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.