Let's rise for pledge allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of The United States Of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Good evening, and welcome everyone to our reorganization board meeting of Pike Township School Board. We will start off with the election of the officers beginning with the president. Do we have any nominations for president?
I go ahead. No. I nominate doctor Webster for president. Second. And mister Anderson. Alright. So we have two, nominations. Second. Did you want the second? Second. Oh, yeah. We need a second. No. What was the second person? I can I'm sorry. Point of order. Point of order. Point of order. Yeah. I just didn't I didn't So we have a nomination for, for Tony King. Go ahead and repeat your nomination, please, for the record. I'd nominate, mister, Lanzo Anderson. Alright. We have a first. Can we have any motion, sir?
Any second. Any seconds? Second. Alright. At this time, I will respectfully, decline the nomination for president. Thank you very much. Any more nominations for president? Alright. We'll move on to vote for president. All in favor for Doctor. Wester to become the next 2026 school board president, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. Doctor Wertner, congratulations. Thank you, mister Anderson. Next, we have vice president. Do we have any nominations? I nominate Alonzo Anderson. Second. Second.
I accept the num I accept the nomination for vice president. Thank you very much. All in favor we're going to vote. All in favor for myself as vice president, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? No. Motion carries. Thank you very much, board. Lastly, for our officers, we have secretary. Do we have any nominations for secretary? Miss Wilson. Miss mister chair, I nominate missus Barnes for secretary. Second. Alright. We need a second for missus Wilson. Check. I already made the nomination so I can make the second one. Okay.
I will second the nomination, for missus Wilson. Alright. We'll move on to votes. All in favor for missus Barnes, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Aye. Alright. Now, since we have the majority of the vote, we'll move on with the vote there, missus Barnes. You have the nomination. Thank you. Thank you. Alright. So that concludes our elections for the President, Vice President, and Secretary. We'll move on to Board appointments for Treasurer. We have a recommendation for Treasurer, Mrs.
Gray. For Deputy Treasurer, we have a recommendation for Mrs. Foster, oh for mister Foster. And we will select all of our appointees, then we'll vote at the end of that. So we don't go through the voting process for each single name. Okay? For our counsel, we have Marsden Thornburg, for special education law, church, Hiddle, and atrium. For ISVA liaison policy liaison. I'd like to do that, please. Alright. We have missus Barnes. Anyone else? We can have up to two. I'll take.
Okay. Alright. Next, we have the ISBA legislative liaison. I volunteer for that. Okay. Anyone else? We can have up to two. Next, we have the National Affiliate Advocate Network Advocacy Network. Alright. I will volunteer myself for that. Next we have the District Policy Committee. I'm on two. Alright. We can have up to two. Anyone else would like to sit on that committee? I'll stay. You'll stay? Yes. Okay. Lastly, we have the negotiations committee. I volunteer. Me too. You only have two? Mhmm. Yes. So you I'd like to have that issue.
I'll take it. Okay. Okay. I I I decline. You decline? Yeah. Okay. Thank you, mister. So And the president. So we have Wilson and Moore. Right. Everyone's clear on our appointments. We move on to vote on our appointments as they withstand and announce. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. Actually, that concludes our reorganization part of the meeting. Now we will start with our regular school board meeting with our new president. I would like to ask the mister chair to continue our meeting for the next
week. Alright. We have adjourned our renegotiation meeting, reorganization meeting. We will now start our regular school board meeting. First, we'll start off with our for the good of the calls, any patrons who like to use this platform, You will start off. She told me to do it. Okay. No. No problem. You start by stating your name, and you have three minutes. Oh, man. Time. My name is Mike Downs, mister president, mister past president, doctor Young, miss Pettiford.
Won't the record reflect you were always my favorite. Just write that down. Okay. My name is Mike Downs, and I am the proud parent of three Pike grads. One went to Ole Miss, so I'm gonna hurry because they kick off in twenty five minutes. All three of my kids got an education in Pike Township Schools. They graduated, went off to great universities on scholarship in some various form, and they are living their best lives. And my favorite part is they are off my payroll, so I thank you for that. I spent time setting where Ms. Wilson sat for about three of my years on the school board and enjoyed that
time too. But currently, I serve as the Pike Township Educational Foundation president, and that's why I'm here today. I continue to stay involved because I want to make sure that all Pike students get what my children got. Mr. Inman lived through my children, as did others, and I thank you for that. Two things coming up. One, I want to encourage you if you haven't yet, as a board member, if you haven't made a donation to the Township Education Foundation recently, I encourage you to do so. Doesn't have to be a lot, but it'd be great to be able to say, 100% of our school board makes a donation. So I encourage you to do that.
Number two is we have our treasures event coming up, which is our annual fundraising gala on March 7 at Broadmoor Country Club. Miss Kelly was my table mate last year. We had a good time. She's like, oh, god. I was. We had a great time. So I encourage you to come out, spend some time with the community, with members. I encourage you to maybe buy a table together or come out just as individuals if you have time and ability, or if you have people that you know could give us auction items and or some sort of donation. And if you don't wanna make those calls, miss Hoofers on the board with me and quote the temptations, I ain't too proud to beg.
So I will ask those people for you. It's gonna be a great time. Tickets are online at pike-ef pike.-ef.org. Buy early, buy often, and we'll see you all there. I look at Marty. We just finished our board meeting. We have given away so far this year over $15,000 back to Pike Township classrooms, and that's just our first two cycles. And we will look forward to about I think we gave away 77,000 in scholarships last year to Pike High School students. So the more money we raise, the more we can give back. And your teachers and our teachers and our staff are doing a great job, with
those resources, and we will grant money again in February whenever we can. So thank you. Again, you're my favorite. You wrote that down, didn't you? Good. Thank you, mister Downs. Mister chairman, I'm calling a point of privilege. There's a malfunction on my computer. Okay. I'll take a brief pause. Yeah. Okay. We can snooze this or not. I have to restart to Oh, you're Oh, I knew that.
Okay. Alright. Alright. We will carry on. Are there anyone else for the good of the cause? Again, you will start by stating your name. You have three minutes. Mister Church. Good evening, president Webster, members of school board, and doctor Young. My name is Ben Church, and I am the vice president of membership for Pike Classroom Teachers Association. On behalf of PCTA, I would like to, say thank you to doctor Young and his team for working with the teachers union during the bargaining session to come up with a fair contract that compensates our certified staff for all their hard work. PCTA appreciates the good working relationship that has been established with doctor Young and his
team. After the bargaining session, PCTA was informed that our contract back pay and our salary increase would be paid out in February. I wanna give a shout out to miss Gray and her payroll team for working hard to get those payments to staff members sooner. Her team was able to get that pay out, in December before we went on winter break. During the general assembly, session last spring, many of you worked with PCTA to advocate for our students. You hosted community forums to inform the citizens about education and how policy changes were going to harm our district. You came out and protested with us to ensure our students get the best.
Thank you for your dedication to this community and your passion to improve things. Unfortunately, there were policies forced onto our all schools that are not good for students. We look forward to working with you again during this session to promote pro public education policies across the state. Thank you for speaking up for the children. We need to continue to advocate for safe, nurturing, supportive, fully funded schools to give our children the best opportunity for success. Thank you. Thank you, mister Church. Is there anyone else for the good of the cause? Alright. We'll move on to spotlight on Pike. Miss Sarah Dorsey.
Good evening. It's wonderful to see you all. I hope you had a happy holiday and you're having a wonderful New Year. We don't stop here, and we had a lot of great things happen even over break. You may know there's another game going on this evening. So we're excited about that. Our wrestlers are in action over at the high school. Our RDTV students are streaming that. They've been streaming a lot more recently, so that's just been a great way for them to get experience and for us to share Pike excellence with the community. In addition, our swimmers did an amazing job at county with many earning county championships.
We're gonna share that in our PikeProud and via our social media, so please keep an eye out for that. In addition, our dancers, had some first place finish it finishes at their first competition of this season. We had girls basketball success, boys felt like it's amazing. So please look for fight proud in our social media to see all that. But what I wanna briefly talk about is, something that happened yesterday. So Pike High School and specifically in this instance, Toria Buckley, who is our college and career resource center coordinator, often have alumni come back to speak to our students.
And yesterday, we had two alumni come back. One of them is a sophomore at Yale, and the other is a sophomore at IU. And they talk to our current students as well as a student journalist at Pike High School who is writing a story about it and our RDTV staff, student staff about their experiences. And I think the overwhelming sense of pride that you received from being in the room and listening to their story to their belief in themselves and their appreciation for
the possibilities, and the strengths of our community, specifically, our graduate who is at Yale said that she believes after being at Yale that Pike students are the perfect profile for Yale students. She encouraged the students in attendance to be themselves and tell their story because that's what colleges are looking for. She talked about her study abroad experience where she received $15,000 and studied in London. She talked about her asset management internship at JPMorgan. She talked about having professors who are, Nobel Prize recipients, who are former prime ministers,
and she talked about how she felt so well prepared to be at those tables and in those conversations. Zero imposter syndrome because her experience at Pike prepared her to talk to any and everyone and feel like she belong in that space. And when I tell you, both of those students said, we're actually getting paid to attend college. And they also said, we want to help Pike. We want to talk to current students. We want to support this school district. We wanna be involved. And that was amazing. And it's just a testament really to the great job our schools and our educators
are doing and, honestly, our students and our families. I could not be more pipe proud, and I just wanted to share that. Thank you, miss Dorsey. Next, we have reports to the board starting off with our twenty first century out of school learning grants. Miss Hardeman. Good evening, board president, members of the board, Doctor. Young. I'm I'm here tonight and I'm very excited about the opportunity to to introduce to you, miss, Christine Balick and miss Mindy King. They're here to share the work that we've been doing with our twenty first century community learning center grant.
And we have a long history with this program. And tonight, miss Balick from c I a s c who facilitates the grant alongside of Pike Township or myself and miss King from Limelight Analytics who is our external program, evaluator are here to share some more detail. So I'm gonna turn the mic over to them. Thank you for the opportunity. Good evening, mister president, members of the board, and doctor Young. Good evening. My my name is Christine Balick. I work at at CISC. I am the director of community programs.
I have been fortunate to manage the twenty first century after school programs in Pike Township for fifteen years. These are federally funded four year grant programs. They allow us to provide Pike students with a safe, caring environment focused on academic remediation and diverse enrichment activities that include STEM, art, music, and mentoring. I I think a lot of our program success is due to the fact that we employ Pike employees. A lot of our instructional assistant media, instructional IAs, media assistants, nurses, they provide the
continuity from the school day to at the after school program. We employ Pike teachers to provide the tutoring piece of our program that happens on Mondays and Wednesdays, and we also recently have started employing Pike High School students. These students have actually attended the programs in the elementary schools and now full circle are now working the program. So, we're proud to do that. As you see on the board there, this is a typical schedule. The students leave the school day.
They have supper from Chartwells, and then they start their day with either homework help, tutoring, or community partners come provide enrichment activities for them. Currently, we are in five elementaries and Pike High School. Over the past fifteen years, we've been present in nearly every single building in the district, serving thousands of students. CISC remains deeply committed to our partnership with Pike, supporting the district through whether that be through Indiana online, driver's ed, professional development with keep Indiana learning or comprehensive grant
management such as the twenty first century program. Mindy Hightower is now gonna speak, about the evaluation piece of that grant. Mindy? Good evening, mister president, members of the board, and doctor Young. My name is Mindy Hightower King. I'm with Limelight Analytics, which is an evaluation and measurement firm located in Bloomington, Indiana. And I have been fortunate enough to be, the evaluator the external evaluator for the Pike twenty first Century Community Learning Centers initiative for around seven years. Most people would say working with data shouldn't necessarily be a pleasure, but as a
Hoosier and as a mom, anytime I see really high quality educational practices in place, it's pleasurable. So I do wanna say that as well. I work alongside Danielle Savinski who, works with me at Limelight Analytics. And in addition to formal education program evaluation, we also work with various entities on performance measure, all kinds of data collection, and data visualization as part of our repertoire as well. We work in the areas of youth development, including very specific educational areas dedicated to
math, reading, and stem, but we also do work in evaluating early childhood education and public health and health interventions as well. So our background is a bit broad, and I've been working with program evaluation for just about twenty seven years now, so lengthy as well. The Indiana Department of Education actually has very specific requirements for external evaluators of twenty first century programs. Each program that's funded by the state is required to have someone external. So what that means is that the entity providing the out of school time support
doesn't do their own evaluation. That third party should bring expertise, but also an objective I as well. The work that I do and the funds that I am paid actually come from the grant that's provided by the Indiana Department of Education by way of the US Department of Education. So Pike actually while I work for Pike Township, Pike doesn't actually have to pay me unless there are funds to provide out of school time programming. The standards for the evaluation are largely set by the Indiana Department of Education. They involve on-site visits, quantitative data analysis, and progress towards academic, social, as well as
family engagement performance measures. All of which represent important program outcomes, not just for Pike Township, but for these kinds of programs across the entire state. The approach to twenty first century program evaluation is multi tiered in Indiana in some ways that it isn't in all states. Not every state prioritizes local program evaluation where schools and community based organizations have expertise from an evaluator to help them use their own data to plan and celebrate success
and identify opportunities for change. But Indiana prioritizes that, and it's been a bold move at the state, and I hope it continues as well. Indiana uses the results of the evaluation that come from all the local programs to identify professional development and other funding decisions. And advocacy groups like the Indiana After School Network also use it to help advocate for this kind of opportunity moving forward. At the federal level, the US Department of Education does have a long history of using twenty first century evaluation results as well.
Those results are presented to congress through annual GPRA performance measures. And at the national level, the after school alliance also uses the data to expand public awareness and mobilize resources to support out of school time learning as well. We're getting ready to start the site visits to Pike Township. I always look forward to visiting your program sites. And the things that we look for are identified and aligned with the Indiana afterschool standards. That's actually a thing. And you can you can find them on the website for the Indiana afterschool network. We are looking at specific elements of program delivery, academic enrichment, the ways youth are
engaged, and then the positive relationships that actually develop between the staff and the students who attend those programs. We use a rubric, and each site and there each site gets a report back on their site visit to provide feedback on the extent to which they're implementing high quality program practices. At the end of the school year, we'll prepare a formative or a or an a report that is meant to be somewhat formative but includes outcome data for each of the program sites that are served by the program. We'll be these program reports are available publicly, and you can ask to see them.
We can provide more information on that. But in each one, we detail attendance trends, who attends, how often do they attend, what are the characteristics of students who attend, Because you all have set some priorities about who you're hoping to attract to those programs. We wanna make sure you're fulfilling that. We also look at outcomes that are related to academic, social, and family engagement measures. And then finally, teachers, parents, and participants in those programs all complete surveys to provide both feedback on the programs, but also information on the extent to which they are
benefiting from the program as well. So So that will all be detailed in those reports. We look forward to preparing those for you each year. I think that's all I have. Mhmm. Maybe there's questions. I don't know if there's time. But if there are, I'm happy to take them. Absolutely. Are there any questions? Any questions or comments? Alright. Great job, mister. Okay. Thank you so much. Thank you very much. Thank you. Great job. Next, we have the superintendents above and beyond award recognition, doctor Hunter. Thank you, mister president, member of the board, doctor Young. We are excited tonight to have our superintendent above and beyond award, and we will
bring up miss Rameka Graham the proud, principal of the great Deer Run Elementary School. Thank you, Doctor. Hunter. Good evening, Mr. President, members of the Board, and Doctor. Young. This evening, I am honored to recognize two members of my Exceptional Learners team. First, I would like to recognize miss Courtney Perry for the superintendents above and beyond award. Miss Perry serves as an exceptional learners instructional assistant at Deer Run Elementary working primarily with fourth and fifth grade students. She is someone who is always willing to step in and assist whenever needed.
This recognition is in honor of Miss Perry's unwavering support for one of our fourth grade students who is an English language learner. This student joined us last year from Chile with limited English proficiency and significant medical needs. Today he is vibrant, communicates effectively in English and confidently advocates for himself. He frequently requests miss Perry support because of the trust and connection she has built with him. Each year our fourth graders participate in a swimming field trip.
Due to the student's medical needs, we reached out to the family to see if a parent could attend so he could participate, participate safely. Unfortunately, neither parent was able to do so. His excitement quickly shifted to comments like, I didn't want to go anyway. Miss Perry immediately came to see me and said that she would attend the field trip and get in the water to support him. When we shared this with the family, they were elated because of miss Perry's willingness and thoughtfulness. This student was able to participate in experience swimming for the first time alongside his
peers. Miss Perry's actions ensured access, inclusion and belonging. She did more than provide support. She removed the barrier and created a moment of joy and confidence that this student will carry with him always. This is the very definition of going above and beyond and we are proud to recognize miss Perry this evening.
Great job. That's awesome. I'm crying. Bless your spirit. Mister Anderson. Mister Anderson. You had your tissue? We have tissues. Amen. Bless your spirit. That's my baby. He's cracking jokes too. Ready? Beautiful. Thank you. Now, if you thought that gave you tears, I'm about to try to hold it on this one. Secondly, I would like to recognize miss Adrienne Kelly. Miss Kelly serves as one of my three, of our three exceptional learners teacher and
she is truly a gem. Always willing to assist, especially in areas that other might deem challenging. This recognition is for what miss Kelly did for one particular family. Earlier this year we had a student enroll at Deer Run as a homebound student receiving care at Riley's Children Hospital. Miss kelly frequently offered to support students receiving homebound instruction in this situation was no different except this student had not been in school for some time and had only been receiving education virtually.
Miss Kelly took it upon herself to ask the hospital if she could come in person to provide instruction. With everyone in agreement, she began visiting the student at the hospital. The excitement this this child showed each time miss Kelly arrived was truly remarkable. Miss Kelly also worked closely with the hospital staff to arrange virtual virtual classroom visits and supported the bear in the chair program, ensuring the student remained connected to her peers. Even on days when the nurse shared that the student has struggled throughout the day,
she never wanted to miss her time with miss Kelly. As the student began her transition, the family specifically requested that miss Kelly be present. What miss Kelly provided to the student in her family in her final days went far beyond instruction. She offered comfort, consistency, dignity, and love. The level of compassion, dedication, and humanity cannot go unrecognized. Miss Kelly, you truly exemplify what it means to go above and beyond and what
you gave that family, that mom still reaches out to her today for a level of support because she knew that she cared. And tonight, I wanna recognize you. I want your autograph. Thank you. Next, we'll move on to our action items starting off with action item a. Minutes of the Board of Education regular meeting 12/11/2025. The motion to accept the minutes. So moved, mister President. Thank you. Got the first and second. We'll move on to vote. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. Thank you. Next, we have district performance goals.
Doctor Young. Thank you, mister vice president. Mister president, members of the board, I recommend approval of the 2025, twenty twenty six district performance goals as presented. I'm So moved. Second. We have a first and a second. Do you have any questions or comments? I'll make a comment that we will, be looking to do a work session on this. So then that way, we can get a little bit deeper dive into Mhmm. You know, exactly what we're looking at. Alright? I guess the only other comment I have, and I know we've talked about it,
I'd love to see these move to more the beginning of the school year to go through half of the school year with, you know I know we have goals, but if it gives that appearance, I think that would be a wonderful thing for us to look to do and to create that work session. Yeah. Definitely. I agree. Yeah. Mhmm. Any more questions or comments? We'll move on to vote. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. Thank you, doctor Young. Thank you. Next, we have the approval of the Board of Education Policies. Doctor Bishop. Good evening, mister president, members of the board. This evening, I ask for excuse me.
I lost my grand thought. I request your permission your oh my gosh. I've totally lost it. Approval. Thank you. I request your approval of action item c, approval of the board of education second. Are there any questions or comments? If not, we'll move on to vote. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. Thanks, doctor Bishop. Thank you. Next, we have the human Motion carries. Thank you, doctor Bishop. Next, we have the human resource report.
Doctor Hunter, due to the confidentiality of the human resource report, we won't ask any questions or comments. Doctor Hunter? Mister president, members of the board, doctor Young, we request your approval of the HR report as presented. Go ahead. Go ahead. I move that we accept the HR report as presented. Second. First and the second, we'll move on to vote. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. Thank you, doctor Hunter. Thank you. Next, we have approval to accept the IAAQLI. Miss Hartman. That's a lot of letters. Board president, members of the board, doctor Young, I am requesting approval to accept the
IAAQLI grant as presented. I hope we accept the grant as presented. Second? Well, first and the second. Are there any questions or comments? If not, we'll move on to vote. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. Thank you, miss Hartman. Thank you. Next, we have request to accept bid FFE package for, Deer Run and Middle Schools. Mister Gruber. Thank you, mister president, members of the board, doctor Young. I'm seeking your approval of action item f, which is to accept the bid, the
lowest responsive and responsible bidder for the furniture, package at Deer Run-in the Middle Schools. Mister president, I move that we, accept the request to accept bids for the FFE package for Deer Run-in the middle schools. Alright. Second. We have a first and a second. Are there any questions or comments? I have one comment. I'm glad that the bid that we are accepting actually came under budget. Nice job. Thank you. Any more questions or comments? Alright. We'll move on to vote. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries.
Thank you, mister Gruber. Lastly, I'd like to combine action items g and h contracts and donations. Miss Gray. Good evening, mister president, members of the board, and doctor Young. I request your approval of action items g, which include two contracts, and h, which include four donations as presented. So moved. Second. We have a first and a second on the approval of contracts and donations, action items g and h. Are there any questions or comments? If not, we will move on to vote for action items g and h. All in favor, say aye.
Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. Thank you, miss Gray. Lastly, for comments, Doctor. Moore. Congratulations to all newly elected officers. President, Vice President, Secretary. I would like to, make a comment on the past president. He took our board in an area, this year, that dealt with the climate of our district. And, I wanna compliment him on, looking at the climate of the district and the
board for voting for that type of climate. I would hope that our new president will, take care of the unfinished business of that particular climate. If not, we will do our best to help you get that done, because there are a lot of, things that need to be done, that, based on the information we gather. And I hope that you will not, mister president, coming in, allow that to be moved, down, the can kick down the road.
I think it needs to be addressed so we can get the right type of climate, for our our district. And, I was, really impressed when, our past president was talking about, the love for our teachers and administrators, and that's why the climate situation was very much important. Some, don't think the climate is that important, but, wherever where wherever toxicity is, you're not going to get the production that you need. And so, I hope that you would consider, getting us to the end of that
particular piece. Thank you. Thank you, doctor Moore. Miss Wilson. I have a mask on at least six, so just bear with me. But, I wanna first say, I'm glad to see everyone here, say, from the 2025 and that you're here for 2026. Pike seems to be moving in a direction of excitement, not just academically, but, sports wise. And we've got so many different aspects of our of our schools that is showing so much promising, and it's exciting to be in the Pike District.
As we have our challenges with what's going on in Minnesota and the challenges that face our own our own students and their fears of what Minnesota is going through is that we hover around our students and make them feel that, you know, we are here to do what we need to do, but we also have to realize that we can't put ourselves in harm's way because it can always be it could be just as detrimental. And then third and last of all, because I am a sports net. Good job, girls, and winning the county and being number one in the state in
girls basketball, and our boys are doing just as great. And that, tennis guys, they, I mean, the swim guys are doing great. Do you have, girls, wrestling? And I do want to tell that they're listening. I do plan to come because it's a it's a it's a it's a thing to see girls do something that they were not, they say, equipped to do. So it's gonna if you haven't had opportunity to to get to any of these events, don't go there just for the game. Go there for the camaraderie that you will see the community come together as.
Thank you, miss Wilson. Mister Hoover? Alright. Well, first, obviously, wanna welcome everybody back from break. Hopefully, everybody got a lot of rest, a lot of relaxation, stayed healthy. Most people stayed healthy. And, so but in to the, the teachers, miss Perry and miss Kelly, that won the above and beyond tonight, I mean, every time those are presented here, it is clearly the cream of the crop. It it is outstanding. So it doesn't take anything away from everyone. But, you know, sometimes Michael Jordan steps on the court, and I'm just you know,
you have to acknowledge whenever people have done such exceptional things. And if you can listen to those two stories and not get a little teared up, you need to check your soul. So, just really appreciate those teachers. Also really appreciate, so sliver of proud moment for me. So when miss, Dorsey was talking about the young lady from Yale that spoke at first the college and career center, she was a young lady that I had the opportunity to help coach in middle school whenever I was doing that, and she we've maintained a relationship.
I actually got to go visit her at Yale, like, a couple years ago, and little birdie told me she was gonna be there. So appreciate the opportunity to come in and listen to her talk to the kids the students. Sorry. And was so blown away. Everything miss Dorsey said, I won't repeat it. That that was all so true. She also gave a ton of credit and and encouraged the students listening to her to apply for the the PTEF grants. And most of them were like, what's a PTEF? And so she explained it. And, so, so, you know, she even getting all the scholarship she got from Yale,
she saw the value in those that she received and and wanted to encourage the students. So, that was great. I love seeing that. Unfortunately, the other gentleman, Priest, I had to leave before he gave his talk. We got to talk to him a little bit beforehand. And he he is pursuing a career in a field where what he told me was, I just wanna find the area I can do it in and maintain my ethics. And that, to me, said everything and said everything about the education and the thought that, you know, Pike prepared for him to have putting in as he's, you know,
pursuing his, his career. And so just two outstanding young people. One, I have a a special affinity for. And then lastly, they was mentioned already about the legislative session. This time, this is, you know, the small session. So there's less stuff going on, but there is stuff going on. And, among the bills, I don't have the number directly in front of me, but it one of the bills that's being presented would from you know, to get the legalese, it's a little hard to understand, but the summaries I'm understanding would essentially eliminate
property tax. That is massively detrimental, and that is where school funding comes from, from the communities. And so, you know, they're saying there are ways they could they will not fill that gap. We know they won't. So just for those anyone listening, as you're considering your votes, as you're considering all of those things, who we put in the state house matters. It matters in your local community. The national stuff is frustrating. This stuff directly hits home. And so consider those things consider those things when you're calling your senators and your
state representatives, and and advocate for policies that are going to help your local community and not hurt them. So That's my Thank you, mister Hoover. Miss Kelly. Welcome back. Happy 2026. We are in it to win it. Mhmm. And, Pike proud. And, again, we're supporting all the students, teachers, looking forward to a great semester finishing this year strong. Excited to be back. Excited for all the work that is before us and looking at getting done what
needs to be done to keep our district top. And just make us stay where we are, keep us where our students are excelling and exceeding on the court, in the classroom, in all ways. So we're creating scholar athletes, not just athletes, scholar athletes, and wanting to have them continue to achieve their best. Thank you, miss Cutler. Miss Barnes. Happy New Year to everyone. Happy 2026 fresh start. I certainly encourage everyone to support PTEF.
It's a great organization. I've had, lots of interactions with them. So it's it's a good investment to make that maybe part of your 2026 resolution or promise or however you want to frame it to make a monthly donation, all of that accumulates over time. I also want to thank, our other donors on our list, congratulate our teachers, who are honored this evening, and to say thank you to just our administrative team in general. The grants that have come across our desk in the last six weeks alone amount
to millions of dollars that are going into our children. And that's astonishing. It's it's staggering to think of just all the work, the letters, the writing, the editing, all the things you have to do to make that happen. And this board member absolutely appreciates it as well as the rest of us. Thank you. Thank you, miss Barnes. Mister president, one Yes, sir. As as if if I may, mister president, with with, in conjunction with miss Barnes, I think it was mister Inman on the Lilly's, grant.
Am I right? Did did a lot of work on that grant, the last grant we received. The The large one? Well, it was a A combination. Yes. It was a combination. A combination. The team, I think, the the team needs to be recognized Mhmm. In that area, I think sometimes we we forget about we celebrate what we receive, but we never celebrate those The team. Who put it together. Mhmm. For us to receive it. So is the team here? And and doctor Moore, that that is coming down the pipe. So, we appreciate that. We'll we'll we'll be doing a presentation on on that coming up.
And and, also, missus Hoffman you all know, but I don't know. So thank you. Missus Hoffman, was our grant writer, for that. Yeah. It's always and pipe is always a team effort. Yeah. Nice. Doctor. Young. Thank you. Mister vice president, well, I would definitely concur. I wish mister Graham would give me a heads up because, yeah, it was tough. It was tough to hold it together. Just so proud of those educators and what they've done for our students and our families. Real quick, today, I had an opportunity to serve in the audience for a Shark
Tank event where our fifth grade teachers allowed their students and teams to present business ideas to a group of sharks, which were was mostly comprised of district administrators. So, so proud of those students, as well as the educators and thankful that they provide those opportunities for our students. It was outstanding. Very, very proud moment. Thank you. Thank you. And before we go to doctor, Webster, I will make my final comments as president,
and I'd like to thank my each and every one of my fellow board members, for your support in the last two years. I've learned a lot. You've you've, we hadn't always agreed, especially doing the intense fellowships. Mhmm. But we always have the common goal is for our district. And I'm excited, about what we're going to do in 2026, especially as it pertains to our climate survey, because our goal is to and it's gonna be a regular thing, but our goal is to, when we have another one later this year, that
it will be a 180 degree turn because that's important to us. Administration, our teachers, our bus drivers, everyone from from us all the way down, you're on the front lines of education every day. And so it's our job to make sure that we create and perpetuate a climate, and that's conducive. It can all work in harmony. And I look forward, and I'll be first to admit, I look forward to the next president coming in who I will admit that is greater than I to be able to leave this district. So congratulations again, doctor Webster, for your presidency, and I look forward to working with
you and fixing everything that we have moving forward. And thank you very much. Thank you. Doctor Webster. Thank you, mister vice president. Again, on behalf of the entire board and our administration, we say thank you for your leadership, in the district as well and our children. Thank you for your leadership that you have provided for us over the last couple of years. Been a privilege to walk alongside of you as the vice president and give, not just only let you bounce things off, but also give some counsel to as well.
And it's not just me, but I'm sure that all of us on this board has, been able to, share with you. I wanna thank the board for all the value that you bring to us, all of you. All of us have value in our own unique ways. And and I look forward to working together with the entire board as we continue to chart the pathway for our district and for our children and for the families. And with that said, we'd like to take a motion to dismiss. So moved, mister New President. Second. Muteen stand adjourned.