Of America and to, to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice. First. Tonight we have Vence from the public. And Ann, uh, if you'd like to step up the microphone as always, you've got three minutes to share with us what's on your mind. Okay, well, I'd like to address the best kept secret in Perry Township, which is the 322 million. That's right, the almost a third of a billion dollar high school expansion that was passed
by the school board at the last meeting. Uh, much of the expense, the majority of it is related to sports such as the field, two new field houses, uh, indoor tracks, the arts and the band supposedly, um, Perry Township constituents, well, supposedly, according to a letter I received, um, Perry Township does not intend to bring forward a referendum, but rather would finance the project within our statutory tax caps and not raise our tax rates for Perry Township.
Cons, constituents. Well, Perry Township constituents want to see our property taxes go down. Um, bonds may be issued to pay for the one $30 billion tax bill, um, but bonds have to be paid back. So how, or rather, who will be paying back those bonds? Who will be on the hook for that one third of a billion dollar project? Um, property taxpayers in Perry Township will be, so for four years in high school, the children would have more room to play since the majority
of the one third billion goes to those activities that I mentioned. Um, while the Perry Township property owners will have 20 years to pay off the one third billion dollar tax debt that is in ex, that's in extra taxes, not just the state property taxes. And this is in addition to the about $15,000, we are already paying an extra tax, which we are still paying on. Um, you can check your tax statement for that. I think it's on table two. Um, in the comments from the board and for, from Dr.
Spray tonight, I would like to know if you have, uh, put a petition forward for, for a referendum or will you be, um, by June 16th, which is the final date to apply for it, and what in real dollars will the average home homeowner be paying? We have a right to know these things. Thank you. Thank you Ann. Next item tonight is our consent agenda, Move to approve. Second Motion was made by Mrs. Herman,
seconded by Mr. Hernandez. Are there questions or comments? My fault. Mr. Mertz. Thank you. Uh, questions or comments? Alright, hearing none will go ahead and vote. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Opposed? Nay. The consent agenda is accepted. Uh, before we move on tonight, I will pass to Mrs. Pollard. Thank you. Good evening Board. I would a like to ask Mrs. Jackie Miller to come forward, please. You can just come straight up. Yes. For tonight we just approved. You just approved. Um, Jackie Miller to be the brand new principal at Jeremiah Gray Kindergarten Academy.
We're so proud of Jackie. She's grown, grown up through our career ladder system, being a successful teacher onto a master teacher and assistant principal, and now principal. So, Jackie, congratulations and we'd like for you to introduce your guests. Thank you. Um, I'm with my husband Larry. Um, I do have three boys, Owen and Jonah and Jackson, but unfortunately one's at church camp and then Jackson had a fever today. So the oldest is babysitting so we can come together. It's how works. Um, I would just like to say as much as we talk at Perry Town about growing kids, um, not only am I an example of us also growing leaders, um, I would be remiss to thank Mrs. Pollard
because she was like my first good, uh, mentor as being a baby leader when I stepped into master teacher role. And of course I have my stuff with me, but definitely Laura Hansel, who has made be equipped enough to step through this visit. So I couldn't step into this without also thanking her because we could grow kids, but we also were leaders. Thank you guys for this opportunity. Congratulations. Congratulations. Next up I'd like to ask Mrs. Julie Wolf to come forward, please. For today, you just approved Julie to be the new principal at the Holcroft Kindergarten Academy. Julie comes to us from Clark Pleasant neighboring school district, and she has a vast amount
of experience both in the classroom at the district level, working with special education students. We're very excited to have her on our Parish Township team. Congratulations. Julie, will you introduce your guests? Awesome. Thank, Nice. Yeah, we're excited to have you. Thanks, Julie. Finally, I'd like to ask principal at Glens Valley Elementary, um, Lindsey Smith to come forward. She is going to introduce her new assistant principal. Hi, good evening. Thank you for being here this evening. I would, would like to welcome, um, Mr. Adam Best to our team. He is joining us from Decatur Township and he will be the new assistant principal at Glens Valley. Thank you.
Thanks everybody for having me here tonight. Uh, tonight my wife. I see, uh, we left our dog ton at home tonight before a place for him to be busy. Uh, our our one, one and only son. Right? So I'm very thankful to Lindsay for all our chats and for talking with any, anybody here that's sat gone through this retreat. Um, as I've heard from others, every schools are great schools and I'm looking forward to growing my own leadership as well. Families and students. That's what's most important to us. But thank you so much for this approval. Looking forward to a great school year. Great. Awesome. For those here, uh, for our, uh, new recognitions,
you are welcome to stay. June. Board meetings are known for how amazing they can be, but you're also welcome to leave at this point. And since we have no kids, we won't mention ice cream, but have a nice dinner. Thank you. Starting our items of information requiring action. Uh, the first item tonight is consideration of the 25 26 Student Success Handbook. Mrs. Pollard Thank you board. Tonight we bring you the, um, updated changes for the 25 26, um, student Success Handbook, including your board packet. You should have an outline of, um, the different changes. So you can see kind of the red line, um, updates
and as well the letter that, um, we like to include from all of you. Tonight, we ask for your approval, Move to approval. Second Motions made by Mr. Hernandez, seconded by Mr. Mertz. Are there questions or comments? Hearing none will vote. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Opposed nay 4.01 is accepted. Uh, 4.02 consideration of master mentor stipend for the spring semester of 2025. Dr. Spray? Yes, We're asking the board's permission to pay out
of the education fund the second half of the master mentor stipends that were committed to these individuals who did the work during the 24 and 25 school year to fulfill those commitments. Um, so we would typically we're planning on paying this out of the federal TSL grant, but that was canceled on us, um, this past, um, first quarter of this year. Um, unfortunately we did get final notification, um, today that, that, um, our appeal has been denied as well. So we'll make plans as we go forward on, on how to continue with some of these programs. We wanna make sure that these individuals, um,
get the compensation they were, they they've earned throughout the school year. So ask for your consideration. Move To approve. Second Motion was made by Mr. Lewis, seconded by Mrs. Hartman. Are there questions or comments? Um, I just, I guess for everyone here and everyone listening, this was canceled by the federal government because the TSL grant included language overall arching from NIET, correct, is where this grant came from.
Or they were administering it like across partners with us. And in there there was some diversity, equity, and inclusion. The Original grant application required those components. And so that's why the, it was flagged, um, Flagged in our opinion flag. So even though we were using it for master and mentor teacher stipends, that is why it went away. Correct. Thank you. Oh, another question We're voting or statement, I guess we're voting to approve for work that has already been done moving forward in the fall.
If we wanted to continue this stipend without the TSL grant, it would come to the board again for, for another vote, We would have to find funds and bring it as a, as a supplemental payment. Or if it were to be included in the bargaining agreement, that's another place where it could potentially sit. Thank you. Hearing, no other questions will go ahead and vote. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Nay 4.02 is accepted. Uh, 4.03 consideration of New ZLA Newsela. I've heard it both ways. Contract renewal and then policy analytics agreement.
Uh, first we'll go to Mrs. Pollard. Thank you. Yes. Tonight we bring you the agreement, um, between Perry Township Schools and Newsela. Um, this is a program that we use with our English language learners, specifically with our level ones and twos. It helps them with some decoding, um, and developmental reading processes, um, as they're growing in their language development. This contract will be funded through Title three funds, which are given to us from the federal government for supporting our English language learners. Tonight, we ask for your approval. And then Mr. Hatcher Yes, we ask for your consideration for the policy analytics agreement. Policy Analytics is a company that provides deep, um,
analysis of tax bases. And with the changes in Senate enrolled Act one, uh, we feel it is time to engage them and get a better feel for how the circuit breaker's gonna affect us now with the new law change and how the tax rates are gonna change. And, um, we, uh, they, they engage several schools on an annual basis. We have not engaged them before, but we feel with the change in the law that it's time to, um, time to engage them now. So, Move to approve Second Motions made by Mr. Lewis. Seconded by Mrs. Hartman. Are there questions or comments?
Hearing none will go ahead and vote. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Opposed nay. 4.03 is accepted. 4.04 Consideration of supplemental personnel report. Mrs. Baker, Good evening board. I recommend approval of the supplemental personnel report. Move to approve Second Motions made by Mrs. Hartman, seconded by Mr. Hernandez. Are there questions or comments? Hearing none will vote. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Opposed nay. 4.04 is accepted.
4.05. Uh, textbook adoption. Mrs. Pollard Thank you board. Tonight we have two for our high schools. We're asking for approval of the following textbooks, um, that are listed on your sheet for hospitality services and for our elementary school. We're asking for your approval of the math curriculum adoption. Um, Alex, Alex is an adaptive game-based online program designed for, um, really K 12 students. We use this program in all of our schools tonight we're asking for your approval for a K two edition. Um, this personalized approach ensures that all students, regardless of their starting point, receive
that appropriate support, helping them build those foundational math skills. Um, we also have found much success in using this data to help inform, um, the classroom interventions that are happening. So, uh, the total for the contract tonight is, um, just over a hundred thousand dollars for a three year subscription. So that would be divided over three years. And we ask for your approval Move to approve Second Motions made by Mr. Mertz and seconded by Mr. Hernandez. Are there questions or comments? Hearing none will go ahead and vote. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Rose nay 4.05 is accepted.
Uh, final item tonight. The acceptance of donations, Dr. Spray and Mrs. Pollard. Yeah. One of the donations has to do with a $1,000 donation to Perry, um, school Police Department from Derek Deth. And this is to, uh, health Assist with Officer Training. Okay. And I've got the elementary and the secondary, so I'm gonna try to be quick here. Um, for Douglas MacArthur Kindergarten Academy, they received a donation of $438 from Mrs. Tyree, a representative of a Douglas MacArthur student. These funds are gonna be used to, to supplement faculty activities on behalf
of Glens Valley Elementary. The American Legion Post donated $1,500 to Glens Valley to be used for student assistance for Henry Burkard Elementary. Mr. Bradley Kinney donated $500 to be used to support student needs, and the PTA donated $427 to support student activities On behalf of Crot Kindergarten Academy Beach Grove, Huntington Bank donated a hundred dollars worth of school supplies and another item of worth $25. On behalf of Mary Bryan Elementary, the parents and staff donated $252 to be used for the fifth grade graduation shirts.
Um, Mary Bryan also received donations totaling $837 from individuals, Lisa Raki, Theodore Schneiderman, uh, Lynn Stevenson, Sybil Reeves, Shannon Treater, Taylor Muser, and Jeff and Jennifer Dishman, Rosa Parks Elementary. Claire Taylor donated a folding picnic table to be helped, um, to be used in the learning garden for students and teachers to enjoy together on behalf of the Compass Education Center, there was a hundred dollars donation by Diana Johns to be used for student incentives for Perry Meridian High School. A hundred dollars to be used
to support the Unified Sports Program by an anonymous donor and $213 to be used to support the lacrosse team. And, um, and another donation from the Perry, or from their student association to be used for Falcon Web Web Radio. On behalf of Southport High School, there was a $14,412 donation from the Athletic Booster Club to be used to support athletics theater in yearbook. A $500 donation from Jeannie Shackleford to be used to support the Marilyn Ramsey Scholarship Fund and a 225 unified sports donation to be used to help
with the champions together. Banner. Additionally, there was another $437 donated by CNC shirts and the A A BC to be used for that banner as well. On behalf of Southport Middle School, we received a $355 donation from their PTSG to be used to support school events and from Perry Meridian Sixth Grade Academy, a $2,000 donation from their PTSA to cover the cost of the field trip to Victory Field. On behalf of all of our schools, we ask your approval for these generous donations. Move to approve second Motions made by Mr. Hernandez and seconded by Mr. Lewis.
Are there questions or comments? Hearing none will go ahead and vote. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Those nay 4.06 is accepted. We'll wrap up tonight with board and superintendent comments. Mr. Mertz, if you'd like to do the honors gonna be long-winded tonight. I don't have anything. It was great going to the graduations a week ago, and it was my first experience and I really enjoyed it. And congratulations to everybody that graduated. It's hard to believe the, uh, school year flew by as fast as it did. Um, like Ms. Vick said, graduation ceremonies were, were great.
Appreciate everybody's help putting those together. Um, wish all the graduates best of luck. Um, great job. It was a great accomplishment, uh, to our, uh, spring athletes. Great job this year. Uh, but I really wanna say thank you to the groundskeepers, especially at the, uh, baseball and softball fields. They had those things looking great this season and really appreciate their work and getting those things ready for the kids to play on. Um, I think that's it. Thank you. You know, what happens when other people give up their time? I get to sleep longer. Okay.
So, um, so may is over. We all survive, teacher, staff, and even parents, right? And, um, graduation gets me every time. Do you know, because, um, um, I think we, there's so many things that we get to see from a different perspective, I think sometimes of everything that goes into each one of these littles lives. And then they walk across the stage as big littles, but they're still littles, you know? And, um, this year I had two
of my littles walk across the stage, um, one from college and, and one in high school. And, you know, it just, it it's, it becomes a little more personal when it's your own, I guess. Um, but also because you spend so much time getting ready for an open house and celebrations, and there's all the things. And so for the past month, we had, we had our open house for our high schooler before graduation, and we spent weeks, you know, going through the tub. I have a tub of all of her things. And, um,
the kindergarten posters and the art that was in the art fair and you, the jerseys and everything, and they're all, all over the house. And the other kids are like, when are we gonna stop celebrating Lydia? And I'm like, well, it's, it's may all month is Lydia month. Okay? So, but anyway, um, as I'm going through this stuff, I just keep seeing the people that have invested in my child, some of them very knowingly invested into my child,
and some even unknowingly invested and laid seeds and or watered seeds, or came alongside and encouraged in times. And at one point in time as I'm, 'cause we took everything down in our kitchen, okay? And hung everything of her up from ceiling to floor, was Lydia. It was really neat. But anyway, one section of the wall was, um, in middle school, Lydia ran cross country and played volleyball at the same time. And that cross country coach was so instrumental
to her, even though she loved volleyball more than cross country. That cross country coach was so instrumental to her. And I thought, coach needs to see this. So I took a picture of it and I emailed it to her and I said, if you ever question, because Lydia had saved notes that she had written her and put on her locker or, and the, the different colored ribbons and all the things, but it wasn't the accolades, accolades, it was the, the encouragement is what she had kept. And, um, then you do the,
the elementary school walks, you know, you see all the pictures and you see all our elementary schools and, and going back there, you can, like, as a mother, you can like smell and remember things from the elementary schools. And, and there again, all the people from the custodian, miss Judy, who poured into all those kids. And everybody was asking, is Miss Judy still here? You, uh, so you just never know like who it is. So, um, COVID was miserable, right?
But there were some good things that came from COVID, and that is that podcasts totally went o went off and crazy and everybody listens to podcasts and churches now stream sermons and, you know, all these things that are accessible. Well, people can listen to our board meetings. So, you know, all kinds of things have happened. And there's a preacher that I listened to, um, outta Louisville and, um, his name's Bob Russell. And, um, over this month, like one of his sermons came back up again in my, my list. And it talked about how long is our shadow?
And he talked about how in Acts five 15 people brought the sick into the streets and laid them on their beds and on mats so that Peter, they just wanted to like, be in Peter's shadow. Like maybe his shadow would just pass over him, over them because they felt like a good man's shadow could, would have healing powers on them. And so they thought that if we could just be in his shadow, so they gathered real close in hopes just to, to be that his shadow would fall on him.
And in the sermon, the preacher says, every one of us cast some kind of shadow that heals or hurts, that blesses or curses your shadow. Is your influence, the effect you have on other people? You can no more keep from exerting an influence than you can from keep keep from casting a shadow on a sunny day. And I see that so much in this township, how so many people cast shadows on our students that leave lasting impacts.
And to see all 1100 students cross over that stage at South Port and Perry knowing how many shadows have covered these kids. And I just pray that, um, like I always say, we teach them to grow in hopes that they'll come back and make a difference here. And, and it might be they're at, at a company that's helping and making impacts here, or they might be teaching in one of our own classrooms one day. But, um, this weekend we, um, Mr.
Lan, the yearbook teacher at Perry High School, cast a very long shadow on my daughter Lydia. And, um, so we drove up north and went to her, um, funeral this weekend. And she's 42 years old. Her shadow didn't last very long, but it was so, it didn't last very long in time, but the shadow that she cast was so wide and so fast. So I encourage us to continue to remember that, whether it's kindergartners, middle schoolers,
if you're an aide, if you're a custodian, if you're a parent, if you're a teacher, if you're an administrator, if you're a board member, Emily k I'm speaking to myself. We cast a shadow and we make impacts in these lives. And sometimes we could be the only person that cast a shadow on these kids. And so, um, so I say this and thank you to all of the teachers and coaches and Miss Judy, the custodian who have cast shadows in the lives of my children, but also the children whose parents don't have the
opportunity to sit at this microphone and say thank you. I thank you from the bottom of my heart. I thank you. Thank you. So how do I follow that? Um, just, just a couple of comments. I, I thought one, congratulations to all the graduates, that that is, that's one of the best things we get to do. And, and it was, uh, it, it's fantastic every year. Um, I thought it was very appropriate that that Jackie, uh, had mentioned that about growing leaders and, and that that's, that is the offshoot of us growing kids. We're we're growing leaders, but that, that growing leaders
and, and her being a symbol of that I is, is not, not a fluke. I mean, we, we have staff initiatives. We, we have professional development and that's, that's what we're hoping to get. And, and it, it was, it was just great to even hear her her say that, that, that we're growing leaders too. Um, in regard to the master mentor stipend, I'm really glad that we completed that commitment. It was, it was a commitment. And I really hope that we can do something to find a way
to, to acknowledge the, those people going forward. Um, you know, I have to talk about the donation. So the donation to the Perry Police, I very, very pleased to, to, to see that, especially as a father of a police officer, not not a school police officer, but you know, that they can be overlooked. And, um, especially in, in regard to the donation part of it. And with the, the other donations, uh, it was great to see
what whatever people could give and, and maybe some of those were from younger kids, but that, that the parents were, were trying to show them you give something, you know, a dollar 42 or what, whatever some of those were. And, and it all counts. So that's the end of my comments. The, um, Southport Developmental Football League finished their flag football season yesterday. And if you don't or have never been to a flag football game, it's exciting times. So I just in a very specific sense, one is I think Coach Felan and the hard work he and his staff do to, to get that program, uh, every year
because they, he's been very intentional about getting girls involved as well, uh, with the opportunities available to young women now, um, in that realm. And I'll personally apologize to the legend Jets. I did the best I could, but Mrs. Baker, um, just one look at the, um, personnel report you and your staff are over time this time of year. Um, and so I wanna thank you, uh, personally for all the, the work that you go, uh, and your staff go into finding the best candidates. Um, obviously congratulations to the candidates committee coming in, but you, you've done, you do a nice job from
what I can tell, not just making sure we are bringing up the best and brightest from within, but if there's a bright spot from the outside, we can bring in as well. Um, uh, I, I appreciate all that you and your staff do. Um, again, echoing graduation, um, it's a really amazing celebration. Um, and, uh, it's just knowing the amount of e effort that goes into putting that, that on and making sure it's a successful event and a great celebration for all those families. Uh, so Mr. Boacher, I'll just thank you personally
since you're here in the audience. Uh, and I'm, I'm just always impressed by the assistant principals at Southport and the student body vice president, is that correct? Um, just the, the ability with which they were able to nail a, a, what did I say? Did I screw it up again, Perry? Sorry. Um, just a wide variety of names. I, I'm just always impressed by that. Um, and then Mr. Hatcher, uh, just looking for it as the, we think about these projects and your, your, um, your, you and your staff and your, your fiscal responsibility you continue to have
and making sure that we are able to take care of these in a responsible way. So thank you for that. All right. First I just want to mention that, um, nor I, nor I will not be, nor will the, I be recommending to the board to be filing any petitions with the county to place the project on a ballot for referendum. So I wanna get that, um, out of the way. Um, we did last Friday, um, we have a new state champion in town. Um, we have our boys shot put, um, champion Benjamin Brown, um, was first place. He got seventh place in the discus with a throw of six.
The shot put 63 feet, two inches wasn't his best performance of the year. Um, but did a great job. Um, I believe this young man has only been throwing the shot foot about two years. So he is got a pretty, um, cool future in front of him, whom I believe will be attending Indiana State next year to participate in track and field. So, good celebration for that. Also, um, just wanna mention on the, um, for the board is we, um, we got our notification on our phase two for the Lilly Eli Lilly grant. And we received the check and the check is in the, in the bank account. Um, we actually did receive a check in the mail
for $7.8 million. So, um, that was, um, Joanne had to make sure she was fine tracking her on, you know, GPS. So you see where she was going that day 'cause she got up the mail. But I'm more excited about that. And then also just, you know, we, we wrote that grant for some specific purposes to make us better, um, make us better teachers, be able to add additional programming and really push our kids, um, to, to achieve those high expectations that we have for 'em every day. So we're excited about that and working towards, um, phase three of that grant application process. Thank you very much. Alright, with that we are adjourned.