Meeting is now called to order. Roll call. Mr. Brown. >> All the board members are present. >> Thank you. Please stand for the pledge of allegiance. >> I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to theublic
for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. As is our custom, I'll now read the Carmel Clay School's mission statement. Carmel Clay Schools will provide opportunities for all students to
realize their potential in an everchanging world. Next, uh first on our agenda tonight are presentations. We will start uh with the Young Artists Awards. Mrs. Rice. >> Good evening everyone. I on
Well, good evening Dr. Orike, members of the board, and I am so happy to welcome all the friends and family who are here this evening to celebrate and recognize our young artists. And I have to tell you, this is a long-held tradition in the district, and it's one of our very
favorites. And you can see the gorgeous artwork behind us. And it's truly an honor to be celebrated as one of our young artists of all of our 15 buildings. We select one piece of art from each of those schools. And it hangs in in here in our public meeting room
for the next six months. So it truly is an honor to be here and we're grateful that you're here. But before we get to the artists, I want to take just a moment to begin by expressing sincere gratitude to each and every one of our amazing art teachers, many of whom are
here tonight. Thank you for fostering creativity and artistic expression with our students, for your commitment to cultivating a visually inspiring environment in our schools, but also for the passion that you bring as practicing
artisans yourselves. as you provide your talents for many things in your buildings, musicals and theatrical events, um the world's smallest art gallery, the Carmel Clay Public Library, the International Arts Festival, and many, many other places. Um truly, you
are a vital part of helping to inspire artistic creativity in our community, and we are so grateful for you. So, let's take just a moment to thank our teachers. All right. So, we will call each student up to the front, each young artist, and
you'll come up and receive your um certificate from Dr. Orike. And then we'll just ask you to wait up here in the front, and we'll get a picture over here by the artwork. And parents, I promise you'll have a chance when we when we name all the names to come up and take some photos. Okay. So, our
first student is Anisha Patel, a third grader from Carmel Elementary. Lucy Pike is an 11th grader at Carmel High School and she's in a rugby rugby match tonight, so she's not here. Um, Avery Melinda, seventh grader from
Caramel Middle School. Isel Barath, a second grader from Cherry Tree Elementary. William Meyer, third grader from Clay Center Elementary. Marcus Lord, an eighth grader from Clay Middle School.
Elena Han, a third grader from Collegewood Elementary. Hanim Gondel, eighth grade from Creekide Middle School. Kingston Wilhelm, a first grader at Forestdale Elementary.
Juani Gutierrez, first grade from Mohawk Trails Elementary. Miles Litkkey, third grade from Prairie Trace Elementary. Blakeley Deal, a first grader at Smoky Row Elementary.
Hayes Laferman, kindergartener at Town Meadow Elementary. Gian Ryu, a second grader at West Clay Elementary, and Kate Nelson, a fifth grader at Woodbrook Elementary.
Congratulations to all of our young artists. We're so proud of you. Get on up there. Let's give our young artist. Yes. And par parents, we have a couple more recognitions and so we'll go through those and then when we're done, if you
want to get a quick photo next to the picture, we can go ahead and do that at that time if that works. Mr. Shapiro, >> of course. Uh, next presentation this evening, we'll next recognize our DECA students,
Mr. Goodman. Good evening, members of the board and superintendent. I'm Jacob Goodman and I'm here tonight to celebrate the incredible success of our Carmel DECA chapter. For those who aren't familiar, DECA is an organization that prepares emerging leaders and entrepreneurs for
careers in marketing, finance, and management. It's a highstakes competitive environment where students prove they have the skills to thrive in the professional world. Before I dive into the numbers, I have to acknowledge that this success is a team effort. To the board and administration, thank you
for championing our program. To the teachers across the district who develop these young minds, to my co-advisors, Stacy Fowler and Christy Mcclitish, and to the parents who support these students every day. Thank you very much. This year, Carmela reached a membership
of 450 students. Out of that group, 225 qualified for the state competition and 87 traveled to Atlanta, Georgia two weeks ago to compete at the International Career Development Conference. Standing in the Mercedes-Benz Stadium,
among 26,000 competitors and attendees from around the world, our students succeeded at the highest levels. 38 students were honored on stage for their achievements. We had 21 finalists and 18 top 10 finishers. And most notably, five
event entries earned DECA glass, signifying top three placements in their events. Our DECA trophy winners represent the very best of what we do. Here are their results. And as I call your name, please come up. Aar Sahu and
Michael Juan, third place virtual business challenge fashion. Come get your your certificate and then you can stand up there. Next, Malik Morad, second place, stock market game. Sheldon Spence, second place,
professional selling, Nathan Madzelon and Gavin Bletzinger. First place, Virtual Business Challenge, Personal Finance. and Grant Moo first place stock market game. This level of success is only possible
because of the incredible support system we have here at Caramel Clay Schools. Thank you for your time and for celebrating these students with us tonight. Let's give them one more round OF APPLAUSE. LET'S GIVE THESE international champions another round of applause.
Great job, Congratulations again. Our next presentation this evening is for outstanding service, Dr. Orike. >> Good evening, President Shapiro. Uh members of the board, tonight we have
the privilege of recognizing Lieutenant Adam Miller from the Carmel Police Department for his outstanding service and partnership with Carmel Clay Schools. Lieutenant, if you'd please come forward. Let's give him a round of applause. Lieutenant Miller has played a
significant role in developing and strengthening our school resource office officer unit and team across the district. His leadership, professionalism, and commitment to school safety have helped shape a
program that supports not only the security of our schools, but also the relationships that are so important between students, staff, families, and law enforcement. And I will add that the program, the SRO program we have here at
Carmel Clay Schools is a national and world model that many look to Carmel for what we have here here in Carmel Clay Schools. Over the years, Lieutenant Miller has been instrumental in hiring, training,
and mentoring numerous school resource officers who serve throughout Carmel Clay Schools. His work has had a lasting impact on our district, and we are grateful for his care, his expertise, and dedication he has brought to this
partnership. On behalf of the school board of trustees, our administrators, our staff, our students, and our families, we want to thank you, Lieutenant Miller, uh for your service to Carmel Clay Schools and the Carmel community. As you prepare for retirement
in the near future, we wish you the very best in the next chapter. And knowing and knowing Lieutenant Miller, we are confident retirement will give him a little more time to do what every proud IU fan does best. cheer on the Hooers.
Believe that this is your year in basketball. Uh, and remind everyone that those candy stripes never go out of style. So, please join me in recognizing thanking Lieutenant Adam Miller. And at this time we are going to take a
short break because we know it is uh we're approaching finals week and lots of studying to do here in the next seven days, six or seven days, I believe, uh depending on uh what level you're in. That's my man right there. Thank you. Um
so, if those of you that are young artists, if you wanted to take a quick picture uh next to your photo, you may do that. We're going to take a short break. And otherwise, thank you again and thank you for your support of Carmel Clay Schools. Okay. Typically, next on our agenda
would be public comment. However, no one has signed up for public comment this evening. So, next on our agenda is consent. Tonight, consent items include the personnel report, claims, payroll, approval of gift applications,
change orders for Cherry Tree Elementary School renovations, change orders for the Carmel High School Niatorium edition and existing Nitorium, change orders for the Carmel High School football stadium additions and renovations, and uh schoolboard minutes from the
April 15, 2026 regular session and the April 22nd, 2026 special session. Uh as a reminder, consent in the meeting agenda refers to a designated section where routine items are grouped together for efficient consideration and approval
in a single motion. Consent uh typically are items that the board must legally address but do not take up considerable time. Uh do I have a motion to approve all items on the consent agenda? >> I move to approve items 4.2 through 4.10
on the consent agenda. Thank you, Miss Wheeler. Do I have a second? >> Second. >> Is there any discussion? >> I just want to thank all of our wonderful donors um for the amount in 4.5 for the gifts to um various schools.
>> Thank you, Miss Wheeler. Questions? Anything? >> Great. Now vote. All in favor of approving the items in the consent agenda 4.2 through 4.10, 10, please signify by saying I. >> I. >> I.
>> Motion carries. Next on our agenda is uh action items. Our action item for tonight is materials adoption uh do for miscellaneous and new courses. Dr. Dudley. >> Yes. Thank you. So this evening um I
bring to the board um the miscellaneous courses and new courses that I brought at our last board session um to and recommend for adoption. And these are courses um some of our English courses at the high school and then some new courses that we had as well.
>> Great. Thank you, Dr. Dougley. Can I have a motion to approve the materials adoption for miscellaneous and new courses? >> I move to approve the materials adoption for miscellaneous and new courses. >> Thank you, Mrs. Cashion. May I have a second? >> Second. >> Thank you, Miss Wheeler. There any
discussion? Seeing none, we will now take a vote. All in favor, please signify by saying I. >> I. >> I. >> Motion carries. Great. We are along. Next on our agenda uh is our discussion item for this
evening, the review of school funding options and referendum recommendation planning. Dr. Orike. >> Good evening once again, President Shapiro and members of the board. I appreciate everyone being here tonight and we are I'm going to go through a
presentation um that we have put together based upon uh feedback and financial analysis and also uh much of the feedback uh from the board this evening and we're going to talk about um what we've done what we've done up until
this point and then ultimately have a recommendation from the administration for the board to consider moving forward. And so I would ask that tonight um if you would allow me um and the community to hear the presentation and
then we can go back to any slide and have as much discussion as needed. But I want to give everyone a full picture based upon the work that the board has done uh and our team has done up until this point and go from there. And so just to recap uh where we've been and
where we're going, um we held a special session on March 30th with the board, a special work session on the referendum and consideration of a referendum. Um you can watch that full meeting. You can uh look at the presentations from policy
analytics and caramel clay schools uh on our website and those documents are available and that video is available. We also had a uh special session on April 22nd as we've continued this uh discussion and dialogue and consideration of the board. Um and so
you can watch that full meeting and see the presentation from policy analytics and also Carmel Clay Schools. Tonight we're taking a look at the review of the options that are under consideration that have previously been presented and we'll show you that this evening. um the
factors, the considerations, and then also an administrative recommendation to consider and discuss. Then on June 10th, we're going to come back and we're going to have a workshop on this uh information. We're going to uh share
some community outreach materials based upon uh tonight's discussion and and further work and then also have continued uh discussion as we uh aim towards June 24th which um we will
present um a item for the board um to consider placing a referendum on the November 2026 ballot. So I commend the board for this work. I commend the board for their transparency um and providing these opportunities for
the public including tonight. So let's take a look at what's been previously presented by policy analytics and also uh from the work of our team here. So there are um three different scenarios when we look at combining the
operating and the um safety referendums. So currently, as you can see, we're at 24 cents, but as we've had a lot of dialogue about, that 24 cent rate is not going to generate the levy that was previously approved in 2023. And then also with the renewal of a safety
referendum. And so you also notice that we are stairstepping any recommendations. Um and as we get to that highest rate if you look in 2032 um you so you have the gray line which is the lowest line there and that
highest rate um we looked at 08 3818 you have the red line uh which is that middle line there um at 4090 and then you have the yellow line stairstepped highest rate in 2032 of
4272 and I'm going to explain here what a potential question would look like um a draft question as well as um the plan moving forward. But these uh were presented uh previously at both of our meetings in March uh and also in April.
So based upon that information, our financial team went to work. They were crunching numbers. They were analyzing the data. They were taking a look at our budget at our future projections based upon what policy analytics provided to us and based upon uh continuing the
educational program level that we have here currently in the district. And so I just wanted to share uh some of the analysis of those scenarios with you all with regards to revenue projections and expense projections as we continue this
conversation. So what our financial team did is they took a look at the state funding projections and then they assumed a one and a half per student increase in uh 2027. That was based on current state estimates and then
followed by a three and a half% annual growth over the next seven years. That figure as you see up on the screen reflects the district's average state funding growth over the past decade. And then additionally we looked the we wanted to share that these ref
referendum revenue estimates were based on the projections developed by policy analytics and also presented publicly twice. And so looking at the expense projections um the salary and benefits account for approximately 93% of all
education and referendum fund expenditures. Please note we're talking the education and referendum fund. You may have heard a different uh a different percentage when we include more of the funds that some of those that pay for some of our staff maybe in the operations and so on and so forth,
but we're focusing on education and referendum. Additionally, the pro projections include and assume minimal salary increases. And so since 2019, the average increase has been at 2.86%.
And for those of you that have been on the board, almost all of you for the last two years, you'll note that two years ago it was a 2% increase for our staff and then this past year has been a 2% increase for our staff. So minimum salary increases as you can see there.
Um also purchase services and supplies uh and property account for 7% of those expenditures and then costs were projected below historical averages to reflect the easing and inflation trends and continued cost management uh efforts
from Caramel Clay Schools and and we talked about those previously. So let's analyze the scenarios. So scenario number one, the gray line which was the lower line that you saw um on the graph. So as our team analyzed
the scenario one with that we would still require reductions to staffing and student programs. Additionally we project deficits that would range annually between two and $8.5 million if the board would decide to move forward
on that gray line. And I'm going to I'm going to go back to those rates here in a moment. The red line, the middle line, allows for a balanced budget in 27 and 28. However, we ha would have reoccurring expense reductions that we
would uh likely need to take a look at as early as 2029 with that middle line or the red line. And then scenario three, the yellow line, I'm going to call that the gold line because we're blue and gold here in Caramel. um that provides the best opportunity to
maintain current staffing, programming, and student services to preserve Carmel's outstanding high academic performance and top rankings in uh the state and the nation. Um the yellow line, I'm going to say gold line moving forward. That gold line supports minimal
salary adjustments. Um and also it allows for anticipated increase in district supported health care cost, which that item has come up. I believe in the last two times that we met um and shared about those costs that are rising. And then the fi the financial
projection projections would still require careful disciplined budgeting each year. And to note that the board has oversight on that budget process each and every year. The board also has oversight in when we stair step and
we're going to look at that in a moment has oversight at not taking that full amount uh that we have to put on the ballot. So our recommended rate for the board to consider um is the gold line. So it is
that uh recommended top rate or maximum rate I should say of 4274. Um if you look at 25 26 where we're at right now. So 27 as we would stair step that starts the um SEA1 or SB1 losses.
And I'm going to show you another chart here in a moment that's going to show that we would stair step up to meet those uh demands of SEA1 as uh we're projected to lose millions of dollars. um we shared previously it's $119
million over the next 18 years which averages about $15 million a year. And so I want to show you this is a chart we previously shared I believe at the last two public meetings that we've had. And so you can see as um and it's I know
it's very tough to see but uh beginning I believe that's there in 2027 um the uh net assessed value continues to go down which means our district will get less and less funds uh for our
referendums as you can see. And so um looking at that we would stair step it. We wouldn't take the full amount right away. And as you can see in 2031, we hit that maximum rate. However, in 2032,
2033, and 2034, that rate starts to go down slightly because we've we've established the new base based upon the impact and the effects of SEA1. And so it would go down
a bit afterwards. As you can see in 20 uh 32, 33 and 34, it's reset at about that 4% um average increase there. So what I want to do next is I want to
read to you the question um and this is a draft question just to share with you. I want to read the question based upon what our recommendation would be. And I was a teacher. Uh, I think I was a pretty darn good teacher. I also, uh,
have a doctorate, but there's some run-on sentences that the state uh, um, that we have to are required to format the question. So, please, I did not write this question. Um, there is a bunch of run-on sentences here and
everything, but I want to read it uh, in full so that um, our community has the full impact of what this looks like. this question if you go back to 2010 when we had our first referendum is easily cut in half and probably 60% um if you went and looked at the question
back in 2010. So I just want to give everyone an idea. So, shall Carmel Clay Schools increase property taxes paid to the school corporation for no more no more than eight years for the purpose of sustaining educational and operational
funding stability in response to reductions in property tax revenue, including supporting student safety, health, and well-being, including the employment and retention of school resource officers, supporting and retaining teachers and staff, funding
academic and support programs to meet the educational needs of all students by imposing a property tax rate that does not exceed, we have to put the highest number on there, 4274 and results in a maximum annual amount
that does not exceed 72,667,288. If this operating referendum public question is approved by the voters for a median residence of $500,000, the property's annual property tax bill would increase by $1,62
per year. The most recent operating referendum public question proposed by the school corporation was held in 2023 and passed. And so that is a proposed question. we have very little on how we
can frame that and format and and share in there. And so the rate, as a reminder, the rate that's shown on the ballot represents the maximum possible rate over the life of the referendum. And you can see that in that chart that I just showed you. I can go back here
real quick. You can see that in the chart that the maximum that 04274 we would hit in 2031 and then be responsive as as we continue to see the impacts of SEA1. So what I want to do is I want to
break this down for you in the community a little bit more. And so I'm going to read the first part and then I'm going to have some commentary on each section. And so shall Carmel Clay Schools increase property taxes paid to the school corporation for no more than eight years for the purpose of
sustaining educational and operational funding stability in response to reductions in property tax revenue. And so I want to comment that this combined approach is being proposed in response to recent changes in state tax laws that
will significantly reduce school funding starting next year unless the referendum is approved. And so let's go and read this other section here. So, including supporting student safety, health and well-being, including the employment and
retention of school resource officers, supporting and retaining teachers and staff, funding academic and support programs, and meeting the educational needs of all students. So, I want to comment on this section. It would also help us to support and retain teachers
and staff during a time when statewide school funding is becoming more uncertain. So supporting strong educators and staff is essential as you saw here tonight is essential to preserving the quality of education students receive each and every day.
Also without this funding the district would need to make significant staffing reductions uh programs and student services. The referendum is intended to pres preserve intended to preserve the educational opportunities and support
systems currently available to our students and families. And so I want to highlight the last part and I have a couple of uh couple of comments on the last part as well. So and this is the most confusing part. This whole question is confusing and doesn't speak to the
fact of what we want to do to be responsive in giving our voters an opportunity to um renew or take a look at what we did in 2023 uh so that we have um funding to sustain the current level of educational program. So by
imposing I'm gonna read the question or the last part of the question. by imposing a property tax rate that does not exceed 4274 and results in a maximum annual amount that does not exceed 72,667,288.
If this operating referendum public question is approved by the voters for a median residence of 500,000, the property's annual property tax bill would increase by 1,62 per year. The most recent operating referendum public question proposed by the school
corporation was held in 2023 and passed. And so the $1,62 is very misleading and will not occur. This figure is required is a required calculation based upon the assumption that there's no existing referendum. Our
caramel taxpayers have already approved a referendum five times since 2010. And so the 1,62 amount is also calculated using the highest possible tax rate in 2027 when assessed values are at their
highest. In reality, we forecast a rate of.32 as as you saw. And so for a median uh value home in Carmel, the referendum portion of the tax bill is estimated to increase by less than $143 in the first
year. I want to repeat that because that's a far tail a far number away from the thousand number. For a median valued home in Carmel, the referendum portion of the tax bill is estimated to increase by less than $143 in the first year. On
top of that, after accounting for a new state deductions and credits, the overall property tax bill for that same home is projected to decrease by approximately $263 per year. So increase by less than $143
and then decrease by approximately $263 per year. So this proposal continues the community's longstanding investment in its schools while combining prior referendum funding into a single question for our voters to consider. And
so I wanted to take a moment to go over that um because it is very very complex. It's very confusing if you're going into the voting booth for the first time reading that question. It's not telling the full story. So, I wanted to add some
context. And so, with that, and uh we're hap we're looking forward to the discussion and dialogue tonight. Um we want you all to learn more. And so, we're very happy to announce that we have a new school finance website up on our uh up on Caramel uh Carmel Clay
Schools. Um that you can go there. you go to school finance uh and then from there you can hit financial transparency, you can hit referendum, you can see all of the presentations we've done in March, April, May, June.
We're going to continue to update the website. Uh if you want to go and look at our most recent uh filings that we've had to do, state reports, those are on there. You can dig deep. Uh but we what we tried to do is find a balance to um
have very clear and concise information on the website and then also have opportunities for those who want to dig deeper as well. And we're continuing this. This is a work in progress. But you can see budget information, referendum updates, audit reports, that's what I was getting at, Mr. McMichael. And then all of the monthly
financial updates as well and more. And so with that, uh, we wanted to share what our recommendation is based upon the vast work that our financial team, our, um, partners, financial partners, the board has been doing, um, our administration. Uh, we wanted to share
that information with you this evening. Um, and at this time, our team is here tonight. We also have Mrs. Amanda Kushar with us, uh, Mr. Mcichael, and, uh, we'd be happy to answer any questions that you may have. So, thank you for giving me the opportunity tonight uh to go
through the complete presentation and we can go back and forth as as uh many times as you need. So, thank you very much. >> Thank you Dr. Orike for going through all that with us and let's uh open it up for questions and discussion. Someone
like to kick us off? >> Go right ahead, Mrs. K. >> Okay, I'm going to start. I really don't have any questions because I feel like we've asked a lot of questions and I I think there'll probably be other questions. I just wanted to reiterate two things kind of that you had already talked about that um this is not an
additional referendum on top of what is already there. This would be a replacement. So I wanted to make that really clear. This is not the the current one is um 24 cents. This is not on top of that. This is this would replace that. that effectively would end. Um and then this would be a
replacement um for both the operating and the safety referendums. Um the operating is 19 cents and the safety is 5 cents currently. Um so consideration of combining them into one
referendum that would replace both of those. Um I just wanted to make that clear. Yeah, and I'll also add that the safety referendum, as we've shared previously, so if you're watching for the first time or here for the first time, um the safety referendum goes through 2027, but because of the new
laws and uh that have come, we uh only can take a referendum uh every two years or every general election. And so that's why we're bringing that safety one now. And due to the effects of SEA1, we're looking at the 2023. We should uh we the
board move forward with a recommendation for the community to consider and that would pass. Absolutely correct. We would replace those. It's not in addition to what's already on the books. So, thank you. >> And just one one more other thing if you can go back to what the question would
potentially look like. Um I just wanted all of you to know that you have our legislator to thank for um this confusing language and that is intended to be that way. Um they've been messing with this language for 16 years now. Um
and this it's it's kind of a double whammy in that they have continued to mess with the language and make it more confusing for the voter um as well as then are reducing our funding um with SEA1. So I think it's really important that we understand that it's not like we really want it to look like this. We would prefer it be a lot more clear for
all of you who are going to cast your vote in November. Uh but we our hands are tied. >> Thank you, Mrs. Kok. Other questions or comments? >> Um >> Miss Wheeler.
>> Yes, Mr. President. Thank you. Um I I just wanted to express I hope others will as well just kind of where my head is on the referendum personally. Um certainly the vote will happen when the
vote happens but as uh Mrs. Kok said this is I believe intentionally required to be a confusing question for the public. Um I like Dr. O and many of us I'm well educated. I've probably read
this five times um and still wasn't and still had to have it explained to me. So um you know I I think that's intentional. I think um certainly the defunding of public schools across Indiana is also intentional.
Um and at the end of the day I think it's important for folks to understand and that we reiterate what Dr. said, which is we're just trying to keep current levels of funding. The underlying math for the revenue that
public schools get across this state has significantly changed. And at the end of the day, let me give you an example. you know, if you have a um an assessed value of property in Indiana worth
um x amount and now it's worth y amount, you can't get to the same total. That's just the way math works. Um and so the reason that the rate has to go up is not because we're getting more dollars. It's so we can get the equal sign to get to
the same result. Um, and I know that's confusing for a lot of people. Um, but at the end of the day, um, as Mr. Um Mcichael noted in you know
our workshop session you know this is something that on an annual basis um you know some of the scenarios he ran it will it will touch every child in every classroom in every building um if
this referendum does not pass um and it would require some very tough decisions and so in my mind. Number one, I support taking the question to our community um so that our community can do what
they've done before, which is decide how much revenue they think is appropriate for us to have and in this case to provide essentially the same level of services. So I am inclined to agree with our administrator's recommendation
because frankly the other two lower amounts still require us to make significant cuts in the future. Um and finally I I wanted to say number one you know right now today we are not getting
I'll say it again the amount of revenue that our community 70% and more than 50 60% of our community approved in the existing referendums. We're not getting that money because the underlying math
changed. So we are not getting the revenue that they said we should have today and it will the bleeding will only get worse. Um and then finally you know we get asked you know why can't you just cut costs? Um number one you know come
to the schools with me and tell me what you want to cut would be my first reaction. Um you know everybody wants somebody else's kid in somebody else's classroom to get cut when we start talking about cutting things. they don't want to cut the things that are important to them. And and I I think we
do an amazing job with what we have. And I just want to reiterate that, you know, we have separate funds that legally cannot be co-mingled. And we could never improve another building. We could never build another building. We could never
uh renovate another building. And I could not give, this board could not give another penny to our classrooms, to our teachers and our staff. That money is a separate fund. We cannot use it for the purposes
that we're talking about and we cannot use it to stop the bleeding that we're seeing in um the operating fund and the referendum fund. So that's my speech. Thank you. >> Thank you, Miss Wheeler. Mrs. Cashin,
>> I mean, Chris did an excellent job summarizing, and I won't get on my soap box about legislators, but I will say pay attention during a budget legislative session, especially that will be arriving in January. Um, but I did want to reiterate that I also very much support bringing this to the
community for a vote. One of the reason most of us moved here was because of the excellent school systems. I'm pretty sure all of us moved here for the excellent school systems at one point in time. And I do think Carmel Clay Schools gives our community so much pride and that's why we have seen the referendum
pass by lovely margins every time we've brought this because our schools are part of our identity. Um I also very much support combining them into one. I know I had a lot of questions about that upfront because I just wanted to understand it and our SRO were like my my heart that I was very worried about
them. I see you officer Gossip. Appreciate you. Um, so I very much wanted to get that on record too that I do think that's an excellent recommendation that I support bringing this forward. And I also kind of want to take a moment to pop the caramel bubble. Um, I know our assessed values have gone
up and I know our taxes have gone up, but I spent some time looking at the 65 school districts in the country that outrank us out of almost 11,000. So we are still in that.5%. Um and almost all of them have a higher
tax bill for a similar priced house than we do. So this isn't our tax bills necessarily going crazy in a relative stance. They have historically just with what home prices have done since co and sea 1 is going to reduce that by
tremendous amounts. So as Chris said this is not us trying to do a new niatorum because one we cannot do that with this money. This is to secure that 93% of these funds going to teachers. I love that the recommendation includes, let's call it
status quo because our status quo is excellence. This isn't us trying to bring in new programs. This isn't trying to fund new initiatives. It is trying to keep our schools on the same path that they've been so that as Dr. O said just recently, the greyhounds of tomorrow
have the same experience of the greyhounds as yesterday. So I do employ and really beg the community to get involved, understand what this means for us and what it looks like if this were not to pass.
>> Thank you, Mrs. Cashion. Mr. Brown. Yeah, I think uh historically it's important to note too that an operating referendum first came into the community uh back in 2010 and it was because the
funding as I understand it the state funding was being reduced there was coming out of a great recession and the state was basically telling the uh the wealthier communities that um you're going to have to pick up more of the tax burden for the schools And I don't think
the intention was to defund schools. And I think this is another um iteration of that process where u the legislators are saying we need to make sure we're funding public schools in our communities. I don't have as much wealth
and they're going to the wealthy community saying you need to make it up. So it's it's not really um it's not feasible to not have this operating referendum. I mean, it would be a major defunding.
It would be uh very dramatic and I don't think the community would expect that about that. So, so to me, it's more a question is of where do we set the rate and you've proposed, you know, three three rates and um I think we need to
study those. But I I think the legislators were also sending the message that not not only should the wealthy communities help ensure our public schools and our state uh are well funded and I think they are. Um, but I think it they're also sending a message
that we need to see if we have opportunities for belt tightening. And I think that we've had some discussions and we're going to embark on that to uh work with the administration and just have a look and see if there's some opportunities where we can uh wisely uh
pull back and if there is something we should take advantage of it. If not, then at least we can say we looked at it. So, but I think it's it's uh it's important to understand that we have to have this uh this property tax to fill
the gap of where we would normally expect a district to be. We are well funded per student. Um we know that comparing even the local districts, uh it's it's a it's a close number, but um they're all going through this. It's
not unique to Caramel. And um it's just to me it's a more It's more a matter of where do we set the rate and also as as we approve budgets over the next several years. Um it is misleading in there. It
sounds like typical or a median property tax amount will increase by a,62. That is misleading. The the first year we've have some charts that's up there. I I don't remember the number exactly but it's I think you said 143 or
something. It's a it's a lower number and it scales up over over time, but it's the first year is is not that much impact that uh so um again I think it it's important that we can't rely on on that wording for a voter to come in and
make a decision. I think voters are going to have to see a lot more uh information and perspective than than what they see there. But certainly I'm I'm convinced that we need to have a refer we need to update
our operating referendum that's in place and the question is where do we set the rate and you've made a proposal and I think we need to take a look at that. We need to make sure we've done our due diligence to um see if there are some opportunities to have a second set of
eyes so to speak and uh and then make a decision of where the rate is. And I think the the taxpayers, the voters particularly have to trust that we've done our due diligence to come up with a proposal that uh that is that does make
sense. I think we're getting closer to that. Thank you, Mr. Brown. This is where I'm grateful that I have the opportunity to go last. Um but but I will still repeat a few of the things that were said because I I think they're
valuable. Um, so one, I I I would reiterate that if anybody has not had the opportunity to to look at some of the the previous presentations, I think there's some really valuable information in there.
Um, I am not a property tax expert. I'm not a financial analyst. That's not what I do for a living. So, you know, part of our responsibility here is to um to be the stewards uh on behalf of the community uh and represent the community
in making the best decisions uh for this school district. And so that requires us to become learned uh in things that we are not necessarily so familiar with. And I think that was the intention behind the conver some of the conversations we have already had
and these these ongoing dialogues. And so uh for me uh some of the information from policy analytics was super helpful and and put things in layman's terms uh in a way that made it much more uh easy
uh to be understood because when I go into a voting booth uh I I'm pointing at my screen which is the same thing you all are looking at um this would not make sense to me otherwise. And so that's the first thing that that I would say. Um the second thing I would offer
is that this board has an obligation uh of two things. One, it's our responsibility annually to review and approve the budget for this school district. And with that, I think comes an obligation uh to Mr. Brown's point of
looking for opportunities to see are there places where we can save um reduce expense etc. I believe the district does a very good job of that already but I I think that is our ongoing commitment on
a regular basis. Secondarily and as it pertains to the referendum um and I think Dr. Ori said this we will be setting this rate on an annual basis. whatever is going to be listed in the question is the maximum rate that we are legally allowed to take. But it may be
that you know we're this is all being based on information on what we know today. There's a legislative session that begins in January. Something could change. I'm not optimistic that that is the case. Um but something could change two years from now. Um and that may
cause us to make different decisions down the road. So every year we will have the opportunity to reset the rate. Uh and if we were to follow the gold line uh of 42 cents, that's just the maximum. And so I again I just I think
those are important things uh to continue to uh keep in mind. I'd also uh say we had I think it was the last presentation. It wasn't the first one. We took uh some time and administration put together some examples of what
cost savings and air quotes could look like. Um uh those were terrifying point blank. Uh and they came nowhere near what we would need to do uh if we did not if we took no action. And um this would be
devastating for this school district. And um frankly that's not something I'm comfortable with. Um, you know, so a I'm 100% comfortable and committed to allowing the voters to have a say. I think that is only the right thing to
do. Um, you know, that's not my opinion uh on anything else other than that. I However, um, I believe it's imperative that we we allow um the the citizens of our community to to
have their voice heard. And that's the only way to do it is to allow this question to go onto onto the ballot. Um I agree we need to, you know, have the opportunity to to marinate on what that rate should be. Um but you know, I I made a very
intentional decision nearly 15 years ago about where to live and where to send my child to school. Um, and you know, because there were people who lived here before I did who decided that there should be an operating referendum to establish a certain level of educational excellence here. My child has benefited
from that. And um, you know, the bottom line is my child's not going to be in the school system uh, when this referendum goes into effect. And I still think it is something that that every child that follows my child should have that opportunity. You know, it is the benefit of this
community. The schools are an economic engine for this community. It is a um it's a bastion of pride for the city of Carmel that our schools are excellent. And you know, we we saw an example of it tonight and I think almost every single board meeting that we sit here, we see
reasons why why families choose to live in Carmel, why most of us chose to live here. And you know, I personally feel an obligation to help pay that forward. And I I don't want to be part of a reason or part of the board that has to sit here
and figure out what we have to cut. That's not something I'm comfortable with. And so um you know I I I am certainly comfortable saying that I believe you know we need to move forward with something.
So I think that's that's the ongoing discussion we need to have and based on um would you mind Dr. Try going back to the the timeline slide for I think it's the first slide.
There we go. So based on this um a next step right would be at that June 10th meeting there would be further discussion. Um I would imagine some of that discussion would include talking a little bit more
about the rate but also it looks like talking about some community outreach. again based on all of the conversation and comments we've all made um you know there seems to be some consensus around the the language here um being super confusing um but I also think there's
education that needs to happen because what we know is you know there are 106,000 people or so that live in the city of Carmel um and what is it roughly 20 to 25% of them are uh have students in the caramel schools so that means 75%
don't uh and they may not know um really what the what the benefits are. And so there's a lot of education that needs to happen with the community uh as to what referendums support and what they don't. Um you know, this is an ongoing dialogue many of us have with members of the
community. I'll have an auditorium comment earlier um you know where people think that you know we're building things and therefore we we should just use that money to pay for teachers or SRO's or things like that. And so um you know I think there's a there's a lot of community outreach that will need to
occur. um by the district and you know my opinion is is the board needs to be helpful with that as well. Part of our responsibility is to champion the work of the district. So >> um I do have a quick question on that question if you want to go back to that
that I was just thinking of and I the ballot questions please. Thank you. >> The ballot question. There you go. Um, and I know we've had a lot of background conversation around this and we are restricted to essentially the the meaty middle being legislative requirements
because we are in a situation where we're not looking at renewing a referendum. We're looking at replacing it. Could we explore an opportunity to putting something on the end of the question that would point out that this would replace that one? Because right
now we're just looking into that. You can't do that either. Yeah, we can take a look at that. We'll work with our referendum consultant on that piece. So, within a purpose, we may be able to, but um we'll be happy to take a look at that. So,
>> because right now it does sound like it would be adding on to and I know the state legislator, as M pointed out, did that to us. Uh but anywhere we could to at least have on that ballot to reinforce that this is a replacement of >> and Dr. O, I'm I'm sorry. May I ask a
follow-up question? Thank you. Dr. O, could you talk about what the purpose is versus the question itself? Because as I understood your answer, we can't change the question, which was my understanding to add that, but there's a purpose piece. Can you talk about that a little bit so people are clear?
>> Yeah. So, if you if you're looking at some of the purpose pieces, you're looking at that middle section there with what we're doing to support uh here in the district. And then the other piece would be um that last sentence there. We may have some an opportunity
to add some langu. We don't have any opportunity at the end. >> I'm sorry. Just in the purpose, which is what I >> So I would say not the numbers. We can't change the numbers, right, Steve, at the end. We can only Sorry, tug. >> Yeah. Okay.
>> Repeal and replace. we could potentially say that. Yeah. So, we'll take we'll take another look at it. Um, as as you know, we have a draft here and we appreciate that feedback. So, thank you. I also uh President uh Shapiro, if it's okay,
whether it's now or towards the end. Um, I do want to give Mr. Michael Mcichael an opportunity to uh support or add anything that I may have presented uh or to respond to maybe any comments or questions as well uh before we uh move on from this topic. So, President
Shapiro. >> Yes. Um absolutely. There was one other note I had written down that I just wanted to put out there also. I I I just want to reiterate this is also not an issue that is unique to Carmel. I think you know we've talked about that previously. If you uh are reading things
in the press, you certainly will see that um District to our South was in the news this week. District Tour East has been in the news talking about this and depending on what news sources you read, you know, they're predicting somewhere between 50 and 100 school districts across the state are potentially going
to be running referendums this fall. Um so this is not a Caramel unique issue. However, Carmel's the community of Carmel has a track record um for 15 plus years of supporting our district through
referenda. And so um you know I I think that that that speaks volumes to the value that this community puts on highquality education. So, and and part of the reason I think we're also not in the same predicament as those geographic
districts I mentioned earlier, uh, is because of the way the district has managed finances previously, right? We're in a better position. And so, we're not talking about currently riffing staff and making, you know, those kinds of cuts because we've done
things differently um, and managed things in a in a more efficient and better manner. Um, however, you can't replace an average of $15 million a year in in revenue loss based on on property tax changes. That's not
possible. So, any other comments before I allow Mr. Mcichael to chime in, Mr. Mcichael? >> I'll be brief. Well, first I want to thank the board for the comments. Um, that's the best I've seen or heard. And,
um, I have three things. One is is u I want to note that u as the board sets the rate you're setting the maximum rate. So the amount of money that it raises in those three scenarios you could raise half that much you could you can't but you can't raise more than that
maximum rate is my point. So you could choose any one of those scenarios or come up with your own and and then the rate as long as it's less than the maximum not more. You can't go more, but you can certainly go less. And as been noted a couple times, the board has that
opportunity every year. Not only this board, but this is for eight years. And u um so we're looking forward and and the board, you know, may very well change or certainly members on the board will change over the next eight years. And so I just want I think that's
important to note um that u the question on the ballot does not predetermine what we've we've s we've suggested rates on what we would recommend terms of rates but what's being approved in the question is that is the maximum and all
and correspondingly a maximum uh levy. So I think that's very important for the board. I think the board may understand I want to make sure the community does. Secondly, we use the word status quo. Um, and I uh but actually and our but our data says that it's status quo
programming, but our goal and intent is to uh and every presentation we've made provides for less funds than would have been made available had the state not taken passed the legislation that they passed. And third and finally, but this
is very important I think for our community to hear. Um the state did not pass legislation to that essentially said we want the wealthy communities to pay more so that we can help the poorer communities. It's actually the opposite.
That's exactly what was in place for years prior to 2010, which I thought was a pretty good program. um when when property tax and state and sales t state taxes, sales and income tax uh supported
public education and the way they did that was to and the state saw the said in Indiana said the state will be the equalizer for the very thing that was suggested and that is children ought to have an equal opportunity. And so
prior to 2010, if a 10-cent tax rate raised 30% of the funding formula, I'm sorry, 70% of the funding formula, um the state would make up the other 30%. And if it was a less wealthy community, and we're talking about property tax wealth, by the way, not necessarily
income, um then and a 10 it was equal equal rate. So if the 10 cents raised 30% of the money, then the state paid the 70%. In 2010, the state of Indiana said, "We're going to fund education at the state level." And as as was noted, I
believe, by Mr. Brown, that's about the time the 100red-year recession hit. And you can imagine what happens with sales and income tax when when you have a recession. And so since that time, we've been inadequately funded, which is why we have referendum
in the first place. and and um and that hasn't changed in terms of of it's it's gotten worse actually. And so, but I think it's important to note that the current program um and SB1 absolutely
um it it it applies to every school district, every community across the state as though they're all the it's it's almost the opposite. It's all the as though we're all the same and we're not. including those that p multiple times passed referendums which means they've said yes you can raise my taxes
and the state said no uh without any vote that we're going to lower your taxes kind of like whether you like it or not and um so that puts us in this meeting today um in in hopes that we'll be able to explain that to our community
um and to to our uh voters and taxpayers and I'm optimistic and and and hopeful, but I don't take it for granted. Thank you, Mr. McMichael. Thank you, everyone. Good discussion. We will now move on to our reports
section of the agenda. And the first report this evening is our student data report. Dr. Dudley. I just knocked knocked Dr. Dudley off the uh w off the uh presentation mode there. So, give us a second, but she's pretty quick on the draw. So,
>> well, good evening. So, tonight's um report provides an overview of our multilingual learning program and the students that we serve, the supports in place, and this year's growth data. And the goal is to both show the scope of the work and also the progress our
students are making. Um, and as you may notice, education is really good at using a lot of acronyms. Like for example, sometimes Carmel High School is referred to as DHS. In when we're talking about students learning English in school,
those acronyms are um quadrupled. So, what I'd like to do tonight as I'm going through the presentation is I'd like to challenge you to listen and look for the acronyms because sometimes these acronyms um in the research in the way we talk about them, sometimes they're
used interchangeably, but they actually mean slightly different things. So, I want you to be listening and looking for those acronyms and then at the end we'll have a quiz to see how many you find and then we can clarify any of those acronyms that you might have.
Okay. So, this work is directly connected to our district's strategic goals around academic excellence and systems of support. Our MLL services are not separate from our district priorities. They're a key part of how we eliminate achievement gaps and ensure access to
high quality instruction for every one of our students. Our MLL work aligns especially well with our district focus on individualized support, student centered services, and responsive programming across all
schools. For our multilingual learners, this means targeted language support, strong instructional systems and coordinated services that help students succeed academically, socially, and independently. And one measure for academic achievement
for multilingual learners is WEDA. And the WEDA data helps us to monitor our English language development while also keeping student access to grade level learning at the center. And throughout this presentation, I will explain more about what we mean in detail.
So let's just start with um our multilingual learners. So our district currently serves 1,383 multilingual learners and we have 120 multilingual learners that the students have a language proficiency
level of a 1.0 to a 4.9. And the reason I point this out is our we serve our students, we provide those supports for students that have the language proficiency level between a one and a 4.9. Um and the way we get that language proficiency level is any student that
comes to us they that um speaks a language other than English must um fill out a home language survey. And that home language survey they say they speak any other language then we do need to assess them on a screening tool which is a WEDA screening tool. If they score
between a 1.0 to a 4.9 they qualify for services. If they score a five or above then they do not qualify for services. but they are still considered our multil- language students. They just don't receive those services or we also have students that are they came to us,
they did qualify for services and they exited out of those services. So that's where um when we're talking about the numbers and when we get into the data of the WEDA scores, I'll explain even further why that number is even less. So we do have 1,120 students that receive
those services. Um in our district we have 108 different languages spoken and the top three um other than English are Spanish, Mandarin and Arabic. So you can see that this reflects both the diversity of our district and the
importance of strong systems to meet wide a wide range of language needs for our students. Changed our slides around here. So WEDA, so let's talk about WEDA first. So WEDA is a framework um that Indiana uses to guide English language development um
standards and annual assessments for our multilingual learners. The access um for ELELL's assessment gives us a consistent way to measure students English proficiency and determine needed supports and this ensures that the
instruction is aligned to the students language and developmental needs. And WEDA assesses students ability to use and to understand English ac across four different domains. And these domains mirror the way that the students use language in the classroom. And all
of our students use language in the classroom. So it could be listening to a readaloud or speaking during collaborative group work um or um reading a an article in science class or writing an essay. So the WEDA scores in each domain help us to understand the
individual strengths and guide instructional support. So when our students take the WEDA access assessment, they get a score, they get four different scores and then they get a composite score. So they get a score in speaking, listening, reading, and writing. And then all of those scores
are um tied together into a standard score and they get a composite score as well. So weed is a as I said it's an assessment that gives us scores and it has six proficiency levels from a level one which would be entering to a level
six which would be reaching and these levels describe the developmental path students follow as they acquire English. So movement through these levels may take multiple years, especially at the upper levels where the academic language becomes much more complex. And so most
of our students progress um through a level every one to two years. And in Indiana, once the student um receives a composite score of a 5.0, then they are exited from receiving those services. So how do we um meet the needs of our
English language learners? So our district uses multiple service delivery models because no one single approach will meet the needs for all of our every single one of our multilingual learners. So the first model we have is our English as a second language or ESL and
ESL provides a direct instruction in how English works, grammar, sentence structure, speaking, listening, reading, writing and academic ver vocabulary. So students are um receiving services that directly support learning to speak, read
and write English. And so at the elementary level, how this looks is and at our middle school level, the students um receive small group intervention work that is in addition to the core um curriculum or the tier one curriculum
that they're receiving, they receive this in small group intervention time at the high school. Our students receive these um this work through our ENL courses. And so this model um is essential to building that foundational um language
development. We also have contentbased English language development um courses. And so the contentbased ELD helps students develop English while learning grade level content. So support is delivered in general education classrooms through
shared planning, push and support and co-eing between classroom teachers and our MLL staff. And this model is important because it keeps our multilingual learners connected to tier one instruction alongside peers. So when our English learners come to us, they
need to not only learn English, but they also need to learn the content. Um, and when we get into the high school, then they also need to earn credits in order to graduate. And so it becomes even more intense there. But we need to we do that
um for the majority of our students in that English language development. So, how are we making sure that we are providing that instruction for our students in that tier one or in those core classrooms in English and they're learning the English at the same time.
And so, that is a big part of the work that we do. And we have excellent um general education teachers along with our ML um certified teachers as well that pair together to look at how do we provide that for each of our individual students. And then our another model
that we um offer is our sheltered English instruction. And the sheltered English instruction provides core content in English but in a way that's adjusted to the students current proficiency level. And we have two different models of this. We have one that um the students are receiving these
services um in ele in middle school and in high school and the courses are ML students only. So our ML students um have the opportunity to algebra and it's a very small class with just ML students and these are usually our level ones and
two ML students. We also offer other sections of sheltered courses where it's ML students with typical peers as well. Um however, we're making sure that we are um designing the instruction specific to their ML levels. And so
these would be more of our level three and our level four ML students. So, in um the middle school, we also um started a new program where the students are receiving language arts, which is they're receiving the same language arts
instruction that all of our other middle school students are receiving, but it is just a course designed just for our ML students. And so, this allows their um the teacher to be able to really um fine-tune those lessons based on their
um level of proficiition. So, and then the fourth model that we have is our heritage language and heritage heritage language courses help students to strengthen their home language while continuing to build their English. And the research really
supports the idea that a strong literacy in the students first language can also strengthen the literacy development in English. And in our district, we offer um at the high school we offer Spanish heritage courses and Arabic heritage
courses. So the students um continue to build their knowledge of their um first language and then that also ties over into them learning English at a much deeper level. And so together these models allow us to match the services to the students proficiency, their grades
span and their instructional setting. So let's look at our district growth data now. And so here we have um when we're looking at our students with our MLL levels of 1 to 4.9, we're looking at a group of students that's 841 students.
And the reason that is much lower than the 1,120 students we talked about that we're servicing is because we're comparing last year's WEDA scores to this year's WEDA scores. So if they were with us last year and we have a WEDA score for them and they continue to be
with us and we have a WEDA score for them. That's we're comparing those students together. So what this number doesn't include is any student that might have um moved from our district. This number doesn't include our kindergarten students because we only have one WEDA score for those students
that we only have this year's WEDA score. Um and then any of our students that had a WEDA score last year but then um tested out and got a level of a five or higher in that program. So that's where um the the number may differ. So
we had 841 students with the levels one 4.9 that was reflected in this growth data and out of those students 829 made growth or 99% made growth and 691
met their growth target or 82%. So when they do get a WEDA score, they get a projected growth target um with the WEDA scores and we look at um not only we want them to make growth, but we want them to make considerable growth. We want them to meet that growth target um
that they're making. And so that's where we have 82% of our students are um meeting their growth target. So when we look at the elementary results, they're especially strong. So we have 443 of the 445 students made growth. So 99% of our
students make growth and 375 of these students met their growth target or 84%. Um our second grade posted the highest target attainment at 91% while the fifth graders um are was at a much lower at 69%. And this gives us that clear area
that we need to monitor. We need to look at what supports are going into fifth grade. But as you'll see, as it gets um academically more challenging, um it gets more difficult to meet those growth targets over time. So overall though, our elementary performance reflects a
strong foundation in the early language development. Moving on to our middle school, our middle school results are also strong. We have 175 out of the 177 students made growth. So 99% of our students made growth and 159 met their growth target
or right at 90%. Our eighth grade had the strongest target attainment at 93% with sixth grade at 86% and seventh grade at 89%. And these results suggest that our middle school programming is helping our students continue that strong language
growth as academic um the academic demands increase. And then looking at our high school, our high school also showed positive growth with 211 of the 219 students making growth. So that 96% of our students made growth. However,
157 of our students met their growth target or um 72%. Which is lower than our elementary and our middle school. And our ninth graders did have the strongest um growth with meeting their growth target at 87%. while the target attainment drops in
10th through 12th grade, especially in 11th grade at 65% and in 12th grade at 50%. And so, as I said, you know, the students at our high school level face those increasing language and graduation demands. So, as you're thinking about the academic language, if you're coming
in as a 10th grader and you speak no English at all and then you're expected to um you know focus on English 10 and you're expected to focus on our um chemistry and learning all of that
academic language that is very high level. So, it is it is much more difficult um to meet those demands. But one of the things as we looked at how can we increase those at the high school. One of the things we did was we did last year we included those shelter
classes that were for our ML students only, our level ones and two students and we um developed those classes in algebra in English nine um in world history as well as biology. And so the students had a very small class. they
had a teacher like a biology teacher that's a certified biology teacher. But the we are also providing ongoing um professional development for the teachers in in lesson design and also making sure that the um strategies
they're putting together in their instruction is directly aligned to the students level of English proficiency. And that um programming is actually called the SC method. And that's um ongoing professional development that we provide for our teachers that are
teaching um these courses. We also are expanding that to provide it for more of our um content area teachers as well, especially the ones that have the sheltered where we have both our English learners as well as our um typical peers
in the courses. And then we look at the students that exited. So, we also want to look at um how many students obtained that proficiency level at a level five or above. And you can see that um our exit rates in um elementary are 23%, 13% in
middle school, and 9% in high school, and 18% districtwide with 196 students um exiting overall. So this data suggests that we're more likely to exit earlier than their academic journey which reinforces the value of strong early intervention and language
development support. So when a student comes into us in kindergarten um our kinder classrooms are naturally very language rich because our kindergarten students are learning that language. all of our students are. And so we use a lot of um motions, we use a lot of pictures
to help students learn that academic vocabulary as well as just more general vocabulary. All students are learning that. So a student that comes in there that knows their language, they pick that up very quickly. Um we have to be much much more intentional when we get
into middle school, high school, and making sure that we're providing those supports for our students. So with that, I um entertain any questions that you might have. What acronyms did you hear? >> Or see,
>> you want to hear my whole list? >> Yes. >> There was only one I didn't know. >> And what do they mean? >> Oh, okay. >> This is Okay. I I'm might not get an A and I'm very upset. Okay. Okay. MLL multil- language
learner ILP and >> it's actually multilingual learner >> lingual learner >> uh ILP IEP CCS STEM WEDA
SAT ACT AP IB FTEM which was the one I did not know ah focus teacher evaluation model Um, E L L E L D, which I had twice, and E N
L. I think that was 14 or 15. >> And you added some in there. I don't think >> Yeah, if they were on the screen, I put them in because I didn't know what the rubric for evaluation was. >> So, which ones did you not know >> out of all the time?
>> Just the F10. >> Yeah, that's the focus teacher evaluation model. other ones. >> Oh, I didn't take I didn't take notes like that. I took other notes. >> I took notes on the content. I wasn't I wasn't playing competition. I know how
competitive you are though, Miss Wheeler. >> And and one of the things um so ESL ENL a lot of times are interchanged. Um ESL stands for English as second language. ENL is English as a new language. We talk about our program, we used to refer to it as ESL, then it moved to ENL. Now
we talk about um MLL which is the multilingual because students may be learning more than one language. And the multilingual language also um it talks about we look at an asset based where we saying they know they might know one or
more languages and we look at that as an asset to then help their development in English and that's slightly different than English as a new language. Um, and so those those ones are always interchanged. And then we have our ELLL, which is our English language learner.
We refer to them now as our multilingual learner. I mean, it's the alphabet soup continues to change, especially when we're um talking about services that are provided. And when we're looking at the research, the state changes that like for example at the high school are the
courses that they take that are specific to learning English. It we refer to them as ENL. um not MLL. So yeah, does always change and that helps you. So what questions might you have?
>> Um amazingly challenging and um I think great results given the differentiation of instruction that's necessary for that many um different grade levels and languages. I'm just wondering if you've looked at all at how our data compares
to Indiana or nationally. I don't know if that's even published, but how do you feel like we're doing as a district overall compared to districts that face similar issues? >> So, as as we look at our um data, our data compares um we overachieve compared
to other districts. Now, one caveat I want to put on. These are our scores as far as they met their learning target from last year, but just as the state changes our iLearn every single year and they changed it again from last year to this year and that's why we will not
receive iLearn scores until um the fall because they have to do standard setting. the WEDA um norms are also changing and so they have to recalculate the they these are the scores our students
received but then they need to recalculate them on their updated norms and WEDA is normed throughout the whole country. WEDA um the access test is actually um access is assessing comprehension and communication in
English stateto state. So it is well everybody that all of the states that use WEDA then all of their data goes into those norms and so they're reassessing those norms and then their growth targets are then developed based on those norms. So again, yeah. So we
can't compare what yet for 2026 scores yet, but we will be able to. But in the past, our scores we have um very much just like we have do in iLearn our scores very much um out
produce our other counterparts that have very similar demographics as we have. Um yeah, I have a question. You'd mentioned that there's a I think you called a herit heritage language as a one of the classes. What does that look
like? Do we and do we have one for every one of the languages? >> No. No. We offer um heritage Arabic and heritage Spanish. And so the the students that are taking um like the heritage Spanish, their language, their first language is Spanish. They they learned to speak in Spanish. They
learned to read and write in Spanish. Um and they are learning, they're continuing to de to develop their skills. So, it's similar to all of our students take English. Most of our students, that was their first language. They learn to speak, read, and write, but we continue to take English all
through high school all the way through 12th grade. Students take an English course where they're developing their um speaking, their listening, their reading, and their writing, their analysis. and you know it gets much and much more difficult as we go through >> the heritage language. They're doing
that in their native language. >> So they're they're analyzing text. They may be comparing two texts similar to what we might see in a um English class in English. They're doing that in Spanish. And what that we offer that at the high school we only have the two
right now. you might um do we do weda evaluations at kindergarten too or does that start at first grade? >> Yes. No, it starts in kindergarten. So all of our students when they come to in kindergarten when they came to us at the beginning of the year this past year um
any student that had anything other than English as their any other language then they were assessed on what is called a WEDA screener assessment and then that looks that does give them a level but the WEDA screener is not as indepth as
the WEDA access that we give in the spring. So starting in January, we're required any student that is receiving services, so they're level one through 4.9, we're required to give that WEDA assessment um to all of those students. So our kindergarten students have a WEDA
assessment, but they only have one. So I could that's why I couldn't compare last year's WEDA assessment. And you can't compare the screening assessment to the actual assessment. They don't it's not comparing apples to apples.
And and last question I have is the you showed growth targets and some students meet them and some don't. Um is a growth target. It's not the same thing as a level. It's probably something more incremental between a level. >> Yes. So yes. So we have students that do
move an entire level up. Um but they the growth target is set based on those norms um the the national norms. And so it's a prediction of if for all the students that scored this certain score in um 2025, every student that you know
is a third grade student that um had this scale score in 2025, then they get that predicted growth target that they say this is what we're saying typical growth should be and they should get to that growth target. So it might be going up a level, it might be going up more
than a level or it might not be going up a an entire level, but it is they're saying this is what we're expecting their growth to be. And so that's how because it's typically our students do move one level every one to two years.
So it may be in one year, maybe in one to two years, but we want to make sure that we're moving them forward. And as you can see as the um demands the academic demands get much higher it is slower to move like we have many we many
kindergarters that came in this um this year and then they exited the program after they took the lead to access. So they had one you know on the screening they looked to be between a one to a 4.9 and then those kindergarteners exited
that program. Um, and we had actually our highest rates in kindergarten. >> I just didn't see those on the chart. Started like at first grade when that's why I asked the question about >> right because it's not on the chart because what that chart was showing was
our students that had a weed to score last year compared to their WEDA score this year. Okay. >> And kindergarten didn't have >> they didn't have the baseline. They got their baseline this year. So they'll be next year's first grade. >> Makes sense. Thank you. Mrs. Cash,
>> Dr. Dudley, first thank you for your time earlier so we can have my onboarding me with you and we got a great opportunity to talk a lot about the MLL students. So, I appreciate that. One of my follow-up questions is I I know you you showed that we have 638 elementary school MLL learners. Um, in a
perfect world, I'm sure they would be distributed across all 11 elementary schools equally, but can you give the community example of like maybe if a school has a lower share of the MLL students, what that support system looks like versus a school that maybe has a
high ML need and what that resource structure differentiator is. So, at at all of our schools, we have at least one MLL um teacher that is specific to um work with directly work with our ML students, directly work with um the
classroom teachers due to that planning, that co-eing. So, every one of our schools has at least one. Then um schools that have a higher population, they may have multiple MLL teachers that act as the teacher, but then also may be
the um what's called the to the teacher of record. And so they um support students as well um their as far as helping them develop their ILP or their individual learning plan because all of our MLL students have an ILP that's
different from an IEP. Um but they develop that to say these are the strategies, these are the accommodations that the students need to be successful and it's very individualized um for the students so that we they may have multiple teachers of record that they're all certified. All of our um ML teachers
are they all have their ML certification which is a certification the stu the teachers need to get um throughout and um several years ago we were able to use grant money to support teachers receiving that certification because it is 15 additional credits um and we were
able to reimburse teachers um to do that. That was several years ago and then the state said no longer could we use that grant money for that but it was it was nice that we got a bulk of our teachers and we could then pay for them to do their continuing education. So in ones that for example at Carmel
Elementary they have a much higher um rate of ML students and so they actually have four teachers that support the ML as well as the reading intervention um because they're also a title school and so they
also receive additional reading intervention teachers as well. So it really depends on the the number of students they might have a varying um level at the middle school and the high school. At the middle school, we have ML teacher, certified teachers that are specific um for our ML as well as um the
teacher of records that also help because we have um many more teachers you need to work with. And so those teachers of records also help support the teachers. They don't necessarily do direct services. And then at the high school um our teachers that we have
several teachers of record that support the teachers for um to provide for our ML students. And then we also have those very specific classes that are ML only that um are much smaller classes like for
example um their algebra classes they were classes of five students I mean very small. so that that teacher who is ML certified as well as a math teacher was able to really meet their needs um in that classroom. So that it really
depends on the the number of students and the level that they're at and um their needs. >> Thank you, Dr. Dudley. Thank you. Appreciate it. >> Uh next report on our agenda is our monthly financial report with Miss Kushar.
Okay, got it. Thanks. Um, the format of tonight's report is a little bit different. We're going to do some financial highlights and uh then we'll answer questions about the detailed reports, but maybe not go through them as in as much detail as we usually do. So, any feedback you have on this uh new
way that we're doing it, we appreciate that as well. Uh before we jump in, I just want to highlight some of the people in these this picture. Uh this is these are some of our building treasurers. So each of our buildings has a treasurer. Um and each building treasurer is responsible for managing
the extracurricular activity funds in their school and they also help with purchasing at their school. At the elementary level, uh this is one of their many jobs. At the secondary level, this is their primary focus, but if you spent time in schools, you know that
they wear many, many hats. So, uh they also have many other responsibilities. Um you can imagine with all of the clubs and activities that we have that this is a pretty big job um at the high school alone. There are 149 um ECA funds that they're managing. So, it's a big job and
we appreciate them and they really partner with us um towards our strategic plan goal of managing financial resources with transparency and efficiency. Okay, so financial highlights. Um first update is around our audit report which
we did receive on March 31st. Um, this is our annual audit report and I'm pleased to report that it was a clean unmodified opinion and for non- finance people that's is the best that you can get. So, that's exciting. Um, it is posted on our website. Thank you Emily
for helping build out our financial transparency website. Um, it's about 176 pages. Um, so if you're interested, go take a look. Um, a couple of things to uh to note about it. Um we operate on a
cash basis. Um but because we have over 15,000 kids, we are required to create our financial statements on acrruel GAP statements. And so what we do at the end of every year is we work with a third party. They convert our statements to acrruel and then the state board of
accounts comes in and then they audit those statements which they actually do through a third party. So like I said, they're posted online. They are also um they also drew a single audit for our federal funds and an ECA audit and both of those were also clean with no
findings. The other thing that I wanted to highlight is um a couple of things related to House Bill 2010. Um there were many many things included in this bill. There are two things that I want to highlight tonight. One is the change
to excise tax revenue allocation. Um, so essentially I want to read exactly what the bill said. So the bill states that taxing units may deposit distributions of excise tax revenue in any fund maintained by the
taxing unit. We would love that. We always love flex flexibility. Um, the SBA has said that they might come out with some additional guidance and they may require it to go in the operations fund. Um, in all we receive about 6.8
million through this source. Uh so it is not additional revenue, it's more of a reallocation of revenue and we'll know soon if we have that option or if it will go into the operations fund. If it is required to go into the operations fund, it will help with the the next
line. Um so in 2027 the uh the credit when it was originally passed, SP1 was originally passed, it did not protect debt service. And historically, whenever uh debt service has always been protected, so whenever
there's a tax cap or a credit, any of those things, they would always protect debt service because they wanted to make sure that schools could always pay their debts. Um when they passed SB1, they did not. So this year, uh the credit, the $300 credit was split among those two
funds. Next year, it will all hit the operations fund, which is about $3 million. So it could offset the first line item. Um other financial highlights uh include our first property tax distribution which will be received this Friday. Um
so this is historically our lowest point in terms of fund balance and cash balance because um it's right before property taxes hit. So that will be Friday and then we'll receive the balance next month. In March we did our annual bus purchase. So, we purchased 12
buses per our bus replacement plan, and that was about $2.8 million. And then the last big thing that happened in April was the 2026 bond proceeds were received, and those are held in a trust account. Generally, um, we're tracking really
well towards our projections. We're on track for revenue projections and towards expenditures. Um, so no nothing's off track. things are coming in as expected really across all the big four funds that we talk about.
So at this time I'm happy to answer any questions. >> Mr. President, >> comments. Yes, Miss Wheeler. >> Uh not a question but feedback. I like the highlights at the beginning for somebody. I want all the detail, right?
So I appreciate still having that but I really like the highlights at the beginning. Mrs. Kushar and for a not accounting person. >> Thank you. Love it. Thank you, >> Mr. Brown. >> Yeah. A question on the buses. A
curiosity. What what kind of fuel are we buying? What fuel type are we buying in our buses? The the the large buses are diesel. um bec but we also have propane buses that are they don't have a propane bus that and a
full-size bus yet but um although the continue to move in that direction. So we have we have uh primarily diesel buses then propane buses and we have some very small buses that would be gasoline but the vast majority are
diesel >> electric buses haven't >> we have one we were the first district in the state it's not always good to be first um but we were the first district in the state to uh have an electric bus uh the state there was grants that uh to
I mean I believe the bus was at least a half a million dollars when a diesel bus would have been $100,000. But uh the state basically subsidized that to where it didn't cost
meaningfully more than a diesel bus. But as I said, we so it was the first diesel bus and that that was kind of fun until we started having trouble with it. And um so we still haven't and um but it's as most things over the you know we
believe they've they're getting better um but we're not ready to buy another one just yet. I would uh I would concur with Miss Wheeler. I appreciate the highlights. Um I mean I I I like looking through the financials. Um
however I appreciate having something different that sort of gives us some broad strokes highlights at the beginning um because not everyone likes to look through financial statements but um I do um but just because you know looking at year-over-year and just
looking for trends I mean that's the sort of thing I mean I'm not studying these um and if I want to um if I have trouble sleeping tonight I will pull up your the audit report because that will help um but it's good to know the audits are clean. I mean that I think that is also something that the community should
be aware of. That means that our bookkeeping is done in a responsible manner and that that those are things that happen on a regular and annual basis. So that also shows some accountability which I think is important. So thank you. >> Appreciate it.
>> Thank you. >> Great. Um before we get to the superintendent report, quick little audible here. We're going to Miss Kok has a uh quick parks uh department update. >> Yep. This came about yesterday at the park board meeting. So, I had not
intended to have a report, but I wanted to update the board um and the community. Um I'm not sure that I've read about much about this park in the current or anything. I don't I don't recall seeing it, but um one of the newest parks that
the city is really really pushing and that will be built is called Veterans Park. And the reason that I'm talking about this at a schoolboard meeting is because this built this will be built um kind of directly to the west of Caramel Middle School, kind of budding up to the Caramel Middle School property um and
just to the north of Odin Woods, which is on the property of Carmel Middle School. And the it's a it's a really cool design. It's it's looking really great. And in at our next meeting on June 10th, um the um Carmel Clay Parks and Recreation Director, Michael
Klitsing, will be actually be here to give us a presentation on what the park will look like potentially. Um and then talking about exactly where it'll be located and we'll have a chance to answer or ask him any questions. >> Great. Look forward to that. Thank you,
Mrs. Kok. And now, superintendent report with Dr. Orike. >> Thank you very much, uh President Shapiro and members of our board. Um, the new veterans park is going to uh dovetail well as we're going to need to renew our Purple Star designation uh
with the state of Indiana where we honor veterans and uh meet the requirements to be a Purple Star district. So, that's coming down the pipeline as well. Um, I do want to start tonight's president or superintendent report. Sorry, President Shapiro. Um, and I don't want your job.
Um uh but tonight's superintendence report was something I'm very proud of and very excited to report to our community and this is our bell ringer and everything that uh I'm very excited about. Uh but our band, our orchestra,
and our choir all made state finals and all three were state champions in Indiana for Isma Concert Band, Concert Orchestra, and Concert Choir. And so we are so proud of their achievements and
their accomplishments. This is the first time in school history that this has happened where our band, orchestra, and choir all won a state title in the same year. So, as you as everyone watching knows, we are extremely proud of our
performing arts here uh with Carmel Clay Schools and I could not be more thrilled for our students, for our directors, for our families who put in countless hours um and um you know, we know about the marching band and we know the hours they
put in and they're headed to the Rose Bowl uh coming up and all of that, but for our concert choir and orchestra and band to achieve believe this ultimate level of being a state champion. I just could not say more about their
dedication and their work and their performances. I went to orchestra and if you closed your eyes, you felt like you were at a professional symphony. I went to band and they are playing the most complex um competitive pieces that most college
bands would be jealous of the way they performed. And then choir, I was stuck on 465 because there was an accident and I sat at Michigan Road, so I missed the choir, but um they performed so so well. And so I'm just pleased with all of our performing arts in the district and
especially at Carmel High School. So congratulations to our students, our directors, and our families. Um I also want to share that um oh, this weekend is our spring musical. Any anything goes. So I'll be there on Friday night. looking forward to that. Um, if you have
a chance to attend our spring musical, you would think you're at a professional performance as well. They do just such a fantastic job. And then I want to close tonight by sharing that I'm looking forward to graduation next Friday at the Indiana Fairgrounds. And so I want to
wish our seniors the best as they enter the workforce, enlist into our armed forces, or enroll and uh head on out to college. Uh we are very proud of our greyhounds and uh we look forward to graduation. So thank you for a great evening, a great board meeting and I'll
turn it back over to President Shapiro. >> Thank you Dr. Rosrike. Just a few announcements. Uh May 22nd, in addition to being graduation for the class of 2026 is also the last day of school for students across the district. May 25th, all CCS offices are closed in observance
of the Memorial Day holiday. Wednesday, June 10th will be our schoolboard workshop session for June. On June 18th, all CCS offices are closed for the Junth holiday. And Wednesday, June 24th will be our schoolboard regular session for the month of June. May I have a motion
to adjurnn? >> I move to adjurnn. >> May I have a second? >> Second. >> Okay, we are adjourned at 7:59.