On the 2526 tentative collective bargaining agreement. At this time, I will turn the microphone over to miss Carla Johnson. Good afternoon, Doctor. Smith, president madam president, and members of the board. Tonight, we are so proud to bring to you the collective bargaining agreement. Standing here proudly, for the district with our teachers association that have worked really hard over the last few weeks and we're glad to bring to you formally the tentative agreement. And so this evening I will speak in the public meeting to the collective bargaining
agreement and what we are bringing to you to be approved later this week. So, as we begin, I would like to just start with a summary of the teachers' raises. Our total package of agreement is $2,931,502. The salary increase that we are recommending to the teachers of Lawrence Township is a 2% salary increase for all of our returning teachers And our new teachers that were employed prior to board approval, they will not have a decrease in their salary.
The next area is our teacher retention catch up. After receiving our 2% raise, if there is a teacher on our salary schedule that in their cell, we are capping at $220,000 as we're trying to, catch up those salaries of our loyal teachers that have remained with us. So, we're excited to bring that to you this afternoon. On our next slide, our early literacy endorsement. The Indiana state law changed in that teachers in K through six have to have
an early endorsement by 2027. And, so for all of the teachers in Lawrence Township who've already obtained that, we are going to be recommending a $250 stipend not stipend, but a $250 to their base salary. The teacher retirement fund, an increase of point six at a cost of 252,768. Our health insurance, our employees, we're looking at an increase of 9.3%
to both parties for the district and to our teachers to their premiums. And the increase to the 1,500 plan, the district will pay the same dollar amount in premiums as the corresponding health savings account. We are offering a second dental plan this year. It's at a neutral cost but it has some additional features that some of our employees we thought would be interested in, especially for those who don't have children and might not be interested in orthodontia. The next slides of the collective bargaining agreement are more about the language.
Our ECA is the extracurricular activities. Those are a lot of our clubs that are led by teachers at 40,000. So, we're simply adding some positions and, looking at some increases to what some of the current salaries are for our ECAs. We are also looking at our classroom coverage compensation. The updates, that's when we don't have as many shortage because we have so many teachers that we've hired, but when we do have that and we have to put a plan in place for teachers to cover other classrooms, we had a spring pilot
and now we've just put all of that language into this collective bargaining agreement. Our ancillary duty bilingual support, that is a change from last year in which it was an ECA and the teams together decided to make that an ancillary duty so that for our teachers that are bilingual and support their colleagues above and beyond that will be at a thousand dollars and we'll be able to look at that for a 134 teachers. So, we're able to spread that out to benefit more teachers. An ancillary duty of dual credit stipend was also added.
There's no cost there. We were just kind of clarifying the language so that it goes with our AB and our IB teachers. On the next slide, we're looking at leaves of absences so that when a teacher in the bargaining unit has an expansion of an immediate family member, we want it to include a power of attorney which is the executor to the estate of the sole surviving relative. We also have asked that for our teachers when they have to go to jury duty at a time outside of the regular school calendar year such such as the
summer, maybe winter break, and it's for jury duty related to a student case, a family case that they be paid for their time. And, our LEA association days, increasing that from 32 to 35. And then our last slide is about the district buyback days. We've had this in place for a year or two but the area that's in bold that we are changing is that, we're gonna do this once a year versus twice a year as we've looked at the data and it'll be capped at 40,000.
So, if a teacher has an excess over a 100 sick days, they're able to sell back at least five days a year if they're looking for that cash at this particular time. And that is our total package that we are recommending to the board. And the cost is a little bit under $3,000,000 Are there any questions? Thank you, Ms. Johnson. First of all, I wanted to acknowledge everyone involved in the bargaining process on the team all around. I know it was a long labor of love and done well to ensure that
everyone received a win. So thank you everyone involved. At this time, I will turn it over to the board for any questions or comments. Yes. And to clarify, this is only for the collective bargaining agreement on the teachers. Yes. Yes. We will discuss the administrators and, classified at the work session. Yes. Okay. Any questions or comments, board? I'd like to echo, President Norman's, sentiments about the hard work. Thank you very much, miss Johnson, for your efforts.
Mr. Miles, I know that this is not an easy endeavor and we look at those, around us, during a tough budget time and the fact that we are able to compensate our educators in a fair and appropriate comments from the board on the CBA. Will also open it up to the public if the public has any comments regarding the CBA for the teachers. Okay. At this time, we will close out, the public hearing.
I also will take another minute to, recognize the team. So anybody from the teachers and the administration that served in the collective bargaining process. Can you just please stand? Oh, okay. Okay. Okay, no that's fine. I just wanted to give a shout out to everybody involved, So, thank you. Alright. At this time, I'll close it out. Alright. And now, we are gathering into our monthly work session. We will be receiving a lot of information items tonight. Doctor. Nesbitt will be starting us off with three point o one, Blue Ribbon facilities update.
Well, thank you, madam president, members of the board, doctor Smith. My pleasure to take a look at Blue Ribbon two, update here. Our overview, we've same as we've seen in the past here at McKinsey. You'll see tonight, we're going to make a recommendation for our architectural and engineering services as well as get your request your permission for an RFP for construction manager. Craig Academy continues. We'll see some neat pictures on that. Crestview, Forest Glen, and Mary Castle, those are cruising right along. We're right on target to open for next school year. And then you might have noticed some new signage as you came in here at LACC as we're we're punch listing this one out and getting some of that signage
wrapped up. So let's take a look at some pictures. Oh, there, there's our guaranteed energy savings, almost all blue. Indian Creek, we will be wrapped up by the end of the week. I nearly marked it marked it blue, but just not quite there. But we'll be there by the end of the week, and then the rest of those, we'll we'll dive into, in the spring summer. So Bells are in Fall Creek. That was the that concluded Blue Ribbon phase one. We were happy to cut the ribbons on those, just this past weekend. And Harrison Elementary, we just wrapped up that roof. They finally finished up the painting on the metal. There's a new LACC signage, then one sign didn't make it, but we have it
on three sides of the building there. In Crestview Elementary, four classrooms there, and the bathroom you can see coming in. Forest Glen, we get we got an arrow shot there, so you can see the the steel beams are up, and, that's cruising right along. And then, of course, Merrick Castle, four classrooms there, and we have walls there and ceiling, and and we're actually hooking up, heat in that. So the the electricity is is running in there so we can have heat for the, for the rest of the work. And then Craig Academy. I I like this. We have viewing windows from, the 2nd And 3rd Floors that look down into the
gymnasium now. So that's a little sneak peek of what the gymnasium's looking like. And you can see the new Craig, logoing on the far wall there. So it's really looking neat. That wraps up this work sessions update. Happy to field any questions. Blue Ribbon phase two. Thank you, doctor Nesbitt. That was exciting to wrap up Blue Ribbon phase one officially. So thank you everyone. Board, any questions or comments regarding the Blue Ribbon updates for phase two? Alright. It was moving along and back to doctor Nesbitt again for 3.2,
request to approve the architect for the McKinsey Center of Innovation and Technology Renovation. The fifth. Thank you. If you're calling our October 13 meeting, you gave us permission to advertise for an RFP for architectural and engineering services. We interviewed, four firms on October 31 and tonight we'll make a recommendation to hire Schmidt and Associates, during the action portion of the meeting. Thank you, doctor Nesbitt. Board, any other questions or comments? This is the information part of this. We will go to a vote later. Alright. Thank you. And finally, doctor Nesbitt again, 3.3.
Request for RFP of the CMC's McKinsey Center renovation. Sure. The the next step in this process for the McKinsey transformation, of course, is hiring a CMC. And so we'd like to start advertising for those services, with your approval, tonight and we'll advertise for that and get them on board in the coming months. Thank you, Doctor Nesbitt. Board, any questions or comments on this next phase? Okay. Alright. Thank you Doctor. Nesbitt. You're welcome. Now, I'll turn it to Ms. Carla Johnson for the twenty five-twenty six administrative and classified salaries update.
Madam President, Doctor. Smith, and members of the board, board, this evening we bring to you the administrative and classified raises. We are proposing for our administrators and our classified staff a 2% raise and for health insurance, it's the exact same policy that mirrors the teachers which was at that 9.3% increase of the premium. Are there any questions? Thank you, Ms. Johnson. Board, any questions or comments regarding the classified and administrative salaries? Yes, Ms.
Lawrence. Thank you, Madam President. Mr. Miles, as I do every year this time, I have done extensive audit of our salary information for our administrative staff. Have once again discovered that Lawrence Township is above most of our peers in the area. It's it's 23% higher. We are 23% higher than most of our peers, include and that's also including outliers
like Carmel where we're roughly, 40% higher, HSE 40% higher, Zionsville 40% higher as well. In looking at the salary information that's available both on our administrative contracts online and, the salary information that's publicly reported in gateway, there is substantial difference between the advertised contract dollar amount and the contracts that are reported in gateway. I know from our conversation last year on the dais that that is, likely attributed
to benefits and health care stipends that are given to our administrative staff. I'm wondering if you could elaborate on what accounts for, in some cases, a $30,000 discrepancy between the advertised contract and the numbers that were reported in Gateway. Thank you, madam board member. Yes. It and it's would mirror the conversation we had, similarly last year. The difference between gateway and, our contracts posted online are primarily driven, for a small
per a small percentage of our administrators. There are two different administrative packages, and one of those packages, includes, an allowance for health insurance. And so that gets calculated into what we report to Gateway, which elevates what's reported on Gateway. The other piece that's included in Gateway, is we we have a a few administrators that, do their job description. They may drive a a company vehicle. And so there may be some personal mileage in there as well that's that's by IRS. We have to report that as as income.
So that also creates an additional gap between gateway and, and their contract. It it's not take home pay per se, but it is a benefit for them. So, yeah, that does that does, constitute where those where those differences come from. And the health care stipend that you referenced before, it's my understanding that that doesn't necessarily need to be used for health care that it is at the discretion of the individual. So if, for example, there were two, family members, they would only need one family
plan, for example, and the other would be counted as income for that family member should they decide to use it as It's an allowance for them. So that allowance could be used to to select any plan, no plan, a more expensive plan, a less expensive plan, or or if there is yeah. If there if there were two two administrators or two two teachers, similarly, obviously, there's just one one cost as far as the benefit goes. Okay. Thank you. The average for the top 100 earners in Lawrence Township is a $154,000, which is
10% higher than IPS, 17% higher than Wayne, And I misspoke before, it's 20% higher than Carmel Clay, 25% higher than Washington, 26% higher than Pike, 29% higher than Noblesville, 30% higher than HSE, 33.6% higher than Warren, 40% higher than Decatur, and 41% higher than Zagreb. Thank you. Yep. Board, any other questions or comments regarding this?
The the classified and or or administrator. Doctor Mulholland. I just had a question about this slide here where it says the health insurance mirrors the teachers? What does that include in terms of is that the allowance and stipend as well that mirrors? Or what is what mirrors? It's the piece that mirrors would be the the 9.3% increase, goes across, all divisions, all all classified administrator or certified. That that is really what mirrors. Also, the additional plans that are gonna be offered this year, that was one of the things we detailed out in the, in the certified piece.
There's an there's a new plan, that'll be coming forward as an option for for all employees, as well as that second dental option. So that's what really mirrors, mirrors the teacher plan. Yeah. And I wanna make sure that the public is aware as well that this slide appears that our classified staff are all receiving health insurance. Can you please clarify exactly who in our staff does receive health insurance because we are not providing health insurance for all? Yeah. That's a great question.
We have, classified benefit, our we have a benefit sheet for different based on your job description, there are probably 30 different benefit slides for our classified team, just because we have so many different positions. Some are ten months, some are twelve, and then they vary based on hours that they that they work. Any full time classified qualifies, for health insurance and for benefits. And actually, we we define our our full time for purposes of health insurance at thirteen hundred hours, which was set by, ACA a few years back.
So any any, classified staff member over thirteen hundred hours, whether even even if their job description, may not normally qualify, for that, they are gonna qualify and and they're gonna have the opportunity to to join it. Or if, based on their job description and the the benefit package they're under, then then they may automatically qualify. Thank you for that clarification. You're welcome. Okay. Miss, Lawrence. Thank you, madam president. One follow-up question. As our healthcare has increased by 9%, roughly a little over 9% this year, is
the intention to add additional funds to that stipend that administrators receive or is that stipend still going to remain steady at roughly $30,000 additional income for those administrators? So that that it's an it's an allowance we call it. And that's what the that's what the benefit sheet calls it. It is actually mirrors the HSA 3,000 plan. And so the amount as as that plan moves, it the the allowance would move also. So it would go up, in conjunction with what that plan level is.
Okay. Thank you. Okay. For, doctor Mulholland. Is there an industry standard or some kind of data point that you can share with us regarding the allowance that is that is provided and set that that we're currently discussing with? Yep. That's a great question. Because many school districts report, their gateway amounts, differently. Or, not to say any, ill intent or or, but there's there's some there's some different area, a gray area, I I guess you would could call it, for what
is reported, you know, which part of the benefits report and and the mechanism that you go go through. The way we we through that allowance that we give an employee, that does those those administrators since they do have, opportunity to select, a certain benefit package, that gets that gets counted as income in gateway. And really the gateway piece, drives retirement funding. It doesn't cost the district any more out of pocket necessarily to do it that
way, except for in the example of of maybe when someone would either not have a a plan or be in a less expensive plan. They're they're gonna have a little that allowance is gonna exceed maybe their cost. But from a district, from a standard standpoint, our the package that we offer, the plans that we offer are very comparable, to what you're seeing, across the market. We wanna make sure our insurance package and benefit packages, compete with others. Just those mechanisms as to, you know, what's included in their contract, what's included in
gateway, there is some there there can be some differences there. Thank you, doctor Mulholland. Any other questions or comments? Just to add a bit of, history if I'm correct. Years prior to health insurance, we had where it was the dollar paying for admin. And so this was basically put forward to create more balance, so that the teachers in essence weren't paying more for their health insurance, than the admin. So I just wanted to see if that is correct. I don't have the year, but from just prior knowledge, this has we have gone
from one model and went to this one for more balance across the board. Thank you, madam board member, for bringing that up. Yes. There's a lot of history, and some of the history predates me. But but yes. Where we are today, it was through an evolution of years ago when administrators and even some, you know, teachers at times, there was the the old $1 insurance package. And for many years, our administrators and for many years our teachers, there was, a
$1 plan. That went away several years ago, and and through the evolution of the plan, the the benefits packages, we we are where we are today, as a result. Miss Dunn. So does the am I I'm trying to understand what miss Tuckett was saying. So does the fact that we're helping the administrators to get an additional compensation for their health insurance to cover it, does that impact what our teachers are paying?
Because I I'm not following that. Yeah. So, no. The plan all all individuals pay in, they're they're paying their fair share regardless regardless of administrator, teacher, or classifier. So there is no there's not one group supporting another. So the the benefit is that our administrators the history is is that we used to have a dollar pay. I just wanna make sure that we're clear. And now that we're paying them a stipend so that they do not have to pay for the health insurance If they choose to.
If they choose to. Again, we call it an allowance. That's what the benefit sheet calls it. And so to answer your question, I believe benefit is for them. The benefit is for them alone and not benefiting our teachers. I just wanna make sure. Correct. Okay. Correct. Yeah. Correct. Yes. Yes. And the teachers' parents' parents' grandparents. Yes. And I apologize. My just just to give history of where we had came from. Yeah. Wait. I think I I understand what you were saying, but I think that in the question, it made it seem like there was an advantage to the teachers by the administrators getting the second. So I just wanna make sure there was that's a big thing.
Thank you. Yeah. One additional question, mister Miles. Last year, we, had some deficit spending as it related to the healthcare, allotment. I believe it was a little over $3,000,000 that we paid down, because there was an individual who had some very expensive medical costs. For anybody who's following any of this, which probably for people who are, mister Miles, I wonder if you could just give us a little context in history because a
lot of good work has been done. Absolutely. Actually, I appreciate you bringing that up, madam board member. Yes. The last two years, actually, the district, had to dig into our cash balance to to set aside money in what we call a laser, which is which is a literally a cash set aside, to pay for those high cost claims. And so, it's taken us a bit to get there, but this renewal, that will go into effect, February 1 on our on our new insurance plan, does not include
any type of laser. So that's that was $3,000,000. Last year was $3,000,000 the prior year. So very fortunate to, to say we don't have to deal with that this year. Alright. Any other questions or comments, board? Yes. Yeah. And just so the public knows, we will not be taking action on the CBA or the other raises until Friday. Thank you, mister Miles. I just wanted to close by making, a comment back to our board policy one forty four point two, that we are to represent at all times the entire school
community. So, I am grateful to the team for looking into the raises and benefits for all of our staff. It truly is a team effort. I am a former athlete. I like to give credence to every public position on the team. Bus drivers, custodians, administrators, teachers, you all are Lawrence Township. You all are the reason why we have increased our enrollment by over 1,800 students in the last ten years, why we just had a 96% graduation rate with a
1% waiver. And also, we increased our literacy rate by 14% in one year. So, I just want to applaud you and I'm thankful that we can recognize you. Thank you. If there are no other questions or comments regarding the administrative and classified update, I'm going to move on to the request for vehicle disposal. Mister Miles. Thank you, madam president. Doctor Smith, members of the board. In front of you, you have the information item, a request for vehicle disposal.
And, unfortunately, from time to time, we have to, discard of, some assets. And at this time, we have two old buses, that are just not salvageable, and the information about each is in front of you. We as statutory, requirements, set forth before us, we need your permission to dispose of those. So tonight, this is information, and we will bring this back. I will bring this back to you, at our board meeting later this month for approval. But, it's time to get rid of a couple of old buses.
Thank you, mister Miles. I know that we are on a current, like, a twelve year bus replacement plan. These are in addition or outside of the normal plan due to accidents or other reasons. Yeah. One was an accident, and the other is exceeds the twelve years so it's just Yeah. It's just old age. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Board, any other questions or comments about the buses disposal? Alright. Three oh, sorry, miss Dunn. I just want as you were sharing about the amazing work that all our community
are contributing, reading that we were able to use including the engine of the bus that was, in a really bad accident. I just wanna give kudos to those individuals farm because I don't think that people realize the hard work and effort that goes into making sure that our students get to and from school safety safely every single day of the week. And having gone to the bus farm, we truly have hardworking individuals that work there
in making sure that they're saving the Lawrence Township taxpayers every single dollar that they can. So thank you for sharing. Thank thank you. And if I may just add a personal comment. I've got some, some history with those folks over there. They're great. They're experts. And and I'd tell you, it's, when we have these issues where a bus does need to be scrapped, you know, we're pulling everything off of it that's salvageable. That makes sense to spend time, you know, to re you know, repurposing. And so it it it's easy to bring these when it's when it's time to
to do so. Doctor Nesbeth, would you share sometimes we work with our partners in the city and our first responders. What do they do with some of those buses? Yes. Once, we get approval to dispose of the vehicles, we often use those for first responders for training exercises so they can use jaws of life and things like that and, replicate scenarios they might come into, particularly a school bus where you have children on. You know, that's something they wanna practice because that's obviously a high stress situation. Good information. Any other questions or comments about the bus disposal? Alright. Thank you, board. We will move on to 3.6,
enrollment and demographic update with Doctor. Hass Brown and Doctor. Thorpe. Good evening, President Norman, Doctor. Smith, members of the board. Doctor. Thorpe and I are pleased to bring to you our annual report as information, regarding our enrollment and demographic data. As you might recall from prior years, this is from our October ADM to our October ADM, so not the first day of school, but what we affectionately call count day. If you'll look at this first slide, you can see, a trend since the 2012,
thirteen year of increased, enrollment. I do want to make a note because you can see from the 2425 to the 2526 a slight dip in number, but this is not only ADM. Okay. This is ADM. This is pre k. This is grade 13. And as you might recall, grade 13, we do have some learners who stay with us until the age of 21, 22. So as we'll, talk about in the presentation, we do have a decrease in pre
k students this year, which is directly related to funding cuts for our families. And so you'll see that as we go through. If you'll go through to the next slide with me, as of our ADM day, tenone twenty five, you can see by cohort and by building the number of students we have. This page has the ELCs and 11 elementaries for you. So, when we're when miss, when miss LaPlante and I are talking about the students we oversee together, it's 9,000 plus.
The next slide, has our secondary numbers, both middle schools and both high schools, for a combined total of 7,632. Now, this next slide, actually two part slides, I like to look at this, in particular, just to look at each cohort as they change over the years. So you can follow the trend the five year trend of a cohort group. So if you're looking at the senior group, you can see their cohort number in orange as it goes diagonally down the graphic.
And if you'll go with me to the next page, you'll see our younger learners. Now you might ask, doctor Hasbroun, why are there four cells that are blank? Just as a reminder that pre k and k are not required, mandatory by the state of Indiana. Also, we don't start counting till we get the five year as it is a five year trend. But that also explains the large plus number as you can see there at third grade. And next, we'll be looking at demographic data and Doctor. Thorpe will take us through that information. Thank you. Alright. Greetings, President Norman, doctor Smith, and members of the board.
So the next part of the information is the demographic data that we have through twenty twenty five, twenty six, and most of it is just straightforward data. And so the first page is our overall district demographic data for the last ten years or so so that you can see the changes from 2013 all the way through 2025. Also notice how enrollment has increased. On the next page, it's broken down by each school for the twenty twenty five, twenty six school year. One thing to note is that the ELCs, they're all combined because they all are
under one number. So that would be of our ELCs together. And then all the other schools, you can see their demographic data and some of the changes that have taken place over the years. The next slide, it has the individual school trends and so, it's for the last five years. So we go through each school along with the ELCs and you can just see some of the changes over time. So we have Amy Beverellen, Park Crestview, all of the different schools. And then moving on from there, we have our middle schools.
You can see the differences with Belzer Middle School and Fall Creek Valley Middle School. And then both of our high schools, you can see the differences between Lawrence Central and Lawrence North High Schools. I'm gonna turn it back over to Doctor. Haas Brown. Our third and final section has our ins and outs. We talk a lot about winning the enrollment battle so this gives us particulars about where students are going to or coming from. So the first chart we'll look at is within Marion County, the other schools within Marion County. And you can see, those schools named on the left, the number of students who
have moved in and the number of students who have moved out. I will say to you this is each entry and withdrawal. It would be possible for a student to be counted more than once if they came in, went out, and came back in within this one year time period, October 1 to October 1. I'd like to point out our grand total on the lower right hand corner is plus 335. This is up 119 from last year. Nearby districts. These are districts outside of Marion County but are nearby where we have, significant numbers
or enough to count of ins and outs. And so, again, you can see the in, the out, the school district on the left, and the difference. The grand total is in the negative, negative one zero six, but I would like to highlight that this is a decreased loss. Last year, it was negative one ninety two. So we've cut that in half. You can also see some school districts who've opened boundaries and that hasn't affected us too terribly much. Next, charter schools. Our charter schools, these you can see we list several prominent charter schools and then at the bottom we have a catch all all other charters.
And, again, the same chart as in and out. This plus two fifty one as our total is up 91 from last year, so that's positive. Our next slide is our private and parochial schools. Oftentimes we know that families who select this select this at the beginning, but we do have some families who come in and out from private or parochial schools to us. So you can see those listed on the left as well as another catch all total, other schools with ins and outs. We're up plus two. Now, while that doesn't sound like a lot, this is the first we've seen in
the positive. In prior years, we've had a loss of last year it was negative nine, so that's a positive trend for us. And as we move further away from the pandemic, we see a change in desire for virtual schools. In prior years this was a loss for us. You can see virtual schools on the left as well as the other catch all title, for somewhere we just had one or two, but you can see we're up nine. Again, nine doesn't sound like a lot, but last year we were negative 52, so that is another great positive trend for us.
Now thinking about student mobility beyond just our our close neighbors, on the left hand side we have other states. These are, by far, not all of our states, but states where we have seen trends and then again, the catch all other states at the bottom, for a grand positive of one twenty three this year. That is another significant growth for us. Last year, we were at negative five net total. And then, on the right hand side you can see, countries. Countries, where students are moving in or going back, and then we also have other
countries listed as catching the ones that weren't significant enough to put a number on, we are at positive one zero one. You're gonna see in our summary slide, this is still very positive. Last year, we were over plus 500, so we can see while we're still positive, this trend is slowing somewhat. But if you were keeping up, all are positive plus one, and that's except for one, and that that's the best we've seen in several years. This next slide is not an in and out, but simply the non resident students
who sit with us right now on our ADM day, where are they coming from? Now, these could be students who've been with us several years. These could be new students. These could be students of staff members, all of the above. I just find it interesting to see, where folks are coming from, our neighbor school, and certainly if you look at some that are a little further away, a further drive, I know some of the stories myself and that's potentially a staff member's child or even a parent who is working in Indianapolis, so choosing to bring their children
with them at their commute. And so you see the grand total at the end. So, conclusions. What have we just brought you beside a lot of numbers? Well, we do want to point out that as you look from year to year, we do see the start of a decrease in pre k enrollment, which is directly connected to the decreased funding. And so, that is, of course, a grave concern to us, especially knowing how our students who begin pre k with us succeed at such a high rate on the IRE test. Another summary statement conclusion we'd to highlight is that we do see a continued increase
in enrollment of students from other countries, but you can see that that has slowed down somewhat, though it's still positive. Bullet three is my favorite. We have an increase in enrollment from Marion County schools, charter schools, virtual schools, and I didn't we didn't list private because it was so small, but also private. And so, almost without exception, a positive swing for us, from our neighbors. And finally, we always look at the difference, in free and reduced in our feeder systems and at this, for this ADM, it was 12%.
And that concludes our demographic and enrollment data and we'd be glad to entertain questions. Thank you, Doctor. Hass Brown and Doctor. Thorpebord. Are there any questions or comments? Miss Dunn. I do have several questions. So one of the things that I found to be very interesting and I'm just trying to understand is when looking at the demographic data at two of the elementary schools, so when we dig into sides ten and eleven and twelve and thirteen, I
noticed that two of the elementary schools have significantly increased their number of special education students, primarily at Brook Park. They went from 13% to 21%, and Oakland is from 10 to 21. What is attributed to this increase in special education students? I know 15% is the average, population. Go ahead, Karen. Guarantee to that. Good evening. Well, we have a few different things going on. At Oaklandon, we did open additional programming.
So we do have, functional academics as well as life skills programming there. So that has definitely, created an increase specifically at that school. And at Brook Park, we have simply just had an increase, with the needs, but we've also had an increase in our life skills classrooms. Whereas before we had one classroom, we now have two classrooms that are, that are full. And we've also had an increase in our intensive intervention program as well. How do we determine which schools have the special education program? We do try to keep it even within and around the district.
We also always have to consider space at a school, but we also always try to consider the travel time for our families as we do provide bus transportation. So those are all factors that we do consider when, looking at that committee decision. Thank you. I knew about the program in at Brook Park and I felt like there had just been something going on in Cook Landon as well, so thank you for that clarification. Thank you. Did you have a yeah. Oh, I do. I do. Okay. That's fine. That's the only special education one. Thank you very much. I also I find this to be such an just fascinating data, especially working in
one of the school districts, that has a large percentage or a large number of students that are coming, into Lawrence Township. I am curious, do we have a total number of students who, live in the district that are choosing they've never attended our district, that are choosing to attend district or school outside of our district, whether it's charter, private, or, going to another district. Because I see the ins and outs, but it'd be lovely to see overall.
Yes. We do get that information from the Department of Education. It's not yet been released. When do we get to see that? Oh, thank you, mister Kuznick. It's usually December. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And then the final, it's fascinating to see the number of students that we are receiving from other countries. I find that to be very interesting given the current political climate. And so I'm curious how we, determine whether or not students are leaving us or not. Is that their self reporting and requesting records?
Or could it be that we have students that have left, but we don't know necessarily where they have gone? So we have an entry and withdrawal report. So anytime a student enters or withdraws, we do our very best to get paperwork to verify where they are going or coming from. Yes. But we may not know. Like, there could be there could be students who are leaving, but they're not sharing with the district where they are going. Yes. And that could be and it could be a case of an unknown. These are the that we do know. Do we know what percentage of students that we have that information on?
I would have to go back. I could get that for you. Something because I would only because I we are seeing in the district where I work a decrease in our number of English learners in particular. And so just would like to see because we do this district I believe is such a welcoming amazing district for our families, especially those who are Spanish speaking. So I'm just curious of what percentage we may be losing that we don't know because they're having to leave without reporting to the school, hey, listen. I'm leaving. So I think that that's just good information to press tab.
Information. But we also have some very strong systems, miss, and mister Kuznick and my graduation team explain how because with the cohorts, we have to have that information. So how do we mitigate that and make sure we get that information, mister Coosni? Two things if I might. At the secondary level, we have to monitor any kid that leaves. Otherwise, they stay on our graduation rate. So to have a 96% graduation rate, we know where the majority of our students are going. There's usually just a handful that we sometimes don't know, and therefore they're unfortunately counted as a dropout and usually are a ding on our graduation rate.
You also mentioned English learners or multilingual learners. We had about a 150 increase from fall to fall on that number, and we stayed pretty status quo from spring to fall. So for over a year, we're about one fifty plus status quo from the past spring. A point of clarification on the cohort, they have to be within the they have to be in the township for a set number of days in order to be part of the cohort. Is that correct? Once they enroll in high school, they're on our cohort. Thank you very much. Appreciate that.
Thank you. Do you have any further questions? No. That is it. Sorry. I'm just fascinated by this demographic data. It's great. It's very, very, very positive. I think it's wonderful. Oh, miss Lawrence. Yes. I agree. It's very positive to see all of the kiddos coming into our district. And, as someone who has three kids enrolled in the school district, it makes my heart so happy to know that my children are getting an experience not just of racial diversity but also socioeconomic diversity, not listed on this, but certainly one of the
big strengths of our district. I I do have a question. Miss Lipman, this is likely for you. The decrease in preschool enrollment, especially as someone as you know, who had two my two oldest kids go through the ELC at Mary Castle, I'm I'm curious if we are seeing I'm curious, one, the trend of the the decrease in enrollment. And then, two, are we seeing additional concerns related to the government shutdown and some
of the funding that may be associated with, with those funds? For the government shutdown, we're not seeing any other issues with that. That's not causing issues. And the trend right now, we are continuing to just slowly lose families. The vouchers made a significant cut on October 5 and so, as families are now realizing what their co pays are we continue to see that number decrease. I will say, as someone who benefited from having my children in this district, a little plug for anybody who, I don't know, is randomly watching a YouTube version of
the, board meeting, it is a it is a very reasonable amount that we charge compared to other day cares in our area. And, the the educational experience that my children received as a result of going through that program was second to none. And it also made their transition then, I know we're gonna talk about kindergarten a little bit later, but it made that transition to kindergarten a much more seamless experience for them. Yes. Thank you. Thank you, miss Lawrence.
Doctor. Mulholland. I just have a short question on, slide number three with the all current non resident students. Just mentioned other and I just again a quick question on that. Is is that, that other meaning like a grouping of districts or Any anytime we have an other that meant it was in our withdrawals or our entries, but we did not report that specific place. If that's what you're referring to is all of the categories that have an other.
So what we do is we take an in and out report for the entire year and sort it and look to see which are significant to report, and then the rest we put in that other category. So you know every entry and withdrawal even if they're not all specifically named because there would be a lot of plus one, minus ones. Okay. So it's Yes. So you have the totality everything is accounted for though not named. You're welcome. I had a general question. It was regarding, does the state on the in out data, does the state track
homeschooling students or is that not reportable? There is record it. Okay. Okay. We don't have a part in it? I just They do report. Okay. There mhmm. I didn't know if there were requirements there around that. Okay. Okay. No. That's great. And then just for my own clarification of miss Lawrence's question, was the decrease in funding to the On My Way pre k program specifically, miss LaPlante?
Well, that was the beginning. Yes. On My Way pre k, they defined that benefit and so that was cut so that families, then had a co pay. But there were also cuts to CCDF as well. Okay. Okay. So, this is going to I mean we're going to discuss kindergarten soon but, correct me if I'm wrong, on the IREED data, students who had been with us since pre k had an eighty six percent pass rate. Close. Kindergarten had an eighty five percent on third grade but my favorite data point, is
that of the students who went to preschool with us, sixty five percent of them passed iREED three in the second grade. Yeah. That's amazing. So, that is where the data truly tells the story in the early investment. So, thank you. Board, any other questions or comments? I was literally gonna make that, a point of note because that's been a conversation that we've had with state leaders as it pertains to funding and advocating for our schools. So thank you for going ahead and putting that out there. I just think that is noteworthy and speaking to our resources and support.
So thank you. Yes. Thank you, everyone. If there are no other questions or comments regarding the enrollment and demographic update, thank you again. We will move on to our curriculum advisory recommendation for 2627 with mister Kuznick. Thank you, madam president, doctor Smith, members of the board. Each semester at the secondary level, we convene the Curricular Advisory Council. This year, that was led by mister Brett Krauser, our director of secondary education, and I'll turn it over to you. Thank you. Madam president, doctor Smith, members of the board, I bring to you information for an
information item on the results of the full curriculum advisory council, and ask for your approval later, for the 2627 school year for these courses. Background is, first and foremost, I'd be remiss if I do not thank those that serve on this committee and bring courses and review, the state course recommendations to make us stronger here in Lawrence Township and to align us with the new diploma as
we deploy with the class of 2029. So with that, I bring to you course number seven two eighteen, technical math. Technical math, you will see in blue here, is a class that will go right with the employment and enlistment seals. So a student would take algebra one and then have the potential to take technical math and one additional math course to earn that seal. Second course being dual language education. This is a new course offered through the state.
We currently use twenty three zero four world language immersion. And so this course will also count for the communications credit with the new diploma. Also, forty two forty six, theater art history. This is expanding our performing arts. And so right now, our current outstanding thespians that we have in our high schools. The next courses fall into our increasing and developing our graduation pathways.
So what you'll see here is a phenomenal pathway in biotech. What we're adding is the biotech regulatory affairs, which is a dual credit course through Ivy Tech for concentrator b. Again, expanding those opportunities for our students with dual credit. This will also align with a to f as we expand our dual credit offerings. The next is a full pathway. This is our social services pathway. Again, expanding on what we offer to our students at this level.
So this is the full pathway in three courses, the fundamentals of human services, community health worker, and social and community services cap Capstone is where our students are out in our community doing the work with members to, again, be in the field before they graduate high school. So with that, I open up to any questions you might have. Thank you, mister Crossor board. Any questions or comments on the curriculum recommendations? Miss Dunn. Just thank you and your team. It is impressive to see the incredible amount of offerings that the students in Lawrence
Township have. I was actually getting paints the other day and talked to a student and she was just craving about all the opportunities that she had, here in Lawrence Township. And it's just those moments when you talk to former students. And then the options are just incredible. So, thank you for your hard work and the alignment to the new graduation requirements. Very much appreciated. Thank you, Ms. Dunn. Any other questions or comments, board? I won't go into depth tonight but I would love to see, a deeper conversation about our pathways.
That's been a conversation that has conversation that has come up from a lot of parents. We had a whole parent meeting that literally talks nothing strictly about pathways and what I'm hearing is that, parents want to know more and so I know that we do a great job of getting that information out, but I would love to see a further conversation on the pathways because a lot of people didn't understand that the students from 23 to 28 are still under the current, diploma standards. You can pick either, what is it, a core 40, academic, technical, or then you
have your general. But under the pathways, which is for 29 students and beyond, then you have the two fields, which is the, Indiana graduation pathways, the main one, and then you have the plus track. And so going more into steps with that, just wanted to clarify that for parents. I look forward to maybe having more conversation about that. So but thank you. And mister Kraussor, do you have anyone here tonight from your committee that you'd like to recognize? Okay. Well, tell them thank you. Okay. Alright. Thank you. Alright. Now, we will move on to 3.8,
our kindergarten update with miss LaPlante. Thank you. President Norman, doctor Smith, members of the board, I'm pleased tonight to share an opportunity to expand kindergarten to some elementary buildings in an effort to better serve our families and our community and I do want to acknowledge and thank the ELC principals for being here as we continue to tout this wonderful data is definitely due to the hard work that they are putting in in the building. So to share a little bit of the background, the immersion preschool is going to be transitioning back to the early learning centers and so, as we look at needing
to think about space, we have an opportunity to expand kindergarten to more elementary schools. As you know, we do have kindergarten at Forest Glen, Sunnyside and Scouse Test. We know that that continues to be popular for our families and so this was a time we thought that this was something to think about in a way to support our families. Additionally, I don't know if you remember it really, only the people who this directly impacted remember, but there were changes to the early entrance law back in 2019. Used to be that there was a process for families to come to a school
district, request for their child to be tested to start kindergarten at an early age if they showed that they had some advanced skills. That changed and now it is just strictly a birth date and if you're born before the birth date you can go and if you're not then you can't go. And so, every year we always have to go. And so every year, we always have parents who have had children in preschool for three years who wanna know what else can we do and can their child go to first grade and those types of things. So what we'd like to propose is to bring some innovation to Crestview and Oakland and have two kindergarten sections at each building.
We would like to consider piloting these as high ability kindergarten sections in a way to meet the needs of those families who really feel that their children are ready for more. We actually do have, under the principals at the ELCs, we do have students who go over to first grade, sometimes to get reading or math and so we work to meet the needs but we're thinking that maybe this would be a better way to support some of those children. So students would go through an early identification process in order to be admitted. As we look at just a general timeline, this fall, we would finalize what that
identification process would be if approval is given. We would market to families and then we would gather interest inventories. We'd encourage families to sign up, let us know what it is that they want for their child and then next semester, starting in January, we would bring those children in so that we could give them, an assessment sections to finalize staffing and we would like to launch these in August 2026. Thank you, Miss LaPlante. This is good news.
Board, any questions or comments? I'm sorry. I have I do have questions. Do we you said you're finalizing the identification process. Do you know what assessment we'll be using to determine? We have not solidified. We're looking at lots of different ones. I do know for sure we're going to look at checklist options. So we're looking a little bit more at the King Gore observation inventory because we've used planned experiences as a part of what we do and so we're looking at some of the other pieces that they have as well. And then, will they will that formally identify them? Because I know Mhmm.
Through Naglejeri, Gogat, and those things, would this formally identify them as high ability? Yes. We would not retest them again. And then what would that trajectory look like? Are we choosing Crestview and Oakland and because of the high ability programming of those schools so they would seamlessly be able to continue? Correct. That would be the goal. Yes. Excellent. And I think oh, the logistics of testing was the other question. How are we gonna make sure that this is an opportunity? Because my fear is is that families that, are currently have students in preschools or
are very well aware of, schooling here will have the ability to come somewhere to go or and get tested or we can go to the preschools. But I'm concerned about those students, especially going back to those families that may not be as aware of, programming in Lawrence Township. So how are we gonna cast a really wide net so that this isn't just our affluent families that are taking advantage of this wonderful opportunity? Well, I can't speak about all of the things, but there is a wonderful grant opportunity, that we have entered into with some of our other Marion County districts that
will be about providing some preschool support in some of those areas and that will absolutely be how we build the relationships and markets. Excellent. I knew there was already a thought behind that. So thank you so much. Much appreciated. Thank you, miss Dunn. I think miss Puckett, you had did you have a question on the high ability? Okay. Yeah. Yeah. That was my question too because I know we test students in kindergarten going into first grade more high ability. So now it would just be pushed up a year earlier. Correct? For for these families. Yes. We'll still do the kindergarten assessment as well. Okay. Yes. Okay. Other questions or comments, Ward, on the kindergarten?
Just so I'm clear, so currently we offer kindergarten at our four ELCs. And then immersion kindergarten at the three immersion elementary, Sunnyside, Forest Glen, and Skiles test. Correct. Now Skiles test and Forest Glen also offer pre k. They do. But we're going to move those back to the early learning. Okay. Thank you. I, so this would be adding kindergarten options, high ability now to two additional buildings. It would.
Yes. And then making sure that our early learning centers are where all of our preschool is. Okay. Okay. Thank you for that. Alright. Well, thank you, board for the questions. Thank you, miss LaPlante. At this time, we'll move on to our action items. 4.1, the approval of the architect for the McKinsey renovation. Doctor Nesbitt. Oh, thank you madam president, members of the board, doctor Smith, very pleased to recommend Schmidt Associates for our architect architectural engineering services for the McKinsey transformation project. Thank you, doctor Nesbitt. Board, are there any questions or comments before we go to a vote?
Alright. Well, thank you for that. I'll entertain a motion. So moved. Second. Properly moved, Miss Puckett, seconded Miss Dunn to approve, Schmidt and Associates as the architect for the McKinsey Center renovation. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Alright. The ayes have it. Congratulations. Thank Thank you, madam president. I'd like to introduce, our partners. We couldn't do these, huge, projects that are so transformative for the district without great business partners. So I'll introduce I they have quite a few of them. For I'll just go left to right.
First, Ann Marie Burrell, principal in charge at Schmidt. Bill Shrewsbury, owner of Shrewsbury Associates. Jarvis Jointer, JQL, owner. Jen Carroll, project manager. Along with Ben Carroll, Crestview student. Thanks for coming out, Ben. I know you're excited. And right behind Anne Marie is Asia Coffey. She's interior design for Schmidt. They also brought the big wigs. I see the CFO, Sarah Hempstead from Schmidt, is here along with or excuse me, the CEO. And then the CFO, Brett Quandt, from Schmidt, Robin Leising. Robin's been our, construction manager on many of our projects in Lawrence.
And, of course, we all know Craig Flandemeyer, a parent as as well as spouse of an employee in the district, does landscape architect for Schmidt. Did I miss anyone with our Schmidt team on this? Okay. Thank you, guys. Everybody here. Okay. Great. Thanks so much. Alright. Thank you. We look forward to it. Thank you, doctor Nesbitt. And now, doctor Nesbitt again, we will move on to the approval of the request for the RFP for the CMC on the McKinsey Center. Thank you. We we request the board's permission to advertise for a CMC as presented. Alright. Board, any final questions or comments?
Alright. I'll entertain a motion for the CMC RFP. So moved. Seconded. Properly moved, Miss Puckett. Seconded, Doctor. Mulholland. All in favor of the request for RFP on the CMC? Aye. Any opposed? Alright. The ayes have it. Our final item, action item is 4.3. The approval of the personnel report, Miss Carla Johnson. Madam President, Doctor. Smith, and members of the board, we ask for approval of the personnel report as submitted. Thank you.
Any questions or comments before we move? Alright. If not, I will entertain a motion for the approval of the personnel reports. So moved. Seconded. Properly moved, Ms. Puckett and seconded Doctor. Mulholland. All in favor of the approval of the personnel report? Aye. Any opposed? The ayes have it. Thank you board. We're going to move on to our administrator and board comments tonight. I'll start down here, Ms. Dunn. Thank you very much. Miss Lawrence. Yeah. I I just wanna echo some of the, comments that were made earlier on the collective bargaining. I know how difficult it is, every year for our teams to come together.
We work many late nights, along with our teacher representatives, and I'm just really grateful that we were able to, secure a 2% raise for our teachers this year. It's definitely, definitely earned and I'm grateful that we're able to provide that for them. The other thing that I just wanted to comment on is this weekend, there were many things happening in this district, but not the least of which was the state marching band finals. And as a former marching band mom and as a marching band person, it was
really fun to have the opportunity to go to go and see our marching pride, do their thing at Lucas Oil. It for those of you who don't understand just how dedicated these kids are, it is hundreds of hours and also lots and lots of back and forth for parents who, are driving them to late night rehearsals and picking them up and waiting for them outside of these competitions. So, great work, Marching Pride.
Congratulations on a great season. Over to you. Thank you, Miss Lawrence. Miss Puckett? Yeah. There's been a lot said today. I don't have a whole lot to say. You know, I'm having a little emotional tidbit. So, just a reminder to everybody as life is life and in the world is worlding to, take a sacred pause to breathe. I've been really cognizant of breathing, but just what that does to your frontal court cortex when it comes to a sense of, like, just calmness, unjust as we're going day to day, you guys. Just don't forget to breathe.
It's about a conscious sense. Well said. Thank you. Doctor. Mulholland. Yes. I, it was a wonderful weekend as Miss Lawrence mentioned, starting in the morning with the academic teams and then in the evening with the state marching band finals. I won't go into my excitement as being a former marching band member myself, go front line. But, really special to see that. I actually I have to admit I teared up watching the marching bands because knowing the hard work and it's really, as I don't wanna repeat what Marta said, but we all we all see our kids do so many different things over the week.
And over the weekend, we got to see that. You know, them really shining in something that they love. And, we also got a chance to visit one of our ELCs and see see the work in person, so that when we come to the board meeting, we know exactly kind of what you're talking about. So, really grateful for, all the great work that's happening. Thank you, Doctor. Mulholland. Yes, the district, the elementary academic competition, that was well attended. That was a fun event in Lawrence. The Bears unfortunately lost in the sectional championship.
That ushers in football season. Congrats again. State? Yeah, eighth. So, well done. Well done. It's been a big weekend in Lawrence. I just wanted to to take just a quick moment, because tomorrow is Veterans Day to recognize our veterans. Also, today is the Marine Corps birthday. I'd be remiss not to recognize my dad and any other sympathies out there. So if anyone in the crowd is a, a veteran, please will turn it to Doctor. Smith. Thank you, madam president.
And will turn it to doctor Smith. Thank you, madam president and board. It was a very busy week. A lot of excitement. I attended all the events and, it was a long Saturday, but it was a joy watching and, it was a long Saturday, but it was a joy watching our students compete on every level. Not impressed, and I'm proud that we will bring a army of students at our next board meeting as that will be the recognition portion of our boards. We're gonna start early on the 06/24/1930. We have a lot of honors to bring to you as, we did we had a great fall session of athletic and academic awards, so we're excited to see that.
So that's all I have today, madam president. Thank you, doctor Smith. You gave my announcement for me so I'm good. Our next board meeting will be here Monday the twenty fourth. We will start at 06:30. Look forward to recognizing our students. We also have a special meeting on Friday due to state statute to go ahead and then vote on the raises for the CBA and for the administrators and classifieds. So at this time, I will entertain a motion to adjourn. So moved. Second. Properly moved, miss Stunn and seconded, miss Puckett.
Thank you everyone.