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. >> Present Karen B.
Michael Gordon Graham here. We are all present. >> Thank you very much. >> Board a copy of the agenda for this evening's meeting. Have a motion to adopt the agenda. Make a motion that we
talk top the agenda for this evening. >> Second motion second. Any comment or discussion? >> Hearing none. All in favor say I. >> I. The agenda is approved. Thank you.
Moving on to recognition. Dr. >> S. First recognition tonight um is a resolution. >> I see the family. Let me I wanna I want to wait for a minute to see if if
someone else joins us. Um but we have our inaugural firsttime Wayne volunteer award tonight. We have a couple of recognitions. I'm so excited. We're proud to recognize the very first
recipients of this award. It was created to honor the extraordinary people in our community who give their time, their heart, and their energy. And you're going to see all of this um in a video um that we've
prepared for both recipients tonight. So at this time show it. I'm gonna get out of >> Hello. I am science social worker and I
nominated Stitchers this year for the volunteer award because they have done amazing things. One of our favorite projects that they do for us is the trauma bears and trauma bears like this one right here. Um they
sew and put together and we use those for students who have gone through a traumatic experience. The bears are just very meaningful. They know that someone has handade these for them and we just
find that it's a great way to help kids feel secure during this is the Speedway Library. We have all kinds of skills. We do all kinds of things, all kinds of different things. Uh some of us do the same thing, some of
us do different things. We're just all people who make stuff. Um, we started doing this because we all wanted to help the kids and this is something that we can do to help children.
>> It just fills my heart just love and compassion for them. The kids just need so much. There's there's so much anger or something.
It just it's very very long as we're able to do it. And can I have the speedway stitchers join me up front? fair which look in recognition of your
extraordinary generosity and steadfast commitment to the students of Wayne Township. You do more than volunteer. You show up with heart, consistency, and purpose. Through your service, you strengthen our schools, support our
educators, and uplift our community. You exemplify the Wayne way. The spirit of showing up for one another and being allin for our students and our schools. I am Wayne. You are Wayne. We are Wayne.
Because of you, we continue building great schools and great communities. Congratulations All right. So, we want to go down the line if you introduce yourself and tell us how long you've been involved. >> Three years.
Around two years, eight months. I'm Nancy >> and I was there at the very beginning. So 13 years a long time. Wanda Deon. >> I'm Clarity and I've been there 13
years. >> Jane, I've been there six maybe six and a half years. I'm Gloria and I've been there 13 years. It's fun. I know. It's fun. Why do you do this? >> Well, I do it because I like to crochet,
knit, and sew embroidery. So, I've been doing it since I was 12. So, I've been most younger and pretty good at it. >> So, we
share together. >> Yeah, we're very close. It's a nice group. We only make children's masks because when it first started there weren't any masks for children. So we
got together and hundreds of masks. >> We can't thank you enough. Thank you for coming tonight and thank you for being part of our All right. Next, um I'm proud to introduce Emerson Allen.
I believe you have a video. >> My name is John Easter and I nominated Emerson. Well, Emerson has been uh over time probably one of the most caring and giving uh individuals when it comes to students
um that I've ever been in contact with. uh Emerson um because of kind of his background and his past and all of his experiences and all of his jobs and everything that he has done. He's taken
that and and just really pours it into our students to kind of tell them, hey, there's nothing I haven't seen. There's nothing I haven't done. He's been, you know, Marine. He's been a state trooper. He's done all of these things. Uh well
um he started school talk in 2003 as kind of an idea for another show. He just wanted to do a demo and he did the show for 21 years. Um, every Friday or there were different times, but mostly every Friday morning at 7:30 a.m. he was
here and ready to go and um did the show. And then since he stopped doing the show, he's continued to volunteer, which has been a lot of fun for our students. um takes them down to the suicide prevention walk and we uh cover that
every year Thanksgiving back, being a volunteer, coming in and talking to the kids and you know they I always think he's just the coolest guy in the world. Um I remember my he talked to my principles of broadcasting
students and you know he he always tells him I'm I'm 70 years old. I'm 71. You know he he uses his age and when he left the kid was like I was the most energetic 71y old.
>> Awesome. Welcome to the Congratulations. I want to before I give you your award, I want to read something that said about you. Emerson treats every student with the same care he would his own children or grandchildren. He's a mentor, a friend, and a tireless
advocate for causes like cancer and suicide prevention, and most importantly for our students. He truly exemplifies the Wayne way. Please join me again in honoring Mr. Emerson. Awesome.
>> Um, tell us about they said you're retired, but every time I look up, there you are. Tell us about that. What brings you back? >> I call them young scholars. I'm start
radio back in 2003. I knew nothing about radio teachers love it. I always told them this job you actually do it. You love it. You don't worry about no pay. You found your passion. My passion was
supposed to keep coming back. That's why even when you're on radio, you're on radio. I mean, you're on radio with the B boys. You got the left, you got the right, you're on national radio. When you're in radio, you're out there, too. So you got
a chance opportunity talk radio talk show and we talked about everything from suicide. Our first show was on Saturday second chance. >> Okay. >> Another board members
Mr. Har we have been on our radio show produced radio show. >> It's still student producing. So it's all about the young people and seeing them grow. He's right about the job. I have 54 jobs. Four years marine six years in United
States I'm working still working young people. >> Awesome. Well, thank you again and congratulations. Wait for >> We're going to advance the agenda a little bit this evening. We're going to uh postpone item 2A for a little bit
later this evening. Move on. Dr. Public comment. >> We do not presented with minutes from our February 2026 meetings of the board. We have a motion to approve the meetings from our February I'm sorry to approve the
minutes from our February meetings. Move to approve the February 9th minutes from our meeting. >> Motion and a second. Any comment or discussion? >> Hearing none. All in favor say I. >> I.
>> Minutes are approved. >> Moving on to the financial report. Dr. S. >> Thank you, Mr. President. Uh members of the board, included in your documents for tonight's meeting, you'll find the claims docket totaling 31,847,76827
for your review. Um just one item to note this month you can see as we talked about last month those expenditures settle out between the operations and referendum funds but that total remaining very very consistent between
those three funds uh in in totality. So I welcome any questions that you have and respectfully ask for approval of the financial report as presented. >> I move for approval of the financial report as presented. >> Second. I have a motion and a second for
the financial report. Any comment or discussion? Hearing none, all in favor say I. >> I. >> Any oppose? Financial report is approved. Thank you, Dr. Stang. >> Moving on to old business or bid
recommendations at the ESC interior renovations. Dr. St. >> Thank you again, Mr. President. Also in your documents for this evening, you will find the recommendation letter for our 2026 renovation of part of the first floor of the Wayne Township Fire
Headquarter building on the ESC campus. Um, this space is one of our final projects related to opening our new transportation center and working to sell the old transportation facility. As you know, our grounds team has called
our old transportation facility home for about the last 30 years. And over the last few years, knowing that the new facility was in the works, we have engaged in various scenarios around where that team will call home moving
forward. We have monitored local real estate for potential spaces. It wasn't uncommon for Dr. butts to send me links to uh potential potential properties around the district. Uh ultimately, we were not able to find one that was going
to be able to fit all of our needs uh as it sat. Um in addition to that, um we were always looking at and engaging with our our architects and how can we renovate our current operations facility to also shoehorn that group in and make
that facility work. As those conversations were occurring, it was also when we switched to centralized enrollment and needed a space for that that group to work out of and welcome families who are interested in Wayne
Township and engaging in docu conversations with Dr. Harvey around the space working for what they need, but as we deal with technology, a less dusty and more climate controlled
environment than our warehouse would be um preferred. So, all of those things came together when Wayne Township Trustee Jeb Barton um about a year ago indicated the fire department no longer
needed the south side of the first floor of the ESC building, which then prompted us to work with our architects and see what we could use that space for if we were trying to house our technology team, thus opening up space at
operations for our grounds team as well as a space to welcome families for centralized enrollment. So, those are the things that led us here um to uh to kind of where we are today and how uh how we got to this this idea of
renovating the south side of the first floor of the ESC building. I would pause if there are questions on that. I'm happy to answer those before we move into our six bid packages for for this project.
Very good. As you know, um there'll be action on all six of these. So, I'll um take you through those. The first bid package is demolition. We were happy to have three biders for this work. and I'll gladly answer any questions that you have, but do request approval of the
base bid for package number one, demolition at a total of $54,000 from Delta Services. >> I recommend bid approval for bid package number one, demolition. >> Second. >> Have a motion and a second. Any comment
or discussion? >> What what does the de demolition entail? >> So, a number of things. um removing the ceiling grid, exposing some of those mechanicals that are above that ceiling grid. There will be um when we could
save walls, we did, but there are a number of walls that are going to be coming out. For instance, um one of the larger the largest space will be the work area for our technology team. And so, it's kind of carved out right in the middle of that whole space. And so the
hallways will shift just slightly on one side and some of the partitions between different spaces for offices will also shift. >> Thank you. >> Any additional comment or discussion? Hearing none. All in favor say I.
>> I. >> Any opposed? Thank you Dr. Samuel. Base bid for bid package one demolition is approved. >> Thank you members of the board. The second bid package is for general trades. We had two biders for this work.
Similarly, I'm happy to answer any questions that may arise. But uh on this bid and respectfully ask for approval of the base bid for general trades from 3D Professional Contracting at a total of 456,000
even for package number two. >> I move for approval of bid package number two, general trades. Second. >> We have a motion and a second. Any comment or discussion? >> Hearing none. All in favor say I.
>> Any opposed? >> Thank you, Dr. Samuel. Bid package number two, general trades, is approved. >> Thank you again, members of the board. The third bid package is for flooring and tile um and tile, excuse me. We had four biders for this work. As always, I
am happy to answer any questions that you may have and respectfully ask for approval of the base bid for flooring and tile from Jack Lowry Group at a total of $26,200 for bid package number three. >> I recommend approval for bid package
number three, flooring and tile. >> Second. >> We have a motion and a second. Any comment for discussion hearing? None. All in favor say I. >> I. Thank you, Dr. Samuel. Bid package three for flooring and tile is approved.
>> Thank you. Moving to bid package number four for the ESDC renovation project. That one is for metal framing, drywall, and act or those acoustic tiles that are at the form the ceiling in spaces like that. We had five biders for this work.
Once again, I'm happy to answer any questions that you have and humbly ask for approval of the base bid for metal framing, drywall, and act from Glenmark Construction at a total cost of $139,775 for bid package number four.
>> I move for approval of bid package number four, metal framing, drywall, and act. Second. >> We have a motion and a second. Any comment or discussion? Hearing none. All in favor say I. I.
>> Thank you Dr. Samuel. Bid package four for metal framing drywall and acoustic tiles is approved. >> Thank you. Moving to bid package number five. This one is for mechanical. We had five biders for this work. I'm happy to
answer any questions that you have. And once again, respectfully ask approval of the base bid for package number five mechanical from Sexen Mechanical at a total of $1,115,000. >> I recommend approval for bid package number five.
>> Second. >> We have a motion and a second. Any comment for discussion? >> Quick question again. Um the mechanical, can you explain to me what entails mechanical, please? >> Yeah, so we're thinking um there's a
significant amount of plumbing work here. Um historically, uh any any members of the board or community members have been in that space. Um it's had a lot of plumbing issues just in in my time um here in this role. And as we
thought about the community using that space, really needed to make sure that those were functional when we have families coming in for enrollment. One of the other challenges is as um that was built with firefighters in mind. The men's restroom
had about 12 stalls and the women's restroom had one. And so uh we needed to change the footprint. Um, a lot of the a lot of the plumbing issues are related to drain and so we're actually going to have to replace pretty much that whole drain going through the basement and out
to the exterior of the building. So, >> um, unfortunately that is what's driving a lot of the cost. >> So, the the fire station or the fire department is on one end of the building and we would be on the the south end. Is that correct? >> That's right.
>> Okay. So, is will our updates and our renovations also um benefit maybe the fire department also with the plumbing issues? >> I can tell you they're very excited about the >> building is what the cost.
>> I think they they pointed us right back to the uh to to the lease that we signed with them in I think it was 2003 where we get to take on that whole building. So, it's one of those one of those presents, but but obviously works out really well. And I would commend the trustee just I mean really what he came
to us it was this is a this is a public asset and so how can if we don't need this part of the space is there a need that the school has to serve to serve the children of Wayne Township also and um luckily we were at a point where that actually kind of hit us in a really
important space that we could utilize it. We have any additional comment or discussion >> none. All in favor say I. >> I thank you Dr. Samuel. Bid package number five for the mechanical improvements is
approved. >> And the sixth and final bid package for the ESC renovation project is for electrical. There were three biders for this work. Once again, I'm happy to answer any questions that you have and respectfully request approval of the
base bid for electrical from Design Build Electrical at a total cost of $394,982 for bid package number six. >> I move for approval of bid package number six, electric. >> Second. >> Have a motion to a second. Any comment
or discussion? Hearing none. All in favor say I. I >> any opposed. Thank you, Dr. Samuel. Bid package number six for the electrical work is approved. >> Moving on to new business and human resources. Mr. F.
>> Thank you, Mr. President, members of the board. Tonight for in your board docs, you receive the human resources reports A1, A2, and the addendum A1 for your review. I'd like to answer any questions that you might have and respectfully ask for approval of human resources reports
A1, A2, and the addendum A1. >> I move for approval of human resources reports A1, A2, and A1. Second. >> Have a motion and a second. Any comment or discussion?
Hearing none. All in favor say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? >> Thank you, Mr. Professor. the human resources reports A1 A2 and add A1 to donations this >> Mr. President members of the board Dr. Walters and I respectfully request
consideration of the following donations for Bridgeport Elementary a monetary donation of $300 to serve families during the holiday season given by a Bridgeport staff member. Also at Bridgeport Elementary, a check of $500 to purchase books, skill games,
and literacy resources for third grade and fourth grade students and hosts given by H Heartland Methodist Foundation. At Roi Elementary, a monetary donation of $1,000 to assist fifth grade students with costs to the field trip going to Bradford Woods given by Next Phase
Logistics LLC. At Chapelwood Elementary School, food shopping dollars valued at $800 for families to utilize at Gleaners Food Bank. Also at Chapel Wood, a donation by Kai Omega in the amount of $2,400
that would provide weekend meals for 50 students at Chapel Wood. A donation by Church of the Master in the amount of $100 to provide breakfast items, beverages, and snacks for staff members. Also at Chapelwood Chapel Hill Lions Club, a
monetary donation of $125 that provided eyeglasses and doctor's fees for a student at Chapelwood Chapel Hill United Methodist Church in the amount of $500 um to give 200 new and used books out at
the All Pro Champs Breakfast and the Food Pantry. an anonymous donor, a gift card valued at $100 for an identified family at Chapel Elementary. The area 31 from Tasco Auto Color, a PPG velocity
paint line and digital match camera valued at $26,000, $742. They hope to use to upgrade the paint booths in the collision repair program. Also, area 31 from automationdirect.com, Inc., six human machine interfaces and
five PLC output modules valued at $6,921 to be used with the robotic arm systems in the integrated mechanics program. Dr. Pierce, I respectfully request for approval of these donations. I recommend approval of the donations as
presented by Dr. Peterson and >> second. Have a motion to add a second. Any comment or discussion? Hearing none. All in favor say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Thank you, Dr. Pierce and Dr. Walters. Donations are approved.
>> Thank you. >> Moving on to field trips. >> Mr. President, members of the board, we respectfully request consideration of the following field trips. Bridgeport Elementary sixth grade students would like to travel to Chicago to visit the
Shed Aquarium, Navy Pier, and the Museum of Science and Industry on May 21st. And at Mlullen Elementary, sixth grade students would like to visit Louisville, Kentucky in Coridan, Indiana to participate in an education program aboard the Bell of Louisville on May the
7th. from Ben Davis University. Four school drone team members would like to travel to Tero to participate in March Madness, the Hooser Edition drone showdown March 19th through the 21st, 2026. From Chapel
Hill 7th and eighth grade center, grade 8 choir students hope to travel to Gurnie, Illinois to perform at Six Flag May 15th through the 16th, 2026. and two from Ben Davis High School, one students and staff to New York City to visit Broadway Radio City Music Hall,
Time Square, Lincoln Center, etc. on June 11th through the 15, 2026 and the Giant Speakers, speech and debate team to travel to Mishawaka, Indiana. This is the first time in like a decade that that this tournament is not in Indianapolis. Um, so it' been Mishawaka,
Indiana to attend the Indiana School Speech Association state tournament which is coming up March 14th, 2026. We respectfully request for approval of these field trips. I move for approval of the field trips as presented.
>> I have a motion and a second. Do we have any comment or discussion? >> Any idea how many students and teachers will be on that? Just >> not yet. My guess is they're in the sign up phase right now, but I can definitely find out more for you.
>> Are you volunteering to go? >> I'll vote. >> Any additional comment or discussion? Hearing none, all in favor say I. >> I thank you Dr. Pierce and Dr. Walters.
>> Thank you. Okay, we will move back to item 280. We have a special recognition this evening, Dr. >> Absolutely. Our friend Senator Join us up front. He's come to do a special presentation
to someone who was near and dear to my heart whom I had the pleasure of working with um my whole time here. this whole time here who helped me grow as an administrator, who gave me really great
advice, who interviewed me, who had dinner with me, and really helped to guide the leadership and the direction of this district. And so, this is why this is so monumental, why it's so
important, and we're grateful that you're taking the time to do this. So this is in honor of Mike Vance. Will his family please join us up front? We got Becky and >> Well, thank you Dr. S and Mr. President, members of the board. Thank you for the
opportunity to present this resolution. um Representative Pack and I wanted to present this memorial resolution to your family um to your family because he's was a wonderful man, community member, a good board member and always supported the
children of this district and we wanted to make sure that he got memorialized into the general assembly's journal so anybody who could you know look him up could know what a wonderful name he was and so I thought we would read the resolution to you and present her a copy and I know Representative Pat has a
story she wants to share. Let's do it. All right. This is Senate Concurrent Resolution 17. The concurrent resolution memorializing Michael David whereas Mike Nance passed away 825 at
age 71. He was born on August 14th 1954 in Providence Kentucky where he spent most of his early days before moving to Naples, Indiana. Mike graduated from Madisonville North Hopkins High School where he sparked his interest in music by becoming a member of the marching
band where he was an active member of FFA. Mike graduated from the University of Southern Bachelor of Science and Accounting and obtained a CPA's license working as a banker for years. He served on the Wayne Township School Board for 31 years serving as an officer for 13 of
those years always wanting to help. He was the Indiana School Board Association website liaison for many of those years working hard to improve the schools and his community. Mike was the owner of the UPS store and speaker for 14 years along late. Mike will be remembered for his kind heart,
infectious laughter, and unwar dedication of those he cared about. And Mike is survived by his daughter Becky and Courtney. Non's son or John N's four grandchildren Riley Angeline Jameson and
Zariah. Okay. And his uncle's cousin and sister-in-law. Therefore, be resolved by the seven of the general assembly Indiana House of Representatives concurred that the section one that the Indiana general assembly expresses its sympathy and deepest condolences to the family of Michael David and section two
that the secretary of the Senate is hereby directed to transmit two copies of this resolution to the family signed by myself and some of the 70% Just wanted to share a little experience I had with Mike
years ago. Corey was a senior. They were about to My son Jonathan was a senior. They're about to graduate. But my son got in trouble. Do we remember? My son got in big big trouble and he wasn't allowed to walk in graduation and
I was just canceling his open house. I was done with him and Robera called me up and she said, "Don't let this one thing cancel out 13 years of his education." And she came over to the house and a
couple other choir moms. We were all in choir together. Corey and my son and two others. They were called the four horses and they were the first they were sophomores that made it to premieres. I remember that. But anyway, Robera came over and Mike came over and they organized the whole open house. And I
was still hot. I was still I'm just so grateful for them and their friendship through the years. I know it's probably been 25 years 25 years now. My son is is no longer um with us here on Earth. that
um I'm so glad to see friends like Cy that are thriving and doing very well. Thank you. What did you guys bring with you? >> Mysterious sister-in-law. My wife Jennifer And this is my boyfriend Courtney. He
also graduated from Benas. And then this is my daughter Zor, one of the grandchildren. She goes to really appreciate that. He feel very That's amazing. He was very dedicated
and he definitely shaped the way. Um, we have a few things left on the agenda. We actually have a couple of presentations. You are welcome to stay. If you'd rather go get some dinner, >> I think she should >> voting. She would
Thank you all so much. >> Thank you very much. >> Okay, we will move back to item 7D under new business, board policy, second readings. Mr. Fesler. >> Thank you, Mr. President, members of the board. First policy for your approval is
F400 which is debt management. Just as a reminder from the first reading, this policy is not legally required. However, standards and poor asks about board policies in each of our rating calls. The changes to this policy are mostly to um get Dr. Samuels title correct and to
just remind us that any post post insurance compliance might have to be revised from time to time that that happens that it causes to amend the policy. So, I'm happy to answer any questions and respectfully ask for approval of school board policy F400. >> I recommend approval for board policy
F400 debt management policy. >> Second. >> Do we have a motion and a second? Any comment or discussion? Hearing none. All in favor say I. >> I. Any >> oppose? Policy F
is approved. Thank you, Mr. Fess. >> Thank you, Mr. President. numbers before. Our next policy for your approval is F425, the reserve and liquidity policy. Like F400, this policy is not legally required, but serves as a companion to
F400. The updates to this policy included language to maintain at least $10 million in the rainy day fund and to advise that the district may need to restructure operations in the event of an economic downturn, enrollment decline, or increased operations cost.
I'd like to answer any questions and I respectfully ask for your approval of school board policy F425. >> I move for approval of policy F425. >> Second. >> Have a motion and a second. Any comment
or discussion? Hearing none. All in favor say I. >> I. Any oppose? Thank you, Mr. Fesler. Board policy F425 is approved. >> Thank you very much. And then, Mr. President, members of the board, the
next policy for your approval is G450, the criminal organization activity. Although this policy is no longer mandatory, the recording and investigation are mandatory. So, we either need to keep this policy or need to have the information in our employee
and student handbooks. Keeping G450 as a policy means the broader community can view the policy and inform us of any possible organized criminal activity. So, I'm may answer any questions and respectfully ask for approval of schoolware policy G450.
>> For approval of policy G450, criminal organization act. >> Have a motion and a second. Any comment or discussion? Hearing none. All in favor say I. >> Any opposed? Thank you, Mr. Kesler.
Board policy G450 is approved. Thank you, Mr. President. Members of the board, the last policy for your approval tonight is C750, medical needs at school. This is a new policy and it outlines the district's ability to stock and administer
emergency emergency medications such as nlloxxone and epinephrine. Additionally, the policy will add guidance to uh use or excuse me, guidance for AEDs, vision, hearing screenings, and sports physicals. So, I'm happy to answer any questions that you may have and I
respectfully ask for approval of school board policy C750. >> I recommend approval for board policy C 750, medical needs at school. >> Second. >> We have a motion and a second. Any comment or discussion?
Hearing none. All in favor say I. >> I thank you, Mr. Feler. Board policy C750 is approved. is present. >> Moving on to request a surplus technology. Dr. Harvey,
>> president, members of the board, I respectfully submit a list of old and outdated devices that have been supplanting. So, those devices haven't been net zero. We wanted the company to take them off
us so we don't have to pay them. Um, so the non is respectfully submitted for your approval. >> Recommend approval of the request to surplus technology equipment. >> Second. >> We have a motion and a second. Any
comment or discussion? Hearing none. All in favor say I. >> I. >> Opposed? Thank you, Dr. Harvey. The request of surplus technology equipment is approved. Moving on to board reports. We have a legislative update.
>> Absolutely. Um be ready to pull that up. We have attorney Justin Swanson who works with us through IU IUS urban schools association and um really
is in the thick of it during the legislative session and keeps us apprised of updates and and the new laws that have come about. We invited him here tonight so that he could bring the board up to speed and our community up
to speed to those um laws that most affected us in education. So, we appreciate him um taking the time to do this. He's been holding on standby wondering when he gets to come on now. So, we're so happy to see you. We can see you on screen. Justin, can you hear
us? >> I can hear you. Um thank you so much for having me, Dr. Suggs. Really appreciate it. And good evening to the rest of the board. >> I'm going to go ahead and share my screen if that's okay. Oh, I cannot share my screen
unfortunately. Says it's been disabled by the host. >> We'll take a look. >> Okay. >> Want to refresh? >> You should be able to do it now. >> Okay. Yep. There we go. Roman, can can you do
it? >> Yeah, I can do it now. >> Okay, go ahead. >> All right. All right. Awesome. >> Can we see it? >> Yes. Thank you guys so much again for having us. Uh, uh, Justin Swanson with Bose. I, uh, been I USA's lobbyist now
for almost 10 years. Uh we really focus on uh funding issues that impact uh urban uh students. Uh namely we really focus on the complexity index uh which will be important coming up during the 27 session. Uh Roman works closely with
me as well on this uh with IUSA. Um, and we have a large presentation, but we just want to pick out a couple of the bills that we think impact uh Wayne Township um uh students the the most and then spend a couple minutes looking at what we're doing to get ready for the uh
27 budget session. Um so this was a very very uh different kind of session. Uh it was a short short session if you guys will recall. Um the general assembly went in early um on December 1st for two weeks and and had the redistricting discussion. Um that
really kind of set the stage for the rest of session. Um it left um I think a lot of of legislators um in intense moments that carried on through the regular session that did start up in J on January 5th. Uh wrapped
up on February 27th. So again, a very very short short session. still had a ton of bills filed for for a couple weeks, 742 with 163 of those passing. So, to kind of just transition into one of the very first bills here, Senate
Rolled Act uh 4, um that was authored by Senator Mishler. Uh one of the most important aspects of this is uh kind of addressing uh child care in particular. um in October um it was stated there was a 30,000 um weight list for CCDF
vouchers and this is seeking to address that. So this bill in particular allows the use of frock fund which is also known as the financial responsibility and opportunity growth fund um that's currently was allocated $300 million for various different uh things um back in
house and rolled act one uh in the budget session last year. So, uh, that fund is currently being used for corrections, Medicaid, and family and children fund. Um, but the main thing aspect with this $300 million allocation going through this is trying to see how
much will go towards those CCDF vouchers. So, the fund's managed currently by the Indiana budget agency. Um, and it will need budget committee review in order to kind of further along the the process to help address that. >> And we anticipate that uh happening sometime next month, uh, the state
budget meeting. So, we're hoping uh we'll continue to um work with the stakeholders to make sure that uh this is part of the discussion in April and we can find out uh an exact dollar amount the state's willing to um put over into this area. I'd view this really more as a band-aid um until the
general assembly can come back in January, we get a revenue forecast in December and figure out um how much the state can prioritize in this area. Um and and somewhat related to this, one thing we spent a lot of time this session on was um educating members on
uh school foundations and exploring ways what can schools do, what can we do more to engage our community. Um and we've been really on this idea the last couple years of of providing tax credits to taxpayers um who donate to a school foundation. We could even we even threw
out the idea of narrowing that down that tax credit down even more uh if it's used specifically for early childhood uh child care whether it's developing the infrastructure or paying teachers uh something like that. Um, but child care continues to remain a huge issue for the
general assembly. And I think with our memberships like Wayne Township, who excels in early uh childhood uh care, uh can really be an example for the rest of the state on how to set up a infrastructure uh that meets community needs. Um, so while it didn't solve the problem, it was at least a recognition
from the state that there is a major problem now and uh we'll work on making sure we get some sort of band-aid uh this year and then going into the the uh budget year in 2027. >> Absolutely. And then kind of transition into the um other bill of importance is
uh 78 which is also known as the Belltobell uh cell phone ban. Um so the bill on on its surface um saw a lot of changes um initially requiring schools to either adopt a no device policy or a storage policy um where uh they would
use um pouches um and kind of throughout the entire process really got to change um in which now schools must adopt one of the two policies where either students are allowed to bring wireless devices to the school at all or the other storage policy that gives a little more leeway but they have to be powered
off stored away and inaccessible. The DOE is currently trying to figure out um implementation guidance um which is one of the things that they're tasked with um within this bill. Um but also furthermore um this bill also defines wireless devices pretty broadly also now
including uh smartwatches. But I know another um aspect of this entirely is um regarding student um devices that they they bring to school. So currently students may use um those instructional devices that they own until July 1st of
2028. There's also some um minor exceptions in there um regarding to IEP 504 accommodations, documented uh medical needs, translation access um andor superintendent um approval. And Justin, do you want to talk about the big win we had?
>> Yeah. Yeah. Um excuse me. And one thing we really worked on this, we heard from superintendents around the state and our membership here um uh that they as they were implementing these from last year, uh some cell phones were getting broken. So, we were able to testify in support of adding the idea of of putting some
civil immunity in there for school corporations and their employees who are implementing, you know, adopted cell phone policies. So, you can at least take that off the um off the record of something um bad happening. Um, so a small win, but at least recognition of of the realities of implementing a a
policy like this. >> Um, kind of going into the um next bill. Trying to go into it. There it is. 104. Um, this this bill in particular, it's the deregulation bill um that Boing, Representative Bain has now kind of
brought uh over to the state house over these past two years. Um so firstly um this bill in particular removes about 17,000 words from title 20 um which is significantly less than last year which removed about 34,000. Um but this bill
we really wanted to highlight some of the the main important aspects that were um debated very uh um highly debated um during uh session altogether. One of them being the teacher contract provisions um specifically looking at regular teacher contracts. Um, so the bill removes the requirement that a
regular a regular teacher contracts specify the hours per day a teacher is expected to work as well as the per week um a teacher is expected to work. Um, there's going to be some guidance from DOE in particular of sample contracts um that schools um can start to adopt. Um,
currently in in particular this is section uh 98 of the bill. Um currently right now as it stands um teacher contracts have to contain the beginning date of the school term, the number of days in the school term um determined annually by the school corporation um as
well as total salary and number of salary payments that will be made um to the teacher. So those are the two different requirements that are getting um removed from teacher contracts. The second aspect of this bill um is seeking to address temporary uh teacher
contracts and adding a new permitted use of it. Um particularly um focusing on a teacher being issued an emergency uh permit by the DOE. Um they can also now be employed under a temporary teacher contract. Um during the bill initially
the there was a huge conversation regarding AEDs and this is something that was passed in last year's session which required schools at events where a student is high risk of cardiac arrest um to implement them kind of throughout um those events and um the bill had
initially removed that um language to give schools more flexibil flexibility um but now those 80 provisions are back in um into the bill. So now um this is section 140 um of this bill which um as
stated before an AED has to be present at events in which students have an increased risk of sudden cardiac arrest um alongside being specified in the venue specific emergency action plan that's adopted by the school corporation. Some other key additions that were kind of done at the very um
outset of the bill kind of during the conference committee process where they're kind of negotiating of what different provisions from other bills are going into this one. Um, there was Senate Bill 161 that was authored by Senator Rottz, really just a conformity bill to the One Big Beautiful Act. So, that's one of the main provisions that
was added into it as well as some uh some other um language from another bill um putting the removal of income limits for participating um SGOs's. >> Thanks, Roman. I think one, this is an important point, the the removal of the income limits uh for participating in
the STOs's that that's a big deal because again, we've we've gotten us off this idea of um all these programs or help, you know, uh students in failing public schools. We've we've we've lifted that veil and we're getting closer and closer to this idea of um you know,
issuing a certain dollar amount per student in your in your uh choosing to go to your school and that's it. Um that's why we really think the complexity index is so important because it's a recognition by the state for a very long time that it does in fact cost more to educate uh students in poverty.
Um and that's one thing again we've been really working on. Um I heard a gentleman earlier talking about the uh something to do with uh a report on or or training on organized crime. I think that was repealed right last year. Um, so if you guys have as a school board or
individuals have ideas or or the attorneys in the room have ideas on ways to cut some of the red tape that that uh public schools have to comply with. Um, this is going to be another bill like this next year where it's a, you know, a deregulation bill. Uh, but it does take input, active input from school boards
and superintendent on what that could look like because it's an opportunity to get some um, make some good uh, momentum forward. >> Absolutely. kind of going into the the next bill. 1242 is Representative Yokum's education
reports. Um this bill creates two um different reporting requirements um to examine school funding disparities and performance metrics across um Indiana. And both of these reports are due December 1st of this year. And it becomes a very important aspect in terms
of the conversation of the 27 budget year um in terms of what type of data is the state going to be using um when you know discussing um education funding at alto together. So the very first um study here is a DGF and DOE um
collaboration uh study. So really is looking at a county level analysis of per student operational funding disparities. So, it's really looking at a lot of different things and setting a baseline to where they can estimate the funding required um for schools to raise below medium school corporations to that
medium level. Um, and this report of course is due um this December. The other report um is a DOE um report really just looking at looking at ways to improve administrative effic uh efficiency, reduce administrative costs, improving student outcomes. And you can
see some of the various different um data points that they will be using um in regards to enrollment, absenteeism, student assessments and reading results as well as teacher salaries. And kind of going into um the broader spectrum of some of the conversation and
the highlight I would say of education this year is the Indianapolis Public Education Corporation bill. Um this comes contextually from House Enrolled Act 1515. some of the findings that were done there um in regards to the establishment of the Indianapolis Local
Education Alliance over the summer, having their final report due um at the very end of December came with a set of recommendations really looking at establishing the Indianapolis Public Education Corporation to help address uh centralizing key operational systems.
This includes student transportation, facilities planning, creating a unified performance framework, as well as a unified enroll system. Um there's actually a pretty good graphic kind of towards uh the very end of the the big report which is about 420 pages that kind of demonstrates the um the vastness
of this public education corporation starting with the mayor um appointing um the executive director hiring them and then appointing nine members. Three of them being IPS board members, three being from charter schools and another three being an atlarge member.
specifically um in particular focusing on those three members having expertise in facilities management as well as transportation. So this corporation has the ability to impose property taxes, employ staff to support um its operation, managing unified enrollment
systems as well as establishing a framework for school accountability utilizing the brand new A throughF um account accountability rule that was just just adopted um last week. So, another aspect of this bill that's pretty important, too, is keeping the um
IPS, Board of School Commissioners, as well as the just the school boards in general intact. Um, as well as uh limiting the amount of authorizes within the IPS boundary. So, there's three sets of authorizers that will be allowed to
um authorize a charter school um within um the IPS district boundary. That being the mayor's office of education innovation, OEI, Indiana Charter School Board, as well as Indianapolis public schools pending their charter school authorization um process.
>> Thanks, Roman. Uh I'm just going to slide through this one real quick. Um, you know, Senate Bill one from last year, I'm sure as you guys know, is, you know, really starting the was the first major step in in pushing locals to uh more of a rate based system rather than levy based system. And there's going to
be a lot of cleanup to do. Um, so in this bill, they delayed uh some of the elimination of certain u lit revenue. Um, there's some school corporations, I don't know if Wayne, off the top of my head, gets lit distributions at all. Um, but there's a couple things in here we're able to at least delay until we
can get back in the in session during 27 to take a closer look at. Roman, since we're short on time, can you just go to our educational stakeholder study? Yeah. >> Yeah, absolutely. Right there. >> So, at 12:42, there's a lot of studies on operational efficiencies. You know, the IPS restructuring was uh, you know,
at least in the state house, the narrative was about finding efficiencies. Um, this narrative is not going away for school corporations around Indiana. Um so what we've done uh I USA is we've partnered with um IASBO the rural schools um uh growing in
suburban uh superintendent association to commission our own independent study to look at uh data uh that we want to look at and that way we come armed uh during the interim and leading up to those budget discussions with real data and actionable data that we can that we
can go with. Um so um uh we should be sending out a a a survey Wednesday or Thursday to a huge group of people around the state to collect as much data as we can and then our um the uh the vendor that's going to do the reports going to dive into a lot of that and
create his own data as well from 49s. But I think the the biggest thing the biggest takeaway I think for the you as a school board and what what you guys can do to educate your community members is there's a a I think a a real lack of understanding of what it actually costs
to run a school corporation. Uh and and what I what I mean by that what are your non-discretionary costs? What are the the costs you have off the top before you can even look at um anything else? And we really frame that as your utilities, your your transportation, and your property and casualty insurance.
Those are kind of the three non-discretionary costs that um we're really going to focus on and demonstrate how much those have risen over the last 5 years. Um I don't know if anyone off the top of your head knows what that might look like for Wayne, but u around the state it's pretty significant
numbers. We're talking, you know, 50 to 100% increases in some of those areas. Um, and so I'd really encourage you guys to spend some time looking at um, those non-discretionary costs and and how much those have risen over the years and what that really does for for your overall budget in order to meet uh, you know,
the community standards that that are expected from uh, from you all when you're educating students. I know we're about 7 minutes over time. I don't mean to hold you guys. Um, love to answer questions. We can um, dive into a couple more bills, but would love to hear if you guys have any questions
for us. It's been great information. Thank you so much for preparing that and give us giving us such a thorough update. >> Yeah, like I said, we we've got plenty in there, but um we're really at this point focused on the budget session. Uh and that's, you know, those
conversations are going to come probably pretty quick quickly after the May primary. Um and we were going to be prepared with our own data and be at the table on uh when this discussion comes because we are getting closer and closer to this idea. You know, we're going to have basically universal vouchers
probably in 27. Uh basically have them now. And then really what we want to do is how what are we doing about uh the students that need extra funding and not just a certain dollar amount. And um you know, we have a lot in common our our student demographics have a lot in common with the rural areas as well. Um,
and so we've been trying to partner with them a little more uh in terms of our messaging. Um, but at the end of the day, you know, over 90ome percent of the students choose a public school. Um, and Roman and I are really trying to demonstrate what uh what those students need who choose to go to schools like
Wayne. Um, and so we're not kind of forgotten or lost in the, you know, the school choice debate. >> Thank you. >> Thank you so much. >> Thank you so much. We do have access to your complete um presentation for the
board to take a look at. >> Well, go ahead. >> Yeah. No, thank you for the invite and would love to, you know, feel free to reach out anytime if you guys have questions or would like us to come back. >> Absolutely. Thank you, Roman. >> Thank you so much. >> Thanks, guys.
>> Bye. Lots of good information tucked in there. Moving on to English and world language curriculum adoption. 73. >> Good evening, Mr. President, members of the board. Uh, first I want to thank you
for allowing us an opportunity to come and share some really important and exciting work that over 100 Wayne Township staff members have been involved in. And that is to culminate in bringing this recommendation to you this evening for our secondary English
language arts curriculum and world language curriculum materials adoption recommendation. You can see there u the numerous leaders that have been involved in this process as well. Um we have several esteemed
Wayne Township teachers here that we'll share in um this presentation as well. Our goal this year was to review and adopt materials that would serve as a strong foundation of our English language arts curriculum and world
language curriculum starting with the 2627 school year. We'll start this evening with English language arts. I want to tell you a little bit about the review process that we've gone through. Um, folks in this room know the
countless hours that we spent to really make sure that we're bringing to you a recommendation that will be the best possible recommendation for teaching and learning for our students. So before we even put materials on the
table to begin reviewing, we convened a core ELA leadership team that engaged in a thorough program evaluation. And so we looked at the last six years of student data um and we analyzed it for strengths, areas of growth, patterns,
outliers, and we really took a strong look at what was happening with ELA instruction in our classrooms over the course of our last adoption. We analyzed and evaluated multi-year longitudinal student learning data. We disagregated that data to make sure that
we were aware of who was being well served and who we needed to really focus on uh to bring the strongest recommendation to you this evening. Um we identified our goals from that for curriculum adoption which fueled our
evaluation criteria and only then did we begin vetting materials that received all green ratings on ED reports. If you're not familiar with ED reports, it's the most rigorous testing that a curriculum can go through. Um, it's a
third-party independent uh organization that um looks at materials, vets them quite heavily, and field tests them for no shorter amount of time than 18 months with real classrooms, real students. And the green all green rating is the
highest rating you can get and it is very hard to get. So, um, we had some really good options on the table. Um, we went through a gateway review process. In this, we didn't just look at a sampling of teachers. We engaged all
of our ELA teachers. We engaged all of our LAP teachers and we engaged all of our Office of Special Services teachers in this process. We wanted to make sure, again, the recommendation that we're bringing to you tonight is going to serve all students well. In gateway one,
we looked at text quality and complexity and alignment to Indiana standards. After each gateway, we looked at the data. We were only going to let through materials that met high quality or at least approaching quality. If that data came back that it was not representing
quality, then we did not let it move forward to the next gateway. We didn't expect that being that they were all green rated. But again, we have to be stewards of our community, of our students in our classrooms. Gateway two, we looked at constructing knowledge and student access. And gateway three, we
looked at teacher supports, assessment, and intentional design. Alongside our teachers going through this process, we also conducted several student and caregiver um review interviews. We asked them questions
about accessibility, student engagement, relevance, support for learning, family involvement, and then ask them for some um open feedback. We got some really good conversations. And when I share the the quotes, you'll say, "Oh, yeah,
that's a that's a middle school student right there." So, here's the material review data overview. I will say this, this was the closest adoption we've ever had and it's because it was a good challenge. The
materials were so strong that it was hard to say this one was better than the other. So, I'll walk you through our data. Gateway one again was text quality and complexity and alignment to Indiana standards. The indicators you can see in
front of you. Uh the blue bars are going to be HMH into literature. The red bar is going to be Savis, my perspectives, and the yellow bar is McGraw Hill study sync. All in all, that led Gateway one. You
can see that they're pretty close, but Savage My Perspectives uh did come out first in that one. in gateway two, constructing knowledge and student access. You can see here again those individual
indicators that over 100 Wayne Township staff members poured through these materials to bring that data to you. and gateway 2 again really really close this time at grow hill study sync was just by a smidge stronger than savis and
hm in gateway three teachers and student supports assessment and intentional design again you can see those um individual indicators at that level
and you can see that in this one again super close, but McGraill Study Sync was ahead. At this point, I did not feel strong enough to bring you that recommendation just because they were so close. So, we brought everyone together
again and we said, "Oh, sorry. Uh, first I'll talk about the student and parent feedback for HMH into literature." We heard that uh students became very good writers in their ELA class with our current curriculum. Um they didn't have any
concerns currently with that curriculum. It was appealing and uh parents thought that those materials for home review and usage would be welcomed. We did not get any negative feedback um from students and parents on that.
for Savis, my perspectives. Uh, it seems like a more upgraded version of what we have now. We said that there was a lot of writing practice. It has a lot of helpful instructions, a decent amount of stories. There's some of that uh middle school language for you. Um, seems
informative, information is clear, guides students through well, has lots of information and guidance. Very easy to follow. Any guesses who said the negative feedback? It looks boring. Uh, but that's a real thing for kids. Does it get your Does it
draw your eye immediately? Right. >> For McGraw Hill, we had lots of positive feedback on this one. It looks interesting. The stories seem relevant and engaging, which is what we're always looking for. Um, a good start for kids to learn. Lots of photos to go with the
stories, which we know is a scaffold that's needed for a lot of our students. Um, this one was great to hear. I would know how to help my student with these materials. I would know what to do. So, that was helpful from a parent. Visually appealing, easy to break down and
understand. Uh, strong intex annotations and questions. Plents, pictures, and illustrations. An impressive amount of topics and diverse ideas that would peique student interest and build understanding. Um, on the negative side, which is
sometimes what you get was something that someone said positively, but that there was not enough demonstration photos and the paragraphs were long. So, with all of that, it was super close. The data was not clear enough yet
to say this is the the emerging winner of what's going to be best in our classrooms. So, we had to really do some soularching and say, if all of these materials are good, how are we going to make this decision? And I'm really proud
of our teachers. There was 75 teachers in that room. And we had a strong conversation to say, if all if all else is equal, what's most important for teaching and learning in English language arts? And they came through
with skills-based instruction and accessibility. Those were the two non-negotiables. We must have materials that are strongest in instructing the skills associated with English language arts. And those materials must be accessible to all learners.
So we did one more round with those two items in mind, those two non-negotiables. And this was the final vote of against those two criteria. And you can see that uh McGraw Hill study sync came out
ahead. And so with that we bring to you our recommendation for grades 7 through nine and Ben Davis University grade 10 McGraw Hill study sink. So I will give those to you.
We'll just get through that. It's a lot of reading to do with the digital resources are where a lot of the content lives. Um the curriculum is no longer housed in in the textbook alone. Um so that is where you can access the
demo materials if you're interested. But I want to tell you a little bit about what you have in your hands. The program features a McGraw Hill Study Sync are robust and strong. It has integrated reading and writing
instruction that are embedded together. Vocabulary and grammar are also integrated in context rather than taught in isolation. This brings about relevance and helps people and students really understand the art of language
and how communication all comes together. It has engaging multimedia and interactive resources. If you're familiar with the new Indiana state standards, they're quite robust in uh communication, collaboration,
multimedia. We know that information doesn't just exist in the written word anymore. And so we were looking for a curriculum that was going to engage students in that rich multimedia. It has flexible and differentiated delivery as well. It has um worldclass
built-in scaffolds and supports that allow all learners to engage with grade level texts. Uh it offers multiple opportunities for peer review and collaboration. Again, the ability to work together, the
ability to disagree, the ability to communicate your point and hear someone else's, all of that is super important. So, we wanted a curriculum that was going to allow us to do that. Um, and then the assessment and data tools uh provide us with an assessment system
that will give us the information that we need about student learning and guide our instructors forward. So, I want to introduce Mrs. is Nicole Sardinas. She's the department chair at Linhurst 7th and eighth grade center. She's going to walk
us through why we're bringing this recommendation to you. >> Good evening. >> These are just some of the the bullet points that we have put together that that makes this such a a great a great um resource for our kids and our
teachers. There are definitely interesting topics in in in text things that will capture our students attention and they'll want to be excited to learn and write about these things and read about these things. Scaffolding was very
important to us as we serve so many you know multil- language learners and special education students and um helping those kids get where they need to be give them access to these texts. So, the leveled text are wonderful because it gives these students access
to the same text as their peers. Um, and it's it's an easy transfer for them. We're not we're not taking away anything from them. We're we're giving them that access. Definitely the targeted skills practice, vocab, scaffolding, um, and
some great tools for accessibility that that kids can learn to use. Um there's chunking, there's skill building. The thematic novel study is really important so that when when we go through when we use the the stories and the text in the
book, but that we also have available to us novels that will integrate with those thematic um topics so that our kids are also at the at the middle school level and at ninth grade getting access to those novel studies as well that that go
along with that thematic unit. um comparative reading opportunities that require that they do complex thinking and have complex discussions. There's definitely diverse author representation which is very important that the
students can see themselves in the writers in the characters um in the stories in the readings. There's definitely high quality modeling um for for writing and textbased discussions. some of the organizers that
are provided an actual where they can go step by step and see the models of even revisioning, how to organize their thoughts, how to um plan out a writing. Those are very um I think studentfriendly and really helps them
learn to be better writers and and thinkers and speakers. And then definitely the student- centered writing opportunities where um they are doing the writing but again they have the the scaffolding and the support and the more we can make them the center of it and
make them be the ones that are in charge of their learning and we can kind of pull ourselves back and allow them to do the work. Um that's that's where the magic happens. So this has all of these things.
Moving forward um as our students metriculate forward into uh at Ben Davis High School our 10 through 12 recommendation there will be our anchor text curriculum and novels. These are created by our Ben Davis English
department. So I have Mr. Joe Tatum here this evening as department chair and several of our Ben Davis English teachers. Um when you see the work that they've done, you'll see that they poured their blood, sweat, and tears into bringing this curriculum to you this evening.
Um I want to talk a little bit about the shifts in the new Indiana diploma. I know that you all are familiar with that. Um but there has been a change in English requirements in the new diploma. The only required credits now are
English nine, two credits of English 9 and one credit of a communications focused course. From there, what they encourages a wide range of flexible credits. The new diploma is really essentially about students finding themselves, finding their passions,
um being able to exercise their agency and finding their path forward in life. And so in the in the microcosm that is the English department of that overall high school experience, we mirrored that and they had the foresight to really do
that before it became a requirement. Um, but we wanted to provide lots of opportunities and lots of options for students to engage with what they found relevant, their path, exercise their agency. And I think Mr. Mr. Tatum is going to tell us about what that's
created in student engagement and student excitement around their English courses here in a minute. Um, but those five additional English credits that are required are flexible credits. And so some examples of those flexible
credits, there are various novel genre courses, there are various themes courses, and then there are courses like critical thinking and argumentation. um that are just really unique and engage the brain differently as students metriculate and become older in high
school. >> So, Mr. Tatum, while Mr. Tatum talks, I will hand out our um curriculum. >> Well, good evening members of the board. Mr. President, thank you for having us. Um we're excited to present this curriculum we've been working on for
months um even years. Um so special thanks to Megan Campbell who is her assistance and guidance has been invaluable to us um throughout this entire process. So we're really grateful for her help. Um
I'm a better writer than speaker. So I've prepared a bit of a a written rationale for some of what we're what we're doing here. um as about almost a third of uh the the Ben Davis English department hands out the various um course options that we've put together.
Um so our department saw an opportunity a few years ago not just to adjust our course offerings uh but to reimagine how we engage students in meaningful reading and writing particularly in light of the
new flexible credits requirements. Um, instead of limiting juniors and seniors specifically to a narrow set of traditional courses, we committed to developing a variety of English offerings built around student interests
while adhering closely to Indiana State learning standards and building on the foundations of their language arts experiences in grades 7 through 12. Upper high school students in particular are at a point in their lives where they're beginning to take more ownership
of their decisions and their identities. And we humbly submit that school could reflect that developmental reality. These courses give students a voice in what they study rather than simply assigning them into a one-sizefits-all
English class. When students have some agency in their learning, engagement improves. They read with more curiosity, write with more investment, and participate more actively in class.
Choice also creates something else that we believe matters in schools, which is a stronger sense of belonging. When students choose a class based on shared interests, we hope they find peers who care about the same ideas and topics, that common ground helps create
classroom communities where conversation is more meaningful, collaboration is easier, and students feel more connected to what they're studying. Finally, what makes us as teachers um so so proud of this curriculum um and
especially meaningful us is that it was created by us, the the human beings who work with our students every day. We know our students and their interests. We know their backgrounds. We know their challenges. So, we aim to design courses
that both challenge them intellectually and also connect with what genuinely motivates them to learn. In the end, our work here reflects a simple belief. When students see themselves and their interests reflected in what they study, they are more
willing to engage with complex ideas, work their way through challenging texts, and develop literacy skills that will serve them long after high school. Thank you for your time and consideration. We're open to questions and comments. And I know some of my teachers would also like to offer some
of their own personal anecdotes and testimony. So >> when I looked at this and started reading through it, I was you guys have worked so hard on building
a curriculum that's solid >> and thank you so much. Wow. >> Absolutely. Yes. Um, I'm Fman and I teach biblical literature. I'm the only Bible literature right now and also American.
>> We can have a great conversation. >> Hi, I'm Melissa and I teach themes in true crime literature. >> I would like that. It's fun. I'm Mandy Davis. I teach the critical thinking argumentation class as well as English 10.
>> I'm Ashley Bender. I teach creative writing. I'm Miranda and I teach the world literature class about >> Miranda was excited to share one tiny anecdote about um the effects like the
tangible effects of this some of these choices have on on our specific students. So Miranda if you want to share. >> Sure. You do not. >> As an English teacher, I write better than
um as one of the teachers for one of our courses, the horror literatures especially. Um I've really seen that positive impact that student choice makes on these kids. Um especially when it comes to succeeding in English. Um a lot of students have come to me in the
last, it's only my second year teaching, so in the last two years they've come to me. um expressing their excitement over getting to choose their class in the future. So, a lot of my English have been coming to me telling me which classes they want to take um and getting
excited in advance for the classes that they know they take, teachers that they teach them. Um and many of them tell me that English has never been their favorite subject until they've taken those famous classes. Um particularly in horror, we see a lot of kids who um are
really interested in slashers and horror movies and they take the class excited and then they get there and it's not what they thought it would be, but it sparks this sort of new curiosity in them. Um and they get to engage in some of those texts that they maybe wouldn't
get gotten to a traditional English classroom. Um and so we've seen that within these courses, the students feel more motivated and more interested. Um, and there's a lot more buying from them. Um, and most of that is just because they've gotten to choose where they
would like to be. Um, especially with that new graduation pathway. Um, a lot of these classes incorporate collaboration and discussions, a lot of creative projects, a lot more hands-on activities, um, and a variety of instructional approaches that really
just help support all our students very diverse needs. Um, and so these classes are very much designed by us um, to build upon their prior knowledge and give them a chance to sort of discover their own path forward through things
that they find most intriguing. >> I'm just curious about like some sample texts of this for literatur. >> Yeah. Um, so right now we're at our ground unit. So we just finished reading the pit and pendulum. Um, we had a very
interesting discussion yesterday about rats or today about rats like to eat. That's like if you've never read it, guys like change of the floor has to use the rats to eat himself out to escape the pit. Spoiler alert spoiler,
but yeah, we read we read um we read uh the call of the classic love. Um, and we read several international horror stories, which they are usually have no idea that they ever existed. Never thought that
international horror would be something they're interested in until they read it. And so those are some of our like mainets. So what does the day what does your day look like? Um, I know you each teach a different um
genre, I guess. Thank you. Um, so do you like do you teach core all day long? >> No. So I teach core for um like two class periods a day and then I have a there's another teacher that also teaches for three or four times a day
and then the rest of my classes are each. Okay. >> How many different things are there? I mean as far as sitting here in front of you sitting right here.
that looks like >> they're not all themes. Um, of the themes courses, they've actually diminished over the past few years. I think we just kind of reached peak capacity for what we how we could staff folks and sort of the supply and demand
issue. Um, approximately eight currently. Um but then we also offer just a wide variety of you know AP literature, AP language, um ACP dual credits, transcends dual credits
courses, um English 10. So there's a lot of variety um with multiple kind of like homegrown pathways, if you will, for our students to choose. Um particularly with the new honors plus and honors seals um
we've kind of have that all mapped out for kids so they can kind of see if you take this then this then this and that will put you on the path for this particular seal and so on. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Are those your favorite classes to teach?
Do you get to choose what you teach? Like did you say, "Hey, I'm teach." >> I do. I do the best. We do the best we can. >> No, I truly do want to teach true crime and it's been incredibly exciting. Um, if you don't mind, I'd like to share.
Okay. Um, so the great thing about true crime is that it's all true and that's how I started the semester is um, we talk about the ethicality of the genre and how when we're consuming true crime, we have to understand that we are reliving people's lived trauma and
experiences. Um, and that always leads to a really eye opening conversation. Um, but they get really engaged in it and I've seen a lot of students I mean I students have told me that they've never liked English until they've been in you know true class or horse is another
really popular one they love. Um, but they've been bringing ideas to me as well. Um, so they because of the course they're paying more attention to what's in the news. Um, and recently Haley Busby case has been very very big. And
so they brought that to me and actually derailed what I was going to do for an entire week so that we could discuss that. And it segued into us talking about the way in which um, true crime impacts legislature. >> And so that has been very eye opening.
And so now we're just now getting back on track and they're we're getting ready to start our research unit tomorrow where they're going to choose from a list of um crimes in the Midwest that all have related criminal justice issues to it um that have impacted uh legislature and various Midwest cities
um and states um and so so it was a great segue. So even though it derailed us for a little bit um it was a great segue to what we're doing now and it's relevant. >> Yeah. So you can see that this creates a really strong vertical system that depends upon itself. You heard about
true crime that's going to live in the in the uh non-fiction much more than it lives in fiction. You heard Bible lit, which is going to be a reading uh genre in and of itself, fiction. And so we
have to draw upon a really wide well of reading, writing, speaking competencies from that seven through nine of that core curriculum really engaging in that so that the success of student agency
and decision making can be theirs. And so that vertical uh system depends upon itself for success. Other questions for the ELA portion of the presentation?
>> It's a lot of work. Very much appreciate. >> Thank you. >> Thank you all so much. >> I remember uh when it first started, uh there were several students signing up for two English classes just because they wanted to. And that was a really
cool moment of students choosing to take more English than necessary just because they were like I couldn't choose. So that's really great. >> All right. Thank you. >> Thank you all.
>> One more round. I promise. Okay. World language. Um, we also brought our world language teachers together um to look at materials for French, German, and Spanish. We went through a similar review
process. There's not quite as robust of a research base for world language curriculum as you can imagine than ELA. Um but again had that kind of initial meeting with teachers looking at student learning data identifying our areas of strength and areas of focus for our
upcoming recommendation. Um and then from that identified our goals for our curriculum adoption which fueled our evaluation criteria. There were two gateways for uh this process. Of course alignment to standards which if you're at all
familiar with world language standards is a beast. they are very complex and very difficult to understand. Um we looked at the AFL world readiness standards, the cultural competence integration. Um and then in gateway 2 we looked at instructional support to make
sure that the materials would support all learners in those classes. Um so here in purple we were looking at Boseace curriculum. In yellow, we were looking at the Klet, my reporter series,
and in green, we were looking at the Carnegie series for each of those languages. For gateway one, alignment to standards, you can see here we had a clear leader in the KP reporters series.
In gateway two, you can see u those individual indicators that we looked at. Again, this one was not as difficult as ELA. The teachers knew immediately quality when they saw it. And so, Gateway 2 again that really large lead
that Klet reporters series had. And so, our recommendation to you this evening is Klet Reporters series. One more set of books and then I will turn Is it
again if you uh would like to access the digital resources that information is here. A quick note that the presentation that I shared with uh in your board notes uh that password did get updated because it expired
today. Uh so that is that new password. There's a lot of material that lives on the digital platform that's not in the book. The program features with this one. This was uh a really amazing series for world
language. If you know world language instruction, there's this dichotomy between skills-based instruction and proficiency based instruction. And when you swing the pendulum too far one way or the other, it typically
doesn't work for student learning. And so what we found with this series is that it balances both really, really well. So it has authentic communicative proficiencybased learning. Kids are communicating in realworld ways. Uh
there's relevance. They're not a a vocabulist for the week and and that's what we're studying. They are really communicating and taking in information about the world around them. There's real world project based instruction. A lot of hands-on
um learning happening in the classroom. Uh a strong cultural and interdisciplinary focus. As we know, our world is global and so we need to make sure that our students know about the wide diversity in the Spanish speaking world, in the French speaking world, in
the German speaking world, engaging inclusive and accessible content for all learners. The differentiation in these materials is the best I've ever seen in world language material. So, we're excited about that. And then assessment driven progress tracking. Again, a
really robust assessment suite, but also really strong selfassessment opportunities for students who when they're learning a language can feel um a little bit uncomfortable um because they're a beginner at
something when they're 15 years old and they're not used to being beginners at something anymore. And so that that ability to really self assess and to take stock of where they're at is really powerful. The reasons for our recommendation of
this material, it was really best aligned with our world language standards and the five C's of language acquisition. Those hands-on projects that are going to foster authentic engagement, the curriculum spirals intentionally.
And as we were looking through thinking if students for one reason or another didn't pick it up here, it's coming back. It's building in complexity over time. So it's never moving on without the without a student. Engages students in activities and videos aligned to relevant 21st century skills. So they
get to hear the different accents from different places around the world. Um it's geared toward true communicative language learning those differentiated activities um and honors of research about
comprehensible input. So, if you've heard about compre comprehensible input, it's kind of that botsky plus one level. So, you're uh really intentionally bridging information students know and a little bit that they don't know. So, they're constantly growing in the
classroom. Um, we really like the culture centered approach. Again, we live in a global world. Our kids have to know about the global world. So, it's a really well-rounded and intentional approach in this curriculum.
Also out there is AP Spanish literature. Our recommendation is Antortcha. The AP language exams have changed and changed pretty dramatically towards that uh cultural understanding. and Torcha
offers the deep rich literature in the Spanish language, but also the culture piece to really understand um at the level that the AP exam, the newly updated AP exam would require. I really want to thank you for your time
this evening and hearing about the work that our teachers have done. They have been amazing. They have put in so much time and energy. They bring this to you with the utmost of care because this is this is what we do, teaching and
learning. And so we wanted to bring a recommendation of materials that are going to help us do that in the best way possible. So thank you. I appreciate your consideration. Any questions I can answer? >> Thank you for your leadership.
>> Thank you. >> Any questions I can answer? English teacher. It just makes me smile to look at all the novels and just takes me back to the, you know, hard but so important to what
happens in our classroom. So, thank you. >> Someone who hated English school, um, I wished I had had a lot of these options because as someone who reads as much as I do now, I read all I've always had a book in my hand. I would love to have had these options in
my home rather than reading some of the stuff we had to read. >> We hear that a lot from our parents when they come through and learn about that. >> Yeah. Well, thank you. I appreciate your time. >> Do you have any more information for us this evening?
>> Oh my goodness. This is the season of celebrations and recognition. Just as some reminders, um, want to mention that last Friday it was a wonderful basketball game. I think you were there. You were there. Um, it was sectionals
for our boys. Played Brownsburg. It was a close one all the way down to the end. They played so hard. Um, in the end we did not um take the the win. Um, but just really excited about um a really good season and we're already looking forward to next year. Um this week,
Tuesday, we've got a board visit at Lake Township Preschool. Also on Tuesday, our community leaders meeting uh in the afternoon. Also on Tuesday, our annual senior choice awards at Ben Davis High School. We're going to use door one to
enter. 4:45 is the reception. The program, the reception is really nice. Uh the program will begin promptly at 5:15. always a an amazing um recognition for our teachers. So excited about that.
Thursday, we have a couple of board visits um to AB and WPA. The great thing is they're in the same building. We'll hit both of those programs on Thursday morning. And then Thursday evening, um here in the district, Kaufman Wealth
Management is going to be here presenting in the boardroom 6 pm. Uh it's a retirement seminar. All staff are invited. You don't have to be ready to retire to come. There's so much great information about how to prepare for retirement. You don't prepare when
you're deciding to retire. You prepare way ahead of that time. So, I always encourage staff, get the word out, right? Spouses are um welcome to come as well. So, wanted to mention that. And with that, that's all I have for
comments. >> Thank you so much. Anything else? Got a motion to adjourn. >> We adjourn at 8:23. >> Second motion and a second. All in favor say I.
>> I. >> We're 823. >> Thank you all. >> Thank you guys. >> Thank you. Have a good evening. Thank you. Um, she's