The meeting is now called to order. Roll call. Mr. Shapiro. >> All board members are present. >> Thank you. Please stand for the pledge of allegiance. Algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic
for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, liberty, justice for all. >> Next, I will read our CCS mission statement that says, Carmel Clay Schools will provide opportunities for all students to realize their potential in
an everchanging world. And next we have three people signed up for public comment this evening. Thank you so much for coming out. We love having the public come and um make their opinions known and and make comments. We like it. Um per our bylaws typically we
place uh re or we we put speakers in groups of two either group one which is CCS students, parents, teachers, any other employees and Carmel residents and then group two is anybody else. This evening we have um speakers signed up
who are all in group one. So, we have placed them in our fancy bingo roller or bingo cage and um to be able to put you in order. Um as a reminder, participants must be recognized by the presiding officer and
must preface their comments with their name and group affiliation if applicable. Speakers may not yield their time to another speaker. Comments may not reference specific corporation employees, patrons, or students. Comment shall be directed to the board. No
person may address or question individual board members. The school board will not act on or respond to questions or comments made during public comment but will take them under advisement. The numbers have been placed in the basket. And so we will go through our
random order. >> They have and number one is up first. >> Oh, okay. >> Number two is on deck. >> All right. That's easy for me. Um it did number one. So, up first we have Ashley Boule and then on deck we have Jim May.
And you will have three minutes. You'll be able to keep track um by the little lights in front of you. You'll have three minutes once you start to speak. Ready? All right. Good evening, members of the board, district leadership, and fellow community members. I am here
tonight to speak on behalf of one of the candidates, not based on campaign promises, but based on lived experience. Three years ago, while serving as the vice president and later president of Mohawk Trails PTO, at that time, our
school felt unheard. We felt overlooked. We had questions and concerns and ideas, but no clear path forward and no sense that our voices were reaching the right places. Through this person's role as a founding member of the Greyhound Council, an
organization that connects the PTO's across the district, she changed that. She became an essential bridge between the schools and the district. She provided guidance, shared institutional knowledge, connected us with the right
people, and helped us understand how to navigate complex systems. Most importantly, she helped us and empowered us to advocate for ourselves. She did not make decisions for us. We did that as a school community. She
stood beside us every step of the way. She followed up consistently. She checked in. She made sure action items did not disappear. She modeled what it looks like to be a supportive and she led without ego.
I want to acknowledge that being a school board member is an incredibly demanding volunteer role. It requires time, emotional energy, and a genuine heart for service. This candidate has already proven that she understands this
commitment. Six years, she has shown up quietly, consistently, and for the right reasons. She believes in public education and in community partnership. Strong school districts depend on a healthy relationship between the board,
the district, and the families they serve. We need a school board member who listens, who can communicate clearly, and who understands that how despite how amazing our district is, and it is amazing, there are still real concerns
within our community. based on my experience, she just she doesn't just understand our schools, she understands our community as a whole. And that's exactly the perspective we need at this table. Thank you for your time and service.
Thank you. Up next is Jim May. And on deck is Justin Spicer. >> Hi, I'm Jim May. I'm a parent of two students at Woodbrook Elementary. Uh, Madam President, members of the board administration, thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight. I want to begin with a suggestion the board revisit a current policy that's directly
relevant to tonight's meeting regarding public comment. Rule F for public attendance and public comment states comments may not reference specific corporation employees, patrons, or students. I understand why a rule like that's necessary. In recent years, we've had groups that have engaged in attacks
on individual teachers that arguably rise to the level of defamation. And so for reasons of both liability and decency, it it makes sense that the district would want to avoid public comment being used to platform potentially slander statements. But unfortunately, as it's currently
written, the rule also precludes speakers from making positive comments to recognize excellence from those associated with our schools. Uh tonight's a perfect example. The board's conducting interviews to fill a vacant seat. One of the candidates is a woman who's made exceptional contributions to our schools. She's volunteered for her
PTO and the Carmel Education Foundation. When she saw the need for more collaboration between various schools PTO's, she led the charge on establishing the Greyhound Council. She's gone to bat, as we've heard, um for parents facing issues with their schools or the administration, even
though those issues had no direct impact on her or her family. Um when leg our legislators considered bills that would directly impact our schools, she's made the time to show up downtown and testify at the state house. I'm not familiar with the other two candidates being interviewed tonight, but it's hard to
imagine that they or really pretty much anyone that's not currently on the board has volunteered as much of their time and made as much of their commitment to our schools as this person. Now, I think everybody on the day knows who I'm talking about, but there are members of the public perhaps here tonight, perhaps
watching at home who may not. And adhering to the current verbiage of rule F, um, I can't name that candidate. Similarly, if a parent wishes to recognize excellence from a teacher or staff member at their school, they're prevented from doing so. So, as such, I suggest rule F be updated to allow members of the community to publicly
recognize others for contributions to our schools. Um, I'm not sure what the best language would be for that, but there's an excellent attorney on the board, and I'm sure you all can come up with a good solution. As you can consider candidates tonight, I hope you'll give ample consideration to how much effort they've already put into showing up for our students, families,
and schools. Thank you for your time and all you do for our kids. Thank you. Up next is Justin Spicer. Hello everyone. So, um, as our two previous speakers have already spoken, uh, I'm here today to speak highly about
one particular candidate. Before I do that, I want to first implore all of you to think of this interview process not as a political appointment, but as somebody who's going to serve our community, somebody who has demonstrated time and time again that they can serve our community. Uh, I know that come
November, thanks to the lobbying of some individuals, we're going to have a political race for this seat. But for the time being, I want purpose of these interviews to be focused on what these candidates have achieved. So with that in mind, I want to think about how these
candidates have already focused on our students and our schools and our community. I also want to ask that um as they continue to uh take on their time and their patience, think about what they've already contributed to our
community, how they have currently collaborated with members here of our school board, of other schools, and of our community. I keep repeating community because I think it's very important for this role. We need somebody who can hit the ground running. somebody who already knows what it's
going to take to fulfill this job, to communicate with our community, to reach out to parents, to schools, to staffers, to get things done. And I believe that there is one candidate who embodies all these qualities. No doubt there's still work to be done with our schools, and we
we all understand this as parents. Nothing's perfect. Uh, but I do want to say that somebody who's willing to do that work and has already done it, not even asking for a seat until she felt it was time for her to step in and assume that role, I think is something we
should celebrate. I thank you all. >> Thank you all very much. And again, we appreciate having the public come and speak. Thank you. Up next, we have our consent part of our agenda. And tonight, the consent items include the personnel report, claims,
payroll, obsolete equipment, and the authorization to sign agreements for alternative services and private residential school placements. As a reminder for um those of you who maybe are not as familiar, this the consent part of our agenda is our business part
of our agenda where we group things together for efficient consideration and then we approve them in a single motion. Do I have a motion to approve all items on the consent agenda? >> I move that we approve all the items on
the consent agenda. >> Thank you, Greg. Do I have a second? >> Second. Thank you. Any discussion on these items? Madame President, could I just uh trouble for the sake of the public if we could ask for an explanation on the uh authorization for
alternative services just for a brief explanation? I think it's important that people understand what that is. >> Absolutely. I was going to ask for the same thing. Thank you. >> Yeah, thank you for your question. This is an annual um request that we ask of the board so that we can appropriately,
timely, and efficially uh efficiently meet the needs of some of our students here in the district. So instead of having to bring this to every board meeting, delay us supporting our students. Um it's a very small number of students in our district. However, we
want to make sure we're taking really great care of all students here. Great. Thank you. >> Thank you. We will now take a vote then. All in favor um of approving the items on the consent agenda agenda signify by saying
I. I. >> I. Motion carries. And then up next we have There he is. He disappeared. Um, up next on the agenda is the superintendent report with Dr. Orike. >> Well, good evening, President Kay,
members of the board. Um, I would ask if our members of the board could please come up front here at this time for my super. They don't know that I'm doing this uh for uh tonight's superintendent report. Keep all your stuff up there, but I would ask that if you would come
up and stand uh right by the table here. Either way is perfectly good with me. Um, but as the community may or may not know, uh, January is school board appreciation month. And for tonight's, uh, superintendent report, we're just
going to focus on the wonderful work and appreciation of our school board members here in Carmel. Mrs. Boule uh really encompassed this very well in her comments tonight that it takes an incredible amount of time, effort,
concern, meetings, listening, involving the community. And we are fortunate to have the school board members that we do here uh in Carmel. And tonight is such an important evening as we are going to welcome a new school board member um by
the end of the month. the work and the time that goes into just preparing for tonight's meeting is incredible and I appreciate the collaboration, the consideration, uh the time, the communication from each and every one of you and so do our schools and our
parents and our community, but most importantly our students. And so tonight, we have some gifts from our students. and uh they have prepared cards and there's a t-shirt in uh your bin for you. But I do want you to come
up here real quick. Uh we have one of the uh one of the uh couple teachers in one of our schools made this beautiful sign that I would like all of you to hold up. And one of our board members who was incredible that did step down. She's a part of this too. So if you would come up here real quick.
All right, here we go. Here we go. >> All right, so as you can see, uh, one of our schools, I believe it was Smoky Row, um, put together this banner for our school board. And then our students wrote, uh, very kind, um, letters to
each of our schoolboard members. And many of our schools, and there's tons of student letters in there. Now, I will say I did preview a couple of those letters and they did ask um you to talk to me about two-hour delays and cancellations. I did see in those you'll
read those in some of the letters. Um but ultimately, I wanted to say thank you to our school board members. We appreciate you. The hard work you do each and every day on behalf of this school district is incredible. So, please put your hands together for our school board.
Yeah. >> No. And that concludes tonight's superintendence report. usually have a no surprises rule, which is why we're all laughing, but that was a good surprise. So, thank you. >> You can
you can, however, I think we need to move on with our candidate interviews. But yes, these are wonderful. We get these every year. It's I think we all love looking through the student letters and cards and it's wonderful. Um so next up, what I think you're all here for um
are the candidate interviews for the district 2 open board position. So the purpose of these interviews um are to replace the district 2 school board position that was vacated by Jennifer Nelson Williams on December 31st, 2025. We received applications from many many
highly qualified candidates and want to thank every single one of you who applied. On January 7th the uh 2026 the board met to review the applications and at that time we were able to narrow the candidates to our finalists who are here
this evening. We have three candidates who will be interviewed and they will interview in alphabetical order. Candidate number one is Jennifer Cashion. Candidate number two is Jessica Miklvoy Semen and candidate number three is Michael Reffett.
We do have a list of questions and then we will be using the bingo bingo ball basket to randomize uh those questions uh which will be asked by the board members. So the board is going to move down here to in front of you and then the candidate will be uh obviously at the
table in front of us. And so if we are going in alphabetical order, our first candidate is Jennifer Cashion. Good evening. You thank you so much for applying. If you could take a minute to just introduce yourself and then we will begin questions.
Thank you for this opportunity this evening. My name is Jennifer Cashion. I have lived in this community for about six years. And since the moment that I moved here, I dove into all the opportunities available to me to support our wonderful school district. I have three children, an eighth grader and a
sixth grader at Creekide, and I have a third grader at Clay Center. I've been involved in things like support CCS, Greyhound Council, the PTO at both Creekide and at Clay Center, and I'm also involved in multiple committees with our Caramel Education Foundation. I
personally work from home, so I have a lot of flexibility, as does my husband's. Um, and our three kids are very actively involved in sports and activities across the community. Thank you very much. Our first question is from Miss Wheeler.
>> Thank you for being here tonight. Our first question for you is, what specific actions should the board take to work on building stronger relationships with the community? Thank you for the question. I think it
would be great to see the board actively engaging in some of the communication outreach that our district has started to enact with over the last 6 to 12 months. I think the district's done a great job in showing up for the community when it comes to the neighborhood pop-up events to the open
houses that are now available to allow our community members to see the amazing things that our older students have available to them in the school district and also to see just more involvement for those opportunities to see board representation whether that be formally
or informally that would be a way that we could reach out to the community. Additionally, I really think there are some opportunities that we should be considering as a board moving forward that put us more in a constructive conversation with community members. One of those things would be a resource like
the Stop it app that would be available to parents, whether that be through Powers School or another opportunity that if there was a concern that you felt like you had within your school community that wasn't being heard, that you would have an avenue to report that to the school district that allowed you the availability to be anonymous. There
are currently two opportunities in the last year that I had to work with school communities where there were concerns that they felt like they weren't being heard, but they didn't know where to go and they were afraid to have their name attached to some of those concerns. So, I think being able to talk to the
community about concerns and giving them the opportunity to be um anonymous would be helpful and build further relationships. I also think it would be helpful if the board split up responsibilities of attending PTO meetings because we have a lot of amazing volunteers across our community
who do wonderful things for our schools and it would be nice to have the board there to hear directly what initiatives they're working on, what issues they have um especially as we look at fundraising to enhance our classrooms when we also have other budgetary issues that will be coming in the next few
years. I think we can utilize the Greyhound Council meetings as well to expose some of those PTO leaders to our schoolboard members. Um, we could take the last half of the meeting and actually have a limited amount of the PTO members such as one representative
from each school, meet with the school board to be able to say the successes that they're having in their building, but then also some of the issues that they're facing that they'd like to raise to the school board to bring back to the district. Um, additionally, I think it would be fantastic if we could mirror
what Westfield recently did where the city council and the school board hold a joint meeting. A lot of their topic was revolving around the fact of potential increased enrollment with all of the construction that is happening in our neighboring city. I think for us, the main topic to work collaboratively with
in the future is going to be regarding the tax implications that we see from SEA1, not only from a school perspective, but the city. There's going to be a lot of tax conversations in order to support the quality of life that we've all come to know and love for Carmel. Um, and finally, I'm part of the
Hamilton County Leadership Academy, and this month we actually had our education day. And with that, the Noblesville School District shared with us how before their schoolboard meeting every month, they actually tour one of the schools within their district. And then part of their schoolboard meeting is highlighting things from that school.
And I think that would really be a way for the school board to foster better relationships with our community as well to be able to see firsthand the buildings in our district and the successes and opportunities that they have. >> Thank you very much. Our next question
for Mr. Brown is Hi Have you been or are you currently involved in any work that could be seen as a potential conflict of interest with serving on the school board? Please explain. >> I'm very glad you asked this question.
Um, ethics and community trust are a huge important area to me and I know that certain people in the community would perceive my chair position for support CCS as a conflict of interest. Um, I would share that I do not think
civic engagement is a conflict of interest. I believe it is actually preparation for civic service. Um, additionally, support CCS is a nonpartisan advocacy group that supports schoolboard candidates within Carmel Clay Schools, but what it really is is
just the PTO of schoolboard campaigns essentially, and that we're very active in helping those that get endorsed through our committee um for schoolboard campaigns. And I think it's important to note that as a chair, what I do in that capacity
is really organizing our volunteers and looking for efficiencies and encouraging gauge voter base. And from that perspective, it's definitely not a conflict of interest. However, since a few months ago, I had decided that regardless of whether or not the previous person in this role was going
to seek re-election, I was going to run. I've already enacted a transition plan and I'm currently handing over my chair role to two members of our community, one a Republican and one a Democrat to maintain that nonpartisan nature of our organization. Um, additionally, it's important to note that previously in the
2024 election when I was chair that it was not the chair who decided who the candidates were and what endorsements were given, we had a 10-person vetting committee made up of four Republicans, three Democrats, and three independents. and they were actually the ones who received the applications for the
candidates. We did reach out to all four candidates who filed during the filing period and only two did respond to our outreach. Um both of those candidates completed the application process and our vetting committee was told that they could choose to endorse both. They can
endorse one or they can choose to endorse none if they didn't feel that the candidates were worth the support CCS endorsement. So at the end of the day, I feel like while it was not a conflict of interest that for my own integrity and the integrity of the organization that I have stepped back from support CCS because I will be
seeking the endorsement from support CCS in the 2026 election and going through that same vetting committee process that other candidates had to. Up next, Mr. Shapiro with question eight. I think you sort of answered this
question as part of your previous answer, but I'm going to ask it anyway. Um, if appointed to the seat, do you intend to run for election when the term expires in December 2026? Um, I think we know the answer, but I'll give you the opportunity to answer it again if you'd
like. Uh, yes, I intend on running for the school board election and I hope all the candidates this evening realize that whoever is appointed to the school board. Their campaign starts the first day that they get that phone call that they have gotten the appointment. Um,
back in October, I actually already set up my committee and I set up my finance forms are submitted. Just so you all know if you haven't done yours yet, they are due by January 21st at noon. Um, but I have already established my website as well because as a mom who is working
with three kids and does a lot of community involvement, I had to get that accomplished over winter break or I'm not so sure when that would have happened. So, I am definitely running for the 2026 election and would appreciate community support.
>> Thank you. And those of us who are sitting in office know that those forms are due because we have to file them also. I'm next. Number five. What role do you see the operating and safety referendums uh what
what role do you see that they play in the district and would you support their renewal? Why or why not? >> Love easy questions. Thank you. Um I believe that they are a vital part of the operations of our school district. They are essentially 15% of the overall
$250 million budget that the school district maintains. And that is thankful to the community for renewing our referendum back in 2023 when I helped with the yes for CCS committee that advocated for that renewal. Um, and then the safety referendum will be on the
ballot this year as well for renewal. So they together are, you know, about $40 million of our budget. And I believe that they are vital to our school system because of the way that in about 2010 they drastically changed the way that schools are funded and that enabled us
to retain one in five teachers. That without the operating referendum would have gone away. Um the safety referendum in particular I wholeheartedly support and I'm glad to already see the district advertising about that renewal. Uh, I had actually met with Lieutenant Miller
weeks ago because I was working with him to see what we might need to do to have a pack for the referendum renewal. Um, and I was really learning a lot about the referendum because I know and I think most of the community does is the SRO are really the face of that
referendum that people think of first, but what the community might not always know is that it's a three-prong approach to safety. So, we have 21 SRO's and 15 of them are funded through that safety referendum, but it also enables the ascension partnership that allows kids to see services in school with parent
consent and it saves time that they would have had to leave from academic endeavors to go to an off-site therapist. But what the real shock for me when I was meeting with Lieutenant Miller is the fact that it also funds a lot of a lot of our social workers and I was not aware of that. And those three teams together really combine to ensure
that our kids feel safe so that they can thrive towards their own goals that they've set for themselves. >> Thank you. Back to Miss Wheeler. Question six is, what are your views on school choice and Indiana's universal
voucher program and how do you believe they impact public school districts like Carmel? >> I think in regards to charters and vouchers, it's really not what I personally believe about them. I believe
it's what does the role of a school board member for a public education district think? Because the role of a school board member for a public education system is to protect our public schools. That means protecting our public education funds. It means
protecting our public education properties. It means advocating for our teachers and our students in a way that supports our schools the way our community wants them to. Um, we particularly have a few charters within
the area, but not I am not naive to the fact that it's our surrounding communities that have had a bigger impact from charters as we look at IPS south of us. Um, and I feel like what we really need to be cognizant of is the vouchers budget impacts that we see
occurring. So 2011 was when school choice really became um an initiative after the change of budgets in 2010. And at that time there were very honorable intentions behind vouchers. At that time they were for students who had already
tried public school for at least two semesters but that it wasn't meeting the needs for that particular student. There was also an income cap that was about, I believe, $40,000 that initial year when they announced the um voucher program and it was to give families who weren't
getting the needs met by their public schools a chance to seek alternative private schools or charter schools and couldn't afford to. However, the decade after that, the restrictions um widened a bit and then the income lapse also the
income caps also increased. So I think during some of those years they allowed then siblings of voucher receivers to also get vouchers. Um kids who were in like frrated school districts were allowed to get vouchers. So some things that were still very reasonable and admirable. However, in the 2025
legislative session, as I've followed the last three years of our state house, um they removed the income caps as well. So, there could be families in our community who for 10 years have been financially successful enough to send their children to private schools and
now starting in the 2026 2027 school year will receive vouchers for those kids even though they've been able to pay for them for the last decade. So I think from our concern, what we really need to be doing is advocating at the state house for public education because that voucher program is estimated to
have taken about $8 million away from Carmel Clay Schools. Not a one:1 ratio, but because if that those dollars had been in the education bucket to be allocated across districts in our state, we would have received an additional $8 million, which is basically the same
number as our safety referendum. >> Thank you. Next up, Mr. Brown. How do you handle disagreement while maintaining trust and collaboration among among board colleagues? Please provide an example from your personal or
professional life. I think disagreement can be such a harsh word and it almost sounds like it's bad for people to have different perspectives. Uh I personally enjoy surrounding myself with people who have different perspectives because I think that makes me a better person and a
better leader and I think it makes us a better school district. So from that perspective, I feel like something shouldn't evolve to a level of a disagreement if you're truly engaging with others in the community to try to improve the community for everyone. Um, the first thing that comes to mind for
me when it comes to a professional example would be when I worked at Smuckers. I worked on the Fulers brand and I was in control over a $60 million budget. Uh, we had a group that came to us that was saying we were going to change a trade marketing allocation program that would take my $6 million of
the $12 million corporate budget um, and remove transparency and remove a relationship between marketing and sales. So when this came up in a meeting, instead of being instead of asking targeted questions and creating um a lot of tension in the room, I asked
a few clarifying questions and then I chose to schedule a meeting with that department afterwards to make sure that I was reading the intention the way that they meant for it to be read. Um and really talk through the process. And then from there I went and brought
together the other seven brand marketing teams for us to have a conversation about how they see this process changing and their feedback. And then I organized a meeting with those brand marketing teams and the original trade marketing team to discuss what our concerns were, what are the pros and cons of the
process. Um when we were in that meeting myself and another brand did not want to move forward but four the other six brands did want to move forward. So from that perspective, we had some conversations and we just identified an auditing process and some communication
processes that would allow us to maintain that transparency and maintain the relationship with sales and then we moved forward with the process and we all became advocates of it even though I was not someone who voted for it to begin with but we had made a decision as
a team that that's how we were going to move forward. From a professional pers uh personal perspective, I would look at the fact that last year I had an opportunity to see a different perspective from two parties
when it came to one of our schools. Um, one of our schools felt like it wasn't being heard and I think the district had assumed that everything was okay and might not have understood the severity of the concerns of that community. So, I met with that school community to better
understand the concerns that they had and then I also worked with them to understand here's the proper channels that you need to go to to voice these concerns and really advocated for them to advocate for themselves. Um, and they showed up to schoolboard meetings and
they sent emails and when they felt that the, you know, the path of communication had kind of gone silent, we helped re-engage that collaboration with the school board and with the school district to really get some change for
that community. Um, so I think really what's important about disagreements is approaching them civily, approaching them with intent, and then also just continuing to follow up once you've moved forward to make sure everyone's still okay.
Knowing that the school board has limited time to meet each month, please share how you see the school board prioritizing its work. >> I see the board prioritizing its work by being constantly in touch with the
community. I think the community mixed with the strategic plan is really how the board should be focused regardless of any personal initiatives that you have is really what the community and our strategic plan tells us that we should be working towards. I've seen
some prioritization in the last year in particular that's been really great that the board has taken. I go to I've been going to these meetings for three years. I could definitely see those changes over time. Um, the consent items being consolidated is one. I do feel like
there's been minimal conversation on change orders, which is a change. And then I feel like the workshop topics quite honestly have been a lot more impactful than they were in previous years. So I applaud those changes to prioritize the time when you're sitting in this room. But I think there's also
ways to prioritize your time in this room with being more productive with the district. To be honest, I think a lot of our workshop topics often come off as being presented to and highlighting successes where I would like to see our workshop topics more highlighting um
issues that are currently being struggled with in the community or from the district so that we can collaborate with them on things to make things better. Sometimes our schools are so great, we don't always talk about the things that aren't so great. And I think that's where we should be spending more
of our time. Right, I'm up. Please share how you will balance your current professional and personal obligations with the time, commitment required of being a schoolboard member. >> I feel like I already balanced my
professional, personal, and community life with a lot of thought and intention. Um, honestly being on the school board would just change my purpose when I'm in this room because I attend most of the meetings anyway. And I feel like really to be an excellent
school board member, it's not just about showing up to meetings. It's about showing up to the community. And these are things I do on a regular basis. You will often find me at Taste of Caramel, CheftTacular, PTO meetings, uh, Holiday Spectacular because that's the way that
you not only get to know our schools, but you get to know the community as well. From a professional perspective, I own my own consulting business where I am a freelance consultant. So, I own my schedule. And while I have commitments to my clients that I obviously honor, it gives me that flexibility to make sure
that I'm available for schoolboard meetings, for agenda meetings, for any important topics or if issues arise, I can be easily available. Additionally, my husband works from home, so he is extremely flexible and he's an amazing dad and partner. So, we both intentionally manage our time and our
kids and our family and our profession so that we can do the things that bring us joy. And for me, that is advocating for our schools. Thank you. Last question back to Miss Wheeler. >> Thank you. Last question. As a school
board member, you are tasked with making decisions in the best interests of the community, which includes students, parents, teachers, and community members. Explain how you see yourself balancing these varied interests and
placing them above your personal interests. I think the way to balance interest is really to make sure that you're hearing more voices than your own and that you're not only listening to the the loudest voices in the room. It's about
being proactive and making sure that you are talking to a variety of people, ones who are going to be impacted and ones who might be impacted in the future. I think it's about asking really hard questions and being willing to make tough decisions even if they're not the
popular um decision because we have two in particular in the next year that will be coming. One, redistricting talks will be coming for 2028. Um and then we also have the impact of SEA1 where we're projected to lose up to
$10 million from um the new tax rule in H sea 1. So from that perspective, these two are very hot topics and they are going to bring out very strong emotions in our community. Um, so I think what's really important and in order to bring
those voices to the table is that we're proactive about it instead of waiting to see who says what or what is happening. Um, balancing those interests means meeting with those community communities. It means really listening to their concerns and bringing them to
the forefront because every decision we should make should be grounded in what's best for our students and what's best for our community. Not just for the students currently enrolled, but the greyhounds that'll be here 15 years from now. >> Thank you. You are welcomed. We are
ready for our next candidate. And again in alphabetical order that is Jessica Mecovoy Semen. and welcome. Feel free to kind of get yourself situated and then whenever you are ready um before we ask questions, we thought we
could just introduce you and tell you a little bit about yourself. There we go. Is that better? All right. Yeah. Yeah. No worries at all. Sorry, I didn't notice that. All right. Yeah. So, um my name is Jess Mboy Summon. Uh I'm a district two parent here, uh in Carmel
with my husband. Um we just moved here a few years ago. I have a daughter in kindergarten at Clay Center Elementary and a toddler who's going to be joining her in just a couple years. Um always loved school as a kid. Uh like I said, I went to Franklin College on the south
side, Purdue for grad school. Um, a great uh thing that is happening right now in my life is watching my daughter go to school and learn seeing her fall in love with it too. Um, so that's why I'm here. Um, school safety is also another reason why I'm here. Very
important to me. Um, it's a constant thought um, as a parent in 2026. Uh, for me, uh, I'm really thankful for the safety referendum and the work that you guys have already done uh, to keep Caramel Schools uh, safe. um hope to
continue and protect that work. That's something I would really like to do. Um I'm not an education expert. Uh I work in uh data and technology leadership at ACT. So I'm in the education realm. Um but I'm definitely more of a technologist. Um before that I worked at
Eli Liy and before that uh Carvana. Uh what I have most experience in is leading teams uh managing budgets something I do a lot for our software development teams and our software development products um and working through really technically complex
problems um collaboratively uh with people all sorts of stakeholders you know business folks technical folks um variety of audiences uh leading teams to work through those problems um so that's what I do and that's kind of the experience that I bring um mostly I'm
here, like I said, because I have two small kids that'll be in the Caramel Clay Schools for the next 15 years. So, I have 15 years of personal, very personal investment in the decisions that the board makes. And so, I really want to listen, learn, and contribute.
>> Thank you very much. We are going to start with Mr. Brown this time. How do you handle disagreement while maintaining trust and collaboration among board colleagues? Provide an example from your personal or professional life.
>> Yeah. Um so in technology there are uh the phrase but many ways to get a cat. So there's always, you know, different opinions in the room of uh if you're familiar with technology, you know, data bricks or snowflake or uh Microsoft or Google or, you know, there's always kind of differences of opinions. Everybody
has their feeling on, you know, what they prefer. Uh but it kind of depends on the situation and what experience people have and who's in the room. And so talking uh working closely, collaborating with folks, open communication, it's definitely something
I have to do day-to-day in my job regularly. Um and I would use those same kind of practices uh amongst the board. >> Thank you. Knowing that the school board has limited time to meet each month, uh
please share with us how you see that the board should prioritize doing its work. >> Okay. Um so I have to say I'm not off the top familiar with how things are prioritized
now. Um I know that the work that we do is to support the superintendent, you know, the um governance side rather than the administrative side. So I think it's a lot of input from the community. Um you know, what do people want to talk about? What have we heard about? Um what
communication has come in from school um from parents, from school employees, from anyone in the community that's associated with the school? Um and take that into consideration. Thank you. >> I'm up. Please share how you will balance your current professional and
personal obligations with the time commitment required of being a schoolboard member. >> Yeah. Um so um when I decided to do this um I I thought about it. I was a community board member. So after college, I moved to New York um in Manhattan for uh 10 years. Met my
husband there, brought him back to Caramel with me. Um but so I served on the community board in Manhattan uh for a short time and I actually had to resign because I wasn't quite in the place um with my work. I traveled a lot for work. I wasn't able to really fully commit. Um deciding to do this, I really
had to evaluate, you know, if I had that time to commit to it. And I'm in a much different place in my career now. Um I feel much more stable. Um, I'm comfortable with the position I'm in. I work remotely and I have much more control over my own schedule. Um, so if I need to pause during the day and come
back to in the evening, I have that ability now. Um, so I, uh, have the ability to have a flexible schedule and I think that really enables me to be able to commit the time needed for this. >> Thank you.
Next, Miss Wheeler. We're kind of trying to make it a little fun, >> too. Um, as a school board member, you will be tasked with making decisions in the best interests of the community, which
includes students, parents, teachers, and community members. Could you please explain how you see yourself balancing these varied interests and placing them above your personal interests? >> Yeah. Um, so I think as a parent it's
very easy to put your kids' interests above your own. Uh, and I know that um, my kids will have the best experience in school and growing up if the community is strong. The schools are strong. The people that they're raised with and
amongst and the people that we spend our time with all have support, access to education, safe environment to grow up in. I mean, all of that at risk of being too on the nose, we're stronger together. I know that's kind of our vision, but I mean it's accurate. That's how I know my kids will thrive is if the
community thrives. Um, so that's very easy for me to put first. >> Thank you, Mr. Brown. You're up next. What are your views on school choice in Indiana's universal voucher program and
how do you believe they impact public school districts like Carmel? >> I don't so I'm not a politician. I don't have uh very strong opinions on a lot of the political issues uh reformed. I will
obviously learn about those things if uh I take the role and we'll put a lot of serious consideration and thought into that. Um I will say off the top um I know my kids will be in public school. I want having uh funds for public school
is important to me and a priority to me. Uh and I would make sure that that is something that I remain focused on. Uh what role do you see the operating and safety referendums playing in the school district? Uh would you support the renewal and why or why not?
>> Yes, absolutely. Um I think safety is absolutely essential. Um, again in 2026, I don't think I need to tell anybody in the news every other day. You know, there's a school shooting or something else going on. U, mental health is as important as ever. Uh, especially for kids and, um, you know, growing up with
technology and all sorts of things these days like that is just so important. Um, so yeah, I would absolutely support the safety referendum. I would hope to see it renewed. Um, also the other one you mentioned, um, I did read about it and I
do think, um, I would want to see it, uh, put forward as well. I know that, uh, the budget and the pay, there was some controversy with like school bus drivers and things like that. Um, again, just making sure that those who are
uh, helping the school, working at the school have the funds that they need, the resources that they need to help students. My main priority If appointed to this seat, do you intend to run for reelection when the term expires in December 2026? Um why or why
not? And explain your thinking. >> Yeah, so I'm not sure uh 100% to be honest. Um I would like to um but I and I tentatively plan to um but I also know that the there's been some recent changes with um
partisan affiliations being a thing um that you know a fullfledged campaign um is not you know I'm not sure how committed I am to that yet. Um, I have to make sure that I am willing, you know, I talk to my husband about it. Make sure that he's ready to do all of
that and do a little more research and um, thought put a little more thought into it. Um, I would like to tenative. Yes. >> Thank you. What specific actions do you think the board should take to work on building stronger relationships with our
community? I think that these open meetings um and uh the news that's released and things that um are available to the community, uh social media that I've seen, I think all of those things are great. That's how I became informed. Um so I'd say
continue along those same venues. one number nine. >> Is he making a move? >> Um, have you been or are you currently involved in any work that could be seen as a potential conflict of interest with serving on the school board? Please
explain. >> Uh, as mentioned, I work for ICT. uh we're kind of in that realm, but I don't work in any capacity that would ever uh affect anything with this. I'm like technology and data. Um all I do.
>> No. >> Great. Thank you very much. That is all for this evening. Thank you. >> Thank you so much. Yeah, I appreciate your time. >> And so we are ready for our final candidate is Michael Refett. Hello. >> Hello. Welcome. Take some time to get
situated and then whenever you're ready, um, if you wanted to take a minute to introduce yourself, um, tell us a little bit about yourself before we start questions. >> Sounds great. My name is Mike Ruffett. Uh I have lived here in Carmel for more than 20 years and uh I have uh 10
children uh seven um that have been adopted, three biological and so we have had kids in the Caramel school districts for 20 years and um our youngest is three. So we have about another 15 more years to go. So we have been in the high
school, multiple middle schools and four or five elementary schools. Been married for 32 years. uh currently CFO uh for a global drug development company uh based in uh Toronto. I get to work from home uh and
so my staff spread across uh the world and so I do get to control my own schedule. Um so I enjoy that. >> Thank you so much. You're up first. Sorry, thanks for being here. Uh, first
question, um, knowing that the school board has limited time uh, to meet each month, can you share with us how you see the board prioritizing its work? >> Uh, so like I said, I am pleased that I work from my home, so I'm able to um
adjust schedule as needed. Uh, and so I'm able to commit to whatever time is allotted. And so, um, I mean, we have I have global staff around the world. So, I'm used to working in time zones literally, uh, all over. So, my schedule
is varied from day to day, week to week. I'm able to control that. So, um, happy to accommodate based upon the needs if that if I understood the question correctly. >> So, let me I rephrase it maybe, >> please. So um I think the question more
is more macro level. Okay. So the board as a collective, how would you see the group of us >> sort of prioritizing the board's work as a whole? Not necessarily your flexibility, which is another question we'll get to at some point. Okay. Sort of about how you balance >> sort of your professional and personal
with the board with your time commitment to the to serve on the board, but sort of >> the board's tasked with a broad spectrum of responsibilities. How do you think the board should prioritize amongst all of those things that we're responsible for doing? >> I think uh first and foremost it's it's
the heart of the child. Um I have a strong passion obviously with 10 of my own and love for the children. So I think that should always be first and foremost and what is going to uh advance uh the child's life and making sure that they all have a place that they feel
welcomed and valued and loved and uh and centered at. So that would be really the guiding star and it would flow down from there. Uh and I'm sure there's a thousand different things that are going to be pulling in different priority priorities, but I think if uh we just
always keep that in mind. That's how I would look at it. >> Uh please share how you Well, okay. It is ironic. Um, yes. Um, yeah, I think you just answered this. However, I'm going to read it because we said we would read all the questions. Uh, please share how you will balance your current
professional and personal obligations with the time commitment required of being a schoolboard member. >> Sounds good. So, I uh I do work globally uh and remotely, so I'm able to adjust my schedule as
needed. So, I'd be willing to uh be flexible for whatever the times needed for sure. >> Hi. >> So, this question is, how do you handle disagreement while maintaining trust and collaboration among your board
colleagues? Could you please provide an example either from your personal or professional life to explain how you navigated that kind of situation? >> Absolutely. I think that's part of my role in the past 20 30 years of being an executive um and leading companies um in
serving in in boards from especially from um the corporate world is there's always differing of opinions um and reaching across the aisle uh understanding different perspectives doing a lot more listening than talking
uh really getting to understand people's perspectives uh building relationships understanding what's at the heart of someone and why they're feeling or thinking a certain way. Uh and then seeking common ground. Um I spend a lot
of my time um negotiating, leading HR teams as well as finance and legal teams. And so it's about finding a win-win solution. And I think in life so much um is just being able to find that
common ground. And um So I'll give an example of always the the budgeting process, right? Uh as a CFO um there's always so many different priorities uh that come across and all most of them are really good and noble but you only
have a limited amount of resources and trying to figure out um what is going to be the best and it goes back to the strategy and the mission and the vision. What are you trying to accomplish? So I'll answer that by you put the kids first. Then in that example, what what
are the budget dollars going to be used to help advance the kids? And happy to expound further if I I wasn't sure how how in-depth you wanted the answers to be. >> No, thank you. That was perfect. Mr. Brown, you're up next. Yes.
>> Have you been or are you currently involved in any work that could be seen as a potential conflict of interest with serving on the school board? Please explain. >> I don't believe so. Uh not at all. I mean actually on the kind of the contrary um I'm also on the board of a
global orphan foundation which is um helping uh to provide care for orphans in Africa. Uh so we are passionate about um helping um children whether it's in my local community or across the world. So I don't don't believe I think it's be
the opposite. I think it's quite complimentary. Uh, can you share with us your views on school choice and Indiana's universal voucher program and how you believe that those programs would impact a public school district like Carmel?
>> That's a that's a great it's a tough question. Um, I will answer it by I mean my kids um have been in the school district for 20 years and I think Carmel is an amazing place to be and I think that um we continue to set the bar so
high that hopefully no one will want to go anywhere else and if we continue on that mission then we should be able to continue it. Um, I can't say there are some situations um for for differing reasons, right? Um, I have children that
um I've adopted seven kids that come from all kinds of different backgrounds. So, sometimes um you have a child that you may have to have something very specialized that maybe the school district does not offer. And in those cases, then I welcome the opportunity to help find some something else for in
that situation. Um, so I think the the norm I I would like to say uh stay in the community, but there are exceptions for sure. As a schoolboard member, you are tasked with making decisions in the best interests of the community, which
includes students, parents, teachers, and community members. explain how you see yourself balancing these varied interests and placing them above your personal interests. >> Look, the last 20 or 30 years I've had the privilege of um leading global
companies and even currently I work with people um from all across the world that come from all types of different religions, ethnic groups, cultural backgrounds and diversity. Um and so um my goal is always to find what is going
to be the best for the greatest good and putting beside behind my um what my preferences may be um and looking to see what's going to be the best for everyone. And so I would say that would be the way I would look at it here is
that we have um a growing population um that has a lot of diversity and be able to look at what's going to um serve um the the greatest good. >> Thank you. If appointed to this board seat, do you
intend to run for reelection or I'm sorry, run for election? You wouldn't have been elected yet when the term expires in December 2026. Why or why not? And please explain your thinking. >> Yes, I would absolutely uh be open for
that for sure. And I I would love I think this is a great opportunity. um because to some extent it to see hey I mean I I feel like I want to be able to give my time and service to uh this community and um if I would be selected
to continue it longer than the year then that would be fantastic. What's uh what specific actions should the board take to work on building stronger relationships with the community? I think it's all about communication
and getting to know people and building relationships. And I think and that's um as you we build the and continue to grow and like I said the diversity that we have um and
and I'm learning so much even as a father um that has uh seven children that are from uh different cultures and backgrounds. I'm I'm learning and understanding about each of them. And I think as school board members, it's very
key and important that we spend time getting to know and finding that common ground and meeting our neighbors, having conversations, um learning about them, um and understanding where they're coming from because I feel like so much
um of of conflict happens when people don't really understand um the heart behind someone. and and so I think it's just just spending time with them, getting to know uh them and and hearing about their their concerns. And I could I could talk about ideas for how to
facilitate that. I'm sure you guys do that frequently as well. >> Yeah. Um, what role do you see the operating and safety referendums playing within the school district? Would you support the renewal and why or why not?
>> I I think uh safety is utmost uh uh priority. We see a um so sad what happens in in we see it almost weekly these days um across across the country. Um and so that's I mean I have seven
kids still in these schools. And so safety is a huge concern of mine. And so I think there's certainly a way to um to address that um and make sure that it we're fiscally responsible for it. Um but I believe that should be a top
concern. I mean, we can't keep our kids safe, then there's that's that that should be our number one priority, right? So, and I will give a plug for the the the SRO's are amazing. I love all of the all
the ones that we get to deal with. Great great team. >> They are. >> We're done. Could we take a bio break, Madam President? >> Yes, we can. Thank you for your time. We appreciate you coming. You are free to to stay or go or um we're just going to
Yeah, I think let's go back up to the DAS and if we need a a bathroom break or stretch our legs or whatever, we're just going to take a break. If you all need to stretch your legs as well, we're just move up that way and be right back. >> Thank you all. Thank you all for your
time very much. Appreciate it. My milk. Yeah. [Laughter] And >> we are we are back. Uh >> we didn't take a recess. We just had a short little break. Um hopefully you got
to move around a little bit. Um and so we're um going to kind of move on with with the next steps, kind of inform the public of the next steps of what um what we intend to do. >> All right. So, um, I would like to make a motion that we just discussed publicly
tonight what the next steps are, whether folks are comfortable voting this evening or whether uh if that is not the case just so the public is aware of what the next steps are, we would it would probably make sense and we held on our calendar um the 21st for a special
meeting to have that discussion continue and then vote on a a recommended candidate. I just feel like we we need to for ourselves and for the public make sure we know where we go from here. So my motion is essentially discussion on
uh whether the when the vote occurs, not a vote on a candidate at this exact point in time, but if people want to do that, we could talk about that as well. >> Okay. So Miss Wheeler's motion is to um talk about the next steps. Do I have a second? >> Second.
>> Thank you. Um discussion. So, I'll just share for the public's benefit at least, um, why this sounds a little murky, uh, is because the state statute around this process is about as clear as mud. Um, so
there's a really clear process about what happens when a school board member steps down prior to their time uh, their term ending, and that is that the the sitting school board has 30 days to fill the seat. if they don't fill the seat within 30 days, then the county judge
gets to do it for you. So, we have until the end of January to fill the seat. Um, and then based on the number of applicants, the school board can meet in executive session uh to uh review the applicants that applied, which is what we did last Wednesday, and then we
conducted these interviews. What the statute does not clearly identify is what happens after you have the interviews until you make the decision. Hence where we are right now. So >> yeah. So there is no clear whether whether >> it's not clearly outlined how you make the decision whether or not that is
done. >> Yeah. So we're trying to be transparent about correct. We think it is critically important that we share that with the community and uh we think it's important that the community understands how a decision is made. So I appreciate Miss Wheeler making the motion that we have a
public discussion about how we want to go about making this decision. So, our options as I see them is someone makes a motion this evening um about one of the candidates, someone makes a motion that
we meet next Wednesday, which we all held on our calendars uh to have a discussion and a vote um or option three, which my personal opinion would be the most awkward of the three, is that we wait till January 28th uh and
someone makes a motion and it has to get voted on and that person gets sworn in all at the same time. Uh and I think that is the least uh >> yeah and >> ideal situation >> and I agree and not criticizing what any other school board has done in the past
but to me just inviting one candidate to that swearing in ceremony to me looks like you made the decision before the public meeting because you only invited one person to get sworn in. I I don't love that. I don't think that's transparent. I'll also I just
want to say and and please everyone feel free thank you to every single person that put in an application. Um we had wonderful wonderful choices um and we just couldn't do eight interviews um
tonight. So really appreciate everyone that applied and specifically everybody that came anytime anybody shows an interest in helping their community in this way. Um, I tip my hat to you because I I know and we all know how
much time that takes away from your work and your family and and and other interests. And we do it because we love it. Um, but it we only have 24 hours in a day. So I I just want to express thanks to those um applicants as well.
>> Did you any discussion on So again, the motion back to the mo the motion um was to discuss next steps. and you seconded it. Yeah. So, we would still have to vote on that motion. >> Yeah. >> That's okay. But this is a discussion. >> Yeah. We got still into that discussion.
>> We But we are still in the midst of the discussion, Mr. Brown. >> So, we're still in the discussion. >> We are. Yes. >> All right. >> Well, I think we need to vote on the discussion. >> Yeah. Oh, >> yeah. We need to vote and then we need to discuss substantively. >> All in favor of discussing. >> I I
>> Let's discuss. >> It's been a long night already. Sorry. Votes. >> Let's discuss more. uh discussion is good, conversation is good, and I is it okay if we say like the number of applicants? Is there any reason why we can't say that? Okay, I'm going to say that we had nine applicants
apply for this, which I think says a lot about the community and I agree completely with what Chris said in that the candidates were just excellent caliber and they're running it appear for the right reasons. You know, they're not running to advance to the some other
office or something now. they just were uh passionate about our schools and and being involved in in a helpful constructive manner. So, it was I was completely surprised and and proud of the community that we had that kind of
enthusiasm uh for schools and it and it just tells me that there's just a lot of a lot of people in Caramel thinks Caramel schools are probably the most important thing we need to be focused on. So, I I agree with that. As far as the process goes, it is awkward and
we're we're plowing new ground, so to speak. But uh um I think we we were unsure with exactly how was where we go from here and we I think we realized that if we have our next meeting on the 28th that it would be u awkward and that
we would have had to have made a decision to tell the person to show up. So that that doesn't seem like a good option to me. Um, but when I look at our agenda for tonight's meeting, it it just says we're going to have candidate interviews tonight and it doesn't go the
next step and clarity to say that we're going to discuss and vote on the on the outcome. And I think because of that, we should proceed with our our our optional plan that we already had in place to meet on the 21st and I think just have
an open discussion amongst some great candidates and uh and take the vote there in public and then the 28th we we got a lot of business to do on the 28th anyway. So uh we just proceed with the uh at that point with swearing them in
and our other business. So that's my thinking is that we would uh have another special meeting maybe not as long but uh I think it would be better for the public to know that we are going to vote in that meeting and uh if you know we allowed some people today
tonight to talk about candidates and I thought that was good. Uh I think there was a good uh input on uh some of the down the cons of not having uh be able to talk a little more specifically about people and we had some discussion beforehand about that too. So um like I
said I think we're plowing new ground a bit but uh I think we need to really make sure the community if they people want to be here to see the vote and the discussion that that uh we make that available to them. Um, I will say that if but that for me,
um, we had one applicant and one interview that stood out, um, heads above the refs. And I'm comfortable voting tonight from a legal perspective on the agenda. Agendas are a tool. They
are not a requirement. In other words, any matter that you want to take off the agenda or any matter that you want to add to the agenda by consent of the majority, that can be done. So, with a motion, you if the motion was successful, you could have a vote
tonight. I think everybody knows what we're doing. Um, if that's the process, I'm comfortable doing that, but I respect if the majority of but the board is not. Um, I think meeting on the 21st is a really good idea.
If I'm being 100% candid, uh I'm really torn. Um because while I understand that there might be a need and I want to respect it of my colleagues if they need to reflect uh on a decision that they
need to make. Um, on the other hand, it was very well uh shared publicly what was happening tonight with regard to interviews and the public could tune in or show up uh to participate in the interview uh or or watch the interview
uh and hear the candidates speak. um whether or not they are able to listen to the board discuss and deliberate whether that that happened tonight or next week. uh it while we may take their feedback and
public comment under account uh it ultimately the decision they are entrusting us to make that decision and so I I will certainly uh should we choose to come back here next week uh and and have open discussion I will
participate in that discussion and I will remain open-minded uh to any public comment that were to happen um I don't know if it will change my mind uh if I were asked to make a vote. Um so I I think that's sort of the the rub
for me is that I I don't know that providing a week for the public to line up for public comment potentially is going to uh sway the decision um that that I might make. We've already been entrusted uh the four of us to make a decision on behalf of the community. Um
we followed the process. We uh selected candidates to interview. We selected three candidates to interview. And so it again, I I could make a decision tonight. I don't have to. I will go with whatever the the majority
has to say, but I I don't I'm just I'm respectfully I'm not certain uh that I'm I'm stuck on the argu the point of needing the public to come and watch us have a discussion next week. I understand needing time to reflect upon
the candidates uh more so >> and I think that was the point I was going to make that yeah again if we were to go with the option of meeting again next Wednesday the 21st for a discussion I think that it would be more along the lines of of wanting to
have more time to reflect I think would be you know yeah again not for um because yes we were already the ones that are tasked with this appointment um so that's just an option and I don't know how um you So al alternatively um having a discussion this evening.
So thoughts? >> Well um I could certainly use more time to reflect. Um I've got tons of notes here and and uh you know it I don't like
making rush decisions on something that's so important. We have we have the time. Um, I came in the meeting not knowing we're going to be voting tonight. So, that would be a surprise to me. Um, I think we should, if that was our plan, I think we should have made that clear
to ourselves and clear in the agenda. So, we did put October or January 21st aside as a room for a potential meeting and u I think it's I think it's a good
option that we ought to abide by and uh rather than change course uh tonight at this it's my opinion >> right and I do hear you and I just want to make the point that um you know per Robert's rules and and a motion for
anything can be made at any time as we have in other meetings. Um so so just making it clear to the public that um if someone were to make a motion this evening that that is not a lack of transparency. That is just a simple following of the Robert's rules um and
that motion could not be seconded. Um or it could be seconded and there's a discussion and the vote is is no um at this point. And so that's just the basics of Robert's rules. Just to be clear that there would be nothing that's that's not transparent about us making a
change in an agenda or adding, you know, someone making a motion. That's just the basics of Robert's rules. >> And I just two things, Madame President. One is during our executive session, I did throw out that anybody could make a motion at the end of this meeting. So that was something that I specifically
mentioned as a possible procedure. And with that said, respecting whatever vote is on that, I'm just going to go ahead and make the motion that we vote this evening on a recommended candidate. And if I don't get a second or it's not the
majority, I respect that very much. >> I'll second. >> So, the motion is to vote this evening on a candidate on on one of the three applicants. Um, we had a a motion and a second and now we can have a discussion.
>> I I second it because I'm willing for us to have a vote to see where the board sits on whether or not we're ready to take a vote. I mean, I I'm willing to see where the board is on that. That's that's the reason I second it because I think it's worthy of >> seeing where we're at. If we're ready to take a vote, great. And if we're not, I'm willing to be here next Wednesday.
>> And so, again, this motion is not >> that sounded acrimonious. That was not my intention. So I apologize if my tone sounded that way. >> No, this this this motion has nothing to do with any specific candidate. It is simply just that um we the motion that we will that we can vote this evening.
>> Um >> any further discussion? >> Had a lot of discussion. The only thing I will say is based on on comments and thoughts, I don't know that um Well, never mind. I'll leave it I'll leave it at that. >> No, go ahead.
>> No, that's okay. I I I don't know that I'll I'll personally respectfully agree with Mr. Brown uh tonight or next week um on my personal selection. So to me, if we're going to disagree, let's just
disagree and move on. I have no more comments on if if we're going to proceed to vote tonight or not. I think I've shared all my thoughts, concerns. Um, as the chair, my decision is my my role is to kind of run um
the meeting um and I think I'm torn. I'm just being honest here. I'm torn because I do, you know, I hear um differing opinions. Um, and so I think I'm trying to decide um, you know, would it make any difference
to wait um, to wait a week um, and sit on things um, you know, I'm leaning towards personally waiting a week um, to be honest just to
give some time to think um, my part of the discussion. >> Question of order. What if we're split since we haven't >> That's right. That's right. Great. Thank you. >> Any vote has to have a majority. So,
>> um Okay. So seeing um as we've of ended our discussion on the motion and the motion again to reiterate the motion was again on not on any certain candidate but to simply to have a vote this evening since it was not previously on the agenda on the agenda.
So uh we will now take a vote. All in favor of voting this evening um signify by saying I. >> I. Um all those not in favor signify by saying nay. >> Nay.
>> Nay. Uh motion does not carry. >> So madame president should we plan on a meeting on the 21st? >> Um yes. So um 6 pm.
Okay. Kind of trying to give next steps um for the public. Um >> do we need to do the next? >> Yeah, we don't need a motion to set a next meeting because we will follow uh the legal procedures on posting and so
on and so forth. So you can share with the community that that's the route we're going to move, but we do not need a motion because we'll follow the law with regards to the posting requirements to have a public meeting. >> Thank you. So we will have a meeting next Wednesday uh January 21st at 6:00
p.m. here. Um and um at that time um I would assume that after discussion that there would be um some sort of vote potentially. Um, again, in order uh to be transparent, it it sort of, as Miss Wheeler said, does not seem right to
have all three candidates come back or all three either one or all three candidates to come back on the 28th and stretch that time out um and make a decision at that time. It just it it just does not. Um so instead to the 21st, uh it will be um at 6 p.m. and then that will um be a discussion of the
candidates after the interviews this evening. Great. Thank you everybody for this evening. Thank you for the candidates for coming. Uh do I have a motion to adjurnn? >> I move to adjourn. Do >> I have a second? Meeting adjourned.