Call this meeting to order. Please stay in for the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the
flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God,
indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All right, thank you all. Please be seated.
Please let the record reflect that Mr. Tucker and Mr. DeMoss and Mr. Kerr are present this evening.
We are down two members, but we do still have a quorum, so we can conduct business. It is rare for us
to only have three. I'm not sure that
many times it's happened since I've been here. So we wish our two colleagues very well in their endeavors.
So were there any visitors for comments this evening? All righty, seeing none. Then we will move right
into the Mustang moment, which is Edgewood Intermediate School. And Dr. Sanders, would you like to?
Thank you. I am here tonight to talk about our Journeys program at EIS. It's a program I'm extraordinarily
proud of. Students with cognitive disabilities, developmental delays, medically fragile students that
need an extraordinary person to lead their program. Carly Hammond was going to be here tonight, but
on I think Friday of last week she said my
brother's coming into town from out of state and I don't get to see him very often, so can I make a
video instead? And I said, absolutely. They'll be disappointed they only get me, but that's all right.
She's an exceptional teacher, daughter of long time EIS special education teacher, Christy Bennett.
In fact, she did her student teaching in our journey's room when I think we had a teacher leave mid
semester and she was getting ready to do her student teaching.
figured out a way to make it work and she's been in there ever since just doing an incredible job. She
knows that her students can do much more than the rest of the world maybe thinks they can do and they
grow so much under her care.
She has a video she's created to show you a couple new initiatives that she has this year. One is a
staff pop shop. It's another Edgewood student-run business that we have at EIS, as well as Talking Tuesday,
which I think you will be inspired by. This is in addition, she does these things in addition to teaching
her seven students seven different curriculums at all these different levels and all these different
subjects day in and day out.
Carly also advocated for a more engaging space at EIS. Now she has a large sensory room and a kitchen
where her students are learning true life skills that will help them live their best lives. And so now
we'll hear from Miss Hammond.
students are learning and achieving along the way. I'm going to briefly talk about two things that are
happening in the Jerbies Room at the Intermedia School. Our first one is our new business, which is
the Jerbies Pop Shop. There was a lot of talk around the school about needing a vending machine or a
gym station of some sort, and so we decided to turn that into a real-world learning experience for our students.
So we have our students helping with keeping an inventory sheet, stocking the fridge when it needs it,
and updating the menu on the fridge. Their favorite part to help with is once we get an order and the
teacher asks for it to be delivered, they get to go and pick out a drink, the one that they ordered,
and take it down to the teacher. Once they hand it off, they're supposed to say, thank you for your
business. And the kids love getting to say that. The adults love hearing it.
And so it just brings smiles to everyone involved. We have also started a fun app Friday where we pick
a student where we have the whole class go and we have a picture and we put it into Canva and just edit
it in a silly way and we just send it out to the whole staff trying to get more sales. But we show the
picture to the whole class and we just get some fun giggles out of it every Friday.
And it's just a fun way to also bring smiles to the teacher's face across the building. So the second
thing that we've been doing is called a Talker Tuesday. Every couple Tuesdays, one of our students will
start off the morning announcements across the building with their AAC device. So AAC stands for Alternative
and Alternative Communication, which refers to
a tool or system used as an alternative or supplemental method to communicate verbally. So within our
room, we have different types of AAC devices. Some are used with eye games and some are used by pressing
a button on the device. But then it also can be as simple as a picture, a few pictures on a piece of
paper and a student can point to what they're trying to communicate. So with that, we take the student
up to the floor
And we have a video that can show briefly what we do. So both of these products within
out and teach the students functional life skills, social skills, and also it just helps them be included
across their school. It helps educate the other students in their way of communicating, and it also
just gets them familiar with talking to other people. So thank you for allowing me to share what my
awesome students are doing at EIS.
Incredible work, she additionally sends out information to the teachers about those devices so they
can talk to their classrooms about those kids and how they use those assistive technologies to be able
to communicate with the world in ways that years ago weren't possible. So really just amazing work.
One other note about Mrs. Hammond, I get to brag on her a little bit just because she's not here and
I can do what I want.
It also will kind of lead into our next part of our presentation. Three years ago, a third grader entered
her classroom and he didn't know his letter sounds. He just, he didn't know, hadn't been exposed. This
was about the time we were starting with Orton Gillingham. So he was one of the test cases and started
working with him on that. And the weird thing was is like a couple weeks in, he was picking things up
a lot quicker than,
anybody would have thought. So she continued to monitor his progress. He was learning those letter sounds,
learning those, you know, those basic words that you have to know. And then she got together with the
special education department and we talked a long time and he probably didn't belong in her class the
way he was learning. So he transitioned to a third grade classroom and not gonna say that transition was easy.
but he received a lot of interventions. His grades weren't great. You know, we're still measuring kids
on grade level standards, but he continued to grow on those reading skills. And last year at the end
of the year in fifth grade, he passed the iRead exam. And now he's in sixth grade and it's just,
Absolutely incredible so Carly led that charge and it's been one of a great point of evidence for us
at EIS that this stuff this stuff really works and it's awesome for kids. All right next you're gonna
hear from someone else that is probably more exciting.
You are going to hear from the architects of EIS's transition to teaching the science of reading, Stephanie
Powell and Katie Key. In July, EIS was honored for our work over the past years in building a new culture
of reading instruction. They have done amazing work and have the data to prove this work has been incredibly
fruitful. I'm going to read you the press release from the Center of Excellence in Leadership and Learning,
which is commonly known as CEL, then I will turn it over to these exceptional educational leaders.
Edgewood Intermediate School, the July honoree, and this kind of goes back to when we were renovating.
While construction reshaped the school around them, educators at Edgewood Intermediate were also rebuilding
something important, how students learn to read. During a year of shuffling between classrooms, teachers
embraced a new approach to literacy.
strengthening phonics instruction, adopting a knowledge-based reading curriculum, and refining interventions
to address specific skill gaps. The results were a 92.6% iRead pass rate and nearly doubled proficiency
for students receiving special education services.
I learned proficiency in both English language arts and math exceeded state averages. Supporting those
efforts, Edgewood also earned level one certification in Marzano's high reliability schools, demonstrating
its commitment to creating safe, supportive, and effective learning environments. The work succeeded
because every educator shared responsibility for student achievement.
Together, they created clear instructional routines, more consistent expectations, and targeted supports
guided by data that ensured students received exactly what they needed to succeed. Edgewood calls it
a turning point, where years of hard work, collaboration, and professional learning came together to
create something extraordinary for kids. By the time construction wrapped up, Edgewood's strongest foundation
wasn't the one beneath its feet, but the instructional system its educators had built together.
With that being said, Mrs. Key, Mrs. Powell. Hopefully you can hear me. Thanks, Andy. Well, I feel like
Sel did a really eloquent job of phrasing this way better than probably Mrs. Powell and I ever could do,
I'm here just to brag on our staff because they are phenomenal. It almost makes you teary because if
you were to walk through our halls, it's very different when you look through and go into classrooms
than it was.
I mean, I was here in 2023, so it's pretty cool. I submitted Edgewood EIS for the Celebrate Your School
Award. I just felt like our staff deserve to be recognized. They've done such incredible work over the
past several years. And then oddly enough, I was really amazed when we got the email that we were named
one of CEL's top 25 schools in Indiana. That's a huge accomplishment.
So we've really made significant shifts in literacy instruction, the intervention of literacy, and the
way we use data to support students. And like I said earlier, the best evidence of that is if you walk
through our halls, if you visit our classrooms, if you come one day during a late start Wednesday, you're
going to hear those conversations where they're using data to support students.
Of course our numbers tell that story as well. You know our I read pass rate increase in I think it
was 2023 to 80 point oh no it was 80.4% in 2024 up to 92.6% in 2025 which is
It's pretty awesome. It's a 12.2% increase, which is really impressive for our special education population.
I don't have them written down, but I think it was 33.3% of our special education students or students
with special needs were passing the iREAD in 2023. And then we went up to 69.4% of our students with
special education needs passing. So huge, huge shout out to our
our teachers, our support staff, our instructional coach, all of these people that made that happen.
I think one of the things that makes that success more meaningful is just how our staff accomplished
it. They embraced new learning, they had new curriculum, they had new instructional practices they were
learning, coaching, they had ongoing data analysis on those Wednesdays and other times on their own
free time where they were navigating to a year of construction.
they were moving classrooms all year. There was constant change and through all of that, they never
wavered. I mean, they remained focused on those kids and they continued providing that instruction every
single day, no matter if they had switched classrooms overnight or over two days, they kept on going
for kids. I wanted to submit the grant because I really wanted a way to celebrate their collective effort,
honestly. That school improvement piece,
is a lot trickier than people realize because especially in a big building, you have a really big group
that you're trying to build collective ideas with. And that's not always easy whenever you're working
with a big group of people that have different sets of values and different ideas as a teacher. But
that's also what brings such value to our building. And so they reflected, they adjusted practices.
Honestly, as an assistant principal, I felt like they did all that work.
I mean, I would say minimal work, but some work, but they did the majority of that. And they really
grew together, which is not easy. I think this gives us an opportunity to recognize those people, the
big ones, our teachers, our IAs, our interventionists, the support staff, everybody else throughout
our building was pitching in. They were lending a hand. And I think it reminds them, I hope, that their
work is seen, that they're valued,
and that they truly make a difference for every single person that walks into our building. I think
it's a lot of times it's easy for teachers to feel like they get lost in the shuffle. I remember I taught
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
that they get in and they're stuck in that and they feel like they can't do the things that they really
wanna do for kids.
I always feel like long after those lesson plans fade, what our kids really carry with them is that
confidence that comes from them being able to unlock a word that's really, really tricky or discover
a new idea because they were able to read it or even just realize they can do it. They're capable readers,
even though they've never, I think of that kid that Mr. Shull talked about. He didn't ever know his
letters, his letter sounds. And so our staff is opening up new opportunities for students
and truly shaping their future in ways that will last a lifetime, far longer than when they were a third
grader, all the way through. And to me, that's amazing. So I'm so proud of them. And I hope they're
proud of themselves. I'm going to turn it over to Steph, who's amazing as well, let her share a little bit.
Real quick before I get started, I want to also give a shout out to Carly because my office is in the
office and I didn't realize she was doing that. And so the first time that I heard one of her students
up there doing that, I had to walk out and everyone is just, it's so awesome to see. So I hope you actually
get the opportunity to come see that one day.
I'm Stephanie Powell, by the way. I'm an instructional coach for kindergarten through fifth grade. For
the last two years, I was an instructional coach through the Indiana Literacy Cadre. And so as a coach,
I get to do a lot of really cool things. So I get to work with lots of teachers in classrooms. I complete
coaching cycles with teachers. So if they want to implement a new instructional strategy, I work with
them. So I'm a partner in their classroom.
I'm involved in and lead professional development with teachers. And then another really neat thing
that I get to do is I organize instructional rounds with teachers. So that's where we learn from each
other. So we have teachers that will go to different classrooms to watch for different instructional
strategies. An example of that is just today, we had an instructional strategy or an instructional round
where fifth and sixth grade teachers were able to observe third grade teachers. And so you might wonder
like, what is a sixth grade teacher going to learn from a third grade
and the answer is actually quite a lot. So in our debriefing session, it was really neat because the
teachers are talking about how the third grade teachers are chunking content and eliciting responses
during their read-alouds and they have vocabulary routines and choral responses. So it's not the content
that they're watching, it's how the teachers are teaching and you can learn so much from our amazing teachers.
I'm really fortunate to be able to go into all these multiple classrooms and work with so many teachers.
What stands out is just how committed our teachers really are. Like Katie said, they adopted
a new curriculum. They adjusted to lots of new state requirements. If you've read anything about new
math plans and reading plans, it's a lot. Our teachers are digging into state standards and proficiency
level descriptors.
They are putting systems in place where they're really looking at their data and how it drives their
instruction and their interventions.
And teachers are volunteering to do things. They actually volunteer to be observed. I had a teacher
ask, you know, we come in my room and observe me and my phonics lesson and just give me some feedback
or they will volunteer for coaching cycles. And you don't hear that a lot. We also have teachers who
will participate in things on their own time. So I hosted a podcast club. So teachers on their own time
listen to an educational podcast and then we would meet before school and talk about the podcast.
So my role really is to support the work that teachers are doing through co-teaching and professional
development and collaboration. But our teachers are the ones that bring all of that to life in their
classrooms and they do a lot and they are really great teachers. I'm just incredibly proud too of the
work that we've all done and I'm grateful for the opportunity to support them along the way. So I just
wanted you to know kudos to our teachers
And they're the ones that are really doing the hard work in their classrooms. So thank you. Do you have
any questions? Just so excited about what you guys are doing and the video. I kind of have wondered
sometimes what
how that works, and to see it in action is just exciting, and to know that it does work, and so much
care goes into it, like special people, and so we're so excited that we have those special people here
at Edgewood, and so that's so exciting. And you guys, and making those transitions, and
helping people through them, different cycles of new curriculum and making those changes. It's not easy,
but it sounds like you guys worked together and made a good process. So we really appreciate all the
work that you guys are doing. Thank you. I have to say that one thing I see in our schools, and I love
this about Edgewood, is kiddos in Mrs. Hammond's class
Miss Hanson's class or in our classes down at EPS now two of them With mrs. Sample and mrs. M's those
kiddos are celebrities in those buildings They come through and they are given fist bumps Everybody
knows their name. It really is like cheers and the junior high is missing out right now because they
don't have those celebrities walking their hallways and
Carly cut the video short and I can't remember who it is that sent it to me, but Stephanie Powell, I
know exactly what you mean. I watched it and I just bawled. She cut it short because at the very end
of that video, that kiddo
loved hearing her name so much on the announcements that she kept hitting the button for her name over
and over. And so you kept hearing her name. And the best part was the way that she just giggled. She
knew exactly what she was doing. She was a little stinker about it. And it was the cutest thing ever.
And also just to speak to what
I saw this morning with our fifth and sixth grade teachers coming into our third grade classrooms. It
was the work that I was hearing, that was the instruction that I was hearing from our third grade teachers
that was exciting. But the part for me that meant more than anything else, and I shared this with Dr.
Sanders when I came back, is standing in the middle of a hallway when a grade level is working on OG,
working on phonics instruction, and hearing those voices inside the classroom
is one of the best sounds you can ever possibly imagine. You are hearing 200 kids at one time learning
how to read and it gives you absolute chills to stand there and listen to it. It was incredible watching
our teachers learn from one another and just the things that they were picking up on and that's what
is making Edgewood who we are, are these types of opportunities, not just for our kids, but for our
teachers to learn, because we don't expect them to remain stagnant. We don't want them to take what
they did in their first couple of years and do that and recycle it for the next 20. And that's the exciting
part about Edgewood. We don't do that here. So just kudos, not just to EIS, but the work that's being
done across our district, because it's pretty amazing.
And there's just so many requirements that are put on our teachers that they have to pack into a day.
And for them to be able to take that and to make it interesting and powerful and impactful on these
kids is truly an art. It really is. And there's science behind it, but they're artists too. Yes, they are.
to do that, so we're very- Naysat is the science of teaching, and the art and science of teaching. There's
a lot to it, and like you said, it comes from both sides. And the art is sometimes the most difficult
part to teach. I used to say it's a hard thing to teach somebody that side of it, because a lot of it
just is innate, and you can see it in the teacher early on. So, yeah. It's where the love is. It's where
the love is. It's where the passion is.
Somebody who's done that for years might know that, Mr. DeMoss. Well, awesome. So thank you very much.
Thank you. Okay. It's always hard to move on after the same moment, but we have to. Down the business.
Okay. Onto the consent agenda. We have approval of minutes from September 15th. We had our regular school
board member meeting as well as our public budget hearing.
Then we also have our financial report for this month is our treasurer's report for September, 2026.
And we have Mr. DeMoss for our claims. Okay. Many payroll for September 10th, $1,308.46.
Gross wages for 9-11-2026, $877,814.97. Gross wages for 9-25-26, $876,432.50 for total gross wages of
$1,755,555.93. Vouchers, claims, prepays from 9-1-26 to 9-30-26, $1,154,991.98.
Regular claims, I'm sorry, claims regular vouchers for 10-20-2026, $963,110.02. Total vouchers, $2,118,102.
Total vouchers and payroll, $3,118,102.
$873,657.93. Thank you, Mr. Moss. We also have personnel. We have personnel resignations, retirements,
non-renewals, leaves, and terminations, C1 through 17, and we'll come back in just a second. And we
have personnel appointments and transfers, D1 through 36.
And there is student employment, which again, we do not list for confidentiality purposes. There are
four donations we get to announce. One is student supplies from Millipore Sigma for the junior high
school. There is $305 from the Ellisville Tri Kappa to the RBB Angel Lunch Fund.
There are student supplies in the amount of $375 from Donors Choose to Mrs. Drew's and Mrs. Truax's
classrooms. There's $1,000 from the Ellisville Swim Club to the junior high school swim team. There
are three out-of-state and or overnight
field trips, the junior high's eighth grade student trip to Washington DC, the high school's FFA trip
to Indianapolis for a convention and expo, and the junior high's JEA NSBA journalism trip to the annual
conference in Orlando, Florida. And Dr. Sanders, would you like to add to those? Yeah, just the dates on those.
The eighth grade student trip to Washington DC is June 1st through the 3rd. The EHSFFA to Indianapolis
for their convention is October 21st through the 23rd. So I hope you approve this. And every year our
junior high
Journalism students go to the National Conference and this year it's in Orlando, Florida November 18th
through the 22nd and all three of these trips the students just come back with great experiences
learning a lot about themselves and how to take care of themselves when they're away from mom and dad
to getting to see some and participate in some very interesting and meaningful experiences. So we just
wanted to recommend our approval for these three trips. Okay. So you want to go ahead and I think you
want to make a
Sorry, recognize, that's the word I was trying to find, one of our retirees? Oh yes, so Lori Majors,
she's another one that, I know I repeat myself every time we recognize someone who's retiring, but I
try to reject their retirement
letters, but it never works. But Lori is just one of those special teachers. In fact, she won the Ellisville
Chamber of Commerce Educator of the Year award in 2024. She's been a teacher for 41 years. And she is
a teacher. She's one that you will see out and about at student events, not just her current students.
But students she's had several years ago that are in high school are graduating. She's an amazing person,
and we wish her the best. Thank you. So that being the consent agenda, do we have a motion? I'll move
approval of the consent agenda. I second. Moved and seconded. Any discussion? Laurie is exceptional,
and we are going to miss her.
when she thought she was going to be on the meeting agenda last month. And so she thought maybe we had
rejected it. And I told her we had. But no, she's exceptional. I mean, of course, Carly and I also had
her brother Colton in class and Christy. And it's incredible the talent that we have had come through
as teachers in this corporation over the years. But anyway, we're going to miss her.
Lori as well she was she put up on my son his buddies and she did a great job and on those guys And
I suppose cause I saw her at the Mustang showcase. Dr. Sanders. I think she's trying to chase down the
little mini train She's driving I thought she's gonna blow out an ankle or something Be careful there,
but I want to also compliment the principles I I
I'm a little bit OCD, you guys. I read the packet. I read the packet, believe it or not. There's some
pretty good, really good resumes in there. Some of the hires we've hired for some of the instructional
assistants and so forth. Looks like it's kind of a neat thing where people that may be retired and want
to come back and give back to the younger kids. So kudos to what you guys have done to find some good
people to come in and help our students. So thank you.
All those in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. All right. The next item is consideration
to approve the agreement with QTEGO. That's the way you could announce it. Number seven. Oh, seven budget
adoption. Oh, I apologize. Sorry. It kind of looked like it was part of the consent agenda. Oh, no.
We have Debbie Tate and Paul Fetterer next for the budget adoption.
I guess we ought to do that. So yes, so the 2027 budget adoption, and again, Debbie Tate and Paul Feder
are here tonight to lead us through that. I presented in front of you guys the forms that I brought
to you the last few meetings. This is just our final adoption. We had our hearing last month, and this
is our adoption to approve. I've given you the form four.
the school bus replacement resolution, the capital projects resolution. I also gave you a resolution
to approve the last six months transfers. That's just a number. We have updated those totals and just
given you that projection on, you know, it's just a range that we can stay within and we try to stay
below it at all.
in all cases, and then the 2027 budget resolution, and then a resolution to authorize a tax anticipation
warrant for 2027. Again, this is just to start the process in case we need it, doesn't mean that we're
going to do it, but just to have that available if we do end up needing that process, so. And if you
have any questions, let me know.
school bus replacement plan, capital project plan, six months transfer, budget resolution, and the resolution
to authorize the tax anticipation warrant. I'll second that, and I do have some questions. I'd like
to ask Paul, if you guys don't mind, to maybe clarify a couple things. Okay, Paul, or I can ask you.
Paul, yeah, I talked to Paul today, but I just want to make sure everybody's on the same page on a couple
of these things that leave me up at night sleep.
Okay, so the way I understand this for as far as the to explain this to our taxpayers Is our debt service
fund is remaining neutral? We're because as bonds drop off This is how we start the new building projects
and our bond our debt service funds not going to blow up Correct over time according to projections
from stifle We have to project it a high but we back it off later, correct Okay, so
As far as the community's asking me about our building projects, we've got some great things that we
have done here. But I try to take them back to 2001 when we built the two new elementaries. Those bonds
have now been expired and will continue to grow and improve our facilities. And the way I understand
it is the debt service will always remain pretty much level across the board. Operating, though, it
could be changed a little bit.
We'll have more expenses, I get that. So our tax rate could go up a little bit on the operating side.
And with the Senate Bill 1, that's the part where I'm getting a little confused in the transfer of the
money from the Education to Operations Fund. It's up to one and a half million, but we're not doing
that whole amount, correct? Okay. But it gives us the flexibility to do that, is that correct, Paul? Okay.
What we saw today is just a starting point, and we don't even know what our assessed value is yet, correct?
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.
Yeah, that's where I got a little bit. We don't have that number yet, the assessed value, correct? We
have a pretty close estimate.
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
the relationship between assessed value level and rate. Once you understand those three things, the
budgeting process is a little easier. So if you've got 1.5 billion in assessed value,
One penny on the tax rate raises $150,000. And keep that in mind. That makes it a little easier to figure
as you're looking at what you want to raise in that. A penny raises $150,000 in your community. That's
really good. So, you know, as that assess value. Now, the DLGF will tell us when we started this in
June, July, the DLGF will say,
you do not advertise your current AV. If your AV is 1.5 billion, you advertise 85% of that. And so what
you see on the papers in there, that 1.3 billion or something like that in AV, is a number that comes
from them. And you use that, you keep that low, because you want the rate to be advertised high. And
now keep in mind,
that if you don't advertise high and you try to get it where it is and something happens to the AV drops,
you can't raise higher than you advertised. If you advertise high, you can always come down. Board can
do that through a resolution, whatever. But you can never raise it. If you advertise $1.05, you're not
going to get $1.06.
on the tax rate. So you have to remember that you stay within that low to high, and you're gonna come
in the middle. I think it's interesting. This is a pretty, I think, easy budget. It's more normal than
the last couple of years. If you look at last year's budget in the debt service, we had a $4 million
placeholder in that budget.
Your debt was dropping down to about 7.5 million, and you wanted to take advantage of that and keep
that at a certain level up here. So that gave you the ability to go out and bond again, and you did.
We put that 4 million in there. Well, it turned out to be about 2 million, because your debt service
levy came back in at about 9.5 million. And this will be the third year in a row now
that your debt is about 9.5 million. That's where it's gonna come in. Which was the goal is to keep
it leveled off. That's exactly right. So this year, we have a $500,000 placeholder in there, which does
allow you to go to a debt levy of 10.5 or 10.4 instead of nine, which is where it is, I think.
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
you might have to do. Or you don't do anything and you leave it alone and it stays at 9.9 this next
year. That's what will happen to it. Or if you could, if you have any more questions, Paul's our consultant
and Debbie is our Director of Budget and Finance.
So if we can direct questions to her, and then if we need some consulting from Paul, we could do that.
I would appreciate that. Okay. It's expensive. We're trying to save every penny around here, guys. Okay,
yeah. I just want to get that clarification for the public, too, and I know we're getting our education
funding based on our per pupil count, and Debbie, Ms. Tate, and that's what we have to use
to hopefully get some raises for our teachers, but we're kind of tight on that. I know with the education
budget, so. But that fund doesn't, that doesn't affect it from the operations or the debt service. That's
where people that meet on my door get confused. And I try to explain to them, we're keeping the debt
service level and we're trying to be good stewards of our money and try to stay around between a buck
and a buck five on the tax rate. So that helps people kind of prepare, but then it's,
still equates weird because it sets value to go higher. So it's a game, I know, but it's, I appreciate
what you guys do. Yeah, to keep track of it. And I know every time that we have a retirement, we gotta
look at what do we need to replace it or not, I get that. I think it's hard to transition from how we
thought in the past with the rate and the levy all were affected and now we're retraining our minds on
the whole state is on how we can look at this. And every single school system, every meeting I go to,
they're in the same boat trying to discuss how are we gonna do this? What is the best plan of action?
So we've always advertised hire. It's the common practice. You guys have always approved it in the past
in that way because that's what the DLGF requires. Like they tell us to do this. But it is, yeah, it's
just retraining our minds, which is why I'm excited for
policy analytics and other people to come in and be able to help train more so that all of us are on
the same page. Because I think it's so important for all of us to be educated very well in that area
because it's a lot to learn. It's confusing for everybody. So it's the law and sometimes the law can
be confusing. So definitely trying to make sure you guys understand all that. Okay. Debbie,
just to clarify, we're not adopting any
As far as the tax rate tonight, we are simply adopting the advertisement for the tax rate. So anybody
that's listening at home, we are not adopting, like this is our official rate. This is just the starting
process. This is the starting process. And then we're gonna be working on it. It's not final until we
sign off on the 1782. Okay. Once the DLGF, they send it to us, we review it, we can make adjustments,
and then we submit it to them and say these are our final numbers. Yeah, that makes sense. We'll have
a clear number of assessed value there.
not a low guess. Yeah, it's usually December, January, I believe, that they'll show us those numbers.
I was trying to remember the timing of it last year. But yeah, that whole process is confusing. Yeah.
So my goal is to help you guys understand that better also. So that is my future goal for you guys and
everybody to get to that place. Right. And I know November 3, like there's 30-some schools going to
have a referendum vote. And that's going to be interesting.
I mean, we could be in that situation. I always said, no, I don't want to deal with that, but to help
pay our teachers, we may have to go down that rabbit hole. But it'd be interesting to see what happens
with the legislature. All right. Thank you. Kind of point out, just to make it a couple of examples,
glad Dr. Sanders got this for me earlier, is that for like in 2025,
The advertised tax rate was 1.5294. The final tax rate was 1.0368. In 26, it was 1.2916 advertised.
The final rate was 1.0747. This year, the advertised is 1.2955. Again, that's based on whether if we
had that lower assessed value.
when we get the real assessed value that's gonna come down. For a while, I know the board and I tried
to talk about our tax rate and wanting tax rate to stay in a certain area. That's all kind of changing
now. With Senate Enrolled Act 1,
The things that are going to be going in place over the next several years are going to make tax rates
do a lot of wonky things. I think the focus needs to be on money. How much money are you levying? How
much money are you bringing in from the property taxes? We're trying our best to keep that level.
at the same time keep our facilities up and running to keep our, you know, to have facilities that are
nice, good for our students, good for our community, yet try to be good stewards and keep that number,
you know, as level as we can.
especially when you come to debt service. As we said, operations every year, that operations number
goes up because the state says it's got to go up because look at our diesel fuel costs and look at our
buses. So your costs are going to go up, your operations costs. So that's going to go up. That's just
where that money comes from. But where we can have some control is in that
debt service levy and our goal really is to try to keep that consistent. So when it comes to the actual
money that this school is bringing in from those property taxes for debt service, we're trying to keep
it the same. So while the rates may say all kinds of funky things later on, we're trying to be consistent.
I think that's what I want.
the people to know. We're trying to be consistent. We're not going and if they see a rate change, it's
not because we're out there pulling in more money. It's because of the things that are going on with
that one and all these other things. But we're trying to be consistent and be good stewards. And we've
been blessed with the bond rates that we've got over the last seven years have
tremendously good. And those are creeping up now. The bond rates are creeping up for new bonds. But
the ones we have are locked and loaded. So we've been very blessed with timing on getting those issued,
for sure. We are planning to have a work session with the board on December 4th at 530 to discuss facility
needs. But Stiefel will be here at that meeting to go over
where we are financially, with our debt service, just our general financial situation, and so I think
that'll be a very informative meeting. I look forward to it. Absolutely. Thank you. Thank you very much.
Okay, so we do have, has been moved upon and seconded upon to adopt the budget. Any further discussion?
Hearing none.
Is this okay? All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Thank you very much. Now, I
apologize and scared you earlier. There is an agreement with QTEGO, which is fun to say as Q-T-E-G-O.
Right. I think it's pronounced, I think they just say Q-T-E-G-O.
So this is an agreement from EPS to work with QTAGO. They're a fundraising service and it's a $500 flat
fee for them to provide all the infrastructure for an online auction.
A few years ago, the PTO, I think maybe two years ago, the PTO at EPS took over what used to be the
principal or the school's fundraiser, which was the fun run. So PTO runs the fun run now in the spring
for their major fundraiser for the year. And then the principal didn't have a fundraiser necessarily.
So I would like us to do this online auction. It'll be a holiday auction, open online. It's via text.
anybody who can sign up. So we would advertise through our newsletter for anyone to log in and bid on
items that I will ask parents and teachers to solicit together. And it'll be a range of prices so anyone
can afford to purchase something from the auction.
And additionally, the first $3,000 will still be set aside for supporting needy families in Edgewood
for the holidays. And that's something, purchasing gifts for families in need is something that Jill
Cronin, our social worker, and Sybil Baker, our family coordinator, work together on. So that's still
in place. And then whatever is raised on top of that will be for the Edgewood School Principals Fund.
And we plan to purchase things that
Items for rooms, items for whole school, PBIS, positive behavior supports, guest speaker fees,
field trips, things like that. The teachers really want a poster maker. So that's something. And we
like to tell people what money will go for. And it'll go for things that both touch students and impact
teachers' planning and lessons. So that's what the QTEGO agreement is. Any questions?
You've got experience with this outfit? Oh, yes. I forgot to mention that. Yeah, yeah. I'm on the foundation
board for MCCSC, and we've used QTAGO for years, and it's so easy, and they're so reliable. We pull
in at the foundation there between $23,000 and $28,000 every year. I'm aiming for $18,000. $18,000
a month. Yeah. OK. OK. Make a motion to.
to partner up with QTAGO for this school year. I'll second. Second. Any discussion? I'm with you. I'm
going to call it QTAGO. It is fun. All right. OK. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries.
Next is consideration to approve the contract with Jostens for the EECC yearbook. Jennifer Barrett.
Yes, this is one that actually came through from Heather Kinzick.
And they are looking at shifting from Steve Sheldon creating their yearbook each year to Jostens. Jostens
is also used by EIS, EJHS, and EHS. So we definitely have some teachers and students who are familiar
with the platform. And Mrs. Kinzig wants to give that a go this year with EECC.
What we're looking at here is a contract. Estimated base price on this is about $2,100. What that pays
for is 100 copies of a 40-page yearbook at $21 apiece. So we're asking for you to approve this contract.
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
for this school year and nothing beyond that.
I'll move approval to the Jostens contract for EECC. I second. Is this pre-K through 12 Jostens now?
No, Steve Sheldon still does the yearbook for EPS. And it's not that Steve Sheldon is doing a bad job.
I want to say that Steve does the yearbook outside of the school and then brings it back in to sell
it. And what we're seeing a shift to is
Students are wanting to be more engaged in the process. Teachers are wanting to be more engaged in the
design process. So that's why we're looking at Jostens, even at those lower levels. Who knows what Dr.
Fishman and Dr. Robinson will decide to do. But it's another option out there and it's another way,
I think, to get some of our students involved. I'm assuming that Mrs. Kinzik is probably thinking about
bringing in some of those junior high and high school students who have experience on the platform.
to help create that with our little guys. OK. All right. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Opposed?
Motion carries. Next is consideration to revise policy number 4413 regarding overtime. Dr. Sanders.
Yes. And just so the board knows, this is the first reading.
We, in November, I will bring this policy back to you for approval. At the same time, we will bring
changes to the staff handbook so that the handbook and the policy aligned will have those both approved
in November. You know, our office, we have exceptional people that work here and, you know,
back in the day when Paul and I first started and we came up with the phrase doing business better.
Our staff here at central office, they are exceptional about doing business better.
They're always looking for making sure that we're implementing policy accordingly. And in this case,
with policy 4413 on overtime, our new payroll director determined that we were not implementing this
policy consistently.
or across the corporation and with what the policy said. So, we took that opportunity to sit down in
the office here and look at, okay, if we're going to revise, do we need to revise the policy? Do we
need to change our practice? And so, we changed some aspects of the policy or we're asking the board
to do that. And the previously it said that,
that all overtime would be pre-approved by the superintendent. By practice, the principals and directors
were doing that. And they do that because logistically, they know better what's going on when overtime
is needed or not needed. And so we wanted to change the policy to align with our practice. And then,
We also had the comp time was being, some of our administrators offered comp time instead of overtime.
Some didn't, some did not allow overtime at all. And so we were stressing that we can offer comp time
in lieu of the,
being compensated for monetarily for overtime work. But in that conversation, that led us to, well,
we really don't want bus drivers. We need our bus drivers every day. And so to offer the bus drivers
comp time would not work because we're already stretched thin and we need our drivers here every day.
And so that's kind of what led to making these revisions. And when we present this to you in November,
we'll go through some more details that are in the handbook and discuss those. In between now and November,
if you have any questions on this policy, just let me know or if you have them tonight, that's fine
too. I just greatly appreciate them catching this and fixing it.
I routinely said if you follow a policy, if you don't like it, change it, but you still follow it. And
so I'm glad that they caught this and the right thing to do is to fix it. And I appreciate the hard
work to get this one revised. Dr. Sanders, on the bus driver side of it, I assume anybody over 40 hours
for the week would be considered over time. Is that the number we use? Yeah.
we're running into problems possibly with people on extracurriculars? Because are we paying them by
the trip or are we paying them by the hour? That's where I got a little confused on the bus drivers.
Yeah, we pay by the hour. Pay by the hour, okay. Yeah, because it's changed over the years. I used to
be per trip. Right, no. Okay, okay. All right, and I appreciate the fact that the central office will
oversee the different buildings too. Yeah, you'll see when we get to the handbook, you'll see where
just give you a little preview, where we will be, Beth Sedwick, our payroll director will be creating
a report on overtime comp time that will go out every payroll. And so we'll be able to, I know there
might be some maybe little worries about so many people being able to approve overtime, but we're gonna
be able to monitor that
by watching these reports. If we see somebody going over, just out of whack, the amount of overtime
being allowed, then we'll address that. Yes, and administrators too, right. And I'm sure that the deputate
would appreciate if we say we really want to restrict overtime as much.
as possible. I mean, our budget is tight and we need to recognize that and, you know, we need to, sometimes
you got to do it. I realize that and, you know, so I'm fine with doing it, but we really need to try
to keep it at a minimum. Yeah. A new practice that we have here in the Office of
We've been probably implementing maybe a year now, but we have a financial team and we meet on Monday
mornings. And so we're continually discussing and analyzing our finances. And this will be part of that
meeting. We'll be having a conversation of a group of us will be sitting down and say, hey, you know,
this overtime is pretty well, but over here it's,
too much and we're gonna have to pull it back a little bit. I appreciate you guys taking the time to
explain it to the staff so they can plan accordingly. I think some of them have relied on overtime but
they can't rely on that so I appreciate you taking your time and I think using the current policy until
you update this. I think if we could get back over again we would change the way that we approached it
I don't think that we realized until we really dug into the issue that it was such an issue in terms
of consistency across departments and As we started to fix one little piece another domino would fall
and another domino would fall right and we quickly realized that by following the policy we had a lot
of angry employees and
had we known how much of an impact this was going to make, we would have communicated this much earlier.
But I think that at this point, everybody understands we're following the board policy as it's written.
That's how we are currently applying comp time and then any overtime over the 40 hours. Once this is
approved, hopefully at the next board meeting, then we can go back and pay out anybody then that is,
potentially at 40 hours of comp time, like a bus driver, bring that back down to 15 hours that they
can use for doctor's appointments and things that are necessary sometimes, but get everybody back financially
to where they expect it to be prior to us finding this issue. It's not easy. That was much appreciated.
We understand why people were upset. We understood all of that, but we also understand that our jobs
are to follow board policy. And when we recognize that wasn't practice, we had to do that. So that's
where we're at with this right now. All right. We'll move on. Next is consideration to remove a paid
leave day exception for the culinary skills specialist.
Be prepared. This is just a tiny piece that we need to put back in. So we're pretty excited because
our culinary skills specialist is now, she holds an education degree. I don't know if you guys knew
that. She holds an education degree and we recently, you just actually approved it in your personnel
list that she is our new facts teacher.
and just started this week, and she is moving from the culinary skills position into that facts teacher
position. And in doing that, we had created an exception because she was somebody that was exceptional,
and we had created an exception for paid leave days for her to allow her a few more because of her job
as the culinary skills specialist. For the foreseeable future, we're not, we are not
going to be filling that position. And so right now we'd like to go ahead and clean that up and remove
that line for the exception for paid leave days. And then the next person that would be hired would
just fall in line with the regular paid leave day schedule. Culinary skills specialist. Moved and seconded.
All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Thank you.
All right, next is consideration to approve the biotechnology teacher position for the 2027-2028 school
year. We typically do not bring these to you in October for the next school year. But here we are with
this position. This is one that we've been talking about for the last year or so as we've been talking
about the life sciences training facility.
And last month, Mr. Kerr attended a, no, yes, Mr. Kerr attended, I was trying to remember who was there,
Mr. Kerr attended a meeting with us at the high school in which NCAP BioCrossroads came down, talked
with us about an opportunity to take our partnerships outside of just right here in our own community
within Monroe County and within the ROI region and really
connect those partners across the state through a statewide initiative known as BioCrossroads. In part
of that work, we also are going to have a connection now with Eli Lilly and our students are going to
have an opportunity to graduate as Lilly Pathfinders. We would be the first school in Monroe County,
first school down actually in this area at all outside of Indianapolis.
who is going to have this opportunity for our students. In order to show our commitment to them, we
also need to show that we're continuing to do the work prior to opening this pathway up next year. Part
of that is going ahead, creating this job description, getting that approved.
I don't think we're gonna post it tomorrow or anything like that, but I would say probably around January,
February, we need to get this posted because it's a very specific type of job that we're looking for,
a very specific person that we're looking for here. This is not a typical history or ELA teacher that
we're looking for, and we really are gonna need to get this posted and start doing some recruitment
in terms of what that can look like.
me how we plan on paying for this because the last thing we need to be doing as a district is creating
positions right now and Mr. Boltinghouse and I are working really closely with Amy Winkler and ROI on
our CTE funding so we are opening up every opportunity finding where things aren't matching up and and
basically building bridges so that that CTE funding cannot only
Increase a little bit, but we want to see it double and triple and eventually quadruple what we're currently
getting, which would pay for this teaching position. We would also be looking for it to potentially
pay for teaching positions at the junior high with some of the CTE funding that has now been opened
up there that we're exploring for next year as well.
So a lot of good opportunities right now. I can't tell you 100%. This is the fund it's going to come
out of. But I can tell you that is the plan for the future with that fund and what we're currently building
to get that built up to a place that we can do that with. Very similar to what we've talked about with
Medicaid building, billing, building up that fund so that we can then pay for SLPs and things like that
out of that fund as well.
And second, I think this is a great step. It is a leap of putting this out there. But look
at the construction outside. I mean, we're committed. And this is part of that next step. And so, yeah,
it's hard, but I appreciate
the active recruitment of funds that you're going through. I really appreciate that. We can't hit the
education fund. We know that. Yeah. So we appreciate the hard work to try to get as much funding for
this as possible. Is it likely that this position would be one that would start mid-spring, summertime?
Because I'm sure there's going to be some preparation they're going to have to do. What we would love
is for this position
with our partnership with Eli Lilly, they will actually pay for all of the training for this teacher
during the summer at Ivy Tech. So we wouldn't pay for a dime of that. We wouldn't pay any stipend to
that teacher for their personal time. They would be on a regular teaching contract starting at the same
time as every other teacher. And then at that point in time,
they would continue to work with Ivy Tech, with BioCrossroads. BioCrossroads has also hired a former
science teacher onto their team who is working specifically with Ivy Tech to take a college curriculum
and bring it down into a high school level. So she has a major undertaking. That will be the pathway
that we will actually be implementing here and it's exciting because
We have a say in what that looks like. And that was the lady who attended our meeting. And it's pretty
incredible that we're on the forefront of all of this. And I know that you guys have also asked for
MOUs with our partners. This is our commitment to them, showing them this is how we're moving forward.
Our MOU with them is also coming.
That will actually be with bio bio crossroads and so they're working on drawing that up with their attorneys
in terms of what their commitment is to us. So for instance Boston scientific cook medical are members
of bio crossroads cook is getting close on that fingers crossed.
They make a financial commitment to be a part of BioCrossroads. It's a $100,000 commitment that they
make that then is funneled back down into these school corporations. So it's no longer just us saying
to these partners, can you give us some money to do this? Now they're funneling it into a big statewide
initiative that then is coming out and it's
It creates an organization with it. So that MOU is currently being worked on on their end. As soon as
we get a copy of that, that'll go to Christine so that we can review it. And that will be their commitment
to us and what we can expect from them in terms of financial commitment, educational commitment, all
of these pieces that we're gonna need. I couldn't even write a job description for this without AI.
So I can't even begin to,
think about creating a curriculum for this. So it's work that has to be done by people that have more
expertise in this area than we do. This will enable us to partner with even more companies. Even more
companies, exactly. Yeah. Once the work gets started,
then we can start to talk about how our students can benefit these local companies who potentially are
not necessarily a part of the big umbrella. How can we get our students in the doors for internships
and apprenticeships, job shadowing? Can we come and explore and just see your facilities so our kids
can understand how robotics is used in engineering on a daily basis? Those are the types of partnerships
that we currently have that we will continue to have.
And this just takes some of those even deeper, and also maybe to a higher level of state level. I'll
be interested to see what kind of certification, what kind of training, because this, as you say, this
is going to be an exceptional person that we're looking for here. It really is. It really is. And I
can send you what currently is listed for this pathway in terms of qualifications. I did include it in here.
under a valid Indiana teaching license. There's some pieces in here, preparation and biology, chemistry,
biotechnology, related science. We do have one or two people on our teaching staff now who would be
qualified to teach this position. The question is just whether or not they want to. Would they be interested?
Sure. And that's okay. If they're enjoying what they're doing, that's okay too. I know a couple of people
that are interested. Yeah. Okay. And there are some benefits to
the teachers to help the education to get them ready too. So in recruiting that information needs to
get out to them that look, there's resources that are there. And so I think that would help build some
excitement. For sure. I think our district has a reputation for thinking outside of the box in terms
of how we hire teachers and how we
continue to allow to allow their training and their professional development. They keep adding on,
you know, their certifications, their teaching license to their teaching license. So I can see this
being a really special position for a specific person out there. Yep. In can. In cap. In cap. That's
the acronym for what?
Oh, goodness. I'm off script here, but that's overseen by our crossroads, right? Career and apprenticeship.
You're really pushing me tonight, Mr. Tucker. You got it? Indiana Career Apprenticeship Pathway. This
is kind of the overarching umbrella of all of these different types of industries. So bio-crossroads
is the one that's coming out of that related to life sciences. And there are several others under banking.
And these all started to be developed several years back, actually in
Where, which country? We were taking all kinds of people from Indiana over there. Finland? Switzerland?
Switzerland. We were taking them to Switzerland because it's really modeled after a program that they
have there that they incorporate work-based learning into their high school to connect workforce development
and education, K through 12 education. Switzerland.
but this is gonna help encapsulate the whole thing. Yeah, and I think our darts were getting closer
to the center, but I think what's happening now is we have forces bigger than us that are tossing the
darts, and that makes a really big difference. When they're coming down and asking us to sign on with
them, and we know we're one of five schools across the state that's getting that pitch,
I think it says a lot about the work. Our darts weren't hitting the center, but they were coming close
enough that they wanted to say, let us take over some of that work. And I'm all in for that all day
long. It feels really good, really good. I know we're on the right path with this. I'm just,
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
going to say, this is incredible. But getting there might be a little shaky. Thank you.
You're welcome. It's not an uneducated leap. It is not an uneducated leap. For a very type A office,
as you can tell, who gets down into the nitty gritty on everything, this educated leap feels enormous.
But I know that we're getting closer to the finish line on a project that is going to make an enormous
impact. Yeah.
It's an awesome place to be in this position. Okay. Anything further? All those in favor say aye. Aye.
Opposed? Motion carries. The next item will be tabled. It would be a discipline matrix change for the
Corporation Student Handbook. If you looked at the packet, and I did don't
be alarmed, it is not because there's any disciplinary issues or anything like that. It is solely because
trying to get things aligned and in position and this is just part of, it's not something that has just
come up. You know, I was worried, hey, has this just come up, something going on? It's not. It's something
that's been in the works for a while and it's just getting to us. So, and...
I take a quick second. I used to teach juvenile justice systems at Ivy Tech. There was always a cycle
we talked about where people are tough on crime and then it's rehabilitation. You're tough on crime
and rehabilitation. Edgewood is at a special place because we have an excellent mental health team.
We're doing that rehabilitation part.
and we're also very thoughtful about how we do the discipline, the being tough on crime part as well.
They work together, and so that's what's going on. It's not anything, again, I saw it and I thought,
oh my gosh, something's going on, but nothing is going on. Everything, they're just trying to
piece together. It's been in the process for a while. It's just kind of putting the final pieces together.
So I just wanted to make sure if anybody saw it and was kind of a little, you know, uneasy as I was
when I first saw it, that it's not that at all. It is something that's
very, very positive and normal part of the process. So just wanna. To fall in the storage year, Assistant
Superintendent missed edits in the corporation handbook that our secondary administrators had worked
on in April and May last year. And when they went to, which as they should, when they went to print
the new handbook and the new discipline matrix for this year and realized, wait a minute, this isn't
what we worked on.
So that is 100% my fault and that's where that's coming from. So thankfully they called me out on it
and said we've got to get this fixed. So we will bring that to you next time. We'll bring red line edits
with that so you can see with the current handbook what is changing there. And it's also cleaning up
some of the language. Some of the elementary language is kind of funky that doesn't always make sense
to parents when it says,
pending dismissal per parent conference as a consequence. What in the heck does that even mean? So we're
cleaning that up a little bit so that there is no question about what that consequence is. It also gives
flexibility for individual situations because
There needs to be flexibility. Discipline can't always be black and white. So like you said, there's
a pendulum there. And we need to be sure that our administrators have that flexibility there and that
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.
So luckily, they got me calmed down on it. Because like I said, I was concerned to see it
But again, it is something that just was in the works and just getting it done. But it is an opportunity
for us to brag on the fact that we do have a mental health team that is second to none to help these
students that if they are having discipline problems, it's usually because there's something else going
on and we've got people there to help them.
So, a little bragging. Okay. Next is the Director of Budget and Finance reports, Debbie Tate. We have
our updated cash flow sheets for the end of September. Went in and we updated the transfers we've been
talking about trying to reduce
how much money we are transferring from the education fund to the operations. So we kind of started
that process in September. We've reduced that transfer by $30,000. We're gonna start this pattern and
just make sure we're on track. Something exciting is our projections. We actually came in with a cash
balance of over 162,000 more than we had anticipated in the education fund.
It kind of, even though we transferred less and everything, it's showing our efforts that we're trying
to really, like we've talked about before, crack down on everything, looking at every penny across the
board, and we can see those efforts happening. So that's the status. Everything looks on par. We're
going in a good direction at this point. So we seem positive with where we're at at this moment. Do
you guys have any questions?
Yes, I request it every single month and then we get that reimbursed for the, yeah, anything that's
a reimbursable, we always request what we can. Sometimes there's a delay if we have like a modification
or anything like that, because we have to wait for the state to actually approve us. And so you're waiting
on them to say, yep, you can go ahead and request that money. But usually as soon as it's available,
we get that money requested. And then the seek money, have we got that?
I just got my report that we got our last reimbursement in for that. So some new things, we've got the
new grant coming up and everything and we're trying to look at all those numbers too. Thank you to you
guys, you and Mr. Dixon for working on that. Thank you Mr. Dixon and you for working on that seat grant
reimbursement. Yeah, no problem, thank you. Thank you so much. All right, next.
This is the assistant superintendent's report. So Jennifer Barrett. Just to be sure and let Mr. Dermot
know that we kept it to one page, both of us tonight. He's proud of us. I can finally share the I Learned
scores with you. These are no longer embargoed, which is amazing. One thing I want to say with this
is this is brand new.
We can't look back at 2025 and make comparisons. The state has made that very, very clear that we are
starting with a brand new test as of last spring, 2026. So what you're seeing here are our beginning
scores for the new iLearn through year assessment. Couldn't be happier with what we see on that right
side with math.
I think it goes to show that the work we've done with math, our new curriculum that we've adopted, our
teachers are comfortable with it. It's not new anymore. We're four years into it. Really excited about
the work that I see over there. I mean, that fourth grade team, we have two thirds of our current fifth
graders who were on grade level with fourth grade math. That's incredible. 13 percentage points above
the state average there.
Looking at ELA, we have work to do. And it's not a ton. I look at that and, you know, red sometimes
means pretty bad things. But I look at that and I see as one to six percentage points below the state
average with third grade coming out even there. Sixth grade ELA needs to share their tricks because
they are 11 percentage points above the rest of the state. So this is exactly why we go through instructional
rounds. This is exactly why we learn from one another and what
everybody's doing to understand how they are getting to that point. But one thing that EIS is putting
into practice is what they've realized is that the type of question on an iLearn test is not the type
of question that we're using through the year to assess our kids. So a great use of AI, they took their
current unit test
They took an iLearn test, last year's samples. They ran that through AI to say, how can we change our
unit test? How can we ask these questions differently so our kids start getting exposure to these types
of questions? And I think that we will see some just quick adjustments with that that can make a big
impact overall. Because sometimes when our kids get to an assessment at the end of the year and they
haven't seen something that looks exactly like that,
They're 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 years old. They panic. I can remember giving ISTEP years ago, and it was not
unusual to see seventh and eighth graders cry during those assessments. So these are high stress pieces.
There are things that we can do better and that's the piece that we're gonna work on. And that's also
why we have tier two and tier three in place to reteach and to come back and fill those gaps with kids.
So all of this work that we're doing across the district is, I don't wanna say ultimately to see these
scores raised because I don't think that, I don't think any kid is one score.
But I do think that these scores give us a good measure of across the district how we're doing. And
when I start to see these scores go up, I start to see our SAT scores go up, I know that we're heading
in the right direction. So this is a starting point for us. This is what we're gonna look at at the
beginning of next year and we're gonna compare it here. I know that Mr. Rinchler and Mr. Shull have
already started these conversations with their teachers.
When you say to a group of teachers, we're below state average, that's a hard conversation to have.
But what I love about our teachers and our district is we can have hard conversations and then we can
get to work. And so that's what we're doing here. Excuse me, a couple of dates down there to take a
look at. We have the EHS career fair coming up. So if you aren't busy on the 28th and want to come over
to the EHS gymnasium,
That will be packed that day with a lot of businesses and colleges in the house to meet with our students.
Our first flex day is going to be on November 3rd. This will be parent-teacher conferences, kindergarten
through eighth grade, and a ton of professional development at the high school level going on that day as well.
Keep them busy. November 19th, add the business leaders advisory meeting to your calendar. I know that
we cannot have more than two, so don't fight over the spots, but it's gonna be a really, really good
one. So November 19th, be sure and let us know if you can attend that day. That's all I have. Thank
you very much.
Next is the superintendent's report. Dr. Sanders. Yeah, I'm gonna cheat a little bit and Ask Martin
Shrewsdale from Skillman to come up and give us a construction report. I Still have more to say I still
have more to say so don't don't be worried This does come off your time, you know
We're starting to get dig into some, we're starting to finish some projects and we're starting to dig
into some new ones. The projects that we're finishing up is the roof and the mechanical projects. We're
working through the turf project and they're starting to dig into the music additions and the concessions.
So I'll try to move fairly quickly because I,
Roof replacement and mechanical renovations. I've divided that up into roofing and mechanical,
roof membrane. The buildings are all watertight now. The membranes are completed and we've completed
a punch list on it. The edge metal just got finished. So we'll be doing a punch on that actually tomorrow.
The counter flashing at the junior high is complete.
And we've had several allowance items, wood blocking at the junior high and replacement of wet or damaged
insulation at the two elementary schools. Fortunately, those came in. We anticipated a lot of wet insulation
and didn't run into very much at all. So we've got some pretty significant change orders or a change order.
that's pretty significant to deduct that from the contract. Intermediate School South Entry, you can
see they're still working on that. Primary School High Bay, these are sister buildings, so each one
is a mirror image of the other one, so that's all done, and the wood coping's all done on that. There's
your junior high school,
Again, it's complete. They just finished up the edge metal. That's what we're gonna do the punch on
tomorrow. We do have some challenges there with our contractor regarding scope of work and that's not
resolved as we get it resolved. I will bring that to you. And the gym floor.
That's in the realm of the insurance companies now. What we did was rather than just replace the portion
that was damaged, we've replaced the whole floor and we've replaced it with a higher and floor that's
very similar to what we put in at the field house. So it's a real good floor. I'll go back real quick.
The added wood blocking and the wet damaged insulation, those change orders were enough. The deducts
were enough on that to cover the wood floor even if we don't, before we even get into the insurance
part of it.
Just a picture with a nice sky, so I put that in there. Counter flashing at the junior high. The last
time I showed you, the counter flashing wasn't in, so this is how it was cleaned up. This is around
the gymnasium bay, so all that counter flashing is installed now. Roofing, they still need to put the
protection pads on the roof.
something that goes on top of the membrane. So it's watertight, they just need to put that on there
to protect it. Sheet metal and trim, we'll do the edge metal and then we're gonna complete gutters and
downspouts. The gutters and downspouts are what I'm wrestling, arm wrestling with the contractor about
right now. So I'll bring that to you as we get that resolved. We'll complete the junior high, gym floor,
Dr. Sanders, I think the thing we said it would be November 2nd, I believe. Yes. That it'll be ready
to go. And then, as I said, the gymnasium floor costs are in the hands of the insurance people right
now. Mechanical, HVAC, we,
Worked our way through all of that, completed the installation of boilers and pumps. The flues were
what held us up a little bit as we got into the fall, that's all done. We did have to provide a new
electrical panel, and we completed the startup. The electrical panel is additional cost, but again,
we have enough in the allowance to cover that. It looks like maybe pewter piping on the
left-hand picture, but that's, it's not. That's all your hydraulic piping for the new building. The
flues were the challenge and those are your new boiler flues on the right-hand photo. As far as the
HVAC, the roof replacement and mechanical renovations, fine tuning the mechanical controls.
is all we've got left and that always takes a little while to get everybody happy. Baseball and softball
turf, stormwater detention, the shaping of the big detention pond as required by the town is complete.
There's a new concrete storm structure that's part of that and that was all the requirements of the town.
Dr. Sanders, the viewing mound is complete and it's been seated and strawed as has the detention. Completed
contouring of the ball fields and both ball fields were proof rolled. That's always kind of a hold your
breath thing, but we came up with very little area that was a problem. So again, we're well within our
contingencies on that.
Completed the installation of subsurface drainage. That's part of the actual turf project. Installed
concrete work, the grade beam retaining walls and there's some significant retaining walls out there.
Sidewalk and actually the pitchers mound are concrete with the turf that goes over it. The softball
granular fill was completed and I said,
continued installation of their artificial turf. At softball, it's 90% done. It's very close. And they
should start on the high school, on the baseball probably next week. Pretty significant perimeter drainage.
The site retaining wall, again, that's a pretty significant amount of concrete that had to go in for
that retaining wall.
And there's the forms for the retaining wall on the right-hand side slide. The carpet, the field fabric
actually nails off to a grade beam and a nailer all the way around, and that goes all around the field.
And what you're seeing in the background on the right-hand side is the veering mound that's
been seated and strawed. I was impressed at how much work they had to put in to get that retaining wall
done, but there's placing the concrete at the baseball retaining wall. Retaining wall form work at the
junior high, junior high at the softball,
and there's the retaining wall in place, the backstop wall. That's where we were yesterday. As you can
see, the softball is significantly completed as far as getting the artificial turf in. I didn't take,
I don't think, no, I didn't include a picture of the baseball because it's all still just dirt.
at this point. Today they were putting the logo, the Mustang logo that's in the outfield. Yeah, that's
what you see them doing out there. And if you ever have, if you have a chance, I would encourage you,
especially now Saw Falls pretty much finished with the turf, but go up and watch them.
with baseball because they put different types of rock down, you know, kind of a traditional size rock
for a driveway at the base. And then as it gets up closer to the surface, it's very fine. And they have
a machine that goes along and makes sure it's all level. And then the turf comes out in like carpet
rolls. And then they have a machine that sews each section together. It's very interesting.
I just want to say this. I had someone come up at the Fall Festival thinking that we were putting down
turf was a luxury and wasn't needed. But I've learned over the years that putting turf down saves the
school corporation a lot of money and upkeep. And I always like to tell the story when I was at another
school corporation
and we played on another high school's turf their first game and it rained like cats and dogs before
the game. And several years down the road that we're thinking about getting turf and we talked to their
AD and he mentioned that game and he said if they had played that game on traditional grass field all the time
work and money spent in getting that field ready for the season would have been ruined in one game and
the field would have been ruined the rest of the season. And it wasn't. And so, you know, they didn't
waste a lot of money and a lot of work on that. And plus with turf, you know, we are in an age where
we have to compete for students.
And so we have to have the facilities that will attract families to our school corporation. So I just
wanted to get that out. It isn't a luxury, it's really a necessity these days. It's interesting, Dr.
Sanders, as you said, it literally, most of the major carpet manufacturers manufacture in Dalton, Georgia.
And in Dalton, Georgia, the looms that they use to make broadloom carpet are the same ones that they
use to make the turf. So literally, it is a different kind of carpet. Fortunately, it lasts a lot longer
than broadloom would out on a ball field.
So baseball and softball, next 60 days. I've been coming every other month, so 60 days, 60 days it's
gonna be done. Addition and renovations to the high school and junior high school, and I should put
on there also the softball concessions. We've completed the bids, we've got the contracts. Dr. Sanders,
I've got two more for your signature.
The only one we don't have at this point is painting, and we don't need a painter till probably September,
so I'm not terribly worried about it. Took a little longer than we hoped to get permits, but we've completed
the permits. We did a pre-construction conference. We did a pre-installation conference, specifically
with General Contractor and Earthwork,
The temporary fencing is up in both locations. At the junior high, we're gonna leave the gates open
on that. It will probably be a few weeks before we do anything where we need to close, really close
it in. Continue the submittal process. That'll go on for a while. And we just barely began stripping
at the high school. That will probably happen
more seriously this coming Monday. But we were very excited to see that. I thought you enjoyed seeing
some equipment out there. Yeah, we all went to the windows to see what was going on. We've warned them
that it's right outside your window. So in the next 60 days, we'll begin the dirt work and footings at
at all three facilities, the contractor, Bowling is the contractor, and they've agreed that they're
gonna bring two crews. They'll have one crew working at the high school, so they'll have their equipment
here. At the junior high, what they're gonna do is they're gonna work on the concessions building until
they get ready for footings, and they'll move over
in the back of the junior high and then they'll move back and put their sewer in and so they'll be jumping
back and forth. So they have one crew here and one at the junior high. We're gonna be able to begin
roofing at the high school on the high bays and that'd be gym, cafeteria and auditorium. And we're gonna
start HVAC controls at all locations at the junior high and high school, the contractor,
The mechanical contractor controls is under them at the two elementaries. We've got a separate controls
contract just for that. And we should have submittals completed in the next 60 days. And I went through
that quickly. So if there's any questions, I'd be glad to entertain them. So for the HVAC,
controls, how long will that take to get those systems in? We figured the HVAC controls, break it up
into, we've got the new existing construction at the high school at all buildings. The controls for
that should be done by the end of next summer. Then where the additions are on the buildings, those
controls will be like next Christmas
Christmas of 27, by the time they're done. Thank you. So, any more questions for Martin? Just a few
more things. Actually, I'm gonna say March of 28. Just a few more things. Ellisville Chamber of Commerce
Educator of the Year awards night is Thursday night at six. Amy Norris will be receiving the Educator
of the Year award.
We still have some tickets available if anybody wants to come to that that you haven't told us, let
us know and we'll let them know and encourage you to come out and celebrate with Amy. Also
want to congratulate our Edgewood High School athletes, the IHSAA sportsmanship banner.
was given to our athletes for the second consecutive year. To earn that, you have to have zero conduct
disqualifications and high ratings from game officials. So congratulations to Edward High School. The
Ellisville Chamber of Commerce is also doing something new. They're going to host the Ellisville Education
Leaders Forum on November 5th at noon at the town hall.
And so I will be there to represent Edgewood schools and basically just to talk about how we are preparing
our students for success after high school. And so I'm looking forward to bragging about our school
corporation that afternoon. And Jennifer already mentioned about the business leaders advisory team
luncheon meeting coming up.
And I just gave you some very basic data on enrollment. As you know, even though we're down 25 students
from last fall, you'll see that we still have a positive trend. And it's pretty normal for enrollment
to have ups and downs.
you still want to see that positive trend. Now, in November, I'm working on a report now to be able
to share with the board where are our students going, where are they coming from. So there'll be a report
here in my superintendent's report for November, and I think that'll be very helpful information. That's
my report for tonight.
very helpful. It really helps to put things into perspective sometimes when you just, you know, from
one year to the next and looking at the trend really helps. So thank you very much for that. Okay. Now
we have RBEA comments.
Good evening. Now that we're back from fall break, we're in the homestretch of bargaining, and so I
just wanted to take a moment to give a special and heartfelt thank you to Caroline Boivere at the high
school, Stephanie Ayer at the middle school, Anna Dunn at the intermediate school, Theresa Simpson,
and Brandy Abel at EPS for taking care of our teachers and making sure, well, taking care of our members,
which takes care of our teachers.
and making sure that they get the best contract that they can. Thank you. Thank you very much. Board
member Clements and Mr. DeMoss. And I'm glad that you got to visit with Colton and the family I'm sure
is having a nice time. Congratulations to DIS that sell award is
That's so exciting. Thanks for all the donations. Can't believe Lori Major's going to retire,
but she is. And congratulations to all the fall athletes. Braxton Carpenter's outstanding performance
last weekend. That was something. The girls and boys cross-country teams, and then volleyball, golf,
and tennis all finished up. But more than anything, I'm so proud about that sportsmanship award. That
is great. And as exciting as it is to see the physical
process progress on our on the biotech facility getting this position going that's making it more real
and so I'm that it's starting targets take shape and that I'm just so excited for the future thank you
awesome mr. Tucker mr. DeMoss and the stars seems like the stars are kind of aligning now with all the
the biotech and I guess build it and they will come so that's what we're gonna do
the new biotech unit over here. So looking forward to that. Thanks Martin for your report. I do want
to put one public service announcement out. I don't know the time. Mr. Bolting, as you might know, there's
a school board forum at the high school next Monday. Do you know what time? Six, six o'clock and it's
in the library. Yeah. Maybe the auditorium.
Six o'clock, yeah, six o'clock next. We're trying to have a backup location depending on if you filled
the library, we may have to. Right. I've spoken with Derek Latham about possibly using auditorium. I
don't know if he's worked that out yet. But in case we have too many people there, which would be a
good problem to have, we're going to have a backup location. Yeah, well, thank the League of Women Voters
for coordinating that also. And hopefully, the cats can be there Monday night. So thank you.
Well, I thank everyone for coming tonight. A lot of good things again. The construction update is awesome.
I hope everybody was able to understand the budget that we covered. Again, focus on levy, focus on the
dollars that the schools
spends and collects because the tax rates are wonky and that is a highly technical financial term,
wonky is, but that's what we're down to. But again, it's a great day for Edgewood schools and so you
all have a wonderful evening. This meeting is adjourned.