mr sven schemacher up to the podium to present about the sharing place which is a wonderful community partner for lawrence township good evening madame chair board dr smith it's one of my favorite moments to come
and tell you about something that's really soling a lot of people solving a lot of issues and uh i'm so glad that we are part of the metropolitan school district
of lawrence township we have uh served as you miss blankenship put this in in i think in your package you have seen record numbers now if dr smith if you would ask me why i'm not totally sure you know but i think since co we have
seen more people are willing to ask for help than maybe in a proud community like lawrence before and i think that's good that we that we have more people that we have uh people from all over the world i don't know how many languages
are spoken there german not as much but uh i think it's a wonderful program we're looking forward to the renovation here and have worked with this man for many years and i wish him all the best for his next steps in life and uh that
was another thing that was so easy all the time to work with you you know we we don't have much barriers sometimes there are things we needed i remember the first days more than 10 years ago when we said how many refrigerators we want to have in there and you said oh wait a
minute i don't think our electricity system for the old band room is is working on that but i just want you the board and dr smith and all of you here to know how uh how glad we are to be here that we're can serving so many
folks there's one program that you might not know as much about it it's called silverbox we have about 69 people that are homebound you know these were folks that could come to the sharing place someday some time ago but we are now
going to them and they have a choice of uh food and there's groups of people that put these packages together and our volunteers deliver highly highly intensive work but there are people out there on hospice care in our community there are people out there that are very
very ill there are people that have some other challenges and that's how it is a lifeline it's not as you all know about food because we're in the richest country in the world it's about connectedness and uh being part of a larger community so again thank you so
much and uh we're looking forward to uh all the new uh paint schemes i'm i'm not sure it will be all orange or green light lime green we we don't know but it's uh it's it's great to be here with you and i would just want you to know how much we appreciate it and how much
the um the clients like it it's one of the favorite food pantries they have we sometimes do some questionnaires and people really like the friendliness of the folks and that we are uh you know making it real easy because we are not asking for 500 different documents
before you get a can of soup you know we come on in and we help you and that's and amy thank you so much for for your special interest to to be uh part of that and then of course one time you had to feed me too so at a is that i think
they're running our kid is running at mount vernon tomorrow so anyway thank you thanks everybody really enjoy being part of you goodbye okay time for questions yes actually would you like to stay up there mr um the board will if there are any
questions um go ahead it's done first of all these numbers are so incredibly impressive each board meeting we have the opportunity to review the documents prior to and the increase in the number of families that you are supporting is
just absolutely spectacular so just a couple of questions do you does the sharing place serve families in specific zip codes do they have to prove their um residency in a zip code yeah you know
that was until a few weeks ago and there is i think a sentence in there in that report that uh some of the new federal guidelines basically mean that everybody somewhere from indiana could stop by there you know we have sometimes some transient people that come and travel
through our community but in general it was the zip codes of the msd plus two zip codes 46218 and 46219 that were over on the um west side from your district where our sharing
place was in the past and we didn't want to cut people off so we said you know if you want to come over there uh and they do you know but it's uh it's basically uh no restriction uh on uh do you know in in the past we just had people maybe
bring a uh you know their bill from the electricity or driver's license or somewhere but you know there's a lot of people that don't have much documentation at all and so we try to you know try to work with that that's wonderful and then i think the thank you
for sharing about sharing place silverbox home delivery because that was news would my mom was a volunteer with meals on wheels years and years ago do you coordinate your efforts with meals on wheels do you know there's what a good question do you know what's what's
happening i'm not you even sure if i told roger about it but it will be now what what what's happening is you know the wheel the local wheels on meals program was located over at the the
retirement community here on uh on sunnyside roadside yes right and when they switched ownership they kind of said "you are not really able to do it at our place anymore." and so they are repackaging their food that comes from
the hospitals right over there and and deliver it to their clients okay so kind of an interesting thing i think we put a little they i think they brought a little uh oven type thing anyway so normally he asked if this stuff was
inspected you know but we will be we will be but that's that's a good question so we coordinate in that way with with them wonderful thank you again for your wonderful partnership much appreciated very good and uh thank you so much and thank you for your support yeah yes oh
go ahead oh yes i'm jumping way ahead yes so i don't even know who i will direct this to but as we are looking at our changes in diplomas there's a portion of it for the honor sales plus where we have to have like 75 hours of work of uh workbased learning is that
something a partnership to be able since we yeah you know miss crystal you remember we talked a little bit about it that i believe that there is a whole lot of opportunities and uh we had today a wonderful conversation with our program
officer at the lilian endowment ta and we told her about our amazing relationship we have and i told her you know i could see a time where young people from this district could run the sharing place and get all kinds of
opport opportunities in terms of their vocational pre-training and so on if you if you really uh look at a a nonprofit like the sharing place there are lots of different jobs and skills you can learn from food safety to logistics to you
know customer relations to uh all kinds of things and so i think we we're looking forward to explore something like that with you maybe through the summer and uh i i remember our conversation you were kind of fired up about this idea my girls love the
sharing place funny enough they love the boxes they like taking the shopping cart and packing up the boxes and so just for teens and pre-teens to enjoy that they love the atmosphere and so yeah it is showing places near and dear to my heart
yeah thank you all right thank you okay very good yes we have we we're very interested mr don't go away just yet not when i was going to tell you how grateful i am for the partnership that we have with the sharing place okay and and how critically important it is for our families i know the partnership with
miss bush's department is very um is very tight um i'm just curious how if we have an estimate on how many uh lawrence township families are coming through the sharing place or i you may not be able to get that kind of granularity but i'm
i'm just curious yeah it's it's kind of difficult a little bit difficult to say because under the federal rules and maybe all of this changes you know yeah you don't ask it's a kind of we we cannot ask really any questions and uh but we estimate that a lot of the folks
here are connected with your school corporation and on all levels of uh so many kids know about the sharing place and especially those that come with their parents sometimes these uh little kids are the translators for their
parents and i think you you of course you know about that and so it's u but it's a i i would sometimes like to know but i have to tell you be rest assured there are very few people from fort wayne and other places that are coming common coming there you know even
despite the fact that it's everyone's favorite country yeah um that's really wonderful uh so so thank you for all the work that you do and i just i i think this represents a really um important linkage between the community and our school district and how critical it is
to continue to foster those relationships so thank you for the work that you do thank you and one last thing mr schumacher um since you have the mic and you're on the record what is the sharing place's greatest need for help right now you know the greatest need and
we were able to talk a little bit at the faith meeting a few weeks ago is uh people do you know when we had uh maybe 15 years ago our biggest problem was we didn't never had enough food now we don't have enough people and especially
people that can lift more than 10 or 15 pounds i have to tell you there's sometimes this uh the frozen pork and so on that comes so there is another opportunity to work with each other and get the word out together to people and
i think uh that would be great you know i i i like to put uh a positive on everything if possible we have to watch a little bit what's going on with food on the federal government level because if you come to the sharing place you see
a lot of cans of uh fantasy names and you think what is this for food yeah it comes from the federal government you know tomato and other things you would never see them in stores those brands but so that's something we together with our partner gleaners are watching very
carefully well i can commit that i'll make a bunch of salesforce people come at some point and volunteer you can hold me accountable for that right we'll we'll make sure we have some teams that come and help help out thank you all right so dr smith so for the community to understand how important sharing
places is just a historical context most school corporations don't have this type of partnership we're very blessed as a community to have sharing places uh an unbelievable organization uh housed here in our building and i want to give a little bit of historical context mr
schemacher alluded to it roger smith he was in a very small area on the south side of the building i don't think people understand the context of how much this program has grown and with the partnership of the school corporation we've been able to probably triple his
space and give him more space which has served our community so going back to miss dunn's question excuse me miss um lawrence's question about you know who do they serve i summize that looking at the zip codes the majority of people are lawrence township patrons and we share
zip codes he's got a few westside zip codes that we share with other places these are people in our community and so we're very blessed to have you mr schumacher and thank you and all your volunteers and all the work that you guys do to provide
food and i mean at food for children and families that are in our community and that that makes a difference folks so thank you yeah thank you thank you and a lot of this has to do too with our personal relationships that we were that we were forging over years that we are
so successful i think is there's always a wonderful support from the administration and i think that's uh uh that's very important too that makes this program successful thank you thank you mr schumacher thank you board at this time we will move on to our blue
ribbon facilities update with mr roger smith thank you madam president dr smith members of the board excuse me coming off spring break uh really we took advantage and uh got a lot of work done at all of our sites bells are serving
lines we have three new serving lines in place and we continue to put the cafeteria or the kitchen back together uh demoed the wrestling room and we'll start putting that back together uh orchestra room was demoed and now it
is going back together a lot of hallways were stripped removed of the old flooring and they are working evenings to replace uh fall creek valley uh cafeteria walls they continue to work around the outside
of the cafeteria again the cafe also ceiling work and lighting uh the main gym a lot of work went in there they removed the old uh bleachers and uh now working on the walls and then the
floor site work uh we've had a little some some good weather out there uh so we continue to do site work new lacc the exterior uh the brick twocolor brick is all finished they're
working on some uh uh concrete inserts on the southwest corner again outside work continues interior first floor uh finished work is going on carpets going in ceiling being laid and finishing
network runs the boardroom main lobby uh big space uh coming together still a lot of work to do and again uh the the one on the left is the entryway coming in and then the
one on the right is the balcony looking over the lobby area craig phase two you'll see a lot of lifts and out out and about in the shoot we're prepping and starting phase two on craig and they're doing some tuck point
and uh seal work on the outside and the chute is ready for demo of the second floor a lot of materials have been uh staged at four different buildings uh crest view harrison hill indie creek and sky
test if you recall part of the guaranteed energy savings contract we have with hvac and roof and a lot of roofing material has been staged on the roof for that to start actually at all four buildings this week
thank you mr smith board any questions or comments yeah i do mr smith uh it's always great to see so much progress happening um i did sneak into the band room at ball creek valley recently and got to see all the renovations that are happening there in person and it was
great um question for you about the spring sports um i i know only because i have a baseball player at lawrence north that we have some fall creek valley kids that are coming over um to to utilize the fields there i'm just curious if you
can give us a sense for what what's happening i know that like construction's been delayed in many cases we've had snow and we've had rain and the baseball field at fall creek valley is uh really we just had the
dugouts and the fencing so the field is playable uh the softball field is coming around the grass is is coming along so we expect the season to progress there uh we're waiting some for some warmer weather on tennis it has to be a certain
degree to put that finished coat on the color coat similar to what's out here at lecc so soon as the weather uh warms up we'll get that on and then i'll finish out the is it also happening at belzer i just have okay so we we found alternate
spaces for those students yes we have accommodated their needs yeah the high school i know but we have some over here too i know with the tennis all right very good miss dunn i have just got to tell you i live at
fort ben and watching the lacc come up has been truly incredible to see folks are working there non-stop and just want to commend the wonderful wonderful contracted employees who are working
tirelessly to get that building up and ready for this community and so thank you for your leadership thank you for that board any other questions or comments about our blue ribbon updates okay thank you mr smith at this time we
will move on to our update on the request for bids for crest view elementary at this point madam president dr smith members of the board i want to start off with a little bit of trivia here uh schmiden associates and david uh
davidson associates uh you may not know but they were the first architect and the first contractor working together to start blue ribbon phase two or phase one at crest view elementary so we're
excited to have them back as the architects anna marie burough is here from schmidt and greg edmund with davis and associates who will oversee our project moving forward we received bids on march 27
there were nine bid categories with 17 contractors bids came in at estimated cost uh good competitive bids is a gmp contract for davis and associates for crestview
elementary edition is 5,731,457 total project all in hard cost soft cost is at $7 million later in action items i'll be bringing to the board a recommendation to approve this contract thank you mr
smith board any questions regarding crest view okay thank you for that now we will move on to our um update on the diploma task force recommendations mr noter and mr knik
good evening madam president dr smith members of the board in december of 2024 the state board of ed ruled in favor of a new high school diploma and new graduation requirements that was about a two-year long process going through several drafts that we monitored closely
and we were able then to hit the ground running in january to prepare for this in january we formed a diploma task force and met several times coming to you tonight or to be able to come to you tonight with recommendations we also discussed those recommendations with our lea throughout the process uh just as of
note implementation of the new high school diploma will be for the class of 2029 quick math for you that's current eighth graders so we have to move fast because they just have a couple weeks left of eighth grade before they start high school and as soon as next year current high school students can opt
into a new diploma if they get an honors seal and we'll talk about in a second what that is as i mentioned we convened a diploma task force that consisted of myself mr noter mr harsha and several who are in attendance tonight administrators at the high school and middle school level um
principles assistant principles and department chairs if you were on that diploma task force if you wouldn't mind standing up real quick to be recognized thank you for your hard [Applause] work we had to move fast we appreciate their hard work in moving through that process and now i'm going to turn over
to mr harsha who will go over through the specific diploma changes good evening um when the state board of ed and ide set out to make these changes um one of the things that they were looking for is to provide some of our students some more flexibility particularly as that got up into 11th and 12th grade and
also to allow some intentionality um to make sure their high school experience is directly preparing them for what they're going to do after high school so on these um next couple slides you can see on the left side we've got a list of what our current core 40 indiana requirements are and then on the column
on the right you can see in blue um the future diploma um and we've just highlighted a couple of the changes in red i'm not going to read through each of them but um you can see there um there is a requirement for a communications focused course um in the
second line there you can see personal finance is a new requirement um in science there is a computer science requirement um and then you can see also um in social studies there was a change there um from six credits down to five
on the next slide um you can see also one fewer credit required in pe and then you can see they've also taken the directed electives and personalized electives which was 11 and they've just sort of combined those to allow again some flexibility for students in their
choices of electives um and then also they've added the one credit for preparing for college and careers then um the state created with some feedback uh created some um readiness seals and those cover the
three e enrollment employment and enlistment um students can opt into one or more of these honor seals um and you can see there as you read through the the difference there um different
requirements for each one depending on what students are um pursuing as goals after high school and then lastly on the next slide there are also honors plus seals and so in addition to the seals
that were listed on the previous slide students who um meet some of these additional conditions particularly around work-based learning experiences can actually earn the honors plus seal in enrollment employment or enlistment
good evening we're bringing to you several recommendations and these recommendations are really at the 30,000 foot view um there'll be many uh changes and recommendations that happen at the building level and then some that will come through our curricular advisory council as well but these are the big
picture recommendations that we'll be seeking board approval for on the left hand side of this slide you can see our current reality and then we've matched that to the recommendation that we're seeking and so the first one is currently our default diploma if you
will is the core 40 with a preference toward an academic honors diploma and so we're recommending for the future that the default diploma be the 42 credit readiness honors seal in either enrollment employment or enlistment so
really seeking to get that readiness seal uh honor seal for our students on the next line um you can you can see that um we do currently require two fine arts credits to earn the academic honors diploma and so you know our district is
very committed to the arts and so we're recommending that we continue um that requirement in two of the 12 personalized electives be fine arts credit for the enrollment honors and honors plus seals and that's currently equivalent to the academic honors
diploma requirement the last big picture recommendation that we're bringing um currently our principles can grant pe waiverss for students based on participation in particular activities so for example if
a students in marching band show choir dance or on an athletic team they can receive their pe credit we're recommending to continue that practice and even expand it and so an example of an expansion might be a student who um
participates on the speech and debate team being able to earn the communications credit so continuing that practice of looking at demonstrated mastery of those standards in other ways we also have recommendations for
the middle school um and the first one is to enroll all eighth grade students in the required computer science and prepare preparing for college and career courses so these are two courses that are required for graduation uh the recommendation is to use one of the
electives at the middle school level for students to complete those requirements in 8th grade now recognizing that that takes one of the students electives we're recommending that we explore the possibility of combining for dual language students combining spanish
language arts and english language arts into one bilingual space uh to allow dual language students to have two electives so this would be an option for students and families to choose and then the last recommendation for the middle school uh related to the number of
electives is that parents and students may request a course deferment for an eighth grade student um and elected elect to take computer science and preparing for college and career in high school and that would allow them to maintain their three middle school electives like we have
now be happy to entertain any questions or discussion thank you mr noter and mr knik this is great thank you to everyone who worked on this um board are there any questions miss lawrence i do uh because this was
hot on the lips of our seventh grade student soon to be eighth grade student um as it relates to the middle school requirements was not a i'm happy to see that we're preserving the opportunity for our um immersion students to um to
have more electives um it was difficult to understand that um our families wanted kids to have those enrichment activities so i'm excited to see that as a recommendation on the deferment piece um is the expectation then that they
would take those courses in high school once they okay so they could still elect to um to to opt out of it for now in the in the eighth grade and then defer it to high school where it may fit in within their schedule yes does that have any
implication for their gpa in terms of like how how that gets factored in or are the classes they're taking in eighth grade still counted toward their high school gpa how does that work yeah it would not it wouldn't have any impact on their overall cumulative gpa it would on
the yearly gpa but the overall final gpa it all would get be they can take a class in eighth grade and still counts on their high school transcript and their high school gpa got it so if we were trying to like if a student wanted to take a weighted class for example in high school the recommendation might not
be to have the deferment in middle school if they wanted to keep their high school transcript with the weighted class student and what they have available in their schedule considering summer options and things like that absolutely did you miss dun i have several questions first of all thank you this is
a brand new world that we are embarking on with this diploma for sure as i have been navigating it myself i just i do have a few questions i think the the first question is is that i appreciate
how we are on slide eight talking about the default diploma should be the 42 credit readiness honor seal in enrollment um employment or enlistment how are we going to communicate to families and to students this so that we
don't my fear is is that we're going to go back to tracking students into from the time they're in 8th grade tracking them into a path and so how are we going to communicate this is how are we going to ensure that we are providing students
an option if they want to switch from for example enlistment to enrollment that we are giving them all of those opportunities and that communication will begin in 8th grade just like we do now but i'll just give you an example of a recommendation that came out of our
math department um the recommendation and this would be enacted at the building level is that all students for their math sequence take algebra and geometry even though that isn't required by the new diploma but it keeps them on track for the enrollment uh seal if
that's the direction that they want to go or they can easily switch in their junior year to an employment seal or an enlistment seal so it just gives more options for students by keeping them in that traditional math sequence for an extra year that is wonderful and how do
we plan on communicating to our families who have an english or who have a preferred language other than english because this is it us schools are challenging to begin with right let alone um adding all of these complexities so what is the plan to
communicate to our families whose preferred language is not english yeah and we'll translate all of our materials just like we have with our current materials and be able to provide through our district family liaison direct one-on-one support if families need that is there a plan because i i would think
that we might want to engage with families in a broader scope could we potentially think about family engagement evenings or something of that nature awesome absolutely um then one other thing that or i've got a couple of others um so you had talked about the
waiver on slide eight i'm assuming that that is still um approved by idoe that those have to be go through the indiana department of education correct um english credit i know um that there are options beyond english 9 could you share
a little bit because the current trajectory is english 10 112 obviously um one of the things i loved about my personal this is years and years ago decades ago is that i was able to choose things like other voices in specific
english courses that i was interested in there were other things like um graphic novels comic books things of that nature so are we going to move towards as a district having um specific interest in english or are we going to continue down
like a pathway of traditional english 10 112 i think it's yes an okay i think it's both and those type of recommendations would come to you as a board um because you approve all curricular courses through our curricular advisory council so as our
teachers and our department chairs really begin to grapple with the type of courses that would be offered particularly to upper level students that'll come through curricular advisory and one other thing i was at a dual
language networking event on friday and one of the things that i learned is that worksplace spanish 2136 um will be um counted as a communications course and so just want to make sure that we are thinking about again obviously this district always
thinks about dual language was the top topic of conversation is what great work lawrence does um so i know that it's already top of mind but yes just thinking about how we can make sure that we're thinking through all of those options for those kids absolutely and
you'll see that in our next presentation outstanding thank you for all of your hard work it's very exciting to see this mr noter i do have a follow-up question to what miss dum was asking um you mentioned debate as being a potential for um fulfilling the comm's requirement
um will we have a list of all of the one for ons that could happen um just as i think about myself as a parent who's planning um ahead for their students how can we encourage extracurriculars that might be a a different way to free up
their schedules or or things of that nature yes absolutely thank you um board yes dr mahalland i was curious um as situations that you might expect where parents or the students are going to request the course
deferment um yeah what have there been some thoughts about what might be you know the reason where where they want to defer example might be um an eighth grader who wants to take um first year of a world language so spanish or or
french um they also are in the jazz band and they um that's a course that that they have or um another type of of performing art and they want to take project lead the way because they're really passionate about the engineering
pathway that they might go into as in high school so it would really be individualized for each student but particularly students who are interested in world language and performing arts that tends to fill their schedules that was my question i was kind of wondering if it was going to be a performing arts
sort of a you know question but thank you that's helpful miss pucket did you have a question on the diploma right the state level is referring to not the model attendee rate which i think is what you're referring to but they're referring more to excused versus
unexcused absences and how many unexcused absences a student might have in terms of qualifying for that would we'd be able to set that and work work with the definition per the new diploma to see how that would fit into we have a lot more flexibility at the school level determine what's excused versus unexcused
sure and and we're just in the preliminary phases of envisioning what this could look like but it would be an option for our dual language students who still want to have two electives so um right now spanish language arts takes one of their their electives and so it
would be a bilingual space um co-taught by a dual language teacher as well as a an english teacher and so they would create and use the same standards and it would be a 50/50 type of language allocation model question okay one
followup and i think i'm done maybe um proficiency will that affect or how would that for our like non for let me finish processing this out because i'm stuff is coming to me as we're um talking along i'm going to put a lipstick on that hold on
miss lawrence yeah i have a follow-up question related to the fine arts requirements or the proposed requirements um first you guys all know i'm a band nerd and it makes me really happy to see those requirements suggested in there um will if a student
um were to participate in fine arts in middle school but but elect not to in high school would those count toward those requirements in the same way that that uh you know taking um taking one of
the other courses that they could at middle school the computer proficiency for example would that count toward our proposed requirements it would depend on if it was a high school course or not so currently i don't think we have any middle school classes that are actually high school courses in the fine arts area so if we were to do that we have to
bring that through curriculum advisory council and bring that back to the board fair thank you yes dr mholland um on the high school recommendations um it says the default diploma should be the 42 credit readiness um in honor seal and
enrollment employment or enlistment so how does that work with the or so students would choose one so that they would either go for they'd go for an honor seal but it either would be the enrollment requirements the employment requirements or the enlistment
requirements there three different sets of requirements so the default is to choose one of the three choose one of the three all right just want to make sure thanks then miss pucket did you have your post okay um i think i have it now okay how would combining the spanish
language arts and the english language arts into one course impact the language proficiency for our dual lang for our dual language students since we are combining it into one sure um it could potentially impact um the development of
the second language um i think that would be a student by student conversation that we would want to have and counsel based on the proficiency that students bringing in and whether it's english proficiency that we're really working on or it's spanish proficiency that we're working on thank
you for that is the assumption that the students who would participate in that course be part of the immersion program or to miss pucket's point i think the point that you're making was it could be a native spanish speaker or yeah it would be an
expectation they're in the dual language program okay the dual so not a new um a new student who's coming in correct and i i guess i am i'm con i'm just a
question how logistically do you combine those two into one course because usually a dual language course is you're working on the target language so how would you go about having a course where spanish and english are
both being taught simultaneously and how is that considered dual language and that's what we would need to work through um there are models that are out there across the country of bilingual spaces and um some of our our um educators who attended lacoscha last
fall were able to go to a school that had a bilingual space and so we would be working through the logistics once we receive approval to do so so is that something that we might pause on until we get the logistics or is this something that we have to approve because i research as far as i'm
concerned or as far as i've seen is that having both spanish and english in one course and giving two electives i've not seen that done across the state so i just i guess i'm wondering where is that happening in the state that's across the country it's not happening in the state
we'd be the first in the state of indiana so can we as you said we're leaders in dual lang you are we are we are we are no not not at all in fact we've had models at our high schools where we've combined uh social studies and and an english course but it's all been a
humanities course exactly right where you're covering both those standards i guess the purpose of dual language though is to ensure that you are promoting the target language so i guess i'm just curious as to how that would work out to be clear there this would be
one option so our traditional programming would still be in place but if there's a student and a family who have to decide between taking two electives a or staying in the dual language program and receiving some spanish language arts instruction this
would be an option for them so this wouldn't be for every student i just had two quick questions so just to make sure i'm understanding it correctly there is a lot of flexibility to move between the seals so say you're a student that's in the enrollment
pathway but you decide you want to go into military service it's a fairly easy transition to the other seal correct and then uh oh yeah go ahead i don't know about easy just because of the
requirements for work-based learning those are significantly higher in the enrollment or in in the employment pathway than they are in the others and so um that would be a decision that uh you know schools would work with individual students on the timing of
that um but the workbased learning is significant with the the new diploma requirements i i think i used the wrong term or term i'm thinking um it's not 100% set in stone it's start in one that's right it's never too late that's right it's not 100% set in stone thank
you for that and then finally um we've had a lot of great questions i'm sure other parents will have questions um now that this is being rolled out who would you direct them to would it be their building principal or the guidance counselors at their child's secondary
school um who do we recommend yes the the counselors okay school counselors okay yes i do have a couple of more questions so one of the things with employment as we were talking about is that we would have to have an approved
career preparation experience aligned to indiana's csa program so are we where are we right now in the process of creating those opportunities because i do think once we get into as you guys alluded to 9th and 10th grade is kind of
paving the way 11th and 12th is really when it becomes kind of set in stone and so do we have those partnership in that um process already or is that something that we can expect more information forthcoming yes an uh we need both we we
currently have partners that are in our network um but we definitely need more partners and i this rhetorical question and the reason i asked that is because we know that currently um there is a lot of legislation that is underway that is
potentially cutting funding just to go on the record is it going to cost the district more to be able to transport students to these various opportunities than it currently does now
yes thank you thank you oh yes dr mahind so um i just appreciate this this discussion um and as i'm looking up at the framework um i feel like this is a little bit of a silly question but i noticed that the attendance goal is on two of the three
and so i guess i have two questions are we going to present this as is are we going to kind of make our own framework you know with this information here do we have that ability and second are there any unintended consequences or any things to be aware of when we don't put
that attendance goal for each one of them because i think we really want to hold our students to high expectations and similar expectations so the slide on the screen as well as the other three slides that mr harsha went through those are from the diploma that the state approved so that's been that's done
that's a done deal finalized by the state in terms of the state diploma our recommendations both on the high school recommendation page and the middle school recommendation page where what we're recommending for lawrence township to go above and beyond what the state's requiring so that's the state minimum in terms of those and then we have the other requirements that we're
recommending right thank you and so to my first question i think there's an opportunity then to and how we share that right because if i'm a parent looking at those three lists um from the state it could be a little confusing if i can see something from lawrence township that's more clear and i think
that will be very helpful we've been through this before board um i've sat here and this is probably mr not mr gnik the fourth change in graduation requirements over 12 years so we've gotten a very high
graduation rate because we've done a very good job of communicating the changes and the team will go to work immediately as soon as you approve it board we'll go to work immediately thank you for that and we will leave you
that rolls into our next um item on the agenda for curriculum advisory committee recommendations mr noter thank you madame president members of the board and dr smith each semester we bring to you recommendations from our curriculum
advisory council and mr harshshire director of secondary education facilitates that council and we'll bring the recommendations this evening good evening uh as you can see there just as a reminder uh we do meet as a curriculum advisory council twice a
year once in the fall and once in the spring um those uh proposals are taken here and um we as you can see there in the third bullet point um that group is made up of building level and district level administrators counselors teachers department
chairs uh the council ensures that all recommendations are on indiana's list the state does give us a list of approved courses which of course we need to uh follow um as we continue to build our pathways um we're paying close attention to those and then just as a reminder anything we would um bring to
you for approval this spring could be implemented as soon as the fall of 2526 so the first uh course is actually related to the slides that we were just talking about um our curriculum advisory council would like to add offering
course 7218 technical math to our course offerings this would meet the graduation requirement for math um it is a focus on mathematical reasoning in realworld skills and problem solving in things such as fabrication manufacturing and
business um it includes a lot of hands-on work and projects and real world application um which our committee felt very strongly would be a great option for students all students particularly students who might be employing that or uh excuse me pursuing
that employment seal um as an alternative possibly to algebra 2 on the next slide you'll see we do have one elective course recommendation that was mentioned earlier today and that's our 2136 workplace spanish so just as
clarification 2136 has been board approved and we are using that course here in msdlt um our committee felt strongly that we have some students who are um proficient in their written and oral language also
in um asl and in uh french and so the recommendation is right now the state only offers workplace spanish and although we could just use that course code for some of those students um we want to make sure that their transcript reflects the language that they are
utilizing and so right now in the state that process would involve um filling out a course waiver proposal through the doe um to offer workplace french and workplace sp uh asl on the third slide you can see we do
have one recommendation for a weight adjustment um back in the fall of 2020 the board approved a full weight for some of our other advanced um performing arts courses um and at the time we were just beginning to develop that advanced jazz jazz ensemble course um so the
recommendation from the committee is that we um make that match the other similar courses that have those high levels of literature study and um college level work to have an additional weight as well then on the last two slides i really just wanted to or three slides i
wanted to just highlight um our continual growth in dual credit we've been working hard to continue to grow um the opportunities that we have for students to take dual credit courses and we have a um fantastic partnership that we have begun with indiana state university um right now we've got
courses lined up for our students that are in the early childhood education and education professions pathways um it has been a a great start to that partnership and as you can see there 10 new dual credit courses um will be available to students in msdlt as a result um on the
next two slides you can see on the left side i've just listed the courses that have already been approved those are state courses that the board has already approved that we offer and then on the right is the corresponding indiana state course that our students now have access to and that's again for our early
childhood and then on the next slide you can see ed professions i'd be happy to entertain any questions all right thank you board questions i i actually have a point of clarification and dr smith this may be
better addressed to you but i i think i think the general public doesn't quite understand how curriculum and courses are proposed and how it works through the system um there's a lot of misperception i think in the media and
um and in the general populace so i wonder if you could just give us a quick primer on on how classes get to our students and what that what that involves apologies mr notary that's okay the the numbers come from the department of
education um and so those are the the courses that our uh teachers and department chairman and administrators have to choose from they then recommend to the curriculum advisory council um there's discussion at the curriculum advisory council pros and cons and
determination of whether they want to bring that forward to the board for approval and so once it um comes through the curricular advisory council then uh like this evening mr harsha brings those recommendations to you and asks for your
approval to add those courses to our offerings in lawrence township and those courses are the indiana department of education approved through the indiana department of education um and uh any of the courses that are done at the collegiate level like we saw from
indiana state um indiana state university that those would also be already approved through the department of educ indiana's department of education correct those courses would be approved through the university and they would be aligned to a course that's
approved through the department of education yes thank you that's done first of all i um just want to say that again leading the way with workplace french and asl is very very
very exciting i'm assuming that that would also if they were approved would um be allowed for the communication um aspect of the diploma so that they would apply for both the communication and um
aspect i don't know why i'm struggling with the word i'm trying to find way well but communications is a part of the mandated right and so those would be acceptable courses for those two yes and then how long will we know until we find
out if we are approved for those courses does it take like how long it takes i'm not certain about the turnaround time um but i know um but we're pretty confident that we would be able to offer them in the 2526 school year yes that
would be the goal well and mr harsha you have already contacted the state about our desire to do this and this was the process that you were recommended to follow excellent excellent um the other thing real quickly because i think that it is amazing that we're able to offer so many dual credit options it's a way
for students to get a leg up obviously in college are those are the isu credits i know ivytechs are transferable to other um indiana institutions is it the same with isu yes and um i put a point there at the bottom that i didn't speak
to but um obviously those will transfer directly to if one of those at isu if our students wanted to go in into those pathways there but um i know isu mentioned that they absolutely are transferable to indiana university and i didn't ask about every other university but i know they did mention that during
our conversation but the assumption would be that and i know the answer to this but just for our families um what is the cost for those dual credit courses zero dollars yes indeed thank you very much yes thank you yes it is c can i get an
amen from everybody who has students that are coming through this district and looking looking to pay for college and i had a comment about it too it's encouraging to see that partnership to um for ease of entry for our future
teaching workforce yes yes um board any other questions question uh yes how would i move forward as a parent if i'm wanting to submit a non-standard course waiver is that something i would go through a counselor i can do on my own that is a a process
that is done by the school district so we will do that on behalf of our students to be able to offer those courses we are making we are making a request okay so the student account oh you would do it okay yes gotcha gotcha all right thank you mhand
i i just have more of a comment that i'm just excited that we're going to be able to expose students to the career of teaching uh the education professions um while they're in high school and um selfishly i have to say i'm very excited that you'll have the advanced jazz ensemble as a a to jazz band at lawrence
north and i know we would have loved that so thank you um and also the uh workplace asl just want to commend all of you for your great work you thank you board any other questions regarding that if not we will move on to
curriculum updates for pe and health uh recommendations mr noter thank you madam president members of the board and dr smith and this is the year for our program review for physical education and health and i do want to recognize those that are in the audience that have
participated on the committees i know we've got uh two elementary teachers that are with us this evening as well as our high school department chairman if you'd stand and be recognized please thank you for your [Applause] service this evening our director of
elementary education mrs schneider will update you on the elementary recommendations and then mr harsha will come back for the secondary recommendations thank you mr noter so we'll start with the review process so um pe curriculum
was last reviewed in 2019 um in our review process all of our elementary pe teachers were invited to participate in the review committee um the review committee met monthly from september through march um we reviewed the current
curriculum the and the equipment um assessing the alignment with our goals and the standards um we explored lots of resources that would complement and support the goals that they had for the year and then for the members were able
to attend the inshape pe conference to um learn what's new with in the world of pe so from that um came some recommendations in place of a written curricular resource the review committee
determined that equipment would best meet their needs at this time because at this time they are using free and open curricular resources um for pe um they had three recommendations for equipment they are wanting a gaga pit for every
school um the omnic i see you guys uh raising your hands everybody knows about gaga the omni sixpack of balls and the omnikin 48 inch ball and that's actually a kinball which is um there's a whole
sport around this um and also the third recommendation was the speed stacks uh 30 pack and then the jumbo stacks so i'll kind of go into each one of those so the um for the gaga pits we're recommending nine pits um because we
have uh nine schools in need of them this is appropriate for k through six um it's it promotes exercise physical activity social skills and learning through play addresses almost every standard when i went through and looked at them i couldn't believe how many
different standards it would address um they are portable and they can be configured also for multiple activities and they are also designed for indoor and outdoor use and there's a little picture for you for those of you that are visual like me um also the second
recommendation was the omni um they're looking to um the omni six we need eight sets um sunny set actually already has a set so we're trying to level that out and make sure all of the schools have a set um and the kinballs um we need seven
of those because two schools already have a set and are using them um again appropriate for k through six they can be used for a lot of different things a lot of different games and activities um they promote motor skill development defending open space communication
cooperation um challenges physical literacy and then fostering those positive social interactions and then that third recommendation is the speed stacks um we're looking at the speed stacks the 30 sport pack for six schools because we
have three schools that already have them and then the um speed stacks jumbo pack for six of the schools because we also have three that have those as well um again appropriate for k through six um it's great for fitness agility concentration quickness um it's also
really good for hand to eye coordination cross body movements a lot of brain development muscle memory all of the above those are our three recommendations i'm going to turn it over to mr harsha to talk about secondary recommendations
good evening again uh likewise the last secondary health and pe review process took place in 2019 so we pulled together uh teachers and department chairs building administrators and even um student and parent from um our campuses you can see belle fall creek ln and lc
were all involved um we had a number of group meetings and i tried to bullet there kind of our process we first started off with creating a vision what is it that we really want in health and pe for our secondary students um we took some time to explore what we're currently doing how our programming is
currently working we had some shared experiences we sent some uh folks to some conferences had a few group meetings we also piloted uh a number of different curricular resources at our building so that our teachers could really dig in and and explore them and then we met um to finalize those
recommendations on the next slide you can see um just a a a rundown of our a summary of our vision um our teachers were very adamant that uh we in health we wanted to make sure that we were really focusing on um healthy versus
unhealthy lifestyle and choices of our students um our teens um focusing on the whole student um and of course making sure that we have relevant updated resources because they were feeling that our resources we were using were a little bit outdated so that was good to
hear that we're moving forward on the next slide you can see in pe um same thing focus on healthy healthy activity and lifestyle not just games and sports and their rules um and there was a real big push from this group about making sure that our curriculum um represented
a diverse um the diverse cultures in which we serve and a variety of games and sports not just um the ones that maybe are typically done um particularly in indiana in pe so uh on the next slide you can see our recommendations for
grades 7 through 12 in physical education at our middle schools they would like to recommend um spark digital curriculum and um some of the supplies that will come as a result of some of the new activities that they would be doing with those and then for our high
school um the recommendation came for ref reps and i'll talk about that uh in two slides on the next slide you can see for sparkcc very tight connection from that curriculum to the indiana standards for um middle school um very inclusive
activities um the the curriculum is designed that way uh longstanding organization with a lot of research-based programming um and it was really the favorite from our um pilots on the next slide you can see a little bit about refs our high schools were
very excited about this this course will allow our high school students to earn a pe credit meanwhile having the opportunity to be certified in up to three different sports in which they would then be um certified to go and
referee and so great opportunity for kids to learn about different sports but also be able to go and um serve back in our community maybe um refereeing some youth sports games or go out and um get a job and make some money doing so so we
were really excited with that option for uh ref reps and our goal would be um next year that we would start with one section in the fall one section in the spring at both of our high schools in health both our middle schools and high schools after uh
exploring both chose health smart um i'm excited that our middle school and high school students will be using the same curriculum that will be really good for our transitions for our students and also for our teachers to be able to work together and on the very last slide i just had a rationale there about that
curriculum again tight mapping to the indiana standards um very comprehensive resources for our teachers uh a lot of uh information that was available in multiple languages which was important for our folks um a lot of built-in group
and partner work um which we know aligns tightly with our instructional framework of getting students to process and and work together in teams um and again just a a really relevant curriculum that had updated videos and slides and high quality materials that our teachers
really felt would be engaging for our kids and i think that's it thank you you have any questions for natalie or for me we'd be happy to take them at this time yes miss lawrence a couple of quick questions um the gaga pit which um as we
know is the great unifier across cultures languages uh etc um the ones that you featured here are portable i don't know if as we're updating some of our and maybe mr smith this is more a question for you as we're updating some of our elementary schools
if we have plans to add a gaga pit in and then would we then not get put that gaga pit resource at that school yes three schools were renovating as we speak uh we'll have uh new playgrounds
and gaga pit each of those and are we supplying shout wipes to all of the families that have to then take care of the clothing because i had plenty of gaga pit related stains in my life um the refere uh the refrep curriculum which i think is really amazing um are
we going to reach out to any of the like pride and o who are always looking for referees as a resource for some of our students yeah i'm certain that our um our community partners would be thrilled to know that a lot of our high schoolers
are going to be certified and able to do that um i'm pretty certain that our coaches and our athletic directors and i'm sure dr nesbbit and all of his work will let know let uh all of them know that we've we're going to have quite a few students that are going to be ready to earn a few dollars
very good other questions miss dunn so first of all absolutely incredible that we are offering that opportunity for our students to become refs because obviously with physical education many of our students by the time they reach
high school are taking that credit prior to and so just brilliant brilliant brilliant so kudos to those of you on that committee that have worked to do that um just a few questions um you're talking about gaga pits and other things
and updating uh pe equipment how are we updating pe equipment throughout the years when it's not a um curriculum adoption so i know there are things like nets balls cones i mean there are so many things that go into that that i
would hate to think that our physical education teachers are only getting these resources um every since i mean it's been six years since 2019 so what is the process to update those resources mr miles roger smith you can chime in on that to help them out how how do we
handle this we have two ways so board when you're approving the projects there's in the detail a lot of loose equipment and also mr miles when we approve geo bonds for very specific equipment needs that we have in the district you you will find that okay so
do so is that uh like does the school get that is the district purchasing that like how is that process occurring because overseeing physical education in ips i know that has been a huge huge huge bone of contention for our physical
education teachers is that a lot of times it's given to the principal to be able to purchase urch those things and sometimes if the principal really um values the physical education they'll purchase those things whereas we did a a huge refresh to make sure there was a
level playing field no pun intended um or maybe there was um to ensure all kids had the appropriate materials we work with the buildings to assist them in the purchases uh getting their input and their recommendations so what
needs to be purchased and then uh we fill out the process for them great thank you and when is swimming being offered for our students because i know that with the number of refugee and immigrant students swimming is something that many of our students are not
familiar with and is one of the leading causes of death for the demographic and given our demographic of students uh how are we ensuring that swimming is being taught i know that's being offered at the high schools but it's not mandatory for
students anymore we also have a plan moving forward for our fourth graders to participate in um exploration around swimming at our high schools so putting our two uh beautiful high school pools and to use for our fourth graders i would hope that we
would do that as well as meet the needs of the dynamic community that we serve absolutely oh absolutely and you have an advantage because you have two wonderful pools dr grant nesb and then we have the swim club and but pay attention to fourth grade swimming coming to a
theater near you that's something that we wanted to have earlier the better that is absolutely fabulous news and then just two other questions adapted pe we didn't hear anything about our special needs students and how they are engaging in physical education
mrs meer um our students do participate in a variety of ways uh many times our classroom teachers are in there working with the students as well as with the pe teacher some of it depends on the ability of the child but then we've also been blessed enough to have our children
go to the high school and also swim and participate in that way as well um where we also have our physical therapists who are involved in that process and also give um ideas and thoughts and processes on how to work with the students in the different activities but are we purchasing any specific um adaptive pe
equipment for our special needs students if there is adaptive equipment needed we do purchase that um again depending on what the activity is and things like that we work closely with you know mr smith and then the teachers on what is needed but it's not something that's across the board that all of our stu schools have in order to meet the
dynamic needs of our special needs students i would say the majority of our stu um schools do get what they do need not all of our schools contain classrooms that are life skills and things of that nature so it is dependent upon that okay um because i know that that is something that is um there's
just so many different resources for our students that are special needs and we just want to make sure and then we did not talk about prek so our material is being purchased for our prek students well i just want to make sure all kids get physical education and health the
prek students aren't a part of this adoption but we purchase materials separately for the big playroom because big playroom oh yes we have we have tricycles and scooters and yeah
dr mahaland i think most of my questions been asked but um just appreciate the focus and how much i learned from you know learning about the physical literacy that you mentioned and how much this connects just the whole child and being in indianapolis where
sports the amateur sports capital i think it's just going to open up even more interests um so it's it's wonderful and i love mart lawrence's question about you know connecting to community partners so very excited to see what will happen mr smith i love history my board has
asked questions and when we renovated elementaryaries i can remember some of the elementary school old gyms because i've been here a long time sorry board i've been with you for a while they were old when i think of crest view and i think of scal test i see miss whitaker sitting over there she had a gym right
out of hoosiers and when we redid the gyms and the equipment for them we i mean we just completely transformed them we've come a long way as a school corporation uh with the facilities so board i want you to kind of think when we think of equipment
when we renovate buildings we really go after those big things but those loose equipment things that the schools need those things come up through curriculum they come up through my office and on to mr smith and uh matt miles there i don't think there's anything that we've ever
turned down that our schools need when it comes to physical education or programming so we've been very blessed we also have some wonderful groups we've talked about swimming the lawrence township swim club is outside of us but a part of us and it's massive they have
grown their membership to encompass both swimming pools right now dr nesbet and they are bringing in numbers like they've never had before so we're really proud of that so if someone in the community wants to learn how to swim we have that option uh we have the pool set
up to accommodate that now and it's happening okay so really proud thank you so just out of curiosity with that are those options free for members of the community and how are those communicated especially to our families that are not
that is i have never seen an issue with a family who couldn't afford something that it's not taken care of in this community there are ways to make things happen that's done and in lawrence township it will happen including our swim club that raises money just for
that need am i correct dr nz go ahead yeah just to answer that question i had that conversation earlier today um the uh talking about funding with the aquatics director um he he said they need to raise some more money because they are being overwhelmed with students
coming out for swimming and they do have a the lawrence swim does have a policy if you're on free reduced lunch with the school then you do get a drastically reduced rate and as dr smith indicated they are going to turn it away we we want to get every kid in the pool we can and so that's good news so they're
working on funding for it and some new uh ways to bring money in but but it's good news we have a lot of kids using those new pools i um as i think i've shared with you all i had a student who in kindergarten between her kindergarten and first grade year was a refugee student from the democratic republic of
the congo and she um drowned and so if i seem a little um passionate about this subject it is because fabola today still leaves a resounding um impact on me as um as a teacher um as her teacher and so
i just want to make sure that as a district not only are we offering that but we're communicating it to our most vulnerable families so that no family no mother um like fabola's mother ever has to experience the death of a child because they cannot swim so thank you for the i'm sure we'll give a i'm sure
we'll give a report uh in coming time but starting next year operation water safety will have every elementary student in lawrence township uh through fourth grade will will get in that pool and learn how to if they get in how to get out wonderful
yes thank you for those questions yep does anyone else have any other questions or comments so this is great we're learning about grow your own for teachers and referees and um safety and swimming now we'll move on to our last
curriculum update for computer science recommendations thank you madame president dr smith and members of the board we are bringing to you um an opportunity to learn about computer science this evening and i do want to recognize elise bonds who's in the audience this evening and her leadership
in this work so thank you mrs bonds uh background information uh we last reviewed computer science in 2019 and as follows all of our other processes we brought a committee of district leaders administrators and teachers together to
um land on the recommendations you're about to hear this evening as we look at the program review process there's just a a couple pieces that i really want to highlight for you um the first is our process of engaging in shared experiences we do that for every program
review and that includes professional development it includes lots of discussion um and attendance at conferences we also pilot resources um and computer science is no different you can see the schools elementary schools middle schools and mckenzie uh where we
piloted computer science resources um and we collaborate with outside districts and we do that for each of our program reviews to come to final consensus on recommendations so the goals for our k12 computer science uh first and we've already
talked about this one this evening is the requirement the graduation requirement for all students and that course is called computing foundations for a digital age so we needed a curriculum to match the standards for that course um we also want to create a
progressive pipeline that's k12 so that our students can see where they can progress um as they go through computer science in our district um we also wanted to incorporate real world applications and collaboration and problem solving those real skills that
students need in the workplace and then of course increasing overall student engagement in computer science so the recommendation for k6 for our kindergarten through sixth grade is called skillstruck computer science um
and there's six different aspects to skill struck that really resonated with our teachers who piloted it so problem solving critical thinking the integration of technology the design and engineering process that's integrated
into it inquiry based learning so really having students investigate um and and not just uh do algorithms all the time that collaboration that's already been mentioned this evening in another uh program review really matches our
instructional framework where we have students collaborating on a daily basis and then the skills of data analysis that was really important to our committee as well as we move on to our 7 through 12 recommendations seven and 8 and remember 8th grade is where the
we're recommending that the computing foundations for a digital age that graduation requirement be held um we're recommending a pilot of the project lead the way computer science foundation course um so as this new course was announced and the standards um were uh
released then project lead the way released a course that matches those standards and so we want to pilot it for one year because it came out too late for our teachers to pilot it this year so we want to pilot that for next year because it does appear to be a close alignment with the the standards for
that particular course and then in grades 9 through 12 you can see the three courses um there uh on the left hand side and the recommendation from our high school teachers is to adopt skill struck computer science for 2526 because it best aligns to our industry
certifications our advanced course offerings and of course those real world skills that i mentioned for our elementary as part of our computer science uh review process we also reviewed ai um
and feel like it's important to bring forward a recommendation around a district-wide pilot for ai for next school year and so um this group of teachers evaluated multiple ai solutions um and they narrowed down to chat for
schools and school ai um we engaged with other districts uh traveled around the state to see uh what we could learn from other districts and then our e coaches piloted both chat for schools and school ai this semester to assess the impact on
student engagement what personalized instruction might look like and to support teachers in their workflow so that our teachers could be more efficient and have more time to focus on students so the recommendation that they landed on uh for the entire district
would be to pilot school ai for next year um and really the rationale for that is the student support and that personalization um and the interaction with the ai tool um improving teacher efficiency school ai really is built around supporting teachers as their
lesson planning and then future readiness as well as ai literacy be happy to entertain any questions at this time thank you mr noter board any questions on the computer science do these courses also include um
information on digital literacy and readiness and digital citizenship absolutely okay that's embedded in in all the curriculum and uh if and maybe this is something you can dig into more offline because i'm deeply uh interested
in the ai curriculum um especially given the fact that that um that that world is moving so rapidly and we just uh this month reached agi which many of you may or may not know is kind of the threshold for uh the difference between humans and
computers so that line is getting increasingly blurry and i would love to know more about that curriculum so if there are materials just not as a but out of curiosity absolutely happy happy to share those
just i was just going to ask about the process you mentioned the the pilot um from like a cost or uh support how much is the vendor involved in that pilot or is that more independent with the district and i'm you know kind of a newbie question curious our goal is
always to have free pilots we we never want to pay for pilots and so uh it didn't cost anything and the vendor both vendors for the ai pilot as well as our vendors for uh computer science are very invested in the success of the pilot
because then that turns into an adoption that then generates revenue for them but we always we always do free pilots okay great thank you yeah thanks just i had just one comment and that is again like dual language lawrence township is leading the way
with ai i know so many of our districts surrounding us are fearful of the tool that this offers our students and so as an educator knowing that we are going to provide a tool that is going to save our
educators time and allow them more opportunities to be in front of kids i just applaud the efforts of this um cabinet so thank you for your leadership you any other questions or comments board i know we've had a a heavy night
of curriculum thank you so we appreciate everyone who served on all the teams i know this is a multimonth process and just to tie it into the work we do as a board if anyone's interested it is in our board policy adoption of courses of study in board policy 2220 which says
the school board shall provide a comprehensive instructional program to serve the educational needs of the students of this corporation in furtherance of this goal and persuant to law the board shall periodically adopt courses of study and that's what part of what we are doing at this time so thank
you to your team and everybody who is involved at this time we'll move on to our two action items the first one up is mr roger smith approval of the bids on crest view elementary thank you madam president dr smith members of the board
i recommend the board approve the gmp contract to davis and associates for crest view elementary as presented so moved second properly moved miss pucket and seconded miss lawrence um
board any questions or comments before we go to a vote all right we'll go to a vote all in favor i i none opposed all right thank you mr smith now we will move on to 3.02 approval of the personnel report miss
carla johnson greetings madame president dr smith and members of the board we request approval of the personnel report so moved second properly moved miss lawrence and seconded miss dunn any questions or comments on the personnel
report board all right at this time we will move to a vote all in favor i i none opposed all right the personnel report has been approved at this time we will move on to our administrator and board comments would anyone like to
volunteer to go first i know it's been a while since we've been here we have been busy and traveling spring break everything anybody i know we've had a heavy night yes dr mahalland i'll just start and say again i'm very
excited to see the computer science um curriculum updates and the um standards shared with us today i think um we also talked about the different pathways and what i love uh and appreciate about computer science is it is focused on skills and preparing um students for
high demand careers high wage and um you know workplace play workforce development college it it just meets everyone and i i'm i'm grateful that we are putting such a a focus on that and um you know we know that our our students need those collaboration skills
um problem solving uh the data analysis i love so i'm very excited and um looking forward i i've said that a few times today but looking forward to see how that all unfolds thank you i'll just go down the line miss pucket do you have any comments or
you'd like to share you know i think i will i don't know why i'm sharing this but i'm going to go ahead and share it um i pay attention when people speak i pay attention when things keep coming up and it actually doesn't have anything to do with what we had talked about tonight but um there's a lot going on around us
and one of the things that i have been trying to be active in is being present in the journey um i have a simple thing that i do driving into work i have my coffee i don't listen to music i don't take any calls i literally pay attention
to my body how my body feels um pay attention to my thoughts i honor my body and the space and my mind why am i sharing this is that i ask that you guys also um be present in this journey right now things are changing there's a lot of voices there's a lot out here right now
and so it allows a space for me to be present in the duality of emotions and so why am i sharing that with you i don't know but that that is something that has been extremely helpful it's almost like my body tells me thank you
on seeing me and hearing me and so i just ask that you guys in all the chaos that's going on i see you as educators i see you as um just humans living this thing called life right now to be present in this journey so that's my
share i um i want to express first of all gratitude to the individuals that are sitting around the deis um we had an opportunity to attend nsba um and appreciated the opportunity um to grow
with and learn from each of you um i want to also thank you dr smith um for your continued advocacy at the state level um as well as the members of the cabinet there are so many things and all of you there are so many things that are
happening in education right now um and it pains me it makes me very very sad to see um what is happening but what i know is that this district continues to put kids first and kids and families will always be at the forefront of what this
district does um and while i may ask questions and i may um come across as you know too inquisitive at at times i am so incredibly proud to serve alongside of each of you and to know that while it may not always come across
that we are working um together on behalf of our kids we are um we just all have different ways to go about doing it and um know that i believe that the best is yet to come despite all the odds that are against public education we have a
strong lea that's there advocating at the state house we have wonderful educators who commit um to serving our kids and we have wonderful families and most importantly wonderful students who come to us each and every day who demand our best and i have no doubt that this
township will continue to serve them to the best possible so thank you for this opportunity to serve with you all thank you miss dunn um to go along with that thank you board dr smith and the team um we've been able to meet or at least talk with all six of our our
lawrence uh state legislators and both democrats and republicans and we appreciate the relationship um the advocacy that they'll listen and we have good conversations so we're we're going to keep pushing forward so thank you for
that um thank you again board for a good national conference good travel i hope everyone had a good spring break um finally it is autism acceptance month um i just wanted to point that out because we have so many wonderful exceptional
learners and educators and staff and in a time where school choice is mentioned school choice is not always a choice for every child but the traditional public schools are here to meet that need and so i thank you for the work you do dr
smith thank you madame president and members of the board um madame president always reminds us of board policies and one of your policies wellspoken is that you're supposed to advocate for state funds lobbying your legislators and
that's one of the main responsibilities of the board of education if we could allocate our home funds we would not hold back with this group i think they would allocate every single dollar but it's not that simple we have to speak in front of the state government and as well as this year we made a travel to
speak in front of the federal government to advocate for resources for the metropolitan school district of lawrence township that's always been a strength of this board and past board is to advocate for resources we're going to continue to do that regardless of the final decisions that are made at the
state legislatores we will be back again and that work starts the day that they finalize this session is that correct ladies and we will be back and i think we've learned that that how important it is to speak to our legislators respect the process because there's a process
and we're going to continue to do that board on a positive note your next meeting is coming up we are going to celebrate lawrence township excellence at a high level the students are coming i want to warn you i see that stack over there that that's just part of the stack
and they're coming in large numbers because this year dr nesbath from an athletic standpoint at the elementary we've had a lot of success this year so i just prepare you to shake a lot of hands and celebrate our excellence this year we're winners and we should be
proud of that as a board and a community and we're going to celebrate all the students on the 28th of april so that's all i have today madam president all right thank you dr smith so you just gave a segue into my closing so that will be a monday april 28th our next
board of education meeting promptly at 6:30 p.m and we will be in the pd room here in the middle to recognize all of our wonderful students so at this point i will entertain a motion to adjourn properly moved miss dunn and seconded dr
mahalid have a good night