1 00:00:00,130 --> 00:00:09,246 - Welcome to the September 22nd, 2026 meeting of the MCCSE Board of School Trustees. We ask that you please 2 00:00:09,246 --> 00:00:17,932 - come to order. We will begin tonight with hearing the 2027 budget hearing. I now declare the hearing 3 00:00:17,932 --> 00:00:27,134 - open. Have we received any comment cards for this meeting? No, okay. No cards. Mr. Irwin, you may proceed. 4 00:00:29,090 --> 00:00:34,832 - Thank you. We'll talk through the 2027 budget and I'll look at the agenda that we have here tonight. 5 00:00:34,832 --> 00:00:40,745 - We're going to start with the timeline. Look at the timeline of events as we move through the budgeting 6 00:00:40,745 --> 00:00:46,715 - process. We'll get into the process of budget building and what that looks like for us. We'll go through 7 00:00:46,715 --> 00:00:52,514 - the examples of the DOGF forms. We'll give some comparisons of 2026 and 2027 and then we'll take some 8 00:00:52,514 --> 00:00:53,822 - big picture takeaways. 9 00:00:57,410 --> 00:01:03,461 - So this is the same slide that you saw last month. Just move forward to where we are now. So we have 10 00:01:03,461 --> 00:01:09,871 - our authorization to advertise the budget back in August's board meeting. We advertise the budget, capital 11 00:01:09,871 --> 00:01:16,041 - projects plan, bus replacement plan on September 8th. And then here we are tonight. This is our budget 12 00:01:16,041 --> 00:01:22,091 - hearing. As we move forward in the timeline, next month is actual budget adoption for 2027. And then 13 00:01:22,091 --> 00:01:25,566 - what you see there at the end is the 1782 notice arrives. 14 00:01:26,402 --> 00:01:31,835 - in December, that is simply just our budget. Notice that we get from the DOGF. So in that time period 15 00:01:31,835 --> 00:01:37,268 - between October and December, our DOGF rep is going to work our budget. She's going to give that back 16 00:01:37,268 --> 00:01:42,648 - to us and then say, here's what we've come up with. Do you agree? We have 10 days to respond to that 17 00:01:42,648 --> 00:01:48,081 - information or to make any adjustments that we want to make to the budget. And then it becomes final. 18 00:01:48,081 --> 00:01:53,727 - So that's just an update on the timeline. Where we're going to spend a lot of our time tonight is talking 19 00:01:53,727 --> 00:01:54,846 - through some of this 20 00:01:55,170 --> 00:02:00,508 - And it's just the processes that are involved in us building out the budget. There's a lot of different 21 00:02:00,508 --> 00:02:05,229 - lines that are built into it. But overall, the three key points are there. The first one is 22 00:02:05,229 --> 00:02:10,516 - it's a data-driven approach. So our past expenditures and our expenditures currently through this year 23 00:02:10,516 --> 00:02:15,699 - are that starting point of what it is that we're looking at. And that makes a lot of sense for a lot 24 00:02:15,699 --> 00:02:20,883 - of different reasons. We're also looking at our current revenue and our past revenue. Again, looking 25 00:02:20,883 --> 00:02:22,782 - at that data from the last few years 26 00:02:23,554 --> 00:02:29,238 - to see how it matches up with what it is that we're seeing currently in 2026 and what it is that we 27 00:02:29,238 --> 00:02:34,979 - expect to happen moving forward. We're identifying trends, things that the trends that we think will 28 00:02:34,979 --> 00:02:40,833 - continue and the trends that we don't think will continue. And some of those trends might not continue 29 00:02:40,833 --> 00:02:46,745 - because guidance has changed. And so that's something that we very much think about. An example of that 30 00:02:46,745 --> 00:02:53,054 - would be the distribution of license excise tax or commercial vehicle excise tax or financial institution tax. 31 00:02:53,538 --> 00:02:59,510 - those different revenues that we received into the school corporation, there's guidance that tells us 32 00:02:59,510 --> 00:03:05,540 - where those funds or where that revenue has to be placed. And over periods of time for the last couple 33 00:03:05,540 --> 00:03:11,394 - of years, that guidance has continued to change. No different this year, that guidance continues to 34 00:03:11,394 --> 00:03:17,366 - change. And so that impacts how we budget and what revenue that we expect to receive in any given fun 35 00:03:17,366 --> 00:03:18,654 - demographics. Student 36 00:03:19,266 --> 00:03:24,470 - enrollment as our number one source of funding as a public school corporation and we continue to monitor 37 00:03:24,470 --> 00:03:29,524 - what our student enrollment counts are as well as the demographics of our area and we've talked a lot 38 00:03:29,524 --> 00:03:34,579 - about that at different board meetings so I won't go too far into depth on that. But it's a big piece 39 00:03:34,579 --> 00:03:39,585 - of what it is that we're looking at as far as data goes that impacts what we expect as it relates to 40 00:03:39,585 --> 00:03:44,540 - revenue especially into our education fund. Facility needs we complete building walks we're getting 41 00:03:44,540 --> 00:03:48,158 - ready to talk more about our facilities master planning process tonight. 42 00:03:48,546 --> 00:03:54,657 - that really impacts what it is that we think that we'll need to continue to upkeep in the ongoing day-to-day 43 00:03:54,657 --> 00:04:00,319 - of the operations fund, but that long-term big-picture view of our debt service fund and our bonding 44 00:04:00,319 --> 00:04:05,926 - capacity to upkeep with our facilities. The tax-based studies, policy analytics. You guys know that 45 00:04:05,926 --> 00:04:11,700 - we partner with them in order to not only continue to be on top of knowing what's happening within the 46 00:04:11,700 --> 00:04:13,438 - tax base that we exist within, 47 00:04:13,570 --> 00:04:19,816 - but how the legislation that's passed interacts with our tax base and how that impacts us as a school 48 00:04:19,816 --> 00:04:25,940 - corporation. That very much is a huge piece of data that is really important to us determining what 49 00:04:25,940 --> 00:04:32,125 - is the appropriate budget in any given line, especially in our referendum funds and our debt service 50 00:04:32,125 --> 00:04:38,249 - fund and our operations fund. Flexibility is the second key point. We're building out a budget just 51 00:04:38,249 --> 00:04:42,046 - because we expect revenue to happen or just because we expect 52 00:04:42,306 --> 00:04:48,635 - expenditures to happen, that doesn't mean that they will actually happen for sure, right? We're not 53 00:04:48,635 --> 00:04:55,090 - being able to fortune tell that piece. And so it's important that we create flexibility in the budget 54 00:04:55,090 --> 00:05:01,419 - lines that yes, we're pretty certain as that this is a very accurate and conservative estimate, but 55 00:05:01,419 --> 00:05:08,254 - we need flexibility based on the variety of outcomes that can happen over, I'm running out of time already. 56 00:05:08,514 --> 00:05:15,336 - She's like, shut them down. We need flexibility as that 18-month looks. The budget is really an 18-month 57 00:05:15,336 --> 00:05:21,898 - look for us because not only are we trying to predict what it is that will happen over the course of 58 00:05:21,898 --> 00:05:28,525 - the next six months dating back from the first six, but it's all of next year as well. And so we need 59 00:05:28,525 --> 00:05:33,982 - to have that flexibility when we look at the overall budget for an individual fund. 60 00:05:34,210 --> 00:05:40,069 - We want to make sure that we have the flexibility that as things continue to change, whether it's due 61 00:05:40,069 --> 00:05:46,100 - to demographics or legislation or expenditures or different things that happen, that we have the ability 62 00:05:46,100 --> 00:05:51,442 - to navigate that. That's a big point. The last bullet point that is on there is important is 63 00:05:51,442 --> 00:05:57,129 - just anticipating variables. And I've alluded to this a little bit. The legislation, this upcoming 64 00:05:57,129 --> 00:06:03,390 - legislative session in 2027 is the long session. It's the budget session. So they're going to be determining 65 00:06:03,554 --> 00:06:10,318 - the funding formula for the next two years. So it's really important, and I can't predict exactly what's 66 00:06:10,318 --> 00:06:16,888 - gonna happen, but I have to make estimations of that over this process. Student counts, I have to not 67 00:06:16,888 --> 00:06:23,458 - only try to understand what's gonna happen in October count of this year, but spring count next year, 68 00:06:23,458 --> 00:06:30,222 - fall count next year, and so we're making assumptions based on those things, and again, those are things 69 00:06:30,222 --> 00:06:32,734 - that we aren't in complete control of. 70 00:06:33,346 --> 00:06:38,633 - Assessed value that goes back to the policy analytics piece. Continuing to try to measure what SEA-1 71 00:06:38,633 --> 00:06:43,972 - is doing to net assessed value and how that interacts with our fund structure is something that we're 72 00:06:43,972 --> 00:06:49,312 - trying to anticipate that variable. That's something that everyone across the state and quite frankly 73 00:06:49,312 --> 00:06:54,860 - I think the legislators as well are trying to determine what that looks like. Cost of goods and services. 74 00:06:54,860 --> 00:07:00,252 - We know that the cost of things continue to go up whether that's fuel, that's insurance, services that 75 00:07:00,252 --> 00:07:02,974 - different people provide to the school corporation, 76 00:07:03,746 --> 00:07:09,090 - Over time, the costs of those things continue to climb. Yes, we try to find operational efficiencies, 77 00:07:09,090 --> 00:07:14,433 - but we have to continue to plan that the cost of us operating the school corporation will continue to 78 00:07:14,433 --> 00:07:19,724 - move forward. And so we plan for those things. And then staffing. It's the number one expenditure of 79 00:07:19,724 --> 00:07:25,173 - the school corporation. It's the people that we employ that serve children every day and trying to make 80 00:07:25,173 --> 00:07:30,464 - sure that we account for what it is that we think are the possibilities of staffing as it relates to 81 00:07:30,464 --> 00:07:32,926 - all the other pieces that I just talked about. 82 00:07:33,154 --> 00:07:38,722 - And so it's the interaction of those of all of that data really that helps us to identify what is the 83 00:07:38,722 --> 00:07:44,453 - appropriate budget in any given fund as well as making sure that we built out flexibility for ourselves. 84 00:07:44,453 --> 00:07:50,184 - There's a big reason that I like to think about the budget as the plan. And I think about our cash flows 85 00:07:50,184 --> 00:07:55,806 - that we continue to talk about as the pulse, the pulse of what's happening and how things are actually 86 00:07:55,806 --> 00:08:00,446 - happening on a day in and day out basis or month in and month out basis, the budget. 87 00:08:00,706 --> 00:08:06,453 - is that plan that we think is going to happen. It sets those rates, those levies, and those guardrails, 88 00:08:06,453 --> 00:08:11,979 - a budget of which we have to operate within as a school corporation. So let's move forward and look 89 00:08:11,979 --> 00:08:17,560 - at some of the budget forms that we work within. There's a lot going on here on this slide, but I've 90 00:08:17,560 --> 00:08:23,362 - color-coded it to help direct some of your attention to some of the different pieces on here. This first 91 00:08:23,362 --> 00:08:29,662 - part is that next six months look. It's an 18-month look. This is the first six months, so July through December. 92 00:08:29,890 --> 00:08:36,071 - They have us input what revenue that we expect to collect, what our cash balances were as of June 30 93 00:08:36,071 --> 00:08:42,252 - of this year. Non-property tax revenues that we expect to receive, they total that out. They look at 94 00:08:42,252 --> 00:08:48,494 - our expenses. One of the ways that the system works, we don't have a say in this, is that they assume 95 00:08:48,494 --> 00:08:54,430 - that you're going to spend every dollar of your budget. We know that we're not going to do that. 96 00:08:54,818 --> 00:09:00,067 - But through this process, they always assume that you're going to. And so when you look at remaining 97 00:09:00,067 --> 00:09:05,420 - appropriation on line five, that's the remaining appropriation that exists within the operations fund. 98 00:09:05,420 --> 00:09:10,670 - That's the example we're using here tonight. And so they assume all of it is spent. And then they're 99 00:09:10,670 --> 00:09:16,075 - looking at the bottom, you see transfers and outstanding temporary loans in the operations fund. That's 100 00:09:16,075 --> 00:09:21,324 - where we took a tax anticipation warrant to help us for cashflow needs at the beginning of this year 101 00:09:21,324 --> 00:09:24,702 - as we continue to work towards a position of financial strength. 102 00:09:24,962 --> 00:09:31,592 - we have to pay back that tax anticipation warrant at the end of the year. And so I'm showing that $3 103 00:09:31,592 --> 00:09:38,222 - million going back to the Indiana bond bank. So then what you get at the end is what is the expected 104 00:09:38,222 --> 00:09:45,048 - cash balance at the end of December of this year? And then that flows forward into what you see on this 105 00:09:45,048 --> 00:09:51,153 - next slide, which is calendar year 2027 set up the exact same way only in property tax levy. 106 00:09:51,153 --> 00:09:54,238 - That's the 30,333,111 dollars. That is the max 107 00:09:54,722 --> 00:10:00,670 - Operating levy that we can have for operations fund that's determined by the state through what's called 108 00:10:00,670 --> 00:10:06,392 - the MLG queue or the max levy growth quotient. The next number that you see, that's property tax cap 109 00:10:06,392 --> 00:10:12,170 - loss. When we levy dollars, that doesn't always mean that we receive all of them. What you're looking 110 00:10:12,170 --> 00:10:18,062 - at mostly is the estimation of SEA one as it relates to revenue that's levy, but not actually received. 111 00:10:18,062 --> 00:10:20,894 - And so you see that negative there on the screen. 112 00:10:21,826 --> 00:10:27,670 - And then non-property tax revenues that would be receded into the school corporation. That's some of 113 00:10:27,670 --> 00:10:33,514 - those other things I mentioned earlier, license excise tax, commercial vehicle excise tax, financial 114 00:10:33,514 --> 00:10:39,474 - institution tax, interest earned on cash in the bank. Some of those other things that are revenue that 115 00:10:39,474 --> 00:10:45,376 - flows into that fund. It gives you what the expectation is for those totals for calendar year 27. 15, 116 00:10:45,376 --> 00:10:50,526 - that's the budget guardrails that we set for the operations fund. And then you move down 117 00:10:50,850 --> 00:10:56,766 - then again, it assumes that you spend every dollar of that budget. And it says at the end, is it a fundable 118 00:10:56,766 --> 00:11:02,682 - budget? Meaning, is there dollars left? Is the cash that you have on hand and the budget that you presented 119 00:11:02,682 --> 00:11:08,270 - leave you dollars at the end? That's how they determine whether or not it's a fundable plan. The last 120 00:11:08,270 --> 00:11:14,022 - part that you see at the end, that's the tax rate calculation. So the number that's listed there, that's 121 00:11:14,022 --> 00:11:16,158 - 85% of last year's net assessed value. 122 00:11:16,290 --> 00:11:22,319 - That's the DOGF best practice that they ask us to use and what was default into the new system that 123 00:11:22,319 --> 00:11:28,409 - they created this year. Off to the left, I put the calculation as to how they come up with the rate. 124 00:11:28,409 --> 00:11:34,679 - If you take the levy, which is line 11, you times it by 100 and divide it by the AV. That's how they're 125 00:11:34,679 --> 00:11:40,949 - coming up with that rate. When they work the budget, they put the actual numbers in there. These things 126 00:11:40,949 --> 00:11:46,014 - change. Remember, when we advertise the budget, we set the ceilings on our budgets. 127 00:11:46,274 --> 00:11:52,563 - levies, and rates. And so they will come in and input the actuals when we send off our budget after 128 00:11:52,563 --> 00:11:58,914 - adoption. So that gives you a view of what it is that we're filling out that our DLGF rep is working 129 00:11:58,914 --> 00:12:05,391 - through and the big picture view of how the system works. Those are the sample forms. They call it the 130 00:12:05,391 --> 00:12:12,057 - Form 4B. And so the next slide is Form 4. So these are just the terms that they use, which is essentially 131 00:12:12,057 --> 00:12:15,390 - what I'm showing you. That is the budget resolution. 132 00:12:15,490 --> 00:12:22,186 - that will be presented to you next month for adoption. It's the same looking resolution for every school 133 00:12:22,186 --> 00:12:28,946 - corporation in the state. You just plug in your school corporation's information as you see bolded there. 134 00:12:28,946 --> 00:12:35,578 - And then it also has your date of adoption and all those things that allows people to know when, where. 135 00:12:35,578 --> 00:12:42,083 - The bottom portion looks a lot like what you saw last month where I showed you form three. But you're 136 00:12:42,083 --> 00:12:43,358 - seeing the budgets, 137 00:12:43,554 --> 00:12:50,304 - You're seeing the different funds that we have, the fund structures that we have that are appropriated. 138 00:12:50,304 --> 00:12:56,795 - And then you have your adopted budget. Again, the guardrails from which we work within. The adopted 139 00:12:56,795 --> 00:13:03,351 - tax levy, that is the ceiling levy that we've adopted. And then the rate that would result if AV was 140 00:13:03,351 --> 00:13:10,750 - 85%. But again, they have to push that back in. So let's use a quick example here. The operating referendum 2022. 141 00:13:11,650 --> 00:13:18,056 - It says the adopted tax rate is a little over 22 cents. Obviously, that is above the voter approved 142 00:13:18,056 --> 00:13:24,718 - rate. That is not how it is going to be worked by the DOGF. The reason we put it in that way is because 143 00:13:24,718 --> 00:13:31,189 - it goes back to when we said 85% is best practice for AV. If I put in what I think is actually going 144 00:13:31,189 --> 00:13:37,787 - to happen and something changes with certified net assessed value between now and the DOGF working our 145 00:13:37,787 --> 00:13:41,182 - budget, it could result in us receiving less revenue 146 00:13:41,794 --> 00:13:48,015 - into the fund. So if that AV interaction would show a lesser levy, we would get the lesser. And so as 147 00:13:48,015 --> 00:13:54,236 - a protection to the school corporation's budgets, we put a number a little bit above the expectations 148 00:13:54,236 --> 00:14:00,457 - so that it protects the school corporation against any of those changes. That's that backfill back to 149 00:14:00,457 --> 00:14:06,556 - the 85% number. So we know that that levy will be lower. In our referendum funds, we know that that 150 00:14:06,556 --> 00:14:09,118 - rate, the max can be 18 and a half cents. 151 00:14:09,890 --> 00:14:16,174 - And so that's an example of how that process works as they go through our different fund structures 152 00:14:16,174 --> 00:14:22,647 - as it relates to the levy and the corresponding rate. This looks very identical to what it is that you 153 00:14:22,647 --> 00:14:28,995 - guys saw last year. Going back to those individual comparisons, so every one of those budgets except 154 00:14:28,995 --> 00:14:35,593 - for the operations fund is a little lower this year. You see school pension debt, there's nothing there. 155 00:14:35,593 --> 00:14:39,678 - That fund will not exist after this year because we will pay off 156 00:14:40,162 --> 00:14:45,772 - pension debt and so there will no longer be necessary so that's why you see a zero there that fund will 157 00:14:45,772 --> 00:14:51,219 - close out after this year the other funds are slightly lower and again that makes sense based on the 158 00:14:51,219 --> 00:14:56,613 - things that we continue to talk about as we navigate some of the changes we've made in staffing the 159 00:14:56,613 --> 00:15:02,277 - changes that we that we know that we're experiencing in demographics and student enrollment and so those 160 00:15:02,277 --> 00:15:08,318 - things are coming down a little bit overall budget submission decreases a little bit over three million dollars 161 00:15:11,842 --> 00:15:17,712 - Couple of those high points that we wanna look at in each of those individual funds is again, education 162 00:15:17,712 --> 00:15:23,469 - fund. I'm looking at those revenues with student counts. I'm looking at those enrollment projections, 163 00:15:23,469 --> 00:15:29,226 - right? Staffing, our current staffing set up all of those things and the variability of possibilities 164 00:15:29,226 --> 00:15:34,927 - that could exist to create something that I think is conservative and flexible. The operations fund, 165 00:15:34,927 --> 00:15:38,878 - again, like I said earlier, we're going with that state set max levy. 166 00:15:39,170 --> 00:15:44,733 - And the budget is increased to account for. That's the fund where we're seeing fuel and insurance and 167 00:15:44,733 --> 00:15:50,295 - a lot of our goods and supplies that experience the most volatility in pricing. So knowing that those 168 00:15:50,295 --> 00:15:55,858 - escalation of expenses happen. And then in previous board meetings, we talked about we don't have the 169 00:15:55,858 --> 00:16:01,529 - 21st century grant anymore. And so extended day, adventure camp, some of those other things, their home 170 00:16:01,529 --> 00:16:07,201 - fund would be the operations fund. So it's coming back in there, which is part of the reason why you're 171 00:16:07,201 --> 00:16:08,510 - seeing that fund budget 172 00:16:09,474 --> 00:16:15,657 - escalate referendum funds again planning for like I said that continuation of the voter approved rate 173 00:16:15,657 --> 00:16:21,718 - and then in debt service we've advertised for what is our max operating balance so the debt service 174 00:16:21,718 --> 00:16:28,022 - fund has a max operating balance that's what it is that we've advertised that we know that we will work 175 00:16:28,022 --> 00:16:34,144 - under that levy we do not plan to be able we do not plan to take all of our max operating balance we 176 00:16:34,144 --> 00:16:37,054 - don't feel like that's necessary in this moment 177 00:16:37,218 --> 00:16:43,260 - We have no debt sold here in 2026. That's just a reminder that's there. The last thing that I have on 178 00:16:43,260 --> 00:16:49,242 - this slide is just the bus replacement and capital project plans. Those are posted to Gateway, which 179 00:16:49,242 --> 00:16:55,224 - is linked on our website. Those plans have to be submitted through the budgeting process in order to 180 00:16:55,224 --> 00:17:01,207 - expend operations fund dollars on those types of expenses. They are plans. They're not set in stone, 181 00:17:01,207 --> 00:17:05,886 - but they're meant to, one is a three-year plan. The other is a five-year plan. 182 00:17:06,114 --> 00:17:12,882 - But it's looking forward to say, what is it that we plan to expect or reasonably could occur? Big picture 183 00:17:12,882 --> 00:17:19,395 - takeaways, and I'm almost done. I know I've got a lot of information here, so I apologize. The budget 184 00:17:19,395 --> 00:17:26,099 - is guardrails, right? Again, we're setting tax levies, rates, and spending authority. Budget development 185 00:17:26,099 --> 00:17:32,612 - is built on past actuals, trends, recent legislation, and regulatory changes that change the outcomes 186 00:17:32,612 --> 00:17:35,166 - of how revenue or expenses would occur. 187 00:17:35,906 --> 00:17:42,212 - We're advertising the ceiling. So we publish high and then we work under those ceilings as we finish 188 00:17:42,212 --> 00:17:48,581 - out the budgeting process. The levy management, so the overall dollars that are generated through our 189 00:17:48,581 --> 00:17:54,825 - property taxes, it's continuing to move through that with community support and managing the ask of 190 00:17:54,825 --> 00:18:01,443 - the community while meeting the needs for our students and our school corporation. The adoption timeline, 191 00:18:01,443 --> 00:18:05,502 - adoption is next month. Expect the budget to be done in December 192 00:18:05,986 --> 00:18:12,397 - And again, that's that 1782 notice. It's just the term that they use that relates to that's when the 193 00:18:12,397 --> 00:18:18,936 - budget comes back to us. And we expect that to be in December. So with that, that is my budget hearing 194 00:18:18,936 --> 00:18:25,283 - presentation. Thank you, Mr. Irwin. You don't have to apologize for giving us too much information. 195 00:18:25,283 --> 00:18:31,758 - We appreciate it. Are there any comments or questions from the board? Thanks, Matt. I wasn't laughing 196 00:18:31,758 --> 00:18:33,726 - that I wanted you to hurry up. 197 00:18:33,890 --> 00:18:39,162 - Um, but no a question I had though Is it in one area when you talk about the after school program in 198 00:18:39,162 --> 00:18:44,487 - a venture camp? Is it in the budget because we're not sure we're gonna get that grant for that That's 199 00:18:44,487 --> 00:18:50,124 - right. Okay, so I have to account for it somewhere and the the procedurally through state board of accounts 200 00:18:50,124 --> 00:18:55,344 - The home fund of that expenditure would be the operations fund. Okay, I just really want to let you 201 00:18:55,344 --> 00:19:00,564 - know I do pay attention to you in your meetings it goes back to right we have rules that we have to 202 00:19:00,564 --> 00:19:03,070 - abide by state board of accounts tells us where 203 00:19:03,714 --> 00:19:12,536 - Expenditures have to be coded to where revenue has to be coded to and those are the things that we continue 204 00:19:12,536 --> 00:19:20,133 - to follow and that's why it goes back to that Thanks Matt Last call for questions All right, 205 00:19:20,133 --> 00:19:28,464 - thanks again, mr. Erwin this concludes the budget hearing and I Hereby declare the hearing closed. We 206 00:19:28,464 --> 00:19:32,222 - will now move on to the regular board meeting 207 00:19:34,274 --> 00:19:39,830 - If you were just here for the budget hearing, that's it. You can go. All right. Tonight, we're going 208 00:19:39,830 --> 00:19:45,111 - to begin with the Excellence Spotlight in celebration of excellence in our schools. Ms. Harmon. 209 00:19:45,111 --> 00:19:50,612 - Thank you, President Cooperman, Dr. Winston, members of the Board of School Trustees, and community 210 00:19:50,612 --> 00:19:56,223 - members. It's my privilege to present the September Excellence Spotlight. This monthly recognition is 211 00:19:56,223 --> 00:20:01,890 - a standing feature of each regular board meeting and serves as a dedicated moment to honor individuals 212 00:20:01,890 --> 00:20:03,870 - whose daily contributions exemplify 213 00:20:03,970 --> 00:20:09,870 - mission, vision, and core values of the Monroe County Community School Corporation. Tonight we're recognizing 214 00:20:09,870 --> 00:20:15,555 - two people from the same school which is exciting as well. Mary Hartman from Arlington Elementary School. 215 00:20:15,555 --> 00:20:20,919 - Miss Hartman is an outstanding front office lead whose daily leadership sets the tone for Arlington 216 00:20:20,919 --> 00:20:26,390 - Heights Elementary. She is warm, efficient, and continually seeks innovative ways to support families 217 00:20:26,390 --> 00:20:32,075 - and staff. Her commitment to service and her ability to create a welcoming solutions oriented environment 218 00:20:32,075 --> 00:20:33,470 - embody the spirit of true 219 00:20:33,762 --> 00:20:39,958 - Soaring Eagle. And we're also recognizing Jamie Tremblay from Arlington Elementary School. Ms. Tremblay 220 00:20:39,958 --> 00:20:46,273 - is a dedicated educator who builds strong relationships with her students and maintains high expectations 221 00:20:46,273 --> 00:20:52,648 - that inspire academic and personal growth. She encourages students to make positive choices and celebrates 222 00:20:52,648 --> 00:20:58,844 - their achievements with intention and care. Her leadership, creativity, and consistent focus on student 223 00:20:58,844 --> 00:21:03,134 - success makes her an invaluable contributor to the Arlington community. 224 00:21:03,234 --> 00:21:09,420 - And just earlier this week, she was recognized as one of the educator of years from the Bloomington 225 00:21:09,420 --> 00:21:15,729 - chamber. MCCSE is proud to recognize Mary Hartman and Jamie Tremblay as the September, 2026 excellent 226 00:21:15,729 --> 00:21:22,286 - spotlight honorees, their exemplary service and commitment elevate our schools and enrich the experiences 227 00:21:22,286 --> 00:21:28,286 - of the students and families we serve. Thank you. On behalf of the board, thank you, Ms. Harmon. 228 00:21:34,402 --> 00:21:46,848 - And congratulations to all those who were recognized tonight. We'd like to invite you to come to the 229 00:21:46,848 --> 00:21:59,663 - front to take a picture. Ms. Dewees, if you could join us. Front and center. OK. Love it. Like towering 230 00:21:59,663 --> 00:22:01,758 - in the air here. 231 00:22:44,386 --> 00:22:52,374 - Again, thank you for coming. And I understand if you have other obligations, our feelings won't be hurt 232 00:22:52,374 --> 00:23:00,208 - if you don't stay for the rest of the board meeting. But of course, you're welcome to if you want to. 233 00:23:00,208 --> 00:23:07,966 - Next, we will move on to public comment. I have two cards for public comment this evening. And first 234 00:23:07,966 --> 00:23:09,502 - is Marsali Andrews. 235 00:23:15,906 --> 00:23:21,844 - Hi, my name is Marceline Andrews. I live at 6250 West Eisen Road. My topic is AP exam access. Could 236 00:23:21,844 --> 00:23:28,198 - the families here with me please stand today? Between us, our students learn through six different schools 237 00:23:28,198 --> 00:23:34,434 - and programs. MCCSE schools, the Open Ed program, the Braintree program, homeschooling, Cedars Christian 238 00:23:34,434 --> 00:23:39,422 - School, and the Indiana Education Scholarship Account program. Thank you, everyone. 239 00:23:40,034 --> 00:23:46,079 - Together we are asking MCCSC to allow students who live in Monroe County but who are not enrolled at 240 00:23:46,079 --> 00:23:52,423 - Bloomington North or Bloomington South to register for AP and PSAT exams at those schools. These students 241 00:23:52,423 --> 00:23:58,468 - are currently being denied access. To start with the most important things cost and safety. This can 242 00:23:58,468 --> 00:24:04,812 - cost the district nothing. The College Board expressly allows schools to charge outside students a higher 243 00:24:04,812 --> 00:24:08,702 - fee to cover the cost of any added rooms proctors or staff time. 244 00:24:08,866 --> 00:24:14,650 - If the number of possible outside students registering is a concern, then we are open to a capped trial 245 00:24:14,650 --> 00:24:20,545 - for a year. The safety procedures for this also already exist. MCCSC already admits non-enrolled students 246 00:24:20,545 --> 00:24:26,328 - into these buildings for the SCT and ACT exams. I've confirmed with the Indiana Department of Education 247 00:24:26,328 --> 00:24:32,057 - that there is no state law preventing the district from saying yes to this request. The decision rests 248 00:24:32,057 --> 00:24:38,174 - with each school. We're asking you, our district, for this because we've already tried four different routes. 249 00:24:38,626 --> 00:24:44,668 - We have directly asked North and South to allow our students to test, and they have been refused. I've 250 00:24:44,668 --> 00:24:50,592 - contacted 26 different testing sites within an hour of Bloomington. Only one accepts certain outside 251 00:24:50,592 --> 00:24:56,575 - students, and it offers only five AP exams. Number three, I completed the college board's application 252 00:24:56,575 --> 00:25:02,910 - to become an authorized testing administrator myself using the public library as the site. That application 253 00:25:02,910 --> 00:25:03,614 - was denied. 254 00:25:03,842 --> 00:25:09,560 - And for I convinced a professional testing company here in Bloomington to also apply to become an official 255 00:25:09,560 --> 00:25:15,065 - AP testing site that would accept all students. The College Board also denied that application telling 256 00:25:15,065 --> 00:25:20,730 - us to ask our local school district instead. So we are here today. The College Board sends these students 257 00:25:20,730 --> 00:25:22,814 - back to you our local school district. 258 00:25:23,842 --> 00:25:29,907 - Being denied access to both AP exams and the PSAT exam comes at a real cost to Bloomington families. 259 00:25:29,907 --> 00:25:35,911 - A passing AP score is worth three to six college credits, which is hundreds to thousands of dollars 260 00:25:35,911 --> 00:25:42,036 - for families in tuition. The PSAT is a qualifying test for the National Merit Scholarship. That means 261 00:25:42,036 --> 00:25:48,041 - that a student who cannot take that exam can't qualify for that scholarship at all. So our group is 262 00:25:48,041 --> 00:25:49,662 - asking you for two things. 263 00:25:49,794 --> 00:25:55,713 - One, we're asking Dr. Winston to make an administrative decision for this year specifically to allow 264 00:25:55,713 --> 00:26:01,632 - outside students to register for the AP exams and the PSAT exams. The deadline to order the AP exams 265 00:26:01,632 --> 00:26:07,726 - is mid-November, so we ask for that decision to be made soon. And then two, we ask for a written policy 266 00:26:07,726 --> 00:26:13,880 - for future school years, and that part could come on whatever timeline the board needs. We would welcome 267 00:26:13,880 --> 00:26:17,982 - the chance to work out the details for both of these things with you. 268 00:26:18,146 --> 00:26:27,244 - These students are ready to test. They just need a seat. Thank you. Our next commenter is Jenny Noble 269 00:26:27,244 --> 00:26:36,164 - Kuchera. Hi, good evening, President Cooperman, Dr. Winston, School Board of Trustees, and audience 270 00:26:36,164 --> 00:26:45,886 - members. My name is Jenny Noble Kuchera. I'm the proud president of the Monroe County Education Association. 271 00:26:46,146 --> 00:26:52,708 - otherwise known as the Local Teachers Union. I thought it was perfect timing, Matt, that you talked 272 00:26:52,708 --> 00:26:59,467 - about revenue levied but not received because I am here to make sure that we get out the vote. We live 273 00:26:59,467 --> 00:27:06,225 - in a democracy. We still do. And I'm going to make sure that every one of you tonight knows your dates 274 00:27:06,225 --> 00:27:11,934 - and how to make sure you're registered to vote. So here we go. Are you election ready? 275 00:27:13,378 --> 00:27:21,482 - October 5th is the voter registration deadline. If you aren't sure, you can go to indianavotors.com. 276 00:27:21,482 --> 00:27:29,587 - On October 6th, in-person early voting begins. October 22nd is the absentee ballot request deadline. 277 00:27:29,587 --> 00:27:37,691 - So if you wanted to request one of those, do it prior to one month from today. And finally, the last 278 00:27:37,691 --> 00:27:38,654 - day to vote 279 00:27:39,266 --> 00:27:47,160 - early in person is November 2nd because November 3rd is election day. This is important because everything 280 00:27:47,160 --> 00:27:54,537 - that we discuss in these meetings, everything that's presented to us, the working conditions of our 281 00:27:54,537 --> 00:28:02,652 - teachers, the learning conditions of our students are all contingent upon all of us exercising our democratic 282 00:28:02,652 --> 00:28:07,742 - right and voting for legislators at all levels who will represent us 283 00:28:08,770 --> 00:28:16,587 - and be public servants to make sure that public education continues. So I thank you for exercising your 284 00:28:16,587 --> 00:28:24,254 - democratic rights, doing your research ahead of time to make sure that you are voting for someone who 285 00:28:24,254 --> 00:28:31,470 - is going to best represent our community, our students, our teachers. And have a great evening. 286 00:28:31,470 --> 00:28:37,182 - Thank you, Ms. Nobuo-Kuchera. And thanks to everyone who commented tonight. 287 00:28:37,314 --> 00:28:44,951 - We are now going to move on to the MCCSE Facilities Master Plan. Dr. Winston. Thank you, President Cooperman. 288 00:28:44,951 --> 00:28:52,588 - Last month, you heard me introduce the concept of our desire to move forward with having a 10-year Facilities 289 00:28:52,588 --> 00:28:59,600 - Master Plan. The Facilities Master Plan provides a long-term roadmap for maintaining, improving, and 290 00:28:59,600 --> 00:29:06,334 - planning school facilities across the corporation. It is intended to help MCCSE make thoughtful, 291 00:29:06,562 --> 00:29:13,198 - They inform decisions that support safe, functional, and welcoming learning environments for the students 292 00:29:13,198 --> 00:29:19,646 - that we serve, for the staff that provide services, and for our community. To support this work, MCCSE 293 00:29:19,646 --> 00:29:26,032 - has engaged Brent Height of CSO, they did the Try North building a few years ago, and Victor Landfair 294 00:29:26,032 --> 00:29:32,667 - of the Skillman Corporation. Both of these individuals, along with their respective teams, bring relevant 295 00:29:32,667 --> 00:29:35,422 - expertise in facility assessment, planning, 296 00:29:35,746 --> 00:29:42,089 - designing, construction, and public school project delivery. These two firms were selected out of a 297 00:29:42,089 --> 00:29:48,560 - very tough group of individual companies based upon their specific demonstrated qualifications, their 298 00:29:48,560 --> 00:29:55,411 - experience with comparable educational facilities, their ability to collaborate with district and community 299 00:29:55,411 --> 00:30:02,008 - stakeholders, and their capacity to provide the technical guidance that's necessary for a comprehensive 300 00:30:02,008 --> 00:30:04,926 - master planning process. We are very thrilled 301 00:30:05,058 --> 00:30:11,149 - to have these two companies representing our school corporation. I'd like to bring Brent Height and 302 00:30:11,149 --> 00:30:17,484 - Victor Landfair to the podium to share information about how we will proceed with our facilities master 303 00:30:17,484 --> 00:30:23,575 - planning process. Thank you Dr. Winston. Appreciate the introduction and it's a pleasure to be with 304 00:30:23,575 --> 00:30:29,666 - you and the board this evening. I'm hoping we can do just kind of a quick brief introduction of who 305 00:30:29,666 --> 00:30:31,006 - we are and what we do 306 00:30:31,138 --> 00:30:37,021 - And I've also got one of my counterparts, another member of our team, Dr. Stephanie Lone with me this 307 00:30:37,021 --> 00:30:42,904 - evening, who you'll hear a little bit about in this presentation. So from a team perspective, we have 308 00:30:42,904 --> 00:30:48,786 - our top team there with CSO is, there's several people there, Dr. Stephanie Lone, Jim Funk, and Emily 309 00:30:48,786 --> 00:30:54,669 - Newton, all part of our architectural and interior design team will help lead this effort. From CSO's 310 00:30:54,669 --> 00:30:57,726 - perspective, we also have several design consultants 311 00:30:57,858 --> 00:31:04,485 - who will also be participating and helping us with their various areas of expertise. That includes Context 312 00:31:04,485 --> 00:31:10,926 - Design, RE Diamond and Associates, and BRCJ. All of these firms have done work with CSO as well as work 313 00:31:10,926 --> 00:31:17,306 - with MCCSC over their historical periods of different projects and different avenues. So we're excited 314 00:31:17,306 --> 00:31:23,499 - to have all of them partner with us in this endeavor. There's a lot of ground and data to cover, so 315 00:31:23,499 --> 00:31:26,782 - it's going to take a village to really get us there. 316 00:31:27,746 --> 00:31:34,239 - A little bit about who we are. CSO, as a firm, we do architecture and interior design in-house. We are 317 00:31:34,239 --> 00:31:40,669 - located in Indianapolis, near Keystone at the crossing, the Fashion Mall, if you've ever been up that 318 00:31:40,669 --> 00:31:47,541 - way. We were established in 1961, so we've been around a while. We got into the K-12 market in the mid-'80s, 319 00:31:47,541 --> 00:31:53,908 - really with a customer service mindset of trying to take, of where we saw an opening, where the type 320 00:31:53,908 --> 00:31:55,358 - of client service that 321 00:31:55,938 --> 00:32:02,914 - public schools were receiving wasn't what we were providing in the private sector. So taking that private 322 00:32:02,914 --> 00:32:09,560 - sector know-how and bringing it to the public school market has really served as well. We have grown 323 00:32:09,560 --> 00:32:16,141 - exponentially since. We now have over 40 people in just our education studio that focus on K-12 and 324 00:32:16,141 --> 00:32:17,918 - higher education projects. 325 00:32:18,626 --> 00:32:24,057 - have become one of the largest K-12 firms in the state of Indiana. So a deep bench of expertise. We 326 00:32:24,057 --> 00:32:29,597 - especially like to get involved when we talk about kind of innovative educational practices, thinking 327 00:32:29,597 --> 00:32:35,082 - about learning environments differently. And so hopefully you have seen some of that and some of the 328 00:32:35,082 --> 00:32:36,766 - work we've done with you guys. 329 00:32:37,058 --> 00:32:44,094 - We do work all over the state of Indiana. And so this is just a quick kind of map. All of those blue 330 00:32:44,094 --> 00:32:51,061 - counties are areas we work. So a lot of that work is central, since we are located in Indianapolis. 331 00:32:51,061 --> 00:32:58,167 - But we travel from as far north as South Bend to as far south as Clarksville, which is about as close 332 00:32:58,167 --> 00:33:04,158 - to the Ohio River? Lincoln, sorry. That's about as close to the river as you can get. 333 00:33:04,450 --> 00:33:09,692 - Districts that range the spectrum from large districts with multiple high schools similar to yourselves 334 00:33:09,692 --> 00:33:14,984 - to smaller districts similar to Clarksville who are three buildings and that's their whole entire school 335 00:33:14,984 --> 00:33:20,377 - district. So we kind of run the gamut. We were very heavily built on relationships rather than necessarily 336 00:33:20,377 --> 00:33:25,569 - districts. So that's really served us well. And we do a little bit of everything from, you know, small 337 00:33:25,569 --> 00:33:30,659 - renovations of facilities. You know, we've got this restroom renovation that needs to happen because 338 00:33:30,659 --> 00:33:34,238 - it's, you know, 50 years old to brand new state of the art facilities. 339 00:33:34,338 --> 00:33:39,558 - Kind of all across the board. Some of you probably hopefully recognize my face. I think there's a few 340 00:33:39,558 --> 00:33:44,727 - board members that I've presented to you before. I think our most recent endeavor with you guys, and 341 00:33:44,727 --> 00:33:50,100 - we were talking about the Templeton child's merger and acquisition piece there. But in addition to that, 342 00:33:50,100 --> 00:33:55,218 - Dr Winston mentioned try north is probably our largest project. We have completed with you guys and 343 00:33:55,218 --> 00:33:56,958 - that opened just a few years ago. 344 00:33:57,122 --> 00:34:01,969 - But we've also done several smaller projects around the district, including renovations at 345 00:34:01,969 --> 00:34:07,775 - Benford Elementary. I think that was our first project with you guys following the 2017 facility assessment. 346 00:34:07,775 --> 00:34:13,208 - We added classrooms on at Summit Elementary, the Unionville Outdoor Learning Pavilion, the playground 347 00:34:13,208 --> 00:34:16,670 - at Templeton, the Bloomington High School South Pool renovation. 348 00:34:16,962 --> 00:34:23,709 - the South Stocker fields, as well as the new tennis facility at North. So we have done a lot with you. 349 00:34:23,709 --> 00:34:30,586 - We know your administration. I've worked with Sam and Brad a long time. And so I think that really helps 350 00:34:30,586 --> 00:34:37,136 - us kind of know how you guys operate internally and gives us a really unique perspective on some of 351 00:34:37,136 --> 00:34:44,145 - the things we're going to do with you guys. Good evening. I appreciate the opportunity. I'm Victor Lanford 352 00:34:44,145 --> 00:34:46,110 - with the Skilman Corporation. 353 00:34:46,562 --> 00:34:52,468 - I first want to repeat what Dr. Winston said, which is even though we're presenting our two companies, 354 00:34:52,468 --> 00:34:58,375 - we really see ourselves as a single entity. And from your perspective, you should think of it as being 355 00:34:58,375 --> 00:35:04,281 - very transparent. Fortunately, we've worked with the CSO team on a number of projects to introduce our 356 00:35:04,281 --> 00:35:08,926 - team. Myself and Tim Funsta will be sort of the lead communicators for our team. 357 00:35:09,218 --> 00:35:15,211 - We're thankful for Caroline who makes the things that we communicate look pretty. And she's an important 358 00:35:15,211 --> 00:35:20,976 - part of that. And especially when you're presenting to your community information, you want it to be 359 00:35:20,976 --> 00:35:26,741 - easy to understand and clearly to see and understand. We've got a strong bench of estimators. You're 360 00:35:26,741 --> 00:35:32,506 - going to hear us. We're sort of the data guys on the team. And we're going to give you a lot of cost 361 00:35:32,506 --> 00:35:38,271 - information, going to support the team from a quantitative standpoint. And cost is going to be a big 362 00:35:38,271 --> 00:35:39,070 - part of this. 363 00:35:39,362 --> 00:35:47,110 - this facility study, but also our expertise in constructing and renovating school buildings is going 364 00:35:47,110 --> 00:35:54,858 - to be a big part of this master plan. Um, we're also an Indiana based company been around since 1972 365 00:35:54,858 --> 00:36:03,066 - or employee owned. Um, about 85% of our business is K 12. Most of that is, um, updating and re-envisioning 366 00:36:03,066 --> 00:36:05,214 - occupied school facilities. 367 00:36:05,538 --> 00:36:12,321 - We've done a number of facilities. You know, you see the hard hat, you might think we're the construction 368 00:36:12,321 --> 00:36:18,848 - team. But in fact, a big part of what we do is helping communities like yourself set a project up and 369 00:36:18,848 --> 00:36:25,631 - vision a project and quantify and budget for projects and really get the most out of your project through 370 00:36:25,631 --> 00:36:30,686 - setting it up for success. So we're looking forward to being part of the team. 371 00:36:30,914 --> 00:36:37,777 - in developing this master plan and envisioning the next 10 years for your facilities. This is not our 372 00:36:37,777 --> 00:36:44,572 - first facility study. We've done a number of them. In fact, in many of those, this is just a handful 373 00:36:44,572 --> 00:36:51,636 - of facility studies that we've done around the state. Not just nearby, worked with Mr. Irwin in Edgewood 374 00:36:51,636 --> 00:36:59,710 - schools over the last few years. But what we are really proud of, we developed a format and an organizational structure 375 00:37:00,002 --> 00:37:06,570 - So this isn't a study that sits and grows dust on the shelf, but in fact has a usable tool. We've done 376 00:37:06,570 --> 00:37:13,074 - other studies where we've come back after seven years and updated the data. So we really want to give 377 00:37:13,074 --> 00:37:19,451 - you good information that becomes a tool to help you make decisions, both in the short term and the 378 00:37:19,451 --> 00:37:26,019 - long term, and then become a tool that you can use every year to develop your projects, whatever those 379 00:37:26,019 --> 00:37:27,486 - projects end up being. 380 00:37:28,802 --> 00:37:35,256 - This is an image that we put together in our presentation, but I think it helps to sort of understand 381 00:37:35,256 --> 00:37:41,647 - there's a lot of pieces to this puzzle, right? This master plan is going to have a lot of data. That 382 00:37:41,647 --> 00:37:48,038 - data is going to be quantifiable. It's going to be subjective, but there's a lot of components to go 383 00:37:48,038 --> 00:37:54,366 - together. We did this to sort of start to describe how the architects are working and we're working 384 00:37:54,366 --> 00:37:57,150 - together to create that puzzle, but I think 385 00:37:57,442 --> 00:38:05,262 - I think it also helps you to understand that there are pieces and parts that will be, whether it's community 386 00:38:05,262 --> 00:38:12,938 - engagement, to estimating, to life cycles of buildings, to space utilization, and this sort of educational 387 00:38:12,938 --> 00:38:20,399 - programming piece comes in. So there's a lot of components to the study. And we're going to try to work 388 00:38:20,399 --> 00:38:27,358 - together successfully with your team to give you that vision, to put all those puzzles together, 389 00:38:27,586 --> 00:38:35,909 - for the picture. We talked a little bit about how this project, even in our kickoff meeting internally, 390 00:38:35,909 --> 00:38:43,913 - there's almost sort of two tracks, if you will. There's this track of what is the condition of your 391 00:38:43,913 --> 00:38:52,156 - facilities and what is it going to take to maintain an excellence and performance of those facilities. 392 00:38:52,156 --> 00:38:56,638 - I'm a facility geek, so I look at it as the components. 393 00:38:56,930 --> 00:39:03,306 - You're probably not surprised when I show you an image like this. You have things like technology that 394 00:39:03,306 --> 00:39:09,496 - has a fairly short life, and then you have things like structural systems that have a long life and 395 00:39:09,496 --> 00:39:15,686 - everything in between that. And our facility study, this master plan will hopefully sort of dissect 396 00:39:15,686 --> 00:39:21,876 - all your facilities and pull out, if you will, the kind of investment you're going to have to make. 397 00:39:21,876 --> 00:39:25,342 - And that quantification of those investments will help. 398 00:39:25,730 --> 00:39:32,530 - be some of that data-driven decision-making that we move ahead. But not just that sort of nuts and bolts, 399 00:39:32,530 --> 00:39:38,753 - there's also the programming piece, which I think Dr. Long is going to talk about. That's right. 400 00:39:38,753 --> 00:39:45,618 - Thank you. I'm the educator on the team. So 30 years ago, I left Bloomington, and I've had the opportunity 401 00:39:45,618 --> 00:39:50,814 - to serve in public education for the last four years at CSO as a program person. 402 00:39:50,978 --> 00:39:57,440 - And what I wanted to make sure that you knew is how important the people are in this process. And so 403 00:39:57,440 --> 00:40:03,839 - we'll discuss with educators, administrators, and especially students to learn more about how their 404 00:40:03,839 --> 00:40:06,398 - space is helping them to be successful. 405 00:40:06,530 --> 00:40:12,851 - And perhaps programming that folks have really wanted to get off the ground that they just haven't been 406 00:40:12,851 --> 00:40:18,990 - able to do because the facility is really limiting to them. So these are some tangible examples here 407 00:40:18,990 --> 00:40:25,068 - in the 1st picture off to the left here. We had a visioning session with a middle school team. They 408 00:40:25,068 --> 00:40:27,742 - had been teaming at their grade levels and. 409 00:40:27,874 --> 00:40:33,565 - they felt like they had such ownership over this team, but they really couldn't see each other and they 410 00:40:33,565 --> 00:40:39,147 - couldn't operate as a functioning team. And so when we talked about their FLIR plan and what we could 411 00:40:39,147 --> 00:40:44,838 - do to modify a piece here and there, they felt like this would really help them function as a true team 412 00:40:44,838 --> 00:40:50,420 - and really incorporate what they considered a PLC model with their professional learning communities. 413 00:40:50,420 --> 00:40:53,758 - In the middle here, we have an intermediate school principal 414 00:40:54,146 --> 00:41:00,358 - who wanted to pursue some alternative programming with related arts. And students were showing a high 415 00:41:00,358 --> 00:41:06,753 - interest in eSports. And so we did some site visits. Butler University has a lovely new eSports program. 416 00:41:06,753 --> 00:41:13,087 - And so we wanted to check that out to see if that was something that they could bring in a small sense, 417 00:41:13,087 --> 00:41:19,299 - not a university sense, but in a small sense to their intermediate learning model. And so site visits 418 00:41:19,299 --> 00:41:21,918 - are a really important opportunity for us. 419 00:41:22,018 --> 00:41:27,539 - to take those educators out and to learn more about what they're telling us they might want to see in 420 00:41:27,539 --> 00:41:33,007 - their facilities. And then, of course, our favorite here are student input sessions. These were also 421 00:41:33,007 --> 00:41:38,582 - middle schoolers. This was another school district. And they were really envious of the culture pieces 422 00:41:38,582 --> 00:41:44,212 - that were going on at the high school. And these students had sort of student unions at the high school 423 00:41:44,212 --> 00:41:49,246 - and collaborative spaces and just neat spaces to show their pride and hang out a little bit. 424 00:41:49,346 --> 00:41:55,767 - And they wanted to see more colorful spaces like that, some flexible seating, and some common spaces 425 00:41:55,767 --> 00:42:02,379 - in their middle school. And so they helped us look at floor plans where we could incorporate that. They 426 00:42:02,379 --> 00:42:08,864 - always like to talk about the cafeteria, too, so that's something that we'll hear about, I'm sure. So 427 00:42:08,864 --> 00:42:15,285 - looking forward to this process and all the recommendations, the very important educators will bring 428 00:42:15,285 --> 00:42:18,718 - to it. I guess one other quick addition there is just 429 00:42:19,074 --> 00:42:24,941 - As far as Stephanie's work is, our hope is to come alongside your leadership team here and help you 430 00:42:24,941 --> 00:42:30,867 - guys define what does education look like in that educational visioning process five years, 10 years 431 00:42:30,867 --> 00:42:36,851 - down the road so that whatever physical facility improvements may come from this facility assessment, 432 00:42:36,851 --> 00:42:42,835 - we're pointing everything in that direction, if that makes sense. So she's a huge asset to us, and we 433 00:42:42,835 --> 00:42:44,830 - love having her part of our team. 434 00:42:45,346 --> 00:42:51,009 - In terms of what you guys can kind of expect from a timeline perspective, so what shows up here, shows 435 00:42:51,009 --> 00:42:56,727 - up better on these screens back here, I guess it's a little dark, my apologies, but it's about an eight 436 00:42:56,727 --> 00:43:02,446 - month timeline. So our first few months here, we're gonna really spend in trying to understand, seeking 437 00:43:02,446 --> 00:43:08,164 - information, looking through facility information, going through enrollment data, talking to principals 438 00:43:08,164 --> 00:43:13,662 - about efficiencies in their building or programming in their building, how many students are where, 439 00:43:13,922 --> 00:43:19,162 - and diving into that educational visioning piece so that it can inform kind of the future steps. 440 00:43:19,162 --> 00:43:24,672 - From there, we're gonna gather a lot of that information into kind of an evaluation process. So as we 441 00:43:24,672 --> 00:43:30,290 - evaluate that and looking at it through several different lenses, we know you guys have been doing some 442 00:43:30,290 --> 00:43:35,854 - heavy lifting on some of the other district kind of administration components. So those are gonna have 443 00:43:35,854 --> 00:43:41,256 - to start layering into some of this conversation as we evaluate the data pieces from the facilities 444 00:43:41,256 --> 00:43:42,174 - as they come in. 445 00:43:42,306 --> 00:43:47,997 - And so we'll start to evaluate scenarios, look at trade-offs and hopefully refine those to a direction 446 00:43:47,997 --> 00:43:53,687 - or maybe multiple directions that come to the board for final adoption and implementation. You can see 447 00:43:53,687 --> 00:43:59,212 - that over that board of trustees comment there in the center, like there's gonna be multiple points 448 00:43:59,212 --> 00:44:05,124 - where we're gonna come to the board with information and ask for some validation or ask for some direction 449 00:44:05,124 --> 00:44:10,649 - or recommendations or input. So we're hoping to be very transparent and very collaborative with you 450 00:44:10,649 --> 00:44:12,030 - as well as the community 451 00:44:12,130 --> 00:44:17,548 - and the leadership team here. So with that, the last thing I'll mention is Dr. Winston did say that 452 00:44:17,548 --> 00:44:23,183 - she went through a rigor, or the leadership team with a rigorous process selection. I would second that 453 00:44:23,183 --> 00:44:28,710 - as one of the most rigorous processes I think I've ever been through. So kudos to her team for really 454 00:44:28,710 --> 00:44:34,291 - making sure that they're bringing the right partners for you guys. So we're really excited to get this 455 00:44:34,291 --> 00:44:39,926 - work moving and happy to take any questions you might have right here off the bat. Thank you, Mr. Hart. 456 00:44:39,926 --> 00:44:41,822 - Hi, Mr. Landfair. Is it Dr. Lohan? 457 00:44:42,818 --> 00:44:52,950 - Lone. OK, I tried to make it fancy for some reason. Dr. La. Thank you so much. Are there questions or 458 00:44:52,950 --> 00:45:02,983 - comments from the board? They're ready. They've been grilled. So will you all work with our teachers 459 00:45:02,983 --> 00:45:08,446 - as well in thinking through spaces in their buildings? 460 00:45:09,218 --> 00:45:15,353 - Yeah, 100%. So the educational visioning piece is specific to every client. So we know every community 461 00:45:15,353 --> 00:45:21,428 - and even every school is a little bit different. So usually we try to build some consensus at the top 462 00:45:21,428 --> 00:45:27,384 - level and then start to kind of widen out the cone as we put up some guardrails, as we like to call 463 00:45:27,384 --> 00:45:33,757 - them. And then we find it's very important and we often repeat the process once the vision is established. 464 00:45:33,757 --> 00:45:38,462 - If in theory we're going through a series of buildings over time, this is very 465 00:45:38,658 --> 00:45:43,825 - similar to a process we're going through with Bartholomew County schools today where they're renovating 466 00:45:43,825 --> 00:45:48,992 - every all of their elementaries over a five year period or so. And so the district kind of set a vision 467 00:45:48,992 --> 00:45:54,209 - and then each building we go into, we're still meeting with teachers aligning that vision and even doing 468 00:45:54,209 --> 00:45:59,277 - a little bit of professional development to help those teachers and administrators kind of understand 469 00:45:59,277 --> 00:46:04,345 - this is where the district is wanting us to go. But certainly that grassroots input is really, really 470 00:46:04,345 --> 00:46:05,438 - important. Thank you. 471 00:46:12,578 --> 00:46:18,520 - Can you say more about how you might convene those community groups or teacher groups or student groups 472 00:46:18,520 --> 00:46:24,463 - to get that feedback? We're still kind of in the infancy of figuring exactly what that looks like. It's 473 00:46:24,463 --> 00:46:30,520 - a little bit different for every district. And so we'll likely have those discussions with the leadership 474 00:46:30,520 --> 00:46:36,234 - team of how best to engage your community. I know since we have done work here for a long time that 475 00:46:36,234 --> 00:46:40,862 - that community engagement piece is critical, but also sometimes a little tricky. 476 00:46:40,994 --> 00:46:47,674 - based off of when people are available versus not available. Sometimes anonymous feedback is easier, 477 00:46:47,674 --> 00:46:54,355 - but sometimes maybe it's not as good. So trying to work through multiple scenarios where we can kind 478 00:46:54,355 --> 00:47:01,035 - of use different medias and different ways to do that. And so that's something we'll work through. I 479 00:47:01,035 --> 00:47:07,253 - don't know that I can tell you these are the exact plans yet, but we'll certainly have those. 480 00:47:07,253 --> 00:47:10,494 - Thank you. Thank you again for the presentation. 481 00:47:11,554 --> 00:47:18,073 - I just want to say thank you to Victor, to Brent, and to Stephanie. We are so excited about partnering 482 00:47:18,073 --> 00:47:24,528 - with you and the opportunities that we're going to be able to provide for the learning experiences of 483 00:47:24,528 --> 00:47:31,173 - our children. So thank you. Now for our consideration is the consent agenda that includes the following. 484 00:47:31,173 --> 00:47:38,135 - Minutes from the board meeting held on August 28, 2026, overnight out of state field trips, ECA expenditures, 485 00:47:38,135 --> 00:47:40,350 - financial report from August 2026, 486 00:47:40,674 --> 00:47:49,244 - Appropriation balance August 2026. Register of claims September 22, 2026. Payroll register and payroll 487 00:47:49,244 --> 00:47:57,648 - claims August 2026. Request to declare as surplus and authorized disposal of out of date items. Do I 488 00:47:57,648 --> 00:48:05,470 - have a motion regarding approval of the consent agenda? So moved. Do I have a second? Second. 489 00:48:05,826 --> 00:48:14,957 - It's been moved by Ross and seconded by Tiana that we approve the consent agenda as presented. All those 490 00:48:14,957 --> 00:48:23,219 - in favor of approving the consent agenda signify by saying aye. Aye. Any against? Abstentions? 491 00:48:23,219 --> 00:48:32,350 - Motion carries. Next for our consideration are the donations. We have received donations of over $7,000. 492 00:48:32,642 --> 00:48:41,812 - Thank you to all our donors. Your generosity is appreciated. Do I have a motion to accept the donations? 493 00:48:41,812 --> 00:48:50,545 - So moved. Do I have a second? Second. It's been moved by Ashley and seconded by Asia that we accept 494 00:48:50,545 --> 00:48:59,453 - the donations as presented. All those in favor of approving the donations signify by saying aye. Aye. 495 00:48:59,453 --> 00:49:01,374 - Against? Abstentions? 496 00:49:02,818 --> 00:49:12,012 - Motion carries. Tonight, we have three policies for our consideration, policy 5341, emergency health 497 00:49:12,012 --> 00:49:21,114 - card, policy 5330, use of medication, and policy 2340, field and other corporation-sponsored trips. 498 00:49:21,114 --> 00:49:29,853 - We will take them collectively. Do I have a motion to adopt policy 5341, emergency health card, 499 00:49:29,853 --> 00:49:32,766 - policy 5330, use of medication, 500 00:49:32,962 --> 00:49:41,413 - and policy 2340, field and other corporation sponsored trips. So moved. Do I have a second? Second. 501 00:49:41,413 --> 00:49:49,949 - It's been moved by Ross and seconded by Tiana that we adopt the aforementioned policies. Ms. Harmon. 502 00:49:49,949 --> 00:49:58,739 - Thank you. It is recommended that the board adopt the following policies, policy 5341, emergency health 503 00:49:58,739 --> 00:50:01,950 - card, policy 5330, use of medication, 504 00:50:02,114 --> 00:50:08,347 - Policy 2340 field and other corporation sponsored trips. Changes to these policies were presented for 505 00:50:08,347 --> 00:50:14,641 - a first reading at the August 25th, 2026 meeting of the board. The policies are presented to the board 506 00:50:14,641 --> 00:50:21,058 - for a second and final reading. Any prior policies relating to the aforementioned policies are rescinded 507 00:50:21,058 --> 00:50:27,229 - deemed null and void and replaced by the policies presented tonight for adoption on this 22nd day of 508 00:50:27,229 --> 00:50:29,246 - September, 2026. I so recommend. 509 00:50:29,922 --> 00:50:40,074 - Thank you, Ms. Harmon. Are there questions or comments from the board? All those in favor of adopting 510 00:50:40,074 --> 00:50:50,127 - Policy 5341, Emergency Health Card, Policy 5330, Use of Medication, and Policy 2340, Field and Other 511 00:50:50,127 --> 00:50:59,582 - Corporation Sponsored Trips, signify by saying aye. Aye. Against? Abstentions? Motion carries. 512 00:51:01,186 --> 00:51:08,727 - Next for our consideration is the personnel report. Do I have a motion to approve the personnel report 513 00:51:08,727 --> 00:51:16,415 - as presented? So moved. Do I have a second? Second. It's been moved by Ashley and seconded by Erin Wyatt 514 00:51:16,415 --> 00:51:24,029 - that we approve. Oh, sorry, April. April Hennessy. OK, let me try that again. It's been moved by Ashley 515 00:51:24,029 --> 00:51:29,886 - and seconded by April that we approve the personnel as reported. Dr. Henderson? 516 00:51:30,626 --> 00:51:36,966 - President Cooperman, Dr. Winston and members of the Board of School Trustees, this evening I would like 517 00:51:36,966 --> 00:51:43,305 - to call your attention to the following administrative changes of status, appointments and retirements. 518 00:51:43,305 --> 00:51:49,949 - First up, an administrator change of status. Benjamin Jones, changing from assistant principal at University 519 00:51:49,949 --> 00:51:56,350 - Elementary School to principal at Marlin Elementary School. Mr. Jones continues with MCCSC after serving 520 00:51:56,350 --> 00:51:58,910 - the corporation as an elementary teacher. 521 00:51:59,202 --> 00:52:05,666 - elementary school assistant principal and middle school assistant principal. Mr. Jones holds a bachelor's 522 00:52:05,666 --> 00:52:12,070 - degree in elementary education from the University of Southern Indiana and a master's degree in business 523 00:52:12,070 --> 00:52:18,168 - administration from Indiana University. He will serve as the principal at Marlin Elementary School. 524 00:52:18,168 --> 00:52:23,230 - An administrator appointment this evening, call your attention to Marty Koglazier. 525 00:52:23,778 --> 00:52:30,878 - Marty will return in service to MCCSC once again to serve as the interim assistant principal at University 526 00:52:30,878 --> 00:52:37,977 - Elementary School. Marty returns to MCCSC after previously serving as the principal at Fairview Elementary 527 00:52:37,977 --> 00:52:44,148 - School for five years. She also, if you recall, recently filled in at the Academy of Science 528 00:52:44,148 --> 00:52:51,646 - and Entrepreneurship. Ms. Colt Glazier holds a master's degree in education from the University of Indianapolis. 529 00:52:52,034 --> 00:52:59,540 - and she will again serve as the interim assistant principal for MCCSE at University Elementary School. 530 00:52:59,540 --> 00:53:07,119 - Finally, I'd like to call your attention to a certified staff retirement. This is Martha Bowman. Martha 531 00:53:07,119 --> 00:53:14,553 - retired after 21 years of dedicated service to MCCSE, having served as a science teacher at Tri-North 532 00:53:14,553 --> 00:53:15,646 - Middle School. 533 00:53:17,026 --> 00:53:23,497 - And on behalf of MCCSE, I would like to extend a special thank you to Ms. Bowman for her many years 534 00:53:23,497 --> 00:53:30,162 - of dedicated service and wish her well in her next adventures. At this time, I request that you please 535 00:53:30,162 --> 00:53:36,763 - approve the recommendations as presented in your board packet in the personnel report. Thank you, Dr. 536 00:53:36,763 --> 00:53:39,998 - Henderson. Are there any comments from the board? 537 00:53:46,882 --> 00:53:54,720 - I guess I'm grateful people keep coming out of retirement. Yes, absolutely. Particularly Ms. Colglazer, 538 00:53:54,720 --> 00:54:02,708 - yeah. Particularly, yeah. And congratulations to those who have retired and who are taking new positions. 539 00:54:02,708 --> 00:54:10,621 - All those in favor of any other comments before we take a vote? Well, congratulations to Benjamin Jones. 540 00:54:10,621 --> 00:54:11,902 - Yes, absolutely. 541 00:54:14,722 --> 00:54:21,444 - I think we usually wait to invite people until we've taken the votes. Correct. Thank you. So all those 542 00:54:21,444 --> 00:54:28,231 - in favor of approving the personnel report signify by saying aye. Aye. Against? Abstentions? I abstain. 543 00:54:28,231 --> 00:54:34,822 - Motion carries. Dr. Henderson, do you want to invite anyone to the podium? Yes. So before we move on 544 00:54:34,822 --> 00:54:41,543 - to the next agenda item, I'd like to invite Mr. Ben Jones up to the podium this evening to address the 545 00:54:41,543 --> 00:54:42,718 - board. Mr. Jones? 546 00:54:50,242 --> 00:54:56,761 - Good evening, President Kuperman, Dr. Winston, and members of the board of school trustees. I want to 547 00:54:56,761 --> 00:55:03,728 - begin by thanking you for placing your trust in me and giving me the opportunity to serve as an ex-principal 548 00:55:03,728 --> 00:55:10,119 - of Marlin Elementary. I also want to thank my wife, Alyssa. She's back here with my child trying to 549 00:55:10,119 --> 00:55:17,022 - keep it together. Her constant encouragement, patience, support have allowed me to pursue this opportunity. 550 00:55:17,922 --> 00:55:23,850 - And truly, I could not have reached this moment without her by my side. I'm extremely grateful for my 551 00:55:23,850 --> 00:55:29,894 - time at University Elementary. The experiences give me valuable opportunities to grow as a leader, work 552 00:55:29,894 --> 00:55:35,881 - alongside dedicated educators, and serve an incredible group of students. While I'm excited about this 553 00:55:35,881 --> 00:55:41,750 - next step, I will always value my time at University and the positive experiences that have prepared 554 00:55:41,750 --> 00:55:45,470 - me for this opportunity. I especially want to thank Sam Lannis, 555 00:55:45,826 --> 00:55:52,105 - for her excellent leadership, mentorship, and the many ways she has supported my growth as an administrator. 556 00:55:52,105 --> 00:55:57,923 - I would also like to recognize my parents, Paul and Kendra Jones. They are both educators, both over 557 00:55:57,923 --> 00:56:03,683 - 30 years, and their examples first inspired me to pursue a career in education and dedicate my life 558 00:56:03,683 --> 00:56:09,502 - to serving students. I could not be more excited for this opportunity to serve the Marlin community, 559 00:56:09,502 --> 00:56:14,398 - and I'm looking forward to getting into the building, getting to know the community, 560 00:56:14,626 --> 00:56:20,159 - I'm looking forward to connecting with families and learning what it takes to make, sorry, excuse me, 561 00:56:20,159 --> 00:56:26,072 - connecting with families and learning what makes Marlin a special place. I know there's already a tremendous 562 00:56:26,072 --> 00:56:31,551 - amount of great work happening at Marlin, and I'm excited to be a part of that work and continue and 563 00:56:31,551 --> 00:56:37,518 - help build upon the strong foundation that is already in place. It is truly an honor to have this opportunity 564 00:56:37,518 --> 00:56:43,051 - to lead Marlin Elementary. I'm excited, incredibly grateful, and I look forward to everything we will 565 00:56:43,051 --> 00:56:44,190 - accomplish together. 566 00:56:46,050 --> 00:56:53,933 - Thank you. Congratulations again, Mr. Jones and to your family. Thank you for being here. Also, our 567 00:56:53,933 --> 00:57:01,896 - feelings won't be hurt if you do take this opportunity to take the baby home. We will now move on to 568 00:57:01,896 --> 00:57:09,779 - contracts. Do I have a motion to approve the contracts and quotes as presented? So moved. Do I have 569 00:57:09,779 --> 00:57:11,198 - a second? Second. 570 00:57:11,618 --> 00:57:17,747 - It's been moved by Ross and seconded by Tiana that we approve the contracts and quotes as presented. 571 00:57:17,747 --> 00:57:24,179 - Mr Irwin. Yeah, I do want to highlight something for you tonight. It's just the various agreements before 572 00:57:24,179 --> 00:57:30,732 - you that are of no cost to the corporation and provide support to our student in our schools. We appreciate 573 00:57:30,732 --> 00:57:36,982 - the opportunity and desire of the community to partner with us. And that is something that will always 574 00:57:36,982 --> 00:57:38,014 - be grateful for. 575 00:57:38,114 --> 00:57:49,088 - As with that, I'm recommending your approval of the contracts as presented. Thank you, Mr. Erwin. Are 576 00:57:49,088 --> 00:58:00,492 - there any comments from the board? Hearing none, all those in favor of approving the contracts and quotes 577 00:58:00,492 --> 00:58:06,302 - signify by saying aye. Aye. Any against? Abstentions? 578 00:58:07,554 --> 00:58:16,132 - Motion carries. Tonight we have several informative presentations. We will begin with a health and safety 579 00:58:16,132 --> 00:58:24,791 - report. Ms. Harmon? Thank you. I'm trying to make sure I get the notes for the right one. So good evening, 580 00:58:24,791 --> 00:58:32,964 - President Cooperman, Dr. Winston, members of the board. Tonight we're bringing you our annual update 581 00:58:32,964 --> 00:58:36,606 - on health and safety across the corporation. 582 00:58:36,770 --> 00:58:43,181 - I'll be presenting alongside Eric Gilpin, our Director of Secondary Education and School Safety. I'll 583 00:58:43,181 --> 00:58:49,654 - walk you through student health and wellness, and then I'll hand it over to Mr. Gilpin to cover school 584 00:58:49,654 --> 00:58:56,002 - safety. Thank you, Ms. Albright. Before we get into the details, I want to start with the philosophy 585 00:58:56,002 --> 00:59:02,350 - behind this work. We envision schools where every student feels safe, healthy, and supported in mind 586 00:59:02,350 --> 00:59:06,750 - and body. Physical safety, emotional health, and mental health aren't 587 00:59:06,978 --> 00:59:12,610 - Separate, they're deeply connected, and when we nurture all three, we build the real foundation kids 588 00:59:12,610 --> 00:59:18,241 - need to learn, belong, and thrive. Everything you'll see tonight is organized around a model you may 589 00:59:18,241 --> 00:59:23,817 - be familiar with, the whole school, whole child, whole community from the CDC. It recognizes that a 590 00:59:23,817 --> 00:59:29,672 - student's health is shaped by many overlapping systems, health and physical education, nutrition, health 591 00:59:29,672 --> 00:59:33,854 - services, counseling, social, emotional support, the physical environment, 592 00:59:33,954 --> 00:59:39,679 - wellness and engagement with families in the community and our programs are designed to work across 593 00:59:39,679 --> 00:59:45,690 - all of these areas. So for the first half of tonight's update we'll talk about student physical, mental, 594 00:59:45,690 --> 00:59:51,645 - and behavioral health and wellness. On the physical health side we start with robust physical education 595 00:59:51,645 --> 00:59:57,599 - and health curriculum that spans pre-k through 12th grade including injury prevention, healthy choices, 596 00:59:57,599 --> 01:00:00,862 - relationships, and alcohol and drug awareness education. 597 01:00:01,186 --> 01:00:07,714 - We're also invested in family-focused extracurricular activities like Walk to School Day or our family 598 01:00:07,714 --> 01:00:14,051 - fun run and Health a Palooza, which get the whole family moving together. We're fortunate to have a 599 01:00:14,051 --> 01:00:20,389 - partnership with IU Health Coordinator of School Health, who's embedded with us providing strategic 600 01:00:20,389 --> 01:00:26,853 - support on curricular programs, policies, professional development and grant writing to help us build 601 01:00:26,853 --> 01:00:30,782 - healthier school environments. When we think about nutrition, 602 01:00:30,882 --> 01:00:36,979 - It's our next piece. Our Child Nutrition Department, as we talked about last month, runs all six USDA 603 01:00:36,979 --> 01:00:43,374 - child nutrition programs. Additionally, we have our farm to school and fresh fruit and vegetable programs. 604 01:00:43,374 --> 01:00:49,889 - On the education side, students take field trips to local farms through farm to school, and we've integrated 605 01:00:49,889 --> 01:00:56,165 - school gardens and classroom hydroproduct systems directly into the curriculum, so students are learning 606 01:00:56,165 --> 01:00:58,974 - about where their food comes from. We also are 607 01:00:59,714 --> 01:01:05,863 - grateful for our partnership with the community kitchen for our backpack buddies program that sends 608 01:01:05,863 --> 01:01:12,257 - home bags of food over the weekend. Every one of our buildings has a well-staffed health office focused 609 01:01:12,257 --> 01:01:18,467 - on whole child care through a coordinated system of preventative emergency and therapeutic services. 610 01:01:18,467 --> 01:01:24,862 - This year we also moved to school care our new student health record management system that's improving 611 01:01:24,862 --> 01:01:27,198 - health workflows for our health staff 612 01:01:27,394 --> 01:01:33,803 - gives families direct notification when their students visit the health office, and is fully FERPA and 613 01:01:33,803 --> 01:01:40,336 - HIPAA compliant. On equipment, we're proud to be 100% Project Adam Heart Safe Schools Corporation. Every 614 01:01:40,336 --> 01:01:46,558 - building has AED machines that are checked regularly, along with cabinets stocked with Stotha bleed 615 01:01:46,558 --> 01:01:53,278 - kits, Narcan. And in terms of direct care this year, or last year, our health services offices administered 616 01:01:53,278 --> 01:01:54,398 - 661 vaccinations, 617 01:01:54,562 --> 01:02:01,458 - coordinated dental care for 709 students, and ran vision screening for 1st, 3rd, 5th, and 8th, and hearing 618 01:02:01,458 --> 01:02:08,032 - screening for 1st, 4th, 7th, and 10th. Moving on to social, emotional, and behavioral health, we have 619 01:02:08,032 --> 01:02:14,670 - 21 full-time school-based social workers that provide individual small group mental health counseling, 620 01:02:14,670 --> 01:02:21,502 - classroom instruction on social skills and bullying prevention, and crisis intervention when it's needed. 621 01:02:22,050 --> 01:02:27,792 - Our secondary counselors additionally support students with academic guidance, supportive counseling, 622 01:02:27,792 --> 01:02:33,703 - and college and career readiness. This year, we're excited about our expanded partnership with community 623 01:02:33,703 --> 01:02:39,614 - and schools. And we have five family and community engagement coordinators serving seven of our schools, 624 01:02:39,614 --> 01:02:45,750 - bringing outside resources directly into the building and building relationships with students and families. 625 01:02:45,750 --> 01:02:50,366 - We've reached 100% implementation of positive behavior intervention and supports. 626 01:02:50,466 --> 01:02:57,314 - as we refer to it PBIS across the corporation. This is a school-wide approach that establishes a positive 627 01:02:57,314 --> 01:03:03,839 - student culture with clear expectations and individualized behavior supports. Alongside that, we use 628 01:03:03,839 --> 01:03:10,751 - restorative practices, which is a structured approach to conflict that focuses on respect, responsibility, 629 01:03:10,751 --> 01:03:14,046 - and repairing harm rather than punishment. We also 630 01:03:14,562 --> 01:03:20,031 - Teach these skills directly, second step for pre-K through sixth grade, and school connect for grades 631 01:03:20,031 --> 01:03:25,821 - ninth through 12th. Help student manage emotions, solve problems, and prevent bullying. Zones of regulation 632 01:03:25,821 --> 01:03:31,290 - helps younger kids recognize their feeling and use simple strategies to stay calm and ready to learn. 633 01:03:31,290 --> 01:03:37,187 - And common sense media brings digital citizenship lessons to every grade level, teaching safe and responsible 634 01:03:37,187 --> 01:03:42,924 - technology use with resources family can use to continue the conversations at home. We'd like to recognize 635 01:03:42,924 --> 01:03:44,318 - that none of what we have 636 01:03:44,514 --> 01:03:49,920 - done or do happens in isolation. We rely on strong community partnerships. And here is a listing of 637 01:03:49,920 --> 01:03:55,489 - some of those. So Centerstone provides school-based mental health counseling and life skills training. 638 01:03:55,489 --> 01:04:01,111 - Our IU Health and IU School of Public Health serve on our health council, provide internships and guest 639 01:04:01,111 --> 01:04:06,788 - speakers. The Boys and Girls Club and Big Brothers and Big Sisters provide mentorship. The Monroe County 640 01:04:06,788 --> 01:04:10,302 - Youth Services Bureau supports attendance and offers counseling. 641 01:04:10,466 --> 01:04:16,807 - counseling and parenting workshops. Middle height way house promotes healthy relationships among adolescents 642 01:04:16,807 --> 01:04:22,973 - and the IU school of social workplaces, pre-service social workers in our buildings under the supervision 643 01:04:22,973 --> 01:04:28,907 - of our own staff. That covers our health and wellness portion of this. And I'm now would like to turn 644 01:04:28,907 --> 01:04:34,724 - it over to Mr. Gilpin to walk you through school safety. Thank you. So as we look at school safety, 645 01:04:34,724 --> 01:04:39,262 - we begin looking at national guidelines and practices. What is best practice? 646 01:04:39,458 --> 01:04:46,469 - And one of the areas that we use is the Partner Alliance for Safer Schools, also known as PASS. This 647 01:04:46,469 --> 01:04:53,618 - visual representation here gives you an idea of looking from inside the classroom out to make sure all 648 01:04:53,618 --> 01:05:00,629 - areas are safe. And what happens is we eternally use an audit that they've developed to help us make 649 01:05:00,629 --> 01:05:07,709 - sure that all these areas meet national guidelines for school safety. We also continue to have school 650 01:05:07,709 --> 01:05:08,542 - monitoring. 651 01:05:08,770 --> 01:05:16,074 - If you look here, we have school-based safety committees. These safety committees meet on a regular 652 01:05:16,074 --> 01:05:23,597 - basis. They're made up of teachers, administrators, SROs, and a safety school specialist. We also have 653 01:05:23,597 --> 01:05:31,266 - an anonymous incident report, Stop It App, which allows 24-7 access and is monitored 24-7. We have local 654 01:05:31,266 --> 01:05:37,182 - partnerships. Many of them already mentioned with Alexa's presentation, but also 655 01:05:37,282 --> 01:05:44,978 - Specifically, we have the Monroe County School Safety Commission. This commission meets on a semi-annual 656 01:05:44,978 --> 01:05:52,821 - basis to incorporate all agencies within Monroe County, including other school corporations. A key access, 657 01:05:52,821 --> 01:06:00,591 - a key point in making sure that we are safe is preparation and training. We have school safety personnel, 658 01:06:00,591 --> 01:06:05,502 - which are SROs, security guards, and a training safety specialist. 659 01:06:06,210 --> 01:06:13,275 - Our safety specialists at each building go through a training. It's called basic training at the beginning 660 01:06:13,275 --> 01:06:20,341 - and then have 10 hours of training every year after that. They are part of the team getting this national, 661 01:06:20,341 --> 01:06:27,208 - bringing back this national state and best practices. And then what they do is they help with emergency 662 01:06:27,208 --> 01:06:32,094 - operation plans, formerly known as school safety plans and safety drills. 663 01:06:32,802 --> 01:06:39,251 - They will review the plans with the principal, which have to be reviewed every year by September 1st. 664 01:06:39,251 --> 01:06:45,574 - And then they also review them with the staff, any new implementations. They also are key to making 665 01:06:45,574 --> 01:06:52,212 - sure that all schools run safety drills. Those safety drills are the same ones that we've run for years, 666 01:06:52,212 --> 01:06:58,661 - including evacuation, shelter in place, and a lockdown drill. One of the things that we recognize and 667 01:06:58,661 --> 01:07:01,886 - have been told over and over by national and state 668 01:07:02,018 --> 01:07:08,142 - agencies is restricting school access. Who know who is in your building and the only way you can do 669 01:07:08,142 --> 01:07:14,450 - that is to lock your doors. So all of our doors are locked. If you visited one of our schools you know 670 01:07:14,450 --> 01:07:20,697 - that you cannot get in without pressing a buzzer and being let in. School personnel they have a badge 671 01:07:20,697 --> 01:07:26,821 - to be able to get in and then when everybody is in all the interior doors are locked as well. These 672 01:07:26,821 --> 01:07:31,230 - badges that the teachers use to get in and administrators use to get in 673 01:07:31,426 --> 01:07:38,051 - also shows as a sign that they are employees. So if somebody's in the building, they can tell when adults 674 01:07:38,051 --> 01:07:44,489 - walking around with a badge know that they are part of MCCSE. People who visit will come meet somebody 675 01:07:44,489 --> 01:07:50,802 - at the front desk and have their picture taken with their ID through what we call Navigate 360. It's 676 01:07:50,802 --> 01:07:56,990 - our system which then produces a badge that they will wear as they're walking around the building. 677 01:07:57,474 --> 01:08:03,017 - If a student or adult sees somebody who doesn't have one of those two badges, they're supposed to escort 678 01:08:03,017 --> 01:08:08,348 - that person to the front office so that we can make sure that they have one and that's where they're 679 01:08:08,348 --> 01:08:13,786 - supposed to be. Another way to know who our students are at is through our smart pass. This comes into 680 01:08:13,786 --> 01:08:19,223 - play really well when we have emergencies so that we know that when they're not in the classroom where 681 01:08:19,223 --> 01:08:23,710 - they should be because they have filled out a pass telling us where they're located. 682 01:08:25,858 --> 01:08:32,186 - Some of the other things that we have worked on this year specifically are communications and our standard 683 01:08:32,186 --> 01:08:38,160 - response protocol. This right here you see throughout all of our buildings and all of our classrooms 684 01:08:38,160 --> 01:08:44,252 - and all of our rooms, also known as our SRP. This tells us what to do in case of emergency and we have 685 01:08:44,252 --> 01:08:50,344 - five areas that you can take a look at on our school safety website. We have a monthly newsletter that 686 01:08:50,344 --> 01:08:52,414 - we send out to safety specialists. 687 01:08:52,834 --> 01:08:58,526 - We have semi-annual meetings with our school safety specialists. We have created communication templates 688 01:08:58,526 --> 01:09:04,110 - for quick response, as well as ensuring that we have groups that are getting the information that they 689 01:09:04,110 --> 01:09:09,585 - need, and then protocols on how to send out the messages and who sends out the messages. Finally, on 690 01:09:09,585 --> 01:09:15,277 - our website, there is a place where you can get more information about school safety. There's some links 691 01:09:15,277 --> 01:09:20,753 - on there that will tell you the communication that's available and how to make sure you're receiving 692 01:09:20,753 --> 01:09:21,566 - communication. 693 01:09:21,794 --> 01:09:28,262 - In fact, we have a test twice a year. This is the first year we did this. You probably received a test 694 01:09:28,262 --> 01:09:34,541 - in August, and then you'll receive one in January and January 8th to make sure that you are getting 695 01:09:34,541 --> 01:09:40,820 - the communication you should be getting from us in case of an emergency. We have our health and our 696 01:09:40,820 --> 01:09:46,659 - safety websites we encourage you to take a look at. Any questions or comments? Thank you for 697 01:09:46,659 --> 01:09:48,606 - the comprehensive information. 698 01:09:55,298 --> 01:10:01,875 - Mr. Gilpin, I do have one question. Do the lockdown drills look different for our students depending 699 01:10:01,875 --> 01:10:08,451 - on what grade they're in? No. We will call lockdown usually over the intercom and everybody does the 700 01:10:08,451 --> 01:10:15,158 - same thing. They go to a place that's in their building that they will, in their classroom or wherever 701 01:10:15,158 --> 01:10:21,799 - they're at, where they are and that cannot be seen from the outside. So everybody does the exact same 702 01:10:21,799 --> 01:10:24,990 - thing. We don't do anything different with that. 703 01:10:25,314 --> 01:10:31,738 - We just make sure that everybody's where they're supposed to be. So K through 12, you're hiding someplace 704 01:10:31,738 --> 01:10:37,798 - in your classroom. Thank you. I have a question as well. Mr. Gopen, one of the things that we often 705 01:10:37,798 --> 01:10:43,858 - hear criticism about is parents not, they feel like they don't receive enough information sometimes 706 01:10:43,858 --> 01:10:49,979 - during those drills. But can you maybe just tell us a little bit about why the protocols are the way 707 01:10:49,979 --> 01:10:53,918 - they are and what happens in that moment? So we really encourage 708 01:10:54,050 --> 01:10:59,980 - able to take a look at this website to get more deeper information. And I know that some information 709 01:10:59,980 --> 01:11:05,852 - was sent out to all the parents at the beginning of the year. When you're in a situation like that, 710 01:11:05,852 --> 01:11:12,017 - student safety is the priority, not communication to parents. So we want to make sure all these students 711 01:11:12,017 --> 01:11:17,889 - are safe, and we want to make sure we're aware of all this. And we will get out communication as it 712 01:11:17,889 --> 01:11:20,766 - comes in that we can share. But again, our first 713 01:11:20,930 --> 01:11:28,830 - So we want to make sure they're all where they need to be and as safe as possible before we actually 714 01:11:28,830 --> 01:11:36,809 - start putting out communication. Does that answer your question? Yeah, I think so. Thanks. Thank you. 715 01:11:36,809 --> 01:11:45,022 - I feel like I don't want to leave out the health side of it. I'm really grateful. I love Healthapalooza. 716 01:11:45,122 --> 01:11:51,160 - I think we've said this before, but our own board member Wyatt, I think, was responsible for starting 717 01:11:51,160 --> 01:11:57,197 - that. And I'm so grateful to those who have continued it and grown it. It's a really great event. And 718 01:11:57,197 --> 01:12:03,471 - I know you mentioned our partnership with the IU Healthy Schools Coordinator. Lisa Grayhouse and I worked 719 01:12:03,471 --> 01:12:09,390 - together many years ago on an AmeriCorps program, and she's really great. She's a huge asset to our 720 01:12:09,390 --> 01:12:12,350 - corporation. So we're grateful for their support. 721 01:12:13,858 --> 01:12:22,586 - I heartily agree about both of those things. Love Health of Palooza, love Lisa Gray House. I supervise 722 01:12:22,586 --> 01:12:31,144 - students doing the goal program in the after school program and it's really quite something to watch 723 01:12:31,144 --> 01:12:40,126 - the kids learn about healthy eating and exercise and they're so enthusiastic. Other shout outs, comments? 724 01:12:41,378 --> 01:12:48,684 - Thank you Mr. Gilpin and Ms. Harman. We will move on to our technology update when we're back to Ms. 725 01:12:48,684 --> 01:12:56,062 - Harman. Good evening again President Coomberman, Dr. Ronson, members of the board. Tonight we're here 726 01:12:56,062 --> 01:13:03,585 - to talk about technology in MCCSE and this time Andy Cope, Director of Technology, and I are presenting 727 01:13:03,585 --> 01:13:06,334 - together and that's very intentional. 728 01:13:06,466 --> 01:13:11,376 - If you take a look at this slide, you'll see the two departments, Information Services and Curriculum 729 01:13:11,376 --> 01:13:16,239 - and Instruction, and they meet in the middle at the enhancement of teaching and learning. And that's 730 01:13:16,239 --> 01:13:21,197 - why we're presenting together. Information Services is responsible for the foundation, security, data, 731 01:13:21,197 --> 01:13:26,059 - the tools, and the support. And then Curriculum and Instruction is responsible for what happens with 732 01:13:26,059 --> 01:13:31,114 - those tools once they're in the hands of teachers and students. And those two pieces can't be separated. 733 01:13:31,114 --> 01:13:32,414 - A secure, reliable network 734 01:13:32,738 --> 01:13:38,001 - doesn't matter if it isn't serving instruction, and instruction can't rely on tools that aren't safe, 735 01:13:38,001 --> 01:13:43,368 - dependable, and supported. The most important thing I want you to take from this slide is the direction 736 01:13:43,368 --> 01:13:48,734 - of that relationship. Technology is in service of the classroom and of student learning, and curriculum 737 01:13:48,734 --> 01:13:53,430 - drives decisions and technology follows. So Mr. Cope will begin by walking you through the 738 01:13:53,430 --> 01:13:58,590 - work of information services, how we keep students and data safe, the tools and devices we provide, 739 01:13:58,754 --> 01:14:06,122 - and how we support them. And then I'll return to talk about what that looks like in the classroom. 740 01:14:06,122 --> 01:14:13,862 - On to you. Thank you very much for the opportunity to speak with you tonight. We're President Cooperman 741 01:14:13,862 --> 01:14:21,453 - and members of the board. As Ms. Harmon mentioned, I will go through how the IS department serves the 742 01:14:21,453 --> 01:14:25,918 - corporation and a couple updates for you this year as well. 743 01:14:29,794 --> 01:14:39,270 - So starting off with security and data. The IS department takes network and device safety very seriously. 744 01:14:39,270 --> 01:14:49,014 - We have endpoint protection on all of our student and staff devices. You can also think of that as antivirus 745 01:14:49,014 --> 01:14:56,702 - of sorts. That is to protect every single device in the corporation from threats out. 746 01:14:56,802 --> 01:15:02,736 - outside our walls and inside our walls when it comes to devices. We also have a security operations 747 01:15:02,736 --> 01:15:08,790 - center, which allows us to do remote monitoring of security events. So, you know, we may get calls in 748 01:15:08,790 --> 01:15:14,843 - the middle of the night, you know, about a specific account or something going on on the network, and 749 01:15:14,843 --> 01:15:20,777 - they work to keep us safe 24 hours a day. We have email filtering to safeguard against phishing and 750 01:15:20,777 --> 01:15:22,142 - impersonation attacks. 751 01:15:22,594 --> 01:15:30,718 - and we work to secure the wired and wireless network on a daily basis. Additionally, we have battery 752 01:15:30,718 --> 01:15:38,762 - backups in all of our buildings to minimize the impact of a single outage at a particular building. 753 01:15:38,762 --> 01:15:46,806 - We also do a lot to safeguard student digital activity. There's a fair amount that we are obligated 754 01:15:46,806 --> 01:15:51,230 - to do legally. So we do follow federal and state laws. 755 01:15:51,874 --> 01:15:59,573 - the first of which is the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, FERPA, the Children's Online Privacy 756 01:15:59,573 --> 01:16:07,054 - Protection Act, COPPA, Children's Internet Protection Act, SEPA, and the Protection of Pupils' Rights, 757 01:16:07,054 --> 01:16:14,898 - which is PPRA. The way that we do that most principally is we have a content filter sitting on our network, 758 01:16:14,898 --> 01:16:20,926 - and this allows us to block certain categories of traffic, such as gambling sites, 759 01:16:21,378 --> 01:16:28,278 - or adult content, you know, that we don't want our students visiting, whether they're at school or whether 760 01:16:28,278 --> 01:16:34,792 - they're at home with their device. So we have a content filter for that. We have different rule sets 761 01:16:34,792 --> 01:16:41,434 - for different ages of students. So we have one rule set for kindergarten through eighth grade, another 762 01:16:41,434 --> 01:16:47,883 - rule set for ninth through 12th. And we also have a rule set for staff, which allows you to go to a 763 01:16:47,883 --> 01:16:50,334 - couple more sites than everyone else. 764 01:16:52,578 --> 01:16:59,627 - What's new in this space is that we have House Bill 1004 that just came out. And House Bill 1004 stipulates 765 01:16:59,627 --> 01:17:06,154 - that no later than January 1st, 2027, each Indiana school corporation and charter school must adopt 766 01:17:06,154 --> 01:17:13,203 - and implement a policy enabling a parent to do three separate things. Increase the strength of the internet 767 01:17:13,203 --> 01:17:20,382 - filter on the school-owned device. Block access to websites or content accessible on the school-owned device. 768 01:17:20,962 --> 01:17:26,985 - and limit the amount of time that is spent on the device by the student. We already do a great deal 769 01:17:26,985 --> 01:17:33,490 - of this, of course, with our current content filter, in particular, the strength of the filter and limiting 770 01:17:33,490 --> 01:17:39,634 - the amount of screen time through Apple Classroom. However, we are searching for a new content filter 771 01:17:39,634 --> 01:17:45,235 - at this time to allow us to enable parents to block access to websites or content accessible 772 01:17:45,235 --> 01:17:50,174 - on a school-owned device. That is not currently possible with our current filter. 773 01:17:51,874 --> 01:17:59,993 - So to that end, we are testing out new options that prioritize the following. Streamlined management, 774 01:17:59,993 --> 01:18:07,953 - powerful and customizable filtering, parental oversight, reporting and analytics, and classroom and 775 01:18:07,953 --> 01:18:16,310 - instructional flexibility. We do a ton to, of course, manage and protect student data in the information 776 01:18:16,310 --> 01:18:17,982 - services department. 777 01:18:18,338 --> 01:18:26,539 - Most principally with our student information system Skyward, and this is how we ensure accurate student 778 01:18:26,539 --> 01:18:34,974 - and family information. Timely family and communication enables us to do state reporting, maintain accurate 779 01:18:34,974 --> 01:18:43,096 - academic records, allows for real-time role-based access to student and teacher data, and we only share 780 01:18:43,096 --> 01:18:46,142 - essential data points to applications. 781 01:18:46,338 --> 01:18:53,370 - You can think of the number of different applications that we have in the corporation. You can feel 782 01:18:53,370 --> 01:19:00,754 - assured that we only send absolutely what's necessary to those corporations that house our student data. 783 01:19:00,754 --> 01:19:07,857 - I'd like to talk about technology tools managed by the Information Services Department. We do ensure 784 01:19:07,857 --> 01:19:13,694 - access and connectivity for teachers and students via a one-to-one device program. 785 01:19:14,338 --> 01:19:21,867 - So for kindergarten through 12th grade, you know, all the way through high school, we are one to one. 786 01:19:21,867 --> 01:19:29,469 - Kindergarten through sixth grade students use iPads and utilize touchscreen typing. Seventh and eighth 787 01:19:29,469 --> 01:19:36,998 - graders use iPads with a keyboard case. And nine through 12th grade students use Windows laptops, the 788 01:19:36,998 --> 01:19:44,158 - exception to that being the academy where they have iPads. We do have a robust wireless network. 789 01:19:44,642 --> 01:19:53,662 - with content filtering, as I mentioned. We have screen sharing technology to allow for innovative teaching 790 01:19:53,662 --> 01:20:02,177 - practices. And we also have assistive technology for student supports to allow us to follow 504s and 791 01:20:02,177 --> 01:20:10,775 - IEPs. We have assistive technologies for that. Various technology tools are used across the district, 792 01:20:10,775 --> 01:20:13,726 - and we work to make that possible. 793 01:20:14,242 --> 01:20:20,697 - We do identify and review learning apps in partnership with curriculum and instruction, so Ms. Harmon's 794 01:20:20,697 --> 01:20:26,903 - department. So when a request comes in for an application, we make sure that it's safe for students 795 01:20:26,903 --> 01:20:33,109 - and staff to use first and foremost, and that it fits into the goals of the corporation. We provide 796 01:20:33,109 --> 01:20:39,998 - grade-level content from a variety of textbook platforms and learning apps, rostered with student information. 797 01:20:40,450 --> 01:20:49,268 - We manage essential communication tools such as Parent Square and then we handle enrollment registration 798 01:20:49,268 --> 01:20:58,169 - and report cards in our student information system, Skyward. We are able to coordinate technology support 799 01:20:58,169 --> 01:21:06,987 - throughout the district utilizing a combination of in-building support and remote support and our remote 800 01:21:06,987 --> 01:21:09,758 - support is done through Zendesk. 801 01:21:10,146 --> 01:21:16,367 - And this is our help desk ticketing system, which allows us to centralize support requests. And we can 802 01:21:16,367 --> 01:21:22,649 - route support requests to the appropriate IS staff. For example, if there was an issue with the content 803 01:21:22,649 --> 01:21:29,051 - filter, if there was a website that was blocked that shouldn't be blocked, a teacher can put in a ticket. 804 01:21:29,051 --> 01:21:35,212 - And that ticket goes straight to someone who's managing the content filter, for example. Our building 805 01:21:35,212 --> 01:21:39,198 - technicians and computer coordinators do provide on-site support. 806 01:21:39,522 --> 01:21:46,209 - you know, in our schools. And support can be quickly escalated to the corporation level information 807 01:21:46,209 --> 01:21:52,896 - technology office as needed, you know, as it becomes necessary. On screen here, you can see how you 808 01:21:52,896 --> 01:21:59,583 - can put in a help desk ticket, and you can do that as a student, staff member, or a parent guardian 809 01:21:59,583 --> 01:22:05,534 - in our organization. So out there on any page on the website, if you click help, you get 810 01:22:05,794 --> 01:22:14,575 - a link to our guide and you can put in the ticket there. Some ticket support numbers here. You can see 811 01:22:14,575 --> 01:22:23,527 - that we've had 40,212 support articles out on our guide viewed so far in the past year. And we've solved 812 01:22:23,527 --> 01:22:32,479 - 27,354 tickets over the past year. And those two numbers really do serve one another because our support 813 01:22:32,479 --> 01:22:34,014 - articles actually 814 01:22:34,498 --> 01:22:41,141 - We do our best to keep those as up to date as possible. And we use those support articles when we are 815 01:22:41,141 --> 01:22:47,719 - replying to the tickets. And we get tickets in that make us realize that we need another article. So 816 01:22:47,719 --> 01:22:54,427 - it's a whole cycle. Yeah, those are some updated numbers for you. And I will pass it off to Ms. Harmon 817 01:22:54,427 --> 01:23:00,939 - to talk about enhancing teaching and learning. Thank you so much. Again, what Andy described is the 818 01:23:00,939 --> 01:23:03,870 - foundation. So I'd like to show you how that 819 01:23:04,066 --> 01:23:10,339 - we build on top of that, how those tools show up in classrooms, and just as importantly, how we make 820 01:23:10,339 --> 01:23:16,799 - decisions about how we use them. So the way we think about technology is captured in the first sentence 821 01:23:16,799 --> 01:23:23,135 - here. Teachers actively guiding students to use technology as a tool, and the teachers at the center, 822 01:23:23,135 --> 01:23:29,781 - and that technology is a tool that lets students explore, collaborate, problem solve, create, and reflect. 823 01:23:29,781 --> 01:23:31,582 - We organize this work around 824 01:23:31,714 --> 01:23:38,039 - three ideas, building future ready skills, enhancing access to learning, and increasing engagement. 825 01:23:38,039 --> 01:23:44,933 - And I'm going to take them one at a time across all three. And the question we ask is whether the technology 826 01:23:44,933 --> 01:23:51,574 - is changing what students are able to learn and do. So first, building future ready skills. Our youngest 827 01:23:51,574 --> 01:23:56,318 - learners are already building skills that will serve them for a long time. 828 01:23:56,738 --> 01:24:02,535 - The photo on the right shows students using coding blocks to sequence steps and debug simple programs. 829 01:24:02,535 --> 01:24:08,220 - And that's problem solving and logical thinking, not screen time for its own sake. As students grow, 830 01:24:08,220 --> 01:24:14,018 - this becomes critical thinking and digital literacy. Sorry, I went ahead and shouldn't have. Analyzing 831 01:24:14,018 --> 01:24:19,815 - online information and navigating digital tools responsibly. It also becomes designing and prototyping 832 01:24:19,815 --> 01:24:24,318 - and testing, which prepares them for the collaborative workplace they'll enter. 833 01:24:24,706 --> 01:24:30,627 - And we also want students to communicate across modalities, whether that's visual, written, or digital. 834 01:24:30,627 --> 01:24:36,549 - And I want to come back to digital literacy in a few minutes because it's essential to the conversation 835 01:24:36,549 --> 01:24:42,755 - that will be on my last slide. Technology also reduces barriers in education. Every student has standardized 836 01:24:42,755 --> 01:24:48,676 - access to textbooks, resources, and tools, and that matters for equity. It also gives students multiple 837 01:24:48,676 --> 01:24:53,630 - pathways to show what they know. A student might demonstrate learning through writing, 838 01:24:53,826 --> 01:24:59,761 - audio, art, coding, or design, like the student on this slide who created an app. And it supports 839 01:24:59,761 --> 01:25:06,120 - differentiation and inclusion. Andy mentioned this too. Speech to text, translation, text magnification, 840 01:25:06,120 --> 01:25:12,419 - and screen readers. For many students, these tools are what makes learning possible. And that's a place 841 01:25:12,419 --> 01:25:18,657 - where technology isn't a nice to have. It's essential. Here, when we talk about increasing engagement, 842 01:25:18,657 --> 01:25:20,958 - the key word is active. Virtual labs. 843 01:25:21,154 --> 01:25:27,001 - AR and VR experiences and gamified quizzes get students participating rather than receiving information. 844 01:25:27,001 --> 01:25:32,848 - Here you see students programming robots for competition. What we're most excited about is that students 845 01:25:32,848 --> 01:25:38,695 - move from being consumers of information to producers of knowledge and solutions. They see the relevance 846 01:25:38,695 --> 01:25:44,431 - of what they're learning and that builds motivation. The last slide is really the heart of what I want 847 01:25:44,431 --> 01:25:48,830 - to say this evening and to leave you with, and I want to speak to it directly. 848 01:25:49,058 --> 01:25:55,783 - We hear a concern from some families and community members that there's too much technology in our schools. 849 01:25:55,783 --> 01:26:02,072 - And I want to say plainly that we take that seriously. Whether or not it matches what's happening in 850 01:26:02,072 --> 01:26:08,424 - every classroom, it's a fair question and it deserves a real answer. Some context first. Since COVID, 851 01:26:08,424 --> 01:26:14,775 - technology use has grown everywhere, in homes and workplaces and across society, not just in schools. 852 01:26:14,775 --> 01:26:16,830 - Schools were part of that shift. 853 01:26:17,314 --> 01:26:23,055 - What matters is what we do about it now. And we are making a conscious and concerted effort to pull 854 01:26:23,055 --> 01:26:28,795 - back technology use where it does not have a direct impact on student learning and outcomes. Here's 855 01:26:28,795 --> 01:26:34,650 - the principle that guides us. Knowing when not to use technology is just as important as knowing when 856 01:26:34,650 --> 01:26:40,448 - to. You can see that reflected in the top of the slide. Technology in the classroom should always be 857 01:26:40,448 --> 01:26:44,926 - balanced with technology free instruction, used in clear and intentional way, 858 01:26:45,218 --> 01:26:50,610 - and directly connected to the stated learning goals. And we provide schools and teachers with device 859 01:26:50,610 --> 01:26:56,002 - usage guidelines that outline what that looks like in the classroom. If it doesn't meet that bar, it 860 01:26:56,002 --> 01:27:01,447 - doesn't belong in the lesson. So let me tell you a little bit about what that looks like in practice. 861 01:27:01,447 --> 01:27:06,786 - First, we've eliminated some instructional applications. When we looked at the outcomes, we weren't 862 01:27:06,786 --> 01:27:12,338 - seeing a significant impact on student learning, so we stopped using them. Second, we focused on active 863 01:27:12,338 --> 01:27:13,886 - use rather than passive use. 864 01:27:14,306 --> 01:27:19,764 - A student creating, problem solving, or collaborating is a very different experience from a student 865 01:27:19,764 --> 01:27:25,331 - scrolling or watching. We want the first, not the second. Third, we have central oversight of digital 866 01:27:25,331 --> 01:27:30,898 - tool review. Andy mentioned this as well. When a teacher wants to use a new tool in the classroom, it 867 01:27:30,898 --> 01:27:36,739 - goes through a review to make sure it meets our safety requirements and will achieve the learning outcomes 868 01:27:36,739 --> 01:27:42,142 - we're after. That's the partnership between our departments that you saw at the beginning. Fourth, 869 01:27:42,626 --> 01:27:48,099 - We're adopting curriculum that is less reliant on technology. When we select instructional materials, 870 01:27:48,099 --> 01:27:53,733 - we're intentionally choosing resources that don't depend on a screen. And fifth, we don't use technology 871 01:27:53,733 --> 01:27:59,420 - for downtime. That's why, as you can see at the bottom of the slide, K-6 iPads are not used during lunch, 872 01:27:59,420 --> 01:28:05,054 - during recess, or at any other time that isn't under direct staff supervision. Devices are for learning. 873 01:28:06,338 --> 01:28:11,870 - The guardrails in the yellow box support all of this. Apple Classroom gives teachers visibility into 874 01:28:11,870 --> 01:28:17,567 - what students are doing in the devices. We have clear procedures and expectations, and we're thoughtful 875 01:28:17,567 --> 01:28:23,264 - about physical classroom design and how that supports positive device usage. And the new content filter 876 01:28:23,264 --> 01:28:28,851 - that Andy talked about described earlier will give us more flexibility and gives parents more control 877 01:28:28,851 --> 01:28:34,110 - in line with the new state requirements. I also want to be honest about the other side of this. 878 01:28:34,530 --> 01:28:39,732 - Our students are growing up in a world full of technology and it's not going away. If we simply pulled 879 01:28:39,732 --> 01:28:45,036 - it all out, we wouldn't be protecting them. We'd be leaving them to figure it out on their own. Students 880 01:28:45,036 --> 01:28:50,238 - need to build digital literacy. They need to understand the impact of technology has on them and learn 881 01:28:50,238 --> 01:28:55,542 - how to use it well. Schools are one of the best places to learn that in a supervised setting with adults 882 01:28:55,542 --> 01:29:00,643 - guiding them. So our goal is balance and intention, technology when it makes learning better and not 883 01:29:00,643 --> 01:29:01,502 - when it doesn't. 884 01:29:01,858 --> 01:29:08,643 - And that's a conversation between curriculum instruction and information services. And it's one we're 885 01:29:08,643 --> 01:29:15,760 - committed to continue. I thank you for your time and your continued support. And if you have any questions 886 01:29:15,760 --> 01:29:22,478 - for either of us, thank you. Thank you, Ms. Harmon and Mr. Cope. Are there any questions or comments 887 01:29:22,478 --> 01:29:29,662 - from the board? First, thank you all for both of your. This was a great presentation. I do have a question. 888 01:29:29,794 --> 01:29:39,729 - So why does the Academy use iPads and not laptops like the other high schools? Is it by preference or? 889 01:29:39,729 --> 01:29:49,664 - Come to a mic, please, Andy. You can use Matt's mic. It was really a joint decision made by curriculum 890 01:29:49,664 --> 01:29:56,030 - instruction and technology and with the leadership of the school. 891 01:29:56,738 --> 01:30:05,077 - their MacBooks were actually aged out. So we had to make a decision. And it was a financial decision 892 01:30:05,077 --> 01:30:13,333 - as well as a curricular decision to make sure that we had a device that would adequately meet their 893 01:30:13,333 --> 01:30:22,250 - needs. And we found that the iPad was a really good spot, a really good place to be in, in that it provided 894 01:30:22,250 --> 01:30:25,470 - the same functionality as the MacBook, 895 01:30:25,762 --> 01:30:32,883 - but then also with the familiarity of the operating system from iOS moving from middle school to high 896 01:30:32,883 --> 01:30:39,934 - school. So those are the basic reasons why. Can I add to that too? Historically, for a while they... 897 01:30:40,162 --> 01:30:45,380 - Andy mentioned it. They had MacBooks previously as well, and the other high schools did not. And a lot 898 01:30:45,380 --> 01:30:50,547 - of that had to do with the things that they were doing around the pathways that they had committed to 899 01:30:50,547 --> 01:30:55,815 - in their projects-based learning. That tool was identified as having more, you know, some of the things 900 01:30:55,815 --> 01:31:00,982 - that they were doing around art and design and engineering and things like that. And so then when the 901 01:31:00,982 --> 01:31:02,046 - MacBooks phased out, 902 01:31:02,242 --> 01:31:08,539 - decision was to go to iPads. I think they're particularly excited right now since cell phones are no 903 01:31:08,539 --> 01:31:14,960 - longer. And so some of the projects they were doing in terms of photography and things like that, it's 904 01:31:14,960 --> 01:31:21,319 - given them a lot of agility. Thanks. And the teachers that I've spoken to have been happy about it as 905 01:31:21,319 --> 01:31:27,554 - well. They all have an iPad to help support their instruction, similar to the students. Thanks. Can 906 01:31:27,554 --> 01:31:30,110 - I ask a question about the policy that's 907 01:31:30,210 --> 01:31:39,253 - going to be required by 20 or 2027, like the ability for parents to reduce or block that has to be on 908 01:31:39,253 --> 01:31:48,562 - the device itself? Yes, it does. It has to be provided by the district. And the way the districts comply 909 01:31:48,562 --> 01:31:58,846 - with that is by having a content filter that does that, that has that feature. Our current content filter does not. 910 01:31:59,010 --> 01:32:06,363 - we're evaluating different options, content filters that do. And so how that is done looks a little 911 01:32:06,363 --> 01:32:13,717 - bit different from company to company. And so we are prioritizing that piece to make sure that it's 912 01:32:13,717 --> 01:32:21,364 - the most easy to use and feature-rich implementation of that. I guess my question, this is one of those 913 01:32:21,364 --> 01:32:28,350 - moments where I have to wonder about the policy and who's asking for this policy, because it's 914 01:32:29,122 --> 01:32:35,403 - feels like it is somewhat of a barrier. So say a parent, OK, for instance, at our house, when we have 915 01:32:35,403 --> 01:32:41,622 - teenagers with devices and we are not sure if they can monitor their own or regulate their own time, 916 01:32:41,622 --> 01:32:48,026 - we simply connect it to our own Wi-Fi system. And at a certain time every night, it turns off for them, 917 01:32:48,026 --> 01:32:54,430 - and they can no longer use that device to do those things, right? Sure, it's more problematic if, like, 918 01:32:54,754 --> 01:33:01,666 - YouTube is permitted on a school device and we don't want them just surfing YouTube for hours to do 919 01:33:01,666 --> 01:33:08,923 - X, Y or Z. But the question is if a parent wants to block an app, and this is not necessarily, you don't 920 01:33:08,923 --> 01:33:15,834 - have to answer this I don't think, but if a parent wants to block an app and then they go to school 921 01:33:15,834 --> 01:33:21,502 - and they need to use that app because for instance they do use YouTube in school. 922 01:33:21,794 --> 01:33:28,690 - Does it have to get turned on and off every day, or would it just like entering a Wi-Fi system, would 923 01:33:28,690 --> 01:33:35,857 - it automatically reset? It does vary a bit by company to company, but what we've seen is that the leading 924 01:33:35,857 --> 01:33:42,753 - companies that we're looking at, they do a time-based restriction. So they would be able to enable it 925 01:33:42,753 --> 01:33:47,486 - while the student is at home, and then that restriction would expire. 926 01:33:47,970 --> 01:33:55,705 - I will say our teachers are accustomed to a version of this because we do have, you know, internet groups 927 01:33:55,705 --> 01:34:03,002 - that have enhanced filtering if upon family request already. And so it's a bit similar to that, but 928 01:34:03,002 --> 01:34:10,518 - this is like a more formalized process. And I assume there's cost associated with? There is cost, yes. 929 01:34:10,518 --> 01:34:17,086 - And it does vary by vendor. Do you see that as being a potential issue? So we'll just use 930 01:34:17,218 --> 01:34:26,759 - YouTube because that's what was thrown out. It's easy. Can a parent or guardian indefinitely block the 931 01:34:26,759 --> 01:34:36,486 - access to the site so they couldn't use it at all? They could block that resource at home. Just at home? 932 01:34:36,486 --> 01:34:46,398 - Yeah. OK. But this is a state requirement, right? It is, yeah. Yeah. Of a thing that will cost more money. 933 01:34:46,498 --> 01:34:55,385 - And have you received any feedback on the use of parent square for student to parent communication during 934 01:34:55,385 --> 01:35:04,189 - the day? Personally, I have not, but I have used it to communicate with my own son and I think he enjoys 935 01:35:04,189 --> 01:35:12,909 - it. Yeah, I've also used it. I found it to be really helpful, actually, you know, just in terms of pick 936 01:35:12,909 --> 01:35:14,334 - up my kids plan. 937 01:35:14,562 --> 01:35:21,818 - changed and he said can you pick me up at five instead of right after school and he was able to message 938 01:35:21,818 --> 01:35:29,005 - me through parent square and i was able to respond and say yes that's fine and so it worked great yeah 939 01:35:29,005 --> 01:35:35,982 - so andy did you say parents can submit a help ticket they can okay i will be submitting one tonight 940 01:35:35,982 --> 01:35:41,982 - i need help i mean just so you know i was trying to use it with my middle schooler so 941 01:35:42,178 --> 01:35:50,744 - that was an out, but I'm going to try with my high schooler. Ms. Harmon, I appreciated the device usage 942 01:35:50,744 --> 01:35:59,311 - guidance that you showed. Have you already or do you anticipate taking any of that guidance and turning 943 01:35:59,311 --> 01:36:05,406 - it into hard rules or asking us to pass policies related to those things? 944 01:36:06,242 --> 01:36:13,342 - We do have it in terms of guidance that is given directly to teachers in a formal part of all of the 945 01:36:13,342 --> 01:36:20,372 - kind of materials and kind of administrative guidelines that we give them in terms of expectations. 946 01:36:20,372 --> 01:36:27,402 - So that seems sufficient for us in terms of how they have it. And it seems to work well. And then I 947 01:36:27,402 --> 01:36:34,713 - thought April would ask about AI, but since she hasn't, I will. Because it's coming up in our committee 948 01:36:34,713 --> 01:36:35,838 - report section, 949 01:36:36,066 --> 01:36:43,465 - It's not fair enough to talk about it there, but it's fine. Have you considered guidance? I mean, I'm 950 01:36:43,465 --> 01:36:50,719 - sure you have considered guidance around AI. Is there anything that you can share about that? We do 951 01:36:50,719 --> 01:36:58,045 - similarly have AI guidance that we give to teachers as the current resources and things that we have 952 01:36:58,045 --> 01:37:05,662 - around what AI literacy looks like, what the kinds of considerations and thoughts that they should have. 953 01:37:05,794 --> 01:37:11,231 - because we know it's changing all the time. So we're just trying to do that as well. And then along 954 01:37:11,231 --> 01:37:16,668 - with IS department, we manage access to that. So students don't have access to AI on their devices. 955 01:37:16,668 --> 01:37:22,269 - You can't control what they do on their personal devices. They're school-issued ones. They have access 956 01:37:22,269 --> 01:37:27,216 - to only one AI tool. It's called Magic School. And it's actually designed specifically for 957 01:37:27,216 --> 01:37:31,838 - school environments. And it's a way for teachers to create kind of an AI environment 958 01:37:32,290 --> 01:37:39,448 - instructional purposes. Is that a fair explanation? Yeah, we'll call it AI with guardrails. Yeah. Yeah. 959 01:37:39,448 --> 01:37:46,331 - AI with guardrails. Thank you. Other questions or comments from the board? Well, thank you for your 960 01:37:46,331 --> 01:37:53,558 - work. And I like how you showed the collaboration between curriculum and instruction technology, because 961 01:37:53,558 --> 01:38:00,510 - they have to work together. Can I ask a quick question about, OK, so the statement that just sort of 962 01:38:01,442 --> 01:38:09,130 - brought the question up is that students don't have access to AI on their school devices. But does that 963 01:38:09,130 --> 01:38:16,744 - mean that like, for instance, they don't have access to chat to open AI or chat GBT, Claude and things 964 01:38:16,744 --> 01:38:24,210 - like that. But what about like Google, which produces an AI? Google itself has AI embedded and could 965 01:38:24,210 --> 01:38:28,350 - be used in some ways, like the AI summary that pops up. 966 01:38:28,834 --> 01:38:36,217 - based on what you ask it and how you ask it? We do block Gemini, but there are other features that end 967 01:38:36,217 --> 01:38:43,743 - up getting introduced in the browser that we have to kind of play catch up on. But we make every attempt 968 01:38:43,743 --> 01:38:50,983 - to block anything that isn't Magic School at this time. OK, great. Thank you. And then so presumably 969 01:38:50,983 --> 01:38:56,574 - also teachers can't use it for their lessons. Like at IU, for example, I do a 970 01:38:56,674 --> 01:39:02,186 - an emergency simulation where my students have to create messages if there were some kind of public 971 01:39:02,186 --> 01:39:07,697 - health emergency, and then the AI reacts to those messages. But our teachers couldn't use that kind 972 01:39:07,697 --> 01:39:13,374 - of technology. They could do that lesson in magic school. Is that what you're saying? Like, could they 973 01:39:13,374 --> 01:39:18,941 - do something similar? I think they could. They could have their students be in magic school and have 974 01:39:18,941 --> 01:39:24,508 - a scenario. That's correct. They do also have access to other AI tools. We don't block it for staff, 975 01:39:24,508 --> 01:39:25,886 - actually. OK. Thank you. 976 01:39:27,970 --> 01:39:35,847 - Other questions or comments? Thank you both so much for your presentation. And the last presentation 977 01:39:35,847 --> 01:39:43,881 - is the CFO financial update, Mr. Irwin. You got to start with me tonight, and then you get to end with 978 01:39:43,881 --> 01:39:51,914 - me. I appreciate the opportunity to give you the update on the cash flow report, so we'll move through 979 01:39:51,914 --> 01:39:54,878 - it as we normally do. Education fund. 980 01:39:55,042 --> 01:40:00,871 - Actual revenue, slightly above projections, incredibly accurate. That's a great thing. Expenses were 981 01:40:00,871 --> 01:40:06,816 - below projection. Again, that's in the world where we want to see things, where we want it to be. Part 982 01:40:06,816 --> 01:40:12,761 - of that reason was that we did have some expenditures that we were able to move into a grant. And that 983 01:40:12,761 --> 01:40:18,706 - was as we closed out a grant. So that's a one-time relief of expenditures in the education fund, which 984 01:40:18,706 --> 01:40:24,766 - obviously helps the fund in the short term. But that is a big reason why expenses were below projection. 985 01:40:24,898 --> 01:40:30,137 - As well as claims, claims were lower and that has a lot to do with just timing. So a lot of times I'm 986 01:40:30,137 --> 01:40:35,325 - talking about some of this stuff. I'm like, it's the timing of invoices as they come in. And in this 987 01:40:35,325 --> 01:40:40,615 - particular case, it has a lot to do with curricular adoption invoices that we're expecting in the near 988 01:40:40,615 --> 01:40:45,957 - term that haven't yet been received. And so essentially what I'm doing as that happens, I'm moving that 989 01:40:45,957 --> 01:40:51,710 - projection forward into four months to make sure that I continue to account for it in the numbers that you see. 990 01:40:52,226 --> 01:40:57,585 - One of the things that is common in the outlook portion of each one of these slides is that I'm tracking 991 01:40:57,585 --> 01:41:02,792 - payrolls every single week as they happen. We have a payroll that happens every week, whether it's on 992 01:41:02,792 --> 01:41:08,151 - the certified side or the non-certified side. And that's essentially how it's lined up. But I'm tracking 993 01:41:08,151 --> 01:41:13,459 - those payrolls every week to look at, to help me gauge what's normal, what's not normal, whether I need 994 01:41:13,459 --> 01:41:18,819 - to ask some more questions as relates to what it is that I'm seeing aside from the information I already 995 01:41:18,819 --> 01:41:20,350 - get within my own department. 996 01:41:20,674 --> 01:41:26,714 - But then that helps me with projections because now that we're into this current contract year, it allows 997 01:41:26,714 --> 01:41:32,753 - us to gauge how those things should continue to incur as we move forward into future months. So it allows 998 01:41:32,753 --> 01:41:38,622 - me to continue to sharpen my numbers when I look into the forward months of projections. And so that's 999 01:41:38,622 --> 01:41:44,376 - something that you'll see that bullet point consistent across the fund structures that have staffing 1000 01:41:44,376 --> 01:41:47,966 - in them because that's something that I do on a regular basis. 1001 01:41:48,066 --> 01:41:53,485 - and I pay attention to the timing and the overlap. But when we start that new year, when people are 1002 01:41:53,485 --> 01:41:58,904 - either returning to work from summer months, when not as many people are at work here at the school 1003 01:41:58,904 --> 01:42:04,377 - corporation, or when we start new contract years and that adjustment as well. Overall, our fund cash 1004 01:42:04,377 --> 01:42:10,012 - balance for the year in 2026 is higher than last month's projection. We're still below that target cash 1005 01:42:10,012 --> 01:42:15,539 - balance goal that we talked about in the quarterly report, but we're making great progress. So that's 1006 01:42:15,539 --> 01:42:16,894 - definitely a good thing. 1007 01:42:18,274 --> 01:42:24,141 - 2022 referendum. So no revenue in this fund for August. Again, I do these things I know sometimes are 1008 01:42:24,141 --> 01:42:30,008 - repetitive, but it continues to show that some of our funds, especially these tax levy funds, go long 1009 01:42:30,008 --> 01:42:35,818 - periods of time without revenue and there's the regular expenses that occur and you see those in the 1010 01:42:35,818 --> 01:42:41,570 - cash flows that you receive. Actual expenses are below projections across all categories, so that's 1011 01:42:41,570 --> 01:42:44,734 - helpful in relation to what it is that we want to see. 1012 01:42:44,898 --> 01:42:51,959 - You see that same bullet point that you saw on the previous slide, because I did that across all of 1013 01:42:51,959 --> 01:42:58,526 - those fund structures of looking at payrolls as they come in. And right now, the balance for 1014 01:42:58,526 --> 01:43:05,799 - 2026 individually projects to be about even about where we started. Referendum 2023. Again, no revenue 1015 01:43:05,799 --> 01:43:11,518 - in the fund for August. Expenses were below projections in payroll and benefits. 1016 01:43:11,874 --> 01:43:18,022 - Claims were a bit higher due to, again, timing of invoices received on curriculum purchases. So as those 1017 01:43:18,022 --> 01:43:23,877 - things come in, that adjustment is made and then that affects future projections as I look at those 1018 01:43:23,877 --> 01:43:29,791 - individual line items. 2026 cash balance projections, again, look to be up this year and they look a 1019 01:43:29,791 --> 01:43:35,822 - little bit better than last month based on the variance between what was the below expenses on payroll 1020 01:43:35,822 --> 01:43:41,150 - and benefits and the difference in claims for being a little bit higher than expectations. 1021 01:43:42,818 --> 01:43:48,233 - The operations fund. Revenue is above projection and a lot of this has to do with interest earned on 1022 01:43:48,233 --> 01:43:53,862 - cash in the bank. So we get interest that we, payment that we get from our bank every single month based 1023 01:43:53,862 --> 01:43:59,652 - on the rate that we have and the amount of cash that's in our bank account. As we continue to put ourselves 1024 01:43:59,652 --> 01:44:05,120 - in a better position, as we talk about that position of financial strength, this is one of those side 1025 01:44:05,120 --> 01:44:08,766 - benefits that we continue to get because that then in turn helps us 1026 01:44:08,930 --> 01:44:14,664 - as it relates to revenue that we receive that supports the expenses that happen within the operations 1027 01:44:14,664 --> 01:44:20,230 - fund. That's the fund we're replacing that interest in. Payroll and benefits in our other category 1028 01:44:20,230 --> 01:44:26,245 - projections were very accurate. Expenses and services and supplies categories were well below projections. 1029 01:44:26,245 --> 01:44:32,092 - And some of that, again, I'm looking at and I'm going back into previous years, months to see what were 1030 01:44:32,092 --> 01:44:37,770 - some of the big expenses that might have happened in those categories. How does that compare to what 1031 01:44:37,770 --> 01:44:38,782 - I saw this month? 1032 01:44:38,978 --> 01:44:44,350 - Does that mean that I need to take some of that projection of cash and move that into a future month 1033 01:44:44,350 --> 01:44:49,668 - based on what I'm seeing or not seeing from last year at that particular month or those surrounding 1034 01:44:49,668 --> 01:44:55,093 - months? So it's really digging into the weeds to help me identify how do I need to move my numbers or 1035 01:44:55,093 --> 01:45:00,518 - do I need to not move them at all? And then again, the 2026 fund balance projection from last year is 1036 01:45:00,518 --> 01:45:06,102 - trending towards our goal. We're moving into that position of financial strength within this fund. We're 1037 01:45:06,102 --> 01:45:07,006 - making progress. 1038 01:45:07,202 --> 01:45:13,058 - And that's definitely a good thing as well. The last fund that we talk about is the debt service fund. 1039 01:45:13,058 --> 01:45:18,971 - There was no activity in the fund during the month of August. That's normal. And so we see the majority 1040 01:45:18,971 --> 01:45:24,201 - of our revenue in two months of the year. That's June and December when we receive property 1041 01:45:24,201 --> 01:45:29,887 - tax disbursements. And there was no expenses and that's normal. Most of our activity has to do with 1042 01:45:29,887 --> 01:45:35,743 - the timing of bond payments. Remember the purpose of the fund is to make the payments on our long-term 1043 01:45:35,743 --> 01:45:36,766 - debt obligations. 1044 01:45:37,026 --> 01:45:42,367 - and loans that we have and then some of the other side things that you might see are like the regular 1045 01:45:42,367 --> 01:45:47,813 - occurring trustee fees that they have for processing those debt payments and those sorts of things that 1046 01:45:47,813 --> 01:45:53,101 - we have so essentially the projection looks identical to last month i made some adjustments based on 1047 01:45:53,101 --> 01:45:58,390 - some me knowing when some trustee fees were going to come in but it looks pretty identical that last 1048 01:45:58,390 --> 01:46:03,626 - bullet point as a placeholder as a reminder of this year is the only year that we're able to spread 1049 01:46:03,626 --> 01:46:06,558 - the loss of the supplemental homestead deduction across 1050 01:46:06,946 --> 01:46:14,449 - service and operations in future years that will all go to the operations fund so I just leave that 1051 01:46:14,449 --> 01:46:22,101 - last bullet point as a reminder to that fact we'll make that second transfer and you see that in your 1052 01:46:22,101 --> 01:46:29,754 - cash flows in December so with that I'm done thank you mr. Erwin are there questions or comments from 1053 01:46:29,754 --> 01:46:35,006 - the board I got a question so in both referendums you said no revenue 1054 01:46:35,362 --> 01:46:42,017 - for August, is that the way you were talking about the invoices coming in, is that why? No, that doesn't 1055 01:46:42,017 --> 01:46:48,418 - have anything to do with invoices. It's just the timing of when revenue is received. So the 99.9% of 1056 01:46:48,418 --> 01:46:54,820 - the revenue that comes essentially into our two referendum funds are local property tax dollars. And 1057 01:46:54,820 --> 01:47:01,982 - so that's the main source of revenue that flows into that fund. Those disbursements happen in June and December. 1058 01:47:02,306 --> 01:47:08,273 - So if we see anything in between that, it might be like a reimbursement of something. So say someone 1059 01:47:08,273 --> 01:47:14,358 - was like our literacy cadre through the IDOE. If that person was originally funded from the referendum 1060 01:47:14,358 --> 01:47:20,620 - fund and we get a reimbursement from the state on that particular grant, that's when that is reimbursable 1061 01:47:20,620 --> 01:47:26,587 - back into the original fund of expenditure. So you might see some things like that that happen every 1062 01:47:26,587 --> 01:47:30,782 - once in a while, but that's not something that commonly occurs because 1063 01:47:30,882 --> 01:47:36,824 - The vast majority of all revenue is lined up with the timing of when we receive property tax disbursements. 1064 01:47:36,824 --> 01:47:42,436 - The invoices are just on the expenditure side. And it's me trying to time up what might have happened 1065 01:47:42,436 --> 01:47:48,048 - in August of last year, might end up happening in June of this year or July of this year, or it could 1066 01:47:48,048 --> 01:47:53,605 - happen in September of this year. It just depends on the timing of when an invoice might be received 1067 01:47:53,605 --> 01:47:59,161 - and then how that correlates with maybe the register of claims that you guys see in the board packet 1068 01:47:59,161 --> 01:48:00,702 - as far as timing of payout. 1069 01:48:01,026 --> 01:48:09,445 - I'm learning. I appreciate it. I appreciate the question. I'm sure some people listen and are happy 1070 01:48:09,445 --> 01:48:18,454 - to learn that, too. Yeah, hopefully it's helpful. Thank you again, Mr. Irwin. Our committee update tonight 1071 01:48:18,454 --> 01:48:26,958 - is a report from the MCCSE Foundation. Board member Jester serves on this committee. Ms. Jester? Hi. 1072 01:48:26,958 --> 01:48:30,494 - Thank you, President Cooperman. The MCCSE 1073 01:48:30,594 --> 01:48:43,582 - Foundation Committee meets monthly throughout the year. This month, the focuses have been on the teacher 1074 01:48:43,582 --> 01:48:56,446 - grant program closed on September 8th. And so now we are beginning to move into reviewing those grants. 1075 01:48:57,890 --> 01:49:07,227 - There was an event hosted for the facilities department this month, a luncheon and show of appreciation 1076 01:49:07,227 --> 01:49:16,205 - for all of their work and dedication to the corporation. We're also preparing for October. Real men 1077 01:49:16,205 --> 01:49:24,734 - read program will begin and there will be a kickoff event for volunteers soon. I believe that. 1078 01:49:27,490 --> 01:49:36,377 - And fundraising, of course, is always happening. We started requesting items for the online auction, 1079 01:49:36,377 --> 01:49:45,440 - reading, writing, and bidding. This is the 15th year of the auction and encourage local businesses and 1080 01:49:45,440 --> 01:49:54,326 - our families to support the event this year. I'd like to thank the executive director, Cirilla Helm, 1081 01:49:54,326 --> 01:49:57,406 - for her dedication and leadership. 1082 01:49:58,050 --> 01:50:08,439 - Any of you all know that her time with the foundation has seen tremendous growth in their ability to 1083 01:50:08,439 --> 01:50:18,108 - help us all out. And then just lastly, there's always ways that you can find to donate at the 1084 01:50:18,108 --> 01:50:25,822 - mccscfoundation.org. And that concludes my report. Thank you, Ms. Chester. 1085 01:50:25,986 --> 01:50:37,013 - Are there any questions for Asia? I have a question, Asia. If we have something that we want to donate 1086 01:50:37,013 --> 01:50:47,826 - for the auction, how do we go about doing that? I do believe that you could find that information at 1087 01:50:47,826 --> 01:50:51,038 - mccscfoundation.org. Perfect. 1088 01:50:51,234 --> 01:50:57,553 - We have a Lego set that my husband is convinced someone will bid on. So I have to figure out how to 1089 01:50:57,553 --> 01:51:04,188 - donate that. So I will go to the website. Thank you. Or you could just call Cirilla. Or I could do that. 1090 01:51:04,188 --> 01:51:10,507 - Yeah. I think you also serve on the foundation. Isn't that right, Mr. Bunger? Thank you. All right. 1091 01:51:10,507 --> 01:51:14,046 - So I have sources. Any other questions for Ms. Chester? 1092 01:51:17,890 --> 01:51:25,179 - Then next we have a update on the policy task force. Board member Hennessy. Yes, thank you. We have 1093 01:51:25,179 --> 01:51:32,832 - concluded our review of the initial portion that we had set out to review. So this is the bylaw section, 1094 01:51:32,832 --> 01:51:40,412 - the 0000s. And we have a number of items that we have kind of marked as needing revision either because 1095 01:51:40,412 --> 01:51:46,462 - they are out of date, something's been replaced, there is potential question about 1096 01:51:46,818 --> 01:51:52,979 - if we wanna revise something. And so I'll kind of give you a brief rundown, but then the policy and 1097 01:51:52,979 --> 01:51:59,201 - I, the policy and I will not do this, but the committee and I will work with a little bit with maybe 1098 01:51:59,201 --> 01:52:05,793 - Mr. Bunger, but also with ISBA on a couple of the questions that we have regarding some of these policies. 1099 01:52:05,793 --> 01:52:12,016 - Most of these things are minor. And so one of our questions that we have is like, what constitutes a 1100 01:52:12,016 --> 01:52:15,774 - friendly amendment versus like a full amendment of a policy? 1101 01:52:16,322 --> 01:52:23,989 - and then also whether a section of policies can be bundled and adopted sort of whole as like a section 1102 01:52:23,989 --> 01:52:31,507 - rather than having to enumerate like every single policy. So we'll kind of work through those issues 1103 01:52:31,507 --> 01:52:39,025 - and write up revisions and then hopefully present these and put them on the agenda for the board for 1104 01:52:39,025 --> 01:52:45,054 - the October meeting for the first reading. But just a brief overview question of 1105 01:52:45,282 --> 01:52:51,708 - the CEO comes up here, and this is one of those minor issues, but the president of the board is described 1106 01:52:51,708 --> 01:52:58,194 - as the chief executive officer as the board of school trustees. Later, the superintendent is also referred 1107 01:52:58,194 --> 01:53:04,317 - to as the chief executive officer, but of the school corporation. I think it is a little bit strange 1108 01:53:04,317 --> 01:53:10,379 - to have two CEOs within a system. And so that's just one of the things we flagged as like odd. Does 1109 01:53:10,379 --> 01:53:14,622 - it need to really be revised? Does it impact anything? No, but it is, 1110 01:53:14,946 --> 01:53:22,281 - and oddity, so does it matter? I don't know. In policy 10120, there's this question of what the board 1111 01:53:22,281 --> 01:53:29,616 - actually manages that seemed to strike us as interesting given what we understand our role to be. And 1112 01:53:29,616 --> 01:53:37,023 - so we wanted to just check on this with ISBA to make sure that the language here was correct. It says, 1113 01:53:37,023 --> 01:53:44,862 - the school board shall have the management and control of all facilities and programs in the corporation and 1114 01:53:44,962 --> 01:53:52,013 - the employees, students, and other persons entering its premises. We kind of said like control makes 1115 01:53:52,013 --> 01:53:59,203 - sense in a particular way. Management, the use of that term seems to maybe not make sense in the scope 1116 01:53:59,203 --> 01:54:06,812 - of our role. So that's something we'll pose as, is that something we should amend? Board travel compensation 1117 01:54:06,812 --> 01:54:14,002 - comes up in this. And I know President Cooper-Menu in particular had some questions about board travel 1118 01:54:14,002 --> 01:54:14,910 - compensation 1119 01:54:15,074 --> 01:54:23,327 - what our policies are, how we might think about amending that. So it does come up here and then later 1120 01:54:23,327 --> 01:54:31,661 - again in another set of policies. So we'll take a look at that. One of the sections here in 0140, it's 1121 01:54:31,661 --> 01:54:40,319 - basically in the section regarding the board, the board's role. We found what we consider to be a somewhat 1122 01:54:40,319 --> 01:54:43,070 - excessive use of quotation marks. 1123 01:54:43,394 --> 01:54:50,748 - in a way that is somewhat condescending at times, right? So I think we should say explicitly what those 1124 01:54:50,748 --> 01:54:58,455 - quotation marks imply rather than putting them in quotation marks and leaving some other kind of implication 1125 01:54:58,455 --> 01:55:05,738 - there as to what they mean. We should just say what we do or do not want board members to do. So we'll 1126 01:55:05,738 --> 01:55:11,678 - probably revise that section. And then one of the biggest inconsistencies is simply 1127 01:55:11,906 --> 01:55:19,105 - Since COVID in 2021, when we passed electronic board voting, there's a section still that exists that 1128 01:55:19,105 --> 01:55:26,374 - says that a board may not vote electronically in our policies that needs to be stricken and then fully 1129 01:55:26,374 --> 01:55:33,713 - replaced with the section that was added later. So those are the major things that we'll sort of tackle 1130 01:55:33,713 --> 01:55:41,406 - and consider for revision in this first set. But there were two other things that we wanted to just bring up 1131 01:55:41,794 --> 01:55:50,476 - And I do fear that one of them may be a can of worms. So I didn't mean to do this here, but I forgot 1132 01:55:50,476 --> 01:55:59,415 - to ask the question earlier. So I'll just ask it quickly. One question was just in terms of modernizing 1133 01:55:59,415 --> 01:56:08,355 - our meetings to some extent. On the section that includes public participation, there was some question 1134 01:56:08,355 --> 01:56:10,590 - as to whether as a board, 1135 01:56:10,786 --> 01:56:17,662 - we would want to at any point consider participation in public comment or listening by Zoom as the city 1136 01:56:17,662 --> 01:56:24,605 - and the county do in their board meetings. So that there was just the question that came up that I think 1137 01:56:24,605 --> 01:56:31,349 - we could take up at some point if people were interested. The other question that came up in this set 1138 01:56:31,349 --> 01:56:38,622 - of policies was actually it does not belong in the set of policies, but it is something that came up which is 1139 01:56:38,946 --> 01:56:47,984 - does the district need to begin thinking about an AI policy? I know that many districts have, university 1140 01:56:47,984 --> 01:56:56,678 - has, most organizations have. It sounds like there's not a lot within our district to sort of manage 1141 01:56:56,678 --> 01:57:05,630 - at this point, but that is one question that we just wanted to bring forward as a part of this work is, 1142 01:57:05,954 --> 01:57:12,525 - Do we think we should begin work on an official AI policy for the district? That's it. Are you asking 1143 01:57:12,525 --> 01:57:18,968 - us to respond to those things now? April, are you just putting it out there? I would say the latter 1144 01:57:18,968 --> 01:57:25,540 - we could take up now. The former, I would ask that people just think about and we could also have the 1145 01:57:25,540 --> 01:57:32,176 - board officers might want to discuss with the superintendent in a board officer meeting before opening 1146 01:57:32,176 --> 01:57:34,366 - up to full board discussion here. 1147 01:57:39,490 --> 01:57:49,576 - initial thoughts on an AI policy, I guess on the idea of creating one. I think when you talk about the 1148 01:57:49,576 --> 01:57:59,564 - AI policy, it'd have to be multi-pronged. One is there going to be an AI policy for employees and how 1149 01:57:59,564 --> 01:58:07,006 - they use it within their roles versus how students use it. It seems like on 1150 01:58:10,338 --> 01:58:22,714 - Corporation devices we have a pretty strong lockdown on how that's applied but obviously It may fall 1151 01:58:22,714 --> 01:58:34,968 - more under the academic integrity world Yeah, I think it sounds like it in some sense there is a de 1152 01:58:34,968 --> 01:58:39,870 - facto policy being used in practice and 1153 01:58:40,034 --> 01:58:47,774 - It makes sense to me that we might even just have a policy to say who decides. It doesn't have to be 1154 01:58:47,774 --> 01:58:55,437 - that the board has a policy that is very specific. In fact, do we have one? I don't think we have a 1155 01:58:55,437 --> 01:59:03,176 - university-wide one. Maybe we do, and I'm not in compliance. I feel like they're shoving it down all 1156 01:59:03,176 --> 01:59:07,774 - our throats, though. I think that schools at the university 1157 01:59:08,034 --> 01:59:16,103 - Some schools have policies. I think that there may be a committee at this moment that is having this 1158 01:59:16,103 --> 01:59:24,173 - discussion about blanket policy, but I don't know. But I do say to Ross's point, I do think there is 1159 01:59:24,173 --> 01:59:32,162 - something about like academic integrity and that when we talked about it, we didn't just talk about 1160 01:59:32,162 --> 01:59:35,518 - student usage, but we did talk also about 1161 01:59:35,842 --> 01:59:45,229 - employee staff, like whatever, anybody using AI within the district that there would be certain parameters 1162 01:59:45,229 --> 01:59:54,177 - of like what is on the table or not on the table. But I don't know. I think it's smart to be thinking 1163 01:59:54,177 --> 02:00:03,038 - about it. Yeah. Other thoughts on that? Were questions about the policy committee's work in general? 1164 02:00:08,578 --> 02:00:17,185 - else to add? All right finally Dr. Winston do you have any additional information you'd like to share 1165 02:00:17,185 --> 02:00:25,876 - with us tonight? I do have a couple of items. National merit semi-finalists we are pleased to announce 1166 02:00:25,876 --> 02:00:34,313 - that MCCSE has 18 yes 18 national merit semi-finalists out of a pool of 1.2 million students across 1167 02:00:34,313 --> 02:00:35,326 - the country 1168 02:00:35,490 --> 02:00:45,990 - More than 16,000 students nationwide are semifinalists, and we have 18 of them. From Bloomington North, 1169 02:00:45,990 --> 02:00:55,278 - they are Daniel Cartledge, Gabriel Cohen, Penelope Eads, Aidan Kim, Ryan Lee, Simone Mazra, 1170 02:00:55,278 --> 02:01:04,062 - Manaras Pickard, I apologize, and Albie Singleton. From Bloomington South, Eve Arnold, 1171 02:01:04,610 --> 02:01:21,168 - Nikki Beshkar, Emeline Chen, Ethan Dodes, Bach Hu, William Lau, Jiping Liu, Margaret Robinson, 1172 02:01:21,168 --> 02:01:29,534 - Odin Schreuer, and Yuvin Zhou. Congratulations. 1173 02:01:29,826 --> 02:01:36,551 - To these exceptional students, national merit winners will be announced in the spring of 2027. Parent 1174 02:01:36,551 --> 02:01:43,343 - University. Our next Parent University will be on Tuesday, September 29th, one week from this evening. 1175 02:01:43,343 --> 02:01:50,266 - The topic is on assessments and will be held in the CoLab beginning at 6 p.m. College and Career Pathway 1176 02:01:50,266 --> 02:01:57,123 - Fair. On September 28th, Hoosier Hills Career Center will host the College and Career Pathway Fair from 1177 02:01:57,123 --> 02:01:58,046 - 530 to 7 p.m. 1178 02:01:58,562 --> 02:02:05,063 - We invite you to bring your family and friends to tour the Career Center, visit classrooms and learning 1179 02:02:05,063 --> 02:02:11,502 - spaces. There will also be representatives from industry, colleges and the military. Our culinary arts 1180 02:02:11,502 --> 02:02:17,753 - students will also host a bake sale at the event. And I have to tell you from past experience, they 1181 02:02:17,753 --> 02:02:24,255 - do an excellent job. Bloomington High School North. Bloomington High School North will have their first 1182 02:02:24,255 --> 02:02:28,318 - concert of the season, the fall choral concert tomorrow evening. 1183 02:02:28,450 --> 02:02:34,431 - Wednesday, September 23rd. The concert will take place in Norris Auditorium beginning at 7 p.m. We invite 1184 02:02:34,431 --> 02:02:40,072 - you to attend this performance and see our students performing and showcasing all of their talents. 1185 02:02:40,072 --> 02:02:45,714 - There are so many events that are happening throughout our corporation from choir and band concerts 1186 02:02:45,714 --> 02:02:51,639 - to fall athletic events. I encourage everyone to check out the events calendars on our school's websites 1187 02:02:51,639 --> 02:02:57,337 - to choose an event then come enjoy our students in action. You will not be disappointed. And in case 1188 02:02:57,337 --> 02:02:58,014 - you forgot, 1189 02:02:58,114 --> 02:03:05,250 - As a reminder, our fall break is October 15th and 16th. Schools will be closed on both of those days. 1190 02:03:05,250 --> 02:03:12,316 - That concludes my report. Thank you, Dr. Winston. Are there questions or comments from the board for 1191 02:03:12,316 --> 02:03:19,592 - Dr. Winston? Nope. All right, I just quickly, I should have probably put this on the agenda, but I just 1192 02:03:19,592 --> 02:03:26,588 - really quickly want to again thank you all for the work that you did at the work session on setting 1193 02:03:26,588 --> 02:03:27,358 - parameters 1194 02:03:27,586 --> 02:03:34,442 - for redistricting, redistricting, restructuring, and reorganizing. It was a long meeting. I realized 1195 02:03:34,442 --> 02:03:41,706 - later I forgot to give us a break, so I think we were hard at work for about three hours. And Dr. Winston, 1196 02:03:41,706 --> 02:03:48,766 - I think a notice did go out today that the parameters we set have been posted. That includes the things 1197 02:03:48,766 --> 02:03:56,030 - that we prioritized, the targets that we set for those, the constraints and the weights that we gave them. 1198 02:03:56,130 --> 02:04:03,956 - Again, thank you for that work. And I just wanted to note to the public that that is now available for 1199 02:04:03,956 --> 02:04:11,858 - anyone to view. Any other last comments from the board? Can I make a shameless plug for Sounds of South 1200 02:04:11,858 --> 02:04:19,531 - is going to have Guys and Dolls on October 10, 17, and 24. So get your tickets. And it's a good show 1201 02:04:19,531 --> 02:04:24,318 - you don't want to miss. And my own son will be in it. Perfect. 1202 02:04:26,562 --> 02:04:34,035 - Other shameless plugs or otherwise. All right. The next regularly scheduled board meeting will be held 1203 02:04:34,035 --> 02:04:37,662 - on Tuesday, October 27th, 2026. We are adjourned.