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.