- Our next meeting this evening is our regular January 2026. Let the record reflect that all the board
- members are present. My understanding is there's no visitor comments this evening. There's not open
- board, but there's nobody who wants to do it. So seeing none, we'll
- jump straight to the Mustang moment. Dr. Finitas. Yes, so the original plans were to honor our Lilly
- Scholarship finalists and winner. But they, being the students that they are, they had conflicts with
- other activities. So they are going to come in to the board meeting in February. And so I just want
- to take just a real quick minute, though.
- You know, we have the debit card program that with some of our local financial institutions that we
- get so much money for every time one of those cards are used. And so we received our check from the
- IU credit union for $5,000. And so that's the maximum that you can get. So we're doing very well.
- And that money goes back into our Ready Schools type activities for our students. So I just wanna thank
- IU Credit Union for that opportunity to participate in that program. That's awesome. Okay, next is the
- consent agenda. We have the approval of minutes from the December 16th, 2025 regular board meeting.
- the Treasury report for December of 2025. And Mr. Turner with the claims, please. Thank you, Mr. President.
- For gross wages on December the 5th, 2025 is $827,939.93. For gross wages, mini payroll on December
- 8th, 2025, $546. For gross wages on December 19th, 2025,
- $826,903.32 for a total in that area, $1,655,389.25 for vouchers, preclaims prepaid from December the
- 1st to December 31st is $5,563,315.29 claims and vouchers on January 20, 2026, $336,846.64
- For total to that area, $5,900,161.93. For grand total, $7,555,551.18. Thank you. Next we have personnel,
- resignations, retirements, non-renewals, leaves and terminations, C1 through 16, and personnel appointments
- and transfers, one through 13. And we have three out of state
- indoor overnight field trips. Dr. Sanders, would you like to say what those are? Yeah, so three field
- trips I'd like to highlight. The first one's on March 7th. We're asking for the Edgewood High School
- show choir to go to the Fairfield Crystal Classic in Fairfield, Ohio. And we also are asking for
- permission for the high school guard to go to Dayton, Ohio. And this event is more for them to observe
- some top guard programs throughout the country. And that's on April 10th. And then the last one is with
- the junior high accelerated jazz bands and show choirs to Kings Island.
- in Cincinnati, Ohio, and that's to reward them for all their hard work in band and choir for the year,
- and that will be on April 25th. With those field trips, is there a motion for the consent agenda? Moved
- and seconded. Any discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries.
- Now we get a construction progress report and we have Martin here. And Martin, you're up. I was gossiping.
- This is January 20th, 2026. We're coming to closure on some of our projects and moving into some new ones.
- I just like that picture, so I put that up there. We're pretty well completed with the early childhood
- center. It doesn't look like that right now. That's true. Just remember that. Just sit here and stare
- at it. I'm fumble fingered here. Fieldhouse, start with that. Over Christmas, we had to come in and
- resurface the red part of the track.
- My understanding is we may have gotten some footprints in there, but That that was completed The the
- main net that divides the basketball courts had to be moved We did that and we're working on punch list
- items at this point And as you can see the gyms now in use and I think it's being used pretty thoroughly
- is my understanding
- wide variety, not just sports, but band. I heard band was in there. Yeah, and Winter Guard was in there,
- and swimming, you know, I never thought we'd have the swimmers in there, but they're doing strengthening
- drills, so it's getting, it's used all the time. So there's our track surface and the new stripes,
- I think there's a little touch up that needs to be done on stripes. Again, I kinda like the wall graphic
- in the field house, so I put that one up there. So they protect the floor when it's other people using
- it, like band, you know, wheeling stuff across the wood floor. Did they take precautions? Yes, yeah.
- All right, thank you. I was over there watching
- freshman game a few weeks ago, and at 8.30 they came out and they started putting the tarp down, because
- then the collar guard was coming in. My only nervous was the tarp's not real thick, but they said it
- would protect the gym floors, what they said. But it was a very busy night. Every inch of that was being
- used during the time frame I was there.
- The next 30 days is a pretty short list. We need to complete a few punch list items, part of it having
- to do with that striping in the gym or the field house. High school renovations, the phase nine offices
- have been, and bookstore have been turned over for use. We're working on demolition or just have completed
- demolition in the kitchen.
- There were some challenges. Arnold with the... I'm going the wrong way. Come on. My fingers are too
- fat. Modification with the...
- overhead rolling grill, the mechanism kind of hung down and we reworked that and I think it's satisfactory
- now. And we continue punch list items at the kitchen. Vicki came up with several items as far as kitchen
- equipment that need to be adjusted as I've started using them and we're working toward that. There we go.
- Kitchen equipment, those are the grills. Before we modified them, there was a big chunk of like block
- and tackle hanging down. That's now tucked up into the ceiling and I think it looks a heck of a lot
- better. We finished the demo in the existing kitchen. When we're done, there will be paint wall graphics
- in the kitchen.
- And that's what those graphics in the cafeteria and that's what the graphics will look like. The intent
- is to complete the renovation of the existing kitchen into cafeteria space by January 30. And Dale seems
- to be pretty confident that we'll get that done. We'll finish up the phase nine in the kitchen punch
- list items.
- Hopefully on that same schedule. And did they get, they said they had some concerns about the way the
- electrical was with the cash registers. Did that get resolved? I'm not aware of that one. Arnold, is
- that making sense? They said. What was the issue? They didn't have the right electrical in there to
- get the cash registers to work. Well, it's just, it's more of not,
- how they want it to flow when they go through to pay for their lunches. And so we're studying that whole
- project in terms of the concern. So that's on the punch list. Well, we just wanna see how it works.
- Just get some more knowledge from the experience
- how students are going through the line to pay for their lunches and is it efficient? Is there a way
- that we can adjust it to get more students through the line a little bit quicker? And so rather than
- rush right into making some changes right away, we wanted to see how it works in practice and then make
- the appropriate changes at that time.
- So that's not so much a punch, it's a change we want to make once we see it. Yeah, I just thought the
- electrical wasn't the way they wanted it. That's what I was told over there. I think the point of sales
- stations, they wanted to tweak how they worked. Is that correct? The cash register? Yes. So that would
- be a change order, though, if it was designed. It would be a change, yeah.
- So, but it was designed the way that they wanted it designed? I think it's more a function of it was
- designed as we thought it would work, but once they got into it and started to function, then... Yeah,
- sometimes, you know, when we're in that process now of looking at our next set of projects and you have,
- we'd have a meeting with the architect and
- like we just had the performing arts people work with the architect. And sometimes those things get
- adjusted after somebody has been included in a meeting for various reasons. So in this case, I think
- Vicki Coffey thought she had mentioned that she wanted that point of sale a certain way. And it didn't get
- done the way she anticipated it, but it did get done according to the design. So now we just need to
- see if it's worth spending the money to make that adjustment. To tweak it, okay. All right. Yeah, I'd
- like to be conservative on those things. I mean, because we're trying to do as much as we can with what
- we've got. So instead of tweaking something with a certain amount of money, I'd rather put it towards
- something else. Right.
- It's not gonna, yeah. If it looks like it's gonna be a problem, then we'll spend the money, but if it's
- going to work like it is now, then there's no need to spend that money, save it for something else.
- Got it, okay. I saw a couple hundred bags of underlayment out this side of the building. I presume that's
- for the cafeteria area? I'm sorry, I didn't. There's bags of underlayment. Oh, yeah, what that is is,
- In the space here, you can see there's a step where it used to be quarry tile in the kitchen, and then
- it goes up to the concrete. And that's all to kind of flush the whole floor out so it's all level. So
- are those block walls gonna stay just like they're painted, or is there gonna be drywall over outside
- of it? They'll be painted, and then they'll get the graphic on them.
- Yeah, that area looked really a lot bigger with all the stuff out of there. So it's gonna really open
- up that cafeteria in there. Compared to the size of your existing cafeteria. Absolutely, yeah. I think
- they should be able to get all the kids in there now at lunch. Well, half of them anyway. Or half, yeah,
- half of them. Yeah, 50% of them. Enough of them. So we're moving on to the future, I guess, projects,
- the next projects.
- Early childhood center playground is the next one we've got coming up that's going to be Relative to
- seeing what the weather is in the spring As soon as the weather breaks enough, we'll move forward on
- it Heather, I think you approve the colors for the playground equipment Which looks up something like
- this that's that's a major piece of equipment and
- You also have swings and another ground piece of equipment in there, but that's a big piece, so that'll
- give you an idea of what that's gonna look like when it's done. So we've completed the contract. Dr.
- Sanders just signed it, and I've got it right here, so we're ready to go. Color selection's completed.
- For the surfacing, I said continued color selection for playground structures.
- because it wasn't till this afternoon that we finished that and I'd already sent the slide in. So we
- finished the color selection for the structures also and working on permitting. And that had the same
- surface like at the other schools that spongy rubbery stuff. It's a granular material. It's a yeah,
- it's a resilient board surface. Okay. So we got a
- Complete the submittal process and I think with this it may be complete and will complete permitting
- But we won't be breaking ground in the next 30 days. It'll probably be in the end of March Corporation
- wide roof replacement, this is a high school roof We're talking to Brad briefly before the meeting the
- highs what we have done There's some
- complexities with high school work that need to be worked out. So we're, Lancer's working on that now.
- So what we're going to do is the next bid will be for the junior high, the primary, and the intermediate.
- And we feel like that's a good move for a couple reasons. One is we can pull that all together. And
- the other is it gives us a package that can probably be completed. We're looking at doing,
- the gymnasium and kitchen and cafeteria areas first and we'll try and get those done before school's
- out and then we can, we think we can complete all the classrooms during the summer while kids are out
- of school. We'll probably do this one next year and it will probably take a little longer than the work
- we're doing right now. So, Lancer's completed the contract
- documents and specifications. We forward Dr. Sanders a bid ad to run next week and we will ask permission
- shortly to bid. The contract drawings and specifications, we got the final ones Friday and I've gone
- over them the last couple days and we will actually post them with the Eastern Engineering of Predator
- tomorrow. And again, the current bid is gonna be the primary
- intermediate and junior high schools. High school. But the boiler bid is part of this package, right,
- for the high school? That's correct. The boiler's for both the high school and the junior high school.
- But you have a separate bidder for the boiler, probably versus the roof, I assume. Correct? Okay. We'll
- bid it at the same, put it all out at the same time. Okay.
- On February 17th, we'll receive beds for both the boilers and the roofs. OK. Baseball on softball turf.
- Lancer is continuing to develop the contract documents on that. And I buried myself here. Victor, I
- think those are due here shortly.
- March 6 we're supposed to get our CDs on that and we'll put put those out to bid bid opening will be
- somewhere around the 1st of April And we'll nail that down as we get those documents music additions
- and renovations Lancers continuing to do the programming on that The intent is to have schematic design
- done March 16th and
- and the final documents to us June 24th, and then we will get those out to bid. We're looking at trying
- to award those contracts at the August 18th board meeting. And I think that's all I've got to know.
- Any questions? Kind of asking as we went along.
- Anything further? On the last item there, if the bids go out on the music and the music edition,
- et cetera, in August, how long before construction begins and then how long before? Well, we were looking
- at that. If we bid it August 18th, and I'm making the assumption that we would
- mobilize that probably first two weeks of September and probably have break ground somewhere mid September.
- That will push us into the winter and we've been discussing that. And nine months? How long to complete
- the project?
- What we're thinking right now is we haven't seen the final documents yet, but we've got the music additions.
- Our thought is the music additions will take about a year, but we'll do the additions, let you continue
- to use your band and choir rooms. Then when you move from band and choir rooms to the new band and choir
- rooms, we'll come in and do renovations. So we're looking at 14 to 18 months, something like that.
- That's what I'm thinking, Christmas of 27. Dr. Sanders, does that still put us in line time-wise with
- that ROI grant? We just have to spend those funds by December 28. To get to half a million dollars?
- Yeah. All right. We'll spend that first, right? Yeah. What's that? We'll spend that first. Yeah, we'll
- spend that. Yeah, for sure. All right.
- Anything else? That's it. That's all I've got tonight. Thank you very much. And I think we'll stay around
- for your task for bid permissions. All right. Next is the consideration to create the position of network
- security administrator. Dr. Sanders? Yes. So periodically, positions will change, will evolve, depending
- on the current landscape.
- Technology is certainly the perfect example of continuous change. And the position of Ashley Davis,
- who has been one of our technology support specialists since 2021, his work has changed over the years,
- mainly because of the importance of cybersecurity protecting our network,
- His time, his energy, and his growing experience is very critical to ensuring that we have reliable
- connectivity, system security, and a safe learning environment across the corporation. And so we, there's
- kind of a two part. So the next item is to increase his salary to match that position.
- and be more reflective. We would still have a ways to go to get it up to where a salary for network
- security administrator normally is given. We have some work to get closer to that, but this will get
- us in a step in the right direction. So we just want to write,
- things and make sure we're accommodating one of our employees for the services he provides, the school
- corporation. Thank you. Is there a motion? I move approval of the creation position of the security
- administrator. Moved and seconded. Any discussion? Just a question. Will somebody else be hired to take
- Ashley's current position?
- an additional position. No, this will be we won't be hiring an additional person. Thank you. Can I ask
- Rick a question? Yeah, are we where we at with with five star with our are we still utilizing five star?
- So they're not we're not paying them a dime yet now. So we're doing this all internally. We have a small yearly
- drawdown account we have with them. So they're our backup if something would happen if someone's not
- in our facilities. They're also doing our monitoring. So they monitor our network 24 hours a day and
- then send us alerts if we have a problem. But we don't, I think we have $5,000 into them and we haven't
- used a dime of it for a year. So it's just one of those reassurance backgrounds that we're using, but
- we do everything in house.
- That was what the goal was initially, was to bring it all back in house, right? Okay, I had no idea
- where we'd be at with five stars, I appreciate that. Yeah, we left them about two years ago, and what
- Ashley does is more than what was in the little memo that was sent. That's what, yeah, I don't understand
- that much how that works, but I assume it's a long. Yeah, the network is a key element to the corporation.
- If our network goes down, our students and teachers cannot do their job at all.
- The reliability that we have to maintain with the network, it's not a eight to five job. It's something
- that he ends up doing remotely from home sometimes because the only time we can update the firmware
- on the access points is after nine o'clock at night or when no one's left in the building. So he does
- a lot of work after hours to make sure that our equipment is
- always up to date, always secure and ready to go for the teachers the next morning and the students.
- The security side of it is just as it says, it's security. We have to make sure that we are compliant,
- not only with the federal, the local and the state guidelines, we have to make sure that we're standing
- and protective of what we do and how we protect all of our assets inside the building. So that is a
- key element right there. And then the other part is,
- all the card access readers and everything, the security cameras, it is all fallen under this position.
- So if it's a security camera, it's Ashley. If it's gonna be add-on for security, it's Ashley. So network
- wiring, I would say probably with Arnold and stuff, I would say that between Ashley and Lee Kirk, we
- have probably saved the corporation $30,000 in cabling that we do in-house now. We don't hire that out
- unless it's a,
- a job that we just don't have the tools for. So it's a very important job. And the job description was
- in your board pack. Yeah, I read that. And I had the same thing, I think I talked to you before that
- it's not, we're not creating a new position, we're just adjusting it. He'll still be doing tech support
- as well, it's just that this really reflects what he does and how it works for the corporation.
- Got it, okay. It's great that he's been able to evolve
- pull in these other things. Gosh, it is, technology changes so fast. Yeah, oh yeah. What we walked into
- six years ago and what we have today, I think everybody in teachers would hopefully agree with that.
- Our network has probably never been a solid, and it's due to him, and you know, that's what his background
- was, was networking, so. Right. Awesome. And we relied heavily up to seven years ago on Five Star, and
- we completely, pretty well nixed them out now.
- Is that the way most corporations have done it or they still rely on Five Star? A lot of corporations
- rely on Five Star. And I think some of them are starting to see what they can do and what they can't.
- And so I think they're looking at us and what we're doing, because we do get questions about how we're
- set up and what we do. But I don't think we have the board that puts behind what we do at their organization.
- So they have a little tougher time trying to get on board with how.
- I also say that when it's someone that works for the company, there's more dedication to keep it running
- and keep it looking right. Right. I get that part, yeah, for sure. Thank you. Any further discussion?
- All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Thanks, everybody. Might as well stay up here
- in case they have other questions. Go ahead. The next would be consideration to appoint Ashley Davis to
- the position of network security administrator. Would you second it? Any discussion? Well, just as what
- I already mentioned, Rick did a lot of research on this to see what the average person was paid for
- this type of position. And we have a target goal in mind.
- that we wanna work towards, but this time we're recommending that Ashley have a salary of $60,736.39,
- which is a $7,000 increase. Good. We got a first and a second. Any discussion? All those in favor say
- aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Thanks again. Thank you.
- And thank Ashley for his hard work. Next is permission to void corporation and ECA checks older than
- two years. This is an annual thing and David T. will lead us through it. So each year the ECA treasurer
- and I submit a request to void checks older than two years. These are checks that were never cashed
- and they're just sitting in the bank account. We do try to attempt to reissue if possible.
- But when we can't, we just want to follow the process and just go ahead and void them and let those
- funds go back into our accounts. So I've provided you guys with a list of those checks. So if you have
- any questions, feel free to ask. But I just wanted to get your permission for that. I move approval
- of avoiding the corporation ECHX that are older than two years. Moved. Seconded. Any discussion? All
- those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed?
- Motion carries, thank you. Thank you. Didn't Debbie do a nice job today? She did. Yes, I tell you. She
- sure did. We didn't have any questions. Wait till next time. Yeah. Next is consideration to approve
- the S-Craft, or as I usually say it, maybe. The ESCRFT Insurance Invoice, Dr. Sanders.
- Yes, so s craft is the company that we've been using last six years I think now for liability insurance
- and it sure has been helpful In helping us keep down those types of insurance costs They are very good
- about Mitigation providing a lot of training for our staff and
- to make sure that we're doing things in the safest possible way. They often very periodically they will
- come out and do an audit and go around the campus and look for just areas that we can make improvements
- in terms of safety. So the invoice for 2026 is $439.
- 439 thousand five hundred forty one dollars and 78 cents And that's up twenty three twenty two thousand
- dollars but that's because we added the ECC building and the field house I'm approval of the scraft
- insurance invoice Any discussion
- I like $439 better. I did too. I about freaked out. That was a 5% increase, but we added on a lot more
- square footage of coverage with those new add-ons. That's correct. There was a lot of square footage
- we added. Right, right. Okay, no more discussion? All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries.
- No, we have consideration to approve the EECC rates for the upcoming 26-27 school year, mercy. And so,
- we have other things for that. So we have two things to consider tonight, the class offerings and the
- rates, and I think it would make more sense to talk about the class offerings first, if that's okay.
- With opening the new building, we were able to double the number of preschool classes that we have this
- year, which has been fantastic. So we have full day pre-K classes for four and five-year-olds that are
- offered two, three, and five days a week. And then for preschool, three-year-olds, we have two, three,
- and five days a week for full day for that as well. And then we also added a young threes class this
- year. So those kids, the state,
- licensing regulations allow us to enroll kids that turn three all the way up to December 1st of the
- school year. So we have a class of kids that turn three between like June and July up through December.
- And so that allowed us to enroll some additional kids that wouldn't have originally met that August
- 1st cutoff that we usually have. So we have that full day preschool class as well. And then we have
- our half day preschool class and we have an AM class and a PM class.
- That is our smallest class this year. It's sitting around 50 to 60% full most days. In previous years,
- we only had an AM class because our special education class used that classroom in the afternoon and
- they kind of shared staff. So we did always have a wait list for that class in the past, but opening up
- both options, AM and PM, we just aren't really filling that class to capacity anymore. The other classes
- are, I just did some percentages, about 80 to 95% full any given day. Tuesday, Thursday is a little
- bit less full in some classes, Monday, Wednesday, Friday is a little less full in others. But that half
- day class is just,
- been a little bit more of a challenge to fill both the morning and the afternoon section of that. So
- we would like to keep all of our full day class offerings the same that we're offering this year and
- consider dropping that afternoon half day option and only using that classroom for a morning class only.
- That would allow us to use those staff
- in other capacities in the afternoon and maybe have to hire less floating staff and assistants and things
- like that. And hopefully get that class fuller to capacity so that we're not staffing a class with six
- kids in it in the afternoon on some days. And then another thing that we often hear from parents is
- they don't often choose half day because of the length of the day. It's two and a half hours.
- It's hard to drop off your kid, turn around and come back and pick them up in that short amount of time.
- So we'd like to lengthen that by a half an hour and have a three hour half day class. Not having the
- afternoon gives us that flexibility because we don't have that short window to turn around and get another
- class in. And then we also like to add a lunch option for those kids. So parents could choose the three
- hour day or they can add a lunch bunch option for an extra charge and that
- those kids could stay for lunch, eat lunch in the cafeteria, and that would give those kids a little
- bit longer experience at school, but still a half-day, so they're not staying for nap in the afternoon,
- they're not getting the full-day experience, gives parents a little bit longer, and gives those kids
- a chance to learn those skills of eating lunch in the cafeteria that a lot of parents worry about when
- their kids are getting ready to go to kindergarten. So I think that might increase the...
- desire for parents to enroll in that half-day option if they can lengthen that day a little bit more.
- So our goal is to maximize enrollment in all of our classes, and I think this is a good way to get more
- seats filled. We can probably just take these together, too. Do you want to go ahead and do the rates?
- Yeah, so for the rates,
- Our classes are not filled right now. We are sitting, like I said, around 80% full across the board,
- I think, per day. We've increased our prices a lot over the last seven or eight years, and I think it
- would be wise right now to focus on increasing the number of kids that we're getting rather than continuing
- to raise rates in those full-day classes because
- It has gotten fairly expensive. Everything's gotten fairly expensive over the last several years. And
- we do need to always make sure that we're bringing in the money to pay our staff and run the program,
- but I think it would be smart to keep those full-day class rates the same as what we're charging right
- now, which is $37 a day for preschool for the three-year-old classes, because those classes are a little
- bit smaller, and then $34 a day for pre-K. So that's $170 a week for full-time
- pre-K or $185 a week for full day preschool. But we would like to increase the rate of the half day
- class since we are lengthening it. And it's kind of a
- Convenience for parents who want that half-day option. We're still paying our staff that are here for
- that time So right now it's $17 a day, which is half of the pre-k rate We'd like to increase that to
- $20 a day. We're adding a half hour to that day. It would be 830 to 1130 instead of
- whatever it is right now. And then if parents want to enroll in an extra hour, it would be an additional
- $5. So they could pay $25 for a four-hour day or $20 for a three-hour day. You too. Following approval
- of the class offerings and rates for the 2016-2017 school year. Second? Second. Moved and seconded.
- Any discussion?
- Cafeteria separately they would pay the cafeteria separately. That's so by adding it that goes that
- would be on top of the $20 Okay, so then nobody's pay the cafeteria directly. No Yes, they'll pay the
- cafeteria directly or send a lunchbox. Yes. Okay. Okay induction This is coming. This is all funded
- from the operations fund, right? All this all the salaries are paid from the operations fund. Yes, which
- is where the legislature is kind of cutting into us next year
- All right. I know we're keeping a close eye on that too. So well, the state has not made it very they've
- made it. Yeah, I know easy for us. They also cut funding for on my way pre-k and so we're we are receiving
- what $85,000 less. Yes, approximately last year. So they paid us quite a bit.
- Over what our weekly charges per child in previous years and this year they cut that so We're getting
- a hundred and forty seven dollars a week and then the parents have to make the difference in previous
- years We were getting three hundred and forty eight dollars a week for those kids that are eligible
- for on my way pre-k so For the whole year for the number of kids that we have enrolled. That's about
- eighty five thousand dollars difference that we're not getting from them we also have kids who should
- have qualified for CCDF or on my way pre-k, but they
- aren't issuing any more vouchers. So that's an additional cut that we're getting that those kids will
- be getting that funding as well. And just to clarify, the preschool is education fund and daycare is
- operations fund. Daycare, okay. Yeah. And this is just preschool rates and offerings that we're talking
- about right now. Gotcha. So this would impact our education fund. Right. So they're gonna kind of back
- us in the corner on doing some, make us have to make some financial changes, I think.
- Okay, all right, thank you very much for all you. Any further discussion? All those in favor say aye.
- Aye. Opposed? Motion carries, thank you very much. Okay, next is our Neola policy updates. This is volume
- 38 number one and
- This was an informational last month, and so it's an action item this month. Dr. Sanders. Yes. So we
- discussed this in December. And really, these are policies that, a variety of policies, some related
- to board responsibilities, teacher. Some of them are teacher-focused, staff-focused, student-focused.
- The board has had a month to review these policies. We've also shared them with specific staff members
- in the corporation. And Christine Bartlett with Ferguson Law has also reviewed these policies. So tonight
- we bring them to you for approval. I move approval of the new old policy. I'll second. Any discussion?
- Hearing none, all those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Next is consideration to advertise
- bids for the roofs and mechanics. And Dr. Sanders. Yes, so as Martin mentioned, we are going to submit
- the advertisement that was in the board packet to the paper to be
- In the paper, January 28th and February 4th, we're going to be, the advertisement says that we're going
- to have a pre-bid meeting on February 9th at one o'clock and a bid opening on February 17th at two o'clock.
- And Martin and Victor are here from Skillman. They have some additional information that they'd like
- to share with you tonight.
- Well, I think the board has a copy of our estimate, just a reminder that we're working within a much
- larger budget that you set aside, but these are the first projects out of the gate where we're gonna
- be doing roofing at the primary school, intermediate school, and the junior high, and then of course
- the boiler replacement at the junior high and the high school. So that whole package, our original budget
- was about 3.7 for construction costs, so call that bid cost.
- and we think we're right on track with looking over the drawings that Lancer sent to us. We think we're
- gonna be at or right at that budget at about 3.6 million. So we're looking forward to, we'll go out
- and solicit bidders and make this project known to all the roofers and mechanical contractors in the
- area and look forward to receiving bids on the 17th of February.
- even something to consider? You know, that's something that was talked about and I think decided to
- go ahead and bid it and see, we don't do a lot of painting of metal roofs. So we're gonna see what the
- market says that cost is. And then, you know, there's some, we wanted to take a look at the specifications.
- So I thought we thought it's not a significant effort to bid it.
- So we'll bring that to the school administration, we'll discuss that with your architect, we'll come
- to the board of the recommendation. I agree, I'm not sure we're gonna recommend that, but we're gonna
- do a little research in the bidding process. So that mean when you say refinish it, basically you're
- saying paint it? Yes, sir. Okay, I didn't know if there was like another coating on it or? I have no
- idea. It's not your average paint out of a can from Home Depot, it's a high quality roof product. Not
- with a paint brush.
- It's a big sprayer probably. Probably so. It's what they refer to as the last of Merrick, I believe.
- So again, we wanna take a little more look at the product and the specifications and what the, that's
- something we might see a large range of bids from depending on the expertise of the bidders. Okay,
- all right, thanks. Do we have a motion? I'll move approval. I second. Moved and seconded.
- I do like that idea of fishing around with alternates, because you never know until you look. So I think
- that's a very good approach. So any further discussion? All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion
- carries. Thank you very much, Victor. OK.
- Consideration to approve the ECA positions for the 25-26 collective bargaining agreement. June Barrett.
- Yes, so back when we asked you to approve the collective bargaining agreement with our teachers association,
- September, October, I can't remember which month that was, we had said at the time we were tabling some
- ECA conversations.
- We really wanted to dig into those requests a little bit more, understand the purpose behind some of
- these new positions that were being asked for, as well as understanding why there might be a schedule
- change for other positions. I worked with a team of teachers, tell you what, it was one of the best,
- meetings I think that we've had in terms of just productive. We sat down, we went through every single
- one of these requests. They went back, they talked with their teachers, they asked questions, and we
- really worked to not just make sure that we were adding every position to the ECA schedule, but really
- kind of looked at where they would fall in line with other positions that were already there.
- And the teachers were phenomenal. They gave a lot of great feedback. For instance, we had a new
- coach position in there. This is a new team for EHS. And the teacher said, you know, this is a position
- that's gonna be right now one season, not two seasons. We're just getting this up off the ground.
- You know, let's go ahead and let's put this on this schedule instead of this higher schedule for right
- now. Just a lot of really good reasoning behind all of this. So what I'm bringing to you is the proposal
- for all of these positions.
- Some of them you will see are brand new. You're going to see a lot in here related to our drama program.
- We do put on an amazing play and an incredible musical each year. And those positions right now, we
- have a drama director for the play, a drama director for the musical. But what we're asking to do is
- also add in a music director for the musical as well as assistant directors for each one of those.
- You will also see down through there moving an academic coach that we currently have at EJHS and EHS
- over into a lead coach position. The rationale for that is that person does a lot more of the travel
- arrangements, getting registrations ready, communication with parents. It does take a lot more time
- on that lead coaches plate.
- You'll also see, somehow along the way, we have not been paying our junior high academic coaches. And
- they just decided to let us know that. So you're going to see that in there, picking those guys up on
- the ECA schedule.
- in addition to that we know what a big lift our robotics teams are across the district and Again, we
- did not have ECA positions for our assistant coaches Those assistant coaches are critical to the robotics
- tournaments if you've ever been at a robotics tournament It is all hands on deck if you've ever been
- at a fourth and fifth grade robotics practice
- It is all hands on deck. So right now, we are asking for three assistant coaches there, one at the high
- school, one at the junior high, one at EIS. I'm sure that our coaches would say, can we add three additional
- for every single building? But one there for each building. And then, you'll notice that I've also put
- in there, just so you guys are aware, how this would impact
- the education fund, we've talked a lot about how we're getting cuts, and I wanna make sure that we make
- this really clear. Right now, what we are paying for these ECA costs for these positions in 24-25 is
- $22,450. We would be asking to increase in the education fund for this school year about $14,875.
- That goes up to about $17,000 when we are looking at TERF and FICA. We would take some of that out of
- the robotics grant. So you'll see a total down there of roughly $14,800 that we're asking to increase
- in the education fund for 2526. One thing I also want you to notice is that we are looking at adjustments
- in other positions
- to help offset this cost in 26-27. So you'll see changes in there that we will be proposing when we
- work with the Teachers Association for collective bargaining next fall, which would bring down these
- additional costs to around $8,000 per year. So it does look like we're adding a lot of positions, but
- we have plans in order to offset that cost. And I think that that $8,000 is more than acceptable.
- in terms of what it brings back to our students and programming in all of our buildings. So I'm asking
- for you to approve those. And in addition to that, we would, for those teachers who are doing these
- positions, and it's more than, I believe, $1,000, we would be back paying them through the beginning
- of the first semester. Otherwise, if it's a stipend payment, we would pick that up for them at the end
- of their season. I think I got it all.
- position adjustments to the collective bargaining agreement. I'm so happy that you are taking a look
- at these. A lot of things that really, I know the teachers impact in the classroom, but a lot of, when
- it comes to the fun stuff that the kids enjoy, that really keeps them tied to the school and keeps them
- involved and just helps them
- social, making friends and working together in collaboration. These positions are very important and
- we gotta make sure we recognize them and I know they all should be paid a lot more than they're getting
- but we appreciate the association working with us and trying to get those lined up where they need to
- be. They work so hard and
- you know they're doing it for the love of it, because they're sure not doing it for the money.
- That's right. The fact that the junior high academic coaches weren't getting paid at all, but they kept
- doing it. They kept doing it. They deserve so much more. Just goes to show our teachers and their commitment
- to our kids. But at the same time, we have a commitment to our teachers, and we want to honor that as
- well. So yeah, I just can't speak highly enough of that team. And they actually are requesting to get
- back together again this spring.
- to look at these positions because they notice some discrepancies in terms of that position shouldn't
- exist anymore or that position doesn't have the same responsibilities it used to have. So that needs
- to be reduced. So I just appreciate their crucial eye, their critical eye looking on that and saying
- we can do a little bit better as a district. They know this money comes out of the same pot that funds
- salaries, that funds raises, and so they wanna do right by it as well and make sure that we're doing
- our due diligence there.
- the association, too. I assume, Mr. Rentschler, that 24, 25, I was kind of upset, because I thought,
- where's our team, our academic team? We had one, we didn't pay them for it, correct? So I appreciate
- that that's being compensated here. And I thought that was a newly created position. I thought,
- wait a minute, where's these teams at? But I like the last line item, when the technology, where those
- responsibilities are reducing on the technology side.
- and that's gonna drop significantly between last year and 26, 27. So thank you for, and it eliminates
- positions that I had never even heard of before. So I think that was good too. So thank you. Any further
- discussion? All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Thank you so much. Next
- is consideration of an addendum to our agreement with Policy Analytics. Dr. Sandberg?
- Township are in the process of developing a plan to merge into one government entity Once this plan
- is developed the reorganization committee will present the plan to the community the merger will go
- before voters next November now the
- One of the big questions that we have is how will this merger impact our school corporation? The answer
- right now is we don't know. And for that very reason, we want to add an addendum to the agreement we
- already have with Policy Analytics to research the data, provide us with a report,
- They will meet with us to share what they've discovered in their research and then as a school corporation
- that will enable us to make an informed decision. I've looked into other companies to use and basically
- the report I got was
- we need to go with policy analytics, they would do the best job, they'd do this on a regular basis.
- So the cost of this addendum would be $5,000 for this study. I move approval of the addendum to the
- agreement with policy analytics. You second it? Any discussion? I just think it's, we need to know,
- and there's so much that is uncertain at this point about what's gonna happen.
- I don't want to use the word disappointed, but I'm a little concerned that this is going to be happening
- in November, and they don't even know what the impacts are going to be. I think they should have had
- a study to know what the impacts were going to be on everything, so they could share that with everybody
- else. So I wish that they would have got more information sooner,
- glad we're getting our information so that we know. Because I have no idea what impact would be. So
- we need to know. We got to know, especially with the way the state's cutting our operations and everything
- else. We've got to know what this will do. Well, these decisions are important. And we want to make
- sure we make an informed decision. And I mean, we've got to take into consideration
- community, so it's not just, you know, are we gonna lose a dollar? It's a community as a whole,
- but still, we need to know our part. Any further discussion? All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed?
- Motion carries. Next, we have consideration to approve the click
- Co-op contract for school year 26, 27. Dr. Sanders. Yes, so this comes from Vicki Coffey, our nutrition
- services director. I think this was our first year using CLIC, which is a co-op for ordering, purchasing
- food for our cafeterias.
- I just would like to ask the board to approve, renew basically, this agreement that we have with Click
- Co-op. And it's been reviewed by Christine. What's the amount in this contract? There's not a basic
- amount. If you go through the contract, it talks about the pricing for individual food commodities.
- OK. All right. Thank you. Do we have a motion?
- Moved and seconded. Any discussion? All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Next is
- consideration to approve the culinary student internship position. Jennifer Barrett. This is an easy
- one. Now that Chef Amanda Waits is both her feet on the ground and is running our new cafeteria at the
- high school, she is ready to take on anything.
- And this is going to be a paid position. We have a student who is interested in culinary arts and is
- going through that pathway right now and has expressed interest in this position. So we are asking you
- to approve an internship position, a paid internship position, with our culinary department. I move
- approval of the culinary student internship position. I'll second. Move and second.
- Any discussion? Sounds like a terrific opportunity. I love it when we can give internships for our students.
- It's pretty awesome, yeah. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. OK, next is the
- Assistant Superintendent's report.
- Okay, I brought you a whole packet tonight, but I promise I am not going to take a ton of time to go
- through it. This is homework for you to take home. We were fortunate enough last, no it hasn't been
- last, it's been two weeks now, we met with the Cook Medical Team on January 7th to discuss our partnership.
- We got really down into the nitty-gritty which is something that we've been working to do with all three
- of our partners with the life sciences training facility We got down into the high school curriculum
- and dual enrollment with Ivy Tech We talked about our short-term and our long-term goals with the life
- sciences training center just in terms of breaking ground all the way to how we
- anticipate this helping our students in the long run, helping our families in the long run, and then
- the impact that it will have on hiring at all three of those facilities. Probably most importantly to
- you guys, we got down into very specific asks of them in terms of financial contributions for equipment
- and transportation costs. Transportation costs meaning actually taking our students to their facilities.
- We want them there at least on a quarterly basis, if not more often, visiting all of those departments,
- seeing the real world in action, real work in action. And in addition to that, we talked about staffing
- contributions with their trainers, work-based learning opportunities for our juniors and seniors. We
- just approved a paid internship position. I would love for our three partners to
- be doing the same thing with our students. And in addition to that, creating a potential new hiring
- avenue and training program for the graduates that come out of this program. One of the things that
- we talked about with Cook Medical is that these students are going to be prepared to move into
- positions in their company that somebody just coming off the street would not have the knowledge that
- these kids would have. By kids, I mean 18, 19-year-old graduates from high school. So putting them through
- the same training program that you would put somebody through that doesn't have any experience in any
- of these pieces versus someone who has spent three or four years starting out training with
- smart manufacturing when they're 15, that employee is going to look a lot different to train than someone
- coming in off the streets.
- We started
- just kind of getting them to look at that through a lens of what would that look like for them. So a
- really great conversation there. We made some really good headway. In addition to that, I think it's
- almost like Boston Scientific has spidey sense. They know when we've met with Cook Medical because they're
- reaching out two days afterwards and wanting to sit back down and keep going forward with our collaboration
- there. So I've already sent them our asks that we had with Cook Medical in person, and we have a follow-up
- meeting with Boston
- next week, and we also have a meeting with IU Health this week. So we're now getting down into those
- nitty-gritty pieces, and it's pretty exciting to see all this come together. Our Ready Schools team,
- I should take zero credit for this. This is all Megan Scott, who has been working on updating our eLearning
- Day handbook. I gave you a couple of pieces of this handbook in this packet here.
- The reason that we have to do an update on this is that the state of Indiana only allows up to three
- asynchronous learning days. Asynchronous simply means that our students are at home, we've sent home
- packets, or we've put things on Google Classroom for their Chromebooks, but they are working at home.
- Our teachers are available for office hours, but they are doing the work independently.
- Since the state of Indiana only allows for three asynchronous days, our only options if we would have
- additional snow days would be to use built-in days, which we've already done once, Dr. Sanders,
- one time. We would have to add days to the end of the year, or we establish guidelines and implement
- synchronous learning days.
- So we don't anticipate using many synchronous learning days. This is not an option that we're looking
- at using six, seven, eight of these. To be completely honest, it's difficult, especially for our younger
- students, to be online with their teachers.
- I think about my K-5 kiddo at home and him being online for a couple of hours with his sweet K-5 teacher,
- and I would just feel like I would need to cook her dinner that night, or something else to say thank
- you, because I can't imagine how difficult that would be. But what we have done here is we have created
- a plan that would outline our synchronous e-learning. Some things that I want to highlight, because
- I do think we'll get questions from parents,
- I think the biggest question we will get is, what happens if my kindergarten, second grader, third grade,
- fourth grade, fifth grade student, what if we don't have a device at home? And our answer to that is,
- that's okay. We anticipate that's going to happen, and that's why we're providing three days after one
- of these absences for kids to get caught up at school. I think we'll get questions like, they're at
- grandma and grandpa's during that day. I'm not gonna be there to help them. Grandma and grandpa can't
- help them.
- That's OK. We are very much going into this with a let's make it the best situation we can mindset.
- This is not going to necessarily be the end all be all, you know, great day of school that we would
- anticipate if our kids were sitting in front of our instructors all day.
- This is really just information for you guys to take a look at. Let me know if you have questions on
- it. We're going to start rolling out informational sessions with our teachers. Actually, the first one's
- tomorrow morning with EIS.
- I'm sure we're gonna have a ton of questions and I think we'll see some of this change just based on
- some of the feedback that we're gonna get from teachers. But I think one of the most important things
- there is for you to see how we've set up the day in terms of what that synchronous learning would look
- like with teachers. We would actually start on a two hour delay schedule and then our youngest students
- there would have about two hours of in-person time.
- in-person virtual time, and then our high school students would have about 25 minutes per period moving
- between teachers that day. So take a look at it. Like I said, it's just all informational as we're looking
- at how we can meet the state's guidelines for potential inclement weather days that may be coming up
- there. In addition to that, February 13th and 16th are coming up.
- February 13th is a flex day and we have a teacher work day on the 16th.
- We have a ton going on, and I wanted to share this with you just in case you would get questions from
- our community members asking, what do the teachers do on the days that the kids are not there? I've
- provided a whole list of things that our teachers will be participating in, from training to faculty
- meetings, which will be a very, very small part of those two days, but it does allow us to get those
- in for February.
- We're going to be working with our HRS school improvement teams, a lot of curriculum work for our teachers,
- SAT proctor training at the high school level, AI training 6 through 12, PsyOP training for K-5 teachers
- with multi-language learners. We are packing it in. So if you would happen to get questions, feel free
- to share that information. Feel free to send them my way. I even included
- calendar in here so you can see how we're structuring this and thankfully we've talked with our association
- even though one day is a teacher workday we've kind of blended those two days together so that our training
- sessions don't necessarily overlap and we're using our instructional coaches and mentor teachers to
- the best of our abilities during that time. So that's all I have for January unless you guys have any
- questions about what's coming up.
- And now on to the superintendent's report. Dr. Sanders. Yes. So traditionally, the first board meeting
- of the new calendar year, I like to present my goals for the school corporation. And really, the five
- goals never change. They're always the same five goals. But really, how they're applied changes every
- year based on
- what's going on in the education world, what's going on in our school corporation. Goal number one is
- to continue to provide students and staff with a safe school environment. We will always continue to
- do that. As you know, we have a school safety team that meets on a regular basis. The cool part about
- this is our SROs continue to expand their impact and influence on the school corporation.
- Obviously, their job is to build relationships with students to provide safety every day that we're
- in session. But they're taking more of a leadership role, especially in the school safety team. And
- you'll see Alec presenting some ideas, some thoughts of what maybe we can do to be more safe. And so
- I think that's pretty cool.
- mental health teams continue to be strong. We've expanded the opportunities for mental health by additional
- grant dollars, and we'll continue to work hard to find those grants to help us make sure we're providing
- mental health opportunities for our students and staff. Goal number two, to continue leading RBB to
- a position
- of financial strength, and we talked a lot about this tonight. Fortunately, the state legislators continue
- to set roadblocks in our way. It's disappointing because over the last several years, we've worked ourselves
- into a position to put ourselves in a good spot financially, and we have. But they're making it more
- difficult every day. But we are adjusting to that.
- We talk about it all the time about how can we increase revenue and decrease expenses. And we'll continue
- to do that. We just want to make sure that our taxpayers know that we are doing the very best we can
- with the funds that they provide so that we can stay competitive, so that we can prepare our students
- in very effective ways
- for them to chase their dreams. Goal number three, to lead RBB to sustain growth in enrollment. And
- we've continued to see growth in enrollment, steady, slow but steady. And we do that in multiple ways.
- We try to create a culture where students and staff love coming to school.
- We want our students to love coming to a school to learn and the staff to enjoy coming to school to
- work. And by doing that, I think it leads to promoting growth and increasing student enrollment. We
- talk all the time about some new housing additions that are going up across our community. Harmon Farms
- over here, I drove through that.
- Recently, there's like three homes that are already started. And so that's pretty exciting news. And
- we just continue to market our school corporation through Edgewood Showcase, marketing, what we do,
- and making sure parents are informed about the opportunities we provide our students. Goal number four,
- to lead RBB into a strong partnership between the school corporation, families, local businesses, and
- the community.
- I think you'll see Edgewood Schools very active throughout our community. We continue to bring in our
- business leaders and our Edgewood Business Leaders Advisory Team, continue our partnership with Boys
- and Girls Club. Jennifer was talking about our partnerships with Boston Scientific, Cook Medical, and
- IU Health. And we work very closely with the Elksville Police Department, the Fire Department,
- the Chamber of Commerce, and the town of Ellitsville and more. And goal number five is to lead RBB in
- creating an educational environment designed to prepare students to chase their dreams in tomorrow's
- world. We continue to work on our professional learning communities,
- project of high reliability schools. We just took another 15 folks to San Antonio and while we were
- in San Antonio three of our schools received level one certification and next time around we'll have
- EPS getting level one certification and then we'll and we're already working on levels two and three
- and we have not taken a group of
- teachers, principals, school board members without somebody coming back and saying that was an amazing
- conference and it happened again this time. We had a really productive group who, sometimes they latch
- on to different aspects of the conference, but this group really was focused on the art and science
- of teaching and looking at data and I just love to hear their conversations
- When we meet afterwards, we are very lucky to have the teachers and principals we do at Edgewood schools.
- And then we continue to expand our career pathways for our students. I would put this up against any
- school corporation in the state of Indiana in terms of what we provide our students. And I'm very proud
- of that. Thank you. Thank you very much. Okay, we'll go to,
- RBBEA comments. Thank you.
- for working with our committee on the ECA funds. That was just a very productive committee,
- and like she said, we're planning to meet again in the spring just to tighten things up and look at
- those job descriptions, create job descriptions, just a better understanding of each role. I'm hoping
- one of my personal goals would be
- to streamline that process so that we can have that information ready to go when we do come to the bargaining
- table. And so, you know, of course our members had already, when we had our referendum, had already,
- or ratification, excuse me, they had already approved those changes, but just having that all done at
- the same time moving forward. I know Mr. Kerr mentioned legislation, and I saw that there are three
- days of action coming up,
- in February, so I am just in the works of talking with our Uniserve director as well as Mr. Yules just
- to get feedback on those. I'm new with those things. I've only attended a couple, so I don't know if
- there are specific sessions about funding, but that is one of ISDA's priorities. Their list of goals
- came out January 8th, so just some things.
- Moving forward, that's all I have. Thank you, Randy. Okay, next is board member comments, and we'll
- start with Mr. O'Donnell. Seeing firsthand what the legislative cuts have done with the town, and hearing
- the $900,000 shortage, that concerns me, but it's nice to know that we have people in place that are
- watching it, people in place that are
- taking measures to make it less painful. I couldn't think of a word, thank you, Paul. So that's all
- I have to say, but I'm just, like I say, I'm really concerned. I'm just really disappointed
- in our legislature right now. Thank you. Mr. DeMoss. Great to have Debbie here. I was gonna ask when
- we would expect to have you joining us
- So I'm glad you're here. And I do appreciate the oversight on our finances, because I know it's going
- to be important. When you go to the State House, I've been following some of the, especially in the
- House of Representatives, and they're not doing us any favors. And if they do anything to address what
- they did last year with Senate Bill 1, it's going to make it worse for schools and towns.
- encouraging everybody to contact your legislature because it's not looking good. And I know what a can
- of worms it can be to talk about ECA positions, so I certainly appreciate you doing that, and I'm also
- glad that I wasn't in on that conversation. I'm so excited about the progress we're making with developing
- the life sciences
- and I'm also excited that the facilities that we're taking the steps to get to that. So as that blossoms,
- that we'll have a place that we can really make that pop. And I think that's gonna happen. And I can't
- stop without saying, who's yours? That's pretty exciting. Big night. Yeah, that was amazing. Mr. Jacobs.
- Yeah, I agree with everything
- legislation we we have to get our voices out there. And that means community members that means everybody
- is involved in that in and fighting what's best for our our students in public school. Jerry I appreciate
- senior goals. Every time I I see your goals in in you know work with we all work with you very closely in
- You are on those goals every year and we appreciate it. We have such a strong superintendent, strong
- leaders in our corporation that it makes our job wonderful. We have a really good position where we
- are. We have a very strong board and I just, I really appreciate your goals and there's, you are true
- to each goal.
- every year and get stronger and stronger every year, and I'm glad for that. I'm excited for the out-of-state
- overnight trips for our students, you know, giving them something to look forward to for all of their
- dedication and their hard work after school, before school, during summers. They work extremely hard,
- and I will always support our students being able to have those moments to be with one another in
- become stronger as a team, as their groups go along. Thank you so much for your work. I know it's very
- difficult and we support you in your job. Of course, if there's things that we can do and change and
- make things better for you, we will do everything in our power to do that.
- We'll just continue to keep strong. We'll continue to stay steadfast in our movements forward with our
- corporation. And we're gonna fight tooth and nail to continue to bring forth everything that our students
- and staff deserve. Mr. Cutler. To get on to what's been said about the concern of the legislature. I
- don't think anything's gonna magically happen this year, because it's a short session.
- Hopefully, you start the process and we get some people that will pay attention to what's going on and
- the good things that are going on with the mandates they're putting down with the career pathways and
- so forth. A lot of those are unfunded mandates which those wear me out. So hopefully, the powers to
- be will get their attention, they'll listen better. Thank you to everybody behind the scenes, Ms. Tate
- and Paul and Ms. Barrett, Dr. Sanders.
- an hour asking questions before the board meeting and they answered my questions very well and I appreciate
- their patience with me and I apologize for my incessant questions but I think we have a lot of great
- things going on here. I do want to thank Ms. Barrett also for the asynchronous and what was the other
- word, asynchronous? Yeah, the three days in writing, you know what, you're erring on the side of kids
- and you can't go wrong with that.
- It's a gray area, it's in writing. Let's use some common sense with that. And I'll finish with a quick
- story, and I promise, Jimmy, it won't be for a half hour here. Got a call from a lady last week. She
- was from Wisconsin, and she was an attorney about a situation on identity theft thing. And we start
- talking, because I like to talk, Jimmy. And I said, well, my first career, I was principal at Edgewood
- High School, and she goes,
- Are you kidding me? I said, no. She goes, I was there in 1987 for Contest of Champions. She was from
- some school in Sullivan, Illinois. And I said, oh my gosh. She goes, that place was rocking. And I said,
- yep. I think it's going to be again this year at the end of January. So it made a depression on somebody
- from somebody in Wisconsin to start out in Illinois. So that'd be a lot of excitement here at the end
- of the month.
- Hopefully, they don't spill much Coke on the new gym floor. Thank you. As always, appreciate everybody
- coming tonight. I did want to touch on the reorganization committee. I believe that there's seven from
- the township, or three from the township, three from this town. And those would elect the seventh person,
- which they chose Dr. Sanders for that position.
- So he's sitting on that board and, you know, I do applaud the reorganization committee for appointing
- Dr. Sanders to let the school have a voice and let the school, you know, let them know. SEA 1 has butchered
- the town. It's hurting, you know, it's already started hurting the schools and it's just gonna get really worse.
- the way things are set up right now. So we do have to try to work together to get through this. So like
- I said, I am disappointed. We don't have an idea upfront what it was gonna be, but I do know that there
- are appointing committees and getting those together and they're gonna be looking into those things.
- We have policy analytics looking into it for us. So our independent look at it. So what I, you know,
- I just hope everybody
- keep their minds open because we're in really weird times when it comes to local governments and so
- in schools. So just keep open minds, listen, pay attention, get involved, follow what's going on. Because
- I think it's gonna be important because we wouldn't be as good as we are if we didn't have such a great town.
- And the town wouldn't be as good as it is if it didn't have us. So we have to work together. So I think
- that's a great way to look at it going forward. The other thing, I just want to say I was excited to
- hear how the preschool's doing. I'm just so glad that trying to toe the line on the rates.
- One thing we may have to think about at some time is do we need help supporting the preschool? And what
- might that look like? Because there's a lot in our community that still can't afford what we charge.
- So how do we help them? So just keep your minds open, keep your eyes open, keep your ear to the ground,
- Be sure you know what's going on here locally. So we appreciate everyone coming tonight and go Hoosiers.