WEBVTT

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- Call this meeting to order. Please stay in for the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the

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- flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God,

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- indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All right, thank you all. Please be seated.

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- Please let the record reflect that Mr. Tucker and Mr. DeMoss and Mr. Kerr are present this evening.

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- We are down two members, but we do still have a quorum, so we can conduct business. It is rare for us

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- to only have three. I'm not sure that

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- many times it's happened since I've been here. So we wish our two colleagues very well in their endeavors.

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- So were there any visitors for comments this evening? All righty, seeing none. Then we will move right

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- into the Mustang moment, which is Edgewood Intermediate School. And Dr. Sanders, would you like to?

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- Thank you. I am here tonight to talk about our Journeys program at EIS. It's a program I'm extraordinarily

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- proud of. Students with cognitive disabilities, developmental delays, medically fragile students that

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- need an extraordinary person to lead their program. Carly Hammond was going to be here tonight, but

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- on I think Friday of last week she said my

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- brother's coming into town from out of state and I don't get to see him very often, so can I make a

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- video instead? And I said, absolutely. They'll be disappointed they only get me, but that's all right.

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- She's an exceptional teacher, daughter of long time EIS special education teacher, Christy Bennett.

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- In fact, she did her student teaching in our journey's room when I think we had a teacher leave mid

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- semester and she was getting ready to do her student teaching.

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- figured out a way to make it work and she's been in there ever since just doing an incredible job. She

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- knows that her students can do much more than the rest of the world maybe thinks they can do and they

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- grow so much under her care.

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- She has a video she's created to show you a couple new initiatives that she has this year. One is a

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- staff pop shop. It's another Edgewood student-run business that we have at EIS, as well as Talking Tuesday,

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- which I think you will be inspired by. This is in addition, she does these things in addition to teaching

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- her seven students seven different curriculums at all these different levels and all these different

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- subjects day in and day out.

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- Carly also advocated for a more engaging space at EIS. Now she has a large sensory room and a kitchen

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- where her students are learning true life skills that will help them live their best lives. And so now

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- we'll hear from Miss Hammond.

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- students are learning and achieving along the way. I'm going to briefly talk about two things that are

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- happening in the Jerbies Room at the Intermedia School. Our first one is our new business, which is

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- the Jerbies Pop Shop. There was a lot of talk around the school about needing a vending machine or a

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- gym station of some sort, and so we decided to turn that into a real-world learning experience for our students.

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- So we have our students helping with keeping an inventory sheet, stocking the fridge when it needs it,

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- and updating the menu on the fridge. Their favorite part to help with is once we get an order and the

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- teacher asks for it to be delivered, they get to go and pick out a drink, the one that they ordered,

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- and take it down to the teacher. Once they hand it off, they're supposed to say, thank you for your

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- business. And the kids love getting to say that. The adults love hearing it.

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- And so it just brings smiles to everyone involved. We have also started a fun app Friday where we pick

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- a student where we have the whole class go and we have a picture and we put it into Canva and just edit

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- it in a silly way and we just send it out to the whole staff trying to get more sales. But we show the

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- picture to the whole class and we just get some fun giggles out of it every Friday.

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- And it's just a fun way to also bring smiles to the teacher's face across the building. So the second

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- thing that we've been doing is called a Talker Tuesday. Every couple Tuesdays, one of our students will

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- start off the morning announcements across the building with their AAC device. So AAC stands for Alternative

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- and Alternative Communication, which refers to

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- a tool or system used as an alternative or supplemental method to communicate verbally. So within our

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- room, we have different types of AAC devices. Some are used with eye games and some are used by pressing

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- a button on the device. But then it also can be as simple as a picture, a few pictures on a piece of

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- paper and a student can point to what they're trying to communicate. So with that, we take the student

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- up to the floor

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- And we have a video that can show briefly what we do. So both of these products within

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- out and teach the students functional life skills, social skills, and also it just helps them be included

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- across their school. It helps educate the other students in their way of communicating, and it also

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- just gets them familiar with talking to other people. So thank you for allowing me to share what my

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- awesome students are doing at EIS.

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- Incredible work, she additionally sends out information to the teachers about those devices so they

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- can talk to their classrooms about those kids and how they use those assistive technologies to be able

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- to communicate with the world in ways that years ago weren't possible. So really just amazing work.

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- One other note about Mrs. Hammond, I get to brag on her a little bit just because she's not here and

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- I can do what I want.

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- It also will kind of lead into our next part of our presentation. Three years ago, a third grader entered

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- her classroom and he didn't know his letter sounds. He just, he didn't know, hadn't been exposed. This

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- was about the time we were starting with Orton Gillingham. So he was one of the test cases and started

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- working with him on that. And the weird thing was is like a couple weeks in, he was picking things up

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- a lot quicker than,

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- anybody would have thought. So she continued to monitor his progress. He was learning those letter sounds,

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- learning those, you know, those basic words that you have to know. And then she got together with the

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- special education department and we talked a long time and he probably didn't belong in her class the

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- way he was learning. So he transitioned to a third grade classroom and not gonna say that transition was easy.

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- but he received a lot of interventions. His grades weren't great. You know, we're still measuring kids

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- on grade level standards, but he continued to grow on those reading skills. And last year at the end

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- of the year in fifth grade, he passed the iRead exam. And now he's in sixth grade and it's just,

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- Absolutely incredible so Carly led that charge and it's been one of a great point of evidence for us

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- at EIS that this stuff this stuff really works and it's awesome for kids. All right next you're gonna

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- hear from someone else that is probably more exciting.

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- You are going to hear from the architects of EIS's transition to teaching the science of reading, Stephanie

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- Powell and Katie Key. In July, EIS was honored for our work over the past years in building a new culture

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- of reading instruction. They have done amazing work and have the data to prove this work has been incredibly

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- fruitful. I'm going to read you the press release from the Center of Excellence in Leadership and Learning,

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- which is commonly known as CEL, then I will turn it over to these exceptional educational leaders.

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- Edgewood Intermediate School, the July honoree, and this kind of goes back to when we were renovating.

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- While construction reshaped the school around them, educators at Edgewood Intermediate were also rebuilding

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- something important, how students learn to read. During a year of shuffling between classrooms, teachers

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- embraced a new approach to literacy.

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- strengthening phonics instruction, adopting a knowledge-based reading curriculum, and refining interventions

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- to address specific skill gaps. The results were a 92.6% iRead pass rate and nearly doubled proficiency

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- for students receiving special education services.

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- I learned proficiency in both English language arts and math exceeded state averages. Supporting those

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- efforts, Edgewood also earned level one certification in Marzano's high reliability schools, demonstrating

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- its commitment to creating safe, supportive, and effective learning environments. The work succeeded

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- because every educator shared responsibility for student achievement.

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- Together, they created clear instructional routines, more consistent expectations, and targeted supports

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- guided by data that ensured students received exactly what they needed to succeed. Edgewood calls it

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- a turning point, where years of hard work, collaboration, and professional learning came together to

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- create something extraordinary for kids. By the time construction wrapped up, Edgewood's strongest foundation

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- wasn't the one beneath its feet, but the instructional system its educators had built together.

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- With that being said, Mrs. Key, Mrs. Powell. Hopefully you can hear me. Thanks, Andy. Well, I feel like

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- Sel did a really eloquent job of phrasing this way better than probably Mrs. Powell and I ever could do,

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- I'm here just to brag on our staff because they are phenomenal. It almost makes you teary because if

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- you were to walk through our halls, it's very different when you look through and go into classrooms

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- than it was.

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- I mean, I was here in 2023, so it's pretty cool. I submitted Edgewood EIS for the Celebrate Your School

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- Award. I just felt like our staff deserve to be recognized. They've done such incredible work over the

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- past several years. And then oddly enough, I was really amazed when we got the email that we were named

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- one of CEL's top 25 schools in Indiana. That's a huge accomplishment.

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- So we've really made significant shifts in literacy instruction, the intervention of literacy, and the

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- way we use data to support students. And like I said earlier, the best evidence of that is if you walk

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- through our halls, if you visit our classrooms, if you come one day during a late start Wednesday, you're

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- going to hear those conversations where they're using data to support students.

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- Of course our numbers tell that story as well. You know our I read pass rate increase in I think it

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- was 2023 to 80 point oh no it was 80.4% in 2024 up to 92.6% in 2025 which is

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- It's pretty awesome. It's a 12.2% increase, which is really impressive for our special education population.

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- I don't have them written down, but I think it was 33.3% of our special education students or students

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- with special needs were passing the iREAD in 2023. And then we went up to 69.4% of our students with

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- special education needs passing. So huge, huge shout out to our

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- our teachers, our support staff, our instructional coach, all of these people that made that happen.

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- I think one of the things that makes that success more meaningful is just how our staff accomplished

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- it. They embraced new learning, they had new curriculum, they had new instructional practices they were

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- learning, coaching, they had ongoing data analysis on those Wednesdays and other times on their own

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- free time where they were navigating to a year of construction.

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- they were moving classrooms all year. There was constant change and through all of that, they never

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- wavered. I mean, they remained focused on those kids and they continued providing that instruction every

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- single day, no matter if they had switched classrooms overnight or over two days, they kept on going

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- for kids. I wanted to submit the grant because I really wanted a way to celebrate their collective effort,

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- honestly. That school improvement piece,

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- is a lot trickier than people realize because especially in a big building, you have a really big group

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- that you're trying to build collective ideas with. And that's not always easy whenever you're working

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- with a big group of people that have different sets of values and different ideas as a teacher. But

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- that's also what brings such value to our building. And so they reflected, they adjusted practices.

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- Honestly, as an assistant principal, I felt like they did all that work.

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- I mean, I would say minimal work, but some work, but they did the majority of that. And they really

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- grew together, which is not easy. I think this gives us an opportunity to recognize those people, the

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- big ones, our teachers, our IAs, our interventionists, the support staff, everybody else throughout

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- our building was pitching in. They were lending a hand. And I think it reminds them, I hope, that their

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- work is seen, that they're valued,

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- and that they truly make a difference for every single person that walks into our building. I think

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- it's a lot of times it's easy for teachers to feel like they get lost in the shuffle. I remember I taught

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- not as long as some of our teachers for about 12 years and it's hard. There's a lot of day to day stuff

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- that they get in and they're stuck in that and they feel like they can't do the things that they really

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- wanna do for kids.

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- I always feel like long after those lesson plans fade, what our kids really carry with them is that

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- confidence that comes from them being able to unlock a word that's really, really tricky or discover

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- a new idea because they were able to read it or even just realize they can do it. They're capable readers,

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- even though they've never, I think of that kid that Mr. Shull talked about. He didn't ever know his

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- letters, his letter sounds. And so our staff is opening up new opportunities for students

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- and truly shaping their future in ways that will last a lifetime, far longer than when they were a third

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- grader, all the way through. And to me, that's amazing. So I'm so proud of them. And I hope they're

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- proud of themselves. I'm going to turn it over to Steph, who's amazing as well, let her share a little bit.

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- Real quick before I get started, I want to also give a shout out to Carly because my office is in the

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- office and I didn't realize she was doing that. And so the first time that I heard one of her students

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- up there doing that, I had to walk out and everyone is just, it's so awesome to see. So I hope you actually

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- get the opportunity to come see that one day.

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- I'm Stephanie Powell, by the way. I'm an instructional coach for kindergarten through fifth grade. For

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- the last two years, I was an instructional coach through the Indiana Literacy Cadre. And so as a coach,

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- I get to do a lot of really cool things. So I get to work with lots of teachers in classrooms. I complete

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- coaching cycles with teachers. So if they want to implement a new instructional strategy, I work with

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- them. So I'm a partner in their classroom.

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- I'm involved in and lead professional development with teachers. And then another really neat thing

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- that I get to do is I organize instructional rounds with teachers. So that's where we learn from each

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- other. So we have teachers that will go to different classrooms to watch for different instructional

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- strategies. An example of that is just today, we had an instructional strategy or an instructional round

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- where fifth and sixth grade teachers were able to observe third grade teachers. And so you might wonder

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- like, what is a sixth grade teacher going to learn from a third grade

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- and the answer is actually quite a lot. So in our debriefing session, it was really neat because the

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- teachers are talking about how the third grade teachers are chunking content and eliciting responses

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- during their read-alouds and they have vocabulary routines and choral responses. So it's not the content

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- that they're watching, it's how the teachers are teaching and you can learn so much from our amazing teachers.

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- I'm really fortunate to be able to go into all these multiple classrooms and work with so many teachers.

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- What stands out is just how committed our teachers really are. Like Katie said, they adopted

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- a new curriculum. They adjusted to lots of new state requirements. If you've read anything about new

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- math plans and reading plans, it's a lot. Our teachers are digging into state standards and proficiency

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- level descriptors.

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- They are putting systems in place where they're really looking at their data and how it drives their

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- instruction and their interventions.

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- And teachers are volunteering to do things. They actually volunteer to be observed. I had a teacher

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- ask, you know, we come in my room and observe me and my phonics lesson and just give me some feedback

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- or they will volunteer for coaching cycles. And you don't hear that a lot. We also have teachers who

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- will participate in things on their own time. So I hosted a podcast club. So teachers on their own time

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- listen to an educational podcast and then we would meet before school and talk about the podcast.

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- So my role really is to support the work that teachers are doing through co-teaching and professional

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- development and collaboration. But our teachers are the ones that bring all of that to life in their

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- classrooms and they do a lot and they are really great teachers. I'm just incredibly proud too of the

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- work that we've all done and I'm grateful for the opportunity to support them along the way. So I just

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- wanted you to know kudos to our teachers

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- And they're the ones that are really doing the hard work in their classrooms. So thank you. Do you have

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- any questions? Just so excited about what you guys are doing and the video. I kind of have wondered

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- sometimes what

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- how that works, and to see it in action is just exciting, and to know that it does work, and so much

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- care goes into it, like special people, and so we're so excited that we have those special people here

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- at Edgewood, and so that's so exciting. And you guys, and making those transitions, and

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- helping people through them, different cycles of new curriculum and making those changes. It's not easy,

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- but it sounds like you guys worked together and made a good process. So we really appreciate all the

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- work that you guys are doing. Thank you. I have to say that one thing I see in our schools, and I love

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- this about Edgewood, is kiddos in Mrs. Hammond's class

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- Miss Hanson's class or in our classes down at EPS now two of them With mrs. Sample and mrs. M's those

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- kiddos are celebrities in those buildings They come through and they are given fist bumps Everybody

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- knows their name. It really is like cheers and the junior high is missing out right now because they

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- don't have those celebrities walking their hallways and

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- Carly cut the video short and I can't remember who it is that sent it to me, but Stephanie Powell, I

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- know exactly what you mean. I watched it and I just bawled. She cut it short because at the very end

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- of that video, that kiddo

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- loved hearing her name so much on the announcements that she kept hitting the button for her name over

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- and over. And so you kept hearing her name. And the best part was the way that she just giggled. She

00:22:11.771 --> 00:22:18.056
- knew exactly what she was doing. She was a little stinker about it. And it was the cutest thing ever.

00:22:18.056 --> 00:22:19.966
- And also just to speak to what

00:22:20.066 --> 00:22:26.174
- I saw this morning with our fifth and sixth grade teachers coming into our third grade classrooms. It

00:22:26.174 --> 00:22:32.582
- was the work that I was hearing, that was the instruction that I was hearing from our third grade teachers

00:22:32.582 --> 00:22:38.691
- that was exciting. But the part for me that meant more than anything else, and I shared this with Dr.

00:22:38.691 --> 00:22:44.799
- Sanders when I came back, is standing in the middle of a hallway when a grade level is working on OG,

00:22:44.799 --> 00:22:49.470
- working on phonics instruction, and hearing those voices inside the classroom

00:22:49.570 --> 00:22:57.153
- is one of the best sounds you can ever possibly imagine. You are hearing 200 kids at one time learning

00:22:57.153 --> 00:23:04.883
- how to read and it gives you absolute chills to stand there and listen to it. It was incredible watching

00:23:04.883 --> 00:23:12.318
- our teachers learn from one another and just the things that they were picking up on and that's what

00:23:12.706 --> 00:23:18.837
- is making Edgewood who we are, are these types of opportunities, not just for our kids, but for our

00:23:18.837 --> 00:23:24.968
- teachers to learn, because we don't expect them to remain stagnant. We don't want them to take what

00:23:24.968 --> 00:23:31.589
- they did in their first couple of years and do that and recycle it for the next 20. And that's the exciting

00:23:31.589 --> 00:23:37.842
- part about Edgewood. We don't do that here. So just kudos, not just to EIS, but the work that's being

00:23:37.842 --> 00:23:41.214
- done across our district, because it's pretty amazing.

00:23:42.178 --> 00:23:49.750
- And there's just so many requirements that are put on our teachers that they have to pack into a day.

00:23:49.750 --> 00:23:57.174
- And for them to be able to take that and to make it interesting and powerful and impactful on these

00:23:57.174 --> 00:24:05.118
- kids is truly an art. It really is. And there's science behind it, but they're artists too. Yes, they are.

00:24:05.442 --> 00:24:11.718
- to do that, so we're very- Naysat is the science of teaching, and the art and science of teaching. There's

00:24:11.718 --> 00:24:17.702
- a lot to it, and like you said, it comes from both sides. And the art is sometimes the most difficult

00:24:17.702 --> 00:24:23.685
- part to teach. I used to say it's a hard thing to teach somebody that side of it, because a lot of it

00:24:23.685 --> 00:24:29.844
- just is innate, and you can see it in the teacher early on. So, yeah. It's where the love is. It's where

00:24:29.844 --> 00:24:32.190
- the love is. It's where the passion is.

00:24:32.354 --> 00:24:40.233
- Somebody who's done that for years might know that, Mr. DeMoss. Well, awesome. So thank you very much.

00:24:40.233 --> 00:24:48.112
- Thank you. Okay. It's always hard to move on after the same moment, but we have to. Down the business.

00:24:48.112 --> 00:24:56.221
- Okay. Onto the consent agenda. We have approval of minutes from September 15th. We had our regular school

00:24:56.221 --> 00:25:00.734
- board member meeting as well as our public budget hearing.

00:25:00.834 --> 00:25:11.651
- Then we also have our financial report for this month is our treasurer's report for September, 2026.

00:25:11.651 --> 00:25:21.182
- And we have Mr. DeMoss for our claims. Okay. Many payroll for September 10th, $1,308.46.

00:25:21.346 --> 00:25:38.040
- Gross wages for 9-11-2026, $877,814.97. Gross wages for 9-25-26, $876,432.50 for total gross wages of

00:25:38.040 --> 00:25:51.134
- $1,755,555.93. Vouchers, claims, prepays from 9-1-26 to 9-30-26, $1,154,991.98.

00:25:51.458 --> 00:26:04.298
- Regular claims, I'm sorry, claims regular vouchers for 10-20-2026, $963,110.02. Total vouchers, $2,118,102.

00:26:04.298 --> 00:26:09.054
- Total vouchers and payroll, $3,118,102.

00:26:09.154 --> 00:26:19.078
- $873,657.93. Thank you, Mr. Moss. We also have personnel. We have personnel resignations, retirements,

00:26:19.078 --> 00:26:28.714
- non-renewals, leaves, and terminations, C1 through 17, and we'll come back in just a second. And we

00:26:28.714 --> 00:26:34.302
- have personnel appointments and transfers, D1 through 36.

00:26:34.722 --> 00:26:44.176
- And there is student employment, which again, we do not list for confidentiality purposes. There are

00:26:44.176 --> 00:26:53.536
- four donations we get to announce. One is student supplies from Millipore Sigma for the junior high

00:26:53.536 --> 00:27:01.118
- school. There is $305 from the Ellisville Tri Kappa to the RBB Angel Lunch Fund.

00:27:01.762 --> 00:27:10.614
- There are student supplies in the amount of $375 from Donors Choose to Mrs. Drew's and Mrs. Truax's

00:27:10.614 --> 00:27:19.465
- classrooms. There's $1,000 from the Ellisville Swim Club to the junior high school swim team. There

00:27:19.465 --> 00:27:23.006
- are three out-of-state and or overnight

00:27:23.138 --> 00:27:32.077
- field trips, the junior high's eighth grade student trip to Washington DC, the high school's FFA trip

00:27:32.077 --> 00:27:41.191
- to Indianapolis for a convention and expo, and the junior high's JEA NSBA journalism trip to the annual

00:27:41.191 --> 00:27:51.006
- conference in Orlando, Florida. And Dr. Sanders, would you like to add to those? Yeah, just the dates on those.

00:27:51.618 --> 00:28:04.284
- The eighth grade student trip to Washington DC is June 1st through the 3rd. The EHSFFA to Indianapolis

00:28:04.284 --> 00:28:16.826
- for their convention is October 21st through the 23rd. So I hope you approve this. And every year our

00:28:16.826 --> 00:28:18.302
- junior high

00:28:18.722 --> 00:28:28.460
- Journalism students go to the National Conference and this year it's in Orlando, Florida November 18th

00:28:28.460 --> 00:28:37.630
- through the 22nd and all three of these trips the students just come back with great experiences

00:28:37.762 --> 00:28:46.884
- learning a lot about themselves and how to take care of themselves when they're away from mom and dad

00:28:46.884 --> 00:28:56.095
- to getting to see some and participate in some very interesting and meaningful experiences. So we just

00:28:56.095 --> 00:29:05.217
- wanted to recommend our approval for these three trips. Okay. So you want to go ahead and I think you

00:29:05.217 --> 00:29:06.558
- want to make a

00:29:06.690 --> 00:29:16.870
- Sorry, recognize, that's the word I was trying to find, one of our retirees? Oh yes, so Lori Majors,

00:29:16.870 --> 00:29:27.050
- she's another one that, I know I repeat myself every time we recognize someone who's retiring, but I

00:29:27.050 --> 00:29:30.174
- try to reject their retirement

00:29:30.562 --> 00:29:39.569
- letters, but it never works. But Lori is just one of those special teachers. In fact, she won the Ellisville

00:29:39.569 --> 00:29:47.998
- Chamber of Commerce Educator of the Year award in 2024. She's been a teacher for 41 years. And she is

00:29:47.998 --> 00:29:56.510
- a teacher. She's one that you will see out and about at student events, not just her current students.

00:29:56.962 --> 00:30:06.276
- But students she's had several years ago that are in high school are graduating. She's an amazing person,

00:30:06.276 --> 00:30:15.239
- and we wish her the best. Thank you. So that being the consent agenda, do we have a motion? I'll move

00:30:15.239 --> 00:30:24.114
- approval of the consent agenda. I second. Moved and seconded. Any discussion? Laurie is exceptional,

00:30:24.114 --> 00:30:26.750
- and we are going to miss her.

00:30:27.362 --> 00:30:35.119
- when she thought she was going to be on the meeting agenda last month. And so she thought maybe we had

00:30:35.119 --> 00:30:42.875
- rejected it. And I told her we had. But no, she's exceptional. I mean, of course, Carly and I also had

00:30:42.875 --> 00:30:50.557
- her brother Colton in class and Christy. And it's incredible the talent that we have had come through

00:30:50.557 --> 00:30:56.958
- as teachers in this corporation over the years. But anyway, we're going to miss her.

00:30:58.562 --> 00:31:05.853
- Lori as well she was she put up on my son his buddies and she did a great job and on those guys And

00:31:05.853 --> 00:31:13.363
- I suppose cause I saw her at the Mustang showcase. Dr. Sanders. I think she's trying to chase down the

00:31:13.363 --> 00:31:20.873
- little mini train She's driving I thought she's gonna blow out an ankle or something Be careful there,

00:31:20.873 --> 00:31:24.446
- but I want to also compliment the principles I I

00:31:26.210 --> 00:31:32.716
- I'm a little bit OCD, you guys. I read the packet. I read the packet, believe it or not. There's some

00:31:32.716 --> 00:31:39.286
- pretty good, really good resumes in there. Some of the hires we've hired for some of the instructional

00:31:39.286 --> 00:31:45.920
- assistants and so forth. Looks like it's kind of a neat thing where people that may be retired and want

00:31:45.920 --> 00:31:52.426
- to come back and give back to the younger kids. So kudos to what you guys have done to find some good

00:31:52.426 --> 00:31:55.934
- people to come in and help our students. So thank you.

00:31:56.130 --> 00:32:04.223
- All those in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. All right. The next item is consideration

00:32:04.223 --> 00:32:12.393
- to approve the agreement with QTEGO. That's the way you could announce it. Number seven. Oh, seven budget

00:32:12.393 --> 00:32:20.101
- adoption. Oh, I apologize. Sorry. It kind of looked like it was part of the consent agenda. Oh, no.

00:32:20.101 --> 00:32:25.342
- We have Debbie Tate and Paul Fetterer next for the budget adoption.

00:32:25.538 --> 00:32:33.770
- I guess we ought to do that. So yes, so the 2027 budget adoption, and again, Debbie Tate and Paul Feder

00:32:33.770 --> 00:32:41.686
- are here tonight to lead us through that. I presented in front of you guys the forms that I brought

00:32:41.686 --> 00:32:49.839
- to you the last few meetings. This is just our final adoption. We had our hearing last month, and this

00:32:49.839 --> 00:32:54.430
- is our adoption to approve. I've given you the form four.

00:32:54.626 --> 00:33:03.012
- the school bus replacement resolution, the capital projects resolution. I also gave you a resolution

00:33:03.012 --> 00:33:11.481
- to approve the last six months transfers. That's just a number. We have updated those totals and just

00:33:11.481 --> 00:33:19.867
- given you that projection on, you know, it's just a range that we can stay within and we try to stay

00:33:19.867 --> 00:33:21.278
- below it at all.

00:33:21.442 --> 00:33:28.966
- in all cases, and then the 2027 budget resolution, and then a resolution to authorize a tax anticipation

00:33:28.966 --> 00:33:36.347
- warrant for 2027. Again, this is just to start the process in case we need it, doesn't mean that we're

00:33:36.347 --> 00:33:43.585
- going to do it, but just to have that available if we do end up needing that process, so. And if you

00:33:43.585 --> 00:33:45.950
- have any questions, let me know.

00:33:52.578 --> 00:33:59.655
- school bus replacement plan, capital project plan, six months transfer, budget resolution, and the resolution

00:33:59.655 --> 00:34:06.088
- to authorize the tax anticipation warrant. I'll second that, and I do have some questions. I'd like

00:34:06.088 --> 00:34:12.586
- to ask Paul, if you guys don't mind, to maybe clarify a couple things. Okay, Paul, or I can ask you.

00:34:12.586 --> 00:34:19.406
- Paul, yeah, I talked to Paul today, but I just want to make sure everybody's on the same page on a couple

00:34:19.406 --> 00:34:22.558
- of these things that leave me up at night sleep.

00:34:23.266 --> 00:34:31.282
- Okay, so the way I understand this for as far as the to explain this to our taxpayers Is our debt service

00:34:31.282 --> 00:34:39.299
- fund is remaining neutral? We're because as bonds drop off This is how we start the new building projects

00:34:39.299 --> 00:34:46.861
- and our bond our debt service funds not going to blow up Correct over time according to projections

00:34:46.861 --> 00:34:53.214
- from stifle We have to project it a high but we back it off later, correct Okay, so

00:34:54.434 --> 00:35:01.052
- As far as the community's asking me about our building projects, we've got some great things that we

00:35:01.052 --> 00:35:07.867
- have done here. But I try to take them back to 2001 when we built the two new elementaries. Those bonds

00:35:07.867 --> 00:35:14.486
- have now been expired and will continue to grow and improve our facilities. And the way I understand

00:35:14.486 --> 00:35:21.039
- it is the debt service will always remain pretty much level across the board. Operating, though, it

00:35:21.039 --> 00:35:23.070
- could be changed a little bit.

00:35:24.002 --> 00:35:30.402
- We'll have more expenses, I get that. So our tax rate could go up a little bit on the operating side.

00:35:30.402 --> 00:35:36.865
- And with the Senate Bill 1, that's the part where I'm getting a little confused in the transfer of the

00:35:36.865 --> 00:35:43.140
- money from the Education to Operations Fund. It's up to one and a half million, but we're not doing

00:35:43.140 --> 00:35:49.854
- that whole amount, correct? Okay. But it gives us the flexibility to do that, is that correct, Paul? Okay.

00:35:51.522 --> 00:35:59.951
- What we saw today is just a starting point, and we don't even know what our assessed value is yet, correct?

00:35:59.951 --> 00:36:08.224
- We shot it low though, didn't we? We need to go to the microphone so the cats can pick you up. I'm sorry.

00:36:08.224 --> 00:36:16.185
- Yeah, that's where I got a little bit. We don't have that number yet, the assessed value, correct? We

00:36:16.185 --> 00:36:18.526
- have a pretty close estimate.

00:36:19.042 --> 00:36:29.871
- It's going to be a little over 1.5 billion. So 1.5 billion is roughly your AV. You got to kind of understand

00:36:29.871 --> 00:36:39.806
- the relationship between assessed value level and rate. Once you understand those three things, the

00:36:39.806 --> 00:36:48.350
- budgeting process is a little easier. So if you've got 1.5 billion in assessed value,

00:36:49.250 --> 00:36:58.297
- One penny on the tax rate raises $150,000. And keep that in mind. That makes it a little easier to figure

00:36:58.297 --> 00:37:07.089
- as you're looking at what you want to raise in that. A penny raises $150,000 in your community. That's

00:37:07.089 --> 00:37:15.624
- really good. So, you know, as that assess value. Now, the DLGF will tell us when we started this in

00:37:15.624 --> 00:37:18.270
- June, July, the DLGF will say,

00:37:18.626 --> 00:37:28.127
- you do not advertise your current AV. If your AV is 1.5 billion, you advertise 85% of that. And so what

00:37:28.127 --> 00:37:37.446
- you see on the papers in there, that 1.3 billion or something like that in AV, is a number that comes

00:37:37.446 --> 00:37:46.674
- from them. And you use that, you keep that low, because you want the rate to be advertised high. And

00:37:46.674 --> 00:37:48.318
- now keep in mind,

00:37:48.962 --> 00:37:58.105
- that if you don't advertise high and you try to get it where it is and something happens to the AV drops,

00:37:58.105 --> 00:38:06.989
- you can't raise higher than you advertised. If you advertise high, you can always come down. Board can

00:38:06.989 --> 00:38:15.873
- do that through a resolution, whatever. But you can never raise it. If you advertise $1.05, you're not

00:38:15.873 --> 00:38:17.598
- going to get $1.06.

00:38:18.402 --> 00:38:27.470
- on the tax rate. So you have to remember that you stay within that low to high, and you're gonna come

00:38:27.470 --> 00:38:36.626
- in the middle. I think it's interesting. This is a pretty, I think, easy budget. It's more normal than

00:38:36.626 --> 00:38:45.605
- the last couple of years. If you look at last year's budget in the debt service, we had a $4 million

00:38:45.605 --> 00:38:48.094
- placeholder in that budget.

00:38:48.770 --> 00:38:56.310
- Your debt was dropping down to about 7.5 million, and you wanted to take advantage of that and keep

00:38:56.310 --> 00:39:03.926
- that at a certain level up here. So that gave you the ability to go out and bond again, and you did.

00:39:03.926 --> 00:39:11.541
- We put that 4 million in there. Well, it turned out to be about 2 million, because your debt service

00:39:11.541 --> 00:39:17.950
- levy came back in at about 9.5 million. And this will be the third year in a row now

00:39:18.530 --> 00:39:28.054
- that your debt is about 9.5 million. That's where it's gonna come in. Which was the goal is to keep

00:39:28.054 --> 00:39:37.958
- it leveled off. That's exactly right. So this year, we have a $500,000 placeholder in there, which does

00:39:37.958 --> 00:39:47.006
- allow you to go to a debt levy of 10.5 or 10.4 instead of nine, which is where it is, I think.

00:39:47.138 --> 00:39:55.733
- 9.8, 9.9. So you could raise it a little bit if the need was there. And again, it's about need and what

00:39:55.733 --> 00:40:03.997
- you might have to do. Or you don't do anything and you leave it alone and it stays at 9.9 this next

00:40:03.997 --> 00:40:12.922
- year. That's what will happen to it. Or if you could, if you have any more questions, Paul's our consultant

00:40:12.922 --> 00:40:17.054
- and Debbie is our Director of Budget and Finance.

00:40:17.698 --> 00:40:25.319
- So if we can direct questions to her, and then if we need some consulting from Paul, we could do that.

00:40:25.319 --> 00:40:33.089
- I would appreciate that. Okay. It's expensive. We're trying to save every penny around here, guys. Okay,

00:40:33.089 --> 00:40:40.784
- yeah. I just want to get that clarification for the public, too, and I know we're getting our education

00:40:40.784 --> 00:40:47.518
- funding based on our per pupil count, and Debbie, Ms. Tate, and that's what we have to use

00:40:48.450 --> 00:40:54.394
- to hopefully get some raises for our teachers, but we're kind of tight on that. I know with the education

00:40:54.394 --> 00:41:00.337
- budget, so. But that fund doesn't, that doesn't affect it from the operations or the debt service. That's

00:41:00.337 --> 00:41:06.000
- where people that meet on my door get confused. And I try to explain to them, we're keeping the debt

00:41:06.000 --> 00:41:11.720
- service level and we're trying to be good stewards of our money and try to stay around between a buck

00:41:11.720 --> 00:41:16.542
- and a buck five on the tax rate. So that helps people kind of prepare, but then it's,

00:41:17.410 --> 00:41:24.266
- still equates weird because it sets value to go higher. So it's a game, I know, but it's, I appreciate

00:41:24.266 --> 00:41:31.121
- what you guys do. Yeah, to keep track of it. And I know every time that we have a retirement, we gotta

00:41:31.121 --> 00:41:37.910
- look at what do we need to replace it or not, I get that. I think it's hard to transition from how we

00:41:37.910 --> 00:41:44.766
- thought in the past with the rate and the levy all were affected and now we're retraining our minds on

00:41:45.282 --> 00:41:51.467
- the whole state is on how we can look at this. And every single school system, every meeting I go to,

00:41:51.467 --> 00:41:57.651
- they're in the same boat trying to discuss how are we gonna do this? What is the best plan of action?

00:41:57.651 --> 00:42:03.957
- So we've always advertised hire. It's the common practice. You guys have always approved it in the past

00:42:03.957 --> 00:42:10.203
- in that way because that's what the DLGF requires. Like they tell us to do this. But it is, yeah, it's

00:42:10.203 --> 00:42:13.598
- just retraining our minds, which is why I'm excited for

00:42:13.698 --> 00:42:20.406
- policy analytics and other people to come in and be able to help train more so that all of us are on

00:42:20.406 --> 00:42:27.115
- the same page. Because I think it's so important for all of us to be educated very well in that area

00:42:27.115 --> 00:42:33.823
- because it's a lot to learn. It's confusing for everybody. So it's the law and sometimes the law can

00:42:33.823 --> 00:42:39.933
- be confusing. So definitely trying to make sure you guys understand all that. Okay. Debbie,

00:42:39.933 --> 00:42:42.590
- just to clarify, we're not adopting any

00:42:43.746 --> 00:42:49.211
- As far as the tax rate tonight, we are simply adopting the advertisement for the tax rate. So anybody

00:42:49.211 --> 00:42:54.836
- that's listening at home, we are not adopting, like this is our official rate. This is just the starting

00:42:54.836 --> 00:43:00.301
- process. This is the starting process. And then we're gonna be working on it. It's not final until we

00:43:00.301 --> 00:43:05.766
- sign off on the 1782. Okay. Once the DLGF, they send it to us, we review it, we can make adjustments,

00:43:05.766 --> 00:43:11.231
- and then we submit it to them and say these are our final numbers. Yeah, that makes sense. We'll have

00:43:11.231 --> 00:43:13.374
- a clear number of assessed value there.

00:43:13.602 --> 00:43:19.864
- not a low guess. Yeah, it's usually December, January, I believe, that they'll show us those numbers.

00:43:19.864 --> 00:43:26.125
- I was trying to remember the timing of it last year. But yeah, that whole process is confusing. Yeah.

00:43:26.125 --> 00:43:32.448
- So my goal is to help you guys understand that better also. So that is my future goal for you guys and

00:43:32.448 --> 00:43:38.587
- everybody to get to that place. Right. And I know November 3, like there's 30-some schools going to

00:43:38.587 --> 00:43:42.270
- have a referendum vote. And that's going to be interesting.

00:43:42.402 --> 00:43:50.561
- I mean, we could be in that situation. I always said, no, I don't want to deal with that, but to help

00:43:50.561 --> 00:43:58.800
- pay our teachers, we may have to go down that rabbit hole. But it'd be interesting to see what happens

00:43:58.800 --> 00:44:06.879
- with the legislature. All right. Thank you. Kind of point out, just to make it a couple of examples,

00:44:06.879 --> 00:44:12.318
- glad Dr. Sanders got this for me earlier, is that for like in 2025,

00:44:12.674 --> 00:44:25.293
- The advertised tax rate was 1.5294. The final tax rate was 1.0368. In 26, it was 1.2916 advertised.

00:44:25.293 --> 00:44:38.038
- The final rate was 1.0747. This year, the advertised is 1.2955. Again, that's based on whether if we

00:44:38.038 --> 00:44:41.950
- had that lower assessed value.

00:44:42.050 --> 00:44:54.062
- when we get the real assessed value that's gonna come down. For a while, I know the board and I tried

00:44:54.062 --> 00:45:06.192
- to talk about our tax rate and wanting tax rate to stay in a certain area. That's all kind of changing

00:45:06.192 --> 00:45:10.078
- now. With Senate Enrolled Act 1,

00:45:10.242 --> 00:45:20.161
- The things that are going to be going in place over the next several years are going to make tax rates

00:45:20.161 --> 00:45:29.984
- do a lot of wonky things. I think the focus needs to be on money. How much money are you levying? How

00:45:29.984 --> 00:45:39.422
- much money are you bringing in from the property taxes? We're trying our best to keep that level.

00:45:40.066 --> 00:45:50.455
- at the same time keep our facilities up and running to keep our, you know, to have facilities that are

00:45:50.455 --> 00:46:00.844
- nice, good for our students, good for our community, yet try to be good stewards and keep that number,

00:46:00.844 --> 00:46:03.870
- you know, as level as we can.

00:46:04.322 --> 00:46:11.849
- especially when you come to debt service. As we said, operations every year, that operations number

00:46:11.849 --> 00:46:19.603
- goes up because the state says it's got to go up because look at our diesel fuel costs and look at our

00:46:19.603 --> 00:46:27.280
- buses. So your costs are going to go up, your operations costs. So that's going to go up. That's just

00:46:27.280 --> 00:46:32.926
- where that money comes from. But where we can have some control is in that

00:46:33.058 --> 00:46:41.873
- debt service levy and our goal really is to try to keep that consistent. So when it comes to the actual

00:46:41.873 --> 00:46:50.603
- money that this school is bringing in from those property taxes for debt service, we're trying to keep

00:46:50.603 --> 00:46:59.673
- it the same. So while the rates may say all kinds of funky things later on, we're trying to be consistent.

00:46:59.673 --> 00:47:02.046
- I think that's what I want.

00:47:02.498 --> 00:47:10.259
- the people to know. We're trying to be consistent. We're not going and if they see a rate change, it's

00:47:10.259 --> 00:47:17.869
- not because we're out there pulling in more money. It's because of the things that are going on with

00:47:17.869 --> 00:47:25.630
- that one and all these other things. But we're trying to be consistent and be good stewards. And we've

00:47:25.630 --> 00:47:31.582
- been blessed with the bond rates that we've got over the last seven years have

00:47:32.386 --> 00:47:40.195
- tremendously good. And those are creeping up now. The bond rates are creeping up for new bonds. But

00:47:40.195 --> 00:47:48.316
- the ones we have are locked and loaded. So we've been very blessed with timing on getting those issued,

00:47:48.316 --> 00:47:56.671
- for sure. We are planning to have a work session with the board on December 4th at 530 to discuss facility

00:47:56.671 --> 00:48:01.278
- needs. But Stiefel will be here at that meeting to go over

00:48:01.378 --> 00:48:10.647
- where we are financially, with our debt service, just our general financial situation, and so I think

00:48:10.647 --> 00:48:20.188
- that'll be a very informative meeting. I look forward to it. Absolutely. Thank you. Thank you very much.

00:48:20.188 --> 00:48:29.638
- Okay, so we do have, has been moved upon and seconded upon to adopt the budget. Any further discussion?

00:48:29.638 --> 00:48:30.910
- Hearing none.

00:48:31.074 --> 00:48:41.092
- Is this okay? All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Thank you very much. Now, I

00:48:41.092 --> 00:48:51.310
- apologize and scared you earlier. There is an agreement with QTEGO, which is fun to say as Q-T-E-G-O.

00:48:51.310 --> 00:48:57.822
- Right. I think it's pronounced, I think they just say Q-T-E-G-O.

00:48:58.018 --> 00:49:08.133
- So this is an agreement from EPS to work with QTAGO. They're a fundraising service and it's a $500 flat

00:49:08.133 --> 00:49:14.942
- fee for them to provide all the infrastructure for an online auction.

00:49:15.042 --> 00:49:22.039
- A few years ago, the PTO, I think maybe two years ago, the PTO at EPS took over what used to be the

00:49:22.039 --> 00:49:29.245
- principal or the school's fundraiser, which was the fun run. So PTO runs the fun run now in the spring

00:49:29.245 --> 00:49:36.382
- for their major fundraiser for the year. And then the principal didn't have a fundraiser necessarily.

00:49:36.382 --> 00:49:43.518
- So I would like us to do this online auction. It'll be a holiday auction, open online. It's via text.

00:49:44.162 --> 00:49:52.080
- anybody who can sign up. So we would advertise through our newsletter for anyone to log in and bid on

00:49:52.080 --> 00:50:00.231
- items that I will ask parents and teachers to solicit together. And it'll be a range of prices so anyone

00:50:00.231 --> 00:50:04.190
- can afford to purchase something from the auction.

00:50:04.354 --> 00:50:11.168
- And additionally, the first $3,000 will still be set aside for supporting needy families in Edgewood

00:50:11.168 --> 00:50:17.982
- for the holidays. And that's something, purchasing gifts for families in need is something that Jill

00:50:17.982 --> 00:50:24.864
- Cronin, our social worker, and Sybil Baker, our family coordinator, work together on. So that's still

00:50:24.864 --> 00:50:31.745
- in place. And then whatever is raised on top of that will be for the Edgewood School Principals Fund.

00:50:31.745 --> 00:50:34.174
- And we plan to purchase things that

00:50:34.658 --> 00:50:41.329
- Items for rooms, items for whole school, PBIS, positive behavior supports, guest speaker fees,

00:50:41.329 --> 00:50:48.352
- field trips, things like that. The teachers really want a poster maker. So that's something. And we

00:50:48.352 --> 00:50:55.655
- like to tell people what money will go for. And it'll go for things that both touch students and impact

00:50:55.655 --> 00:51:01.694
- teachers' planning and lessons. So that's what the QTEGO agreement is. Any questions?

00:51:03.170 --> 00:51:11.944
- You've got experience with this outfit? Oh, yes. I forgot to mention that. Yeah, yeah. I'm on the foundation

00:51:11.944 --> 00:51:19.993
- board for MCCSC, and we've used QTAGO for years, and it's so easy, and they're so reliable. We pull

00:51:19.993 --> 00:51:27.962
- in at the foundation there between $23,000 and $28,000 every year. I'm aiming for $18,000. $18,000

00:51:27.962 --> 00:51:31.262
- a month. Yeah. OK. OK. Make a motion to.

00:51:31.842 --> 00:51:39.879
- to partner up with QTAGO for this school year. I'll second. Second. Any discussion? I'm with you. I'm

00:51:39.879 --> 00:51:48.390
- going to call it QTAGO. It is fun. All right. OK. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries.

00:51:48.390 --> 00:51:56.269
- Next is consideration to approve the contract with Jostens for the EECC yearbook. Jennifer Barrett.

00:51:56.269 --> 00:52:01.470
- Yes, this is one that actually came through from Heather Kinzick.

00:52:01.794 --> 00:52:10.885
- And they are looking at shifting from Steve Sheldon creating their yearbook each year to Jostens. Jostens

00:52:10.885 --> 00:52:19.633
- is also used by EIS, EJHS, and EHS. So we definitely have some teachers and students who are familiar

00:52:19.633 --> 00:52:26.494
- with the platform. And Mrs. Kinzig wants to give that a go this year with EECC.

00:52:26.626 --> 00:52:34.251
- What we're looking at here is a contract. Estimated base price on this is about $2,100. What that pays

00:52:34.251 --> 00:52:42.024
- for is 100 copies of a 40-page yearbook at $21 apiece. So we're asking for you to approve this contract.

00:52:42.024 --> 00:52:49.649
- This would be just for this school year. We'll give it a try, see if we like it, if we don't. But just

00:52:49.649 --> 00:52:53.054
- for this school year and nothing beyond that.

00:52:54.178 --> 00:53:02.163
- I'll move approval to the Jostens contract for EECC. I second. Is this pre-K through 12 Jostens now?

00:53:02.163 --> 00:53:10.306
- No, Steve Sheldon still does the yearbook for EPS. And it's not that Steve Sheldon is doing a bad job.

00:53:10.306 --> 00:53:18.212
- I want to say that Steve does the yearbook outside of the school and then brings it back in to sell

00:53:18.212 --> 00:53:21.374
- it. And what we're seeing a shift to is

00:53:21.538 --> 00:53:27.593
- Students are wanting to be more engaged in the process. Teachers are wanting to be more engaged in the

00:53:27.593 --> 00:53:33.648
- design process. So that's why we're looking at Jostens, even at those lower levels. Who knows what Dr.

00:53:33.648 --> 00:53:39.526
- Fishman and Dr. Robinson will decide to do. But it's another option out there and it's another way,

00:53:39.526 --> 00:53:45.640
- I think, to get some of our students involved. I'm assuming that Mrs. Kinzik is probably thinking about

00:53:45.640 --> 00:53:51.518
- bringing in some of those junior high and high school students who have experience on the platform.

00:53:51.714 --> 00:54:01.458
- to help create that with our little guys. OK. All right. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Opposed?

00:54:01.458 --> 00:54:10.827
- Motion carries. Next is consideration to revise policy number 4413 regarding overtime. Dr. Sanders.

00:54:10.827 --> 00:54:16.542
- Yes. And just so the board knows, this is the first reading.

00:54:16.706 --> 00:54:25.645
- We, in November, I will bring this policy back to you for approval. At the same time, we will bring

00:54:25.645 --> 00:54:34.942
- changes to the staff handbook so that the handbook and the policy aligned will have those both approved

00:54:34.942 --> 00:54:43.166
- in November. You know, our office, we have exceptional people that work here and, you know,

00:54:43.618 --> 00:54:54.781
- back in the day when Paul and I first started and we came up with the phrase doing business better.

00:54:54.781 --> 00:55:04.158
- Our staff here at central office, they are exceptional about doing business better.

00:55:04.450 --> 00:55:13.782
- They're always looking for making sure that we're implementing policy accordingly. And in this case,

00:55:13.782 --> 00:55:23.114
- with policy 4413 on overtime, our new payroll director determined that we were not implementing this

00:55:23.114 --> 00:55:25.054
- policy consistently.

00:55:25.154 --> 00:55:32.725
- or across the corporation and with what the policy said. So, we took that opportunity to sit down in

00:55:32.725 --> 00:55:40.221
- the office here and look at, okay, if we're going to revise, do we need to revise the policy? Do we

00:55:40.221 --> 00:55:47.793
- need to change our practice? And so, we changed some aspects of the policy or we're asking the board

00:55:47.793 --> 00:55:51.166
- to do that. And the previously it said that,

00:55:51.234 --> 00:56:00.508
- that all overtime would be pre-approved by the superintendent. By practice, the principals and directors

00:56:00.508 --> 00:56:09.605
- were doing that. And they do that because logistically, they know better what's going on when overtime

00:56:09.605 --> 00:56:18.526
- is needed or not needed. And so we wanted to change the policy to align with our practice. And then,

00:56:18.914 --> 00:56:32.424
- We also had the comp time was being, some of our administrators offered comp time instead of overtime.

00:56:32.424 --> 00:56:45.803
- Some didn't, some did not allow overtime at all. And so we were stressing that we can offer comp time

00:56:45.803 --> 00:56:47.902
- in lieu of the,

00:56:48.034 --> 00:56:57.284
- being compensated for monetarily for overtime work. But in that conversation, that led us to, well,

00:56:57.284 --> 00:57:06.627
- we really don't want bus drivers. We need our bus drivers every day. And so to offer the bus drivers

00:57:06.627 --> 00:57:16.062
- comp time would not work because we're already stretched thin and we need our drivers here every day.

00:57:16.834 --> 00:57:24.801
- And so that's kind of what led to making these revisions. And when we present this to you in November,

00:57:24.801 --> 00:57:33.155
- we'll go through some more details that are in the handbook and discuss those. In between now and November,

00:57:33.155 --> 00:57:40.890
- if you have any questions on this policy, just let me know or if you have them tonight, that's fine

00:57:40.890 --> 00:57:45.918
- too. I just greatly appreciate them catching this and fixing it.

00:57:46.466 --> 00:57:54.147
- I routinely said if you follow a policy, if you don't like it, change it, but you still follow it. And

00:57:54.147 --> 00:58:01.604
- so I'm glad that they caught this and the right thing to do is to fix it. And I appreciate the hard

00:58:01.604 --> 00:58:09.360
- work to get this one revised. Dr. Sanders, on the bus driver side of it, I assume anybody over 40 hours

00:58:09.360 --> 00:58:15.102
- for the week would be considered over time. Is that the number we use? Yeah.

00:58:15.234 --> 00:58:20.911
- we're running into problems possibly with people on extracurriculars? Because are we paying them by

00:58:20.911 --> 00:58:26.644
- the trip or are we paying them by the hour? That's where I got a little confused on the bus drivers.

00:58:26.644 --> 00:58:32.435
- Yeah, we pay by the hour. Pay by the hour, okay. Yeah, because it's changed over the years. I used to

00:58:32.435 --> 00:58:38.225
- be per trip. Right, no. Okay, okay. All right, and I appreciate the fact that the central office will

00:58:38.225 --> 00:58:43.902
- oversee the different buildings too. Yeah, you'll see when we get to the handbook, you'll see where

00:58:44.450 --> 00:58:53.481
- just give you a little preview, where we will be, Beth Sedwick, our payroll director will be creating

00:58:53.481 --> 00:59:02.424
- a report on overtime comp time that will go out every payroll. And so we'll be able to, I know there

00:59:02.424 --> 00:59:11.633
- might be some maybe little worries about so many people being able to approve overtime, but we're gonna

00:59:11.633 --> 00:59:13.758
- be able to monitor that

00:59:14.082 --> 00:59:24.220
- by watching these reports. If we see somebody going over, just out of whack, the amount of overtime

00:59:24.220 --> 00:59:35.067
- being allowed, then we'll address that. Yes, and administrators too, right. And I'm sure that the deputate

00:59:35.067 --> 00:59:42.366
- would appreciate if we say we really want to restrict overtime as much.

00:59:42.690 --> 00:59:51.388
- as possible. I mean, our budget is tight and we need to recognize that and, you know, we need to, sometimes

00:59:51.388 --> 00:59:59.522
- you got to do it. I realize that and, you know, so I'm fine with doing it, but we really need to try

00:59:59.522 --> 01:00:06.046
- to keep it at a minimum. Yeah. A new practice that we have here in the Office of

01:00:07.138 --> 01:00:15.270
- We've been probably implementing maybe a year now, but we have a financial team and we meet on Monday

01:00:15.270 --> 01:00:23.560
- mornings. And so we're continually discussing and analyzing our finances. And this will be part of that

01:00:23.560 --> 01:00:31.692
- meeting. We'll be having a conversation of a group of us will be sitting down and say, hey, you know,

01:00:31.692 --> 01:00:35.678
- this overtime is pretty well, but over here it's,

01:00:35.874 --> 01:00:42.927
- too much and we're gonna have to pull it back a little bit. I appreciate you guys taking the time to

01:00:42.927 --> 01:00:50.119
- explain it to the staff so they can plan accordingly. I think some of them have relied on overtime but

01:00:50.119 --> 01:00:57.382
- they can't rely on that so I appreciate you taking your time and I think using the current policy until

01:00:57.382 --> 01:01:04.574
- you update this. I think if we could get back over again we would change the way that we approached it

01:01:05.154 --> 01:01:12.444
- I don't think that we realized until we really dug into the issue that it was such an issue in terms

01:01:12.444 --> 01:01:19.807
- of consistency across departments and As we started to fix one little piece another domino would fall

01:01:19.807 --> 01:01:27.170
- and another domino would fall right and we quickly realized that by following the policy we had a lot

01:01:27.170 --> 01:01:28.830
- of angry employees and

01:01:29.218 --> 01:01:36.289
- had we known how much of an impact this was going to make, we would have communicated this much earlier.

01:01:36.289 --> 01:01:43.292
- But I think that at this point, everybody understands we're following the board policy as it's written.

01:01:43.292 --> 01:01:50.093
- That's how we are currently applying comp time and then any overtime over the 40 hours. Once this is

01:01:50.093 --> 01:01:56.894
- approved, hopefully at the next board meeting, then we can go back and pay out anybody then that is,

01:01:56.994 --> 01:02:03.856
- potentially at 40 hours of comp time, like a bus driver, bring that back down to 15 hours that they

01:02:03.856 --> 01:02:11.404
- can use for doctor's appointments and things that are necessary sometimes, but get everybody back financially

01:02:11.404 --> 01:02:18.540
- to where they expect it to be prior to us finding this issue. It's not easy. That was much appreciated.

01:02:18.540 --> 01:02:25.470
- We understand why people were upset. We understood all of that, but we also understand that our jobs

01:02:25.826 --> 01:02:37.362
- are to follow board policy. And when we recognize that wasn't practice, we had to do that. So that's

01:02:37.362 --> 01:02:48.898
- where we're at with this right now. All right. We'll move on. Next is consideration to remove a paid

01:02:48.898 --> 01:02:55.294
- leave day exception for the culinary skills specialist.

01:02:55.426 --> 01:03:03.786
- Be prepared. This is just a tiny piece that we need to put back in. So we're pretty excited because

01:03:03.786 --> 01:03:12.146
- our culinary skills specialist is now, she holds an education degree. I don't know if you guys knew

01:03:12.146 --> 01:03:20.590
- that. She holds an education degree and we recently, you just actually approved it in your personnel

01:03:20.590 --> 01:03:23.934
- list that she is our new facts teacher.

01:03:24.130 --> 01:03:30.600
- and just started this week, and she is moving from the culinary skills position into that facts teacher

01:03:30.600 --> 01:03:37.070
- position. And in doing that, we had created an exception because she was somebody that was exceptional,

01:03:37.070 --> 01:03:43.478
- and we had created an exception for paid leave days for her to allow her a few more because of her job

01:03:43.478 --> 01:03:48.766
- as the culinary skills specialist. For the foreseeable future, we're not, we are not

01:03:49.058 --> 01:03:56.889
- going to be filling that position. And so right now we'd like to go ahead and clean that up and remove

01:03:56.889 --> 01:04:04.492
- that line for the exception for paid leave days. And then the next person that would be hired would

01:04:04.492 --> 01:04:12.704
- just fall in line with the regular paid leave day schedule. Culinary skills specialist. Moved and seconded.

01:04:12.704 --> 01:04:17.950
- All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Thank you.

01:04:19.426 --> 01:04:27.137
- All right, next is consideration to approve the biotechnology teacher position for the 2027-2028 school

01:04:27.137 --> 01:04:34.773
- year. We typically do not bring these to you in October for the next school year. But here we are with

01:04:34.773 --> 01:04:42.410
- this position. This is one that we've been talking about for the last year or so as we've been talking

01:04:42.410 --> 01:04:45.598
- about the life sciences training facility.

01:04:45.698 --> 01:04:53.803
- And last month, Mr. Kerr attended a, no, yes, Mr. Kerr attended, I was trying to remember who was there,

01:04:53.803 --> 01:05:01.599
- Mr. Kerr attended a meeting with us at the high school in which NCAP BioCrossroads came down, talked

01:05:01.599 --> 01:05:09.473
- with us about an opportunity to take our partnerships outside of just right here in our own community

01:05:09.473 --> 01:05:13.950
- within Monroe County and within the ROI region and really

01:05:14.530 --> 01:05:21.592
- connect those partners across the state through a statewide initiative known as BioCrossroads. In part

01:05:21.592 --> 01:05:28.585
- of that work, we also are going to have a connection now with Eli Lilly and our students are going to

01:05:28.585 --> 01:05:35.510
- have an opportunity to graduate as Lilly Pathfinders. We would be the first school in Monroe County,

01:05:35.510 --> 01:05:40.446
- first school down actually in this area at all outside of Indianapolis.

01:05:40.610 --> 01:05:46.997
- who is going to have this opportunity for our students. In order to show our commitment to them, we

01:05:46.997 --> 01:05:53.640
- also need to show that we're continuing to do the work prior to opening this pathway up next year. Part

01:05:53.640 --> 01:05:58.622
- of that is going ahead, creating this job description, getting that approved.

01:05:58.690 --> 01:06:05.847
- I don't think we're gonna post it tomorrow or anything like that, but I would say probably around January,

01:06:05.847 --> 01:06:12.670
- February, we need to get this posted because it's a very specific type of job that we're looking for,

01:06:12.670 --> 01:06:19.492
- a very specific person that we're looking for here. This is not a typical history or ELA teacher that

01:06:19.492 --> 01:06:26.181
- we're looking for, and we really are gonna need to get this posted and start doing some recruitment

01:06:26.181 --> 01:06:28.656
- in terms of what that can look like.

01:06:28.656 --> 01:06:36.944
- me how we plan on paying for this because the last thing we need to be doing as a district is creating

01:06:36.944 --> 01:06:45.152
- positions right now and Mr. Boltinghouse and I are working really closely with Amy Winkler and ROI on

01:06:45.152 --> 01:06:53.440
- our CTE funding so we are opening up every opportunity finding where things aren't matching up and and

01:06:53.440 --> 01:06:58.590
- basically building bridges so that that CTE funding cannot only

01:06:59.042 --> 01:07:05.034
- Increase a little bit, but we want to see it double and triple and eventually quadruple what we're currently

01:07:05.034 --> 01:07:10.531
- getting, which would pay for this teaching position. We would also be looking for it to potentially

01:07:10.531 --> 01:07:16.028
- pay for teaching positions at the junior high with some of the CTE funding that has now been opened

01:07:16.028 --> 01:07:18.942
- up there that we're exploring for next year as well.

01:07:19.010 --> 01:07:25.575
- So a lot of good opportunities right now. I can't tell you 100%. This is the fund it's going to come

01:07:25.575 --> 01:07:32.596
- out of. But I can tell you that is the plan for the future with that fund and what we're currently building

01:07:32.596 --> 01:07:39.291
- to get that built up to a place that we can do that with. Very similar to what we've talked about with

01:07:39.291 --> 01:07:46.052
- Medicaid building, billing, building up that fund so that we can then pay for SLPs and things like that

01:07:46.052 --> 01:07:47.742
- out of that fund as well.

01:07:53.826 --> 01:08:05.446
- And second, I think this is a great step. It is a leap of putting this out there. But look

01:08:05.446 --> 01:08:18.727
- at the construction outside. I mean, we're committed. And this is part of that next step. And so, yeah,

01:08:18.727 --> 01:08:22.302
- it's hard, but I appreciate

01:08:23.458 --> 01:08:29.902
- the active recruitment of funds that you're going through. I really appreciate that. We can't hit the

01:08:29.902 --> 01:08:36.282
- education fund. We know that. Yeah. So we appreciate the hard work to try to get as much funding for

01:08:36.282 --> 01:08:42.852
- this as possible. Is it likely that this position would be one that would start mid-spring, summertime?

01:08:42.852 --> 01:08:49.295
- Because I'm sure there's going to be some preparation they're going to have to do. What we would love

01:08:49.295 --> 01:08:50.622
- is for this position

01:08:50.882 --> 01:08:57.574
- with our partnership with Eli Lilly, they will actually pay for all of the training for this teacher

01:08:57.574 --> 01:09:04.266
- during the summer at Ivy Tech. So we wouldn't pay for a dime of that. We wouldn't pay any stipend to

01:09:04.266 --> 01:09:11.156
- that teacher for their personal time. They would be on a regular teaching contract starting at the same

01:09:11.156 --> 01:09:15.198
- time as every other teacher. And then at that point in time,

01:09:15.426 --> 01:09:22.935
- they would continue to work with Ivy Tech, with BioCrossroads. BioCrossroads has also hired a former

01:09:22.935 --> 01:09:30.592
- science teacher onto their team who is working specifically with Ivy Tech to take a college curriculum

01:09:30.592 --> 01:09:38.100
- and bring it down into a high school level. So she has a major undertaking. That will be the pathway

01:09:38.100 --> 01:09:43.230
- that we will actually be implementing here and it's exciting because

01:09:43.490 --> 01:09:50.410
- We have a say in what that looks like. And that was the lady who attended our meeting. And it's pretty

01:09:50.410 --> 01:09:57.129
- incredible that we're on the forefront of all of this. And I know that you guys have also asked for

01:09:57.129 --> 01:10:04.050
- MOUs with our partners. This is our commitment to them, showing them this is how we're moving forward.

01:10:04.050 --> 01:10:06.334
- Our MOU with them is also coming.

01:10:06.434 --> 01:10:13.585
- That will actually be with bio bio crossroads and so they're working on drawing that up with their attorneys

01:10:13.585 --> 01:10:20.342
- in terms of what their commitment is to us. So for instance Boston scientific cook medical are members

01:10:20.342 --> 01:10:24.606
- of bio crossroads cook is getting close on that fingers crossed.

01:10:24.738 --> 01:10:31.155
- They make a financial commitment to be a part of BioCrossroads. It's a $100,000 commitment that they

01:10:31.155 --> 01:10:37.635
- make that then is funneled back down into these school corporations. So it's no longer just us saying

01:10:37.635 --> 01:10:44.243
- to these partners, can you give us some money to do this? Now they're funneling it into a big statewide

01:10:44.243 --> 01:10:47.038
- initiative that then is coming out and it's

01:10:47.522 --> 01:10:54.371
- It creates an organization with it. So that MOU is currently being worked on on their end. As soon as

01:10:54.371 --> 01:11:01.556
- we get a copy of that, that'll go to Christine so that we can review it. And that will be their commitment

01:11:01.556 --> 01:11:08.338
- to us and what we can expect from them in terms of financial commitment, educational commitment, all

01:11:08.338 --> 01:11:15.052
- of these pieces that we're gonna need. I couldn't even write a job description for this without AI.

01:11:15.052 --> 01:11:16.798
- So I can't even begin to,

01:11:16.930 --> 01:11:24.102
- think about creating a curriculum for this. So it's work that has to be done by people that have more

01:11:24.102 --> 01:11:31.273
- expertise in this area than we do. This will enable us to partner with even more companies. Even more

01:11:31.273 --> 01:11:35.070
- companies, exactly. Yeah. Once the work gets started,

01:11:35.202 --> 01:11:41.822
- then we can start to talk about how our students can benefit these local companies who potentially are

01:11:41.822 --> 01:11:48.313
- not necessarily a part of the big umbrella. How can we get our students in the doors for internships

01:11:48.313 --> 01:11:54.804
- and apprenticeships, job shadowing? Can we come and explore and just see your facilities so our kids

01:11:54.804 --> 01:12:01.552
- can understand how robotics is used in engineering on a daily basis? Those are the types of partnerships

01:12:01.552 --> 01:12:05.022
- that we currently have that we will continue to have.

01:12:05.122 --> 01:12:11.593
- And this just takes some of those even deeper, and also maybe to a higher level of state level. I'll

01:12:11.593 --> 01:12:18.192
- be interested to see what kind of certification, what kind of training, because this, as you say, this

01:12:18.192 --> 01:12:24.599
- is going to be an exceptional person that we're looking for here. It really is. It really is. And I

01:12:24.599 --> 01:12:31.582
- can send you what currently is listed for this pathway in terms of qualifications. I did include it in here.

01:12:32.514 --> 01:12:38.665
- under a valid Indiana teaching license. There's some pieces in here, preparation and biology, chemistry,

01:12:38.665 --> 01:12:44.523
- biotechnology, related science. We do have one or two people on our teaching staff now who would be

01:12:44.523 --> 01:12:50.967
- qualified to teach this position. The question is just whether or not they want to. Would they be interested?

01:12:50.967 --> 01:12:57.177
- Sure. And that's okay. If they're enjoying what they're doing, that's okay too. I know a couple of people

01:12:57.177 --> 01:13:00.926
- that are interested. Yeah. Okay. And there are some benefits to

01:13:01.410 --> 01:13:10.154
- the teachers to help the education to get them ready too. So in recruiting that information needs to

01:13:10.154 --> 01:13:19.072
- get out to them that look, there's resources that are there. And so I think that would help build some

01:13:19.072 --> 01:13:27.816
- excitement. For sure. I think our district has a reputation for thinking outside of the box in terms

01:13:27.816 --> 01:13:30.846
- of how we hire teachers and how we

01:13:30.978 --> 01:13:39.940
- continue to allow to allow their training and their professional development. They keep adding on,

01:13:39.940 --> 01:13:48.992
- you know, their certifications, their teaching license to their teaching license. So I can see this

01:13:48.992 --> 01:13:58.135
- being a really special position for a specific person out there. Yep. In can. In cap. In cap. That's

01:13:58.135 --> 01:14:00.126
- the acronym for what?

01:14:01.762 --> 01:14:09.118
- Oh, goodness. I'm off script here, but that's overseen by our crossroads, right? Career and apprenticeship.

01:14:12.418 --> 01:14:19.855
- You're really pushing me tonight, Mr. Tucker. You got it? Indiana Career Apprenticeship Pathway. This

01:14:19.855 --> 01:14:27.220
- is kind of the overarching umbrella of all of these different types of industries. So bio-crossroads

01:14:27.220 --> 01:14:35.022
- is the one that's coming out of that related to life sciences. And there are several others under banking.

01:14:35.022 --> 01:14:40.126
- And these all started to be developed several years back, actually in

01:14:42.370 --> 01:14:49.687
- Where, which country? We were taking all kinds of people from Indiana over there. Finland? Switzerland?

01:14:49.687 --> 01:14:56.863
- Switzerland. We were taking them to Switzerland because it's really modeled after a program that they

01:14:56.863 --> 01:15:04.532
- have there that they incorporate work-based learning into their high school to connect workforce development

01:15:04.532 --> 01:15:08.190
- and education, K through 12 education. Switzerland.

01:15:08.418 --> 01:15:15.070
- but this is gonna help encapsulate the whole thing. Yeah, and I think our darts were getting closer

01:15:15.070 --> 01:15:21.855
- to the center, but I think what's happening now is we have forces bigger than us that are tossing the

01:15:21.855 --> 01:15:28.640
- darts, and that makes a really big difference. When they're coming down and asking us to sign on with

01:15:28.640 --> 01:15:34.494
- them, and we know we're one of five schools across the state that's getting that pitch,

01:15:34.850 --> 01:15:41.037
- I think it says a lot about the work. Our darts weren't hitting the center, but they were coming close

01:15:41.037 --> 01:15:47.043
- enough that they wanted to say, let us take over some of that work. And I'm all in for that all day

01:15:47.043 --> 01:15:52.629
- long. It feels really good, really good. I know we're on the right path with this. I'm just,

01:15:52.629 --> 01:15:58.936
- like you said, it's a leap, and it's a scary leap. But in five years, we're going to look back and we're

01:15:58.936 --> 01:16:04.222
- going to say, this is incredible. But getting there might be a little shaky. Thank you.

01:16:04.322 --> 01:16:13.392
- You're welcome. It's not an uneducated leap. It is not an uneducated leap. For a very type A office,

01:16:13.392 --> 01:16:22.643
- as you can tell, who gets down into the nitty gritty on everything, this educated leap feels enormous.

01:16:22.643 --> 01:16:31.893
- But I know that we're getting closer to the finish line on a project that is going to make an enormous

01:16:31.893 --> 01:16:33.150
- impact. Yeah.

01:16:33.634 --> 01:16:43.709
- It's an awesome place to be in this position. Okay. Anything further? All those in favor say aye. Aye.

01:16:43.709 --> 01:16:53.686
- Opposed? Motion carries. The next item will be tabled. It would be a discipline matrix change for the

01:16:53.686 --> 01:17:01.022
- Corporation Student Handbook. If you looked at the packet, and I did don't

01:17:01.122 --> 01:17:09.179
- be alarmed, it is not because there's any disciplinary issues or anything like that. It is solely because

01:17:09.179 --> 01:17:17.084
- trying to get things aligned and in position and this is just part of, it's not something that has just

01:17:17.084 --> 01:17:25.217
- come up. You know, I was worried, hey, has this just come up, something going on? It's not. It's something

01:17:25.217 --> 01:17:31.070
- that's been in the works for a while and it's just getting to us. So, and...

01:17:31.394 --> 01:17:40.388
- I take a quick second. I used to teach juvenile justice systems at Ivy Tech. There was always a cycle

01:17:40.388 --> 01:17:49.206
- we talked about where people are tough on crime and then it's rehabilitation. You're tough on crime

01:17:49.206 --> 01:17:58.023
- and rehabilitation. Edgewood is at a special place because we have an excellent mental health team.

01:17:58.023 --> 01:18:01.374
- We're doing that rehabilitation part.

01:18:01.570 --> 01:18:09.657
- and we're also very thoughtful about how we do the discipline, the being tough on crime part as well.

01:18:09.657 --> 01:18:17.665
- They work together, and so that's what's going on. It's not anything, again, I saw it and I thought,

01:18:17.665 --> 01:18:25.118
- oh my gosh, something's going on, but nothing is going on. Everything, they're just trying to

01:18:25.346 --> 01:18:32.131
- piece together. It's been in the process for a while. It's just kind of putting the final pieces together.

01:18:32.131 --> 01:18:38.472
- So I just wanted to make sure if anybody saw it and was kind of a little, you know, uneasy as I was

01:18:38.472 --> 01:18:42.974
- when I first saw it, that it's not that at all. It is something that's

01:18:43.394 --> 01:18:50.813
- very, very positive and normal part of the process. So just wanna. To fall in the storage year, Assistant

01:18:50.813 --> 01:18:57.881
- Superintendent missed edits in the corporation handbook that our secondary administrators had worked

01:18:57.881 --> 01:19:04.880
- on in April and May last year. And when they went to, which as they should, when they went to print

01:19:04.880 --> 01:19:11.948
- the new handbook and the new discipline matrix for this year and realized, wait a minute, this isn't

01:19:11.948 --> 01:19:13.278
- what we worked on.

01:19:13.410 --> 01:19:20.372
- So that is 100% my fault and that's where that's coming from. So thankfully they called me out on it

01:19:20.372 --> 01:19:27.610
- and said we've got to get this fixed. So we will bring that to you next time. We'll bring red line edits

01:19:27.610 --> 01:19:34.572
- with that so you can see with the current handbook what is changing there. And it's also cleaning up

01:19:34.572 --> 01:19:41.603
- some of the language. Some of the elementary language is kind of funky that doesn't always make sense

01:19:41.603 --> 01:19:43.326
- to parents when it says,

01:19:43.682 --> 01:19:52.500
- pending dismissal per parent conference as a consequence. What in the heck does that even mean? So we're

01:19:52.500 --> 01:20:01.319
- cleaning that up a little bit so that there is no question about what that consequence is. It also gives

01:20:01.319 --> 01:20:05.182
- flexibility for individual situations because

01:20:05.346 --> 01:20:12.566
- There needs to be flexibility. Discipline can't always be black and white. So like you said, there's

01:20:12.566 --> 01:20:19.857
- a pendulum there. And we need to be sure that our administrators have that flexibility there and that

01:20:19.857 --> 01:20:27.005
- we don't set the tone too harshly. It's a hard piece. It is a hard job. It is a hard job with that.

01:20:27.005 --> 01:20:33.438
- So luckily, they got me calmed down on it. Because like I said, I was concerned to see it

01:20:33.826 --> 01:20:42.595
- But again, it is something that just was in the works and just getting it done. But it is an opportunity

01:20:42.595 --> 01:20:51.030
- for us to brag on the fact that we do have a mental health team that is second to none to help these

01:20:51.030 --> 01:20:59.715
- students that if they are having discipline problems, it's usually because there's something else going

01:20:59.715 --> 01:21:03.390
- on and we've got people there to help them.

01:21:04.386 --> 01:21:15.227
- So, a little bragging. Okay. Next is the Director of Budget and Finance reports, Debbie Tate. We have

01:21:15.227 --> 01:21:26.175
- our updated cash flow sheets for the end of September. Went in and we updated the transfers we've been

01:21:26.175 --> 01:21:29.470
- talking about trying to reduce

01:21:29.730 --> 01:21:37.375
- how much money we are transferring from the education fund to the operations. So we kind of started

01:21:37.375 --> 01:21:45.173
- that process in September. We've reduced that transfer by $30,000. We're gonna start this pattern and

01:21:45.173 --> 01:21:52.972
- just make sure we're on track. Something exciting is our projections. We actually came in with a cash

01:21:52.972 --> 01:21:58.782
- balance of over 162,000 more than we had anticipated in the education fund.

01:21:58.914 --> 01:22:05.823
- It kind of, even though we transferred less and everything, it's showing our efforts that we're trying

01:22:05.823 --> 01:22:12.733
- to really, like we've talked about before, crack down on everything, looking at every penny across the

01:22:12.733 --> 01:22:19.441
- board, and we can see those efforts happening. So that's the status. Everything looks on par. We're

01:22:19.441 --> 01:22:26.149
- going in a good direction at this point. So we seem positive with where we're at at this moment. Do

01:22:26.149 --> 01:22:28.094
- you guys have any questions?

01:22:32.962 --> 01:22:38.984
- Yes, I request it every single month and then we get that reimbursed for the, yeah, anything that's

01:22:38.984 --> 01:22:45.248
- a reimbursable, we always request what we can. Sometimes there's a delay if we have like a modification

01:22:45.248 --> 01:22:51.691
- or anything like that, because we have to wait for the state to actually approve us. And so you're waiting

01:22:51.691 --> 01:22:57.774
- on them to say, yep, you can go ahead and request that money. But usually as soon as it's available,

01:22:57.774 --> 01:23:02.110
- we get that money requested. And then the seek money, have we got that?

01:23:02.274 --> 01:23:09.583
- I just got my report that we got our last reimbursement in for that. So some new things, we've got the

01:23:09.583 --> 01:23:16.893
- new grant coming up and everything and we're trying to look at all those numbers too. Thank you to you

01:23:16.893 --> 01:23:24.273
- guys, you and Mr. Dixon for working on that. Thank you Mr. Dixon and you for working on that seat grant

01:23:24.273 --> 01:23:29.950
- reimbursement. Yeah, no problem, thank you. Thank you so much. All right, next.

01:23:30.114 --> 01:23:38.059
- This is the assistant superintendent's report. So Jennifer Barrett. Just to be sure and let Mr. Dermot

01:23:38.059 --> 01:23:46.235
- know that we kept it to one page, both of us tonight. He's proud of us. I can finally share the I Learned

01:23:46.235 --> 01:23:53.949
- scores with you. These are no longer embargoed, which is amazing. One thing I want to say with this

01:23:53.949 --> 01:23:55.646
- is this is brand new.

01:23:56.322 --> 01:24:04.628
- We can't look back at 2025 and make comparisons. The state has made that very, very clear that we are

01:24:04.628 --> 01:24:12.853
- starting with a brand new test as of last spring, 2026. So what you're seeing here are our beginning

01:24:12.853 --> 01:24:21.159
- scores for the new iLearn through year assessment. Couldn't be happier with what we see on that right

01:24:21.159 --> 01:24:22.462
- side with math.

01:24:22.850 --> 01:24:29.848
- I think it goes to show that the work we've done with math, our new curriculum that we've adopted, our

01:24:29.848 --> 01:24:36.847
- teachers are comfortable with it. It's not new anymore. We're four years into it. Really excited about

01:24:36.847 --> 01:24:43.913
- the work that I see over there. I mean, that fourth grade team, we have two thirds of our current fifth

01:24:43.913 --> 01:24:50.843
- graders who were on grade level with fourth grade math. That's incredible. 13 percentage points above

01:24:50.843 --> 01:24:52.542
- the state average there.

01:24:53.666 --> 01:24:59.870
- Looking at ELA, we have work to do. And it's not a ton. I look at that and, you know, red sometimes

01:24:59.870 --> 01:25:06.198
- means pretty bad things. But I look at that and I see as one to six percentage points below the state

01:25:06.198 --> 01:25:12.401
- average with third grade coming out even there. Sixth grade ELA needs to share their tricks because

01:25:12.401 --> 01:25:19.226
- they are 11 percentage points above the rest of the state. So this is exactly why we go through instructional

01:25:19.226 --> 01:25:23.134
- rounds. This is exactly why we learn from one another and what

01:25:23.426 --> 01:25:32.316
- everybody's doing to understand how they are getting to that point. But one thing that EIS is putting

01:25:32.316 --> 01:25:41.205
- into practice is what they've realized is that the type of question on an iLearn test is not the type

01:25:41.205 --> 01:25:50.269
- of question that we're using through the year to assess our kids. So a great use of AI, they took their

01:25:50.269 --> 01:25:51.838
- current unit test

01:25:52.642 --> 01:25:59.212
- They took an iLearn test, last year's samples. They ran that through AI to say, how can we change our

01:25:59.212 --> 01:26:05.910
- unit test? How can we ask these questions differently so our kids start getting exposure to these types

01:26:05.910 --> 01:26:12.415
- of questions? And I think that we will see some just quick adjustments with that that can make a big

01:26:12.415 --> 01:26:18.920
- impact overall. Because sometimes when our kids get to an assessment at the end of the year and they

01:26:18.920 --> 01:26:22.334
- haven't seen something that looks exactly like that,

01:26:23.426 --> 01:26:30.914
- They're 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 years old. They panic. I can remember giving ISTEP years ago, and it was not

01:26:30.914 --> 01:26:38.622
- unusual to see seventh and eighth graders cry during those assessments. So these are high stress pieces.

01:26:38.882 --> 01:26:45.991
- There are things that we can do better and that's the piece that we're gonna work on. And that's also

01:26:45.991 --> 01:26:53.239
- why we have tier two and tier three in place to reteach and to come back and fill those gaps with kids.

01:26:53.239 --> 01:27:00.418
- So all of this work that we're doing across the district is, I don't wanna say ultimately to see these

01:27:00.418 --> 01:27:05.854
- scores raised because I don't think that, I don't think any kid is one score.

01:27:05.986 --> 01:27:11.849
- But I do think that these scores give us a good measure of across the district how we're doing. And

01:27:11.849 --> 01:27:17.889
- when I start to see these scores go up, I start to see our SAT scores go up, I know that we're heading

01:27:17.889 --> 01:27:23.752
- in the right direction. So this is a starting point for us. This is what we're gonna look at at the

01:27:23.752 --> 01:27:29.616
- beginning of next year and we're gonna compare it here. I know that Mr. Rinchler and Mr. Shull have

01:27:29.616 --> 01:27:32.958
- already started these conversations with their teachers.

01:27:33.890 --> 01:27:40.573
- When you say to a group of teachers, we're below state average, that's a hard conversation to have.

01:27:40.573 --> 01:27:47.390
- But what I love about our teachers and our district is we can have hard conversations and then we can

01:27:47.390 --> 01:27:54.073
- get to work. And so that's what we're doing here. Excuse me, a couple of dates down there to take a

01:27:54.073 --> 01:28:01.024
- look at. We have the EHS career fair coming up. So if you aren't busy on the 28th and want to come over

01:28:01.024 --> 01:28:02.494
- to the EHS gymnasium,

01:28:02.626 --> 01:28:09.430
- That will be packed that day with a lot of businesses and colleges in the house to meet with our students.

01:28:09.430 --> 01:28:16.108
- Our first flex day is going to be on November 3rd. This will be parent-teacher conferences, kindergarten

01:28:16.108 --> 01:28:23.230
- through eighth grade, and a ton of professional development at the high school level going on that day as well.

01:28:23.554 --> 01:28:33.017
- Keep them busy. November 19th, add the business leaders advisory meeting to your calendar. I know that

01:28:33.017 --> 01:28:42.296
- we cannot have more than two, so don't fight over the spots, but it's gonna be a really, really good

01:28:42.296 --> 01:28:51.484
- one. So November 19th, be sure and let us know if you can attend that day. That's all I have. Thank

01:28:51.484 --> 01:28:52.862
- you very much.

01:28:52.962 --> 01:29:00.916
- Next is the superintendent's report. Dr. Sanders. Yeah, I'm gonna cheat a little bit and Ask Martin

01:29:00.916 --> 01:29:09.188
- Shrewsdale from Skillman to come up and give us a construction report. I Still have more to say I still

01:29:09.188 --> 01:29:15.710
- have more to say so don't don't be worried This does come off your time, you know

01:29:28.066 --> 01:29:36.166
- We're starting to get dig into some, we're starting to finish some projects and we're starting to dig

01:29:36.166 --> 01:29:44.424
- into some new ones. The projects that we're finishing up is the roof and the mechanical projects. We're

01:29:44.424 --> 01:29:52.921
- working through the turf project and they're starting to dig into the music additions and the concessions.

01:29:52.921 --> 01:29:56.574
- So I'll try to move fairly quickly because I,

01:29:57.026 --> 01:30:04.326
- Roof replacement and mechanical renovations. I've divided that up into roofing and mechanical,

01:30:04.326 --> 01:30:12.087
- roof membrane. The buildings are all watertight now. The membranes are completed and we've completed

01:30:12.087 --> 01:30:20.309
- a punch list on it. The edge metal just got finished. So we'll be doing a punch on that actually tomorrow.

01:30:20.309 --> 01:30:24.382
- The counter flashing at the junior high is complete.

01:30:25.090 --> 01:30:34.225
- And we've had several allowance items, wood blocking at the junior high and replacement of wet or damaged

01:30:34.225 --> 01:30:43.619
- insulation at the two elementary schools. Fortunately, those came in. We anticipated a lot of wet insulation

01:30:43.619 --> 01:30:52.926
- and didn't run into very much at all. So we've got some pretty significant change orders or a change order.

01:30:53.090 --> 01:31:02.138
- that's pretty significant to deduct that from the contract. Intermediate School South Entry, you can

01:31:02.138 --> 01:31:11.097
- see they're still working on that. Primary School High Bay, these are sister buildings, so each one

01:31:11.097 --> 01:31:20.414
- is a mirror image of the other one, so that's all done, and the wood coping's all done on that. There's

01:31:20.414 --> 01:31:22.654
- your junior high school,

01:31:23.394 --> 01:31:33.302
- Again, it's complete. They just finished up the edge metal. That's what we're gonna do the punch on

01:31:33.302 --> 01:31:43.409
- tomorrow. We do have some challenges there with our contractor regarding scope of work and that's not

01:31:43.409 --> 01:31:51.038
- resolved as we get it resolved. I will bring that to you. And the gym floor.

01:31:55.650 --> 01:32:05.328
- That's in the realm of the insurance companies now. What we did was rather than just replace the portion

01:32:05.328 --> 01:32:14.729
- that was damaged, we've replaced the whole floor and we've replaced it with a higher and floor that's

01:32:14.729 --> 01:32:24.222
- very similar to what we put in at the field house. So it's a real good floor. I'll go back real quick.

01:32:25.826 --> 01:32:37.371
- The added wood blocking and the wet damaged insulation, those change orders were enough. The deducts

01:32:37.371 --> 01:32:48.802
- were enough on that to cover the wood floor even if we don't, before we even get into the insurance

01:32:48.802 --> 01:32:50.174
- part of it.

01:32:52.418 --> 01:33:01.376
- Just a picture with a nice sky, so I put that in there. Counter flashing at the junior high. The last

01:33:01.376 --> 01:33:10.158
- time I showed you, the counter flashing wasn't in, so this is how it was cleaned up. This is around

01:33:10.158 --> 01:33:19.115
- the gymnasium bay, so all that counter flashing is installed now. Roofing, they still need to put the

01:33:19.115 --> 01:33:21.662
- protection pads on the roof.

01:33:21.890 --> 01:33:28.966
- something that goes on top of the membrane. So it's watertight, they just need to put that on there

01:33:28.966 --> 01:33:36.255
- to protect it. Sheet metal and trim, we'll do the edge metal and then we're gonna complete gutters and

01:33:36.255 --> 01:33:43.544
- downspouts. The gutters and downspouts are what I'm wrestling, arm wrestling with the contractor about

01:33:43.544 --> 01:33:50.974
- right now. So I'll bring that to you as we get that resolved. We'll complete the junior high, gym floor,

01:33:51.714 --> 01:34:03.102
- Dr. Sanders, I think the thing we said it would be November 2nd, I believe. Yes. That it'll be ready

01:34:03.102 --> 01:34:14.490
- to go. And then, as I said, the gymnasium floor costs are in the hands of the insurance people right

01:34:14.490 --> 01:34:17.534
- now. Mechanical, HVAC, we,

01:34:18.050 --> 01:34:25.670
- Worked our way through all of that, completed the installation of boilers and pumps. The flues were

01:34:25.670 --> 01:34:33.289
- what held us up a little bit as we got into the fall, that's all done. We did have to provide a new

01:34:33.289 --> 01:34:40.909
- electrical panel, and we completed the startup. The electrical panel is additional cost, but again,

01:34:40.909 --> 01:34:47.614
- we have enough in the allowance to cover that. It looks like maybe pewter piping on the

01:34:48.130 --> 01:34:57.104
- left-hand picture, but that's, it's not. That's all your hydraulic piping for the new building. The

01:34:57.104 --> 01:35:06.078
- flues were the challenge and those are your new boiler flues on the right-hand photo. As far as the

01:35:06.078 --> 01:35:14.334
- HVAC, the roof replacement and mechanical renovations, fine tuning the mechanical controls.

01:35:14.850 --> 01:35:23.773
- is all we've got left and that always takes a little while to get everybody happy. Baseball and softball

01:35:23.773 --> 01:35:32.526
- turf, stormwater detention, the shaping of the big detention pond as required by the town is complete.

01:35:32.526 --> 01:35:41.534
- There's a new concrete storm structure that's part of that and that was all the requirements of the town.

01:35:42.434 --> 01:35:50.439
- Dr. Sanders, the viewing mound is complete and it's been seated and strawed as has the detention. Completed

01:35:50.439 --> 01:35:58.147
- contouring of the ball fields and both ball fields were proof rolled. That's always kind of a hold your

01:35:58.147 --> 01:36:05.781
- breath thing, but we came up with very little area that was a problem. So again, we're well within our

01:36:05.781 --> 01:36:07.486
- contingencies on that.

01:36:11.522 --> 01:36:20.209
- Completed the installation of subsurface drainage. That's part of the actual turf project. Installed

01:36:20.209 --> 01:36:28.981
- concrete work, the grade beam retaining walls and there's some significant retaining walls out there.

01:36:28.981 --> 01:36:37.582
- Sidewalk and actually the pitchers mound are concrete with the turf that goes over it. The softball

01:36:37.582 --> 01:36:41.022
- granular fill was completed and I said,

01:36:41.282 --> 01:36:50.466
- continued installation of their artificial turf. At softball, it's 90% done. It's very close. And they

01:36:50.466 --> 01:37:00.096
- should start on the high school, on the baseball probably next week. Pretty significant perimeter drainage.

01:37:00.096 --> 01:37:09.102
- The site retaining wall, again, that's a pretty significant amount of concrete that had to go in for

01:37:09.102 --> 01:37:10.974
- that retaining wall.

01:37:13.186 --> 01:37:23.058
- And there's the forms for the retaining wall on the right-hand side slide. The carpet, the field fabric

01:37:23.058 --> 01:37:32.929
- actually nails off to a grade beam and a nailer all the way around, and that goes all around the field.

01:37:32.929 --> 01:37:41.662
- And what you're seeing in the background on the right-hand side is the veering mound that's

01:37:41.986 --> 01:37:53.652
- been seated and strawed. I was impressed at how much work they had to put in to get that retaining wall

01:37:53.652 --> 01:38:05.207
- done, but there's placing the concrete at the baseball retaining wall. Retaining wall form work at the

01:38:05.207 --> 01:38:09.918
- junior high, junior high at the softball,

01:38:10.562 --> 01:38:20.744
- and there's the retaining wall in place, the backstop wall. That's where we were yesterday. As you can

01:38:20.744 --> 01:38:30.828
- see, the softball is significantly completed as far as getting the artificial turf in. I didn't take,

01:38:30.828 --> 01:38:40.318
- I don't think, no, I didn't include a picture of the baseball because it's all still just dirt.

01:38:40.898 --> 01:38:51.360
- at this point. Today they were putting the logo, the Mustang logo that's in the outfield. Yeah, that's

01:38:51.360 --> 01:39:01.721
- what you see them doing out there. And if you ever have, if you have a chance, I would encourage you,

01:39:01.721 --> 01:39:10.558
- especially now Saw Falls pretty much finished with the turf, but go up and watch them.

01:39:10.850 --> 01:39:18.399
- with baseball because they put different types of rock down, you know, kind of a traditional size rock

01:39:18.399 --> 01:39:26.022
- for a driveway at the base. And then as it gets up closer to the surface, it's very fine. And they have

01:39:26.022 --> 01:39:33.351
- a machine that goes along and makes sure it's all level. And then the turf comes out in like carpet

01:39:33.351 --> 01:39:40.094
- rolls. And then they have a machine that sews each section together. It's very interesting.

01:39:40.930 --> 01:39:50.053
- I just want to say this. I had someone come up at the Fall Festival thinking that we were putting down

01:39:50.053 --> 01:39:59.088
- turf was a luxury and wasn't needed. But I've learned over the years that putting turf down saves the

01:39:59.088 --> 01:40:08.299
- school corporation a lot of money and upkeep. And I always like to tell the story when I was at another

01:40:08.299 --> 01:40:09.982
- school corporation

01:40:10.082 --> 01:40:19.552
- and we played on another high school's turf their first game and it rained like cats and dogs before

01:40:19.552 --> 01:40:29.303
- the game. And several years down the road that we're thinking about getting turf and we talked to their

01:40:29.303 --> 01:40:39.710
- AD and he mentioned that game and he said if they had played that game on traditional grass field all the time

01:40:39.970 --> 01:40:48.165
- work and money spent in getting that field ready for the season would have been ruined in one game and

01:40:48.165 --> 01:40:56.281
- the field would have been ruined the rest of the season. And it wasn't. And so, you know, they didn't

01:40:56.281 --> 01:41:04.316
- waste a lot of money and a lot of work on that. And plus with turf, you know, we are in an age where

01:41:04.316 --> 01:41:06.942
- we have to compete for students.

01:41:07.394 --> 01:41:16.437
- And so we have to have the facilities that will attract families to our school corporation. So I just

01:41:16.437 --> 01:41:25.392
- wanted to get that out. It isn't a luxury, it's really a necessity these days. It's interesting, Dr.

01:41:25.392 --> 01:41:34.878
- Sanders, as you said, it literally, most of the major carpet manufacturers manufacture in Dalton, Georgia.

01:41:35.106 --> 01:41:44.579
- And in Dalton, Georgia, the looms that they use to make broadloom carpet are the same ones that they

01:41:44.579 --> 01:41:54.427
- use to make the turf. So literally, it is a different kind of carpet. Fortunately, it lasts a lot longer

01:41:54.427 --> 01:41:58.366
- than broadloom would out on a ball field.

01:42:03.010 --> 01:42:11.800
- So baseball and softball, next 60 days. I've been coming every other month, so 60 days, 60 days it's

01:42:11.800 --> 01:42:20.503
- gonna be done. Addition and renovations to the high school and junior high school, and I should put

01:42:20.503 --> 01:42:29.555
- on there also the softball concessions. We've completed the bids, we've got the contracts. Dr. Sanders,

01:42:29.555 --> 01:42:32.862
- I've got two more for your signature.

01:42:32.994 --> 01:42:41.308
- The only one we don't have at this point is painting, and we don't need a painter till probably September,

01:42:41.308 --> 01:42:49.778
- so I'm not terribly worried about it. Took a little longer than we hoped to get permits, but we've completed

01:42:49.778 --> 01:42:57.704
- the permits. We did a pre-construction conference. We did a pre-installation conference, specifically

01:42:57.704 --> 01:43:00.734
- with General Contractor and Earthwork,

01:43:01.282 --> 01:43:09.802
- The temporary fencing is up in both locations. At the junior high, we're gonna leave the gates open

01:43:09.802 --> 01:43:18.322
- on that. It will probably be a few weeks before we do anything where we need to close, really close

01:43:18.322 --> 01:43:26.927
- it in. Continue the submittal process. That'll go on for a while. And we just barely began stripping

01:43:26.927 --> 01:43:30.846
- at the high school. That will probably happen

01:43:31.330 --> 01:43:41.110
- more seriously this coming Monday. But we were very excited to see that. I thought you enjoyed seeing

01:43:41.110 --> 01:43:50.986
- some equipment out there. Yeah, we all went to the windows to see what was going on. We've warned them

01:43:50.986 --> 01:44:00.862
- that it's right outside your window. So in the next 60 days, we'll begin the dirt work and footings at

01:44:01.058 --> 01:44:07.777
- at all three facilities, the contractor, Bowling is the contractor, and they've agreed that they're

01:44:07.777 --> 01:44:14.832
- gonna bring two crews. They'll have one crew working at the high school, so they'll have their equipment

01:44:14.832 --> 01:44:21.819
- here. At the junior high, what they're gonna do is they're gonna work on the concessions building until

01:44:21.819 --> 01:44:25.246
- they get ready for footings, and they'll move over

01:44:25.602 --> 01:44:33.363
- in the back of the junior high and then they'll move back and put their sewer in and so they'll be jumping

01:44:33.363 --> 01:44:40.615
- back and forth. So they have one crew here and one at the junior high. We're gonna be able to begin

01:44:40.615 --> 01:44:48.231
- roofing at the high school on the high bays and that'd be gym, cafeteria and auditorium. And we're gonna

01:44:48.231 --> 01:44:54.686
- start HVAC controls at all locations at the junior high and high school, the contractor,

01:44:55.554 --> 01:45:05.737
- The mechanical contractor controls is under them at the two elementaries. We've got a separate controls

01:45:05.737 --> 01:45:15.920
- contract just for that. And we should have submittals completed in the next 60 days. And I went through

01:45:15.920 --> 01:45:24.830
- that quickly. So if there's any questions, I'd be glad to entertain them. So for the HVAC,

01:45:25.474 --> 01:45:34.260
- controls, how long will that take to get those systems in? We figured the HVAC controls, break it up

01:45:34.260 --> 01:45:42.960
- into, we've got the new existing construction at the high school at all buildings. The controls for

01:45:42.960 --> 01:45:51.659
- that should be done by the end of next summer. Then where the additions are on the buildings, those

01:45:51.659 --> 01:45:54.878
- controls will be like next Christmas

01:45:55.138 --> 01:46:04.334
- Christmas of 27, by the time they're done. Thank you. So, any more questions for Martin? Just a few

01:46:04.334 --> 01:46:13.990
- more things. Actually, I'm gonna say March of 28. Just a few more things. Ellisville Chamber of Commerce

01:46:13.990 --> 01:46:23.371
- Educator of the Year awards night is Thursday night at six. Amy Norris will be receiving the Educator

01:46:23.371 --> 01:46:25.118
- of the Year award.

01:46:25.250 --> 01:46:34.849
- We still have some tickets available if anybody wants to come to that that you haven't told us, let

01:46:34.849 --> 01:46:43.583
- us know and we'll let them know and encourage you to come out and celebrate with Amy. Also

01:46:43.583 --> 01:46:52.030
- want to congratulate our Edgewood High School athletes, the IHSAA sportsmanship banner.

01:46:52.290 --> 01:47:00.583
- was given to our athletes for the second consecutive year. To earn that, you have to have zero conduct

01:47:00.583 --> 01:47:08.795
- disqualifications and high ratings from game officials. So congratulations to Edward High School. The

01:47:08.795 --> 01:47:17.409
- Ellisville Chamber of Commerce is also doing something new. They're going to host the Ellisville Education

01:47:17.409 --> 01:47:21.918
- Leaders Forum on November 5th at noon at the town hall.

01:47:22.082 --> 01:47:31.055
- And so I will be there to represent Edgewood schools and basically just to talk about how we are preparing

01:47:31.055 --> 01:47:39.440
- our students for success after high school. And so I'm looking forward to bragging about our school

01:47:39.440 --> 01:47:47.826
- corporation that afternoon. And Jennifer already mentioned about the business leaders advisory team

01:47:47.826 --> 01:47:50.174
- luncheon meeting coming up.

01:47:50.498 --> 01:48:03.111
- And I just gave you some very basic data on enrollment. As you know, even though we're down 25 students

01:48:03.111 --> 01:48:15.481
- from last fall, you'll see that we still have a positive trend. And it's pretty normal for enrollment

01:48:15.481 --> 01:48:18.270
- to have ups and downs.

01:48:18.626 --> 01:48:27.497
- you still want to see that positive trend. Now, in November, I'm working on a report now to be able

01:48:27.497 --> 01:48:36.900
- to share with the board where are our students going, where are they coming from. So there'll be a report

01:48:36.900 --> 01:48:46.214
- here in my superintendent's report for November, and I think that'll be very helpful information. That's

01:48:46.214 --> 01:48:48.254
- my report for tonight.

01:48:48.546 --> 01:48:57.002
- very helpful. It really helps to put things into perspective sometimes when you just, you know, from

01:48:57.002 --> 01:49:05.624
- one year to the next and looking at the trend really helps. So thank you very much for that. Okay. Now

01:49:05.624 --> 01:49:07.550
- we have RBEA comments.

01:49:12.802 --> 01:49:19.382
- Good evening. Now that we're back from fall break, we're in the homestretch of bargaining, and so I

01:49:19.382 --> 01:49:26.159
- just wanted to take a moment to give a special and heartfelt thank you to Caroline Boivere at the high

01:49:26.159 --> 01:49:32.738
- school, Stephanie Ayer at the middle school, Anna Dunn at the intermediate school, Theresa Simpson,

01:49:32.738 --> 01:49:39.713
- and Brandy Abel at EPS for taking care of our teachers and making sure, well, taking care of our members,

01:49:39.713 --> 01:49:41.950
- which takes care of our teachers.

01:49:42.050 --> 01:49:51.769
- and making sure that they get the best contract that they can. Thank you. Thank you very much. Board

01:49:51.769 --> 01:50:01.680
- member Clements and Mr. DeMoss. And I'm glad that you got to visit with Colton and the family I'm sure

01:50:01.680 --> 01:50:07.934
- is having a nice time. Congratulations to DIS that sell award is

01:50:08.066 --> 01:50:14.128
- That's so exciting. Thanks for all the donations. Can't believe Lori Major's going to retire,

01:50:14.128 --> 01:50:20.705
- but she is. And congratulations to all the fall athletes. Braxton Carpenter's outstanding performance

01:50:20.705 --> 01:50:27.218
- last weekend. That was something. The girls and boys cross-country teams, and then volleyball, golf,

01:50:27.218 --> 01:50:33.795
- and tennis all finished up. But more than anything, I'm so proud about that sportsmanship award. That

01:50:33.795 --> 01:50:37.342
- is great. And as exciting as it is to see the physical

01:50:37.602 --> 01:50:45.373
- process progress on our on the biotech facility getting this position going that's making it more real

01:50:45.373 --> 01:50:53.144
- and so I'm that it's starting targets take shape and that I'm just so excited for the future thank you

01:50:53.144 --> 01:51:00.915
- awesome mr. Tucker mr. DeMoss and the stars seems like the stars are kind of aligning now with all the

01:51:00.915 --> 01:51:07.102
- the biotech and I guess build it and they will come so that's what we're gonna do

01:51:07.682 --> 01:51:15.313
- the new biotech unit over here. So looking forward to that. Thanks Martin for your report. I do want

01:51:15.313 --> 01:51:23.398
- to put one public service announcement out. I don't know the time. Mr. Bolting, as you might know, there's

01:51:23.398 --> 01:51:31.105
- a school board forum at the high school next Monday. Do you know what time? Six, six o'clock and it's

01:51:31.105 --> 01:51:34.430
- in the library. Yeah. Maybe the auditorium.

01:51:35.714 --> 01:51:41.742
- Six o'clock, yeah, six o'clock next. We're trying to have a backup location depending on if you filled

01:51:41.742 --> 01:51:47.652
- the library, we may have to. Right. I've spoken with Derek Latham about possibly using auditorium. I

01:51:47.652 --> 01:51:53.504
- don't know if he's worked that out yet. But in case we have too many people there, which would be a

01:51:53.504 --> 01:51:59.708
- good problem to have, we're going to have a backup location. Yeah, well, thank the League of Women Voters

01:51:59.708 --> 01:52:05.150
- for coordinating that also. And hopefully, the cats can be there Monday night. So thank you.

01:52:07.490 --> 01:52:18.707
- Well, I thank everyone for coming tonight. A lot of good things again. The construction update is awesome.

01:52:18.707 --> 01:52:29.505
- I hope everybody was able to understand the budget that we covered. Again, focus on levy, focus on the

01:52:29.505 --> 01:52:32.126
- dollars that the schools

01:52:32.322 --> 01:52:41.233
- spends and collects because the tax rates are wonky and that is a highly technical financial term,

01:52:41.233 --> 01:52:50.324
- wonky is, but that's what we're down to. But again, it's a great day for Edgewood schools and so you

01:52:50.324 --> 01:52:55.454
- all have a wonderful evening. This meeting is adjourned.