- I will call to order our regular monthly meeting. This is the June 2026 Richland Bean Blossom Community
- School Corporation monthly meeting. And we do again welcome you all here. We already pledged our allegiance
- to our flag. And the roll call remains the same with the board members that are present. And once again,
- there's visitor comments.
- Visitors that. I had to. Yeah, Christy Alderson. If you please come up to the microphone. Now the microphone
- is not does not project your voice in the room. It is for cats and so feel free to project your voice.
- We may hear you. I am Parker.
- Hello, we I'm Christie and this is Brad and we're both members of the music warehouse 50th reunion committee
- and we've been working hard this entire year on putting together a celebration that will be July 25th
- in our high school auditorium that will celebrate 50 years of music warehouse and the legacy of vertus
- linkered. So we
- We have started a petition and kind of been talking about this to members of the community, members
- of the alumni groups and each other about the possibility of renaming the auditorium after Virta. So
- I wanted to, I know I did send this letter via email, but I'd like to read it to you.
- Dear Dr. Sanders and members of the school board, 2026 marks the 50th anniversary of Music Warehouse,
- Edgewood High School's mixed show choir. Over those five decades, hundreds of students have been part
- of the program as performers, instrumentalists, and stage crew, traveling coast to coast while earning
- more than 35 grand championship honors and countless additional honors. Beyond those accolades are the
- memories made, lessons learned, music performed, and friendships built in rehearsals, travels, and reunions.
- to mark the golden anniversary of Music Warehouse and celebrate the founder of the group, Verda Savage
- Slinkard. Alumni are planning a special reunion event in July.
- As part of this milestone occasion, Music Warehouse alumni respectfully proposed an official renaming
- of the Edgewood High School auditorium to something that recognizes Virta's contributions at Edgewood
- High School. This honor would affirm the commitment Virta has made to the program over the years, including
- her recent tenure as interim director of the high school choir program, as well as her impact in the
- choral education community.
- In addition to founding Music Warehouse in 1976, Virta also established the Sophisticated Ladies Show
- Choir, Edgewood Singers, and two large annual events, Contest of Champions, Edgewood's annual show choir
- competition, and the Tisza Season Holiday Concert, both founded in 1993. She continues to be an active
- competition judge and clinician for choirs nationwide.
- Many of Verda's former students have gone on to careers in education and music because of her guidance
- and support during their formative years. The alumni committee as well as numerous alumni hope this
- recognition may be considered and approved in a time for a formal celebration at the July reunion event
- and respectfully ask that the board to consider the matter and vote to approve the naming. Our research
- has shown that this recognition may be accomplished with an affirmative vote of the school board.
- On behalf of the alumni of the entire Edgewood High School Choral Department, your consideration of
- this request is appreciated as well as your continued support of music and arts education. Thank you.
- Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Is there anybody else that we might have missed? Thank you very much.
- I appreciate that.
- That concept has been brought up before and I think it deserves some contemplation. So thank you for
- coming out. Next, we have our consent agenda. We have the approval of minutes.
- from our May 19th, 2026 regular school board meeting. We have our treasury report for May, 2026.
- And Mr. Durnall, our claims please. Thank you, Mr. President. For gross wages on May the 8th,
- 2026 is $839,164.82. For gross wages on May 22nd, 2026,
- $859,447.63 for a total in that area of $1,698,712.45 for vouchers, claims, prepays from 5-1-2026 through
- 5-31-2026, $1,338,337.41 for claim and vouchers on 6-16-2026,
- $527,451.38 for a total in that area, $1,665,788.76 for a grand total of $3,364,501.21. Thank you, sir.
- Thank you very much. We also have personnel, resignations, retirements, non-renewals, leaves
- and terminations, C-1326,
- and personnel appointments and transfers, D, one through 54. Let's see. Let's see, there's nothing under
- E. And F, we do have out of state and overnight field trips, F, one through six. So we know what those
- are. Dr. Sanders, could you give us
- description of those trips. Yes and Jerry Bland our athletic director is here so if he has anything
- he wants to add or if you have any questions feel free to say so. So we have several of our athletic
- teams who will be going to have their camps this summer. Cross-country team is going to the Indiana
- Dunes for their camp July 13th through the 16th. The football
- will be going to Rose Hallman for their camp July 20th through the 22nd. Volleyball team is going to
- the Muncie Anna for their camp July 20th through the 22nd. Girls basketball team is going to Indiana
- Wesleyan for their camp June 16th through the 18th. And I don't know, since we have a new coach, we
- probably haven't decided about the boys.
- but that will be coming down the road. And then in addition to that, this is an annual request for fifth
- graders to go to Bradford Woods. The dates would be May 3rd through the 7th, 2027. Thank you very much.
- If I could clarify the item E, we're no longer listing students on the agenda, but there are some student
- appointments in the packet for the board to consider.
- Okay, all right, so within the packet for the board, only thank you for bringing that to our attention.
- There are some students for employment for educational purposes, and so for the students, confidentiality
- won't post those in the agenda, but since it is positions within
- the corporation, the board will still vote on them. So the board sees them within the packets, but they
- are not specified. So for those appointments that are in the packet under E for the board, those are
- being voted on as part of the consent agenda as well. So do we have a motion? I move approval of the
- consent agenda. I'll second. Moved and seconded. Any discussion?
- The hires the Appointments and transfers and I know we have some of them that will acknowledge here
- in a moment All those in favor say aye aye opposed motion carries and Dr. Sanders, I'll turn it back
- over to you. It looks like you have some recognition. Yes, so will be
- recognizing some of our new hires tonight and also in July. Tonight, we have Elizabeth Beth Sedwick.
- Beth, could you stand up real quick? By the way, each of the new hires, I told them they have a 30-minute
- talk to give. So Beth, you're first. Beth is our new payroll.
- specialist and she has just knocked our socks off in the short time that she's been here and she's going
- to be a very valuable member of the team. So welcome Beth. And then I think that I will let Jerry Bland
- come up and introduce our new basketball coach. Yeah, I really just want to start off by saying that
- We feel our basketball program is one of the better ones out within the state, at least opportunity-wise
- for coaches that didn't disappoint. We had over 20 applications for the position. We narrowed it down,
- the committee narrowed it down to four. We brought in those four candidates, and after those interviews,
- there was no doubt who our choice was going to be. I'd like to introduce Connor Basie,
- Connor comes to us from Crispus Attucks, state runner-ups a year ago. Still kind of sticks with him
- a little bit. But the energy level, the relationships he's already built with our players are
- very contagious. Also, the relationships he's building with our other programs. In the two weeks, he's
- kind of hit the ground running, literally
- We introduced him to the team on Wednesday and sent him to Vincennes on Thursday to play games. So I'll
- give him a second, but bottom line is we feel very fortunate, very privileged in the fact that we'll
- be introducing Connor to our school community and in our teaching classrooms. But the energy he brings,
- the relationships he brings, and really some of the toughness on the court, I think you're gonna enjoy
- to watch this winter.
- Connor Basie. I just wanted to thank everybody. You know, some of the board members were in my interview
- process. They were great. Mr. Sanders was awesome. You know, principal athletic director, assistant
- athletic director. Everyone's just been fantastic. Super excited to work with the guys. You know, it's
- been a whirlwind so far, but we've had a blast. We're going to have fun. We're going to play hard and
- can't wait to win and get the community involved even more.
- Thank you guys, thank you. And you even emailed me and told me what I, or texted me and told me what
- a great hire we had. So that was interesting. The last coach we had, our local radio announcer quoted
- the Jing Hackman line from Hoosiers. We're sure you're a God-fearing man, but do you play a zone or
- man-to-man defense?
- Okay, John Siglin, assistant principal at Edward Junior High School, has a number of folks he'd like
- to recognize. We've had a great hiring season. We appreciate you guys' support and being able to fill
- some positions that we had open this year. Autumn Daughtry is joining us from EPS. She's going to be
- teaching sixth grade ELA for us. Madison Shackelford, I don't think Madison's here.
- She'll be joining us as an eighth grade English language arts teacher. Caitlin Ritchie is here. She's
- gonna be joining us as a seventh grade language arts teacher. Sadie Baxter will be our new choir, show
- choir director, junior high. Rebecca Myers, I think she's in Aruba tonight. Kent's in Florida, and so
- here we are in Indiana. We're gonna enjoy tonight.
- And then we've got Alita Boltinghouse joining us as our seventh grade inclusion teacher. Welcome all.
- I was joking with the Boltinghouse family that last month it was Robert, tonight it was Alita, and I
- wanted to know who was next. Well, come to find out their oldest daughter is
- getting ready to do her student teaching. So we may be hiring her sometime down the road. Spencer. Well,
- welcome all of you. We're so glad to have you. And we're really looking forward to a great school new
- year next year. So very welcome. Great, somebody turned the light down. Temporary. Temporary. If I could
- jump in there.
- Christy and Brad, you're welcome to stay for the whole board meeting, as well as all of our new hires.
- We'll take what you shared with us tonight under consideration, and I'll talk to each board
- member individually, and we'll see what we can do. You're welcome to stay, like I said, but we won't
- be discussing that tonight. All right.
- And you're all welcome. The best part is the superintendent's report at the end. Thank you all. You
- all take care. Larry, it looks like the spotlight's on you now.
- I'll just duck a little bit and get out of it. Okay. Well, we're gonna move on to our construction update
- and we have Martin Fusdale here this evening to walk us through where we're at and where we're going.
- Thank you. As you know, we've got more than one project going on.
- And I'll go ahead and jump into it and start. The early childhood playground is complete. There's a
- view from the south. So in the last 60 days, we completed everything. I won't run through the list.
- There's a view from the north.
- Oops. And there's a playground in the US. Look at that big kid. He was held back once or twice.
- What we have, everything is done. On the left side you see the seed and straw. The seed and straw was
- done in June, which is not the most advantageous time to do it.
- So we probably won't see much growth in there until the, until fall. Other than that, everything's done,
- ready to go. Looks like he's tired. Another project we've got is a roof replacement and mechanical
- renovations. Excuse me. At the,
- At Junior High, we have both roofing and mechanical. At the Junior High, the submittals are done. If
- you recall, we did through wall flashing around the gym. The through wall flashing is complete. The
- masonry is complete. We have discovered that we need a little bit different coping detail, which is
- the edge metal around the top.
- We've reviewed that and the architect has approved our approach to that. That's something we'll do time
- and material. At the junior high, we also have mechanical. The mechanical, we've completed the submittals
- and getting the equipment on board now. This was the through wall flashing.
- The photo on the left is they laid down plywood to protect the existing roof while they were working
- on it. And it's a little hard to read, but what they did was took three or four courses of stone out,
- put new flashing through to the existing block behind it, and then brought that out. So this just shows
- the new flashing
- Once it's completed, the stone will be back in place and there'll be a piece of counter flashing, which
- is more cosmetic on the outside of it. And that'll clean it all up. But the flashing itself is all completed.
- The through wall is complete. At the next 60 days at the junior high, the entire roof membrane should
- be complete.
- Counter flashing should be complete and the coping Will probably complete Mechanical we actually started
- mechanical demolition yesterday They're receiving equipment now and in the next 60 days. We will continue
- and try to see if we can't get that completed That's basically just boilers at that building
- Roof replacement at the primary school. We started off at the high bays, which is the gymnasium, the
- cafeteria, the kitchen, those areas. We've got all the submittals in, the high bay areas are roofed,
- and we began the coping or edge metal on those high bays. At the intermediate school, same thing except
- for there was some damaged
- insulation and that was removed and replaced. We had an allowance in the contract for that, so you will
- not see that as an extra cost. And here you see them on the left, you see them running the membrane
- up and over the roof parapet. On the right, you're seeing a section of wet insulation being replaced.
- Again, we had thought that there was wet insulation on both buildings on their high bays and it only
- showed up on the intermediate school. So we're actually gonna have a little bit of money in our pocket
- to take care of some other issues. Next 60 days roofing, we're gonna try and get the whole thing completed.
- Now I will say we've had an extremely wet May and we are probably
- a week or so behind schedule right now. Worst case is they would extend out into the school year, but
- because we're just taking the membrane off and replacing the membrane, it would not be something that
- would be particularly disruptive. We're gonna try to catch those days up. Just doing all three of them?
- Yes. Okay, you've been happy with them thus far? I knew that was new when it came out of the gate.
- I wish they were moving a little quicker. They've been working Saturdays and Sundays, and they've been
- working from like 7.30 in the morning to 8 o'clock at night. What they do is they bring their crews
- up, they put them up in a hotel, and then they just work the heck out of them. But the challenge is
- if it looks like rain, then they don't bring the crew up.
- we're actually having a discussion about that tomorrow because they need to keep going. It looks like
- there could be some storms tomorrow. I think later in the day. I'm sorry? I think later in the day.
- Yeah. Yeah. So is everything for get secured in those projects? Oh, yeah. What they do. And that's one
- reason it appears that they're moving slow is they'll, well,
- You see they've got this section torn off and the replacement insulation in they only tear off as much
- as they can do in a day and if it looks like it's gonna start raining at two o'clock They'll tear off
- enough that they know they can get it covered by two o'clock so
- What you end up doing is if it looks like it's gonna rain a two, they tear off, they cover up, it doesn't
- rain till six, and you're going, well, what did you do for the last four hours? They can't take that
- chance. So that's one reason it's been moving slow. Softball turf, we did the bid process. You guys
- awarded the contracts.
- Contracts bonds and insurance are complete The application for permits has been completed and we're
- working with the town on that that's going a little slower than we thought it might and we Approved
- project signage that will go up and that signage looks something like that so that image will be on
- a a eight foot by six foot sign and
- Dr. Sanders had asked that we do one sign on the west side, which you'd see from the middle school,
- and another sign closer to the football field. So we'll have two signs out there. Those are fairly large
- signs, and that'll be the image that's on the sign.
- Hopefully we will get going. I've talked to the contractor. We want to get the fencing and what we call
- a SWIP, stormwater prevention and protection plan, which is all of the, everything to divert any silt
- or mud from the site, from going into the storm system. So the first thing we do is put that up
- Along with the fencing and then they'll get their equipment in we think that we think we can get the
- fencing up going this week, maybe early next week and Probably see some heavy equipment the following
- week What we've told the contractor is they need to have all their dirt moved Everything they're gonna
- bring out out everything that we're gonna bring in in as far as heavy trucks and
- before the first day of school. So that's kind of what the scramble is now. If they don't get that done,
- then they have to do it after school hours. So they're pretty motivated to try to get it done. You mentioned
- a mark about what we saw in New Palestine on the mount, the big mounds behind the softball using some
- of that dirt. I think Mr. Bolteau saw that too.
- Yeah, there's a there's a Palestine did it was really cool the way they set their diamonds up. Yeah,
- we're doing one for or I'm doing one for Yorktown right now where they're doing that. Yeah, because
- we already have the dirt anyway. So yeah, and we may have a little more dirt because the city's asked
- us to make the or the town has asked us to make the detention area a little bit bigger. So okay, that
- could turn into mounds. Okay.
- So in the next 60 days, we gotta get the fencing up. We gotta hopefully complete that earthwork and
- site drainage, because that's the trucks coming in and out. And then they'll begin the under drains
- and the actual artificial turf installation. That work will probably go on until Thanksgiving or maybe
- even a little longer.
- In addition to the renovations to the junior high and the high school, design development is completed
- and we've been doing what Lance has been calling AOCM design meetings and Dr. Sanders and yeah, Rick's
- still here. You guys have been attending those meetings. We had one meeting today
- My sense is that design is pretty well wrapped up at this point. We have, our estimating group has gone
- through the design development documents and we actually think it's down a little bit more from what
- we had at schematic. So we're comfortably below what our budget was for that work.
- We have a meeting in-house to firm up those numbers tomorrow. Unfortunately, we got the design development
- a little bit later than we thought we would. But it looks real good at this point. What we will do with
- the additions and renovations, we will complete page turns.
- And that's essentially bringing in the architect, the designer and the interested parties from the school
- and going page by page through the documents. That will happen before it goes out to bid. Bid documents
- are supposed to be ready July 3rd. We would complete receipt of the bids on August 6th. And then at
- your August board meeting, we would bring the numbers to you all for approval.
- And in the next 60 days, we should be to the point of awarding, of completing the contracts. That's
- all I got tonight. You mentioned that the town, we have trouble with the town getting stuff approved
- or what's going on there? I wouldn't say trouble yet, but we need to get it done fairly quickly at this
- point. Okay, are we getting them what they want or are they making it difficult
- They would like to revise, the storm drainage was approved. Bill Rigert and his crew, which I think
- you guys are familiar with, landscape civil engineers, ran everything through the town, got everything
- approved. They have come back and asked, after it's approved and after it's bid, they've come back and
- asked us to enhance
- the drainage retention a little bit. That just came up. The project based on what was approved, that's
- detrimental to the school corporation for them now to come back and. Well, what we're hoping, I don't
- wanna be a Pollyanna about it, but we're hoping is they want us to dig the tension a little deeper
- And that's what they want. The school has talked about wanting a mound in the outfield. And what we're
- hoping is the dirt that comes out to make the pond deeper creates a mound. And then they don't have
- to truck that off site. So we're thinking it may, as far as cost, it may, we got our fingers crossed,
- but we think it may be a washer. Okay. Okay.
- So that mount, what's described it? Yeah, I'll show you. I'll send you a picture, Dana, rest of the
- board. But when we were at the new Palestine, it was at a sectional regional game. We noticed that beyond
- the outfield was a mound that had a flag on it.
- And it was grass. And there were people that were sitting up there watching the game from the mound.
- And it just looked like a great idea to use the dirt coming off of the field and create that mound.
- It's a great visual for the community. But the flag and all, it just looked really nice. I got excited
- about it. Robert got excited about it.
- I mean, my idea was to put it between the softball and baseball field, just have one mound. And I think
- that's how they had it at New Pal too.
- but knowing that back on that drainage at the high school baseball diamond, whatever project it was
- about six years ago, there was some drainage problems going across that road. It was getting those,
- the people's yards. So we'll make sure that's all been rectified and addressed. So is that what the
- town was talking about? That's what the town's talking about. Yeah, that was created some headache for
- those folks that live there. Well, Larry, you're right. That's where you live. Those houses down from
- you over there.
- Right. It was coming from the baseball diamond, right? It's probably too much detail, but at the baseball
- diamond, we have drainage under the diamond, right under the baseball field itself to get water away
- from the field so you can play immediately after that type of thing. And the drainage was sized to create
- detention of that water so that flows slowly out from underneath the fields. So, toward the northwest.
- So, the way the designer has it, it should, as designed now, it should have some less impact on that neighbor
- But what we're talking about is maybe even being able to reduce it a little bit more. Okay. Yeah. But
- I had something to do with the backstop and the new bleachers, I thought. Yeah, there's always been
- a problem. Okay, it's you know, the school was here first and I know they built that and there's always
- been a problem. We didn't. We've not done anything to make it worse. Okay.
- All right. And we have mitigated it. Yeah, we've done several things to try to help through the years.
- OK. So we have been responsive to the extent we could. We looked into it one time, and it was like a
- million dollars to put in. Right. I remember that. It was like, wow.
- When you get to underground stormwater, the price goes up really fast. Yeah, I mean, if it's not that
- significant of a cost, you know. Well, I'm not promising there's no cost, but we're going to try to
- balance. I said no significant. Yeah. Well, it depends on what you consider significant. I realize there's a cost.
- All right, well thank you, I understand that better now. All right, thank you very much. Next begins
- our action items, and we have consideration to approve a new position for a K-12 mental health coordinator,
- Dr. Sanders. Yes, and Board, if it's okay, can we talk about
- both of the seven, number seven and eight at the same time, and then you could go back if you want to
- and vote on them individually. We can take them together. Okay, okay. Because it just kind of all goes
- together. You know, our school corporation, we're just in a continual mode of trying to improve and
- get better.
- So we're constantly evaluating what we're doing, how we're serving kids, how we're serving teachers,
- and looking at ways to maximize the funds that we have available to us. And so we were looking at adding
- these two positions, which really is just in the end going to be adding one person.
- We have some people in current positions that we would like to transfer to these new positions. And
- so we've adjusted some job descriptions to better meet the needs of our students and our teachers. And
- so one of them is the K-12 mental health coordinator position.
- This is something that Jennifer Barrett took over from Jennifer Anderson when she left. But we felt
- like it's hard for Jennifer and I to do a great job
- leading a program, an individual program, with all the items that are underneath our umbrella. And so
- we felt like to better meet the needs of our mental health program, it would be better if we had one
- person who oversaw the K-12 mental health program
- Jennifer will be taking on some additional duties also this year and in terms of Megan Scott is leaving
- us and so Jennifer will be taking on some of those duties that Megan did which would be really
- that we need to do is we need to do is we need to be overseeing our teacher evaluation model, mentor
- teaching program, HRS monitoring and certifications and so we need to adjust those items on Jennifer's
- plate and we kind of knew that last year when Matt Erwin left and we assigned his duties
- would have to make some adjustments anyways. This helps us make those adjustments. And we have somebody
- in mind who has a mental health background, both in education and experience. She's already doing a
- lot with K-12 mental health. And so she will be taking on the K-5
- position also. We of course do all the requirements for posting the jobs but that's kind of the direction
- we want to go with that position. We have a significant mental health team that as you know you've all
- been part of it over the years as we've gone from almost having
- Hardly anything related to mental health that now we have a very Exceptional team that continues to
- to evolve and get better and we think this is the next step And making that happen having a k-12 mental
- health coordinator This position will be paid for out of the smart grant the other positions position
- that we've
- I guess it's two really. But the other positions that we wanted to add were the EPS and EIS student
- success coordinator position. And this has evolved really from a model that we started with
- Edgewood junior high school in terms of we have a principal and an assistant principal and We added
- a dean of students to address behavior issues so this frees up the principals and
- the principal and the assistant principal to be able to devote more time to supporting the teachers
- in terms of quality observations, being able to meet with teachers, do professional development with
- teachers, communicate with parents, all the things that are under a principal's umbrella, they will
- have more time to address those areas.
- That model has worked out really well. A few years ago, I had some teachers who approached me about
- some concerns with discipline issues, and there was no complaint whatsoever about the principals. What
- they shared with me was the principals are doing all that they can and more. They're just not enough of time
- in their schedule to be able to really address some of these needs. And like I said, it's worked out
- really well. And we've been trying to figure out how do we do that same model at the elementary level?
- Of course, you know, you don't hear of dean of students at the elementary schools. And so we were trying
- to look at our needs for the school
- And we came up with the idea of utilizing our student service coordinators that we had at the elementary
- school, both schools, EPS and the IS, to address and meet these needs that the elementary schools have
- just as well as the junior high did in terms of
- You know, as a teacher and you have a situation in your classroom with a student who is experiencing
- trauma or experiencing a crisis or having a behavioral issue, teachers need that support from administration
- in terms of being able to address those needs with the students. And if you have principals that
- that just don't have enough time in their day to spend time with these students and by spending time
- I mean you can't just spend five minutes with a student and send them back to class. It oftentimes is
- something that you have to dive deeper in with the student. You have to have conversations with them.
- You need to address any mental health issues or crises that's going on in their lives, and it takes
- time. And if I'm a principal and I'm required to go out and do so many observations, and I
- have my responsibilities of meeting with teachers, and just all, like I said, it's under umbrella of
- a principal,
- you're just not going to have time to really provide that support and truly support our teachers. It's
- harder today than ever, I think, to be a teacher. And in our school corporation, we're having an increase
- in enrollment. We're also having an increase in behavior issues. And so it's just a need that we need
- to address.
- Of course, with the financial situation that our school corporation is in, like many other
- school corporations, yes, we need somebody like a dean, whatever you want to call that position, but
- how can we afford that financially? And so we had one of our student services coordinators, she,
- is moving out of state. And so the idea came to us to take her position and rework the job description
- to put in more responsibilities for dealing with behavior issues, still incorporating the mental health
- team into the process and freeing up
- the principal and the assistant principal, like I said, to do all the other tasks that's underneath
- their umbrella. And so the student services position, the person who left that position, that position
- was funded out of the SMART grant. And so we had a K-5
- mental health coordinator in Jordan Truax, who was over the primary school and the intermediate school.
- So bottom line is we would like to see Jordan Truax. He will stay on and be one of our student success
- coordinators only at the intermediate school. He'll have a new job description.
- For the primary school, we won't replace the person who is in that position, but what we'd like to do
- is transfer somebody within EPS into this new student success position. And so pay for that position
- out of the smart grant. So in essence,
- We're replacing a position at EPS, adjusting the job description. Money will still come out of the smart
- grant. The only thing we'd have to do at EPS if we transfer the person we want to is replace them the
- position that they're currently in. And then for EIS, if we would transfer just
- he will continue to come out of the smart grant. So in the end really the only position we would have
- to hire would be a teaching position at the primary school
- Both of those positions, we would save money in education fund based on years of experience and the
- people we might be able to hire. So that's a lot of information. And maybe I lost you along the way,
- but feel free to ask me questions and I'll be glad to clarify anything. I guess my question, you're
- talking about having motion. Yes, thank you.
- 7 and 8 consideration approved new position K12 mental health coordinator consideration to approve new
- position EPS EIS students 6 success coordinators. I'll second. I just I want to make sure I'm clear
- here and I think you suggested that there. The creation of new positions. How many?
- total new positions are we talking about? And are we cutting other positions in tandem with that? We're
- really taking for the student success coordinator position, what we're really doing is taking the student
- services position and giving it a new title and adjusting the job description. So the other position
- just kind of goes away. Right. And then the K-12 mental health coordinator
- would be a new position. It would be a new position. Yes. The the person we have in mind has been doing
- the. K the 612. But by taking on K to 12 that would become a full time position for her and the counseling
- position we would have to hire counseling
- Thank you. Is it possible? I mean, I mean, I'm in support of this. Is it possible to get a budget breakdown
- of the smart grant and the seeds grant to see where we're at with our budget? Because this sounds well
- good, more support we can give, but I don't want to be in a position a year from now, two years from
- now that there's no money. And then we got to start riffing teachers. That's what I'm big. That's I
- want to see how much money is left in those two grants. And I know we're always looking for new grants,
- is awesome but if we don't get a grant one year I just want to make sure the K-12 coordinator sounds
- like a little bit of duplication also but if I could see maybe how the hierarchy works like because
- I know we have the special ed director also yeah with the with the K-12 program what they're that person
- is going to be taking on is a lot more administrative responsibilities too I think I put that in there
- for you guys but
- the K-12 person would take on the mental health grants, the evaluating the grants, and we have some
- other needs that we were trying to find somebody to fill in to a need that we have, and one of them
- is a guidance counselor specifically for the EDGE
- And we've also been thinking about having a, starting a virtual academy for students. A lot of schools
- are starting to go towards that, where it's basically going to high school online. And as more of our
- neighbors,
- go towards something like that, the more they could pull students away from us. So we're trying to navigate
- that to that potential of having a virtual academy. And this person would help with not only the edge,
- but also with having this potential idea of a virtual academy.
- We don't have a virtual academy right now. It's being investigated, but a lot of schools are, there's
- a lot of schools in the state are looking at, I get it, because there's a way to get more funding. But
- if this person is the right person, they can get the grants to help keep these programs going. Because
- I'm all for having the success coordinator at the primary and intermediate schools. I think that's very
- helpful for the administrators.
- but it seems like it's a duplication of efforts here. I just wanna make sure. I just wanna make sure
- the hierarchy all fits together. The mental health coordinator is gonna be overseeing the program. We'll
- still have therapists and counselors and the school psychologists in training that will be meeting directly
- with students. So will they be over those school psychologist trainers also?
- the K through 12 mental health coordinator will be. Yeah. Okay. So do we need to replace the junior
- high counselor? Can we, can we absorb it somehow? No, they need that. They need two counselors.
- We tried that. We tried that when I first got here, uh, they had gone to a one and a half counselors
- at the junior high and that just, uh, I mean, I know we can't do it, but we got to make sure we're going
- to get, we got to tighten our belts. That's what I'm really nervous about two years from now.
- I'm really worried about it. And Brad, you know we're doing that. And that's why we are taking advantage.
- If we didn't have these grants available, we wouldn't be talking about this right now. And the other
- thing that I think is special about Edgewood is where we're located and the partnerships that we've
- established with Indiana University that
- I don't look for that partnership to go away. And when we first got our, received our first million
- dollar mental health grant, it was like, oh my goodness, we'll probably never get one of these again.
- And we have time and time again. And we're going to keep doing that and utilizing those grant dollars.
- two different schools of thought with grants. Some school corporations, they don't wanna take the risk.
- So they just don't, they're not very aggressive with grants. And in my opinion, that's not the way to
- go because you miss out on a lot of money that you could pull into the school corporation to meet your
- students' needs.
- And thankfully, we have a good, excellent board that's very innovative. Some of the things that we've
- done here in the corporation, starter coffee shop, innovative learning center, all the student
- run businesses, that's thinking forward. That's part of who we are, being a caring, daring, and preparing
- school corporation.
- When we say that we're using grant money, that's not just kind of crossing our fingers and hoping that's
- something we work hard at to make sure we have those dollars available. So I completely understand where
- you're coming from. And we definitely want to make sure that we're always keeping our financial situation
- at the top of the,
- the heap in terms of what's taking on our attention. And we, and as you know, other conversations we
- had where we're working to save dollars and other places to reduce the expenses that we have in the
- school corporation. And we're going to continue to do that. That's just kind of a regular ongoing thing.
- So I'm just saying all that to kind of give you a little more assurance. Right. And I hate that we're
- putting this position, but the legislature has
- has done this to us. And we're blessed where we're at. We really are. We really are. All right.
- Thank you. And we will get you the breakdown for you. And I think some additional information in terms
- of just with all these changes we're talking about, how does the flow work in terms of
- What does our mental health team look like? And who's doing what? And how many students are we serving?
- And how much time do they devote to students? We want to get a report to you in one of the future board
- meetings on that. It might be nice to have kind of an administrative work chart. Yeah. Just to see.
- And that's exactly what I was going to bring up. I really want to see how this works, because we've
- got so many different positions.
- And so many, you know, the health team went from, like you said, basically very small to a nice team.
- But I want to make sure that when you have a nice team that you're not having a lot of nice team meetings
- and not working with kids, you know. So I'd like to see, you know, how much of these jobs
- are they actually working with students, you know, maybe percent-wise or something. How much of your
- time are you spending actually, you know, working, you know, one-on-one or one with a group or however
- it is, and what do these, you know, different positions do? How is a psychologist in training different
- from a therapist, different from a counselor, different from a social worker, different from a...
- You know, it doesn't have to be elaborate, but, you know, kind of, you know, what do they do in layman's
- terms, so to speak, you know, to really get
- And I think it would be great for the community to know too, and for parents to know, look, it could
- even be part of our marketing materials. Look, this is our mental health team. This is what Edgewood
- Schools provides for our students.
- And, you know, and then along with that, if it's marketing, this is how you can link into it. This is
- who you can go to to see that your student's taken care of, that their needs are met, and to make sure
- students, you know, get referrals and get into these things. But I'd like to see how that plays out,
- how that hierarchy, how that flowchart, so as you will, whatever, looks like. I'd like to see
- you know, how much of this is grant funded? You know, it'd kind of be nice to know how much of our positions
- period are grant funded. Because I know that these funds for seeds and for smart are federal grants
- that go, you know, to others that give us the grants that flow through others. And so, you know, the
- federal government has cut back on a lot of
- grants and so what happens if they cut back? So you know how much time do we got left on these grants?
- Are we spending now money that may have allowed this grant to go on another year or two or is it money
- that would have we would have lost because we didn't you know take out the programs or are we cutting
- our program off because we
- spent too much early on, you know, kind of get an idea of that to make sure that we're balancing it
- some. And I too, like Brad has said, worried about being able to continue with these positions and what
- happens when we can't.
- We fall in hard times, which we're really worried about the budget, you know, in two years from now
- and beyond, unless something significant happens to change that. So if we're working, worried about
- that, what if we don't have positions that those people are actually suited for, that they can go into,
- you know, then, you know, I think that we've gotta be
- I don't think that the board can say, we 100% guarantee we're going to have something. Would the board
- and administration try 110% of their ability to try to make it work? Yes, definitely. We care for our
- people. We want to support our people. We want to do what we can. But when you have a position that's
- grant funded,
- you've got to realize that there is a little bit of risk that's involved with that. And so I think that
- we've got to understand that and be careful because if three years from now the grant runs out and it's
- the same time or we're going through some times where we're having to reduce staff,
- you know, that's gonna be difficult. And so people just gotta know, and everybody knows anyway that
- if we have to reduce staff, it's gonna, everybody's in the same boat of being in difficult times. So
- I just wanna make sure that we're transparent with that and we're not, you know, making promises
- you know, are we making promises to work hard? Are we making promises to do our best? Are we making
- promises that, you know, these are our people and we care for them and we want to do everything we can
- for them? Yes, we'll make those promises. So, you know, so that's on there. So it wouldn't, so that's,
- those are the concerns that,
- that I have that I just don't want to promise too much, but I'm happy to promise that I do everything
- in my power to try to make sure that this works out as best that it possibly can. And education, that's
- a dilemma. Your analogy there points out, it's very valid, points out
- something we really have to deal with almost every school year. And that's in terms of like when you're
- monitoring your class sizes and you're getting closer to the start of the school year. And I've been
- in conversations when I'm across the table from a principal and the principals trying to tell me how
- much the classroom class size average is going to increase.
- because of the increased enrollment, and then I've got to make that decision, a hard decision of,
- you know, the financial side of that, okay? I definitely, as an educator, see the needs side of that,
- but I also have to make that decision in terms of the financial impact, and education is just a unique
- organization in those terms. And so,
- There are times where, you know, you hire a new teacher right at the beginning of the school year and
- there's always that possibility that the state's gonna cut our funding and that new teacher that you
- just hired might not, they might be put on a riff list. I was, when I was a teacher after my first year
- of teaching,
- I was put on such a list and I was told it's just a technicality but that didn't mean anything to me.
- I was still on that list and it didn't feel good. So yeah, there's a lot of things we have to consider.
- So all valid points. Yeah, yeah. Like I said, I just want to be transparent and not, you know, I just
- want people to know that I and I appreciate the
- the work of trying to move things around to make this work. So I appreciate the hard work that goes
- into that. Let's call the question. Call for the question. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed?
- Motion carries. Okay.
- way you're going to hear from me a lot tonight with Jennifer Barrett. She's I think she's in Chicago
- or Detroit right now coming back with the German team. The group of students who went to Germany and
- so. You got me tonight. I saw Facebook videos of her with a group of students were dancing. It looked
- like they were having a wonderful time, but still think she ought to be here.
- Okay, consideration to set a deadline for enrollment of transfer students. Yeah, this is a annual request
- to the board. It's required by state code and policy that we need to set a date for a deadline for accepting
- transfer requests and that deadline for next year is being recommended as May 21st.
- which essentially we're saying we would accept transfers throughout the school year as long as they
- meet the requirements set forth and classrooms have not reached a maximum capacity. I move approval
- of setting the deadline for enrollment of transfer students. I second. Moved and seconded. Any discussion?
- All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries.
- on to establish the accepted number of transfer students. Right, this is once again required by school
- board policy 515111. And we set the classroom sizes for K to 24 to one, grades three, five, 27 to one,
- grades six to eight, 30 to one, grades nine through 12, 30 to one. And then we've added
- Capacities for our journeys classroom k2 and 3 7 would be 8 to 1 and Grades 8 to 13 would be for the
- journeys classroom would be 10 to 1 now We also being educators of
- try to factor in, like we just were talking about, the needs of students, the needs of our schools.
- But these are the numbers that we're setting. If we were to have to maybe adjust any of that, we would
- come back to the board and ask permission. No approval of the accepted number of transfer students.
- Moved and seconded, any discussion? No, I'd just like, Dr. Sanders, thanks for your chat about that.
- That's a starting point, but we may have to tweak
- If we have one or two kids over, we're gonna make it work. Right. Right on. Thanks. All those in favor
- say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Now we're looking at a first reading of the revisions to the
- policy. This is volume 38 number two. I am really glad when that sun goes behind the clouds. I could
- see you guys actually.
- So as maybe for the public who might be watching, we utilize a company called Neola that works with
- a law firm, Lewis Capus, that as the state makes changes to state law, if there's change to law based on
- the court system. They monitor all that and then they recommend to us adjustments that we should make
- to our board policies. And so this is Neola policy volume 38 number two in the board packet with a summary
- of each of what we're asking to change on or adjust on each policy and also on the board packet where
- where you can see the actual policy. I would like to make note, and this kinda goes to the handbook
- also, but one of the new state laws that was approved by state legislators was, it was Indiana Code 20-26-5,
- dash 40.7, which basically states that students, if they have their cell phones at school, they have
- to be turned off and stored. We were also given the option from Neola to say cell phones aren't allowed at all.
- That was one of the choices that we could have made under the law. But we chose to go with that students
- can bring their cell phones to school, but they have to be turned off and stored away. And for what
- we want to do at Edgewood, and we've talked about different ways to
- how you might store the cell phones. One option that was discussed was students would have to keep them
- in their locker rooms or the lockers. Some schools are going, they're buying these little pockets that
- they could put them in in a certain location in the school. And what we're going to do is we're going
- to allow the students to have their cell phones in their book bags.
- But they have to be turned off and stored away, so they can't have them out at all. And if they do take
- them out, and we would enforce it, and this is related to the handbook,
- made some put some language in there what happens if a student violates that that rule which means they
- would have their cell phone confiscated and take it to the office and The parent would have to come
- in and pick up their phone multiple violations of that rule It would be like any other violation of
- a rule it would have a kind of a
- a scale of, you know, how often they would be violating that rule and the consequences would just become
- more significant along the way. We just want to make sure, too, because I, as we would all imagine,
- this would probably be very unpopular rule, but this is a state law that we have to follow, and we're, we,
- believe that students need to have their cell phones for especially after school activities and in cases
- of emergency. But so we're trying to find, we're trying to combine state law with some common sense
- too in there with our policy. Now I'll say this, this policy and the language in the handbook,
- It might change, because if we put all this into practice, and when you put something into practice,
- you learn from that, and so we might have to make an adjustment. Hopefully it works out just perfectly
- fine, but there may be a chance we come back and say, hey, we need to tweak the language here or there.
- So the old policy that we're talking about tonight is on first reading.
- You take a look at all the policies. If there's other items that you have questions about, let me know.
- And then at the July board meeting, we'll bring all this back and ask for your approval. OK. Any questions?
- My last year of teaching, we had a cell phone ban, except that students were allowed to use them during
- passing periods and lunch.
- from my perspective, it was not a problem. I think the important thing is the administrators and the
- teachers need to be on the same page and that there's consistency throughout. It will be a little tougher
- if the kids can't get to them during lunch. That'll probably be your biggest headache, but I don't think
- it'll be as dramatic as some people fear. No doubt there will be some issues, but I think we will handle it.
- Yeah, I am concerned about enforcement, too. I just hope that it's consistent across the board so that
- everyone's treated consistently. Larry left after I did, but my last year here, the rule was if you
- had a cell phone, parents had to come and get it. That gives us a chance to meet the parents. We're
- not always happy. But that was the guideline at the time.
- I think I'm glad that we're using some common sense, Dr. Sanders. Yes. And we'll put some responsibility
- on the students. And just as long as all the K through 12 administrators are on board, I'm good with
- it. Yeah. Moving on to consideration to approve the status quo classified employees agreement. Yeah.
- And this is just a formality for our classified staff that are on a contract.
- we're not going to be able to do that since we often don't make decisions, budgeting decisions and bargaining
- decisions until the fall we are we need to bring to the board these status quo contracts that are technically
- from July 1st,
- revised contracts back to you for approval. So for tonight, I'm just asking you to approve these status
- quo contracts. I move approval for the status quo contracts. I second the status quo contracts. Any
- discussion? All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Now let's look to the revision
- of the administrative guideline
- 4439 regarding holidays. Yeah, so this administrative guideline is outdated in terms of the Certain
- positions 12-month employees clerical staff nutrition services Corporation level staff That they received
- a paid holiday for Memorial Day well these positions now they're
- jobs are finished before Memorial Day. And so there's no need to pay them for a paid holiday. They're
- already off for the summer. So we just want to amend this administrative guideline 4439 to remove Memorial
- Day as a holiday pay date. Move approval of the revised administrative guideline. Second. Move and second.
- Any discussion?
- the calendar in the future were to get changed and we had to extend it later, we'd have to come back
- and revisit this. Hearing nothing else, all those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Next
- is consideration to approve corporation and the handbooks for the buildings. Yes, so Megan Scott, one of the
- She did a lot of good for our school corporation. Always with a smile. Yes, and one of the things that
- she really worked with the principals on this year is going through the handbooks and streamlining it,
- taking out language that really wasn't needed in the handbook and making it probably a more
- useful document for students and parents to find information instead of what they want to look for is
- so buried under information that's not necessary. So they addressed that. They obviously went through
- and made changes based on changes in the law. And Christine really helps us with that, going through
- the handbooks and telling us, hey, this code changed.
- Or this language change you need to change that language in the handbook. So all that's been done and
- These will obviously be on our website and as soon as we can get your approval tonight and So recommend
- your approval I move approval of the corporation building handbooks Second any discussion. I appreciate
- the kind of the
- The presentation so that we could find what the changes were it was yeah, it was easy to understand
- and it made sense to me All those in favor say aye aye opposed motion carries Next is consideration
- to approve the amendment to the superconduct Superintendents contract addendum and we had our public
- hearing before this meeting and again the addendum is to
- It alters the salary to 158,000 annual salary. And so this is the fifth amendment to the contract. And
- so like I said, we've gone through what the addendum was during the public hearing. Everything was properly
- public noticed. We followed the statutory process.
- And so I ask for a motion. As presented. I second. Moved and seconded. Any discussion? Hearing none,
- all those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Next, we will move to consideration to approve
- dual credit ACP agreement with Indiana University. Yes, this is a
- annual request that our counselors bring to the school board that we provide. We provide dual credit
- opportunities for Edgewood High School ACP courses with Indiana University and this is just a MOU to
- an agreement that enables us to do that. I move approval of the dual credit ACP agreement with IU.
- Any discussion? I just want to thank IU for the continued support of that ACP program. It helps these
- college kids tremendously when they go with credits in their back pocket. Well, and I saw the list of
- teachers that are teaching those courses, and those are superstars there. Absolutely. It's been wonderful.
- And it's just continued to grow. My daughter graduated.
- several years ago and she had pretty much a year of at IU completed before she graduated Edgewood. So
- it's just an amazing program and students can really, really take advantage of it. And she was involved
- in show choir and so many other things. So you can do that and still be involved.
- and many, many different things with the school. So kudos to that program and to IU working with us.
- Any further discussion? All those in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Now, last action
- item is consideration to approve MOU between Indiana University and RBB schools for the SEEDS project.
- Yeah, I'm actually going to ask the board to table that. OK, we'll table that. And so the previous one
- was our last action. And so we'll jump right into the business manager's report. And we have Debbie
- Tate this evening. Hi. Good evening. So I gave you guys our projections for the Education Fund and Operations
- Fund and where we're at currently.
- Right now, our projections for both of those funds, they're on target in line with everything we've
- been looking at. We still have, showing on the operations fund, a $500,000 deficit at the end, but again,
- and also with education, we're looking a little over 900,000. Again, like I've mentioned before, we're
- just constantly, we have these huge spreadsheets,
- looking at every single detail of all the staff coming in and out. I know we discussed it earlier, just
- looking at everybody, every person, all the details with the grants and everything, just making sure
- we can provide for that long-term and also looking at possible future opportunities that are out there.
- So that's kind of where we're at with that. In terms of knowing our full outlook,
- We're kind of thinking at the end of September we're gonna have a really good baseline with everything
- on our projections because we're gonna have a full month of Payrolls once the new people start once
- all the changes take place So that's gonna give us a really good place on where we're gonna land and
- really make some heavy adjustments if we need to So yeah, that's where we're at right now. So you guys
- have any questions? Yeah
- So as of right now, our projection is we're digging into our cash balance of one and a half million
- total, correct, between the two funds? Yeah. Okay, so that will help me sleep better seeing that, like
- we said, the balances of the different grants and which positions are funded out of that. Yeah, yeah.
- And we're blessed that we had a nice cash balance to begin with. Yeah, we are. Yeah, I know.
- So education, we're estimating 3.3 million and then operations 2.5, but we wanna make sure to protect
- that. Okay, and I wanna make sure that, I know the goal was when we did the teachers last year, we took
- that out of the rainy day fund is we make sure we keep that fund going as well. So appreciate what you
- guys are doing on that to work through that. Yeah, we're dissecting it and looking at every detail,
- trying to really protect that money.
- And then I had to think the day where the federal government was here, the Department of Ed Secretary,
- Lyndon McMahon, or the federal government's gonna hand off everything to Indiana, the state of Indiana,
- with those title grants. I'm a little nervous about the state gonna pass it through to us, or are they
- gonna try to change the rules? So we just need to watch that. Yeah, yeah. The reasons they have the
- information set to remember. That's, yeah.
- That's when things back in August. You can't really go into contracts and do over a year of training.
- You have to do that kind of stuff. So when you're starting a school year, you have some idea that it's
- a point in the old month, or even worse, the previous month. And that's why we're kind of anxious about
- that. I retired 16 years ago. And I'm thinking I should have stayed
- What's difficult here, and I gave rooms to the corporation, watch yourself. What's difficult here is
- for me, every month I get new debt through this printout, but every pot, every $9.80 salary, every benefit
- that they receive in dollars from that,
- And I know, at the end of the month, that's what this operation costs. Then I get this, tonight's June.
- There are 26 residential staff. There are 54 conditions point-way around. I'm going to go home tonight
- and take my sheet and burn it in my platform because it's still on the roof. And that's a challenge
- here. There's the challenge of heating up.
- I'm not saying the changes are wrong. They have to. Gary and I have discussed that today a little bit.
- You've got to lead up to people moving and the spouse moves, you believe. So you've got to replace it.
- The other challenge then for me and whoever's on health care is this is what this person costs. I'd
- like to see that. Here's what the replacement cost is. I'd like to see that.
- Because when I look at this, it tells me nothing financial. So we've got to get into a system that tells
- me, oh, I made an undergraduate this month, and all I cost this year is money. And that's what we're
- working, kind of working on. We're meeting next week to start talking about, again, about September
- and where we're headed. We know we have a million dollar problem.
- And we know we can't get a million in one year. But we've got to get half of it. We really do. If you
- don't get half of it, you're in trouble. Down the road. And you are blessed with a nice cash balance.
- Actually, both of us are talking about it. And yet, I'm really nervous about the education fund because
- that's just
- We have regular financial meetings that involve Debbie,
- Susan Shockney, Jennifer Barrett and myself and we've got a spreadsheet where we're monitoring, looking
- at ways that we can cut expenses and when we make those changes that Paul talks about, we see that and
- that's all part of our decision making process.
- It includes the salaries and the benefits on there. What we're gaining, what we're losing, and it gives
- us a total at the end to show our gains and losses between so that we can balance it out is what we're
- doing. We're almost better off than we were before in terms of we have more eyes on this than ever before.
- Coming from Debbie, who's overseeing the finances along with Paul.
- Susan Shockney, who's overseeing, making sure that we're, as far as HR responsibilities and making sure
- that we're doing things according to the teacher's contract or school policy. She's part of
- that conversation, of course, Jennifer and I. And it really helps me as superintendent to make decisions,
- having all those folks in the room, helping with that discussion.
- I don't know why we get so nervous when we have these new positions that come on and it just worries,
- really worries us. Any other questions? All right. Thank you so much. Thank you. Appreciate it. Appreciate
- you, Paul, and glad that we got team Debbie and Paul to help us.
- So, okay, now superintendent report. Yes, I'll try to make this quick. We're wrapping up summer school
- at EPS, EIS and the high school this week. Junior high will have their summer school the two weeks before
- school starts July 20th through the 30th. And I just wanted to,
- Brian got our nutrition services department once again. They provided free breakfast and lunch for our
- summer school students. They're implementing, they go after these grants that provide us with the funds
- to help feed our children over the summer. We have 650 children who are signed up for the summer meal
- pickup program. They receive
- Breakfast and lunch, five meals for breakfast, five meals for lunch per child. And this can run, it's
- already started, it goes through June 18th. So it's gonna be finishing up this week. Let's see,
- they also had, we're doing something pretty cool over at the high school this week. They have some,
- nutrition services experts. They're nationally recognized experts in K-12 school nutrition and culinary
- education. Kathy Powers and Chef Sam who are providing training to 43 school nutrition specialists,
- several from our school corporation, but many others. And then that provides
- our nutrition services department to be able to prepare healthier meals, meals that meet the changing
- guidelines. And so I think it's pretty cool that our new kitchen at the high school that we're hosting
- that event. And then I have to give a shout out to Alyssa Drews, who's once again doing
- Camp Invention, and it's a STEM-focused summer program. They're building claw machines, studying, taking
- apart robots, learning about Antarctica and optical illusions, and so that is going on this week. They
- have 145 campers. They have actually, this year they have 15 high school
- leadership interns who are helping out and 11 teachers or directors. And then this last item, I was
- just thinking about this recently. Our school corporation does a really good job in making sure that
- we're staying compliant with the law. And we do that through a variety of ways. Obviously we have the best
- corporation attorney in the country with us tonight. And Ferguson Law, Dave Ferguson, such a great guy.
- And we call on Christine all the time. And if we have special education issues or Title IX issues, we
- reach out to Jessica Heiser. She specializes in those areas. She's with Imprint Legal Group.
- I mentioned earlier tonight that we use Neola to help us with our school board policies and then we're
- active as a board and as a superintendent in attending law conferences. So I believe Larry and Brad
- just attended the, yeah, the ISBA law conference last week and we'll,
- They usually have one in June and one in December. I was on vacation last week so I couldn't attend
- that one. But I will be attending the IU Law Conference June 18th on Thursday. So I just say that and
- share that because I just want our community to know that we work really hard to make sure that we're
- doing things the way we're supposed to be doing.
- Thank you very much. RBBEA comments? Nobody's here this evening? All right. So board member comments?
- Mr. DeMoss. Yeah, I went to the ISBA. Brad and I went to the conference on last Tuesday. And it was
- very good. I think it's the best one I've been to. And much of the discussion was about cell phones,
- surprisingly enough. But yeah, it was very insightful. And then just welcome to all the new folks
- that are joining us and looking forward to the new school year. Mr. Durbel. Thank you. Same here. Welcome
- to the new hires. I was fortunate enough to be asked to be on the committee to look at a new basketball
- coach. And Connor Bayes just took our socks off, didn't he? I mean, just right from the start. So we're
- really tickled with that. Mr. Siglund, good to see you tonight. Appreciate you so much.
- Christine, yeah, thank you so much for taking care of us. I heard a disturbing announcement on the news
- either yesterday or today that 600,000 children this summer would go without regular meals. And that
- was just so disturbing to me, but I look here at 650, we've got right here in Ellitsville, Steinsville
- area, so it wouldn't take much to get to that half a million 600,000 students. So again, I think we're,
- Just in great shape, our school system is running well, our board is running well, and I appreciate
- you guys so much. So thank you. Mr. Tucker. I think Dr. Sanders, that's kudos to Ms. Coffee, correct?
- Because that's all run through the nutrition services, which is amazing to me that we're serving 650
- kids. That's 25% of our population, of our student population. So that's awesome.
- Best of luck to the new hires tonight. And again, Ms. Barlow, thanks for being there last week at the
- law conference. I will tell you, you sit with the Owen County people, so you build them, not us, just
- so you know. Okay, I knew you were gonna do that too. All right, so yeah, thank you. I needed to drive
- faster. Okay. I wanna say one more thing about Ms. Coffey. I know I've said this a thousand times. I've
- been on the board for so long. When we hired Ms. Coffey, the food,
- service was at a quarter of a million dollars in debt. And that's been 20 years ago, or at least 20
- years ago. So it's a great thing. She's built, bought a bus, and you know, it is fantastic. So I think
- that's it, Mr. President. Yep. A lot of square pizzas back in the day. A lot of square pizzas. That
- was about it for lunch. So yeah, she's done a great job.
- Yeah, it's difficult going last. I appreciate all the comments, and they were good. I appreciate the
- visitor comments. And whenever you name something, that's a difficult process to go through. I know
- we've talked about getting a policy together on how that might work.
- It's never come to fruition yet, but that's something we should work on sooner than later. And I do
- appreciate Dr. Sanders saying we would have conversations about that. And I appreciate them coming to
- speak what they felt. So appreciate that. I just want to brag on the,
- the students at graduation. It was a beautiful ceremony. Everything went so well. All the performances,
- all the speeches. It just was a really, really wonderful experience. And I just was so happy to have
- the honor to be a part of that. And it makes sitting up here and all
- stresses and things worthwhile because I know it's worth it in the end for those kids. So I appreciate
- y'all coming out tonight and this meeting is adjourned.