WEBVTT 00:00:00.194 --> 00:00:06.921 - Let me call to order the September 16th meeting of the Monroe County Redevelopment Commission. Jeff, 00:00:06.921 --> 00:00:13.582 - would you call the roll, please? Mr. Martin. Present. Mr. Kiesling. Here. Commissioner Jones. Here. 00:00:13.582 --> 00:00:20.243 - Commissioner McCarty. Here. Commissioner Tucker. Here. Five members are present for our voting, and 00:00:20.243 --> 00:00:22.974 - therefore a quorum has been established. 00:00:38.242 --> 00:00:46.657 - First, I want to thank RBB School Corporation for this lovely facility we're meeting in today, and also 00:00:46.657 --> 00:00:54.829 - thanking Katz for moving things here so they could broadcast. He's been crawling all over the table. 00:00:54.829 --> 00:01:03.245 - Well, I'm glad we're able to be here today. And we have, on a regular basis, we get a presentation from 00:01:03.245 --> 00:01:07.614 - RBB School Corporation, where we are a contributor to 00:01:07.842 --> 00:01:16.294 - various programs here through the commitment of TIF tax dollars, and have been for many years. And they 00:01:16.294 --> 00:01:24.421 - have a very productive program going, and I will turn it over to you for the presentation. Yes, and 00:01:24.421 --> 00:01:32.791 - you're more than a contributor. You're actually the heart of what you've been doing. And it amazes me, 00:01:32.791 --> 00:01:37.342 - and I've mentioned this to you before, but it amazes me 00:01:37.474 --> 00:01:48.148 - how far we've come over the years because of the contribution that you guys provide to us. And it's 00:01:48.148 --> 00:01:59.782 - so nice to have you come over to our campus. We try to provide our students with the absolute best programs, 00:01:59.782 --> 00:02:04.478 - best facilities, best teachers, and I think 00:02:05.282 --> 00:02:14.021 - If you look over some of our past presentations, you will know that we are very student-centered and 00:02:14.021 --> 00:02:22.674 - working. Everything we do is work to prepare our students for life, for life after high school. And 00:02:22.674 --> 00:02:31.413 - so Jennifer's going to lead the, she's going to drive the car tonight. Jennifer Baird, our assistant 00:02:31.413 --> 00:02:35.134 - superintendent, but I'll chime in whenever 00:02:35.554 --> 00:02:43.871 - I feel the need to. Hello. Thank you for coming this evening. We are really excited to have you guys 00:02:43.871 --> 00:02:52.517 - right here on our campus. You're going to get a pretty no frills presentation today and there's a reason 00:02:52.517 --> 00:03:01.246 - for that. We know that here within the near future that you are going to be considering whether or not to 00:03:02.178 --> 00:03:08.543 - proceed forward with the TIF money that is currently being given to Richland Bean Blossom schools. And 00:03:08.543 --> 00:03:14.909 - we're hoping that you walk away here tonight without a question in your mind about whether or not that 00:03:14.909 --> 00:03:21.151 - has been a good investment and whether or not it will continue to be a good investment, not only for 00:03:21.151 --> 00:03:23.870 - our students, but I think that you will see 00:03:24.002 --> 00:03:31.879 - If you don't, I haven't done my job well, but I think you will see that the work that we're doing is 00:03:31.879 --> 00:03:39.834 - extending far beyond just our campus at this point. So I'm gonna dig in. By all means, please stop me 00:03:39.834 --> 00:03:47.866 - at any point, ask questions. This is really meant to encourage dialogue, and I'm hoping that it brings 00:03:47.866 --> 00:03:50.206 - up some things along the way. 00:03:54.626 --> 00:04:02.068 - Are we broadcasting this? I think it's going to be broadcast from cats. I don't think it's live streamed, 00:04:02.068 --> 00:04:09.370 - but it'll be OK. Do we have a zoom connection? We do not. We do not. OK. All right. Thanks. I can share 00:04:09.370 --> 00:04:16.461 - it. Yeah. One of our school board members and Kent Rensselaer, our principal at Edgewood Junior High 00:04:16.461 --> 00:04:23.482 - School. And Mariah Bruce. Mariah is usually with us. She's usually with us. She's part of the team. 00:04:23.482 --> 00:04:24.254 - OK. Sorry. 00:04:24.546 --> 00:04:34.380 - That's OK. Would it be helpful if I sent the presentation, since we're not live streaming, to be able 00:04:34.380 --> 00:04:44.215 - to share later? If you could send it to me, I would. I'll be happy to. Yeah. OK. Let's dig in. So you 00:04:44.215 --> 00:04:45.854 - know who we are. 00:04:46.114 --> 00:04:53.465 - You've been familiar with us for several years now. We come to you, we talk about all the things that 00:04:53.465 --> 00:05:00.744 - we're doing. I think at this point, you also know what we stand for. When we say caring, daring, and 00:05:00.744 --> 00:05:08.167 - preparing, we mean every single bit of that. Down to the depths of our soul, we live these three words 00:05:08.167 --> 00:05:16.094 - day in and day out. The partnership between the RDC and Edgewood began with a pitch all the way back in 2019. 00:05:16.290 --> 00:05:22.727 - That was the first time that we came to you and we said, you know, we would like for you to consider 00:05:22.727 --> 00:05:29.355 - a proposal. And I remember this night well because we said, do you know what STEM is? And at that point 00:05:29.355 --> 00:05:35.855 - in time, STEM was just kind of starting to get out there. And it was one of those buzzwords, science, 00:05:35.855 --> 00:05:39.870 - technology, engineering, and math. And we made a pitch to you. 00:05:39.970 --> 00:05:48.562 - And we said, we want to invest in our kids. We want them to have more access to STEM. And we would love 00:05:48.562 --> 00:05:57.320 - for you to help us in this process. On February 26, 2020, an initial investment was made of just a little 00:05:57.320 --> 00:06:05.581 - over $127,000. So in that time, how has this investment directly benefited our students here in the 00:06:05.581 --> 00:06:08.638 - Richland and Bean Blossom townships? 00:06:10.274 --> 00:06:16.699 - So in year one, we employed four STEAM coaches or teachers across our district. We paid stipends to 00:06:16.699 --> 00:06:23.188 - our teachers to begin training and project-based learning. We made our initial investment in project 00:06:23.188 --> 00:06:29.934 - lead-the-way modules and a lot of teacher training that went along with that. We paid for WeVideo access 00:06:29.934 --> 00:06:34.046 - for our students. You may, you're not, I shouldn't say you may. 00:06:34.306 --> 00:06:40.977 - You know about our adventures here with Edge Media and what our students do with media production. This 00:06:40.977 --> 00:06:47.455 - was where it started. Each of our kids had an account on WeVideo, and they started just playing with 00:06:47.455 --> 00:06:53.998 - it. They started making little videos about what they were learning. They started making videos about 00:06:53.998 --> 00:07:01.182 - things they were creating. And you were a part of that. You were the part of that. We began our robotics clubs. 00:07:01.602 --> 00:07:08.630 - It's been that many years since we started robotics here at Edgewood, and it started with this initial 00:07:08.630 --> 00:07:15.454 - investment. By year two, we had absorbed one of those positions into the education fund. So we went 00:07:15.454 --> 00:07:22.619 - down to three STEAM coaches across our district. We were continuing to pay stipends and pay for training 00:07:22.619 --> 00:07:29.443 - for our teachers to expand their learning and project-based learning. This became a requirement for 00:07:29.443 --> 00:07:30.398 - our district. 00:07:30.626 --> 00:07:36.663 - This wasn't a choice. We said if you're going to work here at Edgewood schools, then you're going to 00:07:36.663 --> 00:07:42.700 - understand that the way kids learn is not necessarily in that traditional textbook manner. They need 00:07:42.700 --> 00:07:48.318 - to be hands on and they need to be engaged. And so it became the way that our classrooms ran. 00:07:48.674 --> 00:07:55.854 - From there, we continued our commitment with Project Lead the Way. Project Lead the Way has everything 00:07:55.854 --> 00:08:02.964 - to do with science, technology, engineering. They are hands-on, engaging modules that we use with our 00:08:02.964 --> 00:08:10.004 - kids. We invested heavily in that second year in biomedical sciences, computer science, and the PLTW 00:08:10.004 --> 00:08:14.814 - Launch and Gateway curriculum for kindergarten through eighth grade. 00:08:16.482 --> 00:08:25.587 - We've expanded at that point. We video is a success beyond anything we could possibly imagine. This 00:08:25.587 --> 00:08:34.873 - was kind of before TikTok and Instagram. Little did we know that we video was going to explode in the 00:08:34.873 --> 00:08:35.966 - way it did. 00:08:36.066 --> 00:08:42.603 - or that the entire world was going to explode in the way it did with social media and all of the things. 00:08:42.603 --> 00:08:48.829 - So WeVideo is kind of our kids' first venture into that. We expanded it across our district. And we 00:08:48.829 --> 00:08:55.054 - also expanded our robotics clubs to the junior high. Year three, we went ahead. We kept those three 00:08:55.054 --> 00:09:01.467 - STEAM coaches. We also created a STEAM coordinators position. Because what was happening in year three 00:09:01.467 --> 00:09:03.646 - is that the growth was taking off. 00:09:03.970 --> 00:09:10.318 - across the district. And we really needed to create a better framework around that. We needed to have 00:09:10.318 --> 00:09:16.541 - goals that were going to guide us. And we realized that what was happening was that this was really 00:09:16.541 --> 00:09:23.013 - embedding in the culture of who we were and how we were teaching our kids. And we really needed to have 00:09:23.013 --> 00:09:29.486 - a person that was guiding that initiative. We sustained our project lead the way. We sustained robotics 00:09:29.486 --> 00:09:31.166 - clubs. And then we started 00:09:31.330 --> 00:09:38.131 - Purchasing equipment and supplies for our elementary maker space and our junior high design lab by that 00:09:38.131 --> 00:09:44.932 - point in time those spaces had been completed and we needed to get different things tools into our kids 00:09:44.932 --> 00:09:51.472 - hands and Man, I wish we were actually holding our meeting in one of those areas for you to be able 00:09:51.472 --> 00:09:58.077 - to see just what those look like for kids it is certainly not a traditional lab space that you would 00:09:58.077 --> 00:09:59.646 - think about in terms of 00:09:59.778 --> 00:10:07.265 - maybe an old fax lab or wood shop or something like that. In year four, we absorbed the STEAM coordinator's 00:10:07.265 --> 00:10:14.266 - role back into the education fund. Again, we kept those three teachers there, had them spread across 00:10:14.266 --> 00:10:21.337 - the district. Not only were they directly hands-on with kids, but they were also coaching our general 00:10:21.337 --> 00:10:23.902 - education teachers in the classroom. 00:10:24.194 --> 00:10:31.928 - We paid our first district-wide team to learn about Marzano's high reliability schools framework. This 00:10:31.928 --> 00:10:39.437 - year was pivotal in the work that we continue to do with high reliability schools. It's how we look 00:10:39.437 --> 00:10:47.096 - at all of the systems that we have across our district. We find holes and we tweak them. We make them 00:10:47.096 --> 00:10:51.902 - better. We create new systems to replace old systems if needed. 00:10:52.098 --> 00:10:58.980 - We sustain the six robotics team at teams at EIS, and we quickly found out that when you have successful 00:10:58.980 --> 00:11:05.535 - teams in fourth grade and fifth grade, those kids don't want to stop when they go to sixth, seventh 00:11:05.535 --> 00:11:12.155 - and eighth grade. So we ended up with eight robotics teams that year, which was absolutely ginormous 00:11:12.155 --> 00:11:14.974 - for us. I should say that we are now up to 00:11:15.298 --> 00:11:22.388 - 12 teams, I believe, at the junior high. And we also have invested in robotics curriculum during the 00:11:22.388 --> 00:11:29.759 - day so that students who are already in extracurriculars are getting that built in as an elective during 00:11:29.759 --> 00:11:37.270 - the day with Mrs. Grimes. By year five, we had changed our approach a little bit. We had two ready schools 00:11:37.270 --> 00:11:40.990 - coordinators. At this point, we're now employing one 00:11:41.154 --> 00:11:47.751 - engineering teacher at the high school. We had expanded those classes to a point that a full-time teacher 00:11:47.751 --> 00:11:54.162 - there was needed, and we hired a junior high design lab assistant for our junior high to lead the work 00:11:54.162 --> 00:12:00.448 - that we were doing in that area. We continued to expand our training with HRS and continued to bring 00:12:00.448 --> 00:12:06.735 - additional tools, equipment, supplies into not just our junior high design lab, but at this point we 00:12:06.735 --> 00:12:10.718 - had our innovative learning center at the high school now open. 00:12:12.482 --> 00:12:19.223 - Year six and seven, they look pretty much the same, but you're going to see a lot of these things have 00:12:19.223 --> 00:12:25.963 - been pared down over the years. The initial investment really went into people. It went into supplies. 00:12:25.963 --> 00:12:32.638 - It went into curriculum. It went into training people how to use all of these things. What we've done 00:12:32.638 --> 00:12:39.248 - since then, and these are the pieces I'm so excited about, this is what your investment has done and 00:12:39.248 --> 00:12:41.342 - how it has indirectly benefited 00:12:41.442 --> 00:12:48.494 - benefited our students. These are the additional some, I don't think I even have them all on here, additional 00:12:48.494 --> 00:12:55.162 - grants that we have received because of the work that we're doing here at Edgewood, because of the work 00:12:55.162 --> 00:12:57.534 - that we started with your seed money 00:12:57.858 --> 00:13:04.003 - These are additional grants that we've applied for and been able to receive. We received a 00:13:04.003 --> 00:13:10.892 - digital fabrication grant for a little over $50,000, a STEM integration grant from the state. ROI and 00:13:10.892 --> 00:13:17.712 - a career coaching initiative, a little over $100,000 there. Smithville student media grant, $15,000. 00:13:17.712 --> 00:13:19.806 - I just put in another one, so. 00:13:20.770 --> 00:13:28.190 - STEM Robotics Competition Grants. We realized that the initial investment that all of you made into this 00:13:28.258 --> 00:13:35.072 - This state started to recognize we need to pour money into this. So we are nearing $100,000 in STEM 00:13:35.072 --> 00:13:41.885 - robotics grants that we're receiving to continue to sustain the initial work that we've done there. 00:13:41.885 --> 00:13:48.971 - The kids are not going away, in fact. They beat down the doors for those teams. An opportunity to learn 00:13:48.971 --> 00:13:52.446 - project grant, we just submitted this for $75,000. 00:13:52.514 --> 00:13:58.866 - If we receive the planning grant, it will open us up for a $1.75 million competitive grant opportunity 00:13:58.866 --> 00:14:05.032 - through Eli Lilly. All of that will be used to think about how we educate kids, how we prepare kids 00:14:05.032 --> 00:14:11.261 - for education before they ever step in the doors at Edgewood schools. We all know that once they get 00:14:11.261 --> 00:14:15.454 - on the school bus or they step in the doors, that's the first step. 00:14:16.162 --> 00:14:22.923 - But the work that we do leading up to that, whether it's support that we wrap around support for families, 00:14:22.923 --> 00:14:29.304 - it's transportation that we're able to provide to kids so they can participate in these after-school 00:14:29.304 --> 00:14:35.938 - opportunities. So many other pieces than just the eight o'clock to three o'clock timeframe there. 63,000 00:14:35.938 --> 00:14:42.320 - in a three-e grant from the state, and another 130,000 from ROI for our Ready Schools initiative. So 00:14:42.320 --> 00:14:43.710 - let me jump in. Yeah. 00:14:46.914 --> 00:14:56.951 - point too quickly so when you're writing grants and the more meaningful information the more meaningful 00:14:56.951 --> 00:15:06.699 - data you could put into the grant application the better your chances are of receiving that grant so 00:15:06.699 --> 00:15:16.446 - the money that you provide us actually enables us puts us in a position to secure additional dollars 00:15:17.666 --> 00:15:24.295 - So I want you to know that because that's very important. We appreciate that. For sure. It allows us 00:15:24.295 --> 00:15:30.858 - to brag in those grant applications a little bit too. Additional positions that we've added through 00:15:30.858 --> 00:15:37.487 - our education fund to support this work. We've added a full time project lead the way specialist for 00:15:37.487 --> 00:15:44.248 - EPS, full time project lead the way specialist for EIS. They both work in our elementary maker spaces. 00:15:44.248 --> 00:15:47.070 - So our kids are in there every single day. 00:15:47.202 --> 00:15:52.030 - full-time design lead at EHS Innovative Learning Center. 00:15:52.226 --> 00:16:00.004 - Our coffee corral is blowing up. They are begging for additional space. We have a full-time coffee corral 00:16:00.004 --> 00:16:07.561 - lead that we pay out of our education fund. We also pay all of our students still out of the education 00:16:07.561 --> 00:16:15.486 - fund. That is about ready to change because they have about $40,000 in their account and they're continuing 00:16:15.486 --> 00:16:18.494 - to let the district pay their employees. 00:16:19.042 --> 00:16:26.559 - We're still waiting on a new business plan, a new business model to be thrown our way to take some of 00:16:26.559 --> 00:16:34.002 - that. We put that, sent that back to the students who are running this business and said, OK, you've 00:16:34.002 --> 00:16:40.414 - been so successful. Now you have to come up with a way how you can be self-sustaining. 00:16:41.378 --> 00:16:49.075 - So it's funny though, they're dragging their feet on that Dr. Sanders. I don't quite understand why 00:16:49.075 --> 00:16:57.079 - just yet. Nobody likes to pay the bills. No, they definitely don't. And what we have found is that kids 00:16:57.079 --> 00:17:00.158 - are tighter with money than adults are. 00:17:01.538 --> 00:17:07.052 - We have hired a computer science teacher at the high school biomedical science teacher What started 00:17:07.052 --> 00:17:12.676 - is just three classes in biomedical science and we have a full-time teacher all day long I'm going to 00:17:12.676 --> 00:17:18.300 - show you some numbers on that here in a minute Marketing and business teacher in addition to that the 00:17:18.300 --> 00:17:23.925 - career readiness coach that we have in high school These are all positions that are supported outside 00:17:23.925 --> 00:17:24.862 - of the RDC grant 00:17:27.298 --> 00:17:33.842 - These are partnerships that we've obtained, we've nurtured, and this is just a very, very small number 00:17:33.842 --> 00:17:40.195 - of these. I've already mentioned several of these through grants that we've received. Many of these 00:17:40.195 --> 00:17:46.612 - industries or business leaders we meet with on a regular basis through our business leaders advisory 00:17:46.612 --> 00:17:53.283 - team. Obviously, one of the biggest partnerships that we have, and when people ask us, how did you start 00:17:53.283 --> 00:17:53.982 - this work? 00:17:54.082 --> 00:18:01.688 - We say it's Monroe County RDC that helped us start this work. We would not have had the funds to really 00:18:01.688 --> 00:18:09.294 - get us up off the ground, put the people in the positions to start the training. From there, the impact 00:18:09.294 --> 00:18:17.192 - that it's had on our programming. Project Lead the Way is built in K through 12 across our entire district. 00:18:17.192 --> 00:18:23.262 - Every single student, K through eight, is engaged in Project Lead the Way modules. 00:18:23.810 --> 00:18:30.099 - All of our teachers are trained in Project Lead the Way so that they can implement these modules so 00:18:30.099 --> 00:18:36.828 - that they are engaging, so that our students are getting those skills in science, technology, engineering, 00:18:36.828 --> 00:18:43.306 - and math in so many different invigorating, exciting ways. We are PBL-focused in our Rotational Course 00:18:43.306 --> 00:18:49.595 - Offerings at the Junior High. These are ones that Mr. Rentschler could speak about probably all day 00:18:49.595 --> 00:18:53.054 - long. From our EDGE Media program there, which is just 00:18:53.218 --> 00:18:59.666 - phenomenal what's happening. If you come to the Ellitsville Chamber Awards here in the next few weeks, 00:18:59.666 --> 00:19:06.427 - you'll see their work there. They create the video for that, for the ceremony. Design and entrepreneurship, 00:19:06.427 --> 00:19:12.687 - journalism, robotics, computer science. We just had journalism come to us this week, and they said, 00:19:12.687 --> 00:19:17.758 - we need a new solution for the platform we're using. They're using Google Sites. 00:19:17.858 --> 00:19:23.795 - They said, we have so many kids collaborating on the Colts Chronicles newspaper at one time that we 00:19:23.795 --> 00:19:29.733 - keep crashing our website. It's a good problem to have when you have that many kids focusing on one 00:19:29.733 --> 00:19:35.848 - project. The Business Leaders Advisory Panel, like we spoke about. The Success School Partnership with 00:19:35.848 --> 00:19:41.786 - Bloomington Chamber. We still implement the Reality Store, STEM Fair, Tours of Opportunity. And our 00:19:41.786 --> 00:19:47.070 - work-based learning program at the high school has grown to over 100 students this year. 00:19:47.170 --> 00:19:53.451 - first time we hit the triple digits where we are sending over a hundred of our students out into the 00:19:53.451 --> 00:19:59.671 - community working in either job shadowing, internships, apprenticeships. They are really getting to 00:19:59.671 --> 00:20:02.718 - see what the real world is like. They're getting 00:20:03.298 --> 00:20:09.948 - Those practice in soft skills or readiness skills, as we call them, are graduate profile skills. And 00:20:09.948 --> 00:20:16.532 - Mariah is now leading that program at the high school. We know that this program will probably grow 00:20:16.532 --> 00:20:23.313 - to about 300 students here in the next couple of years. So we are growing this not only with our kids, 00:20:23.313 --> 00:20:27.198 - but that means that our partnerships have to grow as well. 00:20:29.410 --> 00:20:36.753 - We have had an implementation of K-12 instructional framework. What that basically is, that is education 00:20:36.753 --> 00:20:43.887 - lingo at its finest. What we have done is we have adopted a framework to say to our teachers, this is 00:20:43.887 --> 00:20:50.880 - what we expect. This is how we expect you to instruct our kids. This is how they need to be engaged 00:20:50.880 --> 00:20:53.118 - when they're in your classroom. 00:20:54.178 --> 00:21:00.741 - Our teachers are students. We now work with our teachers day in and day out. We coach them in the same 00:21:00.741 --> 00:21:07.623 - way that they are teaching our students to become better. We are teaching them to become better instructors 00:21:07.623 --> 00:21:14.058 - as well. So we've created a whole model with mentor teachers, with instructional coaches, so that we 00:21:14.058 --> 00:21:16.862 - aren't just focusing on the outside pieces. 00:21:17.218 --> 00:21:22.081 - You have to get down to the nitty gritty and what's happening day in and day out with those teachers 00:21:22.081 --> 00:21:27.089 - that have the most impact with our kids, whether it's a first grade teacher, it's a sixth grade reading 00:21:27.089 --> 00:21:31.134 - teacher, it's a calculus teacher. Every single one of them is engaged in that work. 00:21:32.322 --> 00:21:39.363 - Because it's so important to us, that's also how we evaluate our teachers. We have a new teacher evaluation 00:21:39.363 --> 00:21:46.013 - program in place. Both of these things go back to the initial training that we used RDC money to help 00:21:46.013 --> 00:21:52.598 - us with, with Marzano and high reliability schools. As I said, our coffee corral, $50,000 this year, 00:21:52.598 --> 00:21:59.117 - which is incredible. We've had feature articles in different magazines. Last night, we no more than 00:21:59.117 --> 00:22:00.030 - closed up our 00:22:00.930 --> 00:22:07.460 - Board meeting and we didn't realize we had a couple of people in here from WFIB radio station And they 00:22:07.460 --> 00:22:13.863 - were ready for an interview at eight o'clock last night after we'd finished a two-hour board meeting 00:22:13.863 --> 00:22:20.266 - because they really wanted to talk to us about What's been happening here our thoughts on work-based 00:22:20.266 --> 00:22:26.796 - learning our thoughts on school vouchers all of these different things and they came here because This 00:22:26.796 --> 00:22:28.254 - is the work that we do 00:22:28.386 --> 00:22:31.390 - Day in and day out, we're engaged in this. 00:22:31.682 --> 00:22:38.340 - All of our schools have attained level one with HRS, high reliability schools. That is our safe, supportive, 00:22:38.340 --> 00:22:44.693 - and collaborative culture, our environment that we create for our kids. We are all now working in level 00:22:44.693 --> 00:22:51.106 - two. Mr. Rentschler and Mrs. Clark at the high school are in a steady fight to see which school is going 00:22:51.106 --> 00:22:57.275 - to certify first in level two. What they do not know is that the intermediate school was in here all 00:22:57.275 --> 00:22:59.902 - day yesterday finishing all of their work. 00:23:00.002 --> 00:23:06.994 - I think it might have possibly been submitted, so they're kind of flying under the radar. Competition 00:23:06.994 --> 00:23:13.849 - is a big thing in our district. These are some numbers I want you to see. For the past three years, 00:23:13.849 --> 00:23:20.704 - we have been growing this biomedical, even prior to the last three years, we have been growing this 00:23:20.704 --> 00:23:25.982 - biomedical pathway. You can now see that we have 55 kids in the first class. 00:23:26.338 --> 00:23:33.007 - Anatomy and physiology has grown to three sections this year, 69 kids. What I love about that is these 00:23:33.007 --> 00:23:39.546 - are kids that are in other pathways that look at that anatomy physiology class and say, that's gonna 00:23:39.546 --> 00:23:46.215 - benefit me down the road. These are kids who are maybe in our exercise science pathway. These are kids 00:23:46.215 --> 00:23:52.689 - who are looking at going into something healthcare related, but haven't necessarily decided on what 00:23:52.689 --> 00:23:53.790 - that's gonna be, 00:23:53.922 --> 00:24:01.300 - but they know it's a dual credit course and they're gonna get it off of their path now before they head 00:24:01.300 --> 00:24:08.537 - to college. Engineering is just absolutely blowing up. The Intro to Engineering class has grown to 51 00:24:08.537 --> 00:24:15.915 - students this school year. We're maintaining those kids from the 32 kids that we had last year in Intro 00:24:15.915 --> 00:24:20.030 - to Engineering who thought engineering might be for them. 00:24:20.162 --> 00:24:25.608 - 18 of them said, yeah, we're going to keep going on this and see what we think about the second course. 00:24:25.608 --> 00:24:30.950 - So now they're in the Project Lead the Way Principles of Engineering course. The third course we just 00:24:30.950 --> 00:24:36.239 - opened up this year, and it's civil engineering and architecture. And we had six kids enroll in that 00:24:36.239 --> 00:24:40.638 - course because that is something that they're interested in doing post high school. 00:24:41.666 --> 00:24:47.778 - Marketing is continuing to grow. Computer science, we've shifted gears a little bit with that because 00:24:47.778 --> 00:24:53.951 - what our kids are telling us is that they want more opportunities with IT fundamentals. They want more 00:24:53.951 --> 00:24:59.944 - opportunity in network security and in cybersecurity. So we've shifted gears a little bit with that 00:24:59.944 --> 00:25:06.416 - so that we can meet the students' requests and what they want to do after high school. We're also listening 00:25:06.416 --> 00:25:10.910 - to our employers who are saying those areas are blowing up for us as well. 00:25:12.354 --> 00:25:19.347 - We did something new this year. I should say we did something new last spring. We've kind of just developed 00:25:19.347 --> 00:25:26.016 - this mantra here at Edgewood, and it's grown because we don't tell our kids no very often. If they ask 00:25:26.016 --> 00:25:31.390 - for something and they can justify the need, our answer is we'll figure out a way. 00:25:32.162 --> 00:25:38.528 - And we had kids that were coming to us in high school and saying, I really want to go into physical 00:25:38.528 --> 00:25:45.148 - therapy. I want to go into occupational therapy. I want to be a physical, an athletic trainer. And this 00:25:45.148 --> 00:25:51.513 - grew because of a junior high teacher at the junior high, or sorry, junior high teacher who started 00:25:51.513 --> 00:25:56.606 - a program for weightlifting. And he didn't just teach kids how to lift weights. 00:25:56.898 --> 00:26:03.654 - He talked about how it was growing their muscles. He talked about how to nurture their muscles, 00:26:03.654 --> 00:26:10.832 - how to, the nutrition that they needed. It became a passion for kids that became a lifeline for them. 00:26:10.832 --> 00:26:18.151 - And so we opened it. We didn't know who was going to teach it. We didn't know how we were going to fund 00:26:18.151 --> 00:26:25.400 - it. But we had 38 kids sign up for it. So we made room in our education fund. And here we are with two 00:26:25.400 --> 00:26:26.526 - sections of it. 00:26:27.682 --> 00:26:35.231 - A couple of hot off the press announcements. Our Ready 2.0 grant, that's a $500,000 grant through ROI 00:26:35.231 --> 00:26:42.631 - and through the state has been finalized with IEDC. That is gonna go straight into our new Edgewood 00:26:42.631 --> 00:26:50.180 - Life Sciences Training Center. We're getting ready to break ground on the new band and choir edition, 00:26:50.180 --> 00:26:52.030 - and when those move out, 00:26:52.130 --> 00:26:58.078 - That will become our new life sciences training facility for biotechnology and biomedical. 00:26:59.266 --> 00:27:05.807 - We just, Dr. Sanders and I have been crazy busy over the last couple of weeks with meetings. We are 00:27:05.807 --> 00:27:12.348 - actually now being recruited by the Indiana Career Apprenticeship Pathway. This is NCAP through the 00:27:12.348 --> 00:27:19.150 - state. We are working specifically with BioCrossroads, which is one of the industry talent associations 00:27:19.150 --> 00:27:26.149 - through NCAP. And they have asked us to be one of the fall 2027 launch locations for the new Life Sciences 00:27:26.149 --> 00:27:27.326 - Operator Pathway. 00:27:27.458 --> 00:27:35.295 - This will directly benefit two employers right here in our area, Simtra and Singota. Both of those companies, 00:27:35.295 --> 00:27:42.775 - Simtra has already signed on with BioCrossroads, Singota is getting ready to sign on with BioCrossroads. 00:27:42.775 --> 00:27:50.255 - Hopefully here within the next couple of weeks, Boston Scientific is already on board with BioCrossroads 00:27:50.255 --> 00:27:56.382 - as well. What this does is it strengthens our partnerships right here in this region. 00:27:56.770 --> 00:28:03.826 - We in this partnership have been offered a $20,000 grant from Eli Lilly Pathfinders to become the first 00:28:03.826 --> 00:28:11.018 - Monroe County Eli Lilly Pathfinder School. They have never come down into this area. They haven't reached 00:28:11.018 --> 00:28:17.803 - outside of that Indianapolis Marion County before, and we're gonna be the very first school here in 00:28:17.803 --> 00:28:22.078 - Monroe County for them to invest in and continue this pathway. 00:28:22.338 --> 00:28:28.903 - The curriculum is going to be developed by Ivy Tech and BioCrossroads. This is going to be an opportunity 00:28:28.903 --> 00:28:35.096 - for our kids at the bare minimum to receive 150 hours of work-based learning to meet the Employment 00:28:35.096 --> 00:28:41.599 - Honors Seal, which is part of the new diploma. What's exciting is some of our students will be receiving 00:28:41.599 --> 00:28:48.350 - 650 hours of work-based learning through an apprenticeship in order to earn the Employment Honors Plus Seal. 00:28:48.482 --> 00:28:55.825 - Our kids will also have the opportunity to earn the biopharmaceutical manufacturing certificate from 00:28:55.825 --> 00:29:03.313 - Ivy Tech. They can then stack those 18 hours on top of their applied science associate's degree at Ivy 00:29:03.313 --> 00:29:10.874 - Tech if they wanted to continue that learning. It comes back altogether because basically what happened 00:29:10.874 --> 00:29:15.454 - is we said we're not comfortable leaving Boston Scientific and 00:29:15.586 --> 00:29:22.849 - and cook medical behind in this project. We've been working with them. You all are aware of the project 00:29:22.849 --> 00:29:29.832 - that we've had going on. And they said, will you come on board? And in a year, will you allow us to 00:29:29.832 --> 00:29:37.094 - create a local pathway just for you in your biomedical training facility that takes what they have done 00:29:37.094 --> 00:29:38.910 - with the operator pathway 00:29:39.010 --> 00:29:46.584 - and adding on the medical devices classes, robotics, and innovation into that pathway so that the kids 00:29:46.584 --> 00:29:54.011 - right here at our Life Sciences Training Center can benefit not only the biotechnology side in terms 00:29:54.011 --> 00:30:01.437 - of medical devices, but also biotechnology related to the chemical side and all of that with Cimtro, 00:30:01.437 --> 00:30:07.614 - Singota, Novo, all of those. We are thrilled. And I say all of these things because 00:30:08.482 --> 00:30:14.794 - It started right here. It started right here. There is no way that we would be in the position that 00:30:14.794 --> 00:30:21.170 - we are in today if it wasn't for the initial investment that you made with RBV schools. I'm sure you 00:30:21.170 --> 00:30:27.230 - were as worried about it as anybody thinking, what in the world are they going to do with this? 00:30:27.330 --> 00:30:35.491 - And I hope that we've shown you that not only have we invested it wisely, but we have grown it exponentially, 00:30:35.491 --> 00:30:42.911 - not only benefiting our kids, but benefiting our community, benefiting our wider region. And I just 00:30:42.911 --> 00:30:50.553 - hope that you will see these benefits and understand that this partnership, if it continues, will just 00:30:50.553 --> 00:30:53.150 - continue to grow leaps and bounds. 00:30:53.666 --> 00:31:00.029 - Brad Tucker said today, he goes, what would happen, Jen, if this money doesn't continue? I said, well, 00:31:00.029 --> 00:31:06.269 - this work can't stop. But other things would have to change. We would have to pull these things over 00:31:06.269 --> 00:31:12.818 - into our education fund. You're probably well aware what SEA 1 has already done to education funds across 00:31:12.818 --> 00:31:19.614 - the state. And there would be other things that we would have to cut. That's just the plain and simple of it. 00:31:19.746 --> 00:31:32.667 - but these are things that we are invested in we know the benefits of and We're committed to no matter 00:31:32.667 --> 00:31:44.702 - what and we hope you guys join us in that commitment Thank you, we're really proud of it and I 00:31:44.994 --> 00:31:55.684 - I think I got you down to maybe about 20 minutes, so. That's probably the best I could do. Do you have 00:31:55.684 --> 00:32:06.063 - any questions? I do have a couple of questions. Good. You've been doing it as I try and look out at 00:32:06.063 --> 00:32:14.366 - the landscape that keeps coming at me all the time. There is a growing emphasis 00:32:16.450 --> 00:32:24.057 - in our economy on trade skills. Part of it you address in the work that you do, but there are the whole 00:32:24.057 --> 00:32:31.445 - other kinds of trades that you're not addressing. Do you have any plans to try and integrate some of 00:32:31.445 --> 00:32:38.613 - those other trades into your educational curriculum? Are you thinking along the lines of welding, 00:32:38.613 --> 00:32:46.366 - electrician? Yeah, plumbing, carpentry, traditional construction type stuff. 100%? We continue to partner 00:32:48.130 --> 00:32:58.278 - It's over at Bloomington North High School. And that, we're not in competition with Hoosier Hills. We're 00:32:58.278 --> 00:33:07.943 - enhancing that work and trying to address the needs of all students. So that's where a lot of those 00:33:07.943 --> 00:33:16.158 - trades will be, that education, that training will happen in Hoosier Hills. However, 00:33:16.354 --> 00:33:24.735 - we continue to expand our internship program. And I don't know if you want to speak to that a little 00:33:24.735 --> 00:33:33.614 - bit, Jennifer, because that's so important for our students who are going out and working in the different 00:33:33.614 --> 00:33:42.161 - trades as an internship program and really getting hands-on experience. And that helps them to decide, 00:33:42.161 --> 00:33:44.318 - yeah, this is something I 00:33:44.482 --> 00:33:51.025 - definitely want to do, or this is something I don't want to do, and they can figure that out in high 00:33:51.025 --> 00:33:57.502 - school. So I don't know what else you want to add. In addition to that, we have maxed out our seats 00:33:57.502 --> 00:34:04.304 - at Hoosier Hills. Hoosier Hills gives each high school now a number of seats for each of their programs. 00:34:04.304 --> 00:34:10.976 - We have maxed those out, and we have a, do what? Oh, sorry. We have maxed out those seats, and we have 00:34:10.976 --> 00:34:13.438 - a wait list for some of our students. 00:34:15.362 --> 00:34:22.594 - What that means then is we have to create things internally or with partner schools in order to continue 00:34:22.594 --> 00:34:29.894 - this work. A great example of that is Robert Boltinghouse is our new principal at the high school. Robert 00:34:29.894 --> 00:34:36.782 - was the previous principal over at Owen Valley. He started work over there on a cosmetology program 00:34:36.782 --> 00:34:41.534 - because Hoosier Hills dropped the cosmetology program certification. 00:34:41.922 --> 00:34:48.236 - that doesn't mean that kids don't want to go into cosmetology. And so now we're working to create that 00:34:48.236 --> 00:34:54.917 - program ourselves between Owen Valley and Edgewood so that we can keep that up and running for our students. 00:34:54.917 --> 00:35:01.047 - We will pay that person out of our education funds so that our kids can attend there, receive their 00:35:01.047 --> 00:35:06.686 - certifications, and then hopefully just go straight into employment. We've also looked into 00:35:06.786 --> 00:35:14.079 - microelectronics. We have a big facility down at Westgate that was started through ROI. We have a lot 00:35:14.079 --> 00:35:21.301 - of students down in the crane Westgate area that are a part of that program. The problem is we're 45 00:35:21.301 --> 00:35:22.302 - minutes away. 00:35:22.434 --> 00:35:28.789 - our kids can't give up a period to drive down there and a period to drive back. So we are starting to 00:35:28.789 --> 00:35:35.392 - open those conversations with ROI, with Owen Valley, with Eastern Green about how we can take the program 00:35:35.392 --> 00:35:41.809 - that is successful there at Westgate and rebuild that here. I don't know that our campus can take much 00:35:41.809 --> 00:35:48.351 - more construction at this point, but Owen Valley is open to some conversations around that. We've talked 00:35:48.351 --> 00:35:52.400 - with Superintendent Klein over there. So those conversations are 00:35:52.400 --> 00:35:59.052 - happening, because what you're describing is exactly what we're feeling. Not only do we need kids to 00:35:59.052 --> 00:36:05.639 - have work-based learning, but on top of that, we need that work-based learning and the education to 00:36:05.639 --> 00:36:12.357 - be in fields that are desirable, fields that are high paying. And I love our new diploma in the state 00:36:12.357 --> 00:36:19.470 - of Indiana for that reason, because it's no longer everybody's looking to go to college. And it is changing 00:36:19.470 --> 00:36:22.302 - the ballgame for our high school students. 00:36:26.338 --> 00:36:36.277 - mindset of reaching out to companies or different careers. So for example, we had a booth down at the 00:36:36.277 --> 00:36:46.313 - fall festival this past weekend and I had a gentleman came up and he's known as the bearded baker. And 00:36:46.313 --> 00:36:52.062 - he recently started a bakery, I think it was. At any rate, 00:36:52.290 --> 00:37:00.560 - instantly started recruiting him and say, hey, if we have some students who would be interested in that 00:37:00.560 --> 00:37:08.591 - career, can we send you some internships? And we exchanged information. And so it's just a kind of a 00:37:08.591 --> 00:37:17.099 - mindset. OK, then I'll drop the big bomb. How has, I don't know how to quite phrase this, but the buzzword 00:37:17.099 --> 00:37:21.790 - is AR these days. And your students are probably using it. 00:37:22.178 --> 00:37:29.759 - I'm sure they are using it. What impact, I guess, what kind of guidance are you providing them about 00:37:29.759 --> 00:37:37.940 - how to effectively use that kind of a technology, which they have ready access to, which has such tremendous 00:37:37.940 --> 00:37:45.672 - potential, but some really negative downside under certain circumstances? That's a great question. I'm 00:37:45.672 --> 00:37:49.950 - going to actually show you the guide that we've created. 00:37:50.530 --> 00:37:58.802 - This was adopted by our. This was adopted by our school board May 16th of last school year. We spent 00:37:58.802 --> 00:38:07.237 - all last school year working with a team of teachers, administrators, students, outside professionals. 00:38:07.237 --> 00:38:15.755 - AI is really hard in school. It's really hard because we want the kids to do their thinking themselves. 00:38:15.755 --> 00:38:19.358 - And when we started this work, we had every 00:38:19.810 --> 00:38:26.430 - perspective imaginable. We had English teachers who said, we're going back to paper pencil. We are not 00:38:26.430 --> 00:38:32.921 - even going to give them access to computers because that would create work that isn't theirs. We had 00:38:32.921 --> 00:38:39.412 - science teachers saying, let's give them access because, man, what could they do with AI and advance 00:38:39.412 --> 00:38:46.032 - that creativity? We had elementary teachers who said, I don't even know what this is. Do not touch it. 00:38:46.032 --> 00:38:49.438 - I'm just trying to teach kids how to read over here. 00:38:49.730 --> 00:38:58.762 - We created an Edgewood AI guide. And this is the piece that I want you to see. We will start professional 00:38:58.762 --> 00:39:06.942 - development with our teachers in this semester. So we have not rolled this out yet to students. 00:39:06.942 --> 00:39:14.526 - Last spring, we worked with eighth grade students. We gave them access to Google Gemini. 00:39:14.626 --> 00:39:20.398 - One of our coaches did work with all of our eighth grade teachers in terms of how would you implement 00:39:20.398 --> 00:39:26.169 - AI in the classroom. And they were our guinea pigs. Did everything go well? Nope, it sure didn't. But 00:39:26.169 --> 00:39:31.828 - did we learn a lot? We sure did. And we completed surveys with those students, with those teachers, 00:39:31.828 --> 00:39:37.599 - with those families after it was done to find out what we would do differently before we created this 00:39:37.599 --> 00:39:39.806 - guide and we got board approval on it. 00:39:39.906 --> 00:39:45.504 - What I want you to see and how this is going to be rolled out here is we're going to have a student 00:39:45.504 --> 00:39:51.101 - guide in terms of how we use AI and five levels in terms of what that would look like. This will be 00:39:51.101 --> 00:39:56.867 - posted in every single classroom. So when a teacher says this is level zero with AI, that means I want 00:39:56.867 --> 00:40:02.464 - all of your own work with this. We're not going to use any Google Gemini. They're not going to have 00:40:02.464 --> 00:40:07.166 - access to ChatGPT, all of those things. I want to see what your human brain can do. 00:40:07.490 --> 00:40:14.423 - Level one gets into a brainstorming. You can use AI to help with ideas, structures, research suggestions. 00:40:14.423 --> 00:40:20.964 - It's probably the same way that we use AI every single day. Polishing something. So in other words, 00:40:20.964 --> 00:40:27.504 - when they have created a piece of an essay or something like that, putting that into AI and letting 00:40:27.504 --> 00:40:34.110 - AI do the work then of cleaning it up. It's their ideas. It's their work. Let AI finish it for them. 00:40:34.818 --> 00:40:40.879 - And then also using AI then to analyze and evaluate work. So in other words, once they have it back, 00:40:40.879 --> 00:40:46.880 - we're going to take it back through our critical lens, through our human brain, and say, what can I 00:40:46.880 --> 00:40:53.060 - add to this what's missing? And then there are going to be some things where we're going to have level 00:40:53.060 --> 00:40:59.181 - four full AI projects that are going to be going on. It's one of those things that, no matter how you 00:40:59.181 --> 00:41:04.702 - look at it, we have to teach it thoughtfully. We have to. Kids cannot not be exposed to it. 00:41:04.962 --> 00:41:11.822 - graduate from high school and go out into the world because what will happen is they will either use 00:41:11.822 --> 00:41:18.206 - it inappropriately and wind up in trouble or They just simply won't know how to use it period 00:41:18.370 --> 00:41:24.783 - And so it has to be a thoughtful approach. We have the guide for it. Now we start the professional 00:41:24.783 --> 00:41:31.521 - development of it. Once teachers start to feel comfortable, we'll also start putting that communication 00:41:31.521 --> 00:41:38.129 - out to our families, starting to train our students little by little. And it's probably going to take 00:41:38.129 --> 00:41:44.607 - a couple years for full implementation, to be honest. OK, good. You weren't kidding. That is a bomb 00:41:44.607 --> 00:41:47.198 - that you dropped. It feels like a bomb. 00:41:49.570 --> 00:41:59.613 - Well, I mean, I use the anthropics quite a bit now and find it very, very useful. But you really have 00:41:59.613 --> 00:42:09.657 - to pay attention to how you prompt and how you keep going back at it so that because it gives you the 00:42:09.657 --> 00:42:17.534 - surface. And if you believe the surface, you're not getting anything out of it. 00:42:17.986 --> 00:42:25.303 - You really have to learn how to dig deep. The information is there. Getting at it can be very difficult. 00:42:25.303 --> 00:42:32.551 - Do you find yourself fighting with AI? I actually find myself sometimes in arguments. Oh, all the time. 00:42:32.551 --> 00:42:40.008 - And I think to myself, how did I get into an argument with my computer? But yet, here I am. We are arguing 00:42:40.008 --> 00:42:42.238 - back and forth. And it's scary. 00:42:42.626 --> 00:42:50.228 - It's really scary because now we have to teach kids how to do this. This notion of argumentation and 00:42:50.228 --> 00:42:57.980 - how you formulate arguments is really important for kids to learn if they're going to start using that 00:42:57.980 --> 00:43:05.732 - technology. Exactly. Exactly. You hit the nail on the head. We're going to need to use that statement. 00:43:05.732 --> 00:43:11.678 - Do you guys have any other questions for us? All right. Well, good. Thank you. 00:43:11.810 --> 00:43:20.137 - Great presentation. If you're going to send it to Jeff, Jeff can get it to us. You have the recording 00:43:20.137 --> 00:43:28.546 - that will be available on cats, I assume. Yes. Okay. Good. And this is good. I had a conversation with 00:43:28.546 --> 00:43:34.750 - someone a couple of weeks ago that were decrying to stealing money from the 00:43:35.778 --> 00:43:41.930 - county government and from other agencies, and the reason we steal money is because we have good things 00:43:41.930 --> 00:43:47.905 - to do with it. And this is one of the really good things that we've done with it. Well, Commissioner 00:43:47.905 --> 00:43:53.998 - Martin, you can send them my way anytime. I will take them through the same 20-minute presentation and 00:43:53.998 --> 00:43:59.973 - show them just what it has done for these townships over here. And I think it's interesting, because 00:43:59.973 --> 00:44:05.534 - I was here when we started this, and I would have guessed it was before 2019. But either way. 00:44:06.146 --> 00:44:14.234 - Yeah, but what really triggered it was. The the TIF district we did the calculation and it was taking 00:44:14.234 --> 00:44:22.164 - about 10% of the TIF revenue would have gone to the schools for their transportation fund and maybe 00:44:22.164 --> 00:44:30.332 - some for their capital fund. And so I think what we were trying to do and I think it's been successful 00:44:30.332 --> 00:44:33.662 - is kind of. Give you the statutory limit. 00:44:33.986 --> 00:44:39.217 - but take away some of the strings that would have been there if it had gone through the normal process. 00:44:39.217 --> 00:44:44.347 - And I think that's really been a huge benefit. Because you always get the argument, if the TIF wasn't 00:44:44.347 --> 00:44:49.427 - there, then all this money would have went to the school anyway. And then the response is, yeah, but 00:44:49.427 --> 00:44:54.709 - it would have been in, they would have nicer school buses, but they would not necessarily have all these 00:44:54.709 --> 00:44:55.966 - things that they do now. 00:44:56.770 --> 00:45:03.040 - given us the flexibility you can see as the years have gone on, we've changed our priorities with it 00:45:03.040 --> 00:45:09.434 - as we've built this, you know, from the ground up. And we didn't have to run it through, you know, red 00:45:09.434 --> 00:45:15.828 - tape and everything else to get those things done. It allowed us to move with a freedom that you don't 00:45:15.828 --> 00:45:22.284 - really have very often in schools when it comes to finances. One caveat, and I'll give you my doomsday. 00:45:22.284 --> 00:45:23.774 - Tis don't stay forever. 00:45:25.250 --> 00:45:34.130 - target date is like 2039 and that TIF will have paid off all its bonds and will likely close at that 00:45:34.130 --> 00:45:42.922 - point and you're gonna close right and so you will have to prepare for that date well in advance of 00:45:42.922 --> 00:45:47.230 - that date to figure out how you're gonna make up 00:45:47.650 --> 00:45:55.951 - Well, it's always, everybody says it's too far in the future, but let me tell you, it gets here faster 00:45:55.951 --> 00:46:04.252 - than you expect. 2039, 2040. Yep. I think it ends, but then the following year, because we get payment 00:46:04.252 --> 00:46:12.472 - of taxes in arrears, so the year it technically ends, I think they still get another year of revenue. 00:46:12.472 --> 00:46:17.630 - But I mean, that's what the kindergartners today. By any means. 00:46:18.050 --> 00:46:24.658 - You you know bless us with this again We will continue to to pour into it and we will have a plan in 00:46:24.658 --> 00:46:31.265 - place by 2039 2040 in terms of How do we sustain the work? I think we're already sustaining a lot of 00:46:31.265 --> 00:46:37.873 - the work But how do we make sure that we have that a hundred percent over into our funds? One of the 00:46:37.873 --> 00:46:44.415 - things that happens is you're doing so well with money that For which you are not as accountable as 00:46:44.415 --> 00:46:47.294 - you would be if other through other funding 00:46:47.682 --> 00:46:56.114 - opportunities, people are going to see that she got money. So we don't need to give you any more money. 00:46:56.114 --> 00:47:04.465 - And that's the hard part. I was a little afraid about that. Yeah, that is the hard part. But if you're 00:47:04.465 --> 00:47:12.735 - well aware of it and you plan for it, then you'll have to figure out how to deal with it. And we very 00:47:12.735 --> 00:47:17.438 - much are. And that's why I brought up the point about the 00:47:17.666 --> 00:47:27.177 - other funding opportunities that this opens up, that enables us to one day be able to operate and sustain, 00:47:27.177 --> 00:47:36.155 - understanding that the RDC doesn't last forever. And so, and one other thing is, you know, we always 00:47:36.155 --> 00:47:45.043 - wanted everybody in their professional and personal lives, we try to invest our funds wisely. And I 00:47:45.043 --> 00:47:46.910 - really can't imagine 00:47:47.810 --> 00:47:57.260 - A better way that for you guys to have invested this money that it's it's gone tenfold What you've invested 00:47:57.260 --> 00:48:06.535 - and so I think the community ought to be very appreciative of what you've done in your wisdom We probably 00:48:06.535 --> 00:48:12.222 - should do something similar in one of our board meetings so that 00:48:12.898 --> 00:48:21.174 - public does understand the TIF money and that it is coming back into our townships. Yeah, I think an 00:48:21.174 --> 00:48:29.449 - educated, like it's just a, not a 20 minute presentation, but a presentation so that they understand 00:48:29.449 --> 00:48:38.462 - that their taxes are coming back in that way. Yeah. Well, and I think the Lilly partnership will be a gateway 00:48:39.202 --> 00:48:46.882 - for many, many things. So that's kind of buried the lead there on that presentation. But at least in 00:48:46.882 --> 00:48:55.095 - my point of view, because you're exactly right, to have that central Indiana center of gravity for economic 00:48:55.095 --> 00:49:02.775 - activity in the state reach out down here to this school corporation, that means a lot. To know that 00:49:02.775 --> 00:49:07.262 - Edgewood High School, Edgewood Schools was being discussed 00:49:08.258 --> 00:49:14.538 - at Eli Lilly sitting around the table and saying, this is a high school that has done this work. We 00:49:14.538 --> 00:49:20.943 - want to invest in that. It's incredible. And it gives me chills to even think about it. And I haven't 00:49:20.943 --> 00:49:27.223 - let myself think yet about what doors it potentially could open for us because it does kind of make 00:49:27.223 --> 00:49:33.503 - me a little bit nervous and also a little emotional because this is what you hope for. This is what 00:49:33.503 --> 00:49:36.894 - you wish for for your kids. But you're exactly right. 00:49:37.218 --> 00:49:45.598 - things are happening at a rate that we would have never anticipated three years ago, five years ago, 00:49:45.598 --> 00:49:53.895 - for sure. But it's really exciting. Congratulations. Thank you. Just keep moving. That means you've 00:49:53.895 --> 00:50:02.441 - got work to do now. Yeah. Keep moving. Keep moving. We will. I promise. Doing great. OK. All the board 00:50:02.441 --> 00:50:03.934 - members here will 00:50:05.602 --> 00:50:14.171 - Tolerate us for carrying on some of their business now. We have a couple other things we need to do 00:50:14.171 --> 00:50:22.054 - one of which is our claims So for the month of September we have two claims one is from RBB 00:50:22.054 --> 00:50:30.794 - School Corporation in the amount of a hundred and sixty three thousand three hundred and five dollars 00:50:30.794 --> 00:50:33.022 - and thirty five cents and 00:50:33.666 --> 00:50:44.234 - And the other is from Financial Solutions Group for $3,975 for a total of $167,280.35. I move that we 00:50:44.234 --> 00:50:55.009 - approve the claims as presented. Okay, we have a motion for approval. Second. And we have a second from 00:50:55.009 --> 00:51:01.950 - Colin. Jeff, would you relieve the roll? Commissioner Martin. Yes. 00:51:02.338 --> 00:51:09.383 - Commissioner Kiesling. Yes. Commissioner Jones. Yes. Commissioner McCarty. Yes. Motion is approved. 00:51:09.383 --> 00:51:16.428 - Four to zero. This is just the second installment, so it comprises the 270 annually, so I just want 00:51:16.428 --> 00:51:23.544 - to make sure the public knows that. Right, I just want the public to understand it. And it's a great 00:51:23.544 --> 00:51:30.660 - commitment. This is the first one, and then the second one will happen probably in January, February 00:51:30.660 --> 00:51:31.646 - will be about 00:51:32.578 --> 00:51:43.646 - $107,000, and then there will be two more payments under the current contract, so that's the time period 00:51:43.646 --> 00:51:54.187 - we have to get a new contract in place. Thank you. Okay. Our next item of business are the minutes, 00:51:54.187 --> 00:52:01.566 - and we have minutes for... Colin, do you need your signature on that? 00:52:03.970 --> 00:52:12.602 - We have minutes for the meeting of July 15th, 2026, and for August 19th, 2026. Are there any additions 00:52:12.602 --> 00:52:20.983 - or corrections to these meetings? I would like to make an addition to the 19th meeting. I could not 00:52:20.983 --> 00:52:30.034 - get here because I get to our meeting because I had no transportation, but I watched you all on television. 00:52:30.034 --> 00:52:33.470 - Katz was very good. I could see you all. 00:52:33.570 --> 00:52:42.392 - but I did not have access to Zoom either, so. But I want to make a record that I was actually, I would 00:52:42.392 --> 00:52:51.557 - have been there otherwise, because I always looked like I wasn't even available. So I move that we approve 00:52:51.557 --> 00:53:01.150 - the August 19th meeting minutes. With the addition of you having viewed the broadcast. With the addition, yeah. 00:53:01.314 --> 00:53:08.432 - additions or corrections for the minutes of July 15th. I will note that we need to correct the spelling 00:53:08.432 --> 00:53:15.550 - of Keisling on items four and five. That's right. Was Mr. Cassidy not there? Because I noticed his name 00:53:15.550 --> 00:53:22.462 - isn't down there. He would not have been there. Pardon? I do not believe he was at the July meeting, 00:53:22.462 --> 00:53:29.854 - but he was. He was not available or absent or something because he was he is a member of this board and so. 00:53:33.090 --> 00:53:39.865 - Any other additions or corrections? Do I have a motion for approval of both minutes sets? I move. Okay, 00:53:39.865 --> 00:53:46.706 - we have a motion to approve the minutes of July 15th and August 19th. Is there a second? Second. Second, 00:53:46.706 --> 00:53:53.807 - we have a motion to approve and a second. Jeff, please call the roll. Commissioner Martin? Yes. Commissioner 00:53:53.807 --> 00:54:00.126 - Keesley? Yes. Commissioner Jones? Yes. Commissioner McCarty? Yes. Motion is approved, 4-0. Okay. 00:54:01.026 --> 00:54:08.076 - All right, next item of agenda, our staff comments. Anything? I would just comment that I've been working 00:54:08.076 --> 00:54:14.728 - recently with Ivy Tech. As you know, we can transfer the building, although they own the ground for 00:54:14.728 --> 00:54:21.579 - the Indiana Life Science Center. So we're just trying to make sure the Ivy Tech's attorneys appreciate 00:54:21.579 --> 00:54:27.166 - how I handled that. But that should be on your agenda in the next couple of months. 00:54:33.218 --> 00:54:40.797 - She did not mention anything, and I know she's on vacation this week, so that could have been. Alright, 00:54:40.797 --> 00:54:48.740 - Commissioner comments. Colin, do you have anything? Just reiterate. Thank you everybody for the presentation 00:54:48.740 --> 00:54:56.174 - tonight and as as an alumnus of this school going back to the day where he's I started at Steinsville 00:54:56.174 --> 00:55:02.878 - for kindergarten and went all the way to graduate from Edgewood. I'm very proud of this and 00:55:03.522 --> 00:55:12.821 - And we have a kid in the system. And I think he's taking advantage of that. I think that there are some 00:55:12.821 --> 00:55:21.942 - great opportunities there. Glad to see the engineering piece so strong. You seem to be hitting on all 00:55:21.942 --> 00:55:30.526 - cylinders right now. And I don't think there's ever been a time. And Larry, you go back, right? 00:55:31.074 --> 00:55:39.492 - We go back a ways. And where we had construction almost on an annual basis, it seems like, which that's 00:55:39.492 --> 00:55:47.991 - a great problem to have. And to see all the homes go up as quickly as they are, too. And I had a meeting 00:55:47.991 --> 00:55:56.166 - down in Green County today. Crane is just going to take off in growth. There is an admiral coming to 00:55:56.166 --> 00:55:58.270 - the base with 400 in tow. 00:55:59.810 --> 00:56:09.876 - 400 people in tow. So you add that with what Prometheus is doing and the growth on the base currently, 00:56:09.876 --> 00:56:19.062 - 7,500 employees, 33% of which, they come from Monroe County and a lot of them from this area. 00:56:19.062 --> 00:56:24.926 - So keep going. Just keep going. So yeah, great stuff. Brad? 00:56:33.250 --> 00:56:41.387 - growing out this side of the county. It's exciting and kudos to what the school corporation is doing. 00:56:41.387 --> 00:56:49.843 - Mr. Jones, it just makes me curious how rapidly is the enrollment growing here? We've had two demographic 00:56:49.843 --> 00:56:57.900 - studies done which shows a slow but steady growth, which is really ideal if you have too much growth 00:56:57.900 --> 00:57:02.846 - and you have problems or you're going to put the students so. 00:57:02.946 --> 00:57:11.991 - and they factor in birth rates and all kinds of data. But yes, and you can see going back to 2018, we 00:57:11.991 --> 00:57:20.947 - do have a positive trend. Okay, looks like you're set up to serve them well. So yeah, appreciate the 00:57:20.947 --> 00:57:30.878 - presentation. Thank you. Well, I would like to make sure that the minutes show all the people that were here to 00:57:31.074 --> 00:57:38.653 - see this going, what we saw, because I don't think we all know each other very well. I know some of 00:57:38.653 --> 00:57:46.610 - them, but I would like to have everybody else's name on the minutes also, and who made the presentation, 00:57:46.610 --> 00:57:54.417 - please. Thank you. Either way. I just sent you the presentation, so I'll follow up and email for that. 00:57:54.417 --> 00:57:58.206 - Okay. Okay. I do have... You got a couple things. 00:57:58.978 --> 00:58:09.378 - If you'll recall at the last meeting, I talked, gave some information out about thinking about future 00:58:09.378 --> 00:58:20.491 - TIF areas in Monroe County. And I passed out some stuff. Since then, I have talked with the county surveyor, 00:58:20.491 --> 00:58:27.934 - with the county planning director, and the assessor about suitability of 00:58:28.130 --> 00:58:36.068 - TIF areas, where we might find the data that we would need to do the studies, and identified the two 00:58:36.068 --> 00:58:43.927 - areas that I had talked about previously, and got good feedback from all three of them. I think the 00:58:43.927 --> 00:58:51.943 - next thing that we need to do is to kinda scope out exactly some areas that we can study. And I don't 00:58:51.943 --> 00:58:56.894 - wanna have to select those areas, so I'm looking for some help 00:58:57.826 --> 00:59:07.217 - sitting with a map and saying we draw the line here and down there and over there and up there. I guess 00:59:07.217 --> 00:59:16.608 - I think one of the critical thing is where is sewer available or potentially expanded to? I've got most 00:59:16.608 --> 00:59:26.270 - of that information. I still have to have a conversation obviously with the city of Bloomington and that's 00:59:26.466 --> 00:59:34.777 - kind of next on my list. But the the second area the one that was South in the South area. We probably 00:59:34.777 --> 00:59:42.926 - know what the situation is there and we can deal with it. The area in Van Buren Township is a little 00:59:42.926 --> 00:59:50.995 - more problematic. We have an estimate of what about what a new facility would cost. And it probably 00:59:50.995 --> 00:59:54.142 - is outside the bounds of what we could 00:59:54.530 --> 01:00:02.460 - reasonably do I have put together a kind of a short list of topics to consider one of them was a kind 01:00:02.460 --> 01:00:10.311 - of a minimum tiff revenue that we could expect and I kind of set the low threshold at about $100,000 01:00:10.311 --> 01:00:18.086 - a year which would give us enough money to get involved in some kind of bonding activity. But since 01:00:18.086 --> 01:00:22.750 - we're talking about residential tips and residential areas. 01:00:23.042 --> 01:00:30.159 - they don't grow in value very fast. So that presents, you need a big enough area that you do get some 01:00:30.159 --> 01:00:37.206 - growth. So there are some difficulties ahead to make this thing work, but if we don't take a shot at 01:00:37.206 --> 01:00:44.253 - it, it isn't gonna happen. And we get good feedback, yeah. That's the question I was gonna ask while 01:00:44.253 --> 01:00:47.742 - you're primarily looking at areas for residential 01:00:48.002 --> 01:00:55.798 - But that's the discussion we've had in the past. This is okay. This would be residential triff and certainly 01:00:55.798 --> 01:01:03.236 - the target is to leverage tiff dollars to provide infrastructure which allow us to develop the property 01:01:03.236 --> 01:01:10.745 - at lower cost so that the resulting housing is more affordable. Right. That's kind of the basic outline. 01:01:10.745 --> 01:01:17.182 - Well, it'll be good to see what the city does with their rest tip that they're preparing. 01:01:17.474 --> 01:01:28.529 - right for summit and putting up more buildings in had somebody complain about it this morning and I 01:01:28.529 --> 01:01:39.806 - want some of these conversations there are more going up be prepared being taken down that don't need 01:01:39.806 --> 01:01:45.886 - to be taken down the city is in an interesting dilemma 01:01:46.882 --> 01:01:55.057 - The most affordable housing is the existing housing. But they tear down the existing housing to put 01:01:55.057 --> 01:02:03.805 - up more density. Which is more expensive. Which is more expensive. You get one thing and you lose another. 01:02:03.805 --> 01:02:12.144 - So this is a very difficult problem. And it's not unique to us. Everybody has it. Well, how would you 01:02:12.144 --> 01:02:13.534 - want to proceed? 01:02:13.634 --> 01:02:21.477 - a mating baby with as many of us as we can do. Well, I think I'm going to try and get, and the planning 01:02:21.477 --> 01:02:29.320 - department said that they would prepare any mapping that we need. So we can get a big map and draw some 01:02:29.320 --> 01:02:37.389 - sketchy ideas about where we might want to target. Then the assessor can do valuations on those properties 01:02:37.389 --> 01:02:43.422 - once we know what the line is. She can give us information on current value and 01:02:43.938 --> 01:02:52.091 - prior value so we know what the growth has been. We can get some kind of estimate about how much difference 01:02:52.091 --> 01:02:59.716 - we have between the single and up to four residential units versus multifamily that's already there, 01:02:59.716 --> 01:03:07.416 - commercial that's there, et cetera. So we've got some idea of the distribution, which is part of what 01:03:07.416 --> 01:03:11.870 - we need in terms of information. And we can go from there. 01:03:12.738 --> 01:03:18.777 - This is not going to happen fast. Can't we meet unofficially? But you have to notice it, but it isn't 01:03:18.777 --> 01:03:24.756 - a special meeting. If you wanted a quorum, we'd have to have a official meeting. We'd have to notice 01:03:24.756 --> 01:03:30.676 - it if we're if I guess. If two people wanted to form a common and sit in the office and look at it, 01:03:30.676 --> 01:03:36.596 - we just have to be careful because we can't go to and then another two and then another two, right? 01:03:36.596 --> 01:03:38.846 - It would be those two until the next. 01:03:39.042 --> 01:03:45.813 - Official meeting and then we can have we could talk about it at that official meeting. We just we just 01:03:45.813 --> 01:03:52.387 - got to make sure we're not So I would say if if there's somebody that wanted to join that why don't 01:03:52.387 --> 01:03:58.961 - we Go ahead and volunteer and then we could schedule Richard and that person could schedule meeting 01:03:58.961 --> 01:04:04.286 - and we could sit down and we could kind of work through some of these issues and 01:04:04.930 --> 01:04:13.929 - I just don't want it. I don't want that second person to change, right? Because I don't want to have 01:04:13.929 --> 01:04:23.196 - a zero meeting. Who wants to who wants to sit in a room with a map with me? I'm sure Randy would. Randy 01:04:23.196 --> 01:04:28.542 - is going to be covered up, I think, for the next few weeks. 01:04:29.794 --> 01:04:37.929 - He has a grandchild, and I think he's committed to helping them with that for the next few weeks. Good 01:04:37.929 --> 01:04:46.143 - for him. It's going to take me a while to get everything done. And as I said, I still need to talk with 01:04:46.143 --> 01:04:54.436 - the city. So that's kind of my next one. And part of the city discussion also is with my hat as a member 01:04:54.436 --> 01:04:58.622 - of the South Central Reno sewer board, where we have 01:04:58.978 --> 01:05:06.569 - We have an agreement with the city for the areas along 45 for sewering, and only part of those have 01:05:06.569 --> 01:05:14.389 - been sewered. So there is still part of that agreement that we have to figure out what its real status 01:05:14.389 --> 01:05:22.056 - is at this point. And that's the next thing I'm going to do. But that would be roughly 40 or 50 lots 01:05:22.056 --> 01:05:27.294 - that would become available if they wanted to connect and who knows. 01:05:27.522 --> 01:05:35.353 - But I can't imagine it's going to be that difficult to do. But it is one avenue of say, well, if they 01:05:35.353 --> 01:05:43.030 - don't want to do it, can we transfer those to this property over here in an affordable housing kind 01:05:43.030 --> 01:05:51.014 - of project kind of thing. So and the city's I see no end to the debate about city annexation. So trying 01:05:51.014 --> 01:05:56.926 - to work around all of that, too. Those are my comments for today. Thank you. 01:05:57.154 --> 01:06:05.692 - Appreciate you doing the work on it, because I haven't had time to do that. Just say if anybody else 01:06:05.692 --> 01:06:14.230 - wants to be the second person, just email me and we'll get it set up. Yeah, I think you'd be good if 01:06:14.230 --> 01:06:22.852 - you would do that. I'm just going to corner you. You have to forgive me. I was going to nominate you. 01:06:22.852 --> 01:06:25.726 - I could use one more thing to do. 01:06:27.010 --> 01:06:33.184 - Yeah. Okay. And with that, I think we're done. Do I have a motion to adjourn? I move that we adjourn 01:06:33.184 --> 01:06:35.262 - this meeting. Thank you everyone.