomes that can happen over, I'm running out of time already. 00:05:08.514 --> 00:05:15.336 - She's like, shut them down. We need flexibility as that 18-month looks. The budget is really an 18-month 00:05:15.336 --> 00:05:21.898 - look for us because not only are we trying to predict what it is that will happen over the course of 00:05:21.898 --> 00:05:28.525 - the next six months dating back from the first six, but it's all of next year as well. And so we need 00:05:28.525 --> 00:05:33.982 - to have that flexibility when we look at the overall budget for an individual fund. 00:05:34.210 --> 00:05:40.069 - We want to make sure that we have the flexibility that as things continue to change, whether it's due 00:05:40.069 --> 00:05:46.100 - to demographics or legislation or expenditures or different things that happen, that we have the ability 00:05:46.100 --> 00:05:51.442 - to navigate that. That's a big point. The last bullet point that is on there is important is 00:05:51.442 --> 00:05:57.129 - just anticipating variables. And I've alluded to this a little bit. The legislation, this upcoming 00:05:57.129 --> 00:06:03.390 - legislative session in 2027 is the long session. It's the budget session. So they're going to be determining 00:06:03.554 --> 00:06:10.318 - the funding formula for the next two years. So it's really important, and I can't predict exactly what's 00:06:10.318 --> 00:06:16.888 - gonna happen, but I have to make estimations of that over this process. Student counts, I have to not 00:06:16.888 --> 00:06:23.458 - only try to understand what's gonna happen in October count of this year, but spring count next year, 00:06:23.458 --> 00:06:30.222 - fall count next year, and so we're making assumptions based on those things, and again, those are things 00:06:30.222 --> 00:06:32.734 - that we aren't in complete control of. 00:06:33.346 --> 00:06:38.633 - Assessed value that goes back to the policy analytics piece. Continuing to try to measure what SEA-1 00:06:38.633 --> 00:06:43.972 - is doing to net assessed value and how that interacts with our fund structure is something that we're 00:06:43.972 --> 00:06:49.312 - trying to anticipate that variable. That's something that everyone across the state and quite frankly 00:06:49.312 --> 00:06:54.860 - I think the legislators as well are trying to determine what that looks like. Cost of goods and services. 00:06:54.860 --> 00:07:00.252 - We know that the cost of things continue to go up whether that's fuel, that's insurance, services that 00:07:00.252 --> 00:07:02.974 - different people provide to the school corporation, 00:07:03.746 --> 00:07:09.090 - Over time, the costs of those things continue to climb. Yes, we try to find operational efficiencies, 00:07:09.090 --> 00:07:14.433 - but we have to continue to plan that the cost of us operating the school corporation will continue to 00:07:14.433 --> 00:07:19.724 - move forward. And so we plan for those things. And then staffing. It's the number one expenditure of 00:07:19.724 --> 00:07:25.173 - the school corporation. It's the people that we employ that serve children every day and trying to make 00:07:25.173 --> 00:07:30.464 - sure that we account for what it is that we think are the possibilities of staffing as it relates to 00:07:30.464 --> 00:07:32.926 - all the other pieces that I just talked about. 00:07:33.154 --> 00:07:38.722 - And so it's the interaction of those of all of that data really that helps us to identify what is the 00:07:38.722 --> 00:07:44.453 - appropriate budget in any given fund as well as making sure that we built out flexibility for ourselves. 00:07:44.453 --> 00:07:50.184 - There's a big reason that I like to think about the budget as the plan. And I think about our cash flows 00:07:50.184 --> 00:07:55.806 - that we continue to talk about as the pulse, the pulse of what's happening and how things are actually 00:07:55.806 --> 00:08:00.446 - happening on a day in and day out basis or month in and month out basis, the budget. 00:08:00.706 --> 00:08:06.453 - is that plan that we think is going to happen. It sets those rates, those levies, and those guardrails, 00:08:06.453 --> 00:08:11.979 - a budget of which we have to operate within as a school corporation. So let's move forward and look 00:08:11.979 --> 00:08:17.560 - at some of the budget forms that we work within. There's a lot going on here on this slide, but I've 00:08:17.560 --> 00:08:23.362 - color-coded it to help direct some of your attention to some of the different pieces on here. This first 00:08:23.362 --> 00:08:29.662 - part is that next six months look. It's an 18-month look. This is the first six months, so July through December. 00:08:29.890 --> 00:08:36.071 - They have us input what revenue that we expect to collect, what our cash balances were as of June 30 00:08:36.071 --> 00:08:42.252 - of this year. Non-property tax revenues that we expect to receive, they total that out. They look at 00:08:42.252 --> 00:08:48.494 - our expenses. One of the ways that the system works, we don't have a say in this, is that they assume 00:08:48.494 --> 00:08:54.430 - that you're going to spend every dollar of your budget. We know that we're not going to do that. 00:08:54.818 --> 00:09:00.067 - But through this process, they always assume that you're going to. And so when you look at remaining 00:09:00.067 --> 00:09:05.420 - appropriation on line five, that's the remaining appropriation that exists within the operations fund. 00:09:05.420 --> 00:09:10.670 - That's the example we're using here tonight. And so they assume all of it is spent. And then they're 00:09:10.670 --> 00:09:16.075 - looking at the bottom, you see transfers and outstanding temporary loans in the operations fund. That's 00:09:16.075 --> 00:09:21.324 - where we took a tax anticipation warrant to help us for cashflow needs at the beginning of this year 00:09:21.324 --> 00:09:24.702 - as we continue to work towards a position of financial strength. 00:09:24.962 --> 00:09:31.592 - we have to pay back that tax anticipation warrant at the end of the year. And so I'm showing that $3 00:09:31.592 --> 00:09:38.222 - million going back to the Indiana bond bank. So then what you get at the end is what is the expected 00:09:38.222 --> 00:09:45.048 - cash balance at the end of December of this year? And then that flows forward into what you see on this 00:09:45.048 --> 00:09:51.153 - next slide, which is calendar year 2027 set up the exact same way only in property tax levy. 00:09:51.153 --> 00:09:54.238 - That's the 30,333,111 dollars. That is the max 00:09:54.722 --> 00:10:00.670 - Operating levy that we can have for operations fund that's determined by the state through what's called 00:10:00.670 --> 00:10:06.392 - the MLG queue or the max levy growth quotient. The next number that you see, that's property tax cap 00:10:06.392 --> 00:10:12.170 - loss. When we levy dollars, that doesn't always mean that we receive all of them. What you're looking 00:10:12.170 --> 00:10:18.062 - at mostly is the estimation of SEA one as it relates to revenue that's levy, but not actually received. 00:10:18.062 --> 00:10:20.894 - And so you see that negative there on the screen. 00:10:21.826 --> 00:10:27.670 - And then non-property tax revenues that would be receded into the school corporation. That's some of 00:10:27.670 --> 00:10:33.514 - those other things I mentioned earlier, license excise tax, commercial vehicle excise tax, financial 00:10:33.514 --> 00:10:39.474 - institution tax, interest earned on cash in the bank. Some of those other things that are revenue that 00:10:39.474 --> 00:10:45.376 - flows into that fund. It gives you what the expectation is for those totals for calendar year 27. 15, 00:10:45.376 --> 00:10:50.526 - that's the budget guardrails that we set for the operations fund. And then you move down 00:10:50.850 --> 00:10:56.766 - then again, it assumes that you spend every dollar of that budget. And it says at the end, is it a fundable 00:10:56.766 --> 00:11:02.682 - budget? Meaning, is there dollars left? Is the cash that you have on hand and the budget that you presented 00:11:02.682 --> 00:11:08.270 - leave you dollars at the end? That's how they determine whether or not it's a fundable plan. The last 00:11:08.270 --> 00:11:14.022 - part that you see at the end, that's the tax rate calculation. So the number that's listed there, that's 00:11:14.022 --> 00:11:16.158 - 85% of last year's net assessed value. 00:11:16.290 --> 00:11:22.319 - That's the DOGF best practice that they ask us to use and what was default into the new system that 00:11:22.319 --> 00:11:28.409 - they created this year. Off to the left, I put the calculation as to how they come up with the rate. 00:11:28.409 --> 00:11:34.679 - If you take the levy, which is line 11, you times it by 100 and divide it by the AV. That's how they're 00:11:34.679 --> 00:11:40.949 - coming up with that rate. When they work the budget, they put the actual numbers in there. These things 00:11:40.949 --> 00:11:46.014 - change. Remember, when we advertise the budget, we set the ceilings on our budgets. 00:11:46.274 --> 00:11:52.563 - levies, and rates. And so they will come in and input the actuals when we send off our budget after 00:11:52.563 --> 00:11:58.914 - adoption. So that gives you a view of what it is that we're filling out that our DLGF rep is working 00:11:58.914 --> 00:12:05.391 - through and the big picture view of how the system works. Those are the sample forms. They call it the 00:12:05.391 --> 00:12:12.057 - Form 4B. And so the next slide is Form 4. So these are just the terms that they use, which is essentially 00:12:12.057 --> 00:12:15.390 - what I'm showing you. That is the budget resolution. 00:12:15.490 --> 00:12:22.186 - that will be presented to you next month for adoption. It's the same looking resolution for every school 00:12:22.186 --> 00:12:28.946 - corporation in the state. You just plug in your school corporation's information as you see bolded there. 00:12:28.946 --> 00:12:35.578 - And then it also has your date of adoption and all those things that allows people to know when, where. 00:12:35.578 --> 00:12:42.083 - The bottom portion looks a lot like what you saw last month where I showed you form three. But you're 00:12:42.083 --> 00:12:43.358 - seeing the budgets, 00:12:43.554 --> 00:12:50.304 - You're seeing the different funds that we have, the fund structures that we have that are appropriated. 00:12:50.304 --> 00:12:56.795 - And then you have your adopted budget. Again, the guardrails from which we work within. The adopted 00:12:56.795 --> 00:13:03.351 - tax levy, that is the ceiling levy that we've adopted. And then the rate that would result if AV was 00:13:03.351 --> 00:13:10.750 - 85%. But again, they have to push that back in. So let's use a quick example here. The operating referendum 2022. 00:13:11.650 --> 00:13:18.056 - It says the adopted tax rate is a little over 22 cents. Obviously, that is above the voter approved 00:13:18.056 --> 00:13:24.718 - rate. That is not how it is going to be worked by the DOGF. The reason we put it in that way is because 00:13:24.718 --> 00:13:31.189 - it goes back to when we said 85% is best practice for AV. If I put in what I think is actually going 00:13:31.189 --> 00:13:37.787 - to happen and something changes with certified net assessed value between now and the DOGF working our 00:13:37.787 --> 00:13:41.182 - budget, it could result in us receiving less revenue 00:13:41.794 --> 00:13:48.015 - into the fund. So if that AV interaction would show a lesser levy, we would get the lesser. And so as 00:13:48.015 --> 00:13:54.236 - a protection to the school corporation's budgets, we put a number a little bit above the expectations 00:13:54.236 --> 00:14:00.457 - so that it protects the school corporation against any of those changes. That's that backfill back to 00:14:00.457 --> 00:14:06.556 - the 85% number. So we know that that levy will be lower. In our referendum funds, we know that that 00:14:06.556 --> 00:14:09.118 - rate, the max can be 18 and a half cents. 00:14:09.890 --> 00:14:16.174 - And so that's an example of how that process works as they go through our different fund structures 00:14:16.174 --> 00:14:22.647 - as it relates to the levy and the corresponding rate. This looks very identical to what it is that you 00:14:22.647 --> 00:14:28.995 - guys saw last year. Going back to those individual comparisons, so every one of those budgets except 00:14:28.995 --> 00:14:35.593 - for the operations fund is a little lower this year. You see school pension debt, there's nothing there. 00:14:35.593 --> 00:14:39.678 - That fund will not exist after this year because we will pay off 00:14:40.162 --> 00:14:45.772 - pension debt and so there will no longer be necessary so that's why you see a zero there that fund will 00:14:45.772 --> 00:14:51.219 - close out after this year the other funds are slightly lower and again that makes sense based on the 00:14:51.219 --> 00:14:56.613 - things that we continue to talk about as we navigate some of the changes we've made in staffing the 00:14:56.613 --> 00:15:02.277 - changes that we that we know that we're experiencing in demographics and student enrollment and so those 00:15:02.277 --> 00:15:08.318 - things are coming down a little bit overall budget submission decreases a little bit over three million dollars 00:15:11.842 --> 00:15:17.712 - Couple of those high points that we wanna look at in each of those individual funds is again, education 00:15:17.712 --> 00:15:23.469 - fund. I'm looking at those revenues with student counts. I'm looking at those enrollment projections, 00:15:23.469 --> 00:15:29.226 - right? Staffing, our current staffing set up all of those things and the variability of possibilities 00:15:29.226 --> 00:15:34.927 - that could exist to create something that I think is conservative and flexible. The operations fund, 00:15:34.927 --> 00:15:38.878 - again, like I said earlier, we're going with that state set max levy. 00:15:39.170 --> 00:15:44.733 - And the budget is increased to account for. That's the fund where we're seeing fuel and insurance and 00:15:44.733 --> 00:15:50.295 - a lot of our goods and supplies that experience the most volatility in pricing. So knowing that those 00:15:50.295 --> 00:15:55.858 - escalation of expenses happen. And then in previous board meetings, we talked about we don't have the 00:15:55.858 --> 00:16:01.529 - 21st century grant anymore. And so extended day, adventure camp, some of those other things, their home 00:16:01.529 --> 00:16:07.201 - fund would be the operations fund. So it's coming back in there, which is part of the reason why you're 00:16:07.201 --> 00:16:08.510 - seeing that fund budget 00:16:09.474 --> 00:16:15.657 - escalate referendum funds again planning for like I said that continuation of the voter approved rate 00:16:15.657 --> 00:16:21.718 - and then in debt service we've advertised for what is our max operating balance so the debt service 00:16:21.718 --> 00:16:28.022 - fund has a max operating balance that's what it is that we've advertised that we know that we will work 00:16:28.022 --> 00:16:34.144 - under that levy we do not plan to be able we do not plan to take all of our max operating balance we 00:16:34.144 --> 00:16:37.054 - don't feel like that's necessary in this moment 00:16:37.218 --> 00:16:43.260 - We have no debt sold here in 2026. That's just a reminder that's there. The last thing that I have on 00:16:43.260 --> 00:16:49.242 - this slide is just the bus replacement and capital project plans. Those are posted to Gateway, which 00:16:49.242 --> 00:16:55.224 - is linked on our website. Those plans have to be submitted through the budgeting process in order to 00:16:55.224 --> 00:17:01.207 - expend operations fund dollars on those types of expenses. They are plans. They're not set in stone, 00:17:01.207 --> 00:17:05.886 - but they're meant to, one is a three-year plan. The other is a five-year plan. 00:17:06.114 --> 00:17:12.882 - But it's looking forward to say, what is it that we plan to expect or reasonably could occur? Big picture 00:17:12.882 --> 00:17:19.395 - takeaways, and I'm almost done. I know I've got a lot of information here, so I apologize. The budget 00:17:19.395 --> 00:17:26.099 - is guardrails, right? Again, we're setting tax levies, rates, and spending authority. Budget development 00:17:26.099 --> 00:17:32.612 - is built on past actuals, trends, recent legislation, and regulatory changes that change the outcomes 00:17:32.612 --> 00:17:35.166 - of how revenue or expenses would occur. 00:17:35.906 --> 00:17:42.212 - We're advertising the ceiling. So we publish high and then we work under those ceilings as we finish 00:17:42.212 --> 00:17:48.581 - out the budgeting process. The levy management, so the overall dollars that are generated through our 00:17:48.581 --> 00:17:54.825 - property taxes, it's continuing to move through that with community support and managing the ask of 00:17:54.825 --> 00:18:01.443 - the community while meeting the needs for our students and our school corporation. The adoption timeline, 00:18:01.443 --> 00:18:05.502 - adoption is next month. Expect the budget to be done in December 00:18:05.986 --> 00:18:12.397 - And again, that's that 1782 notice. It's just the term that they use that relates to that's when the 00:18:12.397 --> 00:18:18.936 - budget comes back to us. And we expect that to be in December. So with that, that is my budget hearing 00:18:18.936 --> 00:18:25.283 - presentation. Thank you, Mr. Irwin. You don't have to apologize for giving us too much information. 00:18:25.283 --> 00:18:31.758 - We appreciate it. Are there any comments or questions from the board? Thanks, Matt. I wasn't laughing 00:18:31.758 --> 00:18:33.726 - that I wanted you to hurry up. 00:18:33.890 --> 00:18:39.162 - Um, but no a question I had though Is it in one area when you talk about the after school program in 00:18:39.162 --> 00:18:44.487 - a venture camp? Is it in the budget because we're not sure we're gonna get that grant for that That's 00:18:44.487 --> 00:18:50.124 - right. Okay, so I have to account for it somewhere and the the procedurally through state board of accounts 00:18:50.124 --> 00:18:55.344 - The home fund of that expenditure would be the operations fund. Okay, I just really want to let you 00:18:55.344 --> 00:19:00.564 - know I do pay attention to you in your meetings it goes back to right we have rules that we have to 00:19:00.564 --> 00:19:03.070 - abide by state board of accounts tells us where 00:19:03.714 --> 00:19:12.536 - Expenditures have to be coded to where revenue has to be coded to and those are the things that we continue 00:19:12.536 --> 00:19:20.133 - to follow and that's why it goes back to that Thanks Matt Last call for questions All right, 00:19:20.133 --> 00:19:28.464 - thanks again, mr. Erwin this concludes the budget hearing and I Hereby declare the hearing closed. We 00:19:28.464 --> 00:19:32.222 - will now move on to the regular board meeting 00:19:34.274 --> 00:19:39.830 - If you were just here for the budget hearing, that's it. You can go. All right. Tonight, we're going 00:19:39.830 --> 00:19:45.111 - to begin with the Excellence Spotlight in celebration of excellence in our schools. Ms. Harmon. 00:19:45.111 --> 00:19:50.612 - Thank you, President Cooperman, Dr. Winston, members of the Board of School Trustees, and community 00:19:50.612 --> 00:19:56.223 - members. It's my privilege to present the September Excellence Spotlight. This monthly recognition is 00:19:56.223 --> 00:20:01.890 - a standing feature of each regular board meeting and serves as a dedicated moment to honor individuals 00:20:01.890 --> 00:20:03.870 - whose daily contributions exemplify 00:20:03.970 --> 00:20:09.870 - mission, vision, and core values of the Monroe County Community School Corporation. Tonight we're recognizing 00:20:09.870 --> 00:20:15.555 - two people from the same school which is exciting as well. Mary Hartman from Arlington Elementary School. 00:20:15.555 --> 00:20:20.919 - Miss Hartman is an outstanding front office lead whose daily leadership sets the tone for Arlington 00:20:20.919 --> 00:20:26.390 - Heights Elementary. She is warm, efficient, and continually seeks innovative ways to support families 00:20:26.390 --> 00:20:32.075 - and staff. Her commitment to service and her ability to create a welcoming solutions oriented environment 00:20:32.075 --> 00:20:33.470 - embody the spirit of true 00:20:33.762 --> 00:20:39.958 - Soaring Eagle. And we're also recognizing Jamie Tremblay from Arlington Elementary School. Ms. Tremblay 00:20:39.958 --> 00:20:46.273 - is a dedicated educator who builds strong relationships with her students and maintains high expectations 00:20:46.273 --> 00:20:52.648 - that inspire academic and personal growth. She encourages students to make positive choices and celebrates 00:20:52.648 --> 00:20:58.844 - their achievements with intention and care. Her leadership, creativity, and consistent focus on student 00:20:58.844 --> 00:21:03.134 - success makes her an invaluable contributor to the Arlington community. 00:21:03.234 --> 00:21:09.420 - And just earlier this week, she was recognized as one of the educator of years from the Bloomington 00:21:09.420 --> 00:21:15.729 - chamber. MCCSE is proud to recognize Mary Hartman and Jamie Tremblay as the September, 2026 excellent 00:21:15.729 --> 00:21:22.286 - spotlight honorees, their exemplary service and commitment elevate our schools and enrich the experiences 00:21:22.286 --> 00:21:28.286 - of the students and families we serve. Thank you. On behalf of the board, thank you, Ms. Harmon. 00:21:34.402 --> 00:21:46.848 - And congratulations to all those who were recognized tonight. We'd like to invite you to come to the 00:21:46.848 --> 00:21:59.663 - front to take a picture. Ms. Dewees, if you could join us. Front and center. OK. Love it. Like towering 00:21:59.663 --> 00:22:01.758 - in the air here. 00:22:44.386 --> 00:22:52.374 - Again, thank you for coming. And I understand if you have other obligations, our feelings won't be hurt 00:22:52.374 --> 00:23:00.208 - if you don't stay for the rest of the board meeting. But of course, you're welcome to if you want to. 00:23:00.208 --> 00:23:07.966 - Next, we will move on to public comment. I have two cards for public comment this evening. And first 00:23:07.966 --> 00:23:09.502 - is Marsali Andrews. 00:23:15.906 --> 00:23:21.844 - Hi, my name is Marceline Andrews. I live at 6250 West Eisen Road. My topic is AP exam access. Could 00:23:21.844 --> 00:23:28.198 - the families here with me please stand today? Between us, our students learn through six different schools 00:23:28.198 --> 00:23:34.434 - and programs. MCCSE schools, the Open Ed program, the Braintree program, homeschooling, Cedars Christian 00:23:34.434 --> 00:23:39.422 - School, and the Indiana Education Scholarship Account program. Thank you, everyone. 00:23:40.034 --> 00:23:46.079 - Together we are asking MCCSC to allow students who live in Monroe County but who are not enrolled at 00:23:46.079 --> 00:23:52.423 - Bloomington North or Bloomington South to register for AP and PSAT exams at those schools. These students 00:23:52.423 --> 00:23:58.468 - are currently being denied access. To start with the most important things cost and safety. This can 00:23:58.468 --> 00:24:04.812 - cost the district nothing. The College Board expressly allows schools to charge outside students a higher 00:24:04.812 --> 00:24:08.702 - fee to cover the cost of any added rooms proctors or staff time. 00:24:08.866 --> 00:24:14.650 - If the number of possible outside students registering is a concern, then we are open to a capped trial 00:24:14.650 --> 00:24:20.545 - for a year. The safety procedures for this also already exist. MCCSC already admits non-enrolled students 00:24:20.545 --> 00:24:26.328 - into these buildings for the SCT and ACT exams. I've confirmed with the Indiana Department of Education 00:24:26.328 --> 00:24:32.057 - that there is no state law preventing the district from saying yes to this request. The decision rests 00:24:32.057 --> 00:24:38.174 - with each school. We're asking you, our district, for this because we've already tried four different routes. 00:24:38.626 --> 00:24:44.668 - We have directly asked North and South to allow our students to test, and they have been refused. I've 00:24:44.668 --> 00:24:50.592 - contacted 26 different testing sites within an hour of Bloomington. Only one accepts certain outside 00:24:50.592 --> 00:24:56.575 - students, and it offers only five AP exams. Number three, I completed the college board's application 00:24:56.575 --> 00:25:02.910 - to become an authorized testing administrator myself using the public library as the site. That application 00:25:02.910 --> 00:25:03.614 - was denied. 00:25:03.842 --> 00:25:09.560 - And for I convinced a professional testing company here in Bloomington to also apply to become an official 00:25:09.560 --> 00:25:15.065 - AP testing site that would accept all students. The College Board also denied that application telling 00:25:15.065 --> 00:25:20.730 - us to ask our local school district instead. So we are here today. The College Board sends these students 00:25:20.730 --> 00:25:22.814 - back to you our local school district. 00:25:23.842 --> 00:25:29.907 - Being denied access to both AP exams and the PSAT exam comes at a real cost to Bloomington families. 00:25:29.907 --> 00:25:35.911 - A passing AP score is worth three to six college credits, which is hundreds to thousands of dollars 00:25:35.911 --> 00:25:42.036 - for families in tuition. The PSAT is a qualifying test for the National Merit Scholarship. That means 00:25:42.036 --> 00:25:48.041 - that a student who cannot take that exam can't qualify for that scholarship at all. So our group is 00:25:48.041 --> 00:25:49.662 - asking you for two things. 00:25:49.794 --> 00:25:55.713 - One, we're asking Dr. Winston to make an administrative decision for this year specifically to allow 00:25:55.713 --> 00:26:01.632 - outside students to register for the AP exams and the PSAT exams. The deadline to order the AP exams 00:26:01.632 --> 00:26:07.726 - is mid-November, so we ask for that decision to be made soon. And then two, we ask for a written policy 00:26:07.726 --> 00:26:13.880 - for future school years, and that part could come on whatever timeline the board needs. We would welcome 00:26:13.880 --> 00:26:17.982 - the chance to work out the details for both of these things with you. 00:26:18.146 --> 00:26:27.244 - These students are ready to test. They just need a seat. Thank you. Our next commenter is Jenny Noble 00:26:27.244 --> 00:26:36.164 - Kuchera. Hi, good evening, President Cooperman, Dr. Winston, School Board of Trustees, and audience 00:26:36.164 --> 00:26:45.886 - members. My name is Jenny Noble Kuchera. I'm the proud president of the Monroe County Education Association. 00:26:46.146 --> 00:26:52.708 - otherwise known as the Local Teachers Union. I thought it was perfect timing, Matt, that you talked 00:26:52.708 --> 00:26:59.467 - about revenue levied but not received because I am here to make sure that we get out the vote. We live 00:26:59.467 --> 00:27:06.225 - in a democracy. We still do. And I'm going to make sure that every one of you tonight knows your dates 00:27:06.225 --> 00:27:11.934 - and how to make sure you're registered to vote. So here we go. Are you election ready? 00:27:13.378 --> 00:27:21.482 - October 5th is the voter registration deadline. If you aren't sure, you can go to indianavotors.com. 00:27:21.482 --> 00:27:29.587 - On October 6th, in-person early voting begins. October 22nd is the absentee ballot request deadline. 00:27:29.587 --> 00:27:37.691 - So if you wanted to request one of those, do it prior to one month from today. And finally, the last 00:27:37.691 --> 00:27:38.654 - day to vote 00:27:39.266 --> 00:27:47.160 - early in person is November 2nd because November 3rd is election day. This is important because everything 00:27:47.160 --> 00:27:54.537 - that we discuss in these meetings, everything that's presented to us, the working conditions of our 00:27:54.537 --> 00:28:02.652 - teachers, the learning conditions of our students are all contingent upon all of us exercising our democratic 00:28:02.652 --> 00:28:07.742 - right and voting for legislators at all levels who will represent us 00:28:08.770 --> 00:28:16.587 - and be public servants to make sure that public education continues. So I thank you for exercising your 00:28:16.587 --> 00:28:24.254 - democratic rights, doing your research ahead of time to make sure that you are voting for someone who 00:28:24.254 --> 00:28:31.470 - is going to best represent our community, our students, our teachers. And have a great evening. 00:28:31.470 --> 00:28:37.182 - Thank you, Ms. Nobuo-Kuchera. And thanks to everyone who commented tonight. 00:28:37.314 --> 00:28:44.951 - We are now going to move on to the MCCSE Facilities Master Plan. Dr. Winston. Thank you, President Cooperman. 00:28:44.951 --> 00:28:52.588 - Last month, you heard me introduce the concept of our desire to move forward with having a 10-year Facilities 00:28:52.588 --> 00:28:59.600 - Master Plan. The Facilities Master Plan provides a long-term roadmap for maintaining, improving, and 00:28:59.600 --> 00:29:06.334 - planning school facilities across the corporation. It is intended to help MCCSE make thoughtful, 00:29:06.562 --> 00:29:13.198 - They inform decisions that support safe, functional, and welcoming learning environments for the students 00:29:13.198 --> 00:29:19.646 - that we serve, for the staff that provide services, and for our community. To support this work, MCCSE 00:29:19.646 --> 00:29:26.032 - has engaged Brent Height of CSO, they did the Try North building a few years ago, and Victor Landfair 00:29:26.032 --> 00:29:32.667 - of the Skillman Corporation. Both of these individuals, along with their respective teams, bring relevant 00:29:32.667 --> 00:29:35.422 - expertise in facility assessment, planning, 00:29:35.746 --> 00:29:42.089 - designing, construction, and public school project delivery. These two firms were selected out of a 00:29:42.089 --> 00:29:48.560 - very tough group of individual companies based upon their specific demonstrated qualifications, their 00:29:48.560 --> 00:29:55.411 - experience with comparable educational facilities, their ability to collaborate with district and community 00:29:55.411 --> 00:30:02.008 - stakeholders, and their capacity to provide the technical guidance that's necessary for a comprehensive 00:30:02.008 --> 00:30:04.926 - master planning process. We are very thrilled 00:30:05.058 --> 00:30:11.149 - to have these two companies representing our school corporation. I'd like to bring Brent Height and 00:30:11.149 --> 00:30:17.484 - Victor Landfair to the podium to share information about how we will proceed with our facilities master 00:30:17.484 --> 00:30:23.575 - planning process. Thank you Dr. Winston. Appreciate the introduction and it's a pleasure to be with 00:30:23.575 --> 00:30:29.666 - you and the board this evening. I'm hoping we can do just kind of a quick brief introduction of who 00:30:29.666 --> 00:30:31.006 - we are and what we do 00:30:31.138 --> 00:30:37.021 - And I've also got one of my counterparts, another member of our team, Dr. Stephanie Lone with me this 00:30:37.021 --> 00:30:42.904 - evening, who you'll hear a little bit about in this presentation. So from a team perspective, we have 00:30:42.904 --> 00:30:48.786 - our top team there with CSO is, there's several people there, Dr. Stephanie Lone, Jim Funk, and Emily 00:30:48.786 --> 00:30:54.669 - Newton, all part of our architectural and interior design team will help lead this effort. From CSO's 00:30:54.669 --> 00:30:57.726 - perspective, we also have several design consultants 00:30:57.858 --> 00:31:04.485 - who will also be participating and helping us with their various areas of expertise. That includes Context 00:31:04.485 --> 00:31:10.926 - Design, RE Diamond and Associates, and BRCJ. All of these firms have done work with CSO as well as work 00:31:10.926 --> 00:31:17.306 - with MCCSC over their historical periods of different projects and different avenues. So we're excited 00:31:17.306 --> 00:31:23.499 - to have all of them partner with us in this endeavor. There's a lot of ground and data to cover, so 00:31:23.499 --> 00:31:26.782 - it's going to take a village to really get us there. 00:31:27.746 --> 00:31:34.239 - A little bit about who we are. CSO, as a firm, we do architecture and interior design in-house. We are 00:31:34.239 --> 00:31:40.669 - located in Indianapolis, near Keystone at the crossing, the Fashion Mall, if you've ever been up that 00:31:40.669 --> 00:31:47.541 - way. We were established in 1961, so we've been around a while. We got into the K-12 market in the mid-'80s, 00:31:47.541 --> 00:31:53.908 - really with a customer service mindset of trying to take, of where we saw an opening, where the type 00:31:53.908 --> 00:31:55.358 - of client service that 00:31:55.938 --> 00:32:02.914 - public schools were receiving wasn't what we were providing in the private sector. So taking that private 00:32:02.914 --> 00:32:09.560 - sector know-how and bringing it to the public school market has really served as well. We have grown 00:32:09.560 --> 00:32:16.141 - exponentially since. We now have over 40 people in just our education studio that focus on K-12 and 00:32:16.141 --> 00:32:17.918 - higher education projects. 00:32:18.626 --> 00:32:24.057 - have become one of the largest K-12 firms in the state of Indiana. So a deep bench of expertise. We 00:32:24.057 --> 00:32:29.597 - especially like to get involved when we talk about kind of innovative educational practices, thinking 00:32:29.597 --> 00:32:35.082 - about learning environments differently. And so hopefully you have seen some of that and some of the 00:32:35.082 --> 00:32:36.766 - work we've done with you guys. 00:32:37.058 --> 00:32:44.094 - We do work all over the state of Indiana. And so this is just a quick kind of map. All of those blue 00:32:44.094 --> 00:32:51.061 - counties are areas we work. So a lot of that work is central, since we are located in Indianapolis. 00:32:51.061 --> 00:32:58.167 - But we travel from as far north as South Bend to as far south as Clarksville, which is about as close 00:32:58.167 --> 00:33:04.158 - to the Ohio River? Lincoln, sorry. That's about as close to the river as you can get. 00:33:04.450 --> 00:33:09.692 - Districts that range the spectrum from large districts with multiple high schools similar to yourselves 00:33:09.692 --> 00:33:14.984 - to smaller districts similar to Clarksville who are three buildings and that's their whole entire school 00:33:14.984 --> 00:33:20.377 - district. So we kind of run the gamut. We were very heavily built on relationships rather than necessarily 00:33:20.377 --> 00:33:25.569 - districts. So that's really served us well. And we do a little bit of everything from, you know, small 00:33:25.569 --> 00:33:30.659 - renovations of facilities. You know, we've got this restroom renovation that needs to happen because 00:33:30.659 --> 00:33:34.238 - it's, you know, 50 years old to brand new state of the art facilities. 00:33:34.338 --> 00:33:39.558 - Kind of all across the board. Some of you probably hopefully recognize my face. I think there's a few 00:33:39.558 --> 00:33:44.727 - board members that I've presented to you before. I think our most recent endeavor with you guys, and 00:33:44.727 --> 00:33:50.100 - we were talking about the Templeton child's merger and acquisition piece there. But in addition to that, 00:33:50.100 --> 00:33:55.218 - Dr Winston mentioned try north is probably our largest project. We have completed with you guys and 00:33:55.218 --> 00:33:56.958 - that opened just a few years ago. 00:33:57.122 --> 00:34:01.969 - But we've also done several smaller projects around the district, including renovations at 00:34:01.969 --> 00:34:07.775 - Benford Elementary. I think that was our first project with you guys following the 2017 facility assessment. 00:34:07.775 --> 00:34:13.208 - We added classrooms on at Summit Elementary, the Unionville Outdoor Learning Pavilion, the playground 00:34:13.208 --> 00:34:16.670 - at Templeton, the Bloomington High School South Pool renovation. 00:34:16.962 --> 00:34:23.709 - the South Stocker fields, as well as the new tennis facility at North. So we have done a lot with you. 00:34:23.709 --> 00:34:30.586 - We know your administration. I've worked with Sam and Brad a long time. And so I think that really helps 00:34:30.586 --> 00:34:37.136 - us kind of know how you guys operate internally and gives us a really unique perspective on some of 00:34:37.136 --> 00:34:44.145 - the things we're going to do with you guys. Good evening. I appreciate the opportunity. I'm Victor Lanford 00:34:44.145 --> 00:34:46.110 - with the Skilman Corporation. 00:34:46.562 --> 00:34:52.468 - I first want to repeat what Dr. Winston said, which is even though we're presenting our two companies, 00:34:52.468 --> 00:34:58.375 - we really see ourselves as a single entity. And from your perspective, you should think of it as being 00:34:58.375 --> 00:35:04.281 - very transparent. Fortunately, we've worked with the CSO team on a number of projects to introduce our 00:35:04.281 --> 00:35:08.926 - team. Myself and Tim Funsta will be sort of the lead communicators for our team. 00:35:09.218 --> 00:35:15.211 - We're thankful for Caroline who makes the things that we communicate look pretty. And she's an important 00:35:15.211 --> 00:35:20.976 - part of that. And especially when you're presenting to your community information, you want it to be 00:35:20.976 --> 00:35:26.741 - easy to understand and clearly to see and understand. We've got a strong bench of estimators. You're 00:35:26.741 --> 00:35:32.506 - going to hear us. We're sort of the data guys on the team. And we're going to give you a lot of cost 00:35:32.506 --> 00:35:38.271 - information, going to support the team from a quantitative standpoint. And cost is going to be a big 00:35:38.271 --> 00:35:39.070 - part of this. 00:35:39.362 --> 00:35:47.110 - this facility study, but also our expertise in constructing and renovating school buildings is going 00:35:47.110 --> 00:35:54.858 - to be a big part of this master plan. Um, we're also an Indiana based company been around since 1972 00:35:54.858 --> 00:36:03.066 - or employee owned. Um, about 85% of our business is K 12. Most of that is, um, updating and re-envisioning 00:36:03.066 --> 00:36:05.214 - occupied school facilities. 00:36:05.538 --> 00:36:12.321 - We've done a number of facilities. You know, you see the hard hat, you might think we're the construction 00:36:12.321 --> 00:36:18.848 - team. But in fact, a big part of what we do is helping communities like yourself set a project up and 00:36:18.848 --> 00:36:25.631 - vision a project and quantify and budget for projects and really get the most out of your project through 00:36:25.631 --> 00:36:30.686 - setting it up for success. So we're looking forward to being part of the team. 00:36:30.914 --> 00:36:37.777 - in developing this master plan and envisioning the next 10 years for your facilities. This is not our 00:36:37.777 --> 00:36:44.572 - first facility study. We've done a number of them. In fact, in many of those, this is just a handful 00:36:44.572 --> 00:36:51.636 - of facility studies that we've done around the state. Not just nearby, worked with Mr. Irwin in Edgewood 00:36:51.636 --> 00:36:59.710 - schools over the last few years. But what we are really proud of, we developed a format and an organizational structure 00:37:00.002 --> 00:37:06.570 - So this isn't a study that sits and grows dust on the shelf, but in fact has a usable tool. We've done 00:37:06.570 --> 00:37:13.074 - other studies where we've come back after seven years and updated the data. So we really want to give 00:37:13.074 --> 00:37:19.451 - you good information that becomes a tool to help you make decisions, both in the short term and the 00:37:19.451 --> 00:37:26.019 - long term, and then become a tool that you can use every year to develop your projects, whatever those 00:37:26.019 --> 00:37:27.486 - projects end up being. 00:37:28.802 --> 00:37:35.256 - This is an image that we put together in our presentation, but I think it helps to sort of understand 00:37:35.256 --> 00:37:41.647 - there's a lot of pieces to this puzzle, right? This master plan is going to have a lot of data. That 00:37:41.647 --> 00:37:48.038 - data is going to be quantifiable. It's going to be subjective, but there's a lot of components to go 00:37:48.038 --> 00:37:54.366 - together. We did this to sort of start to describe how the architects are working and we're working 00:37:54.366 --> 00:37:57.150 - together to create that puzzle, but I think 00:37:57.442 --> 00:38:05.262 - I think it also helps you to understand that there are pieces and parts that will be, whether it's community 00:38:05.262 --> 00:38:12.938 - engagement, to estimating, to life cycles of buildings, to space utilization, and this sort of educational 00:38:12.938 --> 00:38:20.399 - programming piece comes in. So there's a lot of components to the study. And we're going to try to work 00:38:20.399 --> 00:38:27.358 - together successfully with your team to give you that vision, to put all those puzzles together, 00:38:27.586 --> 00:38:35.909 - for the picture. We talked a little bit about how this project, even in our kickoff meeting internally, 00:38:35.909 --> 00:38:43.913 - there's almost sort of two tracks, if you will. There's this track of what is the condition of your 00:38:43.913 --> 00:38:52.156 - facilities and what is it going to take to maintain an excellence and performance of those facilities. 00:38:52.156 --> 00:38:56.638 - I'm a facility geek, so I look at it as the components. 00:38:56.930 --> 00:39:03.306 - You're probably not surprised when I show you an image like this. You have things like technology that 00:39:03.306 --> 00:39:09.496 - has a fairly short life, and then you have things like structural systems that have a long life and 00:39:09.496 --> 00:39:15.686 - everything in between that. And our facility study, this master plan will hopefully sort of dissect 00:39:15.686 --> 00:39:21.876 - all your facilities and pull out, if you will, the kind of investment you're going to have to make. 00:39:21.876 --> 00:39:25.342 - And that quantification of those investments will help. 00:39:25.730 --> 00:39:32.530 - be some of that data-driven decision-making that we move ahead. But not just that sort of nuts and bolts, 00:39:32.530 --> 00:39:38.753 - there's also the programming piece, which I think Dr. Long is going to talk about. That's right. 00:39:38.753 --> 00:39:45.618 - Thank you. I'm the educator on the team. So 30 years ago, I left Bloomington, and I've had the opportunity 00:39:45.618 --> 00:39:50.814 - to serve in public education for the last four years at CSO as a program person. 00:39:50.978 --> 00:39:57.440 - And what I wanted to make sure that you knew is how important the people are in this process. And so 00:39:57.440 --> 00:40:03.839 - we'll discuss with educators, administrators, and especially students to learn more about how their 00:40:03.839 --> 00:40:06.398 - space is helping them to be successful. 00:40:06.530 --> 00:40:12.851 - And perhaps programming that folks have really wanted to get off the ground that they just haven't been 00:40:12.851 --> 00:40:18.990 - able to do because the facility is really limiting to them. So these are some tangible examples here 00:40:18.990 --> 00:40:25.068 - in the 1st picture off to the left here. We had a visioning session with a middle school team. They 00:40:25.068 --> 00:40:27.742 - had been teaming at their grade levels and. 00:40:27.874 --> 00:40:33.565 - they felt like they had such ownership over this team, but they really couldn't see each other and they 00:40:33.565 --> 00:40:39.147 - couldn't operate as a functioning team. And so when we talked about their FLIR plan and what we could 00:40:39.147 --> 00:40:44.838 - do to modify a piece here and there, they felt like this would really help them function as a true team 00:40:44.838 --> 00:40:50.420 - and really incorporate what they considered a PLC model with their professional learning communities. 00:40:50.420 --> 00:40:53.758 - In the middle here, we have an intermediate school principal 00:40:54.146 --> 00:41:00.358 - who wanted to pursue some alternative programming with related arts. And students were showing a high 00:41:00.358 --> 00:41:06.753 - interest in eSports. And so we did some site visits. Butler University has a lovely new eSports program. 00:41:06.753 --> 00:41:13.087 - And so we wanted to check that out to see if that was something that they could bring in a small sense, 00:41:13.087 --> 00:41:19.299 - not a university sense, but in a small sense to their intermediate learning model. And so site visits 00:41:19.299 --> 00:41:21.918 - are a really important opportunity for us. 00:41:22.018 --> 00:41:27.539 - to take those educators out and to learn more about what they're telling us they might want to see in 00:41:27.539 --> 00:41:33.007 - their facilities. And then, of course, our favorite here are student input sessions. These were also 00:41:33.007 --> 00:41:38.582 - middle schoolers. This was another school district. And they were really envious of the culture pieces 00:41:38.582 --> 00:41:44.212 - that were going on at the high school. And these students had sort of student unions at the high school 00:41:44.212 --> 00:41:49.246 - and collaborative spaces and just neat spaces to show their pride and hang out a little bit. 00:41:49.346 --> 00:41:55.767 - And they wanted to see more colorful spaces like that, some flexible seating, and some common spaces 00:41:55.767 --> 00:42:02.379 - in their middle school. And so they helped us look at floor plans where we could incorporate that. They 00:42:02.379 --> 00:42:08.864 - always like to talk about the cafeteria, too, so that's something that we'll hear about, I'm sure. So 00:42:08.864 --> 00:42:15.285 - looking forward to this process and all the recommendations, the very important educators will bring 00:42:15.285 --> 00:42:18.718 - to it. I guess one other quick addition there is just 00:42:19.074 --> 00:42:24.941 - As far as Stephanie's work is, our hope is to come alongside your leadership team here and help you 00:42:24.941 --> 00:42:30.867 - guys define what does education look like in that educational visioning process five years, 10 years 00:42:30.867 --> 00:42:36.851 - down the road so that whatever physical facility improvements may come from this facility assessment, 00:42:36.851 --> 00:42:42.835 - we're pointing everything in that direction, if that makes sense. So she's a huge asset to us, and we 00:42:42.835 --> 00:42:44.830 - love having her part of our team. 00:42:45.346 --> 00:42:51.009 - In terms of what you guys can kind of expect from a timeline perspective, so what shows up here, shows 00:42:51.009 --> 00:42:56.727 - up better on these screens back here, I guess it's a little dark, my apologies, but it's about an eight 00:42:56.727 --> 00:43:02.446 - month timeline. So our first few months here, we're gonna really spend in trying to understand, seeking 00:43:02.446 --> 00:43:08.164 - information, looking through facility information, going through enrollment data, talking to principals 00:43:08.164 --> 00:43:13.662 - about efficiencies in their building or programming in their building, how many students are where, 00:43:13.922 --> 00:43:19.162 - and diving into that educational visioning piece so that it can inform kind of the future steps. 00:43:19.162 --> 00:43:24.672 - From there, we're gonna gather a lot of that information into kind of an evaluation process. So as we 00:43:24.672 --> 00:43:30.290 - evaluate that and looking at it through several different lenses, we know you guys have been doing some 00:43:30.290 --> 00:43:35.854 - heavy lifting on some of the other district kind of administration components. So those are gonna have 00:43:35.854 --> 00:43:41.256 - to start layering into some of this conversation as we evaluate the data pieces from the facilities 00:43:41.256 --> 00:43:42.174 - as they come in. 00:43:42.306 --> 00:43:47.997 - And so we'll start to evaluate scenarios, look at trade-offs and hopefully refine those to a direction 00:43:47.997 --> 00:43:53.687 - or maybe multiple directions that come to the board for final adoption and implementation. You can see 00:43:53.687 --> 00:43:59.212 - that over that board of trustees comment there in the center, like there's gonna be multiple points 00:43:59.212 --> 00:44:05.124 - where we're gonna come to the board with information and ask for some validation or ask for some direction 00:44:05.124 --> 00:44:10.649 - or recommendations or input. So we're hoping to be very transparent and very collaborative with you 00:44:10.649 --> 00:44:12.030 - as well as the community 00:44:12.130 --> 00:44:17.548 - and the leadership team here. So with that, the last thing I'll mention is Dr. Winston did say that 00:44:17.548 --> 00:44:23.183 - she went through a rigor, or the leadership team with a rigorous process selection. I would second that 00:44:23.183 --> 00:44:28.710 - as one of the most rigorous processes I think I've ever been through. So kudos to her team for really 00:44:28.710 --> 00:44:34.291 - making sure that they're bringing the right partners for you guys. So we're really excited to get this 00:44:34.291 --> 00:44:39.926 - work moving and happy to take any questions you might have right here off the bat. Thank you, Mr. Hart. 00:44:39.926 --> 00:44:41.822 - Hi, Mr. Landfair. Is it Dr. Lohan? 00:44:42.818 --> 00:44:52.950 - Lone. OK, I tried to make it fancy for some reason. Dr. La. Thank you so much. Are there questions or 00:44:52.950 --> 00:45:02.983 - comments from the board? They're ready. They've been grilled. So will you all work with our teachers 00:45:02.983 --> 00:45:08.446 - as well in thinking through spaces in their buildings? 00:45:09.218 --> 00:45:15.353 - Yeah, 100%. So the educational visioning piece is specific to every client. So we know every community 00:45:15.353 --> 00:45:21.428 - and even every school is a little bit different. So usually we try to build some consensus at the top 00:45:21.428 --> 00:45:27.384 - level and then start to kind of widen out the cone as we put up some guardrails, as we like to call 00:45:27.384 --> 00:45:33.757 - them. And then we find it's very important and we often repeat the process once the vision is established. 00:45:33.757 --> 00:45:38.462 - If in theory we're going through a series of buildings over time, this is very 00:45:38.658 --> 00:45:43.825 - similar to a process we're going through with Bartholomew County schools today where they're renovating 00:45:43.825 --> 00:45:48.992 - every all of their elementaries over a five year period or so. And so the district kind of set a vision 00:45:48.992 --> 00:45:54.209 - and then each building we go into, we're still meeting with teachers aligning that vision and even doing 00:45:54.209 --> 00:45:59.277 - a little bit of professional development to help those teachers and administrators kind of understand 00:45:59.277 --> 00:46:04.345 - this is where the district is wanting us to go. But certainly that grassroots input is really, really 00:46:04.345 --> 00:46:05.438 - important. Thank you. 00:46:12.578 --> 00:46:18.520 - Can you say more about how you might convene those community groups or teacher groups or student groups 00:46:18.520 --> 00:46:24.463 - to get that feedback? We're still kind of in the infancy of figuring exactly what that looks like. It's 00:46:24.463 --> 00:46:30.520 - a little bit different for every district. And so we'll likely have those discussions with the leadership 00:46:30.520 --> 00:46:36.234 - team of how best to engage your community. I know since we have done work here for a long time that 00:46:36.234 --> 00:46:40.862 - that community engagement piece is critical, but also sometimes a little tricky. 00:46:40.994 --> 00:46:47.674 - based off of when people are available versus not available. Sometimes anonymous feedback is easier, 00:46:47.674 --> 00:46:54.355 - but sometimes maybe it's not as good. So trying to work through multiple scenarios where we can kind 00:46:54.355 --> 00:47:01.035 - of use different medias and different ways to do that. And so that's something we'll work through. I 00:47:01.035 --> 00:47:07.253 - don't know that I can tell you these are the exact plans yet, but we'll certainly have those. 00:47:07.253 --> 00:47:10.494 - Thank you. Thank you again for the presentation. 00:47:11.554 --> 00:47:18.073 - I just want to say thank you to Victor, to Brent, and to Stephanie. We are so excited about partnering 00:47:18.073 --> 00:47:24.528 - with you and the opportunities that we're going to be able to provide for the learning experiences of 00:47:24.528 --> 00:47:31.173 - our children. So thank you. Now for our consideration is the consent agenda that includes the following. 00:47:31.173 --> 00:47:38.135 - Minutes from the board meeting held on August 28, 2026, overnight out of state field trips, ECA expenditures, 00:47:38.135 --> 00:47:40.350 - financial report from August 2026, 00:47:40.674 --> 00:47:49.244 - Appropriation balance August 2026. Register of claims September 22, 2026. Payroll register and payroll 00:47:49.244 --> 00:47:57.648 - claims August 2026. Request to declare as surplus and authorized disposal of out of date items. Do I 00:47:57.648 --> 00:48:05.470 - have a motion regarding approval of the consent agenda? So moved. Do I have a second? Second. 00:48:05.826 --> 00:48:14.957 - It's been moved by Ross and seconded by Tiana that we approve the consent agenda as presented. All those 00:48:14.957 --> 00:48:23.219 - in favor of approving the consent agenda signify by saying aye. Aye. Any against? Abstentions? 00:48:23.219 --> 00:48:32.350 - Motion carries. Next for our consideration are the donations. We have received donations of over $7,000. 00:48:32.642 --> 00:48:41.812 - Thank you to all our donors. Your generosity is appreciated. Do I have a motion to accept the donations? 00:48:41.812 --> 00:48:50.545 - So moved. Do I have a second? Second. It's been moved by Ashley and seconded by Asia that we accept 00:48:50.545 --> 00:48:59.453 - the donations as presented. All those in favor of approving the donations signify by saying aye. Aye. 00:48:59.453 --> 00:49:01.374 - Against? Abstentions? 00:49:02.818 --> 00:49:12.012 - Motion carries. Tonight, we have three policies for our consideration, policy 5341, emergency health 00:49:12.012 --> 00:49:21.114 - card, policy 5330, use of medication, and policy 2340, field and other corporation-sponsored trips. 00:49:21.114 --> 00:49:29.853 - We will take them collectively. Do I have a motion to adopt policy 5341, emergency health card, 00:49:29.853 --> 00:49:32.766 - policy 5330, use of medication, 00:49:32.962 --> 00:49:41.413 - and policy 2340, field and other corporation sponsored trips. So moved. Do I have a second? Second. 00:49:41.413 --> 00:49:49.949 - It's been moved by Ross and seconded by Tiana that we adopt the aforementioned policies. Ms. Harmon. 00:49:49.949 --> 00:49:58.739 - Thank you. It is recommended that the board adopt the following policies, policy 5341, emergency health 00:49:58.739 --> 00:50:01.950 - card, policy 5330, use of medication, 00:50:02.114 --> 00:50:08.347 - Policy 2340 field and other corporation sponsored trips. Changes to these policies were presented for 00:50:08.347 --> 00:50:14.641 - a first reading at the August 25th, 2026 meeting of the board. The policies are presented to the board 00:50:14.641 --> 00:50:21.058 - for a second and final reading. Any prior policies relating to the aforementioned policies are rescinded 00:50:21.058 --> 00:50:27.229 - deemed null and void and replaced by the policies presented tonight for adoption on this 22nd day of 00:50:27.229 --> 00:50:29.246 - September, 2026. I so recommend. 00:50:29.922 --> 00:50:40.074 - Thank you, Ms. Harmon. Are there questions or comments from the board? All those in favor of adopting 00:50:40.074 --> 00:50:50.127 - Policy 5341, Emergency Health Card, Policy 5330, Use of Medication, and Policy 2340, Field and Other 00:50:50.127 --> 00:50:59.582 - Corporation Sponsored Trips, signify by saying aye. Aye. Against? Abstentions? Motion carries. 00:51:01.186 --> 00:51:08.727 - Next for our consideration is the personnel report. Do I have a motion to approve the personnel report 00:51:08.727 --> 00:51:16.415 - as presented? So moved. Do I have a second? Second. It's been moved by Ashley and seconded by Erin Wyatt 00:51:16.415 --> 00:51:24.029 - that we approve. Oh, sorry, April. April Hennessy. OK, let me try that again. It's been moved by Ashley 00:51:24.029 --> 00:51:29.886 - and seconded by April that we approve the personnel as reported. Dr. Henderson? 00:51:30.626 --> 00:51:36.966 - President Cooperman, Dr. Winston and members of the Board of School Trustees, this evening I would like 00:51:36.966 --> 00:51:43.305 - to call your attention to the following administrative changes of status, appointments and retirements. 00:51:43.305 --> 00:51:49.949 - First up, an administrator change of status. Benjamin Jones, changing from assistant principal at University 00:51:49.949 --> 00:51:56.350 - Elementary School to principal at Marlin Elementary School. Mr. Jones continues with MCCSC after serving 00:51:56.350 --> 00:51:58.910 - the corporation as an elementary teacher. 00:51:59.202 --> 00:52:05.666 - elementary school assistant principal and middle school assistant principal. Mr. Jones holds a bachelor's 00:52:05.666 --> 00:52:12.070 - degree in elementary education from the University of Southern Indiana and a master's degree in business 00:52:12.070 --> 00:52:18.168 - administration from Indiana University. He will serve as the principal at Marlin Elementary School. 00:52:18.168 --> 00:52:23.230 - An administrator appointment this evening, call your attention to Marty Koglazier. 00:52:23.778 --> 00:52:30.878 - Marty will return in service to MCCSC once again to serve as the interim assistant principal at University 00:52:30.878 --> 00:52:37.977 - Elementary School. Marty returns to MCCSC after previously serving as the principal at Fairview Elementary 00:52:37.977 --> 00:52:44.148 - School for five years. She also, if you recall, recently filled in at the Academy of Science 00:52:44.148 --> 00:52:51.646 - and Entrepreneurship. Ms. Colt Glazier holds a master's degree in education from the University of Indianapolis. 00:52:52.034 --> 00:52:59.540 - and she will again serve as the interim assistant principal for MCCSE at University Elementary School. 00:52:59.540 --> 00:53:07.119 - Finally, I'd like to call your attention to a certified staff retirement. This is Martha Bowman. Martha 00:53:07.119 --> 00:53:14.553 - retired after 21 years of dedicated service to MCCSE, having served as a science teacher at Tri-North 00:53:14.553 --> 00:53:15.646 - Middle School. 00:53:17.026 --> 00:53:23.497 - And on behalf of MCCSE, I would like to extend a special thank you to Ms. Bowman for her many years 00:53:23.497 --> 00:53:30.162 - of dedicated service and wish her well in her next adventures. At this time, I request that you please 00:53:30.162 --> 00:53:36.763 - approve the recommendations as presented in your board packet in the personnel report. Thank you, Dr. 00:53:36.763 --> 00:53:39.998 - Henderson. Are there any comments from the board? 00:53:46.882 --> 00:53:54.720 - I guess I'm grateful people keep coming out of retirement. Yes, absolutely. Particularly Ms. Colglazer, 00:53:54.720 --> 00:54:02.708 - yeah. Particularly, yeah. And congratulations to those who have retired and who are taking new positions. 00:54:02.708 --> 00:54:10.621 - All those in favor of any other comments before we take a vote? Well, congratulations to Benjamin Jones. 00:54:10.621 --> 00:54:11.902 - Yes, absolutely. 00:54:14.722 --> 00:54:21.444 - I think we usually wait to invite people until we've taken the votes. Correct. Thank you. So all those 00:54:21.444 --> 00:54:28.231 - in favor of approving the personnel report signify by saying aye. Aye. Against? Abstentions? I abstain. 00:54:28.231 --> 00:54:34.822 - Motion carries. Dr. Henderson, do you want to invite anyone to the podium? Yes. So before we move on 00:54:34.822 --> 00:54:41.543 - to the next agenda item, I'd like to invite Mr. Ben Jones up to the podium this evening to address the 00:54:41.543 --> 00:54:42.718 - board. Mr. Jones? 00:54:50.242 --> 00:54:56.761 - Good evening, President Kuperman, Dr. Winston, and members of the board of school trustees. I want to 00:54:56.761 --> 00:55:03.728 - begin by thanking you for placing your trust in me and giving me the opportunity to serve as an ex-principal 00:55:03.728 --> 00:55:10.119 - of Marlin Elementary. I also want to thank my wife, Alyssa. She's back here with my child trying to 00:55:10.119 --> 00:55:17.022 - keep it together. Her constant encouragement, patience, support have allowed me to pursue this opportunity. 00:55:17.922 --> 00:55:23.850 - And truly, I could not have reached this moment without her by my side. I'm extremely grateful for my 00:55:23.850 --> 00:55:29.894 - time at University Elementary. The experiences give me valuable opportunities to grow as a leader, work 00:55:29.894 --> 00:55:35.881 - alongside dedicated educators, and serve an incredible group of students. While I'm excited about this 00:55:35.881 --> 00:55:41.750 - next step, I will always value my time at University and the positive experiences that have prepared 00:55:41.750 --> 00:55:45.470 - me for this opportunity. I especially want to thank Sam Lannis, 00:55:45.826 --> 00:55:52.105 - for her excellent leadership, mentorship, and the many ways she has supported my growth as an administrator. 00:55:52.105 --> 00:55:57.923 - I would also like to recognize my parents, Paul and Kendra Jones. They are both educators, both over 00:55:57.923 --> 00:56:03.683 - 30 years, and their examples first inspired me to pursue a career in education and dedicate my life 00:56:03.683 --> 00:56:09.502 - to serving students. I could not be more excited for this opportunity to serve the Marlin community, 00:56:09.502 --> 00:56:14.398 - and I'm looking forward to getting into the building, getting to know the community, 00:56:14.626 --> 00:56:20.159 - I'm looking forward to connecting with families and learning what it takes to make, sorry, excuse me, 00:56:20.159 --> 00:56:26.072 - connecting with families and learning what makes Marlin a special place. I know there's already a tremendous 00:56:26.072 --> 00:56:31.551 - amount of great work happening at Marlin, and I'm excited to be a part of that work and continue and 00:56:31.551 --> 00:56:37.518 - help build upon the strong foundation that is already in place. It is truly an honor to have this opportunity 00:56:37.518 --> 00:56:43.051 - to lead Marlin Elementary. I'm excited, incredibly grateful, and I look forward to everything we will 00:56:43.051 --> 00:56:44.190 - accomplish together. 00:56:46.050 --> 00:56:53.933 - Thank you. Congratulations again, Mr. Jones and to your family. Thank you for being here. Also, our 00:56:53.933 --> 00:57:01.896 - feelings won't be hurt if you do take this opportunity to take the baby home. We will now move on to 00:57:01.896 --> 00:57:09.779 - contracts. Do I have a motion to approve the contracts and quotes as presented? So moved. Do I have 00:57:09.779 --> 00:57:11.198 - a second? Second. 00:57:11.618 --> 00:57:17.747 - It's been moved by Ross and seconded by Tiana that we approve the contracts and quotes as presented. 00:57:17.747 --> 00:57:24.179 - Mr Irwin. Yeah, I do want to highlight something for you tonight. It's just the various agreements before 00:57:24.179 --> 00:57:30.732 - you that are of no cost to the corporation and provide support to our student in our schools. We appreciate 00:57:30.732 --> 00:57:36.982 - the opportunity and desire of the community to partner with us. And that is something that will always 00:57:36.982 --> 00:57:38.014 - be grateful for. 00:57:38.114 --> 00:57:49.088 - As with that, I'm recommending your approval of the contracts as presented. Thank you, Mr. Erwin. Are 00:57:49.088 --> 00:58:00.492 - there any comments from the board? Hearing none, all those in favor of approving the contracts and quotes 00:58:00.492 --> 00:58:06.302 - signify by saying aye. Aye. Any against? Abstentions? 00:58:07.554 --> 00:58:16.132 - Motion carries. Tonight we have several informative presentations. We will begin with a health and safety 00:58:16.132 --> 00:58:24.791 - report. Ms. Harmon? Thank you. I'm trying to make sure I get the notes for the right one. So good evening, 00:58:24.791 --> 00:58:32.964 - President Cooperman, Dr. Winston, members of the board. Tonight we're bringing you our annual update 00:58:32.964 --> 00:58:36.606 - on health and safety across the corporation. 00:58:36.770 --> 00:58:43.181 - I'll be presenting alongside Eric Gilpin, our Director of Secondary Education and School Safety. I'll 00:58:43.181 --> 00:58:49.654 - walk you through student health and wellness, and then I'll hand it over to Mr. Gilpin to cover school 00:58:49.654 --> 00:58:56.002 - safety. Thank you, Ms. Albright. Before we get into the details, I want to start with the philosophy 00:58:56.002 --> 00:59:02.350 - behind this work. We envision schools where every student feels safe, healthy, and supported in mind 00:59:02.350 --> 00:59:06.750 - and body. Physical safety, emotional health, and mental health aren't 00:59:06.978 --> 00:59:12.610 - Separate, they're deeply connected, and when we nurture all three, we build the real foundation kids 00:59:12.610 --> 00:59:18.241 - need to learn, belong, and thrive. Everything you'll see tonight is organized around a model you may 00:59:18.241 --> 00:59:23.817 - be familiar with, the whole school, whole child, whole community from the CDC. It recognizes that a 00:59:23.817 --> 00:59:29.672 - student's health is shaped by many overlapping systems, health and physical education, nutrition, health 00:59:29.672 --> 00:59:33.854 - services, counseling, social, emotional support, the physical environment, 00:59:33.954 --> 00:59:39.679 - wellness and engagement with families in the community and our programs are designed to work across 00:59:39.679 --> 00:59:45.690 - all of these areas. So for the first half of tonight's update we'll talk about student physical, mental, 00:59:45.690 --> 00:59:51.645 - and behavioral health and wellness. On the physical health side we start with robust physical education 00:59:51.645 --> 00:59:57.599 - and health curriculum that spans pre-k through 12th grade including injury prevention, healthy choices, 00:59:57.599 --> 01:00:00.862 - relationships, and alcohol and drug awareness education. 01:00:01.186 --> 01:00:07.714 - We're also invested in family-focused extracurricular activities like Walk to School Day or our family 01:00:07.714 --> 01:00:14.051 - fun run and Health a Palooza, which get the whole family moving together. We're fortunate to have a 01:00:14.051 --> 01:00:20.389 - partnership with IU Health Coordinator of School Health, who's embedded with us providing strategic 01:00:20.389 --> 01:00:26.853 - support on curricular programs, policies, professional development and grant writing to help us build 01:00:26.853 --> 01:00:30.782 - healthier school environments. When we think about nutrition, 01:00:30.882 --> 01:00:36.979 - It's our next piece. Our Child Nutrition Department, as we talked about last month, runs all six USDA 01:00:36.979 --> 01:00:43.374 - child nutrition programs. Additionally, we have our farm to school and fresh fruit and vegetable programs. 01:00:43.374 --> 01:00:49.889 - On the education side, students take field trips to local farms through farm to school, and we've integrated 01:00:49.889 --> 01:00:56.165 - school gardens and classroom hydroproduct systems directly into the curriculum, so students are learning 01:00:56.165 --> 01:00:58.974 - about where their food comes from. We also are 01:00:59.714 --> 01:01:05.863 - grateful for our partnership with the community kitchen for our backpack buddies program that sends 01:01:05.863 --> 01:01:12.257 - home bags of food over the weekend. Every one of our buildings has a well-staffed health office focused 01:01:12.257 --> 01:01:18.467 - on whole child care through a coordinated system of preventative emergency and therapeutic services. 01:01:18.467 --> 01:01:24.862 - This year we also moved to school care our new student health record management system that's improving 01:01:24.862 --> 01:01:27.198 - health workflows for our health staff 01:01:27.394 --> 01:01:33.803 - gives families direct notification when their students visit the health office, and is fully FERPA and 01:01:33.803 --> 01:01:40.336 - HIPAA compliant. On equipment, we're proud to be 100% Project Adam Heart Safe Schools Corporation. Every 01:01:40.336 --> 01:01:46.558 - building has AED machines that are checked regularly, along with cabinets stocked with Stotha bleed 01:01:46.558 --> 01:01:53.278 - kits, Narcan. And in terms of direct care this year, or last year, our health services offices administered 01:01:53.278 --> 01:01:54.398 - 661 vaccinations, 01:01:54.562 --> 01:02:01.458 - coordinated dental care for 709 students, and ran vision screening for 1st, 3rd, 5th, and 8th, and hearing 01:02:01.458 --> 01:02:08.032 - screening for 1st, 4th, 7th, and 10th. Moving on to social, emotional, and behavioral health, we have 01:02:08.032 --> 01:02:14.670 - 21 full-time school-based social workers that provide individual small group mental health counseling, 01:02:14.670 --> 01:02:21.502 - classroom instruction on social skills and bullying prevention, and crisis intervention when it's needed. 01:02:22.050 --> 01:02:27.792 - Our secondary counselors additionally support students with academic guidance, supportive counseling, 01:02:27.792 --> 01:02:33.703 - and college and career readiness. This year, we're excited about our expanded partnership with community 01:02:33.703 --> 01:02:39.614 - and schools. And we have five family and community engagement coordinators serving seven of our schools, 01:02:39.614 --> 01:02:45.750 - bringing outside resources directly into the building and building relationships with students and families. 01:02:45.750 --> 01:02:50.366 - We've reached 100% implementation of positive behavior intervention and supports. 01:02:50.466 --> 01:02:57.314 - as we refer to it PBIS across the corporation. This is a school-wide approach that establishes a positive 01:02:57.314 --> 01:03:03.839 - student culture with clear expectations and individualized behavior supports. Alongside that, we use 01:03:03.839 --> 01:03:10.751 - restorative practices, which is a structured approach to conflict that focuses on respect, responsibility, 01:03:10.751 --> 01:03:14.046 - and repairing harm rather than punishment. We also 01:03:14.562 --> 01:03:20.031 - Teach these skills directly, second step for pre-K through sixth grade, and school connect for grades 01:03:20.031 --> 01:03:25.821 - ninth through 12th. Help student manage emotions, solve problems, and prevent bullying. Zones of regulation 01:03:25.821 --> 01:03:31.290 - helps younger kids recognize their feeling and use simple strategies to stay calm and ready to learn. 01:03:31.290 --> 01:03:37.187 - And common sense media brings digital citizenship lessons to every grade level, teaching safe and responsible 01:03:37.187 --> 01:03:42.924 - technology use with resources family can use to continue the conversations at home. We'd like to recognize 01:03:42.924 --> 01:03:44.318 - that none of what we have 01:03:44.514 --> 01:03:49.920 - done or do happens in isolation. We rely on strong community partnerships. And here is a listing of 01:03:49.920 --> 01:03:55.489 - some of those. So Centerstone provides school-based mental health counseling and life skills training. 01:03:55.489 --> 01:04:01.111 - Our IU Health and IU School of Public Health serve on our health council, provide internships and guest 01:04:01.111 --> 01:04:06.788 - speakers. The Boys and Girls Club and Big Brothers and Big Sisters provide mentorship. The Monroe County 01:04:06.788 --> 01:04:10.302 - Youth Services Bureau supports attendance and offers counseling. 01:04:10.466 --> 01:04:16.807 - counseling and parenting workshops. Middle height way house promotes healthy relationships among adolescents 01:04:16.807 --> 01:04:22.973 - and the IU school of social workplaces, pre-service social workers in our buildings under the supervision 01:04:22.973 --> 01:04:28.907 - of our own staff. That covers our health and wellness portion of this. And I'm now would like to turn 01:04:28.907 --> 01:04:34.724 - it over to Mr. Gilpin to walk you through school safety. Thank you. So as we look at school safety, 01:04:34.724 --> 01:04:39.262 - we begin looking at national guidelines and practices. What is best practice? 01:04:39.458 --> 01:04:46.469 - And one of the areas that we use is the Partner Alliance for Safer Schools, also known as PASS. This 01:04:46.469 --> 01:04:53.618 - visual representation here gives you an idea of looking from inside the classroom out to make sure all 01:04:53.618 --> 01:05:00.629 - areas are safe. And what happens is we eternally use an audit that they've developed to help us make 01:05:00.629 --> 01:05:07.709 - sure that all these areas meet national guidelines for school safety. We also continue to have school 01:05:07.709 --> 01:05:08.542 - monitoring. 01:05:08.770 --> 01:05:16.074 - If you look here, we have school-based safety committees. These safety committees meet on a regular 01:05:16.074 --> 01:05:23.597 - basis. They're made up of teachers, administrators, SROs, and a safety school specialist. We also have 01:05:23.597 --> 01:05:31.266 - an anonymous incident report, Stop It App, which allows 24-7 access and is monitored 24-7. We have local 01:05:31.266 --> 01:05:37.182 - partnerships. Many of them already mentioned with Alexa's presentation, but also 01:05:37.282 --> 01:05:44.978 - Specifically, we have the Monroe County School Safety Commission. This commission meets on a semi-annual 01:05:44.978 --> 01:05:52.821 - basis to incorporate all agencies within Monroe County, including other school corporations. A key access, 01:05:52.821 --> 01:06:00.591 - a key point in making sure that we are safe is preparation and training. We have school safety personnel, 01:06:00.591 --> 01:06:05.502 - which are SROs, security guards, and a training safety specialist. 01:06:06.210 --> 01:06:13.275 - Our safety specialists at each building go through a training. It's called basic training at the beginning 01:06:13.275 --> 01:06:20.341 - and then have 10 hours of training every year after that. They are part of the team getting this national, 01:06:20.341 --> 01:06:27.208 - bringing back this national state and best practices. And then what they do is they help with emergency 01:06:27.208 --> 01:06:32.094 - operation plans, formerly known as school safety plans and safety drills. 01:06:32.802 --> 01:06:39.251 - They will review the plans with the principal, which have to be reviewed every year by September 1st. 01:06:39.251 --> 01:06:45.574 - And then they also review them with the staff, any new implementations. They also are key to making 01:06:45.574 --> 01:06:52.212 - sure that all schools run safety drills. Those safety drills are the same ones that we've run for years, 01:06:52.212 --> 01:06:58.661 - including evacuation, shelter in place, and a lockdown drill. One of the things that we recognize and 01:06:58.661 --> 01:07:01.886 - have been told over and over by national and state 01:07:02.018 --> 01:07:08.142 - agencies is restricting school access. Who know who is in your building and the only way you can do 01:07:08.142 --> 01:07:14.450 - that is to lock your doors. So all of our doors are locked. If you visited one of our schools you know 01:07:14.450 --> 01:07:20.697 - that you cannot get in without pressing a buzzer and being let in. School personnel they have a badge 01:07:20.697 --> 01:07:26.821 - to be able to get in and then when everybody is in all the interior doors are locked as well. These 01:07:26.821 --> 01:07:31.230 - badges that the teachers use to get in and administrators use to get in 01:07:31.426 --> 01:07:38.051 - also shows as a sign that they are employees. So if somebody's in the building, they can tell when adults 01:07:38.051 --> 01:07:44.489 - walking around with a badge know that they are part of MCCSE. People who visit will come meet somebody 01:07:44.489 --> 01:07:50.802 - at the front desk and have their picture taken with their ID through what we call Navigate 360. It's 01:07:50.802 --> 01:07:56.990 - our system which then produces a badge that they will wear as they're walking around the building. 01:07:57.474 --> 01:08:03.017 - If a student or adult sees somebody who doesn't have one of those two badges, they're supposed to escort 01:08:03.017 --> 01:08:08.348 - that person to the front office so that we can make sure that they have one and that's where they're 01:08:08.348 --> 01:08:13.786 - supposed to be. Another way to know who our students are at is through our smart pass. This comes into 01:08:13.786 --> 01:08:19.223 - play really well when we have emergencies so that we know that when they're not in the classroom where 01:08:19.223 --> 01:08:23.710 - they should be because they have filled out a pass telling us where they're located. 01:08:25.858 --> 01:08:32.186 - Some of the other things that we have worked on this year specifically are communications and our standard 01:08:32.186 --> 01:08:38.160 - response protocol. This right here you see throughout all of our buildings and all of our classrooms 01:08:38.160 --> 01:08:44.252 - and all of our rooms, also known as our SRP. This tells us what to do in case of emergency and we have 01:08:44.252 --> 01:08:50.344 - five areas that you can take a look at on our school safety website. We have a monthly newsletter that 01:08:50.344 --> 01:08:52.414 - we send out to safety specialists. 01:08:52.834 --> 01:08:58.526 - We have semi-annual meetings with our school safety specialists. We have created communication templates 01:08:58.526 --> 01:09:04.110 - for quick response, as well as ensuring that we have groups that are getting the information that they 01:09:04.110 --> 01:09:09.585 - need, and then protocols on how to send out the messages and who sends out the messages. Finally, on 01:09:09.585 --> 01:09:15.277 - our website, there is a place where you can get more information about school safety. There's some links 01:09:15.277 --> 01:09:20.753 - on there that will tell you the communication that's available and how to make sure you're receiving 01:09:20.753 --> 01:09:21.566 - communication. 01:09:21.794 --> 01:09:28.262 - In fact, we have a test twice a year. This is the first year we did this. You probably received a test 01:09:28.262 --> 01:09:34.541 - in August, and then you'll receive one in January and January 8th to make sure that you are getting 01:09:34.541 --> 01:09:40.820 - the communication you should be getting from us in case of an emergency. We have our health and our 01:09:40.820 --> 01:09:46.659 - safety websites we encourage you to take a look at. Any questions or comments? Thank you for 01:09:46.659 --> 01:09:48.606 - the comprehensive information. 01:09:55.298 --> 01:10:01.875 - Mr. Gilpin, I do have one question. Do the lockdown drills look different for our students depending 01:10:01.875 --> 01:10:08.451 - on what grade they're in? No. We will call lockdown usually over the intercom and everybody does the 01:10:08.451 --> 01:10:15.158 - same thing. They go to a place that's in their building that they will, in their classroom or wherever 01:10:15.158 --> 01:10:21.799 - they're at, where they are and that cannot be seen from the outside. So everybody does the exact same 01:10:21.799 --> 01:10:24.990 - thing. We don't do anything different with that. 01:10:25.314 --> 01:10:31.738 - We just make sure that everybody's where they're supposed to be. So K through 12, you're hiding someplace 01:10:31.738 --> 01:10:37.798 - in your classroom. Thank you. I have a question as well. Mr. Gopen, one of the things that we often 01:10:37.798 --> 01:10:43.858 - hear criticism about is parents not, they feel like they don't receive enough information sometimes 01:10:43.858 --> 01:10:49.979 - during those drills. But can you maybe just tell us a little bit about why the protocols are the way 01:10:49.979 --> 01:10:53.918 - they are and what happens in that moment? So we really encourage 01:10:54.050 --> 01:10:59.980 - able to take a look at this website to get more deeper information. And I know that some information 01:10:59.980 --> 01:11:05.852 - was sent out to all the parents at the beginning of the year. When you're in a situation like that, 01:11:05.852 --> 01:11:12.017 - student safety is the priority, not communication to parents. So we want to make sure all these students 01:11:12.017 --> 01:11:17.889 - are safe, and we want to make sure we're aware of all this. And we will get out communication as it 01:11:17.889 --> 01:11:20.766 - comes in that we can share. But again, our first 01:11:20.930 --> 01:11:28.830 - So we want to make sure they're all where they need to be and as safe as possible before we actually 01:11:28.830 --> 01:11:36.809 - start putting out communication. Does that answer your question? Yeah, I think so. Thanks. Thank you. 01:11:36.809 --> 01:11:45.022 - I feel like I don't want to leave out the health side of it. I'm really grateful. I love Healthapalooza. 01:11:45.122 --> 01:11:51.160 - I think we've said this before, but our own board member Wyatt, I think, was responsible for starting 01:11:51.160 --> 01:11:57.197 - that. And I'm so grateful to those who have continued it and grown it. It's a really great event. And 01:11:57.197 --> 01:12:03.471 - I know you mentioned our partnership with the IU Healthy Schools Coordinator. Lisa Grayhouse and I worked 01:12:03.471 --> 01:12:09.390 - together many years ago on an AmeriCorps program, and she's really great. She's a huge asset to our 01:12:09.390 --> 01:12:12.350 - corporation. So we're grateful for their support. 01:12:13.858 --> 01:12:22.586 - I heartily agree about both of those things. Love Health of Palooza, love Lisa Gray House. I supervise 01:12:22.586 --> 01:12:31.144 - students doing the goal program in the after school program and it's really quite something to watch 01:12:31.144 --> 01:12:40.126 - the kids learn about healthy eating and exercise and they're so enthusiastic. Other shout outs, comments? 01:12:41.378 --> 01:12:48.684 - Thank you Mr. Gilpin and Ms. Harman. We will move on to our technology update when we're back to Ms. 01:12:48.684 --> 01:12:56.062 - Harman. Good evening again President Coomberman, Dr. Ronson, members of the board. Tonight we're here 01:12:56.062 --> 01:13:03.585 - to talk about technology in MCCSE and this time Andy Cope, Director of Technology, and I are presenting 01:13:03.585 --> 01:13:06.334 - together and that's very intentional. 01:13:06.466 --> 01:13:11.376 - If you take a look at this slide, you'll see the two departments, Information Services and Curriculum 01:13:11.376 --> 01:13:16.239 - and Instruction, and they meet in the middle at the enhancement of teaching and learning. And that's 01:13:16.239 --> 01:13:21.197 - why we're presenting together. Information Services is responsible for the foundation, security, data, 01:13:21.197 --> 01:13:26.059 - the tools, and the support. And then Curriculum and Instruction is responsible for what happens with 01:13:26.059 --> 01:13:31.114 - those tools once they're in the hands of teachers and students. And those two pieces can't be separated. 01:13:31.114 --> 01:13:32.414 - A secure, reliable network 01:13:32.738 --> 01:13:38.001 - doesn't matter if it isn't serving instruction, and instruction can't rely on tools that aren't safe, 01:13:38.001 --> 01:13:43.368 - dependable, and supported. The most important thing I want you to take from this slide is the direction 01:13:43.368 --> 01:13:48.734 - of that relationship. Technology is in service of the classroom and of student learning, and curriculum 01:13:48.734 --> 01:13:53.430 - drives decisions and technology follows. So Mr. Cope will begin by walking you through the 01:13:53.430 --> 01:13:58.590 - work of information services, how we keep students and data safe, the tools and devices we provide, 01:13:58.754 --> 01:14:06.122 - and how we support them. And then I'll return to talk about what that looks like in the classroom. 01:14:06.122 --> 01:14:13.862 - On to you. Thank you very much for the opportunity to speak with you tonight. We're President Cooperman 01:14:13.862 --> 01:14:21.453 - and members of the board. As Ms. Harmon mentioned, I will go through how the IS department serves the 01:14:21.453 --> 01:14:25.918 - corporation and a couple updates for you this year as well. 01:14:29.794 --> 01:14:39.270 - So starting off with security and data. The IS department takes network and device safety very seriously. 01:14:39.270 --> 01:14:49.014 - We have endpoint protection on all of our student and staff devices. You can also think of that as antivirus 01:14:49.014 --> 01:14:56.702 - of sorts. That is to protect every single device in the corporation from threats out. 01:14:56.802 --> 01:15:02.736 - outside our walls and inside our walls when it comes to devices. We also have a security operations 01:15:02.736 --> 01:15:08.790 - center, which allows us to do remote monitoring of security events. So, you know, we may get calls in 01:15:08.790 --> 01:15:14.843 - the middle of the night, you know, about a specific account or something going on on the network, and 01:15:14.843 --> 01:15:20.777 - they work to keep us safe 24 hours a day. We have email filtering to safeguard against phishing and 01:15:20.777 --> 01:15:22.142 - impersonation attacks. 01:15:22.594 --> 01:15:30.718 - and we work to secure the wired and wireless network on a daily basis. Additionally, we have battery 01:15:30.718 --> 01:15:38.762 - backups in all of our buildings to minimize the impact of a single outage at a particular building. 01:15:38.762 --> 01:15:46.806 - We also do a lot to safeguard student digital activity. There's a fair amount that we are obligated 01:15:46.806 --> 01:15:51.230 - to do legally. So we do follow federal and state laws. 01:15:51.874 --> 01:15:59.573 - the first of which is the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, FERPA, the Children's Online Privacy 01:15:59.573 --> 01:16:07.054 - Protection Act, COPPA, Children's Internet Protection Act, SEPA, and the Protection of Pupils' Rights, 01:16:07.054 --> 01:16:14.898 - which is PPRA. The way that we do that most principally is we have a content filter sitting on our network, 01:16:14.898 --> 01:16:20.926 - and this allows us to block certain categories of traffic, such as gambling sites, 01:16:21.378 --> 01:16:28.278 - or adult content, you know, that we don't want our students visiting, whether they're at school or whether 01:16:28.278 --> 01:16:34.792 - they're at home with their device. So we have a content filter for that. We have different rule sets 01:16:34.792 --> 01:16:41.434 - for different ages of students. So we have one rule set for kindergarten through eighth grade, another 01:16:41.434 --> 01:16:47.883 - rule set for ninth through 12th. And we also have a rule set for staff, which allows you to go to a 01:16:47.883 --> 01:16:50.334 - couple more sites than everyone else. 01:16:52.578 --> 01:16:59.627 - What's new in this space is that we have House Bill 1004 that just came out. And House Bill 1004 stipulates 01:16:59.627 --> 01:17:06.154 - that no later than January 1st, 2027, each Indiana school corporation and charter school must adopt 01:17:06.154 --> 01:17:13.203 - and implement a policy enabling a parent to do three separate things. Increase the strength of the internet 01:17:13.203 --> 01:17:20.382 - filter on the school-owned device. Block access to websites or content accessible on the school-owned device. 01:17:20.962 --> 01:17:26.985 - and limit the amount of time that is spent on the device by the student. We already do a great deal 01:17:26.985 --> 01:17:33.490 - of this, of course, with our current content filter, in particular, the strength of the filter and limiting 01:17:33.490 --> 01:17:39.634 - the amount of screen time through Apple Classroom. However, we are searching for a new content filter 01:17:39.634 --> 01:17:45.235 - at this time to allow us to enable parents to block access to websites or content accessible 01:17:45.235 --> 01:17:50.174 - on a school-owned device. That is not currently possible with our current filter. 01:17:51.874 --> 01:17:59.993 - So to that end, we are testing out new options that prioritize the following. Streamlined management, 01:17:59.993 --> 01:18:07.953 - powerful and customizable filtering, parental oversight, reporting and analytics, and classroom and 01:18:07.953 --> 01:18:16.310 - instructional flexibility. We do a ton to, of course, manage and protect student data in the information 01:18:16.310 --> 01:18:17.982 - services department. 01:18:18.338 --> 01:18:26.539 - Most principally with our student information system Skyward, and this is how we ensure accurate student 01:18:26.539 --> 01:18:34.974 - and family information. Timely family and communication enables us to do state reporting, maintain accurate 01:18:34.974 --> 01:18:43.096 - academic records, allows for real-time role-based access to student and teacher data, and we only share 01:18:43.096 --> 01:18:46.142 - essential data points to applications. 01:18:46.338 --> 01:18:53.370 - You can think of the number of different applications that we have in the corporation. You can feel 01:18:53.370 --> 01:19:00.754 - assured that we only send absolutely what's necessary to those corporations that house our student data. 01:19:00.754 --> 01:19:07.857 - I'd like to talk about technology tools managed by the Information Services Department. We do ensure 01:19:07.857 --> 01:19:13.694 - access and connectivity for teachers and students via a one-to-one device program. 01:19:14.338 --> 01:19:21.867 - So for kindergarten through 12th grade, you know, all the way through high school, we are one to one. 01:19:21.867 --> 01:19:29.469 - Kindergarten through sixth grade students use iPads and utilize touchscreen typing. Seventh and eighth 01:19:29.469 --> 01:19:36.998 - graders use iPads with a keyboard case. And nine through 12th grade students use Windows laptops, the 01:19:36.998 --> 01:19:44.158 - exception to that being the academy where they have iPads. We do have a robust wireless network. 01:19:44.642 --> 01:19:53.662 - with content filtering, as I mentioned. We have screen sharing technology to allow for innovative teaching 01:19:53.662 --> 01:20:02.177 - practices. And we also have assistive technology for student supports to allow us to follow 504s and 01:20:02.177 --> 01:20:10.775 - IEPs. We have assistive technologies for that. Various technology tools are used across the district, 01:20:10.775 --> 01:20:13.726 - and we work to make that possible. 01:20:14.242 --> 01:20:20.697 - We do identify and review learning apps in partnership with curriculum and instruction, so Ms. Harmon's 01:20:20.697 --> 01:20:26.903 - department. So when a request comes in for an application, we make sure that it's safe for students 01:20:26.903 --> 01:20:33.109 - and staff to use first and foremost, and that it fits into the goals of the corporation. We provide 01:20:33.109 --> 01:20:39.998 - grade-level content from a variety of textbook platforms and learning apps, rostered with student information. 01:20:40.450 --> 01:20:49.268 - We manage essential communication tools such as Parent Square and then we handle enrollment registration 01:20:49.268 --> 01:20:58.169 - and report cards in our student information system, Skyward. We are able to coordinate technology support 01:20:58.169 --> 01:21:06.987 - throughout the district utilizing a combination of in-building support and remote support and our remote 01:21:06.987 --> 01:21:09.758 - support is done through Zendesk. 01:21:10.146 --> 01:21:16.367 - And this is our help desk ticketing system, which allows us to centralize support requests. And we can 01:21:16.367 --> 01:21:22.649 - route support requests to the appropriate IS staff. For example, if there was an issue with the content 01:21:22.649 --> 01:21:29.051 - filter, if there was a website that was blocked that shouldn't be blocked, a teacher can put in a ticket. 01:21:29.051 --> 01:21:35.212 - And that ticket goes straight to someone who's managing the content filter, for example. Our building 01:21:35.212 --> 01:21:39.198 - technicians and computer coordinators do provide on-site support. 01:21:39.522 --> 01:21:46.209 - you know, in our schools. And support can be quickly escalated to the corporation level information 01:21:46.209 --> 01:21:52.896 - technology office as needed, you know, as it becomes necessary. On screen here, you can see how you 01:21:52.896 --> 01:21:59.583 - can put in a help desk ticket, and you can do that as a student, staff member, or a parent guardian 01:21:59.583 --> 01:22:05.534 - in our organization. So out there on any page on the website, if you click help, you get 01:22:05.794 --> 01:22:14.575 - a link to our guide and you can put in the ticket there. Some ticket support numbers here. You can see 01:22:14.575 --> 01:22:23.527 - that we've had 40,212 support articles out on our guide viewed so far in the past year. And we've solved 01:22:23.527 --> 01:22:32.479 - 27,354 tickets over the past year. And those two numbers really do serve one another because our support 01:22:32.479 --> 01:22:34.014 - articles actually 01:22:34.498 --> 01:22:41.141 - We do our best to keep those as up to date as possible. And we use those support articles when we are 01:22:41.141 --> 01:22:47.719 - replying to the tickets. And we get tickets in that make us realize that we need another article. So 01:22:47.719 --> 01:22:54.427 - it's a whole cycle. Yeah, those are some updated numbers for you. And I will pass it off to Ms. Harmon 01:22:54.427 --> 01:23:00.939 - to talk about enhancing teaching and learning. Thank you so much. Again, what Andy described is the 01:23:00.939 --> 01:23:03.870 - foundation. So I'd like to show you how that 01:23:04.066 --> 01:23:10.339 - we build on top of that, how those tools show up in classrooms, and just as importantly, how we make 01:23:10.339 --> 01:23:16.799 - decisions about how we use them. So the way we think about technology is captured in the first sentence 01:23:16.799 --> 01:23:23.135 - here. Teachers actively guiding students to use technology as a tool, and the teachers at the center, 01:23:23.135 --> 01:23:29.781 - and that technology is a tool that lets students explore, collaborate, problem solve, create, and reflect. 01:23:29.781 --> 01:23:31.582 - We organize this work around 01:23:31.714 --> 01:23:38.039 - three ideas, building future ready skills, enhancing access to learning, and increasing engagement. 01:23:38.039 --> 01:23:44.933 - And I'm going to take them one at a time across all three. And the question we ask is whether the technology 01:23:44.933 --> 01:23:51.574 - is changing what students are able to learn and do. So first, building future ready skills. Our youngest 01:23:51.574 --> 01:23:56.318 - learners are already building skills that will serve them for a long time. 01:23:56.738 --> 01:24:02.535 - The photo on the right shows students using coding blocks to sequence steps and debug simple programs. 01:24:02.535 --> 01:24:08.220 - And that's problem solving and logical thinking, not screen time for its own sake. As students grow, 01:24:08.220 --> 01:24:14.018 - this becomes critical thinking and digital literacy. Sorry, I went ahead and shouldn't have. Analyzing 01:24:14.018 --> 01:24:19.815 - online information and navigating digital tools responsibly. It also becomes designing and prototyping 01:24:19.815 --> 01:24:24.318 - and testing, which prepares them for the collaborative workplace they'll enter. 01:24:24.706 --> 01:24:30.627 - And we also want students to communicate across modalities, whether that's visual, written, or digital. 01:24:30.627 --> 01:24:36.549 - And I want to come back to digital literacy in a few minutes because it's essential to the conversation 01:24:36.549 --> 01:24:42.755 - that will be on my last slide. Technology also reduces barriers in education. Every student has standardized 01:24:42.755 --> 01:24:48.676 - access to textbooks, resources, and tools, and that matters for equity. It also gives students multiple 01:24:48.676 --> 01:24:53.630 - pathways to show what they know. A student might demonstrate learning through writing, 01:24:53.826 --> 01:24:59.761 - audio, art, coding, or design, like the student on this slide who created an app. And it supports 01:24:59.761 --> 01:25:06.120 - differentiation and inclusion. Andy mentioned this too. Speech to text, translation, text magnification, 01:25:06.120 --> 01:25:12.419 - and screen readers. For many students, these tools are what makes learning possible. And that's a place 01:25:12.419 --> 01:25:18.657 - where technology isn't a nice to have. It's essential. Here, when we talk about increasing engagement, 01:25:18.657 --> 01:25:20.958 - the key word is active. Virtual labs. 01:25:21.154 --> 01:25:27.001 - AR and VR experiences and gamified quizzes get students participating rather than receiving information. 01:25:27.001 --> 01:25:32.848 - Here you see students programming robots for competition. What we're most excited about is that students 01:25:32.848 --> 01:25:38.695 - move from being consumers of information to producers of knowledge and solutions. They see the relevance 01:25:38.695 --> 01:25:44.431 - of what they're learning and that builds motivation. The last slide is really the heart of what I want 01:25:44.431 --> 01:25:48.830 - to say this evening and to leave you with, and I want to speak to it directly. 01:25:49.058 --> 01:25:55.783 - We hear a concern from some families and community members that there's too much technology in our schools. 01:25:55.783 --> 01:26:02.072 - And I want to say plainly that we take that seriously. Whether or not it matches what's happening in 01:26:02.072 --> 01:26:08.424 - every classroom, it's a fair question and it deserves a real answer. Some context first. Since COVID, 01:26:08.424 --> 01:26:14.775 - technology use has grown everywhere, in homes and workplaces and across society, not just in schools. 01:26:14.775 --> 01:26:16.830 - Schools were part of that shift. 01:26:17.314 --> 01:26:23.055 - What matters is what we do about it now. And we are making a conscious and concerted effort to pull 01:26:23.055 --> 01:26:28.795 - back technology use where it does not have a direct impact on student learning and outcomes. Here's 01:26:28.795 --> 01:26:34.650 - the principle that guides us. Knowing when not to use technology is just as important as knowing when 01:26:34.650 --> 01:26:40.448 - to. You can see that reflected in the top of the slide. Technology in the classroom should always be 01:26:40.448 --> 01:26:44.926 - balanced with technology free instruction, used in clear and intentional way, 01:26:45.218 --> 01:26:50.610 - and directly connected to the stated learning goals. And we provide schools and teachers with device 01:26:50.610 --> 01:26:56.002 - usage guidelines that outline what that looks like in the classroom. If it doesn't meet that bar, it 01:26:56.002 --> 01:27:01.447 - doesn't belong in the lesson. So let me tell you a little bit about what that looks like in practice. 01:27:01.447 --> 01:27:06.786 - First, we've eliminated some instructional applications. When we looked at the outcomes, we weren't 01:27:06.786 --> 01:27:12.338 - seeing a significant impact on student learning, so we stopped using them. Second, we focused on active 01:27:12.338 --> 01:27:13.886 - use rather than passive use. 01:27:14.306 --> 01:27:19.764 - A student creating, problem solving, or collaborating is a very different experience from a student 01:27:19.764 --> 01:27:25.331 - scrolling or watching. We want the first, not the second. Third, we have central oversight of digital 01:27:25.331 --> 01:27:30.898 - tool review. Andy mentioned this as well. When a teacher wants to use a new tool in the classroom, it 01:27:30.898 --> 01:27:36.739 - goes through a review to make sure it meets our safety requirements and will achieve the learning outcomes 01:27:36.739 --> 01:27:42.142 - we're after. That's the partnership between our departments that you saw at the beginning. Fourth, 01:27:42.626 --> 01:27:48.099 - We're adopting curriculum that is less reliant on technology. When we select instructional materials, 01:27:48.099 --> 01:27:53.733 - we're intentionally choosing resources that don't depend on a screen. And fifth, we don't use technology 01:27:53.733 --> 01:27:59.420 - for downtime. That's why, as you can see at the bottom of the slide, K-6 iPads are not used during lunch, 01:27:59.420 --> 01:28:05.054 - during recess, or at any other time that isn't under direct staff supervision. Devices are for learning. 01:28:06.338 --> 01:28:11.870 - The guardrails in the yellow box support all of this. Apple Classroom gives teachers visibility into 01:28:11.870 --> 01:28:17.567 - what students are doing in the devices. We have clear procedures and expectations, and we're thoughtful 01:28:17.567 --> 01:28:23.264 - about physical classroom design and how that supports positive device usage. And the new content filter 01:28:23.264 --> 01:28:28.851 - that Andy talked about described earlier will give us more flexibility and gives parents more control 01:28:28.851 --> 01:28:34.110 - in line with the new state requirements. I also want to be honest about the other side of this. 01:28:34.530 --> 01:28:39.732 - Our students are growing up in a world full of technology and it's not going away. If we simply pulled 01:28:39.732 --> 01:28:45.036 - it all out, we wouldn't be protecting them. We'd be leaving them to figure it out on their own. Students 01:28:45.036 --> 01:28:50.238 - need to build digital literacy. They need to understand the impact of technology has on them and learn 01:28:50.238 --> 01:28:55.542 - how to use it well. Schools are one of the best places to learn that in a supervised setting with adults 01:28:55.542 --> 01:29:00.643 - guiding them. So our goal is balance and intention, technology when it makes learning better and not 01:29:00.643 --> 01:29:01.502 - when it doesn't. 01:29:01.858 --> 01:29:08.643 - And that's a conversation between curriculum instruction and information services. And it's one we're 01:29:08.643 --> 01:29:15.760 - committed to continue. I thank you for your time and your continued support. And if you have any questions 01:29:15.760 --> 01:29:22.478 - for either of us, thank you. Thank you, Ms. Harmon and Mr. Cope. Are there any questions or comments 01:29:22.478 --> 01:29:29.662 - from the board? First, thank you all for both of your. This was a great presentation. I do have a question. 01:29:29.794 --> 01:29:39.729 - So why does the Academy use iPads and not laptops like the other high schools? Is it by preference or? 01:29:39.729 --> 01:29:49.664 - Come to a mic, please, Andy. You can use Matt's mic. It was really a joint decision made by curriculum 01:29:49.664 --> 01:29:56.030 - instruction and technology and with the leadership of the school. 01:29:56.738 --> 01:30:05.077 - their MacBooks were actually aged out. So we had to make a decision. And it was a financial decision 01:30:05.077 --> 01:30:13.333 - as well as a curricular decision to make sure that we had a device that would adequately meet their 01:30:13.333 --> 01:30:22.250 - needs. And we found that the iPad was a really good spot, a really good place to be in, in that it provided 01:30:22.250 --> 01:30:25.470 - the same functionality as the MacBook, 01:30:25.762 --> 01:30:32.883 - but then also with the familiarity of the operating system from iOS moving from middle school to high 01:30:32.883 --> 01:30:39.934 - school. So those are the basic reasons why. Can I add to that too? Historically, for a while they... 01:30:40.162 --> 01:30:45.380 - Andy mentioned it. They had MacBooks previously as well, and the other high schools did not. And a lot 01:30:45.380 --> 01:30:50.547 - of that had to do with the things that they were doing around the pathways that they had committed to 01:30:50.547 --> 01:30:55.815 - in their projects-based learning. That tool was identified as having more, you know, some of the things 01:30:55.815 --> 01:31:00.982 - that they were doing around art and design and engineering and things like that. And so then when the 01:31:00.982 --> 01:31:02.046 - MacBooks phased out, 01:31:02.242 --> 01:31:08.539 - decision was to go to iPads. I think they're particularly excited right now since cell phones are no 01:31:08.539 --> 01:31:14.960 - longer. And so some of the projects they were doing in terms of photography and things like that, it's 01:31:14.960 --> 01:31:21.319 - given them a lot of agility. Thanks. And the teachers that I've spoken to have been happy about it as 01:31:21.319 --> 01:31:27.554 - well. They all have an iPad to help support their instruction, similar to the students. Thanks. Can 01:31:27.554 --> 01:31:30.110 - I ask a question about the policy that's 01:31:30.210 --> 01:31:39.253 - going to be required by 20 or 2027, like the ability for parents to reduce or block that has to be on 01:31:39.253 --> 01:31:48.562 - the device itself? Yes, it does. It has to be provided by the district. And the way the districts comply 01:31:48.562 --> 01:31:58.846 - with that is by having a content filter that does that, that has that feature. Our current content filter does not. 01:31:59.010 --> 01:32:06.363 - we're evaluating different options, content filters that do. And so how that is done looks a little 01:32:06.363 --> 01:32:13.717 - bit different from company to company. And so we are prioritizing that piece to make sure that it's 01:32:13.717 --> 01:32:21.364 - the most easy to use and feature-rich implementation of that. I guess my question, this is one of those 01:32:21.364 --> 01:32:28.350 - moments where I have to wonder about the policy and who's asking for this policy, because it's 01:32:29.122 --> 01:32:35.403 - feels like it is somewhat of a barrier. So say a parent, OK, for instance, at our house, when we have 01:32:35.403 --> 01:32:41.622 - teenagers with devices and we are not sure if they can monitor their own or regulate their own time, 01:32:41.622 --> 01:32:48.026 - we simply connect it to our own Wi-Fi system. And at a certain time every night, it turns off for them, 01:32:48.026 --> 01:32:54.430 - and they can no longer use that device to do those things, right? Sure, it's more problematic if, like, 01:32:54.754 --> 01:33:01.666 - YouTube is permitted on a school device and we don't want them just surfing YouTube for hours to do 01:33:01.666 --> 01:33:08.923 - X, Y or Z. But the question is if a parent wants to block an app, and this is not necessarily, you don't 01:33:08.923 --> 01:33:15.834 - have to answer this I don't think, but if a parent wants to block an app and then they go to school 01:33:15.834 --> 01:33:21.502 - and they need to use that app because for instance they do use YouTube in school. 01:33:21.794 --> 01:33:28.690 - Does it have to get turned on and off every day, or would it just like entering a Wi-Fi system, would 01:33:28.690 --> 01:33:35.857 - it automatically reset? It does vary a bit by company to company, but what we've seen is that the leading 01:33:35.857 --> 01:33:42.753 - companies that we're looking at, they do a time-based restriction. So they would be able to enable it 01:33:42.753 --> 01:33:47.486 - while the student is at home, and then that restriction would expire. 01:33:47.970 --> 01:33:55.705 - I will say our teachers are accustomed to a version of this because we do have, you know, internet groups 01:33:55.705 --> 01:34:03.002 - that have enhanced filtering if upon family request already. And so it's a bit similar to that, but 01:34:03.002 --> 01:34:10.518 - this is like a more formalized process. And I assume there's cost associated with? There is cost, yes. 01:34:10.518 --> 01:34:17.086 - And it does vary by vendor. Do you see that as being a potential issue? So we'll just use 01:34:17.218 --> 01:34:26.759 - YouTube because that's what was thrown out. It's easy. Can a parent or guardian indefinitely block the 01:34:26.759 --> 01:34:36.486 - access to the site so they couldn't use it at all? They could block that resource at home. Just at home? 01:34:36.486 --> 01:34:46.398 - Yeah. OK. But this is a state requirement, right? It is, yeah. Yeah. Of a thing that will cost more money. 01:34:46.498 --> 01:34:55.385 - And have you received any feedback on the use of parent square for student to parent communication during 01:34:55.385 --> 01:35:04.189 - the day? Personally, I have not, but I have used it to communicate with my own son and I think he enjoys 01:35:04.189 --> 01:35:12.909 - it. Yeah, I've also used it. I found it to be really helpful, actually, you know, just in terms of pick 01:35:12.909 --> 01:35:14.334 - up my kids plan. 01:35:14.562 --> 01:35:21.818 - changed and he said can you pick me up at five instead of right after school and he was able to message 01:35:21.818 --> 01:35:29.005 - me through parent square and i was able to respond and say yes that's fine and so it worked great yeah 01:35:29.005 --> 01:35:35.982 - so andy did you say parents can submit a help ticket they can okay i will be submitting one tonight 01:35:35.982 --> 01:35:41.982 - i need help i mean just so you know i was trying to use it with my middle schooler so 01:35:42.178 --> 01:35:50.744 - that was an out, but I'm going to try with my high schooler. Ms. Harmon, I appreciated the device usage 01:35:50.744 --> 01:35:59.311 - guidance that you showed. Have you already or do you anticipate taking any of that guidance and turning 01:35:59.311 --> 01:36:05.406 - it into hard rules or asking us to pass policies related to those things? 01:36:06.242 --> 01:36:13.342 - We do have it in terms of guidance that is given directly to teachers in a formal part of all of the 01:36:13.342 --> 01:36:20.372 - kind of materials and kind of administrative guidelines that we give them in terms of expectations. 01:36:20.372 --> 01:36:27.402 - So that seems sufficient for us in terms of how they have it. And it seems to work well. And then I 01:36:27.402 --> 01:36:34.713 - thought April would ask about AI, but since she hasn't, I will. Because it's coming up in our committee 01:36:34.713 --> 01:36:35.838 - report section, 01:36:36.066 --> 01:36:43.465 - It's not fair enough to talk about it there, but it's fine. Have you considered guidance? I mean, I'm 01:36:43.465 --> 01:36:50.719 - sure you have considered guidance around AI. Is there anything that you can share about that? We do 01:36:50.719 --> 01:36:58.045 - similarly have AI guidance that we give to teachers as the current resources and things that we have 01:36:58.045 --> 01:37:05.662 - around what AI literacy looks like, what the kinds of considerations and thoughts that they should have. 01:37:05.794 --> 01:37:11.231 - because we know it's changing all the time. So we're just trying to do that as well. And then along 01:37:11.231 --> 01:37:16.668 - with IS department, we manage access to that. So students don't have access to AI on their devices. 01:37:16.668 --> 01:37:22.269 - You can't control what they do on their personal devices. They're school-issued ones. They have access 01:37:22.269 --> 01:37:27.216 - to only one AI tool. It's called Magic School. And it's actually designed specifically for 01:37:27.216 --> 01:37:31.838 - school environments. And it's a way for teachers to create kind of an AI environment 01:37:32.290 --> 01:37:39.448 - instructional purposes. Is that a fair explanation? Yeah, we'll call it AI with guardrails. Yeah. Yeah. 01:37:39.448 --> 01:37:46.331 - AI with guardrails. Thank you. Other questions or comments from the board? Well, thank you for your 01:37:46.331 --> 01:37:53.558 - work. And I like how you showed the collaboration between curriculum and instruction technology, because 01:37:53.558 --> 01:38:00.510 - they have to work together. Can I ask a quick question about, OK, so the statement that just sort of 01:38:01.442 --> 01:38:09.130 - brought the question up is that students don't have access to AI on their school devices. But does that 01:38:09.130 --> 01:38:16.744 - mean that like, for instance, they don't have access to chat to open AI or chat GBT, Claude and things 01:38:16.744 --> 01:38:24.210 - like that. But what about like Google, which produces an AI? Google itself has AI embedded and could 01:38:24.210 --> 01:38:28.350 - be used in some ways, like the AI summary that pops up. 01:38:28.834 --> 01:38:36.217 - based on what you ask it and how you ask it? We do block Gemini, but there are other features that end 01:38:36.217 --> 01:38:43.743 - up getting introduced in the browser that we have to kind of play catch up on. But we make every attempt 01:38:43.743 --> 01:38:50.983 - to block anything that isn't Magic School at this time. OK, great. Thank you. And then so presumably 01:38:50.983 --> 01:38:56.574 - also teachers can't use it for their lessons. Like at IU, for example, I do a 01:38:56.674 --> 01:39:02.186 - an emergency simulation where my students have to create messages if there were some kind of public 01:39:02.186 --> 01:39:07.697 - health emergency, and then the AI reacts to those messages. But our teachers couldn't use that kind 01:39:07.697 --> 01:39:13.374 - of technology. They could do that lesson in magic school. Is that what you're saying? Like, could they 01:39:13.374 --> 01:39:18.941 - do something similar? I think they could. They could have their students be in magic school and have 01:39:18.941 --> 01:39:24.508 - a scenario. That's correct. They do also have access to other AI tools. We don't block it for staff, 01:39:24.508 --> 01:39:25.886 - actually. OK. Thank you. 01:39:27.970 --> 01:39:35.847 - Other questions or comments? Thank you both so much for your presentation. And the last presentation 01:39:35.847 --> 01:39:43.881 - is the CFO financial update, Mr. Irwin. You got to start with me tonight, and then you get to end with 01:39:43.881 --> 01:39:51.914 - me. I appreciate the opportunity to give you the update on the cash flow report, so we'll move through 01:39:51.914 --> 01:39:54.878 - it as we normally do. Education fund. 01:39:55.042 --> 01:40:00.871 - Actual revenue, slightly above projections, incredibly accurate. That's a great thing. Expenses were 01:40:00.871 --> 01:40:06.816 - below projection. Again, that's in the world where we want to see things, where we want it to be. Part 01:40:06.816 --> 01:40:12.761 - of that reason was that we did have some expenditures that we were able to move into a grant. And that 01:40:12.761 --> 01:40:18.706 - was as we closed out a grant. So that's a one-time relief of expenditures in the education fund, which 01:40:18.706 --> 01:40:24.766 - obviously helps the fund in the short term. But that is a big reason why expenses were below projection. 01:40:24.898 --> 01:40:30.137 - As well as claims, claims were lower and that has a lot to do with just timing. So a lot of times I'm 01:40:30.137 --> 01:40:35.325 - talking about some of this stuff. I'm like, it's the timing of invoices as they come in. And in this 01:40:35.325 --> 01:40:40.615 - particular case, it has a lot to do with curricular adoption invoices that we're expecting in the near 01:40:40.615 --> 01:40:45.957 - term that haven't yet been received. And so essentially what I'm doing as that happens, I'm moving that 01:40:45.957 --> 01:40:51.710 - projection forward into four months to make sure that I continue to account for it in the numbers that you see. 01:40:52.226 --> 01:40:57.585 - One of the things that is common in the outlook portion of each one of these slides is that I'm tracking 01:40:57.585 --> 01:41:02.792 - payrolls every single week as they happen. We have a payroll that happens every week, whether it's on 01:41:02.792 --> 01:41:08.151 - the certified side or the non-certified side. And that's essentially how it's lined up. But I'm tracking 01:41:08.151 --> 01:41:13.459 - those payrolls every week to look at, to help me gauge what's normal, what's not normal, whether I need 01:41:13.459 --> 01:41:18.819 - to ask some more questions as relates to what it is that I'm seeing aside from the information I already 01:41:18.819 --> 01:41:20.350 - get within my own department. 01:41:20.674 --> 01:41:26.714 - But then that helps me with projections because now that we're into this current contract year, it allows 01:41:26.714 --> 01:41:32.753 - us to gauge how those things should continue to incur as we move forward into future months. So it allows 01:41:32.753 --> 01:41:38.622 - me to continue to sharpen my numbers when I look into the forward months of projections. And so that's 01:41:38.622 --> 01:41:44.376 - something that you'll see that bullet point consistent across the fund structures that have staffing 01:41:44.376 --> 01:41:47.966 - in them because that's something that I do on a regular basis. 01:41:48.066 --> 01:41:53.485 - and I pay attention to the timing and the overlap. But when we start that new year, when people are 01:41:53.485 --> 01:41:58.904 - either returning to work from summer months, when not as many people are at work here at the school 01:41:58.904 --> 01:42:04.377 - corporation, or when we start new contract years and that adjustment as well. Overall, our fund cash 01:42:04.377 --> 01:42:10.012 - balance for the year in 2026 is higher than last month's projection. We're still below that target cash 01:42:10.012 --> 01:42:15.539 - balance goal that we talked about in the quarterly report, but we're making great progress. So that's 01:42:15.539 --> 01:42:16.894 - definitely a good thing. 01:42:18.274 --> 01:42:24.141 - 2022 referendum. So no revenue in this fund for August. Again, I do these things I know sometimes are 01:42:24.141 --> 01:42:30.008 - repetitive, but it continues to show that some of our funds, especially these tax levy funds, go long 01:42:30.008 --> 01:42:35.818 - periods of time without revenue and there's the regular expenses that occur and you see those in the 01:42:35.818 --> 01:42:41.570 - cash flows that you receive. Actual expenses are below projections across all categories, so that's 01:42:41.570 --> 01:42:44.734 - helpful in relation to what it is that we want to see. 01:42:44.898 --> 01:42:51.959 - You see that same bullet point that you saw on the previous slide, because I did that across all of 01:42:51.959 --> 01:42:58.526 - those fund structures of looking at payrolls as they come in. And right now, the balance for 01:42:58.526 --> 01:43:05.799 - 2026 individually projects to be about even about where we started. Referendum 2023. Again, no revenue 01:43:05.799 --> 01:43:11.518 - in the fund for August. Expenses were below projections in payroll and benefits. 01:43:11.874 --> 01:43:18.022 - Claims were a bit higher due to, again, timing of invoices received on curriculum purchases. So as those 01:43:18.022 --> 01:43:23.877 - things come in, that adjustment is made and then that affects future projections as I look at those 01:43:23.877 --> 01:43:29.791 - individual line items. 2026 cash balance projections, again, look to be up this year and they look a 01:43:29.791 --> 01:43:35.822 - little bit better than last month based on the variance between what was the below expenses on payroll 01:43:35.822 --> 01:43:41.150 - and benefits and the difference in claims for being a little bit higher than expectations. 01:43:42.818 --> 01:43:48.233 - The operations fund. Revenue is above projection and a lot of this has to do with interest earned on 01:43:48.233 --> 01:43:53.862 - cash in the bank. So we get interest that we, payment that we get from our bank every single month based 01:43:53.862 --> 01:43:59.652 - on the rate that we have and the amount of cash that's in our bank account. As we continue to put ourselves 01:43:59.652 --> 01:44:05.120 - in a better position, as we talk about that position of financial strength, this is one of those side 01:44:05.120 --> 01:44:08.766 - benefits that we continue to get because that then in turn helps us 01:44:08.930 --> 01:44:14.664 - as it relates to revenue that we receive that supports the expenses that happen within the operations 01:44:14.664 --> 01:44:20.230 - fund. That's the fund we're replacing that interest in. Payroll and benefits in our other category 01:44:20.230 --> 01:44:26.245 - projections were very accurate. Expenses and services and supplies categories were well below projections. 01:44:26.245 --> 01:44:32.092 - And some of that, again, I'm looking at and I'm going back into previous years, months to see what were 01:44:32.092 --> 01:44:37.770 - some of the big expenses that might have happened in those categories. How does that compare to what 01:44:37.770 --> 01:44:38.782 - I saw this month? 01:44:38.978 --> 01:44:44.350 - Does that mean that I need to take some of that projection of cash and move that into a future month 01:44:44.350 --> 01:44:49.668 - based on what I'm seeing or not seeing from last year at that particular month or those surrounding 01:44:49.668 --> 01:44:55.093 - months? So it's really digging into the weeds to help me identify how do I need to move my numbers or 01:44:55.093 --> 01:45:00.518 - do I need to not move them at all? And then again, the 2026 fund balance projection from last year is 01:45:00.518 --> 01:45:06.102 - trending towards our goal. We're moving into that position of financial strength within this fund. We're 01:45:06.102 --> 01:45:07.006 - making progress. 01:45:07.202 --> 01:45:13.058 - And that's definitely a good thing as well. The last fund that we talk about is the debt service fund. 01:45:13.058 --> 01:45:18.971 - There was no activity in the fund during the month of August. That's normal. And so we see the majority 01:45:18.971 --> 01:45:24.201 - of our revenue in two months of the year. That's June and December when we receive property 01:45:24.201 --> 01:45:29.887 - tax disbursements. And there was no expenses and that's normal. Most of our activity has to do with 01:45:29.887 --> 01:45:35.743 - the timing of bond payments. Remember the purpose of the fund is to make the payments on our long-term 01:45:35.743 --> 01:45:36.766 - debt obligations. 01:45:37.026 --> 01:45:42.367 - and loans that we have and then some of the other side things that you might see are like the regular 01:45:42.367 --> 01:45:47.813 - occurring trustee fees that they have for processing those debt payments and those sorts of things that 01:45:47.813 --> 01:45:53.101 - we have so essentially the projection looks identical to last month i made some adjustments based on 01:45:53.101 --> 01:45:58.390 - some me knowing when some trustee fees were going to come in but it looks pretty identical that last 01:45:58.390 --> 01:46:03.626 - bullet point as a placeholder as a reminder of this year is the only year that we're able to spread 01:46:03.626 --> 01:46:06.558 - the loss of the supplemental homestead deduction across 01:46:06.946 --> 01:46:14.449 - service and operations in future years that will all go to the operations fund so I just leave that 01:46:14.449 --> 01:46:22.101 - last bullet point as a reminder to that fact we'll make that second transfer and you see that in your 01:46:22.101 --> 01:46:29.754 - cash flows in December so with that I'm done thank you mr. Erwin are there questions or comments from 01:46:29.754 --> 01:46:35.006 - the board I got a question so in both referendums you said no revenue 01:46:35.362 --> 01:46:42.017 - for August, is that the way you were talking about the invoices coming in, is that why? No, that doesn't 01:46:42.017 --> 01:46:48.418 - have anything to do with invoices. It's just the timing of when revenue is received. So the 99.9% of 01:46:48.418 --> 01:46:54.820 - the revenue that comes essentially into our two referendum funds are local property tax dollars. And 01:46:54.820 --> 01:47:01.982 - so that's the main source of revenue that flows into that fund. Those disbursements happen in June and December. 01:47:02.306 --> 01:47:08.273 - So if we see anything in between that, it might be like a reimbursement of something. So say someone 01:47:08.273 --> 01:47:14.358 - was like our literacy cadre through the IDOE. If that person was originally funded from the referendum 01:47:14.358 --> 01:47:20.620 - fund and we get a reimbursement from the state on that particular grant, that's when that is reimbursable 01:47:20.620 --> 01:47:26.587 - back into the original fund of expenditure. So you might see some things like that that happen every 01:47:26.587 --> 01:47:30.782 - once in a while, but that's not something that commonly occurs because 01:47:30.882 --> 01:47:36.824 - The vast majority of all revenue is lined up with the timing of when we receive property tax disbursements. 01:47:36.824 --> 01:47:42.436 - The invoices are just on the expenditure side. And it's me trying to time up what might have happened 01:47:42.436 --> 01:47:48.048 - in August of last year, might end up happening in June of this year or July of this year, or it could 01:47:48.048 --> 01:47:53.605 - happen in September of this year. It just depends on the timing of when an invoice might be received 01:47:53.605 --> 01:47:59.161 - and then how that correlates with maybe the register of claims that you guys see in the board packet 01:47:59.161 --> 01:48:00.702 - as far as timing of payout. 01:48:01.026 --> 01:48:09.445 - I'm learning. I appreciate it. I appreciate the question. I'm sure some people listen and are happy 01:48:09.445 --> 01:48:18.454 - to learn that, too. Yeah, hopefully it's helpful. Thank you again, Mr. Irwin. Our committee update tonight 01:48:18.454 --> 01:48:26.958 - is a report from the MCCSE Foundation. Board member Jester serves on this committee. Ms. Jester? Hi. 01:48:26.958 --> 01:48:30.494 - Thank you, President Cooperman. The MCCSE 01:48:30.594 --> 01:48:43.582 - Foundation Committee meets monthly throughout the year. This month, the focuses have been on the teacher 01:48:43.582 --> 01:48:56.446 - grant program closed on September 8th. And so now we are beginning to move into reviewing those grants. 01:48:57.890 --> 01:49:07.227 - There was an event hosted for the facilities department this month, a luncheon and show of appreciation 01:49:07.227 --> 01:49:16.205 - for all of their work and dedication to the corporation. We're also preparing for October. Real men 01:49:16.205 --> 01:49:24.734 - read program will begin and there will be a kickoff event for volunteers soon. I believe that. 01:49:27.490 --> 01:49:36.377 - And fundraising, of course, is always happening. We started requesting items for the online auction, 01:49:36.377 --> 01:49:45.440 - reading, writing, and bidding. This is the 15th year of the auction and encourage local businesses and 01:49:45.440 --> 01:49:54.326 - our families to support the event this year. I'd like to thank the executive director, Cirilla Helm, 01:49:54.326 --> 01:49:57.406 - for her dedication and leadership. 01:49:58.050 --> 01:50:08.439 - Any of you all know that her time with the foundation has seen tremendous growth in their ability to 01:50:08.439 --> 01:50:18.108 - help us all out. And then just lastly, there's always ways that you can find to donate at the 01:50:18.108 --> 01:50:25.822 - mccscfoundation.org. And that concludes my report. Thank you, Ms. Chester. 01:50:25.986 --> 01:50:37.013 - Are there any questions for Asia? I have a question, Asia. If we have something that we want to donate 01:50:37.013 --> 01:50:47.826 - for the auction, how do we go about doing that? I do believe that you could find that information at 01:50:47.826 --> 01:50:51.038 - mccscfoundation.org. Perfect. 01:50:51.234 --> 01:50:57.553 - We have a Lego set that my husband is convinced someone will bid on. So I have to figure out how to 01:50:57.553 --> 01:51:04.188 - donate that. So I will go to the website. Thank you. Or you could just call Cirilla. Or I could do that. 01:51:04.188 --> 01:51:10.507 - Yeah. I think you also serve on the foundation. Isn't that right, Mr. Bunger? Thank you. All right. 01:51:10.507 --> 01:51:14.046 - So I have sources. Any other questions for Ms. Chester? 01:51:17.890 --> 01:51:25.179 - Then next we have a update on the policy task force. Board member Hennessy. Yes, thank you. We have 01:51:25.179 --> 01:51:32.832 - concluded our review of the initial portion that we had set out to review. So this is the bylaw section, 01:51:32.832 --> 01:51:40.412 - the 0000s. And we have a number of items that we have kind of marked as needing revision either because 01:51:40.412 --> 01:51:46.462 - they are out of date, something's been replaced, there is potential question about 01:51:46.818 --> 01:51:52.979 - if we wanna revise something. And so I'll kind of give you a brief rundown, but then the policy and 01:51:52.979 --> 01:51:59.201 - I, the policy and I will not do this, but the committee and I will work with a little bit with maybe 01:51:59.201 --> 01:52:05.793 - Mr. Bunger, but also with ISBA on a couple of the questions that we have regarding some of these policies. 01:52:05.793 --> 01:52:12.016 - Most of these things are minor. And so one of our questions that we have is like, what constitutes a 01:52:12.016 --> 01:52:15.774 - friendly amendment versus like a full amendment of a policy? 01:52:16.322 --> 01:52:23.989 - and then also whether a section of policies can be bundled and adopted sort of whole as like a section 01:52:23.989 --> 01:52:31.507 - rather than having to enumerate like every single policy. So we'll kind of work through those issues 01:52:31.507 --> 01:52:39.025 - and write up revisions and then hopefully present these and put them on the agenda for the board for 01:52:39.025 --> 01:52:45.054 - the October meeting for the first reading. But just a brief overview question of 01:52:45.282 --> 01:52:51.708 - the CEO comes up here, and this is one of those minor issues, but the president of the board is described 01:52:51.708 --> 01:52:58.194 - as the chief executive officer as the board of school trustees. Later, the superintendent is also referred 01:52:58.194 --> 01:53:04.317 - to as the chief executive officer, but of the school corporation. I think it is a little bit strange 01:53:04.317 --> 01:53:10.379 - to have two CEOs within a system. And so that's just one of the things we flagged as like odd. Does 01:53:10.379 --> 01:53:14.622 - it need to really be revised? Does it impact anything? No, but it is, 01:53:14.946 --> 01:53:22.281 - and oddity, so does it matter? I don't know. In policy 10120, there's this question of what the board 01:53:22.281 --> 01:53:29.616 - actually manages that seemed to strike us as interesting given what we understand our role to be. And 01:53:29.616 --> 01:53:37.023 - so we wanted to just check on this with ISBA to make sure that the language here was correct. It says, 01:53:37.023 --> 01:53:44.862 - the school board shall have the management and control of all facilities and programs in the corporation and 01:53:44.962 --> 01:53:52.013 - the employees, students, and other persons entering its premises. We kind of said like control makes 01:53:52.013 --> 01:53:59.203 - sense in a particular way. Management, the use of that term seems to maybe not make sense in the scope 01:53:59.203 --> 01:54:06.812 - of our role. So that's something we'll pose as, is that something we should amend? Board travel compensation 01:54:06.812 --> 01:54:14.002 - comes up in this. And I know President Cooper-Menu in particular had some questions about board travel 01:54:14.002 --> 01:54:14.910 - compensation 01:54:15.074 --> 01:54:23.327 - what our policies are, how we might think about amending that. So it does come up here and then later 01:54:23.327 --> 01:54:31.661 - again in another set of policies. So we'll take a look at that. One of the sections here in 0140, it's 01:54:31.661 --> 01:54:40.319 - basically in the section regarding the board, the board's role. We found what we consider to be a somewhat 01:54:40.319 --> 01:54:43.070 - excessive use of quotation marks. 01:54:43.394 --> 01:54:50.748 - in a way that is somewhat condescending at times, right? So I think we should say explicitly what those 01:54:50.748 --> 01:54:58.455 - quotation marks imply rather than putting them in quotation marks and leaving some other kind of implication 01:54:58.455 --> 01:55:05.738 - there as to what they mean. We should just say what we do or do not want board members to do. So we'll 01:55:05.738 --> 01:55:11.678 - probably revise that section. And then one of the biggest inconsistencies is simply 01:55:11.906 --> 01:55:19.105 - Since COVID in 2021, when we passed electronic board voting, there's a section still that exists that 01:55:19.105 --> 01:55:26.374 - says that a board may not vote electronically in our policies that needs to be stricken and then fully 01:55:26.374 --> 01:55:33.713 - replaced with the section that was added later. So those are the major things that we'll sort of tackle 01:55:33.713 --> 01:55:41.406 - and consider for revision in this first set. But there were two other things that we wanted to just bring up 01:55:41.794 --> 01:55:50.476 - And I do fear that one of them may be a can of worms. So I didn't mean to do this here, but I forgot 01:55:50.476 --> 01:55:59.415 - to ask the question earlier. So I'll just ask it quickly. One question was just in terms of modernizing 01:55:59.415 --> 01:56:08.355 - our meetings to some extent. On the section that includes public participation, there was some question 01:56:08.355 --> 01:56:10.590 - as to whether as a board, 01:56:10.786 --> 01:56:17.662 - we would want to at any point consider participation in public comment or listening by Zoom as the city 01:56:17.662 --> 01:56:24.605 - and the county do in their board meetings. So that there was just the question that came up that I think 01:56:24.605 --> 01:56:31.349 - we could take up at some point if people were interested. The other question that came up in this set 01:56:31.349 --> 01:56:38.622 - of policies was actually it does not belong in the set of policies, but it is something that came up which is 01:56:38.946 --> 01:56:47.984 - does the district need to begin thinking about an AI policy? I know that many districts have, university 01:56:47.984 --> 01:56:56.678 - has, most organizations have. It sounds like there's not a lot within our district to sort of manage 01:56:56.678 --> 01:57:05.630 - at this point, but that is one question that we just wanted to bring forward as a part of this work is, 01:57:05.954 --> 01:57:12.525 - Do we think we should begin work on an official AI policy for the district? That's it. Are you asking 01:57:12.525 --> 01:57:18.968 - us to respond to those things now? April, are you just putting it out there? I would say the latter 01:57:18.968 --> 01:57:25.540 - we could take up now. The former, I would ask that people just think about and we could also have the 01:57:25.540 --> 01:57:32.176 - board officers might want to discuss with the superintendent in a board officer meeting before opening 01:57:32.176 --> 01:57:34.366 - up to full board discussion here. 01:57:39.490 --> 01:57:49.576 - initial thoughts on an AI policy, I guess on the idea of creating one. I think when you talk about the 01:57:49.576 --> 01:57:59.564 - AI policy, it'd have to be multi-pronged. One is there going to be an AI policy for employees and how 01:57:59.564 --> 01:58:07.006 - they use it within their roles versus how students use it. It seems like on 01:58:10.338 --> 01:58:22.714 - Corporation devices we have a pretty strong lockdown on how that's applied but obviously It may fall 01:58:22.714 --> 01:58:34.968 - more under the academic integrity world Yeah, I think it sounds like it in some sense there is a de 01:58:34.968 --> 01:58:39.870 - facto policy being used in practice and 01:58:40.034 --> 01:58:47.774 - It makes sense to me that we might even just have a policy to say who decides. It doesn't have to be 01:58:47.774 --> 01:58:55.437 - that the board has a policy that is very specific. In fact, do we have one? I don't think we have a 01:58:55.437 --> 01:59:03.176 - university-wide one. Maybe we do, and I'm not in compliance. I feel like they're shoving it down all 01:59:03.176 --> 01:59:07.774 - our throats, though. I think that schools at the university 01:59:08.034 --> 01:59:16.103 - Some schools have policies. I think that there may be a committee at this moment that is having this 01:59:16.103 --> 01:59:24.173 - discussion about blanket policy, but I don't know. But I do say to Ross's point, I do think there is 01:59:24.173 --> 01:59:32.162 - something about like academic integrity and that when we talked about it, we didn't just talk about 01:59:32.162 --> 01:59:35.518 - student usage, but we did talk also about 01:59:35.842 --> 01:59:45.229 - employee staff, like whatever, anybody using AI within the district that there would be certain parameters 01:59:45.229 --> 01:59:54.177 - of like what is on the table or not on the table. But I don't know. I think it's smart to be thinking 01:59:54.177 --> 02:00:03.038 - about it. Yeah. Other thoughts on that? Were questions about the policy committee's work in general? 02:00:08.578 --> 02:00:17.185 - else to add? All right finally Dr. Winston do you have any additional information you'd like to share 02:00:17.185 --> 02:00:25.876 - with us tonight? I do have a couple of items. National merit semi-finalists we are pleased to announce 02:00:25.876 --> 02:00:34.313 - that MCCSE has 18 yes 18 national merit semi-finalists out of a pool of 1.2 million students across 02:00:34.313 --> 02:00:35.326 - the country 02:00:35.490 --> 02:00:45.990 - More than 16,000 students nationwide are semifinalists, and we have 18 of them. From Bloomington North, 02:00:45.990 --> 02:00:55.278 - they are Daniel Cartledge, Gabriel Cohen, Penelope Eads, Aidan Kim, Ryan Lee, Simone Mazra, 02:00:55.278 --> 02:01:04.062 - Manaras Pickard, I apologize, and Albie Singleton. From Bloomington South, Eve Arnold, 02:01:04.610 --> 02:01:21.168 - Nikki Beshkar, Emeline Chen, Ethan Dodes, Bach Hu, William Lau, Jiping Liu, Margaret Robinson, 02:01:21.168 --> 02:01:29.534 - Odin Schreuer, and Yuvin Zhou. Congratulations. 02:01:29.826 --> 02:01:36.551 - To these exceptional students, national merit winners will be announced in the spring of 2027. Parent 02:01:36.551 --> 02:01:43.343 - University. Our next Parent University will be on Tuesday, September 29th, one week from this evening. 02:01:43.343 --> 02:01:50.266 - The topic is on assessments and will be held in the CoLab beginning at 6 p.m. College and Career Pathway 02:01:50.266 --> 02:01:57.123 - Fair. On September 28th, Hoosier Hills Career Center will host the College and Career Pathway Fair from 02:01:57.123 --> 02:01:58.046 - 530 to 7 p.m. 02:01:58.562 --> 02:02:05.063 - We invite you to bring your family and friends to tour the Career Center, visit classrooms and learning 02:02:05.063 --> 02:02:11.502 - spaces. There will also be representatives from industry, colleges and the military. Our culinary arts 02:02:11.502 --> 02:02:17.753 - students will also host a bake sale at the event. And I have to tell you from past experience, they 02:02:17.753 --> 02:02:24.255 - do an excellent job. Bloomington High School North. Bloomington High School North will have their first 02:02:24.255 --> 02:02:28.318 - concert of the season, the fall choral concert tomorrow evening. 02:02:28.450 --> 02:02:34.431 - Wednesday, September 23rd. The concert will take place in Norris Auditorium beginning at 7 p.m. We invite 02:02:34.431 --> 02:02:40.072 - you to attend this performance and see our students performing and showcasing all of their talents. 02:02:40.072 --> 02:02:45.714 - There are so many events that are happening throughout our corporation from choir and band concerts 02:02:45.714 --> 02:02:51.639 - to fall athletic events. I encourage everyone to check out the events calendars on our school's websites 02:02:51.639 --> 02:02:57.337 - to choose an event then come enjoy our students in action. You will not be disappointed. And in case 02:02:57.337 --> 02:02:58.014 - you forgot, 02:02:58.114 --> 02:03:05.250 - As a reminder, our fall break is October 15th and 16th. Schools will be closed on both of those days. 02:03:05.250 --> 02:03:12.316 - That concludes my report. Thank you, Dr. Winston. Are there questions or comments from the board for 02:03:12.316 --> 02:03:19.592 - Dr. Winston? Nope. All right, I just quickly, I should have probably put this on the agenda, but I just 02:03:19.592 --> 02:03:26.588 - really quickly want to again thank you all for the work that you did at the work session on setting 02:03:26.588 --> 02:03:27.358 - parameters 02:03:27.586 --> 02:03:34.442 - for redistricting, redistricting, restructuring, and reorganizing. It was a long meeting. I realized 02:03:34.442 --> 02:03:41.706 - later I forgot to give us a break, so I think we were hard at work for about three hours. And Dr. Winston, 02:03:41.706 --> 02:03:48.766 - I think a notice did go out today that the parameters we set have been posted. That includes the things 02:03:48.766 --> 02:03:56.030 - that we prioritized, the targets that we set for those, the constraints and the weights that we gave them. 02:03:56.130 --> 02:04:03.956 - Again, thank you for that work. And I just wanted to note to the public that that is now available for 02:04:03.956 --> 02:04:11.858 - anyone to view. Any other last comments from the board? Can I make a shameless plug for Sounds of South 02:04:11.858 --> 02:04:19.531 - is going to have Guys and Dolls on October 10, 17, and 24. So get your tickets. And it's a good show 02:04:19.531 --> 02:04:24.318 - you don't want to miss. And my own son will be in it. Perfect. 02:04:26.562 --> 02:04:34.035 - Other shameless plugs or otherwise. All right. The next regularly scheduled board meeting will be held 02:04:34.035 --> 02:04:37.662 - on Tuesday, October 27th, 2026. We are adjourned.