oh oops okay Mr Smith thank you Madame President Dr Smith members of the board uh the band room continues on Mo progressing quite well the next slide shows you the near completion of the flooring and you'll see the acoustical tiles in place uh the hallway uh to the new kitchen area is now complete with window seals and baseboard the the kitchen is continuing
on with full renovation and at b or at Fall Creek Valley uh the back house what we call the back house behind the kitchen maintenance area is uh cleared out and ready to be renovated hallway work continues on throughout the building new LCC parking lot the curbs on the west side are now complete again moving north and east uh exterior wall the green uh uh
green board is going up and also the next slide shows you some uh uh brick work uh lower half is completed and some upper half will then soon begin interior work continues on the first floor most of it is now drywalled and uh mudded in and the upstairs is close to being uh finished out with the uh studs drywall is next here at Craig we're uh moving forward with the four
storage file storage room and they are coming back together all right thank you Mr Smith board any questions regarding the Blue Ribbon update well it looks like it's coming along it makes it real when the brick work starts going up all right well we will move on to our summer school offerings update with Mr
notor thank you madam president Dr Smith and members of the board I bring you tonight an update on our summer offerings and notice the the first slide is a change in name summer Learning Academy 2025 on the next slide we really go into the reasons that we need to make a name change the first is a change in name a change in branding to indicate that there'll be a change in programming and approach for our summer learning opportunity um this allows us to also meet the state law requirement to have an
IAD 3 Focus a heavy reading Focus for any second and third grader who's not passed I read 3 and it also indicates a return to a preco reading and math acceleration approach to close gaps for individual students who aren't at proficiency the dates times and locations will be similar to what we've done in the past uh June 2nd through 26 with no school on J juneth so this is Monday through Thursday the month of June will be for Rising grade so
students will be placed in their Rising grade 1 through 8 at every Elementary in middle school so we've been able to maintain that each Elementary will have their own program each Middle School will have their own program our high school programming will be through ltech as we have for for many years in terms of times our elementary will be 8 to2 with parent paid after care available for all students and 9 to1 at our middle school and transportation will
be provided for students students uh in terms of attendance and participation our second and third graders who don't pass Ivory 3 will be required to attend our students who are below proficiency on I so using our middle of the year I ready or those who are just above proficiency will be highly encouraged to attend um students who are higher than that who are demonstrating grade level proficiency they may participate in the related arts program uh lunch and Par paid
Aftercare program in but the main curriculum really will be focused on getting students to proficiency of course principles uh discretion and any exceptions to the above guidelines and we will have a separate life skills program for students who are enrolled in the life skills program during the school year Mrs lant will cover our parent pay options thank you for um care in the summer we want to do our best to offer parents as much Choice as possible and
so we've got an option where they could have after care just Monday through Thursday after the summer Learning Academy that would be $50 a week and give them care till 6 they could also choose to add Friday or for those families who are going to have their child ride the bus home Monday through Thursday but need something for Friday they could have just a Friday option um for $40 a day and then in July we're happy to um have care for families that would need it as well
in terms of curriculum for first and second grade we'll have an Ela block that's aligned to the science of reading and also a math block for third and fourth grade remember these are our Rising second graders and third graders we've got to be tightly aligned to I 3 um and the goal will be to retest students at the end of June uh for those students who haven't passed so the I 3 assessment will drive the curriculum so focus on vocabulary phonics uh literature comprehension as well as non
comprehension and throwing in some test taking strategies as well the goal is to also have some time within the schedule for I learn align math for those grade levels for grades 5 through 8 we will be aligned to I learn for both math and Ela blocks and there will be related arts uh for grades 1 through six and a College and Career Readiness block for grade 7 and a all curriculum and instruction will be in English including at our
dual schools at test preparation and test proficiency is the goal and there will be a pre- and post assessment that's built into the curriculum Mrs Johnson will cover Staffing good evening as we look at Staffing and class SI priority will be given to teachers who completed 25 hours of the state required literacy training as required by the doe our special ed and ml staff for each building and we may utilize classified staff there is a need
and minimum class size of 15 to one as required by idoe and we're using a variety of funding sources to be able to continue to offer this robust summer school offering including our reimbursement from the state um Title One funds our special education Part B Grant immigrant influx Grant as well as we're writing this into the Lily Grant so that we can use several different funding sources in in
order to make sure that we offer it at each Elementary and each Middle School be happy to entertain any questions at this time thank you Mr notor and team board any questions at this time yes Miss D thank you for this comprehensive overview Mr notor um just a a couple of questions with regards to slide number four with attendance participation I understand that second and third grade students who do not pass I will be required to attend um can you
share how that's being communicated with families so that they understand even if they do attend but don't pass they're still um the unfortunate outcome potential of retention for third graders so that'll be communicated through our building principles so our principles will send out a variety of different types of communication depending on what category students fall into so for instance our second graders won't be retained um if they don't pass the second time but our third graders could be and so it's that message to parents that that you've got
to have your kids there and so required um is a strong word but that's absolutely the reality that we're fac and I think that that's so different and I really appreciate the change in nomenclature to change it so that people do understand the the high stakes yes that it is not a jump start it is really imperative to ensuring that they're able to move forward I think along with those lines as well um it let's say that a family chooses not to send their
child to summer school summer Academy however um will there be that opportunity for retest at that end of the summer programming the student could be brought in to to retest if they haven't the the other option is to retest at the end of May but we're really not wanting to offer that as a widespread option because we want our families to attend the summer learning academ exactly I completely understand I think the only other question that I have is students who are demonstrating gr level proficiency May participate so is this open to any student in the district
that would wishes or are we just really focusing on those in the great with the greatest needs the Core Curriculum will be focused on those with the greatest needs but we wanted to offer something in case we had families whose children were proficient and wanted to participate in something this Summer that they could participate in the related arts program the meals that are provided at school as well as the after Care Program wonderful thank you and then I just have one other question um but this is regarding um this is for Miss Le plant love that we are
offering the after care it's always so wonderful that we are able to stand up um that programming for families I know it's much appreciated uh do you believe that the July care will be at one site in the district or will that be at multiple sites we'll do multiple sites I I predict we always do it based on numbers um but last summer we went to six sites basically the schools or campuses that had a preschool since we have year round preschool so I predict we'll have it at
those six sites again great thank you so much thank you for those questions um any other questions board foll up oh yeah Dr molland thank you Mr n for your information and presentation um I did have a question following up with Miss dun on the um the communication approach so could I hear a little bit more about what the approach will be for communicating the summer program programming requirements uh sure
we'll do some general communication from the district level but really this is going to be communicated very specifically at the building level um by our building principles and so there'll be a variety of different messages that they send out uh depending on where students fall in terms of proficiency so those messages will go out electronically but then they'll follow up with phone calls and so there'll be an individual invitation given to families um so that they know exactly where they stand in terms of what
we were talking about with the required piece versus highly encouraged piece so it'll be an individualized approach thank you you're welcome my question kind of goes along with that too so in the past and the the artist formally known as jumpstart we now have um the summer Learning Academy now that this is going to also um address students who are not passing I read I assume the registration
timing will be a little different is that correct waiting for the test scores to come in we're planning to use the same timeline so May 1st was our cut off typically sign up around spring break beginning and running through the month of April so we um actually start I testing here in March just in a couple weeks and so we will get those results back in time for families to be able to register and then we'll use the middle of the year I ready results and so
that data point point we already have oh okay thank you for sharing that Bo any other questions or comments it sounds like then the pre-test will be another data point that you can then use and what is um preest and then a post test so that'll actually happen during summer Learning Academy so and that's really to measure growth over that period of time um over the the 15 days of instruction so the preest would happen the very first day and then
the post test happens the last day okay anything um you know I know that we we're in good hands knowing that those assessment results in that preest will guide uh the work to be done in that those summer months yes exactly exactly and it really allows us a measurement and then will give us a metric particularly as we're looking at some of the funding sources to show what an impact those 15 days make okay thank you you Mr um I did
have one final question and that is do we know how many students we are predicting that will be in the um the Red Zone shall we say that we are concerned about um not passing I um we're getting that information from each school as we speak we've got I three meetings set up with each of our principles so we will have a good idea of that number well before the summer
Learning Academy and then I know House Bill 1499 has been introduced just want to make sure that that is something that we're all keeping an eye on because it allows our students to test twice yes um which I think would be a beautiful thing but then also with the district as many English Learners as that we have I think it is imperative that everybody understand that language acquisition takes time and it takes longer than two years absolutely um and that is a lot of our students in this district and I
am pleased with House Bill 1499 and the language that has been introduced for students who are access levels one to 2.9 yes automatically giving the good cause exemption So for anybody that is also advocating for children not to be retained um I think it's a good bill so hope absolutely we'll get that ped thank you thank you for that I just had one more comment since the slide is up on the screen I appreciate the work that's being done to make this affordable and
accessible to working parents I mean if you calculate it because the school day is free to parents and because of the community eligibility provision I assume would cover the summer portion correct then their meals breakfast and lunch are taken care of too that's a huge boom to parents and working families so thank you for that that to if I'm looking at this right if you had your child in after care and Fridays that's $90 a week for full full dayare but also so
targeted learning so thank you for for doing that board any other comments this was all great okay thank you so we will now move on to our board goal midye update Mr kusik and Dr hus Brown good evening Madam president Dr Smith members of the board tonight we bring you a midyear update on our board goals as we go through tonight's presentation you will see the majority of the updates are in blue because they're still in progress we're only halfway through the year um but you will see a couple that
we've already accomplished and and are in green I'll turn it over our first presenter Mr not thank you Mr kosnik Madame President Dr Smith and members of the board the first goal focuses on our Equitable student outcomes action plan um and we continue to implement that with Fidelity and including dashboard updates that are completed monthly as we move on to our student achievement slides uh the first one is our graduation rate and of course this is still in progress um but we work
we are working through our systems and our processes to maintain the average graduation rate of 93% um with a focus on our academic honors and Technical Honors diplomas the next one is our rigor diagnostic uh score of 9.0 and we are um planning to have our year-end rigor appraisals in the spring um the next two are about our student attendance um the goal of 95% we still are a little bit below that for
our average uh attendance our average daily attendance the next one our model attendee rate and this is a really important one to pay attention to because this comes from the GPS dashboard from the state level and our model attend break at this point is 58.1% which indicates a 5 point 5 percentage Point increase from uh the end of the school year last year so we move on to the next Slide the next one is our proficiency growth for I ready and
so this was the midyear I that I was just referencing in the the last presentation and we've seen a 133% increase in ela with accelerated growth from our African-American students and a 14% increase um in math the next one is the I3 proficiency rate that we've talked about so much um and our first Administration is in March students who don't pass then will come to Summer Learning Academy to assess again in June and
then our last one is our iearn goal and iearn administration begins in April good evening I'll be bringing to you our strategic Plan update it's hard to believe but we are now in the middle of the three-year plan as you recall we had an update for the Board of Education in the month of January and we continue as a group to update uh quarterly on our dashboard for public viewing and we'll ask Mrs Johnson to go
with our people go goals good evening as we look at our HR um goals for people our first area is that all employees will participate in common districtwide develop PD for all J job classifications and those are ongoing at 100% our second Port of our board goal when we look at maintaining our intentional focus on recruiting and retaining bilingual staff in order to increase racial and ethnic stat diversity by 3% um our
bilingual staff that is still yet to be determined as we are in the middle of the year and currently our racial and ethnic diversity we are at 49% but we'll be monitoring that of course closely throughout the rest of this year on the next slide retaining 90% of our district effective and highly effective certified staff that will be calculated at the end of the year because that is based on our
evaluations our next goal Implement an anonymous employee survey for all staff to better understand the drivers of job satisfaction and increase increase participation percentage each year so last year we had 37.7% and we are scheduled to give that survey again this spring so we'll be looking at the results of hopefully increased participation and our last board goal offer an exit interview to every employee that leaves through resignation
or retirement in the fall of 2024 for our Midway goal we completed eight exit surveys and two employees requested interviews in the area of operations and finance uh we do have some green on this slide as uh 1231 year end of our fiscal year our calendar year is is really the measuring point for the three board goals as it relates to finance uh happy to say that we met all three goals the first of which is our cash balance goal in our education fund and we
had exceeded $16 million in that fund the goal was 14 the next goal is a positive cash balance at the end of the fiscal year and all of our local taxing funds and we also met that goal everything was in the positive and our last goal is increasing our minority vendor spend uh by at least 3% and we were at 7.9% this year Safety and Security uh
proud to say all buildings are State Certified for their emergency preparedness plans and we continue each building continues to do their monthly and semester drills site and building assessments uh are ongoing and uh we talked about the help me app which was launched last fall and it is up and run all right thank you for that board any questions or comments regarding
our board goals update Miss done Miss Johnson well first of all thank you all for these tremendous updates Miss Johnson I did have one quick question uh in regards to the anonymous survey of employees it has come to my attention that emails were collected with that survey and so I'm wondering if that is one of the reasons why there was
such a low participation rate because that it wasn't truly Anonymous in nature well the surveys went out in an electronic format but I think there were questions as to were there emails attached to that and so when someone took the survey they had the right to put their name in their school and if they even wanted to be contacted for an interview for those exit interviews you're talking about I'm I'm yeah I'm talking about the survey that's
being delivered in uh the spring and so maybe it's not I mean maybe that is the misperception but I think there is a perception with stakeholders that there that their information is being collected and so I just wonder if there's a world where we can make sure that we are very clear Panorama yes we usean weuse we use a system for that so it's not conect I don't understand but there were some I think some questions initially when it went out and we had looked into that
to make sure it wasn't attached to anyone's address but so I think just perhaps communicating because that is what the that is and it was shared broadly that there that there was a sense that identifiable information was attached and so just thinking that that could help with getting the number of the percentage up and I know that you're working diligently as well on the types of questions and so forth with the working group so um just some feedback but I appreciate getting that
information from folks because I think it helps us with that wonderful retention thank you msh because M Bush I just wanted to share that I do recall that there was some misperception early on in the survey that people were concerned that individual surveys could be tracked back to individual people and that that is not the case it is an anonymous survey they were sent a link and so because they were sent a link they thought that it could be
tracked back it it that's not the case thank you uh board any other questions or comments I know we've covered a lot in this great update um I did have one regarding it's slide slide three student achievement um I know the model attendee rate that we're tracking is kind of current year to date do we foresee
that will probably continue to to increase um given that I mean I know we're experiencing it as a family a lot of this is a very sick time of the year and I I mean it's great too that we're already tracking in a positive direction but I know that this is ongoingly tracked throughout the year so by Spring I imagine the numbers will track up is that correct it is um in real time so to speak so yes it is as of at this point in time 58.1%
and so we do hope that that continues to increase as the uh weather gets warmer and and students get healthier yes thank you yes yeah wash your hands everybody I tell my kids yes any other questions or comments for well thank you for those helpful updates everybody and now we will move on to request to advertise RFP for
catering at the new LCC Mr miles thank you madam president Dr Smith members of the board uh tonight I bring to you as an informational item a request uh to consider putting out an RFP for a catering here at the LCC uh as we do from time to time have catering needs um we we do uh want to cast a wide net and we will uh as we're so excited move into our new lecc this summer um in June late June so we would
like to uh use that as an opportunity to um broaden again who we work with from a partner standpoint and our catering area um we last did this in January of 2019 and we've had a great catering partner since then and hope to uh continue that relationship moving forward but again it it's just time to um to put this out and um and bring in new partners so excited to do so uh this will follow a service agreement arrangement which is a little different
than some of the other rfbs we do but uh gives us a lot of flexibility uh moving forward thank you Mr miles board any questions or comments I just wanted to clarify in the language um of the RFP when it mentions lecc it's referring specifically to our the new location cor corre correct okay and then Craig Academy is the current building we're sitting in now correct yes there may be times when we bring
our cater over here because these some of the facilities here in this building will still uh remain an option for us moving forward yes it's great okay well thank you for that board any other questions all right now we get to move on to the very um fun Neola Neola policy updates for our first reading with Dr harb Barker Madam president Dr Smith members of the board I present to you
tonight Neola volume 37 number one revision packet this packet is comprised of eight advised policies one new policy and just as a reminder the revision packet is in response to recent legislation subsequent updates of Indiana code I now bring this for first reading thank you Dr harsh Barger board any questions or comments thank you sir it's been a pleasure working with you has been
a pleasure especially it's been a pleasure yeah I I do want to say um oh go ahead no we just have a lot that's um moving forward and so it's been pretty awesome to see the parallels and to see it's just been great working with appreciate it Miss St I am very excited about these policies especially seeing that four of the policies are um addressing artificial intelligence
and so wanted to understanding that this is the first reading that they still have to be approved wondering what kind of communication has been given to students to faculty to understand how AI is to be used in the classroom because I know not many of us are digging into these board policies uh especially our students I don't think they're getting online looking at these so so what
is the uh plan to Cascade this information to all parties sure um like many things that that are in this format we'll work back through the plc's and the principles into the buildings it's new and it's something that we definitely have to treat just as we did computers that there is that level of responsibility and that will that will articulate itself back into the buildings to the teachers and to the classrooms with parents assuming same that
it would work its way through communication systems in the building thank you Dr har Sean Bush and assistant superintendent we'll work backwards with the board because we'll eventually many of these policies find I'm sorry guys we'll find their way to student handbooks is that correct Dr Asher absolutely and so normally in June or July well June usually June Sean Bush we get those approved prior to the start of the next school year so you can
expect for those to come back through again even though the board will already approve its policies you will approve their handbooks also and that's how the students will get updated information and their families and I'm assuming in computer science courses as well that this is something that uh students are learning about as well so yep we can assure that correct Mr notor curriculum team yes we have uh quite a few AI Pilots going on across the district so teachers that are out in front uh leading the way with their own work
with AI as well as with students outstanding thank you so much thank you for that question Miss then board any other questions I just had a comment well thank you to the policy committee on this um I've been diving into policy just to enhance my understanding as board president and I will say it's one of our main roles as board members is to set policy um I like to use Sports analogies
and so to me I I I've got a point to me um the policy is like your offensive line in football it doesn't get the Flash and the glamor but as we saw last night when your offensive line breaks down it can be pretty detrimental so you got to be set on what you're doing so yes say it better say it better and that okay that's that's how my brain thinks but yes thank you for that and we're looking forward to our second reading
in two weeks two weeks long as I don't have to go up against any of those NFL players yep you're good all right so before we move on to our one action item I did want to send Miss Lawrence's regards um that she is out because we do have um other part or full-time um primary jobs so she is traveling for work so I told the public that she or I would let the public know she's out
um again with our offensive line of policy uh we are required to have a quorum of three or more uh members present to continue to conduct our business and that is board policy 0162 so um with that I will go on to our act one action item and that is 3.01 approval of personnel report Miss Carla Johnson greetings Madam president Madam president Dr Smith and board members
tonight we bring you the Personnel report for your approval all right second all right moved and properly seconded let's go ahead and make a vote all in favor of the Personnel report say I I I all opposed all right the Personnel report has been approved I will turn it back to Miss Johnson one announcement we do have an announcement yes you can change our mind too
late known this guy for a long time Madame President Dr Smith and members of the board on our um board approved Personnel report this evening we have a retirement that is forthcoming in June by Mr Steve gagin our chief of technology and we just want to thank him for all of his years of service to Lawrence Township he's been a bear and a wildcat and just a tremendous LT asset Johnson would you we
just want to put on the record how many years of service has Dr Steven gagin had here in Lawrence Township 37 37 years exactly years almost four decades Dr gag line I remember many of those congratulations no no party today party will come later he still has work to do so yes thank you for that Dr gag and we appreciate you all right board at this time we will we'll move on
to our board and administrator comments who would like to go first anybody um I do have a comment I wanted to thank the board Dr Smith and Sheila um for allowing us to go to Washington DC last week for the um advocacy and Equity Institute put on by the National School Board Association we were able to deepen our um connections and relationships with several other school board members even within Indiana
and meet with some representatives and people from the federal level because the federal dollars while they're not as plentiful as the state that we require they're still very very important for title one and special ed Part B so oh and eate Dr gagin yes yes so e so thank you board for that um I look forward to um continuing to work with the new board members that we met um as we all have you know passion about advocating for
our students so thank you for that Bard anybody any other comments or question I just say it's been a last week was a busy week um Dr harsh barter you and I working on policies which was exciting like I told you it was actually quite exciting I like getting to the weeds of things and so that was pretty exciting and also too just uh the Pucket crew spent a lot of time at the basketball courts Thursday Friday and Saturday between the boys varsity and the
girls and so um lots of LT Pride going and um so yeah thanks great great week no other comments Dr Smith or did you have one Dr I likewise Amy we attended the National School Board Association meeting in DC and I uh it was a very productive time of learning in the actual sessions of the conference but more importantly I think as a board we got to spend the time together
to know each other's skills um expertise passions and education and I too I'm looking forward to working together um as we know we need to work together as much as we can to bring um our talents and our skills and um um working along with all of you and the community um so I'm looking forward to to um the next steps thank you yes ma'am M done I would Echo everybody's sentiments I also wanted to Express gratitude to you Dana for putting together the listening tour and
the ability to talk to many of our Community Partners um several weeks ago we had the opportunity to speak with Cafe and I know this week we have the opportunity to go to the Rotary Club um and so just really appreciate the opportunity to get into the community and hear um about hear the great things that people have to say about our schools um and also to share about the wonderful things that are happening and so thank you very much for coordinating those efforts and thank you Dr Smith for allowing us that opportunity thank
you great comments Dr Smith gr neith front and center we're still in basketball land sectionals were hosted by Lawrence norf what's the next step sir that's right that's right turn it off no it's green Mr retire man um Steve and I have known each other for most of those 37 years um as as anticipated LC and Ln ended up
uh competing against each other in the girls basketball sectional championship and we had an upset uh the defending state champion Bears didn't make it out um but Lawrence North Wildcats did win so we still have a team alive they will play this Saturday at the cater Central High School on the southwest side they'll be playing the Arabians of pendlton heights at 1:00 that is a one-game regional this is the second year for that this format one game Regional and then on Sunday the 16th
they will have a live uh stream show where they'll have pingpong balls and they'll draw out who's going to play in the South so if Ellen can win that game against penlon why then they'll we'll see what the draw is on Sunday and that'll be a two game semi State more than likely at Southport but again that depends on who makes it out of the Regionals excellent thank you anything all right go cats okay all right well um I will the one last announcement I had is our next
board meeting our monthly board meeting is here in two weeks on the 24th of February at 7M at that I'll entertain a motion to adjourn someone seconded all right properly moved and seconded will have a good night everyone [Applause]
your babies be okay well I don't even know why we bothered to go this afternoon