Yeah. I actually like I'm going on a Wednesday.
You choose yes. I've never done two weeks before. It's maybe definite. No. Well, Eileen, it will tell you, like, last updated in eight minutes. I sent it to Jennifer, and she was like, Okay.
Mister Holly, you never find me in the door. Bishop, how are you? This is about five minutes, please, Lord. It's better to talk about five minutes. Smile, everybody. It's the last day before spring break. I'm tired. I need spring break. This. Okay. Alright. Alright. Miss Barnes, is that two for everybody? Awesome. Are you ready? Awesome. Whenever you're ready. Okay. Are you ready? Under god, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.
Good evening, and welcome to our regular MSD Pike Township School Board meeting, 03/26/2026. Before we get started tonight, we do have a a change in our agenda on the HR report, and I would like to obtain a motion to detach the AD, and vote it separately. Second. Point of order.
There must be a motion for me. I move. Oh, second. We gotta move in a second. Okay. Moving second that we detach our AD, assistant AD and voted separately. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed. Thank you. We're on to a good cause. If anyone have any thing that they wanna share for the good of the cause, please step up and share. Take state your name in three minutes. No good of the cause, then we're on the spotlight on pipe.
Miss Dorsey. Good evening. It's wonderful to see you all again. Good evening. As always, we've had a lot of really wonderful things happening since we last met. Today was a great day in Pike. Mister McClain's four year old class at the Nathaniel Jones Early Learning Center invited their families to join them to commemorate their achievement of becoming published authors of their class book, Alpha Buddies four. It was a packed house, and the students and their families were beaming with pride. Mister McClain does such an amazing job.
He had the student work displayed. He had examples of the book that the families will be able to purchase. He had a whole March madness spread. It was amazing. On the other end of the educational spectrum, Pike High School hosted their career speaker and, college fair day today, and it featured an inspiring alumni panel for our seniors. It was absolutely amazing. There are some parents that should be very proud of our speakers, and I think it was very beneficial for our seniors to hear how your path to success does
not have to be perfect to be purposeful, and that, came through loud and clear. So we're just so grateful for everyone who gave their time to return and share their experiences. They also held their annual prom fashion show during lunch, and they ended the day with their annual student faculty basketball game, which the students won. And that's the first time in, I think, three years that they won. So that was a major upset, but it was a great day all around. Yeah. It it was very competitive if you were there. Well, we heard that the student had their own referee.
Well, I mean, our girls' basketball players did a great job with the rest. There were some things going on with the clock. There were some They were students. They were students. They beat our parents up. I mean, our We ain't gonna give them no clue. Up. I'm not giving the knife. It was fun. I will say that. It was And I must stay neutral. We're extremely excited to celebrate coach Keith Holland, who was named the IBCA District two Coach of the Year. As a Pike High School class of of 2007 alum and educator. Yes. And a coach who served in Pike since 2009.
Coach Hollins truly embodies what it means to be Pike proud. He is dedicated to the success of our Pike students on and off the court. And we are so happy to congratulate him on this well deserved recognition. And we wanna congratulate Kamari Booker who was selected to the twenty twenty six Indiana all star. She'll compete against Kentucky all stars on June 5 and June 6. She, Alana Devine, and coach Hollins were also chosen to participate in the twenty first annual Hoosier Hoosier gym all stars game on April 25. Coach Williams and coach Barlow will participate as assistant and honorary coaches in that game
as well. Malia Evans and Savaya Mitchells were selected to play in the Indiana basketball all star classic future prospect game, and Saniya Smith will play in Indiana basketball all star classic junior game, and those games, are scheduled to take place on June 20 at Anderson University. Our Pike High School athletic director, Kendra Champion McAloon, was formally recognized for her selection as the double I triple a district athletic director of the year at a banquet that was held on March 22. And we're just extremely grateful to her for all students.
We We wanna congratulate Georgia Shucecki who signed a letter of intent to continue her academic and soccer career at DePauw University yesterday. We're extremely proud of her. Our Pike High School best buddies will be participating in the best buddies friendship walk again this year. That will take place on Sunday, April 19 at Victory Field Stadium, and you can support them in one of two ways. You can either join their tank their team or you can, contribute to their fundraising goal. As an added incentive, any donations made before Friday, March 28 will assist our team
in their March Madness face off bracket challenge, which just happens to be against the Ben Davis ninth grade center. So please support our best buddies. Sorry, miss Barnes. Because you know I'm the advisor of that show. It is all love. It's all love. It's all love. Last but never least, we'd like to recognize the donors listed on this evening's agenda. Common Ground Christian Church donated milk and eggs for our Pike Bread Zone food pantry worth an estimated value of 1,000 or I'm sorry, a $166.67.
Girl scout troop nineteen seventy nine under the guidance of Tiffany Witherspoon donated hygiene items and two boxes of girl scout cookies to the Pike Red Zone food pantry worth an estimated value of $300 The Pike Township Educational Foundation donated $2,862 to fund grants at East Brook and Pike High School, and Allen and Sally Mills, donated again $3,000 this year to support our twenty twenty six teacher celebrations. And we're extremely grateful to all of our, donors for their support and generosity.
Thank you. Thank you, miss Dorsey. We are on to reports to the board, alumni excellence, doctor Young. Doctor Larry Young. Thank you, mister president, members of the board. This evening during our alumni excellence time, we would like to recognize missus Carrie Hamilton. She's a 1989 grad from Pike High School. She's also a state legislator and a champion for public education. Hi. I'm Carrie Hamilton. I'm a state rep on the North Side Of Indianapolis.
I've been in the legislature for ten years, and I'm a proud Red Devil Pike High School grad of 1989. After I graduated Pike, I thought I was going to go to Indiana University right away, but instead, I was able to go to a small school in Florida. For two years, I went to Florida Southern College. But I realized I didn't have enough areas of study, anything that I was really interested in. So I did transfer to Indiana University and at IU, that's when I discovered my passion for environmental policy. I was able to, have an internship at the Hoosier Environmental Council, which led right
into a really wonderful first real job at the Indiana Department of Environmental Management, which led to, a job in local government when I moved to California with my husband when he pursued law school. And then I took the next five years to run my own business. I had an environmental consulting business. We were in Indianapolis, again, having moved, and I decided to, jump in to a nonprofit world and take over a small nonprofit here in Indianapolis called the Indiana Recycling Coalition.
And for ten years, I had the privilege of running that organization. I grew it from a very small grassroots organization to a professionally staffed statewide organization. And that was really my first exposure to the state house, working on policy for the Indian Recycling Coalition. And I came to understand that I was passionate about a wide range of policy topics, not just environmental issues, but certainly, human health and the environment, but also, you know, early learning and support for families and affordable childcare.
A range of issues I've worked on in my time here, and it's been incredibly rewarding. Leading into my junior year, an upperclassman I was talking to said, you know, you ought to consider running for student government. And I really hadn't thought about that before. It was a little scary to me to run for something like that, but I did. And junior and senior year, I served as student government, and that was, you know, as you can imagine now, serving the legislature, that was certainly, opening my eyes to opportunities that I have not about before. I love to work, you know, doing projects for the school, leading efforts, was very
rewarding. Unfortunately, my senior year, I got mono, and so I wasn't able to enjoy all the work I had done planning for homecoming. But, you know, that's life. Right? And then I also I was a cheerleader all four years. Cheerleading is a team sport and it truly is a sport. And we trained every week throughout the season and went to every football game and every basketball game and cheered our hearts out and made me more of the community that I wouldn't have been otherwise. It was a really, really good experience. Really good experience. As we stand here in the Indiana House of Representatives and I think about my
work over the last ten years in this building, I am concerned about public education and seemingly eroding support for public education in this policy arena. And, you know, my education at Pike was tremendous. The opportunities and exposure I had, the education I received were top notch. My kids went to North Central High School just down the road from Pike, another great North Side Indianapolis diverse public school with incredible opportunities. And so to, you know, any parents watching this, students currently getting a great Pike
education, I just want to encourage you to lift up the value of public education, decades in our state, truly strong, high quality education for all of our kiddos in our community, and we need to keep that in our communities and and continue to support strong public education in India. Representative Hamilton wasn't able to be here this evening because of her schedule. So at this time, I will turn it over to the board for any comments. Comments? Board? Any comments? Well, I would like to thank the representative for taking the time to, to show
to continue to show that, Pike is the gift that our community and people that that attend here didn't know that they need it. So thank you. Yep. I had the privilege of meeting Representative Hamilton last year, probably in January, February time frame. Her and Representative Cadore were hosting a town hall over actually in one of the North Central schools. And I just wanna, one, thank her for continuing to stand up for public education. We certainly need more of that at the State House downtown. And so it's a reminder also this time of year as we move into another
election for everybody who may be watching this, that your vote really does have a critical impact on your local schools. So please continue to put representatives downtown that will support public education. Thank you, mister Cook, for any comments. Alright. If nothing else, then we'll move on to exceptional learners, missus Jennifer Cohen. Alright. Good evening, mister president. Good evening. Members of the board and Doctor. Young with one of my glasses, realizing I need these now. Tonight, I'm thrilled to come before you all to share some of the highlights related to our work in the exceptional learners department here in Pike.
This year, we have increased in our special education population again to 1,960 students, which equates to almost a 10% increase in one year alone. Most of the increase is being seen in the elementary and the middle schools. However, each day, over 200 teachers and instructional aids arrived to all of our buildings. This includes 87 teacher records, a 120 instructional aids, and roughly 30 therapists. That includes our occupational therapists, our physical therapists, our SLPs, and our, school psychologists.
So you can see here, this is just a quick graph to kind of show you the the increase. Over the past three years, we've seen a significant increase in students receiving special education services, while total enrollment in Pike has remained relatively stable. We've almost doubled in size in the life skills seats at the elementary level in the past three years alone. However, speaking with other directors in the area, that includes Hamilton County, Hendricks County, that does seem to be a a trend that's happening in Indiana. I'm hearing that elsewhere as well nationally. So it's something that's not exclusive to Pike. So in Pike, all the schools in the district service students with resource needs, speech,
occupational therapy, and physical therapy needs, as well as as well as visual impairment and deaf and hard of hearing needs. For students with more significant behavioral needs, we have self contained behavior supports classrooms at Snacks Crossing, New Augusta South, all three middle schools, and at the high school. The classroom at Snacks Crossing is specially designed to offer a full time mental health therapist in addition to the teacher and the instructional assistants in the classroom. The students have a mental health diagnosis in addition to behavioral needs as as outlined in their IEP, And there is a focus of trying to move students out of
that restrictive of a placement into the general ed population. I'm pleased to report that both last year and this year, we've been able to move a couple of students into the general education environment with resource report support. So that was excellent. Very excited about that. Some students in Pike are receiving alternative curriculum due to participating in the alternative assessment instead of iLearn. There are self contained classrooms supporting that curriculum at the elementary level at both at Central, Fishback Creek, Eastbrook, Eagle Creek, and new this year at College Park.
At the middle level, it's at Lincoln and at Dustin North and then also at the high school. Functional academics has been at the secondary level at Lincoln and Pike High School for the past several years. Last year, we designated two classrooms at the elementary level at both Eagle Creek and at Central. So what's new in 2526? As previously shared, our life skills population continues to grow. So this year, we realized when school was starting that we need to open we we started planning actually over the summer, but we needed to to open two more classrooms, and we decided to open those at College Park Elementary School.
These life skills classrooms are designed to have a lower adult to student ratio and provide the opportunity for students to receive their learning in that smaller setting. We're also very excited about the second sport that is now being offered through the unified sports program that missus champion McAloon brought to the district. If you want to have an immediate pick me up, head to any of our unified sports events. They are guaranteed to bring a joy and a sense of true community for anyone participating and even for spectators. Alright. So I'm gonna take a minute to highlight the resource program in the district.
Resource is a model where a special education teacher or staff member will either push into the general education classroom or in some cases, pull the student out to the resource room to work on specific skills that are identified in the student's IEP. A few years ago, under the leadership of doctor Gatewood at the time, as the science of reading was rolling out, we trained all elementary and middle school staff on an Orton Gillingham based reading program for students with reading disabilities or needs. This method directly aligned with the science of reading. What's exciting is that with this training and continued leadership oversight all the way to
the top from the top of the district, I am pleased to report that over the past couple of years as a subgroup, we have moved from the bottom of Marion County in the English language arts and iLearn to number four, which is pretty exciting. And we experienced the largest growth of the subgroups in Pike and iRead for last school year. So it's an exciting time. Resource programming at the secondary level has its own level of nuance due to the nature of a simple thing called the school bell. The secondary schedule provides for a lot of structure which requires special educators to become
creative when determining services. For well over a decade, our high school has been participating in the co teaching model. Our data has continued to support that model, so we decided to implement it at the middle school level. We've continued to train teachers on co teaching this year as the year has progressed. As we move into the next school year, these specific trainings will continue. We have found that as we have gotten to know the culture and capacity of each middle school, just the same as we have specific plans for students, our team is realizing that we have specific plans for teachers and are moving towards a more
school centered approach to co teaching professional development for next year. So it'll be individualized for each school depending on their needs. I've been spending a lot of time in the middle schools this year, and it's been heartwarming for me to remember how much I love teaching that group. It was my group, so Special place. So just as a kind of a snapshot really quickly of our different outcomes that have come out of special ed. As you can see here, we have had some excellent growth in our subgroup for special ed. We've grown 4.5% in math in the past three years. We've grown 7.5%
total in growth in the past three years in language arts. Our special education students at the high school continue to just knock it out of the park when it comes to graduation rate. We currently are seven percent above the state average for special ed students. If you recall my presentation last year, I was so incredibly excited and, again, I'm so excited to share about the students who are receiving the alternative diploma or alternate diploma. As a reminder, these students typically would have received a certificate of completion. This year, we have 20 ones. That's that's the most we've had, 21 students receiving the alternate diploma.
This is where it gets pretty exciting. With 11 of those students already accepted into post secondary trade school or colleges. So we're really excited. This is Vernita Davis at the high school is the one that spearheads all that and she just does a fabulous job with that. So I have always known that what we do as special educators matters. But when I know that so many students will benefit from the work that we've poured into our students from pre k to the high school, and we have many that stay from pre k all the way to the high school. It's it's sometimes it's really overwhelming to think about that.
Our staff works really hard and it's showing. I also wanted to give a special shout out to our principals. I talk often with area directors, and I'm sometimes amazed at at the lack of inclusion that they experience from general administration. And I can honestly say that we just don't have that issue here in Pike. Our administrators think of our special education students as theirs, not mine, ours. And for those of you who may have had experience in that field and kinda know what that's like, that's a it's a game changer. So real quick about cry CPI crisis prevention and intervention.
We continue to train in that. The district behavior support team continues with that. We're offering several crisis prevention and intervention trainings to teachers and instructional aids continually. Although this does have a component for safe physical restraints, the greatest area of training is in the deescalation strategies. We always wanna try to hit those home, really start with those because we know that if we're able to successfully deescalate a student, we won't even need to utilize those physical restraints. That's always the goal. So this year, we have certified in CPI 87 classified staff and 65 certified staff.
So as I know you're all aware, one of the greatest areas continues to be the teacher shortage in special education. Over the past four years, two programs in Indiana have grown out of this need. One is iCEAL and the other is ASSET. The state knows that we use this program. We're kind of seeing we we've we've used it every year. We have we have a quite a few teachers that have gone through it, which is a good thing. ICEAL is for individuals who already have a bachelor's, where they're hired by the school district to teach while also enrolling in a state approved teacher preparation program. It's at no cost to them. Historically, this is a really great way for our instructional assistants to become teachers, and
that's typically what has happened in our in many cases. Asset is for individuals who already have a teaching license and are moving into special education. This program is completed under the direct the supervision of the director of special ed myself in a district, and it also is at no cost to the teacher. So how how we do this is we gather the teachers one day per month to participate in virtual professional development here at ASC together. They also have various assignments related to special ed that they turn into the director of the program, the state program to ASET. The assistant director of exceptional learners, missus Kiger, is the lead with the ASSET program
and meets individually with the teachers as a mentor every month. We both have been in that role and find it to be extremely beneficial, not only for the teacher, but also for us as administrators to be able to build capacity in the staff that way. It provides a real opportunity for us to get to know them. So we currently have approximately 35 staff members and three seventy five students on a five zero four plan or ADA plan. This slide shows a little bit of the differences and overlap between the two areas as it relates to disabilities. Each building has a five zero four coordinator for the students who works with the
district coordinator, Mrs. Kiger, with students and families on the five zero four plans, and then I work with HR on the ADA plans for employees. So as we move into next school year, we will continue to review our specialized programming as it continues to increase. Teacher availability in this area is particularly difficult, so we have utilized the district behavior support team to work with the life skills teachers directly for professional development and growth. We are also having conversations amongst our evaluation staff to make sure that our evaluation
practices are aligned and focused on accurate determination of students with disabilities, along with the services and specially designed instruction that they need. During our walk throughs and trainings that missus Kiger and I have been privileged to be doing at the middle schools on co teaching, we also have been doing this with curriculum and instruction as well. We've we've combined our efforts and and we're utilizing a lot of the same what we're looking for in the classrooms, which has been a great connection between the two. But we recognize the continued need for professional development in this area. So our hope is to move forward with some additional content area training specifically for
special ed teachers and co teaching. We realized we need to teach them if they're co teaching in a math class. We need to do maybe some content training with them, and we'll be working with with doctor Gatewood's, group to be doing that. And additionally, this year, we have partnered with doctor Doctor. Scott Carson, who is formerly of RISE Special Services to utilize the behavior mapping process for some of our more significant students. And it's really been impactful. We've gotten a lot of positive feedback from the staff. We are looking to move forward with additional consultation with him for next school year. It involves the parents in a process and it's been really, really cool to watch.
So those who know me well know how proud I am to be a leader in Pike Township. Our teachers, therapists, staff, families and most importantly, our students are why I wake up every day excited to be a part of this district. It is not work for the faint of heart, however, it is extremely important work and it matters. Thank you so much for your support as our school board, and can I answer any questions for any of you? I don't have a question, but I have a comment. I'm sorry. Go ahead. I really enjoyed reading the information. I thought that the data that you provided was just so encouraging.
So I just wanted to thank you for your leadership in your department. Thank you. I think you gave, certainly, for those who are not in, education environment every day, an on ramp to understanding even the difference between a five zero four and IEP. I think that's powerful, when, as leaders, we need to consider that when we consider everybody in our district. So thank you. Thank you. I just wanna say thank you for the information. Mhmm. It is very encouraging and uplifting in the direction that we're moving.
And I did have one question about the CPI training. Mhmm. How often do you have to be certified for that? We have moved to a two year model. CPI allows for a two year model. Originally, for a long time, we were on a one year model, but we, moved a couple years ago to a two year model, and that seems to be it's more financially sustainable. But it it also just provides a little, it allows for us to refine what we're doing and do it well. Okay. Mhmm.
Is it optional or is it mandatory? For whom? For CPI. Well. Is the teachers and IAs required to take it? So our anyone that's on the escort team is required to go through the the CPI training. The escort team is a little bit different than special ed. Special ed, we were we were require I'll get that word. We require our life skills teachers and our behavior support classroom teachers to certainly go through it. We do there is some, occasionally, we will have staff who are not physically able
to go through the the physical restraint part, but we always have them go through the de escalation part. So even if they can't physically do the the the restraints and it wouldn't be appropriate for us to require that, we go ahead and have them go through the de escalation. One other question. You guys, do the RBT RBTs, registered, behavior technicians? Do we allow them in Pike? We, this year, are having RBCs in. Yeah. We Oh, really? Yes. We are now what what we realized is that, in this day and age with
the services that are that are needed by students, that if it's a need as part of the IEP process, that we document that in the IEP and then we they they can come in under an MOU. And I just also wanna tell you great presentation. Oh, thanks. Very simple, and it was to the point. And so thank you. The, I think one one of the things that was in our referendum was the recruitment and retention, if I'm not mistaken. Is that right, doctor Young? Yes. I see we we're able to keep at least, four teachers out of the fourteen
years. 14 teachers out of four years. We have 14 teachers have gone through the program. And of all those teachers, there is one teacher who has moved into a general ed classroom in Pike Township. Okay. But everyone else is still here with the exception of we had some licensing things that we needed to refine with some folks. And and they're they're here, and it's just they're teaching something different than what they started out with. Okay. But yeah. Oh. Now I will say this. Let me make sure I make myself clear. In the iCEAL program, those those teachers have not remained as much.
But when they've left, they've gone back into, private sector. Okay. So we're still having problems with recruiting and retainment? I have to be honest. We don't have as many issues with retainment. Retention in Pike, once we get them here, we've been able to keep them. We we work really hard in in making sure that we have processes and communication and clear directives going, because I do think that matters to teachers now. And as long as we're communicating, for the most part, we've had pretty low turnover comparative to other districts.
But that's in special ed. In special ed. Once they're here, they they tend to stay. When when we look at the the HR list, what are you doing in special ed that we probably need to do in other areas? Well, I would say we've had our highest retention rate for staff that was 99% or In general. Seven. 97? Mhmm. Highest it's ever been. Mhmm. Good. Okay. In general. Yeah. That's what we need now. We did those numbers. I shared I shared those. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for your, presentation tonight.
I was at one of the middle schools today, and I I purposely, intentionally watched, those, adults, work with those students. And I was amazed. I was I was amazed how delicate and how compassionate Yes. Those teachers were with those students. And I was moved Yes. And, to emotions to to see that because, people who are struggling physically and mentally, we're living in a time to where resources are just not there like they should be.
Yeah. Thank you. Yes. So as the parent of a exceptional learn well, was an exceptional learner, but once always still, this is near and dear to my heart. And so when I ran for school board, I was really clear that one of the hardest decisions we made was our child who was an exceptional learner pulling him out at at one point and Right. Didn't want other parents to have to make that decision. I love the steps that you're taking towards that. I think things are just just night and day different from how they were back then. I do have a question. One of the things that were really impactful in our decision then was the, the
ratio of IAs that we had. How are we doing in our staffing? Because IAs work with our kids in the resource room, or, I mean, in the regular classrooms, don't they? At least that's how they were with my staff. All over. Yeah. That's what's how are we doing with staffing with IAs? Are we are we Being able to build this staffed? Are we yeah. We're we're we're not that. Honestly, we're not fully staffed. It's always, we're always looking for someone. So if you know of anyone, please send them my way. Alright. If anyone's out there, we need well, okay. As soon as we you know, it's it's it's that is a niche where we will have someone hired and then another building will, you know, have someone resign.
And and they for a variety of different reasons. But so we're always looking for hope. Yeah. We just I know. But haven't you had some of the IAs go through the program to become teachers? Exactly. That's the 14 most of them were IAs. And I can say specifically at the high school, they recruit those IAs. Those IAs know what they're doing, and they're the ones that are coming to work. Yeah. And it's just I I know the value that they bring. Yeah. So there there there truly is an important role. The unified football just all the unified sports, I'm sure. I had the chance to go to a unified football game. That was, just amazing. Well, track is starting.
Track. I saw that. To see all of you and the track. Track. To get to one of those. One other thing you mentioned, because it also played into our decision probably when our son went through, he would have been one on the certificate track. When the new, stuff to do at the state house and that was presented, I had a question about the general diplomas or you know? So is alternate diplomas, I guess, in the new way that we're doing things, is that still an option for our kids to get if that's what they need? The alternate? Yeah. Because you you mentioned how many get an alternate diploma and then get to go into college. It's always an option.
Okay. I will say, you know, there are specific unit college That accept the alternate diploma. Okay. So if if you're looking at, IU Ball State, Purdue, they would want core 40. Okay. When you Ivy Tech is Yeah. One of the universe one of the colleges that takes the alternate diploma. Yeah. And we all know that if you get into Ivy Tech, you can sometimes move on to the other universities. So, to have that opportunity for our students is pretty pretty amazing. Well, and just having that diploma over a certificate is so important.
Yeah. Anytime you're applying for a job, even if it's not. So just I wanted to make sure because that was a big concern that I had when the state Mhmm. Did that thing, with the way they they change stuff is that would that prevent some of our kids who could get an alternate diploma from being able to get something like that? And one of the things that I I'm sorry. Go ahead. I was just gonna say, IUPUI takes they even have a life skills, department. They do. Yeah. Yes. They do so. No. One of the things I think that are is, I think it's unfortunate. I really wish that the the state would have a different take is that after
over now, it's what? 1% Mhmm. Of children. And so for us, if you think of a graduation class of 700 children, that's only seven kids. So once we get over those seven children, you know, those children, as far as the state looks at them are are considered, non graduates. So when you look at our graduation rate, you know, once you get over about seven children, We're excited for those children because for them, it does open up doors that they wouldn't have had otherwise out after high school, but it still counts against
our graduation rate still. Another question. I just and I'm sorry. As the parent of a child that would have fell into that, that's despicable. Yeah. And that's clearly not at you guys as at the people making those. Yeah. That's despicable. Because I the jobs my son can get now because he's got that piece of paper Sure. He couldn't even get those if he didn't have it. That's that's just horrible. Yeah. I'm sorry. I'm not doing one of those. Thank you, sir. The, IA, you say you have a rough time holding on or hiring those. What are the problems why we can't hold on to those IAs?
I I I it's a variety of reasons. This isn't right. So I I'd have to look into it a little bit further and probably talk with with doctor Hunter about some of those reasons. I know we do a an exit. And if you that's where I wanted Could doctor Hunter give us a few reasons? So sometimes it's, dialysis, sometimes it's paid. Mhmm. Mhmm. It's like is benefits one of them? That's been a concern I've had. Yeah. Like, benefits. And getting paid all year round. Yeah. I I know. Because I hear yeah. I hear them all. Yeah. They they wanna get paid all year round. How do we become creative, doctor Young?
Well, you know, one thing, that we looked at was, the potential providing those limited benefits for and the plan for our, IAs through member marathon. They have that option. So that's one way that we can look at providing, benefits for instructional assistance. But I think we have to get creative and and look at some opportunities such as that because, you know, that's one reason that, our benefits, I believe, are so
affordable right now is because we don't have everyone, that are necessarily on those those plans. Doctor Young, I I'm hearing a lot of things about, districts cutting now. Mhmm. IPS, 7,000,000. Hamilton County, so many millions. We haven't heard anything from Pike, so I guess we're doing pretty good. We got plenty of money. Will that come into play, as it relates to these, IAs? Mhmm. Making the the salary comparable enough for them to stay on, and to do what
is necessary to be? Well, you know, I think I I would imagine our retention rate for IH is probably as as good as most. What we've done in Pike is try to offset the the benefits with higher pay. So I don't foresee in in Pike that, and my goal and cabinet can attest to this is as we look at cost saving measures. Mhmm. That is just sort of a way of life. It's a culture. We're making those decisions every single day so that we don't have to make decisions
in which we have to make, cuts or or things that will be impacted at the classroom level. So we don't foresee that having to cut back on instructional assistance. Right now, we don't see that we'll have to cut back on, other staff. We have a pretty good tax base. We're fortunate and blessed in in Pike Township and, you know, on the operation side, and we'll see what the state does on the on the education side. But we're we're we're making small, we talk about all the time, cuts or you
guys hear us talk about savings so that we don't have to do anything big, which we've seen in other school districts. You you meant so what you mentioned there with the operation education side, I'm still trying to get it all straight. Education finances could just come RIA salaries. Does that that comes out of the education side of the budget part of the structure. That part as well. Okay. And I don't have any within the part b grant. We have just Oh, that's that would be okay. Yeah. Mhmm. Thank you so much. Mhmm. You're welcome. Thank you, miss Cohen. Mhmm. Thank you for sharing. Alright. We are on to action items.
First up is the minutes from the last board meeting March 12 for approval. So moved, president. Second. Who's the second that we accept? March 12 minutes. Any questions? No questions on the minutes. Let's go on to vote. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed? Thank you. Approval of the Board of Education Policy, doctor Maggie Bishop. Good evening, mister president, members of the board, and doctor Young. I seek your approval of, action item b, approval of the Board of Education Policy 9,500 as presented.
So moved. Second. The move is second that we accept action item b as presented for the Board of Education policy. Are there any questions? All in favor, say aye. Aye. Proposed? Thank you. Thank you. I I never seen doctor Bishop move that fast. She was writing this to me. Only one policy. It's a day before. It's a day before. Next up next up is, human resource report, doctor Hunter. Good evening, miss president, members of the board, doctor Young. I request your approval of HR report except the athletic director's position, assistant, athletic director
position. Motion is in order. So moved. Second. The mood is second that we accept our HR report detached. It's the AD, assistant AD for approval by itself. All in favor of our HR report, say aye. Aye. Pose? Thank you. Doctor Hunter, next up is the assistant AD. Mister president, member of the board, doctor Young, I request your approval of the assistant athletic director position as presented. I move that we, accept the assistant athletic director as presented.
Second. The accepted system. Okay. Are there any questions? I'm sorry. That's what I was in. Actually, let me read this statement. I was intending to read the statement before we got the, the the motion to accept. I think when I read it after so we got a first and a second. Right? Yes. The more than second that we accept, our assistant or recommended assistant AD as presented. Now we're on the questions. Any questions? Are we allowed to have questions on an HR matter? And you know what? You're right. You're right. Let me read a statement and then we'll get the vote because I want to
read the statement, give you some context, not the content of the of the HR report, but some context on why we, pulled it out. While we won't discuss the content, but we will give you some context behind this. In a recent board meeting, an executive session, the board expressed, from its governing position the need or the wishes to have a more collaborative involvement with the high level
visible positions that will impact our district and our community. Some examples of those would be the, superintendent, the assistant superintendent, principals, CFOs, ADs, and some coaches. And so the purpose for us in wanting to have this collaborative involvement is in order for us to make the best informed decision possible as a board.
It is not our intent as a board to use serve any authority or serve in a bully in type of position over our administration. Thus, we have not interfered with the process and have allowed the administration to make their recommendation tonight. And may each board member, as we get ready to go to vote, may each board member having asked questions, been involved in the process, may each board member now
vote what you feel is the the best judgment on this assistant AD. And in doing so, I think we moved to a roll call vote so that we can make sure that we get to vote for everyone. Doctor Moore, how do you vote? As it relates to? The assistant AD, whether you vote yay or nay. Yay meaning, yay meaning, you accept the recommendation from the board. No means you do not. You reject the recommendation. I reject it. Miss missus, Wilson.
Reject. Mister Hoefer. Yay. Mister Anderson. Nay. I reject missus Nay. Nay. Alright. And so the the recommendation fails by the board on the assistant AD. Alright. I think, on the path forward, I think mister Anderson may have a a motion here on the floor coming up on the floor. Yes, mister president. I would like to set a motion that we recast, this position as an AD,
a co AD instead of an assistant AD. I second. We're more than second that we repost our position as co AD, which is its original vacated position. Are there any questions? Nope. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? No. So we got two nays, and so it passes. And so we will re we will repost to position as a, co AD. Alright? Thank you, doctor Hunter. Thank you, sir. We are on to, action item d, claims and allowances, mister Monet Gray.
Good evening, mister president, members of the board, and doctor Young. I request your approval of action item d, claims and allowances as presented. I'll make a motion that we accept claims, action item d, claims and allowances. Second. If you move this second, then we accept action item d as presented by missus Monet Gray. Are there any questions on action item d? Question. Yes. Miss Gray, are we getting any increases in this area? Well well, these are just our expenditures. I understand that. But are are there any increases other than the expenditures that you already have to
the expenditures? No. Not at this moment. But with the current, war in Iran, we are watching the fuel prices for the diesel gas. So, as expected, I mean, you see when you walk I mean, when you're driving down the street, you see the price of gas going up. So that we won't realize that until after those expenditures come in, but you might see an increase in the the transportation area. Yeah. I just wanted to be proactive and ask that question. Thank you. Any other questions? All in favor of accepting action item d as presented, say aye. Aye.
Aye. Opposed? Missus Gray, we have e n f for recommendation of approval. Yes, sir. Good evening, mister president, members of the board, and doctor Young. I request your approval of action item e and f, which are contracts and donations. I am presenting 10 contracts and seven donations tonight. I make a motion that we accept the action items e and f, which includes the contracts and donations as presented.
Second. We move this second that we accept action item e and f as presented. Are there any questions on e or f? No questions. We're on the vote. All in favor of accepting actions I have e and f. As presented, say aye. Aye. Opposed? Thank you, missus Gray. Thank you. We're on to board member items. Doctor Moore. Thank you, mister president. I I just wanna say I was, moved today to be at the, at the high school today and was able to hear some of the, success, successes of our
young people in Pike Township. And, it was a pretty good panel to date, and, it was well a well qualified panel. And I think, as we listen to these young people, come through their their areas of development, you can see that, the foundation of education that Pike has offered them, has been, and has impressed upon them, has done extremely, extremely well.
And I was very pleased to see all of the students, who came in to to participate. It was just a great opportunity, to see that. Then I went to the to the game. I didn't get a chance to go to the high school, but I went to watch over at, New Augusta, one of the the students and the teachers play today. And, I don't want you all to think because you you get old that you can't shoot the jumper anymore. Don't ever think because you get old, you can't put it up.
But you I saw some of those teachers putting that jumper up. I mean, hitting them three pointers and Mhmm. It was a great opportunity to see the kids come together and were they were literally enjoying themselves. And I think we need to do much more of that, in our district to have, children come together, and enjoy one another. No problems. It was just a beautiful time. Good. Good. Thank you, doctor Moore, missus Wilson. Just two things.
I I'll I too went to the staff versus students, game today, and, to miss Conant. My students mauled me, and they were asking me, when are you coming back? Well, I like being on the school board right now, guys. And then, with that being said, I had the opportunity to go to Louisville with my, peers to the, consortium of state school board association, where I learned quite a
bit. It was very, very, it was very revealing. I learned a lot, which means I have a lot to still learn. Mhmm. And as long as, they have these, training and conferences, I will be trying to attend as many as I possibly can. We, actually, I'm gonna let Angela she'll she'll I'll let her have the one for the twenty third twenty first. I'll let you have that one. I won't say anything. And so, with that being said, I thank you guys for allowing us to go,
and I wanna still in front of everybody, thank mister Young because we had so many people envious of us when we were there because we wore the vest that he gave us for Christmas to the point where people are asking me. I had a lady text me and said, can you get me where you guys got those from? Because you guys are standing out. And then at the Indiana, ISBA, they were giving away door prizes, and guess who won the first one? So, it was it it was great.
It was it's something that allowed us to bond together Good. And to see each other in a different light, which is always good to get away from the personal side and get to, you know, learn something as well as have fun together. So Good. Well, thank you, miss Wilson. I know. Mister Hoefer. So echo really everything miss Wilson said about the conference. It was very, it was great from an educational standpoint. It was great from a team bonding standpoint with other board members. And so, yes, thank you, to to doctor Young and to the community, giving us that opportunity to, to go there.
I want to thank miss Pettiford also. So, this month, I've had a chance to do school visits at at my schools, and she is always critical in coordinating those things. So appreciate all the work that she does on that and everything else, that she does for us. And just lastly, just everyone enjoy your spring break. Take a chance. Relax. I've been reminded in my personal life from some folks that I care about deeply that, just the importance of caring for your mental health. And, you sometimes those reminders come hard, and so just please do that.
Take take the break, rejuvenate, and, come back strong. Finish the race strong. Thank you, mister Hoefer. Mister Anderson? Just wanna also echo the sentiments, about the, staff versus students game that was electrifying. Maybe next year, we'll get some participation from the board. Also me and KJ? You know? Want to, give a shout out to our exceptional learners teachers. They're very good presentation there. A lot of people don't know, we have their breakfast at the end of every year Yeah. And they give out scholarships.
That a lot of those scholarships are provided from the teacher's pockets. Mhmm. And so that shows that their commitment to their students. And I look forward to having conversations that we we can be able to, join, in helping raise funds for their scholarships as well. Yeah. Also, enjoy your spring break. Get plenty of rest, and I hope that everyone, comes back refreshed and ready to get back to it. Thank you. Thank you, miss Danesh. And missus Barnes? To echo my fellow board members, the twenty twenty six CASPA annual conference was really
an extraordinary learning experience, with my fellow board members. And we did share what we learned with, those board members who were unable to attend in a Google Doc. So that is all super public information. Should you ever wanna have a peek at what we learned, our notes are available. And I do look forward to seeing miss Katadia and the Pike best buddies at the Friendship Walk. That's something I don't talk about a lot in this platform, but we have a relationship. Like, I know miss Katadia.
I've known her for years, and I know the best buddies at Pike because our chapters are together at events. So I know the buddies and their buddies know my buddies and it's it's all love. It's all love. So I wanna encourage everyone to come out to the Friendship Walk. It's on Sunday, April 19. It's free. It's family friendly. You get fed. There's games, and it's at Victory Field. So if you're available, certainly check out the website, sign up, donate if you see
fit if that's what you wanna do. And, also, miss Wilson is right. On April 21, we are going to receive our commendable award from the ISBA. What that means is that most of the board members here have 75, PGA points. They're like professional development points for school board members. And because we have that many, we receive that award. We plan on going together to the dinner. And at that regional meeting, we also get what's called a legislative update, and that's
where their staff attorneys and, other staff members educate us on the laws that are going to come into effect on July 1 so that we are prepared before the summer even begins. And that's usually when, doctor Bishop calls calls and gives us giant packets of things to to read, of policies we need to change, you know, and, we do that alongside our partners at Neola. So it's all part of just governing better and being more equipped to serve you
better. So when we go to those things, especially the one on the twenty first and what we just left with in CASPA, we do get a chance not only to get to know each other better, but we get to learn about Indiana laws, and we get to meet other school board members in other places. We're finding that the time for coalition building is most definitely now. As you heard in our, Pike alumni excellence, The time for coalition among public schools
is most definitely right now. Right now. We need to do that. Enjoy your spring break. Thank you, miss Barnes. Miss Kelly? Alright. I too was able to attend the conference in Louisville. Cannot even describe all that was shared and learned and experienced, amongst those that went. And the opportunity to meet other board members from across the country. And then I even met someone that was from Canada. So it was just a very good experience.
Very proud of our young authors that were published today and the the college fair, all the things that are taking place, excited to hear about that. Thank you to our donors as always. And then our staff and students that have been recognized, and this is like the signing season. So those that are signing, to go to schools and making their choices and decisions, congratulations to all of them. And to the seniors that are making those choices, you've been prepared.
So take those steps and make the best decisions, for yourself and your family as you're taking those times. And and just continue to make us pipe proud. And they stole my lines that I normally have as far as how we end before break, end before break, but refresh, recharge, enjoy. I think you're gonna have good weather for your spring break. So even if you're just gonna be home, doing something different, seeing something different, a
different routine, as mister Andrew said, you're just a different mind shift. And then come back for this last nine weeks to finish strong. Thank you, miss Kelly. Doctor Young? Right. Thank you to representative, Hamilton for sharing her words of wisdom. I had an opportunity to speak at career day today. Our students ask phenomenal questions. Enjoy spring break students, staff, and families. Thank you. We need to do. And I would like to congratulate miss Barnes Yes. On, being accepted as a and her point is being accepted.
This spring. This spring. Yes. And and it's the title of trust god with your dream. Is that or did you did you just say that? I just That's not the title. Okay. Okay. Because I was gonna say if the name of your poem is trust god with your dream, I'm certainly getting fucked with you. But thank you so much. And, again, I I wanna appreciate again every every staff and, and yet every board member. I think if we continue to to work together for for the good of our district and our community, we will be continuously a force to reckon.
Well, I want to say this, if you missed any part of our sectionals and and our regional boys basketball, it was electrifying and off the chart. And so, we we we, you know, Pike's community turned out. And, we we were a little disappointed, fell a little short, but we are hoping to, rebound on that next year. Alright. Nothing else. Attain a motion to adjourn. So move mister president. Second. Mhmm. Hey, Nicole.
And it look. If you need to sign this, y'all back your sign.