Calling this meeting to order, please rise for the pledge. I pledge allegiance to the flag of The United States Of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Welcome to tonight's meeting. And first up, we have Mr. Urban, Oleo Road Productions. Thank you, members of the Board, Superintendent Mapes. Tonight's academic spotlight celebrates an incredible accomplishment by a group of Hamlin Southeastern students who
through their club, Oleo Road Productions, have achieved what a lot of filmmakers would only dream of. Their feature film, eleven seventeen, was officially selected in the thirty fourth Heartland International Film Festival. This is one of the premier Oscar qualifying events. It has been created entirely outside the classroom, completely student led, and it now stands shoulder to shoulder with veteran filmmakers from around the world. The success has been unprecedented. Four sold out screenings and a fifth one added,
something that festival organizers say is almost unheard of. None of this would have been possible without dedication and mentorship of Hamlin Southeastern school teacher, Jamie Fallas, who started with the idea, put kids in charge, they're going to do great things. And he founded Oleo Road Productions, a film club, several years ago, and it continues to guide students through every stage of the creative process. Some of the students who worked on eleven seventeen have since graduated. Two of them are now studying at Purdue University, and they sat down with our communications department to share their reflections on that experience.
We'll show that in a video. But before we do, I need to also mention that eleven seventeen will have two special HSE community screenings on November at three and 7PM in the Leonard Auditorium. All proceeds will support Oleo Ro productions in their next student film, Behind the eight Ball. Every year, Hamilton Southeastern High School's Folio Road Productions challenges students to create something original from script to screen. Every year, we make our own films.
So we wrapped on filming for the movie before 11:17, and then we had that premiere. And then literally later that day, they were planning 11:17. A student made film selected for the Heartland International Film Festival, one of the nation's top Oscar qualifying events. So we filmed from October until early April and then premiered midday. Written, shot, and edited completely outside of class, eleven seventeen explores the way grief shapes people and relationships, A story born from a deeply personal idea.
Matthew Kron, my co writer, he was the one who came to me with a story from one of his friends who, his grandfather had recently passed away, and he had been having, a lot of trouble sleeping. So that got us thinking about, like, what effects, like, grief can have on people. We we originally didn't wanna make that sad of a movie. So we tried to move away from this idea, but it was just too good that we couldn't, like, capitalize on it. Action. The result was a film both emotionally complex and visually compelling, one that resonated far beyond the walls of HSE.
I knew what we had was special, but to be competing on, like, an international stage. It's like if the HSC basketball team, like, got invited to, like, play at the Olympics. Eleven seventeen sold out its first three Heartland screenings almost immediately, prompting two more, a rare honor even for professional filmmakers. If you told me in middle school I'll be making movies in high school and, like, doing all this crazy stuff, I would not believe you, honestly. Guided by teacher and producer Jamie Fallas, these students transform their passion into something remarkable. Kylie Pierce, we're here to talk about last night.
That's why she died. Hi. I don't know what's been up with you, baby. There's nothing you could've done. I needed So is she coming with us? Maybe there's a place where her death doesn't matter. She's so obsessed with it. What is it? I don't want to hang out with Is it there? Have you ever thought about leaving? Well, the consent agenda seems anticlimactic, but we'll move on to Item four. There are four items presented on tonight's consent agenda, four point zero oh, I'm sorry, I need to go back. Yes, public comments is 3.01.
All of them have to do with the budget, so we will entertain those speakers after the budget presentation during the public hearing. So moving on to four, consent agenda. Four items presented on tonight's consent agenda: 4.01, Board minutes 4.02 Personnel Reports and 4.03 Claims, payrolls, four zero three b and four fifty seven Salary Reduction Agreements and 4.04 Donations. Do I have a motion to approve the entire consent agenda as presented? Motion to approve consent agenda as presented.
Second. I'll now do roll call. Suzanne Thomas? Yes. Ben Orr? Yes. Latricia Schole? Yes. Dawn Lang? Yes. Britney Pascoe? Yes. Sarah Parks Reese? Yes. And I'm a yes. Passes seven-zero. Thank you. Moving on to 5.01, Policy Second Reading, presentation by Doctor. Kegley. Good evening, Board. This evening, I am seeking action on items K1.00, as well as the retirement of policies K1.01, K3.00 and then action on Policy B5.00.
As you may recall from our previous meeting and as we discussed at our Policy Committee meeting, we are retiring K101 and K3 and they are becoming condensed into K1.00. Happy to entertain any questions you might have. Just one quick comment. Heard that the policy committee meeting went super duper fast, and it was all explained clearly there. And has anything from the first Board meeting to now been changed? No. Okay. So it's the same that we discussed last week.
That's all I wanted to clarify. Thank you. Anyone else? Do I have a motion to approve this item as presented? Motion to approve item as presented. Second. Any further questions or comments? Hearing none, we will now vote by roll call. Suzanne Thomas? Yes. Ben Orr? Yes. Patricia Schooley? Yes. Dawn Lang? Yes. Tiffany Pascoe? Yes. Sarah Parks Ruiz? Yes. And I'm a yes. Thank you very much. We will now move on to Information Item 6.01, Policy First Reading. Again, Doctor. Kegley? Thank you. I'm going to look at these in probably a little different order than what's on
the screen, K11.00, which is school community relations, that's just an update. There are no proposed changes to that policy. K3.04, we just have some deletions and rewording again some update. These are all of these policies are several years old and need some attention. So, what you're going to see in all of these proposed changes are merely rewordings and updating of language. That's social media communications. K6.00 is release of promotional information in schools. And J10.00
is use of restraint and seclusion. We've recently updated our handbook for seclusion and restraint and we've made all those necessary corrections in accordance with state guidelines. We've posted that on our website. What this does is merely update some language and puts a new link to where that handbook can be found. So, we will, happy to answer any questions, but our intent would be to take these to the next policy committee meeting and then come back in November for action. Can you clarify real quick? I just pulled up social media one. Is it just a rewording of the whole entire paragraph?
There's a lot of red in there or is it just the crossing out at the end that last sentence of the paragraph? It's rewriting the crossed out in what's underlined now. Okay. Yes. Thank you. Anyone else? All right. Thank you very much. We'll close discussion. We'll move on to 06/2026 budget hearing. Tim Brown? Good evening, members of the Board, Mr. Mapes. We are in the sort of four step of a five step process for our budget approval. And I know the presentation is coming up here, and we will get started. All right. I think we're good to go. Thank you so much.
I know it's a lot of moving parts. Appreciate the help. So tonight is the, as I described it, sort of the fifth step of the process. This is the formal budget hearing for the 2026 budget. And to kind of look at where we have been to this point, we've been working on the budget, gosh, for multiple months. We did a high level review in early September. We did a budget work session with the Board at the September. And as you see in red, now we're on that almost last step, which is the public hearing on the budget. So most of what I'll present tonight does repeat what we talked about at our last session,
but there's a little bit new information related to enrollment that I want to talk about. And then the last step in the process is to come back on October 22 and ask for permission for the Board to approve not only the budget but the capital projects plan and the bus replacement plan that goes along with that. So taking a look, there's a lot of sort of action on this slide. This is the update for today and this is our current enrollment. As as everyone well knows, October 1 is our official count day in in the school world, and it's based on the number of students actively enrolled on that day.
Once that number is determined, it goes through a lot of vetting processes before we officially sign off. This is as bad official as we can get, but I would reserve the right to adjust this by one or two students as we officially sign off later in the week. What I would point out to everyone in the room is our final enrollment number of 20,289, And what you see there is that is a drop of four zero nine students compared to last year. Said differently, and unfortunately, it's the largest drop we've seen in the school district since 1985. And not because we saw the drop in 1985,
that's just as far back as I have enrollment data. And so this this is a, a significant factor in the overall budget. So when you look at that number of 20289, what's really important to also point out, that includes 79 non employee, kid transfers. So had we not opened that new transfer policy, that 20289 would have been 20210. So a significant impact. From a budgetary standpoint, had we just stayed level and kept our number of students that we have now,
that or let me say it differently, the drop is a drop of about $2,780,000 in revenue to the Education Fund. So there's a lot of competing challenges to the budget. One of the biggest by far is the drop in enrollment. And unfortunately, this is not a trend that we're anticipating slows down. As we see, as I've talked about before, our k one two numbers compared so sorry. Compared to our ten, eleven and twelve numbers, you can see that an entrance of about 1,200
and an exit of about 1,700 or 1,800 does certainly create some challenges. So moving forward, essentially updating the impact of the loss of students. The new estimated tuition support, which is the major funding source to the Education Fund, now sits at negative $417,000 and that is enrollment. Even though the money went up from a state perspective, that's based if you state status quo, the drop in students is is the biggest impact. Going back just briefly to the slide before, although the number is 20,289,
we don't get funded for that number. Why? Because we have about 15 students that are dual enrolled. Maybe they take a class with us and receive, private school, work outside of the one class with us or they have some other source of education experience besides what they get here. So those 15 students, we just get a fraction of their of their, enrollment dollars. The other piece to this is we have about 25 virtual students, and so we only get 85% funding for those students. All said, going back to the next slide,
that means we have a drop in funding of 428.44 students, and again, that's all related to those dual enrollment. So that's where we see the negative $417,000 in tuition support. Can you repeat that number, please? Yeah. Four we're seeing a drop compared to last year's tuition support of 428.44 students. And, again, that decimal is all related to those dual enrolled where they're just with us a portion of their day, maybe one period. Our dual enrolled students are almost exclusively at the high school.
So taking a step outside of tuition support, another unfortunate impact to the education fund balance and really operation no. Really just be all education mostly, I should say, is the increase in teacher retirement. This is not something HSE controls, but we are required to pay that percentage that is approved by the INPERS group. So that is going up six tenths of a percent on 01/01/2026, which is a $650,000 impact to the district.
If you remember last year, teacher retirement went up half a percent, which was about a $500,000 a little bit more than $500,000 cost to the district. So right off the top, under really no control of anybody, we're at negative $1,000,000 to the Education Fund with expenses that already live there and already are outpacing the revenue that we have. Tim, can you follow-up with that and explain that there is mandatory by state, but there's also employee teacher contribution and HSE, if I'm not mistaken,
pays both? Yes. So there are two portions to teacher retirement, the 6.5% currently in 2025 that a district is required to pay. There is the 3% employee contribution that HSE does pay on behalf of its teachers. I would say most districts do pay that on behalf of their teachers, but certainly not all do that. Moving forward into 2026, that required portion moves up to 7.1% combined with the 3% employee contribution that the district pays for a total of 10.1% on any dollars that are paid to teachers.
Thank you. Tim, is that that's all related to the pension. Is the four zero three contribution above and beyond that? Yes. This is all related to teacher retirement where there are two sources of retirement. There's an annuity and a pension completely independent of a four zero three b district. Okay. So separate from this, there's also the four zero three b. Correct. Okay. That's a second retirement, if you will. Overall, staffing stayed pretty neutral for the 2526 school year. We talked about this before. We gained some in areas and we and we, subtracted in some other areas. One of the real big challenges is the insurance increase of 10.5%
on plan 116.8% on plan two and three. That is no doubt an increase in cost to both the district and the employee. Health costs are continuing to rise. Certainly, this is not the meeting to get into all the reasons why that is. We have a great committee that goes over those details. But it is important to note that we had a three year span where we saw no insurance premium increases. And so part of this is reeling the effects of that previous work where that increase was not passed on. Can you also explain what is usual and customary?
Do most schools go up at least 1% or 2%? Yes. Usual and customary obviously is very individual. But even in a good year for health insurance, it's pretty standard to say, hey, let's just take a low 1% or 2% just to know that expenses are going to continue to increase and not necessarily stay flat. It's pretty rare to stay flat. And HSE stayed flat for three full years. We had three years where there was no change in the premium. Can you explain why that is? Can you clarify? It's not that the rates didn't increase, they did, but please explain. Well, we have an insurance broker that goes through the process of recommending from an actuarial
standpoint what we would suggest to be rate increases. What I can't speak to because this is before my time, if there were recommendations to increase the rates, What I can speak to is the same level of premium stayed stagnant for three years. It's possible that that broker said we need to recommend an increase. It's also possible that they didn't. But the bottom line is there was no increase to the premium contributions from the district nor the employee. The hard part about that time is part of the benefit trust was sitting as
a negative borrowing money from the operations fund, so there was some additional debt that needed to be paid back during that time as well. Thank you. Was there an increase in the broker comp during that time or after? So I can't speak I do know that there was an increase in year I guess I can speak to it to a little degree. There was an increase in year one, as they were figuring out all of the revenue streams that they had. And in year two, that has been drastically reduced. And what fund does that come out of? All in the individual benefit trust.
So it it lives as its own independent silo. So the cost to that benefit trust are premiums I'm sorry, claims, and the revenue is premiums. Obviously, there's a few ancillary things that go into that, but the gist of it is, claims are the expense and premiums are the revenue. Couple other items of note for the 2026 budget. Education Fund will be absorbing some social workers and counselor positions that are currently part of the mental health grant. The budget is projected to absorb nine in working with our our mental health team.
It may be a little less than that. These are those critical, social worker and counselor positions in our buildings that were brought on for the mental health grant. We budgeted for this and prepared for this, but this is an additional cost to the education fund. A portion of our 13 literacy coaches, which have been pivotal in our outstanding academic results, have shifted to the education fund as well. So that's a total of 13 positions that a portion of their salary was covered through the literacy cadre and literacy coach process. Those are moving to the education fund.
One of the impacts of SEA one is that our referendum, which would projected to continue to grow year after year, and we talked about that in great detail at the last meeting. We'll see a slight bump in 2026, but without any changes in the referendum, we'll continue to lose money, starting in 2027. And just to level set here, the referendum currently pays for the salaries and benefits of essentially five of our school buildings, one high school, one intermediate, and, excuse me, one junior high and then three elementary schools. So the impact of a drop in the referendum is a direct impact to teacher
salaries, wages and benefits, which is substantial. Tim, going back to your first comment on there regarding the 2026 will absorb some of the social workers and counselors costs from the mental health grant, though it's super important to have the support in mental health and the mental health grant? Does this stem from when the mental health grant came and was presented to us a few years ago and this is the last nine positions that are now weren't figured into that plan, but at the end of the plan said somehow our district would absorb nine positions? I think most of what you said is true.
What I would say is it was absolutely planned for in the budget. And so This last budget? It's been planned for, to my knowledge, quite some time, but specifically the conversion of them over to the Education Fund budget has been built in for a while. We have delayed that. Education fund budget has been built in for a while. Okay. We have delayed that, actually. Mhmm. Kudos to that team for maximizing those those dollars. Okay. But those are the Those are very critical positions, as we all know, to support in our in our building. So, yes, it was all part of a five year plan with the mental health grant of, hey, in years one,
two and three, we're going to continue to add positions that will be paid for the grant and then those positions will eventually slide over the education fund to be able to sustain them in the future. And I want to say I 100% believe that those positions are very important. I'm pointing out something that those nine positions are not educational teacher position salaries. These are nine in our mental health supporting salaries, correct? Yes. Okay. And had they not been there, would that have been funds that the district would have had for teacher salaries or
something else? Would that have come out of the education fund? Let me ask you that. Yes. So it would come out of the education fund. What I would say and And please note, I'm not saying we don't need those positions. I'm just trying to clarify that those nine positions are being paid out of the education fund. Is that correct? They will be absorbed in the Education Fund. Okay. That's what I needed to say. Thank you. Kind of finishing that line, the operations budget, there's been an incredible amount of work in cost aversion strategies in the operations budget. To kind of level set here briefly,
in 2026, 92% of the Education Fund is salaries, wages and benefits of school level personnel, mostly teachers and support staff and building principals. 97% of the 2026 referendum budget is exclusively teacher salaries, wages and benefits. And so when you look at cost aversion strategies, there's not a lot of cost cutting that can happen in those spaces without cutting personnel. The operations budget operates everything that's not directly in the classroom and there's been a ton of effort from our operations team to cut costs here, so much in fact that we're reducing the budget by $2,000,000
in 2026 because of all the efforts that have been made to renegotiate contracts, re reconsider bus routes. I mean, there's just a myriad of things that have gone into this. And and honestly, some of the costs moving to geo bonds. But kudos to the effort of those teams for being able to save a little bit of space in the budget as costs continue to go up in all aspects. You'll see the budget in the Education Fund go up by a significant amount, and there's an important distinction to this, and I'll talk about this in a minute. There's a very important distinction between cash that's coming in and permission to spend.
These are permission to spend items. There's no revenue to support these. These are just real expenses that live in the education fund. And as we've talked about before, budgeting is not a science. It's an art. There's flexibility. There's there's pivoting. There's adjustments that need to be made. And here are four big ones for 2026. Substitute teacher costs continue to rise at a pretty high rate. That's both due to the number of absences but also due to our amazing teamwork, of our substitute teaching department. The amount of placements and, coverage that they've been able to provide has increased as well as the number of
absences. So we're budgeting $1,500,000 more there. Curriculum materials, although those are embedded in our tuition support, we are absolutely spending more each year than we are taking in in curricular materials reimbursement. So we've increased that. We've already talked a little bit about health care. This is not suggesting that the budget will pay 4,400,000.0 more dollars. It's saying that we didn't get this one quite right in 2025. Based on our expenses to this point, we need to raise permission to spend in health care by 4,400,000.0. And then exceptional learners, same thing. We're not saying we added a slew of new exceptional learner teachers.
What we're saying is we needed to adjust the budget based on the actual live cost that we've experienced in 2025 and projecting those out to 2026. So those are some of the big ticket items that are contributing to the increase in the education fund budget. Switching over now again to the operations side for a moment. We talked about this before. We are limited to the amount that we can increase our operations fund levy by 4%. It's called the MLGQ. Typically, our AV grows by more than 4%. This year, that was not the case. So in order to,
take in the full maximum growth of our operations fund, there is a recommended slight increase in the overall rate, in the operations fund. You see that being 0.0043. The debt service is going to stay level, in terms of the combination of our exempt and non exempt debt service. So the overall tax rate, the only place it's going to change in our recommendation for the budget is in the operations fund overall at that small amount of 0.0043. A little reminder about the budgeting process. We've got to meet all our timelines and advertisements,
that's why today is step four of the five that you've seen. We will advertise a little higher rate in the budget and lower assessed values. That way in case there's any kind of mistake, those can be adjusted. The DLGF, the group that oversees budgets would never increase, a budget that was advertised. They can only decrease. So in order to do that, we advertise high in a few spaces. That's why I have this for you today. Same thing that we saw, at our last presentation. On the left, you see the proposed advertised budget, and then on the right, what we predict will really happen. Notice in places like the education fund,
that budget is exactly the same. That is not a taxpayer supported fund in terms of tax levy. You look at the referendum, that's spot on. We know the maximum rate that we can have there through the voting process. You look at debt service, debt service exempt. There's some higher advertisements there, both from a rate and a levy standpoint, but what we really think will happen is on the right hand side in red. And then there's your operations. We're advertising a little high to protect ourselves, not a lot, but there is a little bit of a cushion there. And then our rainy day fund, as well as our self insurance dental fund. Self insurance dental is another one of those silos.
There is no state revenue from that. That is coming in from premiums paid by our employees to the self insurance dental fund. What's really important about this as we look at the next slide, as comparing 2025 to 2026, you see a significant increase in the education fund. There is there is no new revenue, as we've already covered, to support this increase. This is spending cash, but is based on actual expenses in 2025 projected to those in 2026. So one of the things I wanna be very crystal clear on, we are not saying there's 11,000,000
more dollars coming into the education fund. We're simply saying we are projecting $11,000,000 more in expense and we've got to have the permission, in terms of appropriations to pay for that. Referendum, there's the slight increase because we did see an increase in the AV for 2026. Again, that'll drop in 2027 without additional steps taken. Debt service and debt service exempt, you see some movement in between those, but the overall rates, if you look at those two combined, are exactly the same. Debt service goes down a little, debt service exempt goes up a little,
they're still combined to be the same. There's that operations slight bump in order to get our maximum growth. Note though the budget did go down by $2,000,000 as I noted. That's that costed version and work through the geo bonds in order for that to happen. Again, no funding for rainy day or self insurance, but those are a part of the budget as well. And so our predicted, overall budget rate for, 2026 is that 1.1476 that slight increase from 2025. Comparing our tax rate over the last six years,
you see we've stayed well within our averages, if you will, as we dropped in 'twenty four and 'twenty five and maintained a steady rate and then that slight increase in 2026. Couple other assumptions that go along with this budget, one of them is that education to operations transfer. We are still going to ask that to remain at $15,000,000 but we absolutely have budgeted for moving less and everything from a cash balance standpoint is based on less movement there. Interest in HSE schools is 100% deposited into the education fund if it's not connected
to a bond under the rules of the bond. We know interest rates are dropping. Our interest rate is a really good rate with our, credit union, but as the federal rate drops, so does the interest rate at the bank, and so we're estimating just for caution, but probably realistic, about a $500,000 drop in anticipated interest. Said differently, that's a $500,000 hit to the education fund, once again, which is 92% salaries, wages, and benefits. What's coming up at the October 22 meeting? We'll have a a variety of forms that need to be approved to finalize the
budget process. That's budget form four. Our interest earned being deposited in the education fund. Our capital projects plan, which is minimal. Most of those projects are being done in GO bonds now. Our bus replacement plan, which is being paid out of GO bonds, and then that transfer from education to ops resolution. To close, this is probably the most important slide of the whole presentation. On the left, you see the 2025 budget order. At the start of the calendar year 2025, you see the cash balance of three of our most important funds, education, referendum, and operations. Through the actual budget,
what we project to happen at the 2025, said differently, 01/01/2026, is we will, under current expenses, spend $5,000,000 of cash balance, during the calendar year 2025. That is prior to any increases in anything related to staffing. It is absolutely just the cost of the items that come out of the education fund. So if everything just stayed status quo and nothing changed, that's a a $5,000,000 cost year over year as we're depleting our cash balance. And as I said before,
a month's expenses in the education fund is around are around $14,000,000 Good rule of thumb, just our personal business, personal finance, two months worth of, expenses covered in your fund. We're at a point at the 2025 to be about one point four months worth of expenses available in our education fund. You see the referendum budget order, our cash balance, we did spend additional cash. That is spot on. We will spend every pretty much dollar in that to get to the 2025 at about $8,900,000
a little over a million dollars in additional, cash that was spent. Operations, we are actually going to be under budget, but this already factors that in, meaning those cost aversion strategies worked. This fund has a little bit more flexibility in terms of where it will land, but our best estimate at this point is we'll spend about $3,000,000 in cash balance in the operations fund. Taking the 2026 budget and projecting that out, obviously, like any good budgeting strategy, we built in a little flexibility. I would be clear, not a lot, but a little flexibility in the budget. And said differently, if we spent the entire budget,
which we are going to do in 2025, our cash balances would be down to 11,000,000, 7.4 and 5,600,000.0 in the various funds. So right now, we have a budget deficit in all three funds. Set in a different way, the amount of revenue we're receiving does not meet the expenditures that happen in each of those individual funds. A balanced budget would be revenue matches expenditures. We do not have a balanced budget at this point. Tim, can we pause here just a little bit because this is a huge thing.
So we talk about expenditures. Can you give us just an overhaul on some things that we spend money on in each one? Education referendum you already shared, which is 94% in education is 92% of the 2026 budget in education is salary and benefits of people. Correct. And then the remaining part of that education would go to Those are things like supplies, classroom supplies, budgets for individual schools, the the the materials needed. Think about curricular materials living in there as well.
Alright. And then we have referendum. Can you give that percentage again? How much that goes to people? Yep. In 2026, 97% of the referendum will pay for teachers only, salaries, wages, salary, wages, and benefits. The three percent goes to a security, piece as part of the Like the safety. You got it. Okay. You got it. Yep. And and when we talk about those numbers, when we say referendums covering our salaries for teachers, it's not all of them. It's only really about five schools. Is that correct? It is five schools, nearly all. There's a few people within those five schools that get,
dual funded, maybe from a grant part or or whatever. But essentially, five schools, teachers' salaries and benefits are paid from the referendum, not principals in the building, not support staff in the building. And so if we were to say like as a business owner, I'm always looking for ways to cut costs, right, my marketing, my advertising, that kind of stuff. And those two type of buckets or areas, there are not ways to cut costs really to pay our teachers because it would be cutting on supplies or textbooks or other things or curriculars or whatever. There's not an what would be something can you give an example of a way
to cut a cost in that any of those buckets? The only available cost in the education fund with 92% is people. Right. Okay. So then operations, are we doing anything in that area, which I know we are, to tighten that belt to what have we done? Can we give some examples? Because I know we talk about how we're struggling, but what have we done to help that that we're not struggling? So what are some ways that we've done some Yes. So we've underspent the budget in the operations fund, which has been a really good thing, some of the cost aversion strategies like
negotiating contracts with our vendors and going back and taking advantage of the fact that we're one of the five largest schools in the state of Indiana and Okay. And letting us be a a poster for schools. Excellent. Not an example, but a really cool example is, the LEGO initiative that was was shared this week. We can be the poster for those schools. And so big companies like Lego want us to market their products or show off our great students. We can do that with custodial agreements. We can do that with telecom agreements. We can do that with a myriad of things. So some of the big ticket items that have saved us here is we renegotiated
our third party custodial agreement. Great. We've done a ton of work in the telecom space, eliminating redundancy in lines, reducing cost on, MiFis and cell phones and all kinds of things, related to the telecom space. A couple others that jump out, we have a financial software that like all groups do and we spent a month or two negotiating that price. Over the time, it went down multiple thousands of dollars. There's just a ton of things. Cutting bus routes in terms of based on the student count,
hey. We can we can trim this route down and we don't need this. That may mean a driver too. And so through attrition, we didn't replace the driver. We've done a lot of work in operations to save some money because there's opportunity there. We're not always talking about people, which is a harder mountain to move and a more sensitive mountain to move, to be honest. And the reason I'm just this line of questioning or where I'm going with this is we as a board working with our superintendent and administration is we don't just oversee one section of a budget. We're having to talk about a whole district to maintain.
And so it's important to know where our monies are going in all avenues of our district. So this is very important information. I appreciate you sharing that and showing that our administration is working very hard as well to tighten that belt. And there's just some things we can't take from one bucket to move monies into another, right? Okay. Thank you. That's actually it. I have some questions. Go right ahead. Can I alright? So, to continue kind of on what Suzanne was asking, first of all, I feel like when she and I,
were first on the board that we were moving a small percentage of funds from operations to education that you are allowed to do that. Is that something we're still allowed to do? Is that something we've considered since we're saving money in operations and it's more difficult to do in education? Yeah. So the history of that here and and it's probably not even fair, but I'm gonna call on Cecily because we prior to our previous referendum,
can you talk about what expenses were there in the old referendum, which is a factor here? Hold on. She's not able to hear you, so sorry. I hope I don't lose my Director of Business tomorrow. Can you hear me now? Okay, perfect. Yes. Yes. So prior to the last referendum, the new one that was run, the referendum spending plan is different. Previously, we were paying for all of our teachers in the Education Fund and some of our operational expenses lived in the Referendum Fund, which allowed for some of that revenue to be transferred from operations to education.
That is not where we live now. Now we have teachers paid for out of the referendum fund. Again, most of our education fund is teacher salaries and benefits and building staff salary and benefits. I don't know if that that's I think that's helpful. So when we move those expenses to the referendum, then we're back to this idea of, all right, when the budgetary process changed in 2019, expenses that used to live in the general fund, were moved. And so schools were allowed to adjust and move funds from the education fund to the operations fund.
Those that oversee the budget said, hey, there's got to be a cap on this, and that cap is 15%. The last time an overall report was and I have it in front of me here. The last time there was a comparison in 2024, Hamilton Southeastern transferred 10.24%. That was the next to lowest in Hamilton County. When we dropped that transfer to $15,000,000 we moved to 8.85%, so nearly half of what would be possible. So that transfer is pretty common and we're pretty low in the amount we transfer
proportionately to the rest of the schools in Hamilton County. Okay. And going back to the insurance, can you answer some questions about that? I continue to have some concerns about the high increase. I know at least I've been told that we've negotiated it down to those increase of about 17%. Can you tell us how that happened on the benefits of having a broker? Why did we change brokers? Just some historical context there.
Yes. And to be clear, very different than a vendor process where we're negotiating down a price. Our broker is working to actuarily determine what it costs to fund our plan. So in terms of negotiating it down, I want to be careful that that is not using the value of the the power of HSE schools. It is absolutely different strategies. And one of those strategies was through the work of our benefits committee, recognizing that one of the index requirements in 2026 is that the high deductible plan
needed to move to a March deductible. So as a result, to keep the plan somewhat balanced with each other, the deductibles were increased in the other two plans as well. Another initiative that was undertaken was to increase the max out of pocket cost. We recognize that that is absolutely a challenge. Had we not done that, the rates to increase insurance would have been even higher. So we were trying to find, as uncomfortable as the increase is, a balance between adjustments in the plan and a number that is
as manageable as possible in a very tough situation. Claims continue to be really hot. One misconception that I know the board is is is absolutely understands, but maybe not everyone, is every single claim comes back to us. They're Anthem serves as our claims administrator, but they don't pay any claims. So if I personally go to the doctor and it costs a $100 to the trust, that costs a $100 to the trust. Just like all the premiums come to the trust too. It's it's a self funded insurance, so everything lives in that particular silo.
You look at health care costs across the country, they're absolutely increasing at a rapid rate. Pharmacy is one of those big players in this. We did increase or I should say, move to a different pharmacy benefit manager on July 1. And July 1 or January 1? July. Thank you. Sorry. All all the numbers running in my head here. July 1 and we've already seen some positive movement in terms of, impact to the trust. Prescription benefits are incredibly expensive just like health care is, and high claimants are a big part of that.
The number of de identified data that we get indicating employees' costs are very, very high, and that's part of the increase to fully fund our benefit trust. Did you touch on why we changed brokers last year? I started on July 1 and we did switch to a new broker at that point. We changed because we didn't have a broker who was actually telling us to take the increases when we should be taking the increases. And we went with somebody who could help us develop a plan that we could fund. Anyone else?
I'm going to start off with a question. I have one Oh, go ahead. Sorry. I have one more question. Have we explored the idea? I just looked briefly, and it looked like it probably was more expensive. But have we explored the idea of schools, I know, have the option to join into the state bucket of insurance? Is that something that's definitely more expensive and not something we're interested in doing? Yes. Mr. Mapes had charged us with that task, and we did look into that and felt like it was a more expensive endeavor
for our employees than our current plan and a reduction of benefits as well. So first, I want to say, thank you for what you did with the PBM, the pharmacy benefit manager, because that did decrease some costs. I do still have some concerns. First of all, our broker fees in the last two years usual and customary for this area of Indiana? Are broker fees customary? The amount of broker fees that we paid, are they usual and customary for the school districts in this county? Yeah. I I'm not sure I can comment because I don't have access to individual schools
benefits trust, so I would be speculating, unfortunately. Okay. And then the other part is, you know, just the Arab community, this is where we are financially. It's sobering for all of us. But if the expectation is that the people who fuel our district and who set us up for student success are expected to take a hit, I think it's very important that the board looks at all of our vendors from the bottom up and look at renegotiating the cost because it shouldn't just be our staff that is taking a hit.
Anyone else? Can you comment I know that there's been conversations that I've had and I think others on the Board have had in doing some comparisons between our benefits and the benefits of those in Hamilton County and surrounding school districts. Can you speak to that in terms of the robustness of our benefit offering in comparison? Because I know we talk about employee retention and attraction, and I know that benefits as well as our pension and our four zero three offering is pretty much a strong attraction to our district. So can you speak more to that? Yes. There's a lot of metrics you can compare. The teacher retirement pension in Hamilton County,
I believe all schools do the 3% employee contribution from the district. So that's a level comparison. The four zero three at 5% is absolutely the highest in Hamilton County. One school district does 4% total, a combination of three and one of two different plans. One district does zero, a couple do one or two with some vesting requirements. So the four zero three sets us as the top of the class in Hamilton County by far. And that's starting day one, right? They don't have to wait three years. There is no vesting requirement. Yes. And just to clarify, that's a 5% match. So every dollar up to 5%,
the employee puts in, the district puts in a 5% match with no vesting requirement. And this is in addition to the state fund that they also receive, the retirement pension? Correct. Has there been any calculations done if and I know it would be bargains, so I'm not sure if you can even get into it. But if there were a reduction in that, are there enough people contributing at that five percent rate where lowering it would make a significant difference? Yes. Okay. To match, Carmel does a 1% or Noblesville's 1.5%. If you were to come down, could essentially that the remainder
be available for other things in the Education Fund, namely salaries? Yes. Okay. Piggybacking on that just a little bit, we added an HSA contribution last year for the very first time. There's only one other school in Hamilton County that contributes to an HSA, and we are the highest in that regard. We have the highest starting salary of a B zero teacher. We have the highest starting salary of an M zero teacher, and we have, the highest, average teacher cost in Hamilton County. The thing that probably summons it up the best, just to kind of land this,
and this is information that's all publicly available, is every year the state of Indiana does a calculation of what percent of education fund revenue, dollars to the education fund, are spent on teachers' salaries, wages, and benefits. Under statute, we are required to make that 62%. The last time there was a comparison between schools in 2324, our number was 83.81%, which led Hamilton County. Noblesville was 82%, Carmel was 75%, Westfield 75%, Sheridan 67% and Hamilton Heights 61%.
In twenty twenty four-twenty five, I have our data, I don't have comparison data because it's not been shared. Our percentage was 84.44%. Now a big part of that is the referendum, 100%. Currently the law changed, and now the contribution has to be 65%. But again, as we stand here today in the 2425, the last year this metric was calculated, we're at 84.44%. So it's difficult. There's so many challenges, but we are torchbearers and leading the way in a lot of great areas in
Hamilton County. I think that's fantastic because I think it's an opportunity for, I think, those that want to come to our district and stay. That's a robust offering that we have. I know that I have friends that work in other districts as well, and I know they're trying to figure out ways to do salary increases. But I mean, at least it gives the appearance that we're the top employers from an education standpoint based on this benefit offering. And so others are trying to catch up to where we are. So while we are sensitive about losing employees to other districts, Them away. Those districts have the same concerns themselves with them leaving their district to come here
or elsewhere that may have benefit better benefit offerings and salaries. So that's helpful now. I'd like to ask I would just add Go ahead, Sarah. That the other districts are still bargaining too, so we don't know where they'll land. They could land above us. I would like to make a comment going forward. So where does that leave us? It's not just Hamilton Southeastern Schools. The financial burden and the hit that we have is across our state. So I encourage anybody that's listening, not just our Board, but other Board members,
other district people, other teachers and people that are involved in education to call their legislators. It starts there. Am I correct that the Senate bills and the certain things that have hit us has really caused some problems with educational funding? So it doesn't matter where you are standing on an aisle, I'm just putting it out there in general that if you care about education, you need to be reaching out because we'll have, to make some strong changes. And is it 2027, Thanet? Yes. So I'm just putting it out there that some we all are tightening our belt
right now to get through this next year. I know the Mr. Mapes and the administration is working on plans to, and I hope I'm not speaking out of line. I know it's already been said that we might have to entertain a referendum next year. So I know everyone's tightening their belt and trying to figure out how we go forward, but even that doesn't fix everything altogether. And if we don't work on that state funding formula and how we, put excuse me for being blunt butts in seats, and do all the right things. I know Hamilton Southeastern Schools is a phenomenal school district. Thank you to the many,
many teachers that are in this room that educate, our thousands of children and the administration that provides, a stellar working environment and helping for our teachers. So I'm just saying, in general, community, it takes everyone. We've got to reach out to legislation to get some things changed to help fund education. So we are not tasked with this huge, huge, I guess, punch in the gut because I know when we did the referendum, this wasn't here when we did the last referendum. And now we're tasked with these strong concerns.
And we know by far, at least, I can speak on this. I'm pretty sure the rest of the board can, that we 110% value the educators that are in our district. And so thank you for the administration doing your part and for you all the teachers that work super duper hard for all of our students. So thank you. Thank you, Suzanne, for saying that because I think we all agree that we value the teachers and the educators in this building. I know I personally have had three kids, two that have already graduated and are now adulting as a result of the fantastic
education here. I would be remiss if I didn't make a statement about the concerns about our declining enrollment, and yet we still have a $14,554,000 increase that we're seeing as a result. We operate on a fixed income. I mean, when you look at income and expenses, obviously, we have a deficit there, right? And yet, we're still going to go back and ask the taxpayer to pay $15,000,000 or almost $15,000,000 more to fund a district that is losing over 400 students and consistently seeing a decline in enrollment. And I get that there's expenses.
But my point is that if we're continuing to operate with the same level of employees and the same level of fixed costs and operational expenses, the taxpayer is going to have a hard thing to swallow in terms of saying, Help me understand, you're not tightening your belt, but you're asking me to put out more. And so I want to make sure that, that gets conveyed because I think that there could be a negative backlash with giving raises and then going out to the taxpayers saying, give me more. So if not to say no one's valued.
I mean, teachers are valued, but at the same time, you know, people who have fixed incomes out in the community. And I look to the senior citizens, and every senior citizen in the room that's on a fixed income is going to ask that same question because I've had half a dozen conversations with them already. So they operate on a fixed income as well. So while they're empathetic, at the same time, they're not because they live the reality of what they live every day. So the the pushback on me and the Board and the community in general is what more are you doing to show and demonstrate that you're going to operate within your means because we don't have a way of making money in this district.
The income coming in is through the students and the butts in the seeds is how we make our income. So outside of that, you know, so there's pushback here for a reason because I'm getting a ton of it, on both sides, but especially those in the community that are like, our costs went up everywhere. You know, the funding that we thought we were going to get back from the state and property tax values, dollars 300 just doesn't cut it. So at the end of the day, I just want us to be mindful of that because the messaging around this, I mean, for everyone in this room that stands to benefit or not benefit from this is
the fact is, is we're going to go back and ask the taxpayer. Regardless if they have a student in the district or not, regardless if they're even listening to this information now or not, they will be. And the first question they're going to ask is, how can I afford to fund this if you have a declining income coming into the district? So I just want us to be very mindful about that. Here's the other side of that. So over the last couple of years, we're averaging about losing 200 students a year. Between this year and last year, we lost 400 students. And part of that is legislation, universal choice,
basically. Things like SEA one. Those all affect our districts. So like Suzanne said, it's very important to talk to the legislators. But at the same time, when we did referendums before, we didn't know that we were going to look at 2027, and what we had in 2027 is going to equal what we had in 2023 as far as the budget. So we're in a different spot than we planned on being. Thank you, Tim. I will now open the public hearing. And any member of the community who wishes to speak about the budget may address the Board, and you will each have three minutes.
We will start with the community members who have already signed up, and we will start with Jenny I did not anticipate on being first after that presentation. Good evening and thank you for the opportunity to speak. And I do want to say that some of this is going to be redundant in things that we've already discussed, which is good because we've already covered it, but also to reiterate it. First, I think we need to acknowledge that neither the administration, the board, the educators, the taxpayers, the staff, any of us ask for this current financial state of the district.
And it's derived from several factors as we discussed tonight, the declining enrollment, an accounting error that was made when we had a recent misinformation presented to the public and shared on social media with the intent of creating device on social media with the intent of creating divisiveness and stoking the proverbial flames. I implore all parties to address the facts as they are as you work towards the common goal of solving the HSE budget crisis. Any solution must acknowledge the and address downward trend in enrollment, the financial situation as it exists,
the current state laws, the governing revenue, the teacher compensation, and the future impact on our budget. Recent compensation increases in teacher pay placed HSE near the top of the Hamilton County School Districts along with benefits as we discussed just or as Mr. Brown discussed just a few minutes ago. If the district cannot offer raises for the coming academic year, that will obviously be disappointing, but we cannot point to other districts and compare and pine over their increases.
The simple truth is they're all scrambling to keep up with HSE's current compensation package. Their increases are only being put in place to try and match what our district already currently offers. To help fix our financial situation, we should look at creative solutions such as exploring measures like buyouts for early retirement, rightsizing staffing from top down as we redistrict to meet the needs of our current and future student populations, create cost savings through returning to textbooks in elementary schools,
which present savings over technology subscriptions and devices partner with other districts to create cooperative buying power for resources review contracts with outside vendors for cost efficiency seek additional grants that benefit our students, increase opportunities for support from the Hamilton Southeastern Education Foundation. Now is a time to avoid the damaging impact of public arguments. We need the public behind solutions to stabilize HSE funding.
Any partisan public bickering is counterproductive to the end. Our goal should be to provide the best education and the best teachers. Thank you. We'll now move on to Sarah Renfro. Good evening, board, Mr. Mates. For ten years, my family and I have lived in Fishers, and our daughter has attended HSE schools. Teachers have gone above and beyond to ensure the best educational experiences for their students. That's what they do. They are living out their vocation, a true calling. I know from my vocation that one how one is treated in their profession,
including financially, impacts their overall well-being. Recent data underscores the depth of financial stress facing Americans. Seventy two percent report feeling stressed about money at least sometime in the prior month. Sixty percent of full time employees are stressed about their finances with financial stress impacting various aspects of their well-being, including mental health, sleep, and self esteem. Fifty two percent of workers still report being financially stressed despite slight improvements in cost of living pressures. The number of full time employees who report that their compensation isn't keeping up with
the rising cost of living expenses has risen to fifty nine percent. Unfortunately, the school district is not making any improvements teachers pay and is in effect reducing their salaries with rising healthcare costs. Teachers' treatment is financially unjust, which impacts their physical, mental, spiritual and overall health. Educators care well for their students. In return, they should be cared for by those in positions of power. Financial burnout and lack of support from leadership would suggest that HSE schools is not
living up to its mission, which is Hamilton Southeastern Schools as a forward thinking school district provides excellence in education and opportunities to ensure the success of each and every student to become a responsible citizen and to positively influence an ever changing world community. That only happens because of our educators. Without teachers, students suffer. When students' education suffers, our community is in crisis. Our educators not only deserve to be heard and treated with respect,
but compensated justly so that our students, including my child, have the best opportunity for success now and in the future. Make it so. Thank you. We'll move on to Stephanie Hunt. Good evening, mister Mapes and school board. As a community member and district parent who actively worked to inform and speak against SEA one, I come before you tonight with all of these individuals in red in frustration and lacking trust in our board and administration. The implication that any of the shortfalls in our budget are due to an administration
that has been gone for over two years was unprofessional and a cheap way out of accepting ownership for the choices you all have made. That rhetoric needs to stop. 10 salaries of the top positions in the central office total approximately $1,500,000 and that does not include retirements, cost of insurance, car and phone allowances, etcetera. I can assure you the previous administration was nowhere near that number for salaries. This office has expanded, even needing construction to add office space since this new admin took over. Our CFO did a great job of breaking down numbers and explaining what SCA one
will do to our district's finances. The article in the Hamco reporter did a great job of explaining why a referendum will be necessary on next year's ballot. Carmel, Noblesville, and Westfield schools are working hard with their teachers to collectively bargain together to find ways to show respect and appreciation for what their educators do. They are facing the same challenges and future referendums just as HSE is, and yet their teachers' unions are releasing positive messaging because they are being heard and respected during the process. As a parent,
I am standing up tonight to demand respect for our teachers, the ad the in school administrators who are, again, working without contracts and the staff of HSE. We trust our teachers. We see them work alongside our children, even coming outside of contracted hours to be sure a student receives the support or love they need to succeed in the classroom. This is from an HSE teacher. It takes a village to raise and educate children, but that village cannot thrive when one of its most essential groups is being devalued. Teachers are the heart of our schools, yet the message from the top, from administration and the board,
has been clear. Educators are not being prioritized, respected, or supported. The tone set by leadership filters down, and the lack of support from the district's highest levels sends a dangerous message that teachers' efforts are disposable and their expertise negotiable. Teachers deserve better, and true appreciation must start at the top. We understand that financial pressures exist. Everyone is feeling them, but HSE's refusal to consider creative or equitable solutions, especially when surrounding districts have found ways to do so, is deeply disappointing. This district has the resources,
both financial and intellectual, to find solutions. What it lacks is the will. Teachers continue to show up every day for the good of our kids. We are the ones tutoring before school, mentoring after school, buying supplies out of our own pockets, and adapting to every new initiative sent our way. Surrounding districts are investing in their teachers because they know what happens when they don't. HSE, once one of Indiana's most desirable districts, is losing educators at an alarming rate. How many more need to leave before the administration admits there's a problem? We'll now move on to Craig Crowley. Thank you,
doctor Albright, members of the board. Mister Mapes, thank you for allowing us to speak tonight. I wanna speak to you in the audience first. Thank you for being here for showing up outside of contract time, might I add. You stand up for your students every day, and you are part of what makes HSE the successful district that it is. If you hear nothing else tonight, please hear that. The bargaining team has spent three days negotiating contract changes with district administration. While this year has been more collaborative and collegial than last year, we admit, while we have had meaningful changes to language, we have made little movement on any financial gains.
Before we even began bargaining, the bargaining co chairs and presidents sat in on informational bargaining meetings with administration. While these meetings offer an opportunity for us to present what each side is going to be focused on, we were not told until a week before bargaining officially began that administration was not going to be offering any extra compensation for the hardworking teachers of this district. Why were we not brought into this conversation earlier? Along with this, the union sits in on quarterly insurance meetings. While these meetings allow for us to glimpse into the financial the financials behind insurance happenings, we were not told until a month prior to bargaining that we were headed for
this huge insurance increase. We agreed to change so much last year in order to help our insurance reserves, and yet, here we are again. District administration blames SEA one for the lack of funds. While there is no doubt that senate bill one will hit our Hamilton County communities hard in 2026, while we understand, we think creatively, and we prepare, why are we going to be the only school district in the Indy Metro Area to take a pay cut? From what we hear from our friends at other Hamilton County Schools, all of them are seeing salary increases. Why is HSE the only one not supporting their teachers?
Tyler Zerbe. Hi. Tyler Zerbe, HSEA president. Furthermore, district administration constantly shifts blame to the previous administration, many of which have not been employed at HSE for over a year. Current administration criticizes admin from almost two years ago who quote, unquote, put us in this situation because they overspent on teacher contracts. However, those administrators fairly compensated all teachers by honoring teachers who have taught here their entire careers and rewarding those who better themselves by attaining higher education. This allows for HSE to retain and attract quality teachers that have made it one
of the best and most highly successful districts in the state and even the nation. Understanding this perspective begs the question, does current administration not support this initiative? Be that as it may, this is no longer about previous district administration, other Hamilton County schools, or even the state. You are the leaders of this district. You are calling the shots and making decisions on behalf of everyone who works for HSE. What have you done to lessen the burden on and increase the budget for teachers? What steps have you taken to prevent legislation like senate bill one from destroying public
education in the state of Indiana? Several out of state conferences, expensive lawyer fees, and admin bloat throughout the district eat away at potential salary increases for HSE teachers. Electing politicians that want to witness the demise and eradication of public education hurts teachers and students alike. What have you done to stop all of this from happening? As everyone can see, district administration plays the blame game for many of the current issues that HSE is facing, but one thing is for sure. Teachers are never part of the problem.
However, they are always the solution. HSE teachers will have to bend on salary cuts. HSE teachers will have to pay more in insurance premiums. HSE teachers will have to go out and work for a new referendum. HSE teachers are always around to ensure that HSE is one of the highest performing school districts in the state and fix the many issues that seem to burden the HSE school district without getting any extra credit or compensation for it. HSEA has been told several times this bargaining cycle that you just can't be first in everything.
We We can't get ahead when we are running backwards, but one thing is for sure. The teachers of HSE want a contract in which no one takes a pay cut. The teachers of HSE want a real commitment to having their thirty minute time back on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The teachers at HSE want real discussions with the union about putting together a cost saving committee for this district. The teachers at HSE want more options presented at the bargaining table that does not just require them to shuffle their own money around. The teachers at HSE who ensure the high success and achievements of this district want
and deserve so much more than what they are being offered. Please remember that as you reflect on the budget presentation tonight. Thank you very much. Are there any other community members that would like to to speak? You may come to the podium at this time if so. Hearing none, I will now close the public hearing. We will now move on to Item 7.01, Superintendent Report. Board, we've had a lot of activity in our schools here in the last few weeks. Yesterday, as you heard, we held a media day to showcase our new junior high robotics elective that's now
offered at every junior high in collaboration with LEGO Education. Our students are using the SPIKE Prime Kits to build problem solving and technical skills that connect directly to career pathways in advanced manufacturing, engineering and computer science, all part of our journey of a student initiative. Last week, we were able to host at both high schools our recognize our National Merit semifinalists. This year, 25 of our students earned this distinction, including the highest number in District history from Fishers High School. These academically talented students now move forward in competition for scholarships totaling nearly $26,000,000
And tomorrow evening, going to be really busy as we have at Hamilton Southeastern High School, our Liger Mile that will begin at five where students K-five will run the one mile course. And then at 06:30, we'll host our district wide elementary spell bowl competition, which is kind of the preliminary before they jump into the state competition. And obviously, we're just a couple of days away from fall break. We wish everyone a good break and a safe break as we're out next week. Thank you. We'll now move on to Board member reports and we'll start with Suzanne,
please. Good evening, everyone. For the HSE Foundation, we are very, very excited for our upcoming event on 02/20/2026. The HSE Foundation will be sponsoring Gin Blossoms and Blues Traveler. And so we ask for people to tell to friends, go out on a date night and come visit and because all the proceeds will benefit the foundation programs for our students and our staff. So for more information on the HSE Foundation and all the things that are coming up, we'll have Mudsock in December.
And we also have, like I said, the big event at the Fishers Event Center, Friday, February 20. For more information, it's hscfoundation.org. So I encourage you guys to all get your tickets. Just want to thank everyone for coming. We do appreciate everyone coming out and hearing all this information firsthand. It is important information. It's not fun or exciting information, but I do appreciate all of you coming out. Other than that, no report. No report. But our next policy committee meeting is November 5 at 07:30 a. M, and you are welcome to attend. The only thing to report is our next,
Finance Committee meeting, which is also November 5 at eight a. M. I just want to say thank you for coming out and to your dedication and support for our youth. It clearly shows with the accolades that we have within our school system compared to other districts. So thank you. Sarah? I just want to add that, Indiana code sets what things are bargainable, what things are discussable and what things are prohibited, at the bargaining table. But I would really just like administration to consider things that are not bargainable but
are discussable that we're making sure we're having those discussions when they're not prohibited under Indiana code. All right. And that concludes our meeting for this evening. Thank you for coming.