- order please stand for the pledge of allegiance i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states
- of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and
- justice strong thank you we are very patriotic so we uh... appreciate you all being here this evening
- this is the
- October 2025 regular school board meeting we will have a couple public hearings along the way As we
- go for the roll call, please. Let the reef record reflect that mr. Moss. Mr. Kerr. Mr. Journal, mr.
- Jacobs are all present and Are there any visitor comments? No
- Then we have the Mustang moment, which is Edgewood High School. And so Mr. Ackerman, would you like
- to introduce them? Good evening. I am excited to introduce one of our two primary leadership teams that
- we have at Edgewood High School. One is that you're going to learn about is this is just students from
- sports. And then we have Leadership Academy, which we've had a long time.
- I just decided to make this the Mustang moment just because we do have incredible leaders in the school
- and how much we depend on those leaders. We think that Edgewood High School is one of the greatest schools
- around. We have a good staff, but what we mostly have are just good students and we need that leadership.
- from students just like the ones that are going to come up today. So I'd like to introduce their leader,
- Mr. Sam Jones, and he will talk a little bit about it, and then I think he's making them talk a little bit too.
- It's always dangerous giving me a microphone and everything. I want to make sure I start with saying
- that when Mr. Ackerman was my assistant principal and Mr. Tucker, who unfortunately couldn't be here
- tonight, when he was my principal, they had to tell me what the word outspoken meant and when was the
- right time to be outspoken and when was the wrong time to be outspoken. And at that time, I know that
- whenever I was a student, I'm sure they would have been incredibly nervous to put any student in front
- of the school board and have them speak. So it's really exciting to see how much we've grown just in
- that I have a whole panel of students here speaking this evening.
- Before I get the opportunity to hand it off to them, I want to thank Dr. Sanders, Mrs. Barrett and the
- board for continuing to expand opportunities and
- all the building projects and things that we have for our students and our staff and our community.
- That excitement is felt in the community. It's felt every day in our kids and our staff as we go through
- to have a community that embraces growth and embraces the opportunities that we can give to kids so
- that they can go out and be productive members of society is just, it's incredible. And it's really
- exciting to work in that corporation that puts so much trust into our kids.
- Through SAAC, when we see everything that we get the chance to do, tonight's kind of one of those where
- we look at all these different things and they kind of feel like little puzzle pieces. So you see a
- little piece here, you see the little piece there. Well, tonight is one of those opportunities in which
- we kind of get to pull those puzzle pieces together and look at just the beautiful picture that we're
- continuing to grow here and build here. And I'm going to start by talking about what the foundation
- of the Student Athlete Advisory Committee is.
- Student Athlete Advisory Committee is an initiative that was started by the Indiana High School Athletic
- Association and it was doing that because the HSA is big on education based athletics. They are pushing
- the concept of we want our kids to realize the platform they have to have fundamental change in their
- community but also in doing so they are
- I use the term planting the seed for the shade tree that they won't get the chance to sit under they're
- giving back to the community in hopes that as these things continue to grow. They can look back and
- appreciate all of these small seeds they they have planted over time.
- When I initially started as assistant athletic director just about four years ago, one of the big things
- that Mr. Ackerman talked about right after I started was getting the idea of leadership pushed because
- Leadership Academy is an incredible opportunity for about 90 kids every year to really represent the
- diverse amount of things we have in our school and let them all make fundamental change. But also, athletics
- is an incredibly important part too. So just giving our athletes a chance to change the culture within
- their teams and as those
- cultures within the teams are changing and growing, so is the athletic department as a whole. So, IJSA,
- we won our first grant from the IJSA in 2002, and that allowed for us to start this beautiful journey
- that we have right now.
- To get onto SAAC, you have coach nominations. Every year they go through and they send us names for
- kids that they see as leadership with the leadership skills that will represent us, not only in our
- hallways, but also on the athletic fields and in the community in a positive way. And then we turn around
- and we go and take that group and we have an annual summer retreat. That summer retreat, we're asking
- our kids to give up time during their summer to come back in and talk about not only reflecting on what
- we just did and the things we accomplished in the previous year,
- kind of laying the roadmap for where we want to go after that. As we go through that retreat we then
- say hey let's reflect a little bit more who can we also be bringing into this group that maybe hasn't
- made a list yet and it's incredible to see some of the the game changers that have come some of which
- are speaking here today that maybe they're a quiet leader maybe they're not someone that's going to
- get their name in the paper all the time maybe they're not someone that's going to
- be the one that rallies the team together with their voice, but they show up every day, they work hard,
- and they believe in growing something and being a part of something that's going to continue to leave
- an impact on them long after their four years here at Edgewood High School. So because of that, we have
- these bi-monthly meetings, and we've pushed on to these kids that they do become the voice for our athletic
- department. While Mr. Bland and I can step up and talk to anyone,
- sportsmanship reports that we get from officials, it's rarely about coaches, it's rarely about
- the administration, it's about the kids. And so when they realize that they're the ones getting those
- recognitions, and they can push these goals that they've come out with, some of which they'll talk about
- today, it really I think is empowering for them to feel like, no, just because you're
- 15 to 18 years old doesn't mean you can't make a significant difference in your four years. And because
- of that, you're handing the baton off, there's an athletic pun I can throw in, but you're handing the
- baton off to the next group of kids that are coming through and growing with it and making it even better.
- One of the things that has been really cool in the years that they have had this IHSA grant, it's $1,500,
- doesn't seem like a lot, but it's recognition from the state that
- for things the kids are already doing. And so for me, it's been really exciting because we are, to my
- knowledge, the first two-time recipient of this IHSA grant, and they only give about five to six each
- year for 300-plus schools in the state. So at this time, I'm going to get the chance to take a breath,
- take a sip of my Diet Coke, and I'm going to turn around and pass it on to letting our kids show you
- the vision of how this started and the domino effect of how all their work has come to work.
- I'm gonna start off by talking about the growth in our mindset. We are promoting multi-sport athletes
- and encouraging those who only do one sport to try another sport, and our student section numbers have
- risen and are continuing to grow as well. The attendance and participation throughout the whole have
- gotten so much better, and the environment and the school spirit at games have increased as well. With
- that being said, we have created excitement for all sports, not just sports that bring the revenue.
- Four years ago, we decided to rebrand our name from the Red Nation to the Stampede, which has just made
- a more unique and personal connection to our community. We've had students that are in charge of our
- social media and our branding, which just have done a great job with increasing the excitement and engagement
- with our sports and our athletics and our athletes. And in SAC, we also have been in charge of organizing
- our theme nights, which
- just show an increase in our engagement and excitement in the student section, which has grown a lot
- in the past years, and just more engagement and excitement for our athletes. All of these things have
- helped us create community excitement, not only for our athletes, but for our school corporation in
- a whole. And some things that have helped us do this is our involvement in the youth program. We have
- started to reach them at an earlier age, so then when they get to high school, they know what it's all about.
- Yeah, within this idea, we have been able to branch out and create something like an NIL deal that has
- given the proceeds to RBBU sports. And I'm going to give it over to Hank to talk more about Project
- Plate Forward. Thank you. So yeah, about a year ago today, I was in class talking. You're good. Keep going.
- I was in class and I heard one of my teachers talking to a student in my class about NIL and I kind
- of thought about that and we were in the midst of trying to promote our coffee shop in a way. So I thought
- about it for a couple days and I thought why not use one of our student athletes to promote this almost
- like an NIL deal. So I told Owen McGovern, he was the first person we did it to, I told him about it,
- of course he loved it and so the next day I told
- Ms. Tucker and Ms. Myers about it, and they were on it quick. And they looked into it. He couldn't take
- proceedings because it would be, he'd lose eligibility. So we thought, why not try and give it back
- to the youth in our community? And that's what we kind of thought of the name of the project,
- Play It Forward. And that's kind of what it is. And we've created drinks for the spring. And we now
- have one out for the athletes this year.
- One of the ways we're promoting that is social media. It's all student ran. The accounts are student
- ran. The graphics are made in school by the students, and it's a great way of promoting it and getting
- out to our community. And I'll let Carter talk some more on that. So along with working on these things
- as students, we have interns in every single day, usually during sixth and seventh period, working on
- these graphics that we can put out to our community. The biggest thing is
- victory posts with athlete photos, so these are specified just to our school, just to our teams and
- our athletes specifically. And we have social media accounts that are averaging over 100,000 views a
- month, and this is important because this isn't just reaching our community, we're reaching other people
- around, and we're branching out almost into other states when you look at those analytics. Along with
- that, we've got a brand new scoreboard system in our gym.
- Students have looked through that and begin to figure out all of the tanks in that, and we've worked
- through that and put up graphics that are also student-made. That along with the new sign on Highway
- 46, we're just continuing to be able to reach our community like that. More importantly though, these
- interns are getting career-ready experiences, some that students won't learn until later in college.
- All of these graphics are created by students, along with hype videos, theme night promotions, and then
- media days for every single sport. This isn't something that happens at every single school. So by reaching
- this community, we are able to reach these younger children earlier. And I'm gonna pass it over to Aubrey
- here to talk about our youth involvement. I'm gonna be talking a little bit about how we're getting
- our youth involved.
- in with our high school athletes through SACS. So it's like a full circle. We start by going over as
- student athletes in the mornings, and we'll do greetings. We all have assigned teachers, and we get
- to go in there and just interact with them and get to know them on a different level. And that leads
- us into being able to do a field day for our third graders, which they always love and get a taste of
- what all is offered at the high school.
- in a different way and our teams are also attending athletic events for the junior high which after
- that we get to do youth camps and we have 10 different sports that are offered for our youth to be able
- to attend that they learn from our high school athletes and get to see what the high school is all about
- when they reach up there and grow their interest and skills.
- And our youth nights are offered after that for those who attend the camps to connect with our current
- athletes and see them playing in action and get a recognition to see the culture and all of our skills
- in action, which just leads to like a domino effect from everything that like the NIL deal and stuff.
- Okay, me and Cora are gonna be talking about the domino effect through SAC. And over the past three
- years, the Student Athletic Advisory Committee has significantly impacted Edgewood sports, not only
- through promotions involvement, but also through the overall growth of Edgewood sports that goes beyond
- the court. And 2022 SAAC had a total of 21 members,
- Total has skyrocketed to 50 plus members and not only has SAC and grow individually, but it has assisted
- in the growth of sports in general. Our total number of athletes in the school has
- continue to increase significantly, and that just helps students get involved in sports and really know
- what it's like to be on a team and what it takes to be a teammate. And then not only do you have to
- be involved in sports to do that, but also our student section, like they previously said, has continued
- to grow alongside these sports, allowing students to be involved with sports, cheer on sports, and grow
- even if they're playing under the lights or being in the student section.
- growing in the influence in student athletic advisory committee. We are being given leadership training
- and these skills are being pushed into all of our sports teams through captains who are all members
- of student athletic advisory committee.
- In addition to that, all of our athletes have access to sports psychology interns from Indiana University.
- And with their help, we are able to find ways to manage stress, anxiety, or any other factor that may
- impact an athlete on or off the court.
- Circling back to growing in influence, we work in subcommittees within Student Athletic Advisory Committee,
- which allows us to see effective results and widen our scope in what we are trying to accomplish.
- For example, those working in social media are able to create content and feed it out in an efficient
- manner, similar to those in the student elementary involvement group who are able to brainstorm new
- ways to keep our elementary schools involved.
- And then growing in character, this really ties in with the domino effect. In the school year 2021 to
- 2022, our school was nearly on probation by the Indiana High School Athletic Association due to our
- lack of sportsmanship points. And since then, SAC has really brought up our school from rock bottom
- to an outstanding high. And I have fortunately been able to not only see that myself, but also be a
- part of that.
- I am a three-year captain on the girls soccer team. And my first year as captain was when we were nearly
- on probation. And our team's culture was really negative. We had zero sportsmanship, interaction between
- upper and lower classmen. And we just didn't have any encouragement for our team. And it wasn't until
- after one of our games, one of my friends from SAC came up to me and said, hey, I know this is how the
- culture is.
- you can be more than just a leader. You can lead with a legacy and involve sportsmanship. And they kind
- of just told me what SAC is and what they do. And it really gave me a realization and stuck with me.
- So the next year, I met with my captains, and we transferred that onto our team. And it was a total
- culture shift. And we went from a super negative and losing culture to a positive, encouraging, winning culture.
- it wouldn't have been possible without one person like continuing the domino effect and this has only
- happened in soccer but also across all sports and even outside of sports and student sections and even
- within the classroom.
- We've had two students here at Edgewood High School be recognized for their actions through sportsmanship.
- First, Andrew Paul. If you know Andrew, he's a really great tennis player. And during his season, he
- beat one of his opponents in a very quick match. And with so much time left over, he took that opportunity
- to answer questions and actually teach his opponent some of his own skills that he often uses.
- He acted out of kindness and it was a true reflection of his character and representation of the culture
- that we're trying to build here at Edgewood. Second is a former student of Edgewood High School,
- Reese Helms. He was recognized for his actions off the court.
- As a student section leader, Reese recognized an underclassman behaving inappropriately during a basketball
- game. The student was throwing stuff and disturbing those around him. So Reese went and picked up the
- trash that was being thrown and addressed the student, informing him how we act as students in the student
- section. And by doing that, he really set the standard for all students, showing that you can have a
- good time and support your team while also doing the right thing.
- look a little bit brighter, but I'm beaming with pride right now just with listening to these incredible
- young adults and talking about all the experiences that we've had. We're really lucky with having the
- administrative team back here, how supportive all of our building level administrators are to give freedom
- to our students to go and try to make
- an impact on people outside of their building. It's very easy to just try to want to focus on what's
- going on in your hallways, at your building. But the forward thinking and the sense of trying to build
- community and taking care of the future has been incredibly, it's just been really special.
- In doing that, I got to make sure that I give some credit to Katie Brookman and Brittany Tucker. Those
- are two of our other sponsors that aren't able to join us tonight. The ability to have
- coaches that are willing to pour in so much time in an unpaid position to just pour into these kids
- and to work with them and you hear these kids talk about their dreams and the things they want to do
- and it's like it's not necessarily a dream it could be a reality and in just a short amount of time
- we've been able to check mark a lot of those boxes and again we continue to push the kids it is not a
- We want to win. Like, listen, there's nobody that's more competitive than me. But how we win is incredibly
- important. And so to see this domino effect, you can see the photo here. I'd like for, we wanted to
- make sure that you guys actually got to see that it wasn't like AI cropped in or anything. So if you
- want to go ahead and flip that over. But this sportsmanship banner that they're unraveling, it is given
- to the top 20
- schools across the state every year for their sportsmanship points. And you earn sportsmanship points
- through officials, through other schools, and through community members that are recognizing actions
- that are done by coaches and athletes alike during competition. And I can tell you that when we started
- talking about this and when we were on probation, you start with 100 points. And for every ejection,
- you lose five points. Every ejection from a coach or an administrator, you lose 10.
- 70-some points in 2022. And once you drop below 70, you go on probation through the IHSA. You have to
- talk about an action plan on how you're going to fix those things. Luckily, we didn't go into that point.
- And every year, we have gotten just a little bit closer. Last year, we finished with 123 points. We
- were gaining points in every season, not just one. And we were in the top, I believe it was the top
- seven. We were the seventh out of the state for their total sportsmanship points.
- Pretty significant growth. This is that domino effect because not only are we winning, we are winning
- conference championships in multiple sports. We are competing at a state level in multiple sports, but
- now we have this. It says we're doing it with character.
- And really, it kind of goes back to, again, the last thing that I'll finish with is, of all people,
- people probably think it's weird that I quote Mother Teresa, but she says, none of us, including me,
- ever do great things, but we can all do small things with great love and together we can build something
- wonderful.
- This is a product of a lot of small things with great love, building something wonderful. And I can't
- express my pride that I have in this group and all of those that aren't able to be here tonight for
- the work they've done because this is not just a reflection of these kids and our coaches, it's a reflection
- of the community and those that you guys get to serve as well. So thank you so much.
- Absolutely, yes. So Zinnia Vanegas, Cora Emmons, Ava LaRoche, Ella LaRoche, Hank Ripley, Carter Hayden,
- Aubrey Lee, juniors and seniors. And an incredible mix of kids. We have multiple, I think we have at
- least 10 or 11 different sports that are represented through here. And so quite a diverse bunch. They've
- been having a lot of fun putting this presentation together. So perfect, awesome. Thank you guys so much.
- add something to what they were saying, especially some of those last few comments, because culture
- is so important to a school and a school corporation. And nobody impacts the culture more than our students.
- And I love going to see
- Favorite part of my job is going to our athletic events. And of course, I like to see us win, but really
- what does my heart the greatest good is when I see good sportsmanship from our athletes out on the field.
- And we received, when we played at football, West Vigo, we were beating them
- pretty good and we got an email from one of the parents of West Vigo athlete who complimented our football
- team on how much they respected the West Vigo players and I was there so I watched our players help
- other players up and you know,
- It's just the heart of a successful school corporation when you have a great culture. And like I said,
- nobody impacts that more than students like what we have here tonight. So thank you. Good job. Appreciate
- it. It's always hard to return to business.
- I Don't know what this Jerry maybe you need more graphics Okay So moving on we have our consent agenda
- and in that we have the approval of minutes and
- the September 16th, 2025 public hearing and the September 16th, 2025 regular board meeting. And then
- we have our treasurer's report for September of 2025. And Mr. General, our claims please. Thank you,
- Mr. President. We have gross wages on September 12th, 2025 of $837,000.
- $256.41 for gross wages on mini pay on 9-13 of 2025 for $630. Gross wages on September the 26th of 2025
- of $842,158.73 for a total of $1,680,000.
- $45.14 for claims prepaid from 9-1 of 25 to 9-30 of 25 is $1,002,110.12 for claims on regular voucher
- for October 21, 2025 is $444,163.43 for a total of $1,447,73.55 for a grand total of $3,127,118.69.
- Thank you, sir. Thank you. Also, we have personnel, resignations, retirement, non-renewals, leaves and
- terminations, C1 through 15, and the personnel appointments and transfers, which is D1 through 34. And
- finally, there is one out of state trip. And so, Mr. Ackerman, would you like to
- speak about that before we move. First I want to say, Mrs. Ferguson just does an outstanding job with
- our ag program with FFA. She just really gets down and dirty with the kids. I think she enjoys it maybe
- more than the kids sometimes, but she every year likes to provide this opportunity for some of her best
- leaders to get the opportunity to go to Indianapolis to that state conference
- This year she struggled a little bit. She was a little bit late, didn't get the hotel room right there
- in the hotel, the conferences, but she adjusted to it. Was able to find a hotel for them, but they will
- have an outstanding conference for them to attend. And again, for them to grow as leaders in Edgewood
- High School as well. So I really highly recommend that you approve the overnight field trip.
- I move approval of consent agenda. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Motion carries. Next is consideration
- of a resolution approving the issuance of bonds and financing documents and we'll turn to Jacob McClellan.
- Thank you, Mr. President. So the resolution before you, I know you guys have been through this before.
- This is kind of the final step for the issuance of bonds through the building corporation. The building
- corporation met just before this meeting and approved a similar resolution. Just as a refresher, this
- authorizes bonds not to exceed $40 million. The bonds would be issued pursuant to the parameters provided
- by Stiefel.
- The resolution authorizes the form of bond documents, the form of offering document, the bond purchase
- agreement, and you guys have the opportunity to issue the bonds or the flexibility to issue the bonds
- in multiple series should that arise. As far as timing, Stiefel's Council has put together the offering
- document for you all already. You guys have received your rating. I think we anticipate pricing early
- November with closing kind of late November.
- That said, I know that Stiefel will work with Dr. Sanders to kind of determine best timing, because
- I know you guys aren't up against any kind of deadlines there. As in the past, once bonds are priced,
- we'll put together the closing documents and either get them through Dr. Sanders or get them to Christine
- for you all to sign, and they'll be, you know, three weeks probably between pricing and closing.
- So with that, I'd be happy to answer any questions.
- let everybody know by issuing these in a series, we can take advantage of not collecting the money before
- we need it and being able to keep our interest costs down, correct? Yes, if you guys determined to issue
- them in multiple series, you just have the flexibility to do it. Jerry, I don't know what the plan is
- right now. Is it to issue the whole 40 million? We're looking to do all 40 million. Yeah, but if something
- arises between now and
- Kind of when you guys issue, you could always opt to do multiple series. And the projects are spread
- out where they can. Yeah. To me, we'll be spending all that at once. We have some definite priorities
- in terms of roofing projects, HVAC projects that we would like to get started on. And so as we bid those
- projects out,
- and then the estimates turn into firm numbers, and then that kind of, as you go from project to project,
- and that determines what other projects you could do down the road. Any further questions? It's a bonds
- and financing documents. I'll second. Second. Any further discussion?
- All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Thank you very much. Yeah and I want to thank
- Jacob for all he does to make sure we're doing the right thing and obviously I appreciate Christine
- for that always but you know I running a school corporation takes a lot of time and when you have somebody
- who's making sure you're crossing the T's and dotting the I's that's greatly appreciated.
- We appreciate the partnership Okay Now we will have our first public hearing and so this is the public
- hearing for additional appropriations and I will call this hearing to order and Offender will provide us
- with my glasses will provide us with the proposal. I just want to take a minute to kind of explain what
- this is all about. This doesn't happen every year, but it can happen and it's happened here. Typically
- you do your budgets and you're doing your budget tonight, an adoption meeting, but last year you adopted
- a budget of about 20.5 million.
- Your revenue last year was over 22 million. Usually your budgets match up a little closer than that.
- So your budget was low to start out with. Being conservative and all that, you kind of understand that.
- The other fly in the ointment here a little bit is that you don't really know what your revenue is until
- your count day in October. But your budget is well along the path. And you get to October, it's locked in.
- You're not going to change it at that point. And so if your revenue jumps because of that enrollment,
- you've got what you've got this year is a revenue up here, budget down here. If you look at the cash
- flow that I left on your desk earlier, you'll see in the education funds especially,
- that down at the bottom right-hand corner, it shows the remaining appropriation of 491 million in the
- red. That means you're short that much in appropriation this year. That's what we're projecting right
- now. Might be a little more, might be a little less. We've asked for an additional appropriation from
- the public. We've advertised about two weeks ago
- this hearing, and we're asking for 600,000 more in appropriation. So that will more than cover that.
- But just one, before you go into the public hearing, I want people to understand we're not necessarily
- spending it all, but we are covering what we can spend. It's permission to spend it, and that's what
- it was. Again, hindsight's better. If we would have known a year ago
- we would have gone for a budget maybe of 21 million instead of 20.5 or something like that to cover
- this. But the good thing is you got the cash, now we're bringing it more to match up. Thank you. This
- hearing being properly noticed and now explained, are there any people from the public who would like
- to make comments?
- Okay, hearing none, I will close the hearing on additional appropriations. We will return to this towards
- the end of the meeting for a resolution. And now we will start with our budget adoption. And so again,
- Mr. Frederick.
- I thought you were going to do this. There are several processes to the 2026 budget, and they go through
- a series of resolutions. So when you look at this, our budget this year, we've advertised a little over
- 22 million. That's a million and a half jump.
- but it gets closer to that revenue match that I was talking about. And when I ran the projection for
- 2026 in cash flows the other day, it looks good. It comes out pretty good at the end of the year. Doesn't
- show you being negative and things like that. So I think we're more in line with that budget. So there's...
- I don't know if you want to do these one at a time, but the first resolution would be to adopt the 2026
- budget levy and tax rate, which is form four that's in gateway. That's the one you have to sign. So
- you'd need an action on that resolution. We need a separate action on that one, would you say? Well,
- you can probably do them all. Okay.
- We have properly noticed this. We've discussed this. We've had a public hearing on this. So we've been
- through this. Is there anyone who would object to taking on as a whole? Okay, so we'll entertain a motion.
- I'll move the motion to approve the 2026 budget adoption. And for the record, this is the
- 2026 budget levy and tax rate form for the adoption of the school bus replacement plan resolution, the
- adoption of the capital projects plan resolution, the resolution to approve the last six months of transfer
- from education to operations fund, the 2026 budget resolution, and the resolution to authorize
- tax anticipation warrants for 2026. That's all included
- in the 2026 budget adoption. Any further discussion? All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed?
- Motion carries. Thank you very much. It's a long process. We appreciate all your hard work in guiding
- us through this. Next up, we have consideration of new bleachers for the Edgewood High School gymnasium.
- Dr. Sanders.
- Last month we asked permission from the board to purchase new bleachers at the junior high and we explained
- the condition that these bleachers were in and in needing replaced and at the time we just didn't have
- the quote ready for
- the bleachers at the high school. They are also showing their age. They don't meet the ADA standards.
- And just like at the junior high or high school administrators met with Lee Company representative,
- Daris Swanson, and we
- pretty much went with the same type of bleachers that we had, that we purchased at the junior high.
- Now in the case of the high school, the scope was a little bit larger than the junior high project.
- The lower bleachers, all the mechanics, the bleachers themselves will be replaced. And the upper,
- level of the bleachers, the second level. The bleachers that move in and out, the mechanics of those
- bleachers are still good. So we're just actually replacing the bleacher part in the upper section of
- the mobile.
- bleachers. As you know on the opposite side is the permanent bleachers and they have, those bleachers
- have a wooden plank with a plastic cap and they no longer make those plastic caps. And so what we're
- going to be doing is we're going to take the plastic, the old plastic caps off. We're going to paint the
- wooden planks the same color of the bleacher seats. And we'll install bleacher seats on those planks.
- And also, we've added some other projects to that. While we're painting the wooden planks and the permanent
- side of the bleachers, we're going to paint the fluorine up there with epoxy paint to match the gray
- in the rest of the gym.
- The across the bleachers will have EHS and in your packet of information I provided what those letters
- will look like. So the price of the quote for the bleachers itself is $542,538.08. We also need to do
- some other projects.
- with that and I'm gonna pull that up here if I could find it real quick that while we're doing these
- projects we also need to address these other issues and one of them is the painting that I mentioned
- and I'm gonna pull up that quote for that here is
- Okay. What do you have there? $84,500 from Riggs painting. Yeah. And then the city glass, the city glass,
- uh, actually I'm going to hold off on the city glass, uh, because I want, uh, city glasses. They put
- the railings in there that are in right now.
- But I want to take our time on that and have our architects look at what City Glass is proposing to
- make sure it's structurally sound. So since the time that we put the board packet together, I've had
- a couple of conversations that just made me think, let's just wait and see about those railings. We
- will have to replace the railings because the gates
- won't match the new bleachers. But we wanna make sure what we put up there is structurally sound. So
- I'm gonna pull the city glass one from that. This will come out of the 2022 geo bonds. Hey, I finally
- found it. So the railings will,
- that we had from City Glass was quoted a little over $40,000. We're going to take another look at that.
- Then there's some other work while we have the bleachers out that we want to upgrade the electric behind
- the bleachers and also the networking while they're out. And so that'll be a minimal cost that we will
- add to that.
- The it'll all be under what I budgeted for that 2022 Geo bond for the bleachers will be well under that
- that amount. So I recommend your approval. New bleachers and DHS jump. So will these have the same wood
- look to them or you said they'd be painted the planks and the permanent part.
- There'll be a plastic seat that will go on top of the wooden planks. So the back part of the bleachers
- will still be visible. So you'll have the plastic seat on top of the wood plank, but the plastic seat
- doesn't cover the whole wooden plank. So we're gonna paint those the same color as the bleachers.
- Okay, and that's in the permanent? That's in the permanent side. And so for the pull-outs? For the pull-outs?
- Look, will they have, will they be all wood or? No, they'll be plastic. They'll all be plastic? Yeah.
- All plastic. Black with the red EHS across. Okay. And they'll have, they'll, and Dirk, if you want to,
- if you think of anything I haven't mentioned, but there'll be a way to be able to
- to move on the side where the teams sit, you can actually move a couple rows back to move the teams
- back, which would give them more space between the team and the court. And like I said, they'll be ADA
- acceptable.
- They just had to walk up those steps and even be able to do that. So to have that railing that goes
- in between the steps is really important and it's really kind of a big part of that. We had a lot of
- people request us to get that. Well, it's too narrow for us to just put in the railing that concedes
- that every time. Yeah. Katz, were you able to pick that up, volume wise? No, I wasn't, but it's okay.
- Well, I'm sorry. It's okay. That was very important.
- that we're considering is a new scorers table. And I think Larry would probably say that probably needs
- to happen. But we don't have numbers on that yet. Are the electrical stuff behind the scorers table
- more important? That's right. What about the seating capacity? Is this going to impact seating capacity?
- I think it's about the same, isn't it, Dirk? The seating capacity.
- Okay, so we're not losing anybody we're not losing any Okay, okay What's the time frame that's a great
- question so We are trying to hustle
- And as soon as you give approval tomorrow, we'll be sending the signing the quote and getting them started
- because we want them to be able to start in March. So they'll be done by commencement. Oh, OK. So between
- basketball season. Right. Right. OK. Any further questions? First and second.
- All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Thank you. And now we are going to look at
- accepting a bid for the EECC playground expansion. Yes, so this is really part of the construction project
- that we've been
- working on throughout the campus. And we are utilizing those funds to build an expanded playground for
- the Edgewood Early Childhood Center. And really, we have to, because there's certain requirements of
- how many students, preschool students, you can have one playground at one time. And I think I've
- provided everybody with a picture of the layout of what it will be. It'll be located behind the current
- playground for EECC. It'll have a soft surface. It'll have a track around the edge. And when we went
- to visit Westfield,
- early childhood center. They had the most amazing playground and they had a track around theirs where
- the kids rode their little three-wheelers and it was just really cool. And so to lower the price we
- actually made the track a little bit
- less wide and smaller. And so it'll have some playground equipment on there, soft surface. And so we
- had a bid opening, and we had four quality bids that were presented. And with all of the bids came in
- under the estimated cost for the project.
- And so the winning bid that we're recommending is from Crider and Crider for $610,325. And this work
- will be happening really next spring and summer. I move people to accept the bid for the EECC playground
- expansion. I'll second. Moved and second. Any questions? I saw the, they got the,
- playground in behind the daycare section yes it looks great and this will be I know I know the teachers
- down there looking forward to this so is the current playground there to the south that area to the
- south yes okay at what time
- Several years back, there were discussions about shades. I'm not even sure if we purchased shades for
- like EPS, EIS, or whatever. I was just curious if that was anything that had been discussed. There is
- a shaded area at the end of the current playground behind the preschool, if that's what you're talking
- about. Yeah, well, previously, there was talk about having
- covers at EPS and EIS as well. Kind of like those kite-looking covers or triangles or whatever. I don't
- know if that just never panned out. I don't think we were ever able to find what we wanted.
- To answer your question, I think that is something we can still consider and be looking for. And I think
- it's always good to provide shade for children. When they're out in the hot sun, they'd rather be inside.
- So if we could find something that would be last and provide the quality shade that we want, we'll keep
- looking. Yeah, I was just curious.
- Okay, any further questions? Hearing none, all those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries.
- Exciting to see the bleachers go in, the playground go in. It's nice to vote on something that you can
- see. Next is consideration to approve the United Way Agreement, Dr. Sanders. Oh, that's me too. So this
- is an annual
- agreement that obviously you know we talk all the time about the important partners that it takes for
- a successful school corporation and United Way is certainly part of that. We're getting ready to wrap
- up our current United Way campaign across the campus and Jill Cronin does an excellent job of
- meeting our students' needs and having those funds available. And it would certainly make her job a
- lot harder if she didn't have an organization like United Way to support her efforts. And so I recommend
- approval. Do I have a motion? I move approval to United Way agreement. I'll second. Moved and seconded.
- Any discussion? All those in favor say aye. Aye.
- Opposed? Motion carries. And consideration to approve the Republic Services Agreement. Yes.
- And once again, this is an annual agreement with Republic Services to be able to handle the waste that
- comes from having a school corporation of almost 2,700 students. I'll second. Moved and seconded. Are
- these prices pretty consistent with what they have? Yes. OK.
- Any further discussion? All those in favor say aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Next consideration to approve
- the Smart Start Child Care Substitute Service MOA and we'll turn to you.
- This one should look pretty familiar to you. We're bringing it back one more time. We went to submit
- this, and the attorneys with the community foundation wanted us to add in one more option. So I gave
- you a copy of this just so you can see exactly what that is. If you turn to page four, I have H highlighted there.
- H is what we have added in as an option. Christine has already looked through that and approved it and
- thought we were good to go. So now we meet their criteria and our criteria, and hopefully with this
- being approved, then we can start using them for our sub-services for EECC. I'll second. Any discussion?
- All those in favor say aye. Aye.
- Motion carries. And now we have consideration to approve the Indiana School for the Blind and Visually
- Impaired Agreement, and we have Noah for that. Yeah, so this is an agreement basically searching for,
- with the Indiana School for the Blind and Visually Impaired, they do consultative services throughout
- the entire state. They have their,
- facility campus school in Indy and then they do outreach to other areas. And so with us having kind
- of a increased population of students with blind or low vision impairments, we're basically looking
- just to consult with them to be able to provide a little bit more expertise in consulting with our school
- staff. We do have a
- district teacher of students with visual impairments and Kristen Sample, who's fantastic in what she
- does. She is also the junior high inclusion teacher. So just trying to open up the door a little bit
- to be able to provide a little bit more services for these kids as we aim to meet the needs of all of
- our students. So it's essentially looking to basically
- consult with them, they can provide training, consultation with school staff, do some observations for
- us to kind of give their expertise insight into it, and then also kind of help with educational evaluations,
- just adapting for if braille is needing used or adapting those materials as they needed. So essentially
- just looking for an agreement to be able to work with them.
- to work with me and along with our Kristen sample. I'll second. Moved and seconded. Any discussion?
- I'm just happy to provide more services to these students. I should say too, it's paid through Medicaid,
- so it comes in on our side. Thank you. Thank you.
- All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. And I think we ought to give Noah an applause
- for his school board debut. Yeah. Awesome. Very good. Very good. Very good. We'll see you back next
- time. All right. Next is consideration to approve the amendment to the EECC handbook and Jennifer Barrett.
- were tables, just so if you needed to refer back to this. So it's in the same packet right next to the
- highlighted section we looked at in the Smart Start agreement. There is a memo there, and I've highlighted
- the very last piece. This is what we are asking you to approve as far as an amendment to the EECC handbook.
- what we're finding with some of our little guys who are enrolled in full-day kindergarten, it might
- just be a little bit too much for them. And we would like to have an opportunity to have something in
- our handbook that parents read prior to enrolling them and also understanding that at any point if we
- see they just simply don't have the stamina to get through a day where age-appropriate behaviors are
- one thing,
- But sometimes we see behaviors that aren't necessarily age appropriate. And that's where we would like
- that flexibility to be able to stay to parents. We'd like to move to a half day and work on those and
- work towards building up towards a full day. So that amendment in there is basically to help us in that
- situation. We don't anticipate that happening often, but realize that it's probably something we need
- to have in there just in case.
- Any discussion These are little guys down at EECC so our threes and fours sometimes, you know, we they
- enroll and full day and what we find is that Nap times aren't as long as they're used to and we have
- some grumpy little ones by noon one o'clock in the afternoon So they just aren't quite ready for that.
- Yeah. Thank you. Yeah
- It could apply to school board members. It could apply to a lot of adults around here as well, yes.
- That could be in our next teacher negotiations, Mrs. Abel. Moved and seconded. Any further discussion?
- All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. And now we're on to the county services report.
- And then we have Susan Chalkman here.
- All right, so I was thinking that the best way, what you have in front of you is just our current year,
- but as I'm delving into this and getting more familiar with the Kelly services or Kelly education, I
- thought the best way was to present just a concise review of the last year, and then it also has a few
- other details in there.
- So that just as a reminder at Kelly education provides our substitute teachers the one piece that I
- wanted to highlight on that circle was that orientation and onboarding and as you well know after the
- last couple of months of approvals.
- on the personnel reports and the hirings and the resignations and all that. I'm not sure that we could
- have onboarded anybody else this summer. I'm not sure there were enough hours in the day. And so to
- have Kelly Services there doing the orientation and onboarding and training was very helpful.
- They recruit for us. We have them up on our website. In addition, I wanted to highlight that they're
- going to be coming. We're bringing out some reps to the RBB Showcase this year because who better than
- to sub for our schools and the people that are interested in our district and our parents. And so if
- we can recruit some of those parents, if we can recruit some of the people that have interest in our
- school, those are the best people because they're going to be most committed to being here. So we're
- bringing them out.
- They get up at five 30 when the rest of us are crawling out of bed or whatever, exercising, maybe somebody's
- exercising, but they get up at five 30 and they start.
- having the phone calls. I was a secretary with Dirk for several years and I remember coming in and the
- moment I got there pushing buttons or making phone calls trying to get subs to come and fill a spot
- or can you just get here by 11? Can you just get here? And so it's great that we have people there.
- They're also sending out those school cancellation notices so we're not getting there. In the morning
- the secretaries can focus on other priorities other than coming in and
- trying to call substitute teachers and getting classrooms filled. Again, one of the main things that
- I wanted to point out on this page, these are all the things they do, the legal and compliance. I was
- at the in-person seminar, the Indiana Public Retirement System, and they were talking about some of
- the, when it comes to TERF and substitute teachers, if they
- Sub for 60 days and 60 days here or 120 days and counting and all these things and when we're when we
- need to Provide turf benefits for them with Kelly services. We don't have to do that counting they take
- care of that and so That's one less detail along with all of the other details. They take care of Another
- thing with benefits and administration on that bottom right corner there. That's that's one of the
- key factors for their recruiting. We have people and substitute teachers that are coming in and they
- need benefits, and Kelly Services provides an option for that. If they came through our school, we may
- not have that option for them, but when they go through Kelly Services, they do have an option to get
- some benefits that maybe they can't get from somewhere else. So there's that. Just an overall view,
- we averaged about 19 daily requests in the past school year.
- That was a total of 2,825 assignments that were filled at a fill rate of 83%, about 83%. Also note that
- over the last year that increased 5.39%.
- Over the last five years, they've maintained an average fill rate of about 72%, which if you look at
- that very first year was 2020, 2021, and that was a tough year for anybody to fill substitute teachers.
- So if you consider the fill rate even in that year, that's a pretty good average there of filling classrooms
- so that we're not doubling up or sending kids to study hall or sending them to a conference room in
- the office for a teacher to manage there or something.
- The reports that you have in front of you, you have the monthly report for August, and you can see that
- they had 82 in the current sub poll at that point, and they had some candidates that were in the onboarding
- process, and there was 87% fill rate in August. September, that number dropped just a little bit to
- 76%, but the number of subs is increasing. They then had 89.
- went one too far. And then lastly I wanted to just to give you a reminder of the the rates and what
- we pay for our substitute teachers and what was approved like last November 2024. So I know that that
- long-term teacher rate I gave that to someone today as an incentive of hey this is how much they're
- going to make they have a
- They have a teaching license, and this is how much they're going to make if they can come and fill this
- so that we can have a solid teacher in the classroom and the kids don't have a disruption in their learning.
- Any questions? Thank you. No, glad to. He does an awesome job of managing, well, everything related to HR.
- I like to compliment people, you know, as we've taken on different roles here in the office. I just
- appreciate the conversations I have with Susan. She will come into my office with a question on an applicant
- and she'll present me all the facts.
- and we have a conversation about what decision we ought to make and 99% of the time we come to an agreement
- on that. And I was just thinking about it today that when she comes into my office and it just really
- helps me as superintendent to have somebody like that who can make sure that we're successful.
- Thank you. Now we have the business manager's report. Paul, you're back up. And with this, we will consider
- to approve the resolution for additional appropriations for which we had the public hearing earlier
- in the meeting. My report is really about this additional appropriation resolution.
- It's interesting when you have the hearing the same night as you have the resolution. But when I looked
- at the website, their example is the same day. And when you think about it, it does make some sense
- because you've had the hearing. You had it earlier. No one spoke to it, but even if they did, it was
- their opportunity to do that. Now you come back to the resolution and pass it. The real advantage to that is
- We don't have to wait till the November meeting to pass it and then try to get it into the state and
- okay cleared before the end of the year. That's the key. So the DLGF appreciates the fact that we're
- doing this as quick as we can. So this additional appropriation resolution is typical of resolutions.
- The whereas and the whereas and the whereas. I won't read it all, but that's what it says.
- The funds that we are doing an additional appropriation in. One, the education fund, and we've asked
- for $600,000. And the rainy day fund, we've asked for $600,000 because we really don't have a rainy
- day budget. That was not included in the 2025 budgets. It just didn't do it, which is fine. So we're
- going to request an amount there in case we want to spend that in certain areas in that.
- But that was what was advertised. That's what the hearing was about earlier. And so I'd ask you now
- to pass this additional resolution and we can get this thing on down the road to the DLGF tomorrow.
- I'll second. Okay, moved and seconded. Any discussion? All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion
- carried. Thank you very much.
- And now we have the assistant superintendent's report I believe last time we celebrated EJHS turned
- everything in for their HRS level one certification EIS joins them in the last week two weeks mr. Scholl
- finished up EIS and we're waiting to hear back
- He made his goal of before fall break. Yes, EHS, I believe we have submitted as well. So we are just
- waiting to hear back from our evaluators at Marzano. And the final check off there will be Dr. Marzano
- himself, who will read all of our submitted documents and let us know if we are hitting the mark in
- terms of meeting those level one criterion.
- You'll also see on here just some fun updates. Susan Harrington, she's our college career coach at EHS.
- She received some funds through ROI and has been taking our EHS students on several college industry
- tours. The list just continues to grow every time she sends it out to teachers. And they're taking a
- trip to IU Health this Friday. So where we were so impressed by seeing their sim lab, I can't wait to
- see some of these kids' faces when they see
- a sim lab and opportunities for them there. They have visited IU DePaul. We had to sneak in a visit
- to ISU for all of us Sycamore people in the room. They've also gone to the Skilled Trade Showcase down
- in Bedford. And in addition to that, they have a trip coming up next Friday to Boston Scientific. So
- all of this has been paid through ROI, transportation.
- It's not something that we're going to get too used to because we know that we're kind of getting spoiled
- with that money right now. But man, it has been a great opportunity for our students to be able to go
- and see some of these campuses and also these industry partners.
- We're writing another mental health grant with Indiana University. The focus for this grant is being
- proactive in terms of EECC all the way up through second grade. The focus here is school psychologists.
- One of the things I do want to mention and make sure that I highlight is that there are no sustainability
- requirements in this grant. So basically what it means is
- At the end of this grant, we are not required. We are not bound to anything to hire these employees.
- Would we like to? When we see positive results, always. But we also understand that sometimes that just
- isn't in the budget to be able to do those things. So we don't want to look a gift horse in the mouth
- in case we are lucky enough to attain this grant. It's roughly $3 to $4 million over the course of four
- years. And when we're looking at really servicing our youngest kids
- in the district, we do think that that would make a significant impact there. So these school psychologists
- would be focusing on interventions. We're not looking at evaluation, which is what people typically
- think of for a school psychologist. And in addition to that, our schools, just like they typically are,
- would become training sites for practicum students, intern students from IU to come over. We found that
- those students have been highly trained and highly effective with our students.
- So we'll see what happens. It's due next week, and we usually hear on these grants sometime around January,
- February. So really just kind of keeping you in the loop with this one and what that's going to look
- like. Upcoming items.
- We are finishing up the iLearn checkpoints. This is the very first one that we give. We give this in
- grades three through eight in reading and math. The way to think about this is these are kind of like
- the regular season games. There are three of them throughout the year before we take the championship
- tournament on. That's your iLearn summative assessment that comes up in April every year.
- I really like the way that the state is redesigning this assessment as kind of a through assessment,
- through the year assessment, because it gives us a measure of how kids are doing before we get to a
- point kind of like the autopsy at the end of the year. So we're still working with our teachers. It's
- a training moment. It's a lot to take on. They can't actually give the checkpoint until they've taught
- the material. So before where we would shut down the building and we would give an
- I learned practice test or we would give an I ready exam. It looks very different now because what we
- do is maybe eighth grade math is ready to give their checkpoints over their first checkpoint over a
- couple of days. But eighth grade ELA might be for a couple more might not be for a couple more weeks.
- We're trying to make sure that we're waiting until we've taught all of that material so that the reports
- that we're getting back are accurate and they give us good data on what do the students know, what do
- they not know, so that we can use that to turn around and reteach those students and we have time to
- do that before we get to the end of that school year.
- So like I said, we are still trying to understand everything that comes along with this. We have a training
- coming up here in the next week or two with third grade through eighth grade representatives from each
- of those buildings and administrator from each of those buildings. It's not going to be an overnight
- piece that we're going to understand this and know how to work this from day one. It's probably going
- to take a year or two for us to really understand and use this type of test really well.
- In addition to that, the next checkpoint will be late first semester, early second semester. It's hard
- to give a good window there because, again, it really depends on when the teachers finish teaching the
- content so that we can determine the level of mastery that the students have after that.
- PSAT day is coming up October 29th at the high school. So that's a big day that we prep for there. What
- I love about what Edgewood High School does with PSAT day is their seniors actually use that day to
- go and visit a college, go and visit a community partner, see what they're doing in their jobs. And
- this staff there does a really good job of partnering students up if they don't have an idea about what
- they may want to do.
- But they have a plan for every single one of those students because they don't come to school on PSAT
- day And it's not just a free-for-all. It's not just to stay at home There's a plan of action for every
- single one of those students So I love the approach that they take to that and I think our seniors really
- appreciate that as well
- We have a group of 17 participants heading out to Denver. This is an HRS mental health conference, which
- might sound really odd. We've talked about HRS a lot. And it's usually associated with instruction.
- It's associated with culture and environment. Really what we're talking about here and why we're taking
- our SEL team out there is because we're going to not only introduce them to HRS so they fully understand
- what we're doing in the buildings,
- What does it mean to create a system and monitor a system? But day two is how do we make sure that our
- SEL team understands their part in that important piece of how our schools operate? Some of it they're
- probably going to be pretty familiar with. Our team is well-trained, so when it comes to brain science
- and things like that,
- This is going to be old hat to them. But I love that we are actually taking a team out there. And we
- are designing the conference specifically for our team. We are the only school that's going to be out
- there. And they are working with us to make sure that the content matches what we want our team to walk
- away with from this. So this is not something that
- Marzano does on a regular basis. We approached them with this idea and it was going to be cheaper for
- our district to do this and they were gung-ho about it. So we're excited about it as well. This team
- is actually going to go to Marzano's
- Oh, help me here, Dr. Sanders, the Marzano Institute for Research in Colorado. So they're going to be
- on site, get a tour of that site as well. So it's going to be a big one that we're excited to take that
- team to November 12th and 13th. And that is all being paid through those rollover funds through the
- SMART grant. We're trying to find good use of those. And we felt like this team, this is a good way
- to bring them into the other initiatives that we have going on across the district.
- we have the superintendent's report. Dr. Sanders. Sure. I'm going to give you a quick overview of our
- construction projects and this whole slideshow I'm going to send an email to you because there are details
- that I'm just going to
- go through a little quicker. But the early childhood center is complete and occupied as you know. And
- there's a couple of great pictures. I love this picture right here of the EECC. Everything's going very
- well there. And the students and parents love the school. And I'm gonna be referring to the showcase
- a number of times during this
- part of the report because we're trying to really highlight the new facility for our preschool and daycare
- students for our showcase. And that'll be one of the stops available Thursday night. And this is the
- view if you're inside the preschool, that's the view across the street, which is pretty cool.
- The other projects, the field house is coming right along. You could see now that we have signage on
- the outside of the field house and up in the upper left-hand corner, you'll see that if you go through,
- if you leave tonight and go around the field house, you'll see that sign all lit up and it looks just
- really, really amazing. And next,
- when you're at a football game, you're gonna be able to have a great view of the field house from our
- home side of the bleachers. Here's another view of that. Here are a couple of the slides I'm gonna go
- through. This is just some of the work over the last 60 days that if Martin was here, he would go probably
- in a little more detail with.
- about a lot of those things, I have no idea what you're talking about. So I'm just gonna go past some
- of those technical construction progress points. So this picture on the right side is not necessarily
- a picture of what you would see if you walked through there today, which I did.
- And right there in that picture, the red section there, they had to redo. But if you walk through there
- today, you'll see all that nice and clean, and there's flooring down that hallway. As you walk into
- the area, the field house and the natatorium area, you walk into that,
- there's some red, I don't know, clouds or whatever they call it from up in the ceiling that just really
- adds a nice touch to that. So at the showcase then, we're going to have this part of the field house
- open and also the inside. So on the left-hand side of the picture, you'll see
- The gray area, that is now, that's the track area, and it's now painted red. It's gonna get another
- coat Friday. So when you walk through there Thursday night, you might look down and say, well, this
- needs another coat, and it does. But,
- So we're going to have people come into that one entrance that I mentioned and walk down this side of
- the track. They're not going to walk on the actual basketball court. We're going to have some cones
- out there, but they'll be able to walk through one door and go clear to the other end and out the other
- door. And then they'll be able to walk down the hallway where the new kitchen is. You won't be able
- to go into the kitchen, but they'll be able to look and see
- what that's looking like and see how there are doors from the cafeteria that's going to go over to the
- kitchen and the serving lines and get a good picture of how it's going to look like. So the picture
- on the left, you see something missing? One of the Mustangs is there.
- But unfortunately they used the color that pretty much matched the wall. So they're going to come back
- and put a deeper color on that and make it stand out. But you'll swear there isn't a Mustang. But if
- you walk up real close, there is.
- So right now today, and I think we're gonna finish up tomorrow, the bleachers are being put together
- that will be on the opposite side of this picture here. Let's see here. It'll be over to your left.
- There'll be bleachers that will be movable in and out. And then they're finishing that up today.
- They're working on finishing up the flooring, painting that. And it's really coming along and I walked
- through there with Dale Flick this morning and he's gonna have it looking really nice for us Thursday
- night. And we're anxious to use it. We've already got dates booked in there. So we're really pushing
- them to finish up and they're working hard to do that.
- So as you know, we have some renovations done, some offices that we've been building next to the fax
- room. And so that will not be open to the public tomorrow night, but if you would like to take a look
- at it, just let me know.
- kitchen, they're finishing up installing the equipment for that. And so here's some pictures of the,
- the picture on the left is a conference room. That's going to be a nice size conference room for high
- school staff to use for like special education conferences, meeting with parents, a small group of teachers
- being able to use that room.
- The picture on the right is the entrance into that area where the new bookstore will be. That window
- there will be the window into the bookstore. This is the kitchen. And like I said, these are kind of
- little updated pictures because it looks a lot better in there today. The equipment is more in place
- and you'll be able to get a good picture of that Thursday night.
- Um, so we're, we're on the home stretch, uh, uh, of these, uh, projects, uh, at the field house and
- the, uh, at the high school, the kitchen area. And, uh, as you know, the primary school and the intermediate
- school, those projects are, uh, complete, maybe a couple outline, uh, work that we're trying to catch
- up on. But, um,
- So I will send you this and you can see study those slides a little bit more on your own. So yeah, big
- news is a showcase is Thursday night and we have had a lot of people working really hard to be ready
- for that. I think
- I don't want to jinx this, but I think we're going to have good weather Thursday night. There's going
- to be so much to do, people won't be able to do it all. There's going to be a lot of activities in the
- high school gym. Of course, our show choirs will be performing. Our theater group will be doing a snippet
- of their upcoming play.
- And we'll have the health fair at the junior high PTOs will be all over the place will be activities
- at every school to do Thursday night and we're trying to get the word out to get.
- Definitely want to get our parents from the elementary and preschool ages to come up and see what they
- could do at the junior high and high school. But I'm also I was on the radio not too long ago and I
- really invited the whole community so people in the community could see that our tax dollars are being
- well spent for the benefit of our students. And so it'll be a really fun night.
- Also chamber commerce educator of the year I don't I don't really don't know if I'm jumping the gun
- here, but I'm just gonna do it Danielle Butler kindergarten teacher at EPS is Going to be the educator
- of the year and that will be November 28th at 6 o'clock I have that date right Jennifer don't I Know
- it's next week. It's next week. It's a
- It's October. Oh, did I get that? Did I hear you wrong? We were just talking about it. It's October
- 28th. October 28th. Yes, October 28th. This is what happens when we yell back and forth as we're sitting
- at our desks.
- weird it happens at home too. I'll blame it on my hearing aids. I heard 28th but I thought you meant
- November. Okay so that makes sense. The Edgewood business leaders advisory team luncheon and meeting
- is November 19th at 1130 and so that's always a great opportunity to connect our local business leaders
- with our students and looking forward to that and then I
- I hear our enrollment numbers for the fall of 2025. And as you can see, we're 2,690 students. And so
- that's 15 more than last fall. And I'd just love to see that positive trend from fall of 2018 to fall of 2025.
- You know, we shouldn't take that for granted because 80% of school corporations in the state of Indiana
- are in declining enrollment. And it's nice to see that Edgewoods is increasing. And a couple other things
- I want to shout out to our marching Mustangs. They're going to be in the Bands of America this coming
- weekend. And then the next weekend is semi-state. So we want to wish them the very best of luck.
- And our football team plays at Scottsburg Friday night. And I lived in Scottsburg. I was telling my
- wife, I really want to go to that because we used to live down by Scottsburg. But that was like 1982.
- And she kind of thought maybe those folks wouldn't be at the football games.
- I think like around here, it wouldn't look the same. No. At all. Okay, thank you very much. Now we have
- RBBEA comments and we have Brandy Abel. This evening? Still. Still. No, yes. Keep it brief. Well,
- as you know, we ratified the contract before break. And then last month, Ty and I addressed the new
- updates with the tag grant and since then Jennifer Barrett and Megan Scott took time to create a proposal
- that they have they shared with all teachers starting with members and and there was just a lot of
- opportunities for teachers to discuss and give input, and I just, you know, speaking for myself, but
- I just feel like there was a sense of, you know, a lot of communication between both parties of finding
- a way to, they've proposed a plan that meets the criteria the state has given, but giving opportunities
- to everyone to apply on a rotating basis. This plan
- It appears to be one of the first because I'm in contact with Monroe County's association president
- and she requested a copy of that, which I was given permission along with Christie Billings, our director,
- also wanted to see the copy. So really kind of the first
- document in writing of possibilities for this grant. So right before break, there was a vote. We were
- given a vote of whether or not we approved of this proposal or needed changes. And those results are
- forthcomings, and next steps are forthcoming. But again, I just feel like there was a lot of
- good communication between administration and teachers. And so we'll see where that takes us. That's
- all I have tonight.
- I love to hear good communication. Luckily, I hear that a lot around here, so that's great. So we have
- board member comments, and we'll start with Ms. Jacobs. Well, I'm really excited about all the happenings
- that's going on across our corporation. I love seeing the improvements across
- across the board, across all the schools. And it's just super exciting when you come here and you get
- to see the students every time to talk about their skills and stuff that they're learning and growing
- into young adults. It just really hits you in the heart, in the right place. And it makes everything
- that we do worth every moment.
- Thank you. Sam Jones, what a great young man. Seen him mature over the last few years and what a great
- asset he is to us. Good luck to the football team and thank you so much for your leadership.
- All you here, I'm including that Jennifer, Jerry and everybody here. Thank you much for your leadership.
- It shows what things we're doing and things are happening here. Thank you so much. Mr. Demos. Yeah,
- just to echo what they're saying. I think the group that was here
- reflects the positivity in the school corporation as a whole. I was so impressed with them. I got the
- opportunity to go on one of Susan Harrington's field trips today to IU, and I couldn't have been more
- proud. There were 74 juniors and seniors, and they just represented Edgewood High School really well.
- It just made me proud as a board member, but also as a former teacher to see the improvement over time,
- and I credit the administration as you did. And Brandy, I'll tell you that I do.
- I understand what you're going through, and at the same time, I had, when we talked about negotiations,
- I had one colleague, every time we'd open them, she said she didn't really care about anything except
- she wanted an afternoon pastry cart to come around to the classroom. So just consider that for the next
- time. She's no longer with us. She has retired. Thank you.
- As always, I appreciate everybody coming tonight. It's been a long evening, but we've got a lot of really
- great things done. I, too, just love it when the students come and they present what they're doing in
- our buildings and across the sports fields and across the community. We do have a great group of people.
- When I talk to other people about RBB, a lot of what I talk about is the culture. That we've got a good
- culture, we've got good people. We all want what's best for the kids, for the community, and we just
- work to that end. People are surprised at how well our school board gets along. But I'm not, because
- they're great people. So I appreciate.
- you all and I appreciate Katz and his long evening and thank you all very much and have a wonderful night.