All of us move in order. Thank you for standing. Start with the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance
to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under
God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you all very much. Please be seated. I'd like
to welcome you to the
first school board meeting of the 2026-2027 regular school year, the school year, wow. So I thank you
all for being here for our meeting tonight for the Richland B. Boston Community School Corporation regular
meeting. And please let the record reflect that all board members are present this evening.
And do we have any visitors like to comment? Nicole O'Neill. We ask that you please come up to the podium.
Please note that the microphones are for the cats recording and so they do not project your voice. So
if you could project your voice. Well, my name is Nicole O'Neill.
and I'm the mother of a child in the Journeys program at EPS. Journeys is a self-contained special education
classroom serving students with some of the highest support needs in our district. Historically, families
have viewed the program as appropriately staffed and stable. That is why what we encountered at our
back-to-school night was so concerning. We were informed that approximately 14 to 15 students would
be placed in Journeys with only one teacher of record.
We also learned that much of the staff was not only new to my son, but to EPS. In other words, a high
needs program was beginning the year with limited staff and little continuity. Our seven-year-old son
is autistic, nonverbal, and has high support needs. He has no reliable way to communicate what happens
to him during a school day. And as his mother, that is terrifying. I cannot ask him what happened, whether
he is safe,
or whether his needs were met. We were also concerned by the relocation of the Journey's classroom.
The prior room had an in-class bathroom to support student needs, reflecting a significant district
investment that was just made a year before, that was just put in. The new classroom did not include
that feature, so there was no bathroom to the room that they were moved to.
We were told the former classroom was being used as an adult space, which was kind of an odd decision,
which raised further questions for families about how program decisions were being made. And at that
point, we organized as parents, multiple families independently raised concerns. I believe it was eight
children, parents of eight children were concerned. And we came together and submitted a joint letter
to district administration.
and the district did respond, a second teacher and additional classroom was ultimately provided and
we appreciate the corrective action. However, those changes occurred only after families escalated concerns.
Parents should not have to organize and advocate in order for a high needs program to be appropriately
staffed and supported at the start of the school year. Our children require consistent specialized support
and they deserve that from day one. While we recognize the district's response and the circumstances
at the beginning of the year have really impacted our family's trust. The question now is what systems,
oversight, and safeguards will be put in place to ensure this does not happen again and to restore that
trust going forward? Thank you.
Hi, I'm Samantha Parker, in part speaking in behalf on the SPED parent community within the RBP school
systems. I have a few concerns regarding documentation, parent notification and physical safeguards
for our children. Moreover, on topics including medical events, incidents and accountability. To begin,
I would like to acknowledge the district's commitment to document applicable health related matters
in harmony and email when appropriate.
We as SPED parents have further requested that the safeguards and documentation systems are broader
than health documentation alone. Our children, your students, require additional accommodations that
children in gen ed classes may not need such as routine, consistency, and additional security or reporting
of incidences and injuries. This for us may include but does not limit to aforementioned incidents and
injuries, medical or safety events,
required parent notifications, follow-up and corrective actions, and other defined safeguards, which
may require more physical tangent means. One major concern we immediately noticed and are still actively
addressing with the primary school are on staffing, coverage, and documenting relevance when noting
significant events. What constitutes per legal guarantee an incident requiring documentation? Who determines
whether parents are notified
and within what timeframe? How are these conflicting accounts of an incident involved and what actions
will be taken to prevent this feed of miscommunication moving forward? It is detrimental for us to have
you, the board, understand that informal safeguards are difficult for parents, staff members, administrators,
and the board to audit or verify. For example, my child, for whom I can directly advocate for,
like several children in the journeys class elopes. This means they run out. She's also nonverbal and
has other essential needs that she requires throughout the day. The previous year, 2025, 2026 journeys
classroom, as mentioned before, had a bathroom installed as well as alarms that set off if a student
runs from the class. The secondary classroom to my present knowledge does not have either safeguard
in place and likely will not unless we speak further approval.
Another question I myself have asked the assistant superintendent why we do not have fencing around
the perimeter of the elementary grounds, much like we see in MCCSE or local school systems. The answers
that were given to me are one, what would the defined perimeter be as it would two, affect the games
played in recess or during outdoor games or additionally during outdoor gym or field days and three,
that there are teachers who stand out by the edge of the playground
Please be mindful that if a student, the school knowingly elopes and may not listen to verbal efforts
to halt the child like stop may not be effective and cause further safety and liability strife. One
thing parents requested for the school to include cameras within the classrooms to have such review
in case safety event were to occur in the instance you are unaware some behaviors are just so big that
the child may need additional assistance by an aid or teacher
could result in accidental injury. Cameras could then provide a safeguard for teachers, aides, and students
to support a case in which this may apply and aid supporting the school's liability and of which applies
in this scenario. For every safeguard, the family's written proposal can the district identify whether
it accepts it, rejects it, or has an alternative and identify what system creates an auditable record
for the safeguards occurred. The same need for
Objective information is one reason families propose cameras. Thank you Jeremiah O'Neill My name is
Jeremiah O'Neill father of a student the EPS journeys room You've heard tonight
how we got here, and you've heard some of the specific safeguards families have requested. I want to
focus my time on one question. Do we want a system that reacts when something goes wrong or one that's
designed to prevent them? I want to acknowledge that the district has responded to some of our concerns.
Changes have been made, and we appreciate that. But those changes also raise an important question.
Why did families have to identify these problems and organize before significant action occurred? These
are children.
with some sort of, they need the highest support needs in our district. Some cannot reliably come home
and tell their parents what happened to school. That makes objective accountability more important,
not less. We've seen serious allegations involving special education students in Indiana schools. I
want to be very clear, I'm not suggesting that that's happening here, but it does happen. The point
is that safeguards shouldn't be created after something terrible happens.
any of us families want to see something happen to our kids. That's why families have proposed two forms
of objective accountability. The cameras, if there's an injury, behavioral event, allegation, or conflicting
account, an objective record can protect the student, the teacher, the aid, the administration, and
the district. Digital communication and documentation. If an IEP safety plan, medical need, accommodation,
or other required support says something is supposed to occur, there should be a simple, auditable way
of document
documenting that it occurred. This isn't about assuming teachers are doing something wrong. It's about
creating a system where nobody, parents, teachers, administrators, or the board has to rely solely on
memory, verbal assurances, or conflicting accounts. And that brings me to the board's role. We aren't
asking five board members to operate a special education classroom. We're asking to provide oversight.
Ask how this program reached the beginning of the school year and the condition that it did.
ask yourself whether the safeguards that are currently in place are adequate, ask yourself if the district
verifies that the required supports are actually being delivered, and ask whether the solutions families
have proposed can make this district safer and more accountable before an incident forces us to have
a different conversation. We've met with administrators, we've written letters, we've proposed solutions,
and when the district has made improvements, we've acknowledged them. We're here tonight because we
believe the next step
is board oversight. A camera can tell us what happened. Documentation can tell us what was provided.
And oversight ensures someone is asking the right questions and seeing if the system is working. Our
children deserve a system that doesn't simply respond when something goes wrong. They deserve one that
was designed to prevent it. Thank you. Thank you very much. Mr. Chairman, is this a copy of what you
emailed last week? That's one of the letters. Yeah, we've read that.
I read the one that was emailed with some signatures on it. Okay. Thank you very much. Next we have
our consent agenda and it would be for the approval of minutes. It would be for the July 8th, 2026 special
board meeting, the July 21st,
2026 regular board meeting and the July 30th special board meeting would include the financial report,
treasurer's report for July of 2026. And Mr. Durnall, the claims please. Thank you, Mr. President. For
gross wages on July the 3rd, 2026 is $650,443.91. For gross wages, mini pay on July 16th, 2026 is $778.88.
For gross wages on July 17th, 2026 is $588,990.22. For gross wages on July 31st, 2026 is $588,774.98.
For total in that area, $3,882,987.99. For vouchers for claims pre-pays from 7-1-2026 to 7-31-2026,
$627,436.13 for claims, regular vouchers, August 18th, 2026 is $910,639.87 for a grand total in that
area, $4,538,076.00 for a grand total of $6,367,063.99. Thank you, sir.
Next, we have personnel. We have resignations, retirements, non-remunerals, leaves, and terminations,
C1 through 23. And we have appointments and transfers, D1 through 45. There are also some student
employment for educational purposes. We don't list those because of student confidentiality. And so
that is the consent agenda. Do we have a motion? Moved and seconded. Any comments? I'd like to comment
on Ms. Coffey's retirement in a year. That's going to be big shoes to fill. And I appreciate her letter
to the board
maybe some of her thoughts and recommendations that we can maybe take a look at. So kudos to her. I
know she's got another year to finish, but she's been a big part of what we've been doing here.
So thank you. And I believe Dr. Sanders would like. Yes, I want to piggyback on what Brad said about
Vicki Coffey. She'll be retiring at the end of this school year and that will make 26 years.
as our Director of Nutrition Services. And Vicki is going to become a consultant. She's already formed
a company called the Coffee Series. And Mrs. Coffee is known across the country. And so she's going
to be very busy traveling and going
schools all over the country. She's already been to Alaska and several other places and she has just
transformed our nutrition services. And when you think about somebody who cares about the students,
Vicki would be right at the top of the list. And she, they're her number one priority and
making sure that we're providing healthy meals, not only to our students, but to the community. And
I just really appreciate Vicki, I know we all do. Although she's not here tonight, just really wanted
to recognize her and her efforts and her hard work over the years. We'd want to piggyback on that as
well and just, you know, during
COVID and other hard times, you know, being able to support all the community, not just the school,
but all the community was a blessing that we were able to do that. And her diligent efforts in that
we greatly appreciate. Vicki was one of the first appointments that I made as an I, the board major
I came on as in August of 2020, I'm sorry, August of 2000.
But that department was a quarter million dollars in debt at that time. I mean, it's just unbelievable
how far in debt we were. And now she does everything for us, bought us a bus, and it's just fantastic
what she's done for us. So I'm sure her business will work out quite well. Yeah, a quarter million dollars
when you got on, that was a lot of money back then.
That's when I was here. That's when Brad was here. That's when we had a contract with Chicago's Pizza.
Prior to her coming here, we had breadsticks about three days a week and pizza, that was it. She's taken
it a long way since then. You see her ass, yeah. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries.
Now we'll move to our construction update and for that we have Martin Truesdale with us tonight to walk
us through.
I appreciate the chance to talk to you about it. We've got several projects in the works right now.
We've got the roofing project at the middle school and the two elementary schools. The two elementary
schools, the roof membrane is completely done and we're working on the edge metal. At the junior high
school, we still have some roof membrane to do.
That's probably, we probably got about 10 days worth of actual work days. Now that means we've got to
have 10 days when it doesn't rain. And those have been few and far between lately. We should be done
with the membrane in the next two to three weeks out there. Then what we have to do is the edge metal
and that's what you see from the ground.
The edge metal, we've probably got close to a month of edge metal left to do. The good thing about the
edge metal is it's not noisy at all, so there's no issue with working over classrooms. We're making
sure that the contractor has all the people vetted and through the Safe Vendor Program to be on the
roof now that kids are back in school. That's particularly important. We're behind where we would hope to be,
We're getting there we have had a little bit of issues out there one probably the primary one is the
water damage in the gymnasium We've talked to two different companies about replacing flooring in there
and Dr. Sanders, I think we're moving forward We're moving forward with that at this time and should
start on that sometime the
first or second week of September. We also have, with that, the boiler replacements. The boilers at
both the junior high and, did I say middle school before? Anyway, junior high and the high school are
installed. The high school's a little bit ahead of the junior high. We have to order some flues. Once
the boilers are in, you have to measure to order the flues.
Those have been ordered. That shouldn't be a long lead time. And at the junior high, we've got a little
more electrical work, plumbing work to get those in. We're getting pretty close to that and we should
be in good shape by the time we actually hit heating season. The other one we're working on right now
is the turf. We got a slow start on the turf.
but at this point they came in in the last week and a half, excuse me. They came in at the last week
and a half and got everything to grade. The next step we have to do is get in and get all the sub-field
drainage in. The contractor, the field turf who's the contractor has sub-contractors. The sub-contractor
for drainage
has been out, they've verified the grade and they're ready to start. Once they start, that'll happen
real fast. Our main goal is to make sure everything's done by the end of this year and the turf's in
so you can have them for next year. And I don't see any issues with having that done. It'll be ready
for the spring 2027. 2027, yes.
On the junior high gym floor, Martin, I saw it last week and is it about a third of the floors rippled
because of the water leak? Or more than that maybe? Yeah. Okay, and the bleachers won't come out, is
that right? It's essentially from the basketball court east. You can't bring the bleachers out now because
of the ripples? You can't? You can't. Okay, it looked like it was just tearing it up even worse. Can
we try it on too? Yeah.
Yeah, that's right. Okay, and that's what that's kind of what we're looking at is the drop down as we've
got to be done. The contractor would like to start either the first or second week of September and
their goal is to be done by the last day of October to do what? To repair the floor to repair it. What?
And this is this.
big chunk that's mitigated by the contractor, right, the roofing contractor? Time is of the essence.
So the first goal is to get the job started and then work on the percentage, if not the company paying
for all of it. But we have to get started on it now. We can't wait to negotiate
Who's gonna pay what or we could be in this situation for a year? But we do have our legal counsels
aware of this and we are we are going to get compensated We need to make sure it is their fault. Correct.
Well, there are conversations going on now they have to obviously work through their insurance company
absolutely and But like I said
Just having those conversations could take several months, if not a year. So we need to get going on
it and there is money in the project. Worst case scenario that the company doesn't contribute as much
as we want, we can cover the costs. Well, I'm gonna make sure we stand firm because it was at the fault
that it leaked and created the damage. Absolutely.
I understand we can cover the damage, but that's not part of the project, the damage that they created.
So I hope that we stay, keep our foot on the pedal there. You can't replace a quarter of a gym floor.
I understand, I understand. And the gym floor that you're gonna get is, it's a BioStar, it's the same
floor that you've got. I understand, but we weren't ready to replace it. It was expedient by their mistake,
that's my point. You have plenty of years left in it.
Okay. We'll be diligent. Okay, I just want to make sure I have the cost as we possibly can. And the
contractors, they have contacted their insurance people and that ball is rolling. Okay. And right now
that's mostly what we've got going. The next report will be
more extensive because we've got a lot that's gonna start happening in the next two months. I saw the
fencing along the drive behind the baseball field. It looked like they were working on maybe getting
us a walkway through there. Yeah, what they've discovered, we put the fencing all the way out to the
road because we've got that detention pond that we've got to dig. And then when they staked out the
pond where they actually had to dig, we were able to move the
fence back, I want to say five feet, which allows pedestrian traffic. I was worried there. We talked
some about it. Oh, we were talking about striping the road. Yeah. Yeah. Glad to see there's something
happening there because that was a concern. We just got a drone video of the different projects. So
I'll send those out to you tomorrow. Yeah, those are fun to look at.
Before you get too far away, next would be consideration to award bids for the junior high and high
school construction additions and renovations. Dr. Hicks? Yes. I would like to just begin by letting
the public know and all of you know that when we get to the point of bidding a project, a lot of work
has gone into getting all that information
to the contractors so they could bid appropriately. And so over the last year, we have been meeting
with teachers, principals, and gathering as much information as we can, working with the architect,
working with skill men to be able to just fine tune the project to a point where we can get it
ready for an accurate bid. And so I just appreciate all the people who are part of that process. Lancer
Architect is a very important part of that. Obviously our relationship with Skillman. We just work as
a partner all the way through that process and we were able to have successful bids. And I'd like to
invite Martin
Back up to go over that if you could I Think you may have in your board package the yes bid recommendation,
right? We had fairly good Participation from bidders in this project We did only have two
general trades bidders, and we had one mechanical bidder, but the mechanical bidder was definitely one
of the two that we wanted, so we're happy with that, and they also were in the right ballpark as far
as our estimates. We have a total of 22,818,000. Couple nuances, Brad, just because you had asked the question,
Plumbing in HVAC is a big part of the number. And just as a reminder, in the HVAC controls, that's at
the elementary schools, and that's all there is to that. So there's no general construction component
to that. So that's a big number, almost a million dollars, and it's all for controls. There's also embedded
in the plumbing and HVAC number
which is big category 12 on that list. There's about a million dollars of controls of the existing high
school and middle school. So controls is, it's around 10% of this whole project. So the 1.2, that was
the alternate bid, the HFI did for the controls? That's where I got confused. The 1.2 million for the,
That was the alternate bid that they did that day. Yeah. That's right. I confused. Okay. So so between
the two you've got about five million. Okay. Other than that we got good participation. Our numbers
came in at twenty two eight and our original projection was in the twenty four range. So we're in pretty
good shape.
And with that, I guess I'll just entertain any questions. And one of the things that I am impressed,
I imagine all construction managers maybe do this, but. Probably not. But nobody does it better than
Skillman. And by the way, I want to introduce, you all know Victor Landfair, but I really liked how
they once the bids
Were were presented and we were able to identify the lowest bidders how they had pre-award meetings
and And really drilled down with the contractors about what the job entails The bid that was made and
it just gets you gets every the whole project off on a solid footing and
And so I just was thinking about that, wanted to share that tonight. Yeah, we try to make sure, the
first thing is just making sure the contractor's comfortable with the number. And in this case, everybody
was. And one I would point out is the painting number came in way below where we would have expected,
and that's Riggs Painting, whose, I guess his kids go to these schools.
So he was very motivated. Yeah. He was very motivated to work. Who's that? Right. The painter,
which is. No, it's Ross Riggs. He's a local kid. Yeah. Yeah. Class of 2004. And I asked him about three
times, are you sure you're good with this number? Right. He said, yeah, he's good with it. I want to
compliment Martin and Skillman. That was the hottest room I'd ever been in that day. This place was
packed with all the contractors.
So I wasn't happy with the HVAC guy that day who was in charge of the HVAC. I hope that with this contract
with HFI, we also are in a service contract with them too, Dr. Sanders, correct? We do. And I hope we're
getting good service from them because it's a good local company and hopefully they can take good care
of us. That was our reason for doing the service contract. Yes, just recently we had an issue at the
junior high
And I contacted one of the presidents of the HFI, and he came over that day and talked to me about my
concerns. And the boys and girls club is under control now? Yes, it's doing better, yes. Under control?
Time will tell. All right, all right. It's always good to have a contractor that if you have a problem,
you just drive over to his house, because it's local. And they did the work.
All right. So the one with the alternate would be including the alternate. The one bid with the alternate,
you'd be including the alternate. Yeah, we're including the alternate. I guess one nuance to that one
is we had a separate bid for the two elementary schools, which was automated. They were low on that.
And they will be the subcontractor
The high school so you'll have automated logic throughout the system, which is Which is a good thing?
Okay So we've definitely had HVAC, you know heating cooling issues throughout The last Well forever
And so are we finally going to be to the point where when we walk into our buildings they're gonna
be just comfortable and we're not going to be freezing or burning up or are we finally going to have
nice conditioned buildings like you would expect when you go into other buildings? Am I going to guarantee
it? You'll have automatic, automated logic. You will have the same system throughout everything and
it'll be a new system. So it'll control all your existing
mechanical units. It will still be the existing mechanical units, but you'll have new control. We put
lots and lots of money in over the last number of bonds in HVAC, and I just don't felt that we've got
anything accomplished or hadn't felt like it. I didn't stand up to make any guarantees, but I did want
to address a couple things, two things in terms of the scope of the project.
I think what happens a lot of times on HVC projects, it gets done incrementally, right? And so I think
you have had over the years incremental improvements. And the challenge with that is that, you know,
you're mixing old components with new components and you're being run by, these are all digital systems,
right? So just like all our digital devices, you know, there's constant updates.
This scope of this work is a comprehensive replacement of the most important part, if you will, your
network that runs and operates all of your HVAC pieces of equipment throughout your building. So you
may have variable ages and conditions of equipment, but you have a uniform platform in which all the
equipment is controlled. It is the brains, and it is your access to that equipment. So that is the advantage
of this project. We're going to uniformly
It doesn't take away the fact that pieces of equipment break and they don't operate properly and all
that. But because we are putting this uniform platform, we have to touch every piece of equipment and
we have to go through kind of a commissioning verification. So there's a real advantage to sort of reset
everything, if you will, to a certain level. So that's another advantage. The third advantage is the
way in which we bid the project.
Wanted to give you because you're doing comprehensive the opportunity to explore new manufacturers You're
not trying to combine a new guy with the old guy. We're now getting one comprehensive uniform Manufacturer
is a different one than you've had recently which you haven't had the best of luck So there were two
new manufacturers specified We've been it to the point where we could get competition but also have
the opportunity have uniformity it worked out really well and
that they were low both on the alternate and low on the elementary primary school. So you're going to
have a uniformity between all the systems, which I think is an advantage, and we think we've got the
best price for that. Is this something that would be so proprietary that a year from now we're going
to have to lock into high price maintenance agreements to be able to maintain the systems?
From our experience, there's sort of two tiers of control systems. There are the proprietary systems,
which are often connected to certain manufacturers of equipment. Then there are, if you will, I don't
want to call it independent, but a little bit more, less proprietary systems, and that's what the engineers
specified here.
There was automatic logic and what was the other one? Brand X. Brand X and brand Y. Those systems are
disconnected from the equipment manufacturers which makes them a little more autonomous and a little
more flexible and I think the engineer recommended it because now you're not connected, if you will, where
You bought Apple, so you have to have Apple this and Apple that and Apple this. You bought something
that you can plug in independent manufacturers into a uniform network. If that makes any sense at all.
Yes, yes. That's what I was getting at. Because we've had that in the problem in the past where we only
had one choice. Yes. On where we're at. It's a common problem. It is a common problem. You are not being
picked on.
Universal industry challenge that we have. Bart wanted me to mention the other piece of this is that
we have to do what's called testing and balancing. So as we replace your nervous system, if you will,
and verify things are working, we'll also have to go back and make sure that that piece of equipment
has the right water flowing through it and the right air flowing through it.
And so, again, trying to reset everything, if you will, to the factory preset. Because as you can imagine,
over the years, with good intent or whatever, things get tweaked and changed to overcome problems. And
then all of a sudden, that tweak or change lives there forever. This is kind of a way to reset everything,
if you will, to the default factory setting. And we find that that improves problems that maybe have
been lingering there for years.
that we pulled that out of the contractor's contract. Just like we pull out the testing of the soil
so we can control who hires when they come and how that inspection occurs, we're also going to do that
with the test and balance. We're going to procure that inspector, if you will, independently. He'll
be working for the district under our supervision so that we don't have the fox watching the hen house.
And that's another part of our strategy to just try to make sure you get what you pay for and we make
sure everybody's comfortable. It's hard to guarantee that we will, but I guess what I'm saying is we're
trying to apply every tool in our toolbox to get to your goal. And with that testing balance and the
existing pieces of equipment, we'll be operating as best as they can. I guess my final comment is,
They typically take time to work through the bugs. And so I will proactively ask for your staff's patience
as we work through some of these working out the bugs over the next year. I definitely appreciate that.
I just glad to try to advance altogether now.
and get a collective resolution because it's just been hard, you know, being up here and approving spending
so much money and not feeling like you really accomplished much. I mean, you have because you've had
to fix those things that were broke or that were going to break. But those still doesn't actually resolve
problems. So, but this feels like a problem solver.
And that feels good, so I appreciate that. I often use the analogy that sometimes we're just fixing
the symptoms, not fixing the disease. And I feel like we're attacking the disease here, if you will.
Well, unfortunately, we weren't even fixing the symptoms. Right. We were just fixing the pieces. I appreciate
your questions. It's not the first time I've been asked. Yeah, OK. As far as you said, working out the
bugs, at the Boys and Girls Club,
Dr. Sanders, you might remember this. Was it a warranty issue with the new equipment? Has that been
resolved at the Boys and Girls Club? Because nobody was taking control over who was doing what. Has
it been resolved? Right. We've made a lot of progress over the last week. And it's just been an ongoing
battle out at the Boys and Girls Club. But we've made a lot of progress. It's complicated.
Victor and Martin have said it's not just one piece. The HVAC, there's a lot of complicated pieces.
So some of it was new, kind of what Victor was saying about new equipment, trying to talk with old equipment
and so. Right. I thought the problem at the Boys and Girls Club is they didn't do their job to the specs
that you guys set forth. Is that correct?
We weren't involved in that. Skillman wasn't involved with. The specs, I thought whoever did the job
didn't do it to the specs that were laid forth and there was gonna be some culpability on their part.
Yeah, that was with another company that before Matt left, he was working on that project. Has it been
resolved? Because I thought it was resolved last year, but then I hear last week it's doing it again.
Yes, but it's not the same problem. Okay, all right.
And that's where we got Gabe involved or Gager. Gabe is very, with creative engineering has been a big
help to us and working with the different contractors and they work together. The engineering group,
the contractor, our folks work to address the different issues. And I've been out there several times
myself trying to
Of course, I don't know the dates back, but I try to go out there and try to learn what's going on.
And I think we've got some momentum with that now. Okay. Thanks. Thank you. Yeah. Yeah, sorry about
that. Approval award bids for
Edgewood Junior High and Edgewood High School construction additions and renovations. Moved and seconded.
I would like so that, because we have a list up here of 14 different bids, categories, descriptions,
contractors. I know it's a long list, but we're talking about $22 million. And I would like if somebody
would be willing to read those.
into the record so the people, you know, on CATS can hear who it is that we're doing business with and
for how much. I think that is important to take that time. So I'm not sure who. So there are 14 bid
categories. The big category number one, general trades. The contractor is J.C. Rippberger for 3,188,
The bid category two, which is earthwork paving site utilities is JR bowling for $1,616,000. For category
three masonry is artisan masonry for $3,278,709.
For big category number four, which is structural steel and miscellaneous metals as Geiger and Peters
for $1,615,000. Category five, roofing is Steve's Roofing and Sheet Metal for $3,268,000. For category
six, which is aluminum windows and storefronts is City Glass of Bloomington Incorporated.
for $258,000. Category seven, metal studs, drywall and ceilings. Gibson Lewis of Indianapolis for $884,000.
Big category number eight, flooring is Jack Laurie Floors LLC for $687,950. Category nine, painting
and wall coverings is Riggs Painting.
LLC for $86,250. 10 is Casework, Lee Company Incorporated for $253,200. 11 is Instrument Storage, and
the winning bidder was Lee Company Incorporated for $153,230. Category 12, Plumbing and HVAC, Harold Fish,
which also included alternative number one is $4,903,473. Category 13 HVAC controls is automated logic
for $856,000 and category 14 is electrical and technology and Cassidy Electric was the winning
contractor for $1,771,000 for a total of $22,818,812. Thank you, Dr. Sanders. Appreciate that. Mr. Kerr,
I think number 13, correct me if I'm wrong, that automatic logic is for the elementary schools, correct?
Number 13 is, yes, it's elementary schools. That's for the elementary schools, not the junior high or
high school, correct?
Okay, just wanna make sure we make note of that on item 13. Right, right, okay. Okay, any other comments
or questions? Hearing none, all those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Thank you all
so much. I mean, that's a lot of work went into that and we really appreciate it.
I really appreciate how this project, these projects that we've been doing lately with you guys have
been going. They've been going so well. We've been getting very good work done. We've been getting good
prices in. And you guys have just done a fabulous job for us.
Don't run into that many people that it would matter to, but for those I do, I tell them, so. Thank
you so much. Yeah, thank you. Appreciate the relationship. Okay, now we're going to look for permission
to advertise the 2027 budget. Okay. Okay, and we have Debbie with us tonight.
We currently plan to advertise around August 26th for the 27 budget. In preparing for the education
budget, we expected to receive approximately $350,000 more in revenue. This is kind of based off of
our February count if we continue to stay around where we were. We also increased
are numbers on the education fund budget from 26 to 27, about 450,000. Those projections that we plugged
in for the budget are also based off the state and what they had projected, what the student council
would be. So we kind of pulled those numbers and wanted to make sure all of that matched up pretty accurately
with them.
As I mentioned before, the operations levy is changing from 4% to 6%, and that's supposed to help kind
of offset that property tax cap that's going to take place. So those are some areas.
that are included and I just gave you guys kind of a before what we planned in 2026 and what we're planning
for 2027 and it's also based on what our debt payments and even our expected debt payments could be.
We put a little bit in there just in case we do take on some extra debt next year so we just kind of
wanted to make sure that was included but these numbers can be adjusted
In November if needed if we if the student count comes down or if anything changes we can adjust those
numbers So this is just our permission. So and then I gave you guys a copy of the form three This is
the notice that we are going to advertise basically We advertise it on Gateway
And it tells the public when our public hearing dates are, which is the public hearing date is Tuesday,
September 15th today, or next month, I'm sorry, 2026. And then the adoption meeting date is Tuesday,
October 20th, 2026. And it kind of gives you again, the projections of what those totals are. So you
have a copy of that. And again, that'll be available for the public.
I gave you copies of our capital projects plan and our bus replacement plan. We did purchase two buses.
We had encumbered the funds last year, but the actual payments took place in January of this year for
the two buses that we purchased. So those were on there. At this time, I do not believe we're planning
to purchase any buses next year, but
If there are any we're not projecting to take those out of the operations fund if we do So those are
just some things that we put in there and we've got those set aside just just in case But by statute
with the state it requires us to update the bus replacement plan every year. So that's why we're providing
it to you and then the capital project plan we actually
We've changed our assets where anything over $10,000 is capital asset. And so basically, we've reduced
this plan by 30% to 40% from last year. So we're really trying to scale back and cut back as much as
we can and get really lean on those funds and just find creative ways to purchase things outside of
operations at this time. And I think that's it.
Do you guys have any questions? So the buses on this is just a requirement for 2027. Does that mean
we're doing it? Yeah. OK. Yeah. And if they approve it, we can? Yeah. OK. I move to approve permission
to advertise the 2027 budget. I'll sign it. Any discussion? All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed?
Motion carries. Thank you so much. Thank you.
Next is consideration to approve the bus routes. Yes, I'm not sure what we would do if you guys turn
this down or vote no, but this is an annual request for the board to approve the bus routes.
First of all, I want to keep Audrey Myers and your thoughts and prayers.
as her mother passed away this week. But Audrey works hard all summer to prepare the bus routes and
she utilizes her knowledge of the roads. Nobody knows our area better than Audrey. She utilizes information
from Harmony and our student transportation computer software program to develop the routes and then
of course,
Just as soon as she gets it all set, here come new students or students withdrawing and it's just a
last minute deal, but she works really hard. So the routes that you saw in the board packet are the
current routes that we are implementing across the corporation.
Any discussion? Dr. Shanners, I had a question on route number 3HJPM. That's a joke. I'm joking. This
is a great, that's a ton of work. I was just going to say. I hope this is filling in. I mean, this is
a lot of stuff. This is a. Yeah, I was just going to say, I'll get back to you. Yeah, that's 80% of
the board packet, these routes. It was amazing how many roads we cover every day and how safely they're
getting these kids home and into school. So kudos to the board.
to the bus and transportation crew. We have a great team in the transportation department. I say this
all the time, but I wish I could capture the radio dialogue between bus drivers, especially if there's
bad weather or if a bus breaks down and you have to help another driver. It's just a perfect example
of collaboration and helping your teammates out.
It's, of course, another good opportunity to remind everybody to be safe out there. At the bus stops
and walking to school and those being dropped off. Also, our school resource officers are great monitoring
that as well. We appreciate the Ellsville Police Department on 46, especially in other locations where
It's quite dangerous. They look out for us, so we appreciate them. Anything further? All those in favor
say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Now it's consideration to approve the SCCAP Head Start Agreement,
Dr. Sanders.
This is an annual renewal of the agreement that we have with local Head Start program where we, our
nutrition services department provides the meals for Head Start and in turn this helps us to be able
to qualify for programs that essentially provide a free breakfast and lunch for our students.
And so I just asked the board to approve this agreement with Head Start. I'll move approval of the SCCAP
Head Start agreement. I second. Moved and second. Any discussion? All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed?
Motion carries. Next is consideration to approve the adjunct permit for Kenneth Greil.
Yeah, I'm sure you've heard about the great things that Ken does at the junior high with our media program.
Ken is currently working on his workplace specialist license that will enable him to eventually have
a full teacher contract. But at this point, in order to employ Ken as a teacher, we need to approve
this adjunct teacher
permit so that he can continue to do the awesome work that he does at the junior high. In fact, I'll
just throw this out there too. You know, I do a podcast once a month. Well, the company, the gentleman
who has done this podcast with us for years recently retired. And so I'm meeting with Mr. Gryle on Friday
to work it out so his students can take over
doing that, working with me on that podcast. And Mr. Grial actually, I was going that direction anyways,
but he beat me to the punch and emailed me and wanted to know if they could do it, so. I move approval
of the adjunct permit for Ken Grial. I'll second. Moved, seconded. Any discussion? Oh, just, not just
hearing what
Mr. Grail does, but also I've seen him in action and it is impressive. And that contracts for 48,500
plus benefits. All those in favor say aye. Aye. The motion carries. Next is the consideration to approve
a residential facility contract. And we'd like to have Noah with us tonight.
Yeah, so this is a reoccurring contract that we've gone through approval for. In previous years, it's
for a student of ours in our district with special needs who lives at a residential facility at the
Judge Rotenberg Center in Massachusetts. The contract for this is for the 26, 27th school year.
services are kind of aligned with what's in the IEP for this student. So that the contract basically
aligns with the agreement for it as well as fees are paid for tuition as well as for her intensive needs,
she requires one-on-one assistance for that. So the rates from what they have provided for this year
as compared to last year, the tuition rate they do
based off a daily rate of $1,080.15 for 365 days, which gives an annual price for the fiscal year for
27 of $394,254.04. The student also receives the one-on-one service for that price, which is at a rate
of $47.36 an hour.
For annual price of four hundred fourteen thousand eight hundred seventy three and sixty cents bring
the total to eight hundred nine thousand one hundred twenty seven and sixty four cents for that Just
a reminder for those prices we go through secret reimbursement from that. So that's a Government funds
grants that comes to us we apply Essentially, it's it's a nice benefit from the state where they recognize
They have a certain amount of money that they allocate to the highest needs, highest costs, students
to be able to provide them with their free, appropriate public education. So that's one where once the
contract that we're going forward with, we always reapply for that seat contract every year. That one
comes up after the annual case review. So that one's at the end of this month. We reapply, goes to the
IDOE, they then go through the process
approval with that and then we begin reimbursement. So the total for how seek works is we just have
to pay a minimum of the 30 around $31,000 and then the rest of it gets paid off from the secret. I move
approval of the residential facility contract. Any discussion. Last year we had two students I believe in right.
Yes, so we only have one now. Our second one, she graduated from school. So yeah, she's graduated and
she's off living in the community. Yeah. That's the outcome we hope for. Yes, very much a big celebration.
So Mr. Dix, I have a quick question. And thanks for your time on this yesterday.
It's about $810,000 for this one student, and that's our obligation as a school corporation, because
we live in our district. We're going to do the best we can for every kid. Do we cash flow this for so
many months until we get our reimbursement, or does it happen immediately, the whole amount, or is it
spread out over seven or eight months? I'm just curious about the financial side of it.
So we get billed monthly on a monthly rate for that one. So we get those prices that come in. The approval
process from when we apply that process can take up to a few months for how that goes. And so I would
say last year it probably took three, four months to be able to do that. So we do pay up upfront there
and then we get reimbursed back for those services.
And this should be for any public school, even universal voucher schools should have to do this. But
we have the cashflow to do it, so we're doing it, correct? Yes. Okay, and then that reimbursement of
31,000, our per student amounts about $7,200, Dr. Sanders, does that sound about right? So we're absorbing
the 23 as a school corporation? Yes. Okay, and then what else does this placement provide for parents?
Do they just don't see their kid for a whole year?
Do they get a chance to go see the kids or? No, we do. So we work with the families to support them
to be able to travel out to the center, meet their child and go out. So we support them with travel,
lodging, food mileage for those to be able to go out and see their kiddo out in whichever facility.
Okay. Okay. All right. Thank you. Thank you.
Anything further? All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. And next is a contract with
pro care therapy for school psychologists. Yes, so for this one, requesting consideration for a contract
with pro care therapy. We had a school psychologist that left our school district last spring. We've
had the position open since that time. We haven't been able to fill that position.
knowing for our school district, we have two school psychologists. And so we have it worked into where
they are balancing between the job duty of what the other school psychologist who left was.
School psychologists, it's kind of one of those reasons we also have the SEEDS grant that we've been
working through. We have those school psychs in training because it is a very, it's honestly a rare
profession to be able to fill right now.
And so we we've been searching for that but knowing too that our our schools need to be able to get
that additional help where it's needed in the interim of being able to search. So with this contract
we're looking at a part time school psychologist. Her name's Patricia Wade for their company.
to work 19 and a half hours per week. The bill rate for the outside agency is $100 per hour, which I
know is a lot. So we kind of look at from the budget that we have for the school psychologist position
that would have been hired from there. We basically aligned the hours per week to then kind of match
what that pay would be for someone if they were hired directly through us. But the school psychologists,
they're fully licensed through the state.
They'd be helping with educational evaluations, participating in case conferences, staffings to talk
through any additional appropriate supports for students or needs. And the nice thing, kind of working
through for this contract, the agreement in the contract allows for some flexibility to where, say if,
as we continue to search for a school psychologist to be directly hired through us,
The essential piece for the contract with them is it can be terminated at any time without really necessarily
reason. We just give them 30 days notice. So if we have somebody that we hired, we can let know, hey,
we have someone internally we're hiring, we're going to release from the contract, and then after 30 days,
for those services, then we can transition out. So it still allows that flexibility for us as we look
for the vacant school psych position, it allows us to get that temporary support where needed. The contract
from Pro Care Therapy, that's one that I sent to Jessica Heiser from Imprint Legal Group. She reviewed
it and she didn't have any concerns from what she had seen. I'm gonna approve the contract Pro Care Therapy.
For the contract, we're not, the $100 out is a pretty high number, but we're not paying their health
insurance either, correct? No, just the rate. And is this for, how many, is this, if we don't hire somebody,
is it for the whole 52 weeks of the year, is it just for 36 weeks of the school year? It's just the
services for the 36 weeks minus, by the time we're able to get her started from beginning of the school
year, it'd be 32 weeks of service.
and then from there it can end at the end of the school year and then we can decide do we want to renew
or do we want to end from there. So we're paying about 70,000 for a halftime person, 20 hours a week,
19 hours. Around 70 miles the few weeks, so around mid 60s. Which had equates to what a full-time
psychologist was before. If we doubled it, okay. Okay, and then these psychologists, the seeds grant,
they're not allowed
They have certain stipulations, they're all that, they're just in training right now, correct? They're
in training, we're working through with IU, we're starting to have them be able to, as they, because
they're in the early stages for school, and that typically takes up to like three years for them to
be able to get their licensure for it, but they'll be able to, we're sorting through some of
those obligations for them, because they'll be able to start supporting as they're doing like on-job
training, they can start doing observations to support our school psych, so,
We've had the balls rolling with Heather Ormiston over at IU along with our school psychs. Brittany
Straw and I were kind of coordinating how we can support there too. So what are those four students
in training doing right now until school starts? Are they helping in buildings in different ways? Yeah,
so they're mainly, and Brittany you might be able to speak on it more, but essentially yeah, they're not doing
School of Psychology, per se, have evaluation side things. They're supporting in the classrooms. Are
there support? Yeah, they're doing a lot of SEL support right now. That's kind of the thing with School
of Psychs in Indiana and other states, just because of caseload numbers and stuff. A School of Psychologist
can do evaluations, but they can also do much more than that. They can do intervention groups. And so
as they're kind of going through the SEEDS grant,
They're mainly focused on the intervention side of things too. And then as their schooling is going
through, then they'll be able to start doing a lot more observations, get some experience with evaluations,
those pieces. Okay, okay. And then on a kind of a sidebar, did we have an unanticipated increase in
kids in the journeys classroom this year? Yes. Over last year, I thought we had six or seven last year,
but we had a big increase. Yeah, last year, are you referring
primary school or just- Right, the primary. What prompted it? Some other programs shut down locally
or? The journeys at the primary school, we had projected from what we had seen to who was transitioning
to our intermediate school. We were projecting around seven or eight students for there with enrollments.
We tried to anticipate who comes in. So we had a number of kiddos from kindergarten that were fresh
to the school.
They're coming in. We also have students that come from ABA clinics. So the applied behavioral analysis
therapy for them. So the piece where they come in from ABA clinics, typically for students, if they
haven't been in the school system before that, they don't have educational evaluations because ABAs,
they're not focused on educational services. They're focused on therapeutic services.
And so when we do have students that come in, and a lot of the time when we're kind of determining what's
the appropriate placement for them, because they don't have an IEP, they don't have an evaluation from
an educational side, we basically work to see what's gonna be the most appropriate placement. You could
have a kiddo from an ABA clinic who, you know, with autism, who might have some limited functionality,
but if we can have them in their least restrictive environment in the gen ed setting, we do that.
But then we also look at, such as this year, if we have an influx of kiddos coming in who have higher,
more significant needs, then we try to make sure they have the most appropriate setting, even if they
don't have their evaluation on the educational side of things to start, and then we kind of backfill
from there for them. So, yeah. Is there a clinic that actually shut down? Is that what happened? There's
one clinic that closed down, and then we also have
which we didn't know that was coming up, was that anticipated? Not that I was aware of, no. I know one
conversation in my special education director committees we talked through is the ABA with insurance.
So I know that's kind of been a tougher position for families. The school system, we don't dictate if
a student does or
doesn't go to ABA that's a parent's choice. So if we have a parent who goes to ABA we work with them
they might come part time to school they might do full time ABA. So most of the time if we have a sometimes
with insurance if ABA can't if they can no longer be supported at ABA then they transition into the
school setting. We try to kind of
recognize it's a transition, so we might start slow, but we also know if it's one where we need to do
a full time movement into the school setting, we'll do that too and make it work. So yeah, so once we
have that information coming in, along with enrollment numbers, that's where we as a group, we start
to look through and see where our adjustments need made. Do we need instructional IAs? Do we need a
new teacher, a new classroom? So that's kind of where for this year,
It's kind of a storm of kind of different factors coming in to where then we are trying to, as a group,
we started looking at that when enrollment came through and then seeing how we can fit the needs of
those students, along with coordination with families as they were talking with us. All right, thank
you guys for working with those families. Nothing further? All those in favor say aye. Aye.
Motion carried. Our last action item is to approve an MOA with Melissa double consulting. Yes, so this
kind of goes along with our journeys classrooms at the primary school. So kind of with the changing
needs for them, we have our two journeys classrooms now. With there, we do have two new journeys teachers,
along with new instructional aids for their
So when we were kind of working through on the administration side things and then also working with
the families We felt like it would make sense to Contract with Melissa Doobie to be able to provide
Really evidence-based practices to support those students and kind of do on-the-job training for teachers
and for our instructional aids specifically to so
For this one with Melissa Dooby, she has 40 years of experience working in schools and at the Indiana
Resource Center for Autism.
Once she had retired, she created Melissa Duby Consulting LLC. And from there, she really focuses on
that piece of supporting school districts and implementing those practices. So she came highly regarded
from our primary school principals from Dr. Fishman and Dr. Robinson. So we've been coordinating with
her to be able to set up. It would be more like periodic.
consultative services to where we'd be looking at having her come in for about four days, just observe
the classroom, see if there's any pieces that any report she can pull from there. She'll give us some
suggestions, kind of work with the staff on how this can look, and then she'd be coming back after X
amount of weeks, give it some time for those to be implemented to where then she could kind of give
some feedback on how she's kind of seeing it being implemented in the room.
I did note in there, too, for her. She has in her MOA, it's a day rate that is paid for her. So it's
a flat day rate of $1,200 for it. But we also know that that's a need in the classrooms over there to
be able to support. I did note in there for the MOA that she had, that one was pending. Jessica Heiser
from Imprint, she had reviewed the contract.
She had sent some revisions, mainly just updated legal language that is needed in all contracts. So
she had sent that over to Melissa Dubes for there, and then Melissa, I had in there as pending, I heard
back from Melissa actually a little bit before this board meeting saying she would go forward with the
revisions. So I'm working with Jessica, we're getting the revisions sent to her to then be able to put
in place for her.
approval of the MOA with Melissa Duby consulting. I'll second. It's been moved and second. Any discussion?
This is with the revised terms that was agreed upon before the meeting. Correct. Okay. All those in
favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Thank you. Thank you. I just by the way talked about how
we were going to pay for Melissa Duby's
We're going to take about half of it out of Medicaid and the other half out of Title II so that the
education fund doesn't get hit with that. And as Noah said, this is a must-do to get those new people
trained that are in our two journeys classrooms, making sure that they understand the day in and day
out, how they respond to students' individual needs, things like that. So you wouldn't see this come
across education. We're going to fund that a different way to make sure we can make that happen.
Thank you. Thank you. And David Tate for our business manager's report. I've given you guys the current
totals for the education fund, the debt service, and the operations fund. For July, the amounts for
expenses were a little higher. We had a three-pay month, so that does show a little bit more of an increase
because of that reason. We are still on target with our projections at this moment.
And basically, the only other thing was we have, I have a breakdown of our debt payments that we made
in July. So you can see where those were all broken down and paid. And, you know, every time we make
these debt payments, it does put a deficit in that account, but it always gets positive by December.
So you can kind of see that flow.
listed at the bottom just to give you guys a reference to that. Do you guys have any questions? Thank
you so much. Thank you. And now on to our assistant superintendent's report. So we've started a year off
really strong across all the buildings. EPS, EIS, EJHS, they've already started their beginning of the
year reading screeners. We know that that's one of the biggest indicators that we need right at the
beginning of the year because we need to get those interventions up and running for reading yesterday.
So we have teams out there working on this every single day. You'll see this year that we're expanding
the reading screeners up in the sixth, seventh, and eighth grade.
This is really important because those sixth, seventh and eighth graders did not experience science
of reading and the changes that we've made K through five back when they were in primary and intermediate
school. So we definitely have gaps in our reading foundation there that still need work before they
head into high school. So we're gonna be continuing those reading screeners for sixth, seventh and eighth
graders, as well as providing interventions to them at that junior high level. We are still on track.
And I, with sitting down here really close to Brad, I don't make any promises. And in fact, I'll scoot
down a little bit. But we are still on track for at least a $500,000 budget cut to the education fund
for fiscal year 2026. I'll explain this to you just a little bit where we're at. What you see in the
left column is the estimates that we made, the goals that we made.
$400,000 there in potential savings with retirements and natural attrition, $100,000 in cutting curriculum
costs, $40,000 in backfilling a retired teacher in the Title I grant, not backfilling an assistant in
the Title I grant, and then pulling one that was in education fund back over to the Title I grant.
Another $40,000, as Noah was saying, we're down to one kiddo who is out of state in a facility. So we
will not have the other students deductible this year. And the board voted to remove Memorial Day for
nine-month employees as a paid holiday. So our goal here was 587,000. I'm really thinking very...
On the low side when I say 500,000 is what we're on track for because if you look over to the right
hand side it'll give you an update on where we actually are with these numbers right now. We're currently
at 384,000 in savings with five more employees to choose their benefit packages. So it obviously makes
a difference for us whether or not they choose an individual plan, a family plan. Of course that's their options.
As they're choosing those, those numbers will get filled in and I'll have more exact numbers on exactly
how much that employee will cost us overall. The current status as of today is $449,000 that we have
spent in curriculum for fiscal year 2026. Our total 2025 spend was $655,000.
When I say that we're sitting at, my goal was 587,000 and I look at 100,000 was our goal in curriculum
and we're about a $200,000 difference there. Gracie and I have been writing POs left and right. Our
goal was to have everything done by August 1 because we did not want Paul and Debbie to see any cash
flows coming through on curriculum for August.
We did have some things that needed to be purchased in early August, so we do have some of those things
that are gonna keep rolling on through, but I think we are down to the last few POs. We will always
have things that will come through as the school year goes on, but we're not going to be surprised by
a $10,000 purchase with something. So it should be minor pieces that will come along where curriculum
requests are considered.
So I'm thinking conservatively that we are on track to hit that 500,000 budget. But when I look at this
carefully, I think we're going to be OK. And I'm excited. Paul and I were just saying today, we're excited
to get these cash flows in for August and September so that we really can have a good measure of where
we are and make sure that we're coming out on the other side of this OK. Down below.
We have the IDOE announcement that came out. Schools have received their 2026 I Learn summative assessment
scores. However, this data is still considered preliminary, and it should not be shared publicly yet.
It's not even final yet. We still have a report that's due to this data. It's called the Accountability
Report, where we have to go through every single one of our kiddos that we currently have an I Learn
score for. And if that kiddo did not attend school with us for 162 days,
Maybe it was a transfer student. Maybe it was a student that enrolled later in the year, left earlier
in the year, whatever that might be. If that student was not with us for 162 days, we can dispute that
student on the report. So Jenny will be going through that with a fine-tooth comb to make sure that
we don't have any kiddos on there who should not be reported.
And then in September, we will get those final scores. The reason that it's pushed back is because this
was a year that Indiana had to create new cut scores. And that's just a process that the state has to
go through. And so that pushes back the finalization of the summative assessment scores. So those will
get finalized in September. We don't have a date on that yet. I'm hopeful that I can bring a full update
to you in September of where we are.
Grades three through eight in those areas Right now I don't even have state scores to compare with so
I wanted to give you some highs and some other areas But until I have those state scores, I don't want
to really say You know that's that we've You know a sword in this area or that we have improvements
to make in this area because a lot of times when we see our school drop we see the state drop across
that area as well, so let's
We're going to stay positive with it and we'll see where we are after the state averages come out and
we give an update to everybody then. The last one I know Brad will be excited about we're writing another
grant and I say that positively because this one is one that we are looking at to potentially replace.
or compensate for our SMART grant. So SMART grant is going to be rolling off the books this year, and
we have a lot of amazing employees that are coming out of that grant that are doing incredible things
for our kids. This grant is called the Opportunity to Learn Project Grant. I gave you a copy of the
letter that we received. This is actually Lilly money, about $400 million of Lilly money that they have
They have poured into a new 501C3 called Indiana Lifelong Learning Projects, and these projects are
called Opportunity to Learn Projects. We are eligible to apply because we're outside of Monroe County,
and if you look at the backside of that, they've given us the numbers that we are eligible to apply for.
With 2687 reported K through 12 people enrollment that puts us in the range for a seventy five thousand
dollar planning grant. We will be submitting that planning grant application next week and then assuming
that we receive that we'll start the work then of figuring out what does
Our competitive grant requests entail and that's up to about one point seven five million. Brittany
strong I sat down today we talked through a lot of pieces with this and we're trying to restrain ourselves
on thinking.
Too much about the competitive side of it because that really needs to be led by a group of people different
stakeholders across the organization and we don't want to influence that too much there. Obviously our
biggest priority is going to be maintaining our smart.
mental health providers, student services providers that we already pay for out of that smart grant.
So that'll be our first priority. And then I'm hopeful with some other things that we can do with that.
The whole point of this grant is prepping students
to be able to learn in the classroom. What do we do to make sure that our kids are ready to learn? So
it is all of those things. It's how do we get them to school? How do we keep them engaged? What do we
do to get them into ECAs so that they're not out causing problems for Chief Journal in the evenings,
but they're out playing an instrument, they're in a sport. How do we,
How do we take care of mental health needs? How do we take care of family needs? All of those things
are what we're going to be talking about with this grant. So it's an exciting one. We are going to partner
with Esolve Solutions. Esolve is a company out of Lagotia, Indiana that we've been working with for
a number of years. They are usually the evaluators on our big federal grants.
And they reached out to us knowing all of the work that we do here already with these programs and said
we would love to help you guys write this grant. So we met with them this week. We're gonna put their
fee, their writing fee into the planning grant itself. And then they are gonna work with us on all the
surveys, gathering data, all the historical data.
It's gonna be an exciting project. So hopefully early 2027, we'll be able to come back with great news
that this project is funded and have a really solid plan that doesn't involve education fund for our
smart employees. Yeah, thank you. I was a little bit excited. I saw it. Maybe they jumped the guns.
I saw schools around the area.
promoting all of our third graders 100% passed iLearn. I thought, I got excited, like where's our scores?
That's why I asked what was going on, but going down to Southern Indiana that's on their billboards
and everywhere else, so did they just jump the gun? I read or I learn? I learn. I read. I read, yes,
I read. Third graders is what I said. Yes, third graders, yes. Dr. Jenner sent out, there was a huge
announcement across Indiana
Last week, principals-ish.
Huge announcement across Indiana that we had the biggest increase across the entire state in I read
three scores in since COVID. And not only did we have the biggest increase from last year to this year,
but this is the first time that our overall passing rate in the state of Indiana is higher than it was
prior to COVID. So we're not just making up ground now since the pandemic, we're actually
getting ahead and gaining. So it's exciting news. And EPS and EIS, we are right there on that train.
Our goal is to close in on that 95%. Our goal is this year. We are so hopeful with this. One of the
biggest pieces with hitting that 95% is the intervention pieces for your students with special education needs.
Those kiddos are identified with a disability for a reason. When they go through an evaluation and we
look at all the ways that they process information, they're identified with a reading disability or
a math disability or whatever it is. But the state still holds schools to the same accountability system
that they have to pass Ivory 3 by the end of their third grade year. That's the 95% mark.
Now what I do love about the new scoring system with the state is that it continues to give credit to
schools when they pass in fourth grade and fifth grade and sixth grade. And I love that because
it acknowledges that kids continue to learn and that third grade, you know, one size fits all box isn't
for everybody.
but it doesn't change the accountability model that still says 95% by the end of third grade. So the
work that our special education and our Title I teams do at that Tier II and Tier III level is absolutely
critical to that mission, not to mention just the Tier I work that our gen ed teachers put in with Orton
Gillingham instruction. When they get up into EIS and its vocabulary and its morphology and all of those pieces,
There's not one set of teachers that could do it by themselves. It truly takes the entire team in order
to prepare those kiddos. And that population there is really that changing factor for a school district,
not just our school district, but any school district out there to get over that 95%. You've got to
unlock that to figure out how to increase those kiddos mastery of those reading skills.
You're welcome. All right, got 27 minutes ahead of me. My mother who lives in Kokomo is down visiting
and she was watching online, but just like everybody else, she left the room before I got to my report.
I just wanted to,
note that how nice our boardroom is looking with the graphics up on the wall. Some folks really worked
hard on that. Robin May, Susan Shockney, Gracie Turner. And there's some adjustments we want to make
to this, but it's looking pretty good. I was excited. This is my surprise that
As a board, I don't think knew about this today. So I wanted to surprise you a little bit. Before I
get into my report, I just wanted to say a little bit about, we had some parents from our journeys classroom
who spoke tonight and we always value the input of our parents. I learned that a long time ago that
parents are
partners in this education process. And we need to be good listeners to their concerns or ideas. And
so I appreciate those parents that we've met with the last two weeks and we're here tonight. I do wanna
add a little caveat in there in that we were already working on the idea of hiring a second journeys teacher.
At the beginning of any school year, we often get, have students enrolled at the last minute every year,
every school corporation does. And we try to be in touch with the number of students that are coming
in. And before the school year starts, we do our best to make sure
that we have the appropriate number of staff members, whether it be teachers or instructional assistants.
But from time to time, those numbers come in so late that we have to make some last minute adjustments.
And we try not to do that, but sometimes that you do, you do have to do that. So for example, we're
looking at our kindergarten first grade numbers.
and try to determine based on those numbers, do we add another kindergarten teacher? Do we move a first
grade teacher to kindergarten? And what are the financial consequences of that decision? We obviously
wanna do what's right for students, and that's our top priority, but we also have to make sure that
we're fiscally sound in making
good financial decisions. I've been there where we've hired a teacher at the last minute only to find
out that all the students we were expecting didn't come and we really shouldn't have done that. So it's
very challenging decision and the same thing happened with the journeys. We are already having conversations
along with that kindergarten first grade conversation we were trying to
talk about what we wanted to do with the journeys classroom and were we actually going to have all the
kids show up that we anticipated. And sometimes parents don't know the behind the scenes work that's
already going on. But we've had two really good meetings with our parents.
The Journey's parents and our new principal Lucy Fishman is doing an awesome job working with the parents,
communicating with them, being a good listener. And so I think we're definitely headed in a more positive
direction with our Journey's classrooms.
I wanted to just share, I always hesitate to share our enrollment numbers because we always hear about
the students who are coming, but sometimes students who have withdrawn, we don't always get the paperwork
in a timely fashion from other school corporations. So we might have students on our books
haven't shown up and we don't know if they're still coming or if they've moved somewhere else.
So these are, except for the preschool, the K-12 numbers are preliminary, although we've been doing
a lot better job this year in terms of accounting for students who physically have not shown up for
school yet. But you'll see the preschool numbers, which are up,
from last year, 29 children in the daycare compared to 17 last year, 173 in preschool compared to 161
last year for a total of 202 compared to 178 last year. K-12, you'll look at this and in the past,
I would have given you some preliminary numbers that probably would have been higher. They might have
looked good, but they might not have been as accurate for the reasons I just mentioned to you. But we've
really, thanks to Jenny Johnson and our secretaries, our attendance clerks, we have a little bit more
better, more accurate picture. We still have six students from EPS
that we are expecting to withdraw, but we haven't received the paperwork from the other schools. EIS
has got all their students accounted for, so that's great. We're still looking, trying to find two junior
high students and four high school students. Of course, we still are having some new enrollments show
up too, and that's good. Now, just looking at the corporation total, you'll see that
that it looks like we might be down a little bit. But when I bring back the final report, when we have
our count day in October, I'll bring back some more detailed information and analysis of what went on
with students withdrawing and enrolling. I'll bring to you the chart
that shows numbers clear back to 2018. And you'll notice that I remember that graph that I show every
year. It just kind of goes up and down, up and down, up and down. And that's kind of typical. You don't
want to see a big jump, but sometimes the numbers do go down because of birth rates and other factors.
If you look at over the trend over the years since 2018, you'll still see a positive trend of our enrollment.
And so I always, every year I wanna get up to that 3000 mark. And so we'll keep plugging away at that.
I mean, I'd love to get to 3000, 2700 is what I try to reach for every year.
So a couple other things, Edgewood Showcase, please get that on your calendar, September 24th from five
to 730. That's a big deal for our school campus. And we're excited to show off all of our students and
their great talents and our awesome facilities. And the whole community is involved, invited to the
Edgewood Showcase.
And then something new I'm trying this year. It's called Ask, Share, Celebrate with Your Friendly
Superintendent. And I sent this letter that's, I cheated, Jimmy. I put a sheet on the back here. So
it's a little bit more than one page. But you see the letter that I sent out. And what I'm trying to
get across is that I want to be available for our staffs
just come and talk with me. It's always good for me to be in touch with what's going on in our schools.
My intent is to do more listening than talking and to start off or make sure that I can live up to this
promise. I'm just promising to do this twice each semester and we'll see how that goes. But you see
the dates, August 31st,
at the high school, September 1st at the junior high, September 2nd at EIS, and then on September 3rd
I'll be at the preschool in the morning and the EPS in the afternoon. And hopefully some people will
want to come talk to me and share their thoughts and insights and then that'll guide us to continuous
improvement across the corporation. Any questions? Thank you.
With our Kindergarten 243, we now have bump years in sixth grade, third grade, and kindergarten. These
classes are 230-ish kids. So we are looking at 10 teachers per grade level in those classes.
So it's crazy. We're not quite sure what's happening every three years around here, but there seems
to be a trend.
Yeah, take a look at sixth grade, third grade and kindergarten. Those are our bump years. So it was
interesting to see kindergarten come in again every third year. We'll see if it maintains like that.
I just want to start out by,
recognizing my counterpart Brandy Abel who has had what can only be described as a series of cosmic
bad luck occur to her and she is hoping to get back in the classroom next week and be with us at the
school board meeting by September so I have been
unbelievably impressed with her ability to still help out with the association despite being sidetracked.
And so I just wanted to start there. This is my 10th year of teaching. And I student taught at Edgewood
before that. And while I was doing that, I knew that this was a place that I really wanted to be and
be a part of.
given that opportunity a few years after that. And I think this year has a lot of excitement and potential,
and it's not just things that have happened that are not just happening right now. It's an effort, it's
a collective effort that's been happening with years and years of sustained hard work, but just
Being at the high school right now, I think there's a sense of excitement with Mr. Boltinghouse being
there and I don't know, just all of the, I had a wonderful thing prepared and now I'm stumbling over
my words, but it's just a really electric time to be a part of it and I'm happy to be here and it's,
The association is looking forward to working with you all this year as every year. And I know that
often we get dealt not the best cards, but I feel and know from my time working here and just with the
past year of working with the association that a good association and good administration is reciprocal
and symbiotic and
I appreciate being in a place that takes care of us so well. So thank you very much and yeah, look forward
to working this year. Well, thank you very much. Awesome. Board member comments, we'll start with Mrs.
Jacobs. Well, I wanna really, I know that the families had left about the journeys classroom. That's
something that's very,
Near to my heart, Devin and Kinsey, both my children spent their high school years with the journeys
classes in high school and absolutely loved it. And I hear the desperation in the parents' voices when
they're coming and approaching us about things that they need us to do. And I know that we're gonna
do the best that we can for those students. I have no doubt for that, but I do appreciate them
being here and talking with us, coming up with ideas, strategies. Sometimes they know more strategies
of what they can do and how they can teach us to help their own child because they're with them every
day. So I'm really glad that we're working with them and hearing them out and giving the best for them.
I am saddened to see that Vicki's going to retire, but I'm excited for her next career move.
She, like you said, she has been such an instrumental part of our lives. And she has absolutely poured
her heart and soul out to our corporation. So I just wanna thank her as well. And happy new year for
the school year. Mr. Tucker. Thanks for the parents sharing tonight.
And I appreciate the letter they sent to the board members. We do listen and we put that responsibility
in the administrators and they do a good job of communicating with parents and I greatly appreciate
that. And hopefully things will get ironed out and we can work the best we can with each of those kids
because we're gonna work with every student that's in our school corporation. We're gonna take them
all, we're gonna work with them and try to be good adults.
continue to go through all the testing of all the state requires us. So I stole Dr. Sanders. Rick, if
you see that Dr. Sanders in the buildings, I borrowed his card, his cue card to get into buildings.
And they're beautiful. I mean, everything was clean. Sorry, Rick, I broke protocol. They were super
clean to start the school year.
And it was, I really want to hats off to all the staff to put in the effort to clean the buildings this
year. I'm disappointed with what happened at the gym floor at the junior high, but hopefully we're gonna
get that rectified. And again, kudos to the bus drivers. That was an, that wore me out looking at all
those lists. I did not look at every route. I'm not gonna lie to you, but that's a lot of work that
goes into it. And you don't realize how much effort goes into getting kids to and from school safely.
So I greatly appreciate that. And they'll work with the SROs too.
Looking forward to a good 26, 27. Thank you, sir. I reiterate what Ms. Jacobs said about Vicki and of
course Audrey Myers lost her mother when we be thinking about her. Thank you to Debbie and Paul for
your work on the budget. Jennifer, thank you for your deductions. We worked so hard over the years to
build everything up and now we're going down the other way.
He left and he promised me that I would use it. I promised him that I would use it. I should say It
took some time to get used to that. Oh, yeah, we're trying I know you are and thank you for all the
administrators of common department heads appreciate that and Jerry Appreciate your work as well. Thank
you I also appreciate the concerns that the families brought to us this evening and promise we will
follow up I
want to, I guess, thank Ty for telling me it's been 10 years since he student taught, because that's
a shock. But I saw a Facebook post from his next door classroom neighbor of a poster that had McGinnis
and Axiom and the whole group that
were staying where they were and they all had an arrow pointing up. And I thought that was so appropriate
because I was at the open house of the high school and it does feel very positive, very strong. I'm
thrilled with what I'm seeing going into this new school year. And I mean, there's always some hiccups,
but it's just been really positive. So thanks for your nice words too. And I think the enrollment numbers
that Dr. Sanders shared with us do give a little credence to the
Demographic study that we had that yeah, I mean we're we're gonna be very consistent Slow growth that's
what we're looking for. So thank you. Thank you Yeah We do like to keep a close eye on the enrollment
numbers because of course that has so much to do with what our budget is and As far as
when you administer the school system. And it also means so much what each one of those numbers represent.
So it's greatly important that way as well. So we do wanna keep track of them as individuals and as
collectively. I too, like the others tonight, appreciate
the folks coming in and talking to us and giving our concerns. I really appreciate the way they did
it as well. I thought it was really good. I thought they talked about the concerns. They talked about
how they appreciated the steps taken so far. They talked about steps that they'd like to see continue taken.
but it was all on how we can move forward. And I was really appreciative of that. That's the kind of
parents we need, so I appreciate that. I'm glad that the school year is going well at the beginning.
I think that hearing the band out there and I think there is a lot of excitement
And I'm just glad that we're getting a good start. And we've got a great system. And I'm glad we're
all working together to do the best things we can. I'm so glad that our building projects, the bids
came in under. I mean, that's always good.
beginning to wonder, are they just telling us high estimates? So they're always coming under? Or are
we really doing that good? So I want to think that we're really doing that good, but we are getting
some really great things done. And I just love to see these things continue. And I want to thank all
of you for being here tonight and all that had left earlier for them showing up earlier. So you all
have a great evening and this meeting is adjourned.