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 for all. Thank you all very much. Please
be seated. For those of you that may join our streaming service, we are starting a little bit late.
We had a work session.
If you wanted to see that, it will be posted, so you can go back and check that out. This is the regular
November 2023 Richland Beanblast and Community School Corporation Board of Trustees meeting. And please
let the record reflect that Mr. Tucker, Mr. Durnall, Mr. DeMoss, and Mr. Kerr are present this evening.
And were there any visitors who wanted to make comments this evening? No? Okay. Then we'll move straight
to the Mustang moment, and Dr. Sanders, take it away. Yes, you know, we have a lot to brag about tonight,
so I hope the people watching, they're gonna be on the edge of their couch throughout the evening, because
we have, just have great kids to celebrate, and you know, it's,
I enjoy going to the band competitions. What I try to do throughout the years, the season, is I don't
want to know what they're going to do at the state competition at the beginning of the season, because
I get so excited to see when they, oh, they added a new part, a new piece, and new costumes. I mean,
it's always changing.
And then when we get to the state competition, all year long, especially this year, I heard this is
the best performance that they've seen our band perform. And that's a band who has won several state
championships. And so we get down to the actual competition, and I'm sitting there now in the crowd,
and I'm watching each band perform, knowing how good our band is,
but watching all these other bands who are all pretty good themselves. And to think that we're going
to win another state championship, you still get nervous. You guys still get nervous? You know,
and each one, for me personally,
And I just get to go and enjoy. I don't do the hard work, but I get to go enjoy, but each one is more
special than the one before. So I'm gonna bring Dirk up, and he's gonna introduce our band director.
Yeah, it was, I told Aaron tonight, Aaron was our band director, of course.
at a meeting that I personally thought this was the best show, but Aaron, how many times have I said
I think this is the best show yet? I think I say that every year, so we actually have a special team,
and I'm gonna brag not only on Aaron, but also Derek. You gotta have somebody at the top, and I think
every, you know, you think about sports and you think about the great,
head coaches, and Aaron is a great head coach, but boy, he put a great supporting staff around himself.
Matt and, of course, Kurt at the junior high, and Derrick. Derrick's, the design of the show is mostly
Derrick, and Aaron can tell you that, but it's just really, they're a great team, and they get the most
out of students, incredibly so.
in the way they work with the kids is just outstanding. So it was another exciting year. The bonus is
one of my favorite rock groups of the 70 was ZZ Top. And we get a little bit of experience in Edgewood
High School of ZZ Top. So that's just kind of a bonus of it. But no, I just want to say I can't say
enough great things about the program, about the directors, and the team.
the camaraderie of the entire group and the parents. They couldn't do it without the parents. But just,
I commend them, I congratulate them and ask them to come up and talk a little bit about the show. They
didn't know I was gonna put them on the spot. Our goal as a staff when we go to create shows
Yes, we want it to be entertaining. Yes, we want it to be challenging. But we also want to have a lesson,
like a lesson or a theme that they learn every season. So this year was called Transient. And it's not
a homeless person. I had to correct Mr. Kaler. He's like, we're doing a show about unhoused people.
Like, no. But it's about everything is not permanent. Everything is fleeting. And especially when you're
younger and you think you're invincible and time moves.
It's it's not permanent and trying to express that to them and let them learn that lesson throughout
the course of the season You know the start of the season. It's it's a long seasons four and a half
five months of hard work It seems like forever at the beginning, but then you're crying at the end of
the season because oh my gosh it's over and teaching kids
that it's important to stop sometimes, take a step back, be reflective in the moment, and to enjoy the
experience, enjoy the camaraderie, enjoy being with each other because everything will move on.
And we, you know, our activities divided, segmented, every season is different. It's a different group
of people, it's a different team, a staff, like some of us old guys have been around forever.
But faces change, the vibe, the energy shifts from year to year, and to really take that into account
and enjoy the moment. And I think the kids especially resoundedly respond to that in a very big way
this year. And our success, I think I speak for Mr. Wells in this, is it's one thing to have student
buy-in, it's one thing to have parent buy-in, it's one thing to have administrative buy-in, but I think
the reason we
experience the success, it's not just the school board that we get support from, it's our entire community.
And stuff like this is special for Ellisville Richland Bean Blossom because the community is fully bought
in and we would not experience that success without you guys, the community, our administrators,
our students, our parents, and we could thank, you know, business partnerships we have, sponsorships,
We could talk for hours and hours of all the people we can thank, but I think for time-saving,
thank you. Like, it wouldn't happen literally without every single person in this community. Thanks,
next person. My twin brother, actually. So to kind of piggyback on that, I kind of know we've made it
big when Starbucks opened early for us at 4 o'clock in the morning to make coffee.
And when I heard that, I was like, it's gonna be a good day. So I was really sorry about all the people
that had to hear us play at 4.30 in the morning, but it turned out okay. Kind of what Derek said, one
of the things that I find really great, and I will say that and use it, is Saturday I got a chance to
go up and present to a room full of
music educators. And they all asked me, you know, I was at a table, and they all came around and asked
me questions. And one of the questions was, how are you so successful? And I said, well, you got to
have a Derek, and you got to have a Matt, and you've got to have a Kurt, and you got to have a Tim.
And they're like, well, how do we find those people? And I'm like, you just become friends with them,
like in your early 20s, and just hope that something great like this happens.
That's really what has happened. Derek and Kurt and Tim and Matt and I have been together forever. Just
the process of us being together forever, working here with Mr. Ackerman and being able to say, I have
a principal that I've worked with with 20 years. Almost didn't happen if Brad didn't decide that.
that one day, he's like, I don't want to work with this new band director, so I'm going to go sell insurance.
So I'm glad you went that route. It seemed like it worked out for everybody in the room. But it's been
a great 20 years building this thing. And to say that we've done it four times in a row now, let alone
just say we've done it once, is extremely impressive. And on behalf of myself, Mr. Kaler, who's right
now getting ready
fire up a great rendition of Hot Cross Buns at a sixth grade concert. He wished he could be here, but
on behalf of myself and the team, we'd like to tell everyone in here, and everyone who's watching, it's
great for us to bring it back, bring the state championship back for the school, but it's also great
to bring it back for the city and the town of Ellsville, because like that,
That's a lot, to see all the signs and all the people hanging out on the streets as we drive home and
get police escort to bring us back. And the kids, I think they're kind of like me. I don't think they've
really realized what they've done. It's been a week, and I'm still like, I was in Lucas Oil Saturday
going, hey, I remember I was here last week. What happened? I'm like, oh, yeah, that's right. And so
I wanted to just take a second on behalf of myself and the team, just say thank you. So thank you.
Yeah, well, he's right. We have a wonderful community, and that's what makes being a part of the school
system honestly so easy, because we're all here for the kids, we're all here for the community, and
so we just really appreciate those who hang around with us and stick with us and help take us to really
cool places.
Okay, we'll move to the consent agenda. Back to business. We have approval of minutes. On October 21st,
2025 was the collective bargaining public hearing. Then on October 21st, 2025 was our regular school
board meeting, which followed. And then October 29th, 2025 was our special meeting.
In financial, we have the treasure report in our packet for October of 2025. And Mr. Durnall, the claims
please. Thank you, sir. Present gross wages on October the 10th, 2025 for $880,298.75. Gross wages on
October 24th, 2025, $740,567.71 for a total of $1,620,866.45.
46 cents for vouchers October 1st to October 31st 1 million two hundred twenty thousand eight hundred
twenty four dollars and 42 cents for claims and vouchers for November the 18th for ninety nine hundred
forty nine thousand one hundred seventy six dollars and forty eight cents for a total of two million
one hundred seventy thousand dollars and ninety cents for a grand total of three million seven hundred
ninety thousand eight hundred sixty seven dollars and thirty six cents. Thank you, sir. Thank you
And we also have personnel resignations, retirements, non-renewals, leaves, and terminations, C-1 through
23, and personnel appointments and transfers, D-1 through 16. We are excited to report that we have
two donations. One is $100 to Ready Schools Initiative from Robert and Natalie Krueger?
I'm sorry? Okay, and sorry. And we also have supplies to Mrs. Truax's classroom from Donors Choose.
Do we have a motion on the consent agenda? I move approval of the consent agenda. I'll second. Moved
and seconded. Any discussion? All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries.
And next, there is one supplemental personnel report, and we'll turn to Dr. Sanders for that. Yes, this
is something that the board's familiar with. We do background checks on each and every employee that
we hire in the school corporation. And when we get those background checks back, if there's something
on there that we feel like the board needs to be aware of,
make sure that you know the situation, that you have a copy of the background check, and we're required
by law to hire that person through a supplemental personnel report such as this tonight, so. Do we have
a motion? I move approval of the supplemental personnel report. I second. Moved and seconded. Any discussion?
All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed?
motion carries. Now we have our construction report. And so Martin truth down and come up. Are you going
to go together? Okay. Rick just handed me this. Let me make sure I'm able to move through it. Okay.
This is our November school board meeting construction update.
We've got quite a few balls in the air right now. Dale did such a wonderful job getting the early childhood
center together on time. And we're trying to close out as well as we started on that. So I'll start
real quickly with early childhood. And I did that just because I love that picture. That's looking out
of the lunchroom at the early childhood.
Heather has done some punch on her own. She's gotten a list to Dale, which is real helpful. We're trying
to get all the punch list stuff closed out as quickly as possible. Again, I think she brought that in
maybe a week or two ago. So we'll get that incorporated.
And Dr. Sanders has admonished us that we need to move quickly with the punch, and so we're gonna do
everything we can to get that. The field house, right now we have finished the logo in mid-court in
the field house, and I've got a picture of that as we get in here. We're pushing to get that one done also,
Talk to the general trades contractor today. They've got the logo, then they've gotta put a color coat
in the three-point line. I think they've finished that. And then they've gotta put a couple clear coats
on it. A couple clear coats should be done by Thursday. We don't want anybody out there Thursday, but
by Monday it'll be,
Sad enough for people to be on not sure Rick that we want people in there at that time But as soon as
Dale's up in a tree right now In his tree stand trying to get some deer and he so said he'd bring me
some jerky so I let him do it But we're pushing on that we should have everything Rick's been
Jamming out there, getting the technology pieces and cameras. And I think you're coming pretty close
on all that stuff at this point. So I'm thinking next week is Thanksgiving. By the time we get back
from Thanksgiving, we ought to be able to let Dirk get in there. We think.
As far as the finishes on the floor and that type of thing, it'll be ready. It'll be usable as of Monday.
Yeah, next Monday. While I'm in there, I'll go ahead and I haven't been reading through these at the
board, so I'll let you guys take a look at it. It says started the logo. We've finished the logo.
Dr. Sanders, I think you looked at that and told Dale move forward with it. So we'll get that finished
up. Again, I'm not going to read all the individual things. There's your new casework, your storage
cabinets, the bleachers, which are on the west side of the gym. That's your red track. The red has some
modeling to it.
We're gonna go ahead and let you use it, some discoloration to it. We'll go ahead and let you use it
and then we'll come back probably at Christmas and put another coat of red down. But it's usable now.
There's your darker tone in your three-point line. There's the logo as it looked when Tanisha took pictures
a couple days ago.
That's been peeled off and Dr. Sanders, I think it's, I think it looks good. Looks good. Toilet rooms
for the field house are pretty well finished up. So I said complete gym floor logo, really what we've
got to do is complete the finishes and then turn over for use. And again, Rick's been pushing to get
his technology stuff together out there.
the Mustangs on the wall, the herd of Mustangs. Yes, one of them got much darker in the last, since
we met last. Yeah, looks good. High school renovations, we're working on phase nine drywall.
Like I say, Dale's up in a tree this week, so he's a little bit out of touch. Tanisha, my right-hand
person has been out here
taking care of the trailer and she'll be out here all this week. She feels pretty good about phase nine
being done the end of this week. We'll talk about that a little more as we get into the week. We did
get some furniture delivered and we're working around that right now. We've gotta get the flooring done.
Kitchen. Vicki's not here either tonight. Vicki met with the Board of Health. The Board of Health has
given their go ahead. We do have a glitch at the dishwasher machine, but the Board of Health said we
can use it using the three compartment sink for washing. I'm sure Vicki's not gonna wanna do that, but
we do already have the Board of Health approval on it.
That's been sent over to the town of Ellisville. The indication we got from them was as soon as they
got the Board of Health, we'd get the occupancy. So they got that I think yesterday. So we should have
our occupancy pretty soon. Rick's been also out there trying to get his point of sale and some other
things going. So I'm again hoping right after Thanksgiving we ought to be able to get that turned over.
This is your phase nine, the new conference room, which has two great east-facing windows in it. Tanisha
took a picture of the drywall, which I included. I'm not really sure why. Here's your new kitchen, so
you can see it's substantially complete. There's still, I don't think it shows here, there's still a
front piece that needs to go on one of the stoves. There's a valve.
a pressure-reducing valve for the stove, which should have gotten installed today. And there's, again,
as I said, there's actually a valve in the dishwasher. They have the valve, we gotta get it installed.
Oh. Okay, thank you.
It's a nice big space. I was back in the kitchen. I couldn't figure out where I was. No, we didn't have
the conference room in the kitchen. So phase nine, we've got to finish it and turn it over for use.
We've got to complete the kitchen turnover for use. We are ready. We've got our general contractor ready
to start doing demo.
on the old kitchen, but we wanna make sure Vicki's comfortable and has moved in and is comfortable serving
out of the new one. We had tentatively scheduled that for this coming Monday, but it will be pushed
back at least a week from that. Once we start the conversion, hopefully we'll knock that out in about
a month, converting the existing kitchen.
Primary school's complete. We have the lion's share of the punch list. There may be a couple things,
but we're honing in on those as hard as we can. Same thing with the intermediate school. It's complete
and in use. Early childhood center, the playground. You all approved that, the bids last meeting.
We've sent the contractor, the contractor, they have it, and they're starting to compile their submittals.
We did a pre-construction meeting out on site with the contractor and walked the site so they know what's
going on. We expect to see submittals before too long. The schedule for the playground is gonna be very
weather dependent. We've got a couple things that are going on there, the asphalt,
There's an asphalt track around the playground. We've gotta wait for the asphalt plants to be open.
And the other thing is the surfacing, the soft surface on the playground. I believe it's gotta be 40
and rising or something to that effect to install that. So we've got a couple weather-dependent things.
Again, I met with Crider and Crider as the contractor, and they indicated they'd like to get it going
as quick as they can.
Before they do anything we've got to fence it all in because we're right up against the existing playground
And I guess this is the stuff I just talked about the next 30 days Corporate wide roof replacement Arnold's
left to Arnold and Misha and Russ who's our our
Testing guy, he's doing cores and he's gonna moisture test it. Walked the roof three weeks ago. Russ
has been out, he's done cores. We actually core all the different areas to see what the existing construction
is. We need to know that for a couple reasons. One is are we running into any kind of issues that we
need to pick up?
The other is where we do demo, the contractor needs to know what he's demoing. All of the cores have
been done at the high school, junior high school and both elementary schools. We do need to do a thermal
scan at the high school. We're hoping that we'll get done in the next couple of days. I know Misha and
his guys are already working on that. They're getting the plans.
together. One thing we do need him to help us with is, or to put together, is the north area of the
high school, the large area on the north side, which is kind of discolored in the photograph,
is dead flat. And we're going to have to add some drains to it. And those drains are going to be interesting
to see how we do that.
So we completed the cores, started the moisture testing, and we're moving on the thermal scan. We also
need to verify the existing through wall flashings we do when we walked with Arnold. He pointed out
at the junior high school, the high bay, which is your gym, it leaks around the perimeter of the high
bay. That's usually a sign of water coming in through the brick.
and not getting properly flashed out before it can enter the building. So we've got some roofing to
do. We've also probably got some flashing to do. And our guy Russ is looking at that right now. We need
to get another estimate to you. And Misha right now and his crew are compiling the construction drawings.
We will probably come to you and we need to
Check this with Misha next month for a approval to send it to bid. And I think on your website, it doesn't
show a December board meeting, but I think it's a third Tuesday. Yeah, it'll be December 16th.
So I'll be here in four weeks to talk about getting your permission to go ahead and bid that. Went through
that quickly. That's what I've got for now. Again, we're going to push. And Rick's pushing us. And Rick's
got a lot going on as far as this technology to get the kitchen and the field house to you as quickly
as we can.
beating on the contractors for the punch as hard as we can. So that's where we are. Thank you very much.
Any questions? Any questions on it? Thanks so much. Thank you, Michael. Thank you, Victor, for coming
down. Thank you very much. Good report. Next is consideration to approve the classified end book update.
And we have Susan Charlie for that this evening. Hi. We typically don't put through classified handbook
updates until usually the spring, but there are a couple of things that we wanted to get on the agenda
or in the handbook. And so I took advantage of that to go ahead and gather some of the other pieces
that we had out there that were already approved, but not in the handbook and went ahead and added that
to that. And you can see those revisions there.
That first list in the newly proposed revisions would just be a title change for some of the child care
workers working that aren't actually latch key. The culinary skills specialist adding language to approve
11 paid leave days per year. And I did notice that I have a typo on the memo there for the part-time
central office assistant who's working 12 months out of the year. She doesn't earn
vacation days, but we would like to get her 12 paid leave days per year, so she has one day off per
month if she wanted to take that. So those are the revisions, and then they're all, you can see on the
following pages, the classified handbook, and they're highlighted there. Go ahead. Thank you. Do we
have a motion on the handbook? I move approval of the classified handbook updates. I second.
You can second. Any discussion?
All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Now it's consideration to approve stipends
for support staff and Dr. Sanders is going to lead us. Yes and if you remember this kind of really goes
back to bargaining with the teachers association and looking at where we are as a school corporation
financially.
and what can we do to reward people for their hard work but at the same time put ourselves in a good
position financially to give increases down the road in terms of for the teachers step on the salary
schedule or increase the base hourly increases.
We want to get ourselves into a position where we could do that. So starting with the teachers,
as you know, all the teachers will get a $2,000 one-time stipend. We're going to talk about the principals
in a minute. But really, we looked at all of our classified staff and wanted to give them a certain
percentage of what the teachers got.
as a one-time stipend for the 25-26 school year. And these stipends were established through a comprehensive
review process, which considered many factors, including each position's current rate of pay, whether
the person was full-time or part-time, number of days worked, their duties that were assigned,
whether their position required a licensing or certification. And in some cases, you know, we did look
at elevated certain stipends based on that reflected the nature and scope of that position's responsibilities
and duties. And we just then took just an overall look at it and said, and we looked at each position,
is this fair?
Is this appropriate? And so we share with the board what the, there's all the different positions that
are classified and the stipend that each person would get. The board was given that information. We're
gonna pay out all these stipends, the teachers, the administrators, classified staff,
in a special paycheck on November 28th. And so everybody would get that stipend all at one time. I'll
just go ahead and tell you the total cost. So for classified staff, stipend plus benefits, the total
amount was $107,971.54. The $2,000 stipend for teachers,
Plus benefits came to $438,141. And for administrators, they'll be getting the $2,000 stipend also,
similar to the teachers, plus benefits came to $39,831.
for overall total cost of $585,943.54. And this will, like I said before, the purpose of going the stipend
route this year is to put ourselves in a really good strong position financially to move forward in
giving increases like we traditionally have in the past.
I appreciate the long discussion that you and Susan I had going through how that that process worked
and I I really think that you guys did a very fair. You know you look at it and so I really appreciate
the time it took to to do that.
I appreciate that. And it's really a testament of how we're operating now in our office. Susan Shockley
has just been amazing. And she did a lot of that hard work. And then we had great conversations with
Debbie Tate and Jennifer Barrett, myself, and Paul. And it just took a very careful look at everything.
So thanks, Dana.
Nothing further. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Thank you. I hope they
all enjoy November 28th. Next is consideration to approve administrative contracts. Yes, so we chose
to go a contract. By the way, the teachers
They sign a status quo contract at the beginning of the school year. And since there wasn't an increase
in the base or nobody took a step, checking with Christine, the status quo contracts cover for this
year. Except if somebody moved a column,
based on getting their masters, specific situations like that, but most teachers will, the status quo
contract they signed at the beginning of the year, we'll cover for this year. The principals, we give
them a two-year contract, so we included the stipend in their contract and then extended their contract,
not only for 25, 26 school year, but 26, 27 school year, and so,
The administrators will be signing new contracts. It'll be for Dirk Ackerman, Jordan Key, Jenna Clark,
Kent Retsler, John Siglin, Andy Scholl, Katie Key, Matt Wooden, Elisa Van Dusen, Heather Kenzik,
Jerry Bland, Sam Jones, Noah Dixon, Megan Scott, Mariah Bruce, Jordan Truax, and Jennifer Barrett.
You had to have the total for the stipends for that. Yeah, that was, I mentioned that a minute ago.
Total for them was benefits and everything was $39,831. Perfect. Okay. Do I have a motion? Approval
of the administrative contracts. Yeah. I'll second. Seconded. Any discussion? Dr. Sanders, is every
minister now in the same contract, the two-year renewal?
So everybody, even the ones that started this year, this will start another one? Somebody was hired
to do a position to start this school year. Does that automatically kick in another year? No, it's this
year, 25, 26, and 26, 27. Okay. All right. Thank you. Anything further? All those in favor say aye. Aye.
Motion carries. And now we have consideration to approve the 2026-27 and 27-28 school calendars. Oh
my goodness. Time does fly. Dr. Sanders. Yeah, there's nothing earth shattering here. They're pretty
much the same calendar that we do every year. I'm asking you to approve the 26-27 as our official
calendar for next year. I'm asking you to approve the 27-28 calendar as tentative because IU has not
released their spring, 2028 spring break dates yet, so I put them where they normally would be, but
because there could be a change, I'm calling that as a tentative contract.
and it's been reviewed by the teachers association and our principles. I move approval of the school
calendar. I'll second. Any discussion? I do notice that we are cutting back to the, on the teacher work
days. Yes. Which is kind of a step backwards, but I understand why. Yes.
Thank you for bringing that up, Larry, because I meant to mention that. Yeah, we moved up to 185 days,
and I thought that was a really good thing for us to do for our teachers. But with the course of state
coming in and causing us some financial issues, we're looking for ways to cut back on our expenses.
And so that'll save going from 185
to 183 will save us $130,000 a year. So they get two more days off, but they lose those days in pay.
Yeah, we added those as work days just because, you know, everybody knows how hard teachers work and
how if you're a teacher, you just know you're working evenings, weekends,
What's that? Part of the summer and part of the summer. And it was kind of my goal to try to address
that. I'm disappointed that we're to this point, but it just seemed like a way that we could reduce
some expenses without hurting people too much. Okay. Receive that waiver.
That does help with that a little bit. When we went to 185 days, that was before we started using the
waiver for flex days. It's still not ideal. Having both was the best case scenario there. But having
those days built in through the year for teachers to be able to receive professional development, work
in their PLCs, curriculum development, things like that, we still have those built in. Unfortunately,
it's just not the two extra that are usually
beginning and some of those other things. And we also extended delayed start Wednesdays to an hour.
Yeah. Okay. Moved and seconded. Any further discussion? All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion
carries. Now we're on to Surplusing Used Monitors and we have our tech director Rick Broughton.
So this evening, I brought to you the request to surplus about 50 monitors. This is what we counted.
They are part of our capital replacement of computers for this staff. And we usually just put them in
the recycle bin and send them off to be recycled. But there is a fee to that that's $10 per monitor.
I'm sort of trying to offset it a little bit this time. When it's one or two, not a big deal, but when
you're looking
50 monitors, that's a pretty hefty bill, so I was gonna try to put them on our government surplus site,
try to get some money out of them, let someone else come and pick them up, get them out of our hair,
and this'll be in two different lots because we haven't completed our process, but lot one is ready
to go, matter of fact, I want it out of my office, and then lot two will come as soon as we get the
other installation completed, but I figured I could just come to you with the total number of what we're trying
So I'm just asking for your permission to surplus 50 old used monitors. I move approval of the surplusing
of the used monitors. Move in second. Any discussion? I'm just kind of surprised we have that many monitors
still floating around. There's more if we just haven't for the others yet. I know. I guess I do see
them occasionally. It's almost all laptops now.
Okay. Nothing further. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Thank you.
Thank you. And now we will have a public hearing on additional appropriations and I'll turn that over
to Paul Federer to get us started. I could say I'm back. I think we did this a month ago and if you
recall it was
I believe 600,000, and I want to spend a little time as to why we're doing this. This is unusual to
do it a second time. But part of the problem here is that I'm not here. And that's been a little bit
difficult in this process. When you look at your cash flow, if you find it for just a second,
If you look down in the lower right-hand corner, where in the second to the last line it says remaining
appropriation, and there's a $226,000 figure there, clear on the right-hand side, that's 1% of your
budget. That's how much appropriation you have left at this point in time. That is too close for comfort.
What typically happens when you get into November and especially December, somebody forgot to submit
an invoice, whatever, and you spend a little more money in December than you anticipated, that might
not cover it. My best guess is we'll be okay, but it's too close to call.
And I don't want to get into December and have to start picking and choosing what bills we pay because
we don't have the appropriation. So we advertised back on the 5th of November, we gave a notice to the
paper like we did a month ago that we were going to add an additional $650,000 to this appropriation.
So this is the resolution you'll sign tonight if you approve it.
And we've done all that. We've waited the 10 days. So this is the evening that we would have the public
have a chance to ask questions about it if there are any questions. And I can address that with people.
And then after that, we'll have the resolution and pass it. My apologies for doing it twice. I didn't
plan on that. Never have done that.
But at the same time, I've never worked one day a week. So that's kind of where I'm at with it. And
it'll work. You have the money. This is just a process of getting more. I think I told you a month ago,
your budget really was too small. When you looked at $23 million in revenue and a budget of $20 million,
that's easily a million and a half too short.
And had it been up there at 21 million someplace in there, we wouldn't be doing this at all. So that's
kind of why we're here. Okay. After that explanation, I will open the public hearing on additional
appropriations. Is there anyone who would like to comment at this time? Hearing none, I will close the
public hearing on appropriations.
And so our next item would be to approve the additional appropriation resolution. Okay, this resolution
I do want to read to you. I think that's proper. Whereas the proper officers of the ritual and being
blossom Community School Corporation.
of Monroe County, Indiana, have determined that it is now necessary to appropriate more money for the
calendar year 2025 than the amount that was fixed by the Richland Bean Blossom Community School Corporation
and finally determined in the annual budget under Indiana Code 6-1.1. Whereas notice was duly given
to the public in accordance with that,
for a public hearing on the proposed additional appropriation, and a public hearing was held on November
18th, 2025, by RBB. Therefore, be it resolved by the Richland Beanblossom Community School Corporation
of Monroe County, Indiana, that a need now exists for an additional appropriation out of the following
funds and for the purposes specified, subject to laws governing the same. So, it's coming from the Education Fund,
It is 650,000. We may have 650,000 left at the end of the year. That's OK. There's another advantage
to that. Now you can encumber some of that into 2026. OK. I move approval of the resolution for the
additional appropriation. I'll second. Move it. Second. Any discussion? Thank you so much for the thorough
explanation of that. We really appreciate it.
So all in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Now we move on to the business manager's report.
Back to the cash flows. I don't have a lot to say about that. I think that going forward, you know the
appropriation problem, just pointed that out. The other problem is on the right-hand side of that.
that education fund down toward the bottom where you see the 500, I think it's 80,000. Don't have my
reading glass. 560. 560,000, that's in the hole. That means you've spent half a million more than we
took in. So that's the problem here. That's the problem going forward. That gets into this two days
you just took away because we've got to find half a million dollars.
That's what we've got to do. And I think we can do that. We've talked about it. We've met. We're going
to talk again. But once we get that done, this will rectify itself next year, and that number will be
zero. Anything further? Any questions for Paul? OK. And now we move on to the assistant superintendent's report.
The first flex day we had was a huge success. We have parent teacher conferences at EPS and EIS. I think
I heard Mr. Shoal say in a meeting something around 95% attendance. I'm not sure from EPS. I'm not gonna
put Alisa on the spot right now.
But that is phenomenal. I'm sure that it's right up there at EPS as well. I think it just goes to show
that our families are so invested in our students and their well-being, their success. So a great day
for EPS and EIS to be able to have those conferences.
In addition to that, we had what's called SIOP training for teachers with multi-language learners at
EJHS and EHS. We now have close to 40 students in our district who English is not the first language
in their home. And so that can present challenges in the classroom, especially for those students who
do not read, write, or
verbally comprehend English, and we have students at that level across the entire district. So we're
working with teachers just like we would if they have special education students, they have high ability
students, a special population of students. We're working with those teachers to provide additional
tools to help them help our students who come from those multi-language homes to be successful. In addition
to that, our administrators at EJHS
as well as our instructional coaches, our coordinators there, planned ghost rounds, and that's where
our teachers went around throughout the building. They were observing other classrooms, what was happening,
not necessarily during instruction, but just the environment that they saw. And then at EHS,
It was a phenomenal day of learning there. They were instructional mini-lessons based around our NASOT
elements, our new art and science of teaching instructional framework. Many of our teachers from EHS
actually put on mini-lessons that day for other teachers, so teachers teaching teachers, which is exactly
what we want to see. So just an awesome day all around. And we even had a comment, and I'm not proud
of this by any means,
but I will tell you just how busy we kept the teachers is that the high school teachers said, could
we get more than 20 minutes for lunch on that day? So Jordan's back there shaking his head. That was
the biggest negative that we had was we filled that day so full and a lot of really great compliments
as well. So we will make sure next time that we get those lunches in there because we obviously went
overboard on our planning. But a lot of great
great feedback from our teachers that day for sure. This is one that I've been excited. We met with
the high school earlier this week for their monthly HRS meeting, and Dirk and Amy Winkler had just sent
out some PSAT scores. The kids actually just took this test, 9th, 10th, and 11th graders in October.
I want you to see the 9th graders over the last three years.
There is a lot to be excited about here. We've talked a lot about work that we're putting in at K through
eight. We've talked a lot about our issues five through eight in math and where we're seeing deficiencies.
What I want you to see here is that our ninth graders for the past three years have increased these
percentages across the board. I will say there's one little dip there from 24 to 25 with our English
reading and writing benchmark.
But I am not concerned about that at all, considering that we are 10% above the state average. So a
tiny little drop there, but like I said, nothing that's concerning.
What I want you to see is the number of students, the percentage of students who have met both benchmarks
has climbed 10% in two years. In addition to that, when we look at math, which is an area that we're
really focusing on in those upper grades, five through eight, it's exciting to see a 9% growth. And
we are finally above the state average for our ninth graders in math. ELA continues to knock it out
of the water and just climbs. So this is all good news.
is telling us that we are heading in the right direction. We're constantly looking at these different
data points to see if they are giving us the same information, and this is confirmation for us that
the changes that we are making, the work that we're putting in is heading in the right direction. So
I wanted you guys to see this because it's a big celebration across our district. We don't often get
to see high school scores other than maybe SATs, which are also positive AP scores
things like that. But this was a big one for us. So we'll keep diving deeper into this. And I know that
I talked to Mr. Rentschler earlier. He's going to share this with the junior high teachers because this
is a celebration of their work as well. So not just our high school team.
Down below, some upcoming items. We are taking another team out to the Marzano HRS Summit. This is January
11th through the 14th, I should say 2026. I'm not used to writing that yet, so forgive that error there.
We are taking seven EIS staff members and seven EJHS staff members. It's their turn to go this year.
While they're out there,
They will be receiving some good news, which I will not spoil that. That's on Dr. Sanders' report tonight.
We also have the teacher appreciation grant. The TAG teacher committee is meeting this Friday to create
the application and determine next steps. So Megan Scott is leading the charge with that team. And again,
our goal with that is for the teachers to take the lead on that. So she's kind of guiding that work
and helping them determine what some of those decisions should be. And they're really leading the work
as far as making sure that the decisions they make are in the best interest of the teachers
So we're excited to see what comes out of that meeting. And then we also have the teacher appraisal
plan that will be coming to you in December for approval.
It's not normal for us to bring the TAP plan to you in December. We've been waiting patiently for the
state to give us some guidance as far as when it is due, when we need to submit to them. We are still
waiting patiently. The state still has not asked for our teacher appraisal plan, our evaluation. So
we're not waiting on the state anymore. We'll be getting that group together here before the end of
this second semester, one day after school. There are not big changes to the
the teacher side of things, but we have updated all of the rubrics. And by we, I should say Megan Scott,
I can take zero credit for any of that. Megan has worked hours upon hours on this. She has updated every
single rubric that we have across the district that is not a teacher rubric. So school counselors, school
psychologists, literacy coaches, any role that is outside of a teacher, we now have a rubric that is
aligned to their professional standards and also
is aligned with what we created with the teachers in terms of reflection, growth, development, so that
every single person across our district, no matter what their certificate might be, and we'll follow
the same guidelines for evaluation. So it's a big step forward for our district. We're excited about
that. So I'll bring that to you in December, highlight some of those areas. I'll send it to you before
then so you guys can review that as well. It's a pretty large document.
our teachers will meet prior to that, provide any other feedback that they may have, but like I said,
not many changes there for the teachers and everything seems to be going pretty well this semester,
more smoothly than it did on year one rollout, which is what you anticipate and hope for. So that's
it for my side. Thank you.
did want to implement a new rule that if meetings went beyond two hours, that the superintendent's report
would be cut. But we did have a 10-minute break, so he squeaked in with under a minute. So we will talk
about that. So we'll go to the superintendent's report. Well, sure. You don't want to miss this.
You know, we are all obviously very proud of our school corporation. But we're not just blowing smoke.
There is some clear,
indicators of how much of a quality school corporation we have. One of them, we heard a report tonight
about the marching band, not just a one-time state champion, but five-time, unheard of. I got the pleasure
last night of attending the Lilly Scholarship finalist recognition at Fountain Square over in Bloomington.
and got to spend some time with three just wonderful young ladies, Bella Carson, Haley Patel, and Eliana
Vagadis. And it was really a lot of fun. They had this little activity for the students. And I'll show
the board sometime. But you kind of stood on this little pedestal, and they had this camera go around.
and you could put props on. And I was so honored that came over and got me, invited me to be part of
that. And got to sit beside Haley and meet her parents. And so they are our Lilly Scholarship finalists.
And so hopefully very soon we'll find out if one of our students actually receives the Lilly Scholarship.
and we're looking for good news on that, just special girls. If you haven't been to the Little Mermaid
performance at the high school, it's just fabulous in every way. The students are talented, the stage,
the props are just, costumes are just magnificent and I know a lot of work goes into that and I just wanna
If anybody's watching live and you haven't got your ticket, Friday and Saturday night, we're gonna go
see it again. This Friday night, see a whole different group of students. So looking forward to that.
And then as you know, we've been working very hard in our school corporation last few years on high
reliability schools. And we talked about
the idea of earning certification at these different levels. And it was just kind of like a dream, a
vision that we had. Well, that vision's turning into reality because three of our schools
have earned their certification for level one. Edgewood High School, Edgewood Junior High School, and
Edgewood Intermediate School. Edgewood Primary School is not far behind. And we said from day one that
as each school works through these different levels of certification,
Don't be surprised if they're at different stages They're all tackling their own needs their own Vision
for their school their school and what they want to do in the future And so each school is given permission
to work at their own level of course EPS had a
brand new principal and assistant principal this year. And so they're not far behind. We were meeting
over there today and they're just about ready to get their certification. So we'll be honoring those
three schools, the high school, the junior high, and the intermediate school in Texas in January. Tomorrow
is our next Edgewood Business Leaders Advisory Lunch-In Meeting.
At 1130 right here in this room, if you have some time to stop by board, please do so. We'll have plenty
of food and we'll have obviously a standard every business leaders luncheon and meeting. It's standard
we have some great students who give great presentations, so please come out that
come out to that tomorrow. And then tis the season is coming up on December 13th and 14th. And so I
think tickets might go on sale tomorrow or very soon. So be on the lookout for that. And I hear the
12 panes of Christmas is making a return to the high school auditorium. And so I'm getting my jokes ready.
So if you have any good suggestions for a dad joke, pass them my way. And I'm excited to get started
on the winter sports season and our athletic teams have just been just knocking it out of the park.
And so looking forward to a great season. And board, if you have time afterwards and if you don't, that's
okay. But if you have time, we'll take you over to the field house and the kitchen.
and take a look at it yourself. Thank you. Seeing that the 12 panes of Christmas will be back, I would
suggest to Principal Ackerman that he gets Pepto-Bismol before the show. Maybe he'll be able to fulfill
a little bit better. Oh, you are? Yeah, I am.
Okay, and now we have RBBEA comments and we have Brandy Abel here tonight. Good evening. I just wanted
to start by saying just wishing
my best to Sarah Mobley. She's been a close colleague and friend for a long time, and I know she's going
to continue to do great things in our profession. Sad to see her go. And then kudos to Megan Scott.
We really appreciate the changes she's made to the teacher appraisal plan, the rubrics, just much more
user friendly. And then again, the continuous communication she provides going along with TAG. So thanks
to Megan for that. And then finally, just in response to the calendar, that discussion, we did requests
because again, those work days are utilized and well spent just for administration to continue to consider
how they structure that first day of school, thinking ahead to things that could be held off later to
provide teachers just that time to get ready before that first day of school. So I'm sure there will
be continued discussion on that. That's all I have. Thank you. And so board member Cummings, we'll start
with Mr. Durnall. Thank you, sir. Just congratulations to the band again. Fantastic. Five time, four
time straight. Unbelievable.
Yeah, I'm excited about the basketball, girls and boys, and boys and girls wrestling, gymnastics, and
boys and girls swimming, diving. So I was just thinking, sitting here, listening to all this stuff.
In August of 2000, I came on the board and I was really excited about it. And I'm still excited now
in November of 2025. So I appreciate you all. Mr. DeMoss.
Just thinking about August 2000, it would have been a couple months after that that the Marching Mustangs
made their first appearance in the ISMA finals. And what they've done since then is truly remarkable,
yeah. I want to thank the folks for the donations. It's always appreciated. Yeah, the Marching Mustangs
are just incredible.
I'm excited about the level one HRS certification at EIS and the junior high and high school. I got
to see kind of how that works.
on the ground. I got to do two more field trips with our high school students, one to IU Health and
one to Boston Scientific. And I'm continually amazed by and so impressed and so proud of our students.
They present themselves so well and represent our school so well. And yeah, and as we go through the
change of seasons, both weather and sports seasons, and yeah, once the
band has gone to ISMA. Now they've got the winter percussion and all the other stuff there. It's nonstop,
but it's just so exciting and so fun. So that's all. Awesome. Mr. Harper. Again, kudos to the marching
band and the seniors at four straight years. That's amazing. And that anticipation, like Mr. Wells said,
when they're waiting for that last call, that's exciting for those kids. And especially for the freshmen
this year,
probably the first time they've been in Luke as well, which is pretty cool. So the excitement for those
kids. So thanks to the Teachers Association for working on the TAG grant. Hopefully that all can work
out well and the application process goes smoothly. And kudos to the three of the four schools thus
far getting the HRS level one. And I look forward to EPS coming up next on that. So thank you.
Thank you. I can only just.
echo what everybody else has said. But I wanted to focus today and say that I'm thankful for all of
you. I'm thankful for this board. I'm thankful for our administration. I'm thankful for our families
in this community and our students. And we've got so much to offer, and it's because
We all work together to get it done. And so I'm just very thankful for all of you, very thankful for
our council, very thankful to Katz and keeping us going tonight on this. So with that, wish you all
happy Thanksgiving, and this meeting is adjourned.