- Pledge of Allegiance. Pledge of Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic
- from which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you
- all very much. Please be seated. Please let the record reflect that Brad Cooker, Jamie Darder,
- Dana Perk, and Meredith Moss are present. This is a special meeting on the RPD school board.
- We have two agenda items. Are there any visitors here that would like to comment? No? Seeing none, we'll
- move straight to our first item, which is consideration to improve the 2025-2026 teachers' collective
- bargaining agreement. Dr. Sanders. Yes, we had, as you know, we had our required public hearing on October 21st.
- We went through the contract that night and I happened to mention how well I thought the bargaining
- went and I give a lot of credit to Brandy Abel for that because she did a lot of homework with everybody
- ahead of time and so it made it a lot easier when we got to the actual bargaining.
- I have before you the summary of the tentative agreement and for ECA guidelines. Basically what we agreed
- upon is that we're going to put together a committee. We're going to go through the ECA schedule and
- then make a decision on any changes that we might need to make and that we'll get all that finished
- by the end
- this year by the end of 2025, and so that we could make those changes retroactive to the beginning of
- the 25-26 school year. The second thing is we have in the contract that for a teacher who takes a day
- off before a break or right after a break that they are charged
- two paid leave days for every one that they take off. We added the phrase that if a teacher would lose
- only one paid leave day for every half day taken off. And that seems very fair and reasonable. And also
- we put a timeline on making those decisions and we're
- I don't know if we did. Have we sent out the job form yet to anybody, Jen? I am just waiting for it
- to be posted on the staff bookmarks. I've put a ticket into tech, and I keep checking it, but it's not
- there yet. So as soon as that's posted in staff bookmarks, I can send that out along with the new flyer
- that we have for the nurture and nourish stations for our moms coming back from maternity leave.
- Yeah. So that will enable us to, we'll get it well within a 10-day period. It'll probably be the same
- day now. The other thing is we added days to paid parental leave, moved that from five to 10 days. As
- far as salary goes, we agreed to not make any changes to the base salary for 25, 26 school year.
- Those teachers who are possessing an early literacy endorsement will receive a $200 base increase. And
- we also agreed that the teachers will receive a one-time stipend payment in the amount of $2,000. And
- the last page shows the pay dates for 25-26. I recommend your approval.
- Any questions? One quick question actually to Dr. Sanders. First of all, thanks to the Teachers Association
- and administration for getting started a little earlier this year because I know it's a little stressful
- for this group in here to get it done before Christmas, but when will this be paid before Christmas?
- I've been asked that by a few people. Yes, we are going to take care of
- a stipend for principals and support staff. We're going to ask the board to approve that at the November
- board meeting. So I would say we would pay out all these stipends at one time, which would be after
- Thanksgiving, early December. Okay. And what fund will this come out of? This will come out of our education
- fund? We have enough in there to support this, correct? Yes.
- So what is the early literacy endorsement? So teachers are now required to take, basically do additional
- professional development and to, I don't remember how many hours they have to do. It's 80 hours total
- and all of our teachers who have gone through OG training, so all of our K through
- Most of our fourth grade teachers all have received OG training, which is 25 hours. There's an additional
- component of that that's 55 more hours. The state does allow teachers, since they've made it a license
- requirement for anybody who's teaching literacy, or anybody really who's teaching in a K6 building,
- or in our case, K5, that they now
- have a free program, free meaning it's at no cost to the teacher, but it's still a time commitment.
- It's 80 hours. The state also has tried to help soften that blow a little bit by providing a stipend
- to teachers for completing their 80 hours. That stipend is $1,500, and they're offering it again, which
- is great. So teachers can go to
- the DOE website, sign up for the Keys to Literacy training. There's also a shortened Keys to Literacy
- training that's not 80 hours that complements what they've already done through our training here with
- OG and there's modules, science of reading modules. So there are different ways to get there, but ultimately
- short answer is 80 hours of professional development. Anybody who
- is graduating from college now will graduate and have that training already under their belt. So the
- endorsement that they would go back and take this praxis exam for, it's already included in
- their undergraduate work. Where the state is having us fill in that gap is anybody who's outside of
- that window. So anybody who's a practicing teacher.
- And they gave us some leeway there. So we do have until 2027. So some of our teachers went ahead and
- applied for their license early. So 24, 25. We even have some that are going to sneak it in in 2026.
- Because if they go ahead and get it now, it gives them another 5 to 10 years down the road before the
- literacy endorsement has to be added.
- We're not worried about that as a district because they have the minimum training that we're requiring,
- which is Orton-Gillingham, which we pay for as a district and we send them to during the day or we pay
- them a stipend for any type of out-of-school hours. So we will see more and more teachers who will fall
- under this literacy endorsement as they're taking that Praxis test and getting it added to their license.
- I think at this point in time we only have
- three or four, something like that, who this would affect. I think that we'll start seeing over the
- next, well, by 2027, we're going to start seeing those coming in, definitely on a more regular basis.
- So we'll see what that does. But this is a state requirement now. This is in state law that we have
- to add this to the base. It's not a stipend that we give to teachers each year. So as they're getting it,
- That's why that's being added in there and as part of the contract. Thank you. I do appreciate the hard
- work and administration and our teachers to come up with this. I will say is just my position. I am
- not a fan of stipends and not moving the grid. I understand it. I understand we've got some financial
- challenges that are coming down the road, so I understand it, but I don't particularly care for it.
- And I think we all agree with that. This is an opportunity for us to really put our school corporation
- in a better position financially next fall to increase the base and get back to what our usual practice is.
- considered a one-time effort to get us into a position where we can do exactly what you're saying. It's
- one of those things that next year they'll be starting off with the same pay that they started with
- this year, and if they get a $1,500 raise, they're still losing $500 from the previous year.
- So stipends can cause issues, so I just wanted to say my concern with that. Is there any other discussion?
- I did have a couple more, Dr. Sanders. One was, do you have the total amount that's coming out, the
- grand total that's coming from the education for these stipends, the total dollar amount? No,
- because we are, we would like to combine that with
- That's the work we want to do. We're working on today as far as considering stipends for administrators
- and support staff. And so when that's all done, I'll give you a full grand total. Okay, I want to make
- sure the teachers understand as I know there's been discussions about there's no. Not every teacher's
- eligible for a tag grant this year, so that's $500 off the table, correct?
- So that's not every that 25% of teachers will get it this year. And that's and we're still working on
- a plan for that. I just want to make sure that that's and we've been put in that position by legislature
- that we have to make these decisions. And I just hope that we're making good conversations back and
- forth because that's going to be hanging out there the rest of the school year. So and that also has
- an effect as Mr. Kerr said.
- what we do financially is what the legislature is kind of dictating what we're going to be doing too.
- So I do have some concerns about next year, but we have to see what the legislature, if they make any
- changes or not. We are, I think, better shaped because we have increased enrollment. We are in better
- shape than most school corporations in the state of Indiana. And because of the increase in housing
- in our community,
- And we do have a projection based on a demographic study of increased enrollment. So that will certainly
- help our financial situation. And as we've said many, many times over the years that we've made tough
- decisions in trying to do business better. And that was really the catalyst to going with the stipends.
- And we do value our teachers.
- Absolutely. From the bottom of our hearts, we value our teachers. And I tell my daughter all the time
- who is a teacher that it's much harder today to be a teacher than it was when I was teaching. And so
- we need to make sure that we continue to make good financial decisions so we can take care of our teachers.
- Any further discussion?
- All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Our next item is the agreement with Lancer
- Associates. Yes. So with our last set of construction projects, I think we've all been happy with the
- work that Lancer Associates, the architect, has provided us with a very
- beautiful looking, very well appreciated early childhood center. The field house is almost done, and
- they really help us to stay on top of things. And so as we're thinking about the next set of projects,
- we would like to continue that partnership with Lancer. The agreement that you have, that you were able
- to review,
- have for you is on phase one, which is replacing the roofs at all of our schools except for the Childhood
- Center. So it includes Edgewood High School, Edgewood Junior High School, the intermediate school and
- the primary school as part of this project will receive a new roof and also HVAC work at
- Edgewood High School and Edgewood Junior High School. And so we're paying Lancer for the services of
- design, the design and making sure that all the legal steps are taken in order to make sure that we
- get these projects designed appropriately out for bid and make sure that
- The projects are done according to the specs. And so this contract is for $580,600. And once again,
- this is only for the work on the roof and HVAC projects. Motion. I move approval.
- Discussion. I just I just want to add Mr. correct I did talk to the Lancer today after talking with
- Dr. Sanders and on page four of the agreement they creative engineering is subcontracted there is their
- use as consultants by Lancer but they're all part of that lump sum we're paying to it's not an extra
- charge which is my concern
- So they did, they did address that. And I know that creative engineering's helped us with some of our
- HVAC problems over the last year or so at the Boys and Girls Club. Do you have a ballpark of the HVAC
- and the ROOF projects? I'm just curious, you know, percent-wise, how it's compared with the overall
- project. Well, that, we would have an estimate,
- which I don't have in front of me right now, but. I think it's like a two and a half million. To the
- to combine rate 0.2 million, the roof, the roofs and age rock 8.2 million combined. Any other discussion?
- Very good. All those in favor say aye. Opposed?
- Motion carries. With that, is there any board member or administration who would like to give a closing
- comment? Seeing none, this meeting is adjourned.