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.