I pledge allegiance to The flag, United, United States of America, in to Republic four, which it stands, one nation under God, invisible with Liberty, Liberty and justice for all. To start tonight, we have, uh, some items of information not requiring action. Uh, we're lucky to hear from the Perry Township Education Foundation with, uh, Mary Blake and Melissa May. They're attached. We've done lots of presentations in front of schools. We can do similar. Yeah. So, um, I'm sure most of you have heard of it.
So first of all, I, um, so I'm very, I can still my way through a lot of things that I belong to. But as far a little bit about project support very has a endowment that we, um, outside. Um, last year we did a insecurity, um, and that support students school year at February, they have, um, the library grant.
We were three much year, um, library and the, we did it about $3. Um, we also were involved in about the girls bill. We were pretty involved in that. Uh, we did provide 7,500 donation to all the lumber donated from Carter, have partner and board by the sponsor. We actually one to homes, which, um, so we were that field trip and field trip do, uh,
we also did a lot of the marketing. So the next slide has many of our initiatives on impact grants. Those are some larger grants that are worth up to $5,000. So far this year we've awarded one. Those are awarded on an on ongoing draft year. We've done so far is worked with state architect I talked to now, um, and working on water drainage partners, the town crop, and, um, many other
JW R and they're going to build benches and really we to be with that. And that 5,000 grant we talked about a little bit, grant grants, um, just, uh, we went to and participated teachers. We dollars, actually biggest base. Um, a couple ones were there, but we,
and other ideas, grants, color category grants that we, those smaller grants up to top four, 10 years that those renew. Our first ones are very excited that that many are, have ideas that they want to help fund, which I need to go through those a little bit by some. But guess those are, we talked about a little bit.
We also, um, do outdoor education grants that, um, we're trying to build that up. And, um, that's, that's, that's course last year we invited thousand dollars from c they, for scholarships, consult to facilitate, and 11, yeah, my grants, uh, we do, we have account, have, uh, account, we have, uh, have. Um, but they are, uh,
$8,000 last year. Are always looking for teachers this year. And teachers should have last year educator. So we did, um, last year we, Yeah. Um, okay. So some of the, because I looked through the slides previous, but, um, you answered some of my questions. Okay. So are you actually writing the grants or are you assisting educators to write grants? Both. Both. Okay. So yeah, So some of 'em, um, for instance, the food insecurities
and the library grant, I wrote, um, and worked with the teachers on the project itself to, um, make sure that I was communicating to the grant, uh, grant recipients, um, or the grant, uh, reviewers, whatever projects they were working on. Um, but I did do all the writing, um, and facilitated the funds and then did all the after, um, action reports. Perfect. And maybe this would be for the, the partnership amongst the leadership at the school, the administrators. If a teacher comes and says, I want to do this, do they do,
our administration knows, Hey, this would be a good thing to get the foundation in. Is that how some of these, like, like for example, food Insecurities grants, I'm assuming that's a a, an idea or a vision that Came from someone in that building? That one specifically was from me. Okay. Okay. Well, A lot of times, um, the sta to be clear, some of those grants helping Hands impact and Service Learning, and then some of the smaller ones that we didn't really talk about a lot are funded either through our endowment or through programs that are set up. So like the service learning grant is, uh, Joelle and Buffy
and Rosemary tz mm-hmm. Really run up Outside. So what I'm working on right now is through the Indian Arts Commission art teacher from Honey for this. And then this grant came across like absolutely we are working together. I don't know all the details about she needs, but I'm allowed. Perfect. Thank you for your partnership. Of course. Thank you very much. Yeah, thank you very much. Uh, next night we do have public comment, um, and I did wanna note, um, we have two people, Mr. Di, Mr. Deaver signed up to make comment on the teacher contract. We do have a public hearing in a bit.
Um, so Choice is yours if you wanna make public comment now or wait till that section. It is up to you, gentlemen. Wait. Okay. Okay. Uh, with that being said, then, Ann, you'd like to make comment this evening. As always, you'll have three minutes to share with us what you've got. Okay. Um, well, mine is about the project, the, um, expansion projects again. Um, last after the board meeting last time, um, two of the board members, um, who are not here tonight, um,
they made a comment about, um, sports band, theater, how important it is to kids. Kind of indicating that that is not something I'm interested in. I think that, um, sports and band and theater is good for kids. They need to know how to get along with each other. They need to know sportsmanship, um, how to work around things, things like that. My, my objection is the cost of $322 million for the expansions
for field houses and theater curtains or whatever the theater needs and the band barriers. Um, that's a lot of money. Um, I think it's also good for kids to have to work out things, you know, if they have to run in the rain, then run in the rain. If, um, the seats are not very comfortable in the auditorium, at least they're not folding chairs, you know, just deal with what you have. Um, band, if they need to make two trips
to bring their equipment someplace, make two trips, or buy an extra trailer for a hot lot less than the part of the $322 million that, um, you guys wanna get from the taxpayers, whether it's referendum money or not, it's still from the taxpayers. Um, when salaries of some of you are two to $300,000 a year plus generous benefits, um, the referendums and maybe the tax burden isn't quite
as, um, burdensome to, to you guys. But if you're, um, a family that's making 75% less, that is a lot. You know, if, if a family is working, you know, 35, 40 plus years and you took $15,000 at least from them, from referendums, that's a lot that they don't have at the end of their working period. So I think, um, and handing out the $500 bonuses to employees
that are here for a year, I mean, that's, that's referendum money or taxpayer money that you're handing out. Um, I think you need to look in the mirror and, uh, check what you're doing because there's so many people that are not in the same, um, income category that are not in the same, uh, financial situation. And they could use that $15,000. So I, I, I understand that another referendum is gonna try to be renewed. Let's see if I can. You
Got it. Thank you. So this, uh, presentation will be pretty familiar. We've done the same, uh, overview for the last couple of years. Um, this is our 2026 proposed budget. Um, tonight is the public hearing over the proposed budget, the proposed capital projects plan, the pro and the proposed bus replacement plan. Then on October 27th, we'll come back for the adoption hearing meeting that night at the board meeting The tax rates, um, we've listed 'em out back to 19 20 19.
Um, the bottom number is the final certified rate. The line in red is the advertised rate. There's always a difference because of the AV getting finalized and some other things getting finalized in the budget. Um, last year we had a 17 or a 14, a 1.4752 advertised tax rate, and we ended up with a 1.4172, uh, rate, final rate this year. Um, we're advertising a slightly lower rate at 1.4627, and we estimate the final tax rate will come out around 1.4145. So, um, consistent with what we've been doing, um,
I think we've heard a lot of talk about SEA one and the effects that it'll have on, um, property taxes this year. Um, wasn't a drastic hit. Um, our IV actually went up a little bit where we were expecting it to be flatter to go down. So, um, another year of kind of our normal, um, process that we've had for the last few years. Slight increase in AV and a decrease in the rate. Um, debt service fund 2026. Proposed number is $22,550,508. Um, the advertised tax rate is the
3 7 7 6, which is what the final tax rate in 25 was. Um, that's the advertise rate there for 25. Um, this is repayment of construction technology and maintenance bonds. 26 includes two payments to, for two general obligation bonds, um, and then no longer includes the tech unreimbursed textbook expenses that was abolished in the 2023 legislation. The referendum operating fund is 25 million 7 1 7 6 1 9, an advertised tax rate of 42 12. Um, this is primarily teacher salaries and benefits.
Um, some of the elementary assistant principal salaries and benefits interventionist salaries and benefits technology, uh, staff salary and benefits, and then $1.5 million for transportation. The refer debt capital fund. Um, the rate this year is 1 4 3 8. This pays for the two outstanding capital referendum bonds that are still active. Um, one was from 2016 and one was a refund that in 2021 operations fund, um, the, uh,
proposed budget is 52,142,177. Um, our estimated tax cap impact this year is six point, a little more than 6.2 million, which is quite an increase in most of that is due to SE one. Um, the advertised tax rate this year is 5 2 0 1. This is, uh, transportation costs, capital projects, cost bus replacement plan, school operations, facilities, and maintenance expenditures. Um, there may, we may attest necessitate another transfer to rainy day this year. Um, we'll see how that goes.
Um, for the large, um, bus replacement numbers that we have coming up in 28 and 29, the operations fund, um, is broken out as we have on here. So 47.9% our purchase services and supplies with the remainder of the almost 50, uh, 2.1%, um, being salaries and benefits, the education fund proposed budget is 137,533,794. Um, the expectations
and assumptions that we use for the education fund levy are that the basic continue without future cuts. Um, note, last year, one grant moved into the education fund, which was the non-English speaking program grant, NESP. And this year, the curriculum materials, um, which was a separate grant just moved into the formula. The education fund budget is primarily salary and benefits. Um, I don't know the math there, 92% is, uh, almost 93% is, is salary and benefits with the rest of it being supplies
and equipment for the classrooms. Other funds without a property tax rate that we have to approve during the budget process are a self-insurance fund for workers' comp, which has been 850,000 for a number of years now. And that's our budget for that. And then a rainy day fund budget of 5 million in case it is needed for, um, emergencies, which would come to the board before it can be used anyway. But that's appropriating money, um, in case it's needed. Capital projects plan includes, um, built need, maintenance technology, equipment, hardware and software needs and other operational needs.
Um, items required by the DLGF for the capital project plan include any capital expenditures that exceed $10,000 or any list of per, uh, proposed projects that are capital nature that exceed $10,000 for the next three years, a three year plan. The bus replacement plan, we have a 12 year life cycle on our buses. The actual plan is a five year plan. Every year in 26, we have a bus replacement plan of about $2.8 million for 14 buses. Um, eight of 'em are the large capacity type D buses. Four of 'em are traditional school buses, type C,
and two of them are activity buses, which are the smaller 15 passenger buses. Uh, DLGF requires us to submit any special circumstances necessary for the year, and we don't have any in 26. The, uh, proposed budget, the proposed capital projects plan and the proposed bus replacement plan have been posted on DLG F'S Gateway site as of September 16th, and are currently available there. They are also posted on our website, um, on our business services tab. So not open the floor for any public comment on the budget.
Yeah, quite Uh, if we go to slide four. Okay. So if I'm looking at this correctly, uh, the estimated rate will be lower than the previous year's rate. Correct. And this, ultimately, this estimated rate is the lowest rate we've seen over the last seven years. Yeah, correct. Okay, thank you. Yep. And then my other question on the bus replacement, um, are these all gas, diesel, or have we looked at electric at all, or?
Yeah. Um, is Mr. Sampson with us, So these are all the 84 passenger bus with diesel. Um, we may look at the 54 passenger purchases of gas. We have purchased some of those before in terms of electric buses, a lot of infrastructure that we don't have to support those buses, nor do we have trained mechanics to work on those. Something in the that can be Explored. Okay. Thank you. The, Yeah, sure. Gateway is a public website from, uh, department of dlg.
F is the department of local government finance. It's gateway dot if fi online.org. And you can also just search public gateway, Indiana public Gateway site, and it'll take you right there. Yep. The other questions, I'm sorry, there was, there was a, I'm not sure if it was under this that I saw it, but we're, we were talking about police vehicle replacement, was that under this As well? Yeah, that's prob that's in the capital projects plan. Any vehicles we replace outta the operations fund have to be in there. Got a question on those then? Yep.
Uh, I saw several line items for vehicles that were $60,000. Mm-hmm. What type of vehicles are we looking at? So those are Kirby's. Chris, do you wanna speak to that? Maintenance Vehicles. So trucks, so our maintenance trucks, uh, typically also have a tow package, uh, which kind of drives that price up a little bit. But it's our, uh, our skilled contractors that work for us, uh, everything they own and need when they go out to work in the buildings is, are in that truck. So they're make trucks, um,
with a tow package in case we ever need to tow a bus. We, or they need to push snow in the weather. So, is that, is that what the police vehicles are? No, I'm sorry. I thought you were talking about maintenance. No, police. Yeah. The police vehicles would be the, the same ones we have. They're just replaced. They have, I mean, they have police things on them, I guess, Chris, So, so police vehicles come with a police transmission package. I, I, I guess what I'm getting at is, are we, are we looking at trucks? Are we looking at SUVs? Yeah, we'll look at trucks. Uh, they've proven to be more reliable. Uh, a lot of companies are no longer putting the police
package in SUVs. Okay. Because we have transmission problems. Okay. Thank you. Any other questions? Alright, thank you very much. Board, Uh, next public hearing, uh, with Mr. Sampson is looking at the tentative, uh, collective bargaining agreement for 20 25, 26 between Perry Township Schools and the Perry Education Association. Uh, thank you board. It's my pleasure to present for the tentative agreement between the Perry Education Association and Perry Township Schools, uh, the tentative agreement
for the collective bargaining agreement. Uh, tonight is just a hearing. There'll be no vote or action taken. Uh, the next steps after this hearing was that PEA will then take the, um, proposal to their membership, uh, for a presentation and vote. And then we would bring it back, uh, to you folks for ratification at the end of October. So the initial public hearing, excuse me, I, the initial public hearing to kick off the process was held at September 3rd, 2025. Uh, formal bargaining began on September 17th, 2025.
The permitted areas of bargaining are salary, wages, and salary and wage related fringe benefits. The tentative agreement and its entirety is posted online on our website, uh, at the address located here. And for those who can't, you know, don't have access to all of that, I think if you go into school board, um, and look at contracts, it will be listed there on our website. Alright, So to cover some of the changes in the tentative agreement, uh, language changes, changes were made to clarify current practices and or to meet legal standards.
Uh, item number two, we did delete language that provided for paid leave absences for advanced study. Another change with qualifying factors for salary increases. Uh, there are four qualifying factors in this tentative agreement. Uh, the first being a teacher evaluation based upon a, a teacher receiving an effective or highly effective rating on the Perry Township school evaluation tool. Number two years of experience, the bargaining unit member was employed for 120 days by the corporation in the prior school year. And item number three, academic needs.
Number one, a teacher would qualify in this section if they meet one of the following criteria. Letter A Cooper, um, corporation iLearn scores for grades three to through eight is above the state average in math or English language arts, or item B corporation I read. Score is at or above 82% or C. The corporation graduation rate is at or above 90%. So qualifying in one of those three categories would meet the need for academic needs. Number one, you don't necessarily have to qualify
for all three of those, uh, you just need to qualify for one in, in the acade academic needs, number one. Item four, the academic needs. Number two, again, as per legislation passed into 2025 session, refers to a teacher who has newly attained a teaching license with a literacy endorsement. A literacy endorsement would be a one-time increase to the base salary of the teacher in the year that they earned it. The distribution of the increase added to the base, uh, was, uh, $1,000. And it could be broken down into the qualifications that we just read off.
Uh, letter A years of experience, if you qualified under that category, you would earn $200 dollars under the teacher evaluation, $400. And then letter C, the academic needs, number one, again, $400, and that would equal the $1,000 given to the base. Letter D is an academic need. Number two is additional compensation above the $1,000 that's given. Um, and that is a $200, uh, item. Beginning teacher pay increased to 51,500 from today's 51,000 is also noted
that this impacts the ECA stipends as they are indexed to the beginning. Teacher pay, health insurance changes. Uh, the, uh, increase in insurance premiums were split 50 50 between the school corporation and the employee. So any increase in insurance benefits, uh, was split between the teachers and the, um, administration 4 0 1 a contribution, an increase in the 4 0 1, a contribution of 0.004. We had some ECA changes. Uh, we've added two new positions. Middle school girls assistant wrestling index to 0.06
and a high school jazz orchestra, uh, supervision at 0.04. We've upgraded a position, a special education coordinator from an index of 0.1 to 0.17. All changes will be retroactive to the beginning of the school year except for the health insurance changes, which will be effective January 1st, 2026. At this time, entertain questions from the board, uh, before opening up for public comment. Got a quick question on the, excuse me, the insurance side, on the health savings account. Uh, could you explain exactly how that all works?
The, what the township's gonna put in a certain dollar amount depending on if you're single family, and then you have a number of kids, maybe, or, Okay. So we have the premium for each of the plans. Right. Okay. And on average, the increase was 4.2%, but the increase for each plan is actually different. Right. Okay. So whatever in increase there is in a dollar amount for that plan, that cost will be cut in half, half absorbed by the school, half absorbed by the teacher.
And then HSA contribution. Correct. And, and then we put, we put money into a health savings account, correct? Yeah. So it stayed the same as it has has been where it would be the thousand dollars corporation puts in a thousand dollars for the family plan. Okay. And the employee children $500 for the single plan or the employee spouse Plan. That's what I need to know. Thank you. Okay. Any other questions? Um, excuse me. The, oh, I'll just talk loud. Um, the academic needs, number one.
Okay. Three, three ways that the teacher can like, meet the criteria. So if you are a, hypothetically speaking. Okay. I'm, uh, I'm an elementary school teacher and my school doesn't meet the IRE qualifications, but Perry Meridian and Southport are graduating over 90%. I still meet that because of the high high school. That is. Okay. Thank You. You just have to meet one of those CRI three criteria. Perfect. Thank you. Mm-hmm. But there is a, an individual component
with the teacher evaluation, is that correct? Correct. Okay. You have to be highly effective or effective in your previous evaluation. Gotcha. Thank you. Open up for any community input at this time. We did have, uh, as far as the order of signup, Mr. Dye, you were first to sign up if you'd like to make comment. Thank you. Um, I wanna start by expressing my appreciation to the negotiating team on the current proposed collective bargaining agreement. My name's Tim Dye. I stand before you as a Perry Township teacher, but also a graduate, a parent
of two Perry Township graduates. The community has shaped my life and my family's life, and I love it deeply. And that's why I'm asking you to vote no on this contract. The increase doesn't show value for teachers. It doesn't keep pace with 3% inflation. It doesn't account for the rising insurance costs. The reality is that this contract asks us to do more while earning less dollars, and we are doing more this year alone. We've been hit with a grading system, one that doesn't always sync with Canvas. We were told of a change in grading policy two days before open house. And the AF after the school year had already started nine weeks into the semester.
And the retesting policy is still unclear. And these changes and others add stress and time commitments to teachers already stretched too thin. Perry Township has always been a place where teachers invest our lives into our students. Many of us are not just educators. We're alumni. We're parents. We're lifelong community partners. We know Perry can do better by voting this contract down. You're gonna send a message that messages, you value our sacrifices, you value our expertise, and you value the heart that we bring to the job and to these kids every single day.
Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Dye. Uh, and then Mr. Deaver, if you'd like to make comment as reminder, you have three minutes. Yeah. I'm, uh, Jordan Deaver, uh, PEA first Vice President and, uh, bargaining chair. I just come, uh, to stop by and express, um, appreciation for the administration, uh, and the bargaining process. It's not easy. We know it's not easy, uh, but the, uh, administration makes it, uh, pretty easy to, to talk, collaborate, and come to what I think is a productive agreement all things considered in terms of the challenges that we're facing right now.
Um, I really appreciate being able to tell other townships and things like that, that we're not adversarial in nature. That when we go in, there's a sharing of all notes, numbers, and figures, uh, and that we ultimately come to the conclusion that we think is fair. It might not be the greatest, but we do think it is fair as, uh, the bargaining team. So appreciate your time. Administration negotiations. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Deaver. Excuse me. Uh, Lee, um, I, I neglected to thank PEA for their openness and transparency as well. Um, the last few years we've had a very good relationship
and a lot of data exchanged before formal bargaining begins. Um, and I think it's very respectful process and, and, uh, very productive. And we want to thank, uh, PEA and, and for all their work and, and, uh, in making that work in that manner. Thanks. Thank you Mr. Sampson. Uh, we'll go ahead and reconvene the regular meeting. Uh, first item tonight is the consent agenda, Move to approve. Second motion was made by Mrs. Hartman and seconded by Mr. Hernandez. Are there questions or comments? I, I know that, um, insurance rates are what they are, um,
but I get, I just like point of clarification. If we could have a comparison as to what last year's were, um, that would be appreciated in the future Hearing. No other questions or comments. We'll go ahead and vote. All those in favor of the consent agenda, say aye. Aye. Aye. Opposed? Nay. Consent agenda is accepted. Before we move on, I did wanna pass to Mrs. Pollard, Not giving the board. Um, tonight I'd like to invite Dr. Brian Board. As you know, we, um, are excited about our new partnership
with UMC in Indianapolis and Mary Township School to start our new, um, innovation and entrepreneurship pathway. And Dr. Baller is going be going to be meeting that work for us. We're excited to present him tonight, um, as, uh, for your approval. I mean, he just approved it, so excited to introduce him as our new director of that program. So, congratulations. Dr. Ballmer, would you like to introduce your family? Yeah, Sure. First, I'm Dr. Craig confidence in the program. I'm really excited about it. This work I'm really passionate about and certainly connecting kids with great experiences, uh,
that are career connected is about what we do. So thank you so much. Yeah. Tell us who you brought with you tonight. Yeah, So my wife Jennifer, my daughter Gracie son. Miles. Yeah. Yeah. I don't think you have a choice, man. Way to go, big sister. There you go. Congratulations, Ryan. And you all are welcome to hang out for our next items for action. But, uh, also welcome to use this as a chance to step out if you've got, uh, dinner plans or other celebrations. Great. Thank you. As far as items requiring action tonight, uh,
first item is consideration of the supplemental personnel report. Mrs. Baker, Good evening board. I recommend approval of the supplemental personnel report. Move to approve. Second Motion was made by Mrs. Hartman and seconded by Mr. Lewis. Are there questions or comments? Hearing none will vote. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Opposed nay. 11.01 is accepted. 11.02 Consideration of Grady Brothers agreement. Mr. Sampson, Uh, thank you Board. Uh, we request your consideration of an agreement with Grady Brothers
for parking lot renovations at Abraham Lincoln Elementary. The scope of the project will be to mill and resurface all parking areas on the north and south side of the building, uh, and to paint and stripe all appropriate markings. Uh, Grady Brothers presented the lowest and most responsive quote of five different bidders, uh, at 146,550. This work will happen over fall break. I believe it's scheduled for the 12th of October. And, uh, we ask for your consideration of this project as presented. Move to approve. Second
Motion was 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. Nay. 11.02 is accepted. Uh, 11.03 Consideration of Indiana Institute on Disability and Community Contract. Mr. Spencer. Good Evening Board. Uh, we bring to a contract, uh, with, uh, Indiana University through the Indiana Resource Center for Autism and the Indiana Institute for Disabilities and Community. Um, Betty Roe is the educational consultant that we'll be working with. Um, she's gonna work with our, um, behavior specialist
and working with students that have challenges around behavior. Uh, this is paid out of this a special education grant, the C-C-E-I-S grant. And so it is providing an extra support for our, our, um, staff that works with our students that have some, some struggles with their behavior. Move to approve Second Motions made by Mr. Lewis. Seconded by Mrs. Hartman. Are there questions or comments I don't see, and here where it talks about, um, is this across the board since it came from you? I'm assuming it's preschool and K through five, or are we including preschool? Yay, nay.
It, it's mainly elementaries. Um, this came out of some, uh, work around, uh, having some disproportionality in some of our, our behavior students. So it's mainly our elementaries. There could be a couple of sixth grade academy behavior specialists that are part of the work as well. Perfect. Thank you. Hearing no other questions, we will vote. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Opposed? Nay. 11.03 is accepted. 11.04. New course adoption. Mrs. Pollard. Thank you. Uh, board, you know, as the Indiana requirements for graduation can continue to change, our high schools are, um, on top of it, trying
to add new courses, um, both for students to reach those graduation requirements and also to provide new opportunities to build competencies for workplace development. And so tonight, I bring you courses from both parameter and high school in the areas of English language arts and social and community services. And from Southport High School in the area of physical education. Um, as noted previously, any course you approve for one high school becomes available for both. And so tonight we ask for your approval, move to approve. Second Motion was made by Mrs. Hartman
and seconded by Mr. Hernandez. Are there questions or comments? Quick question. Uh, sorry. Oh, go for it. Uh, is this course courses taken from other institution? Uh, it's created by the curriculum creator from here within? Yes. Great question. So the Indiana Department of Education, um, makes these courses available to us, and then we have to adopt them as a school district. So they set forth the standards and the competencies required for each course. Oh, wow. Right. Thank you. Yeah, thank You. So as I'm reading through all these courses, um, there's several that I would like to take,
but, um, so come take 'em with us. Um, I don't know about the PE courses, but, um, uh, I digress. Um, it's, I I try to like understand the, like, like what graduation pathway these are associated with. So like, um, it, it appears to me that maybe the Perry Meridian ones are for two separate pathways, or are all four of those. So these four courses are not connected. And I'll speak a little bit then I'll be happy to invite Mr.
Akr to speak as well. So the fundamentals of human services, the community health worker, those that set of courses does fall under the family and community service pathway. Um, but in addition to pathway courses, one of the challenges that we have are finding elective courses for our students to take, um, to, to meet the requirements for graduation. And, and as many of our, um, traditional electives courses have been pushed into pathways, we struggle with that. And that's what some of these are available for as well. As well as we talked about this a little bit earlier, um,
thinking about new ways to, now that we don't have to, to, um, have an English nine, English 10, English 11, English 12 as an example. Um, course finding new ways to, um, not be as traditional in our offerings so that we can help students grow different skills. That's why you see some of these courses, Mr. Boda or anything else to add? Great Answer. Especially with the English effecti standpoint of requirement without new deals. Um, it meets that requirement, but also gives that flexibility For Thank you. That helps 'cause, uh, the pathway.
It, it's a big umbrella and it's, it, I think it changes every, like 18 months feels that way. And so just trying to, um, so my, another question. Um, the introduction to public service. Um, is the military helping us with this as far as like who's teaching this course? Do we have a veteran that's a teacher that would be, not that I'm aware of the military support. We met with the recruiter said we basically had two
year call. We actually done our guidance team, especially with that provided some insight as far as how we can come from Here're. We're looking to actually work active in our opinion. He made, he's made a commitment. Okay. We get to learn. Thank you. I know as a parent, I've received many texts over the years from different recruiters asking if my student and I thought, eh, so does that is a teacher.
Do you see where I'm going with this? I do. Like is on staff. Yes. But the recruiter will be assisting with our teacher of record. Right. Okay. Thank you. I don't know that I had thought to ask this before that last exchange, but is there, especially knowing the, um, enlistment seals upcoming, has there been talk of or an avenue for J-R-O-T-C programming or where, where could that fit into this in the future? So we, we continue, continue to have those discussions. Um, we've had a few struggles with that in the past.
And, and again, as, uh, Mr. Hartman pointed out, having some strong support from community members is gonna be important to have a strong junior ROTC program. So, um, we'll continue to investigate that for sure. That'd be the coursework Mrs. Hartman would be in line for, I think she was mentioning. Any other, uh, questions related to new course adoption? Hearing none will go ahead and vote. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Opposed? Nay. 11.04 is accepted. 11.05 consideration of Scott Carson agreement. Mr. Spencer?
Thank you. Uh, tonight we bring a, uh, contract to, uh, use Scott Carson as our lead facilitator for manifest determination case conferences. Um, uh, bill Dr. Buss has filled this role for us for the last number of years and has fully retired at this point. So, uh, Scott is the person we found as the, the next person to, to assist in this process. Move to approve Second Motions made by Mrs. Hartman is seconded by Mr. Hernandez. Are there questions or comments We're paying on a per case basis, correct? That's correct. $175 per case.
Is that the same rate previously as well? So Yes, it is. And it's something that we continue to look at. Uh, what's the amount? Um, we had done it differently before, but per case seems to be kind of the right, because it gives 'em the opportunity to do all the prep work and it, it, it's been the cleanest way to do it Typically. How many cases do we have a year? Do you know? Off the top of your head? I'd have to look that up and get back with you. I don't know off the top of my head more of those than the expulsions, which we had addressed at a previous board me meeting. Um, I don't want to guess and be wrong though. I can get it for you. Thank you. And I was gonna ask related to that,
I knew we had recently approved a, um, expulsion related, can you speak just for those who are not familiar with the difference between the two, what we're talking about here? Sure. So a manifest determination, if a student with an, uh, IEPA special education student gets to 10 days of suspension, then we have to have a case conference that before the case conference we have a manifest. Where you ask the question is the IEP being followed? And then if the answer to that is yes, um, is the behavior or the action that's causing suspension connected to the student's disability? And if the answer is that is yes, we have to continue
to have the student in our schools and we have to look at the the IEP to determine are there adjustments or things that we need to do differently. Whereas the expulsion hearing officer, we have gone to expulsion with a student and the parent has a right to an expulsion hearing. And so the expulsion hearing officer provides the due process and conducts that hearing. Thank you. Any other questions or comments? We'll go ahead and vote. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Nay. 11.05 is accepted. Uh, 11.06 donations. Mr. Spencer and Mrs. Pollard
Thank you board. Uh, we have the following donations from the elementary side. Uh, Douglas MacArthur Elementary. They received $187 to support the Spotlight Singers. Um, 34 parents, uh, donated this as a result of a canceled trip that, um, they donated the cost to the the Club. And at the kindergarten academy at Douglas MacArthur, uh, Napier Management Inc. Donated $200. Uh, this was a dining to donate that we'll use for student activities. Home Craft Elementary had an $85 donation from Arian and, uh, Catherine Enger Burton, uh,
which will support their fifth grade trip to Bradford Woods. And then Walmart. Walmart on 31 donated a number of, uh, boxes of school supplies. Rosa Parks received a $1,350 donation to support their, uh, fifth grade flat rock trip. It was from Southern Dude's Clubhouse Grill, Republic Airlines, and, uh, refined restoration, uh, created those donations. And then Walmart also donated a $300 gift card to Rosa Parks Kindergarten Academy that will use, uh, to purchase food for their family events. And then at Southport Elementary, uh, Steven and Jamie Applegate donated $200, which will go toward, um,
student council shirts for their fourth and fifth graders. And then the PTA at Southport El donated $303 and 20 cents. And that will be used for items for the Giving Tree, which is an annual, um, December event that they host For our secondary schools. The Compass Education Center received a donation from AZA Pizza and $33 and 32 cents to be used for their student incentives. On behalf of our student Services department to Tony and Bradley, Nick donated $1,300 to support the food pantry as well. Catalyst Insurance donated a thousand dollars for the same. Um, an anonymous donor gave $400
to Pering Meridian High School to purchase Gatorade products for the weight room. On behalf of Southport High School, a Grado Incorporated donated $450 and 21 cents to support the Southport High School Student Spirit Program as well. Uh, the Alumni Association gave $1,100, um, for the Spirit Club and for Card Fest, Dan and Kim Clevenger gave $200 to support the volleyball Team. Wrestler Mechanical Incorporated, um, gave $500 and an anonymous donor gave $239 and 80 cents. Both of those were to support the Boys and Girls Swimming Program.
The cheerleaders received $300 from Blue Haven Pools. The Street Foundation gave $2,500, keep the change donated $3. Chick-fil-A donated $500, and the Southport Basketball Club donated $2,400, all to support athletics programs and the basketball specifically for girls basketball. On behalf of the Perry Meridian sixth Grade Academy, their PTSA gave $18,500 to be used, um, by the school for the betterment of the Perry Meridian, um, sixth grade Academy student, staff, and school. We ask for your approval of 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. Opposed? Nay. 11.06 is accepted. Uh, wrap it up tonight with some comments. Dr. Mong, if you'd like to start us off, please. Yeah. Uh, it is good to hear about all the time. The donation donations coming up from the committee is a positive environment in this our areas. Thank you for Chris and team for the hearing. That negotiation, I'm not a good negotiator.
So I think it is more important, the good healthy environment, creating the, all the teachers and boards and administration. So when we have that committee spirit and working together in a good spirit and negotiated, uh, pay arrangement, I think that's very critical. Very critical. So everyone's happy and I think everything we process to be acceptable and understandable and accept that, that's really critical. I appreciate about that. And at the, the new course Edison, uh, good to hear about that. You know, they, uh, I've been thinking what's the product
of Perry School District and, uh, we should be very competitive to their other school as well. And I think that would help this student, uh, a better choice. Thank you. That's it. Thank you everyone. Uh, I just wanna say thank you to Mr. Hatcher for, uh, producing a budget rate that, you know, balances the needs of the township while, you know, creating a rate that's, uh, you know, continuing to decline year after year. Uh, I wanna apologize. At the, uh, last board meeting, we approved the, uh, extracurricular activity rate for, uh, class.
Was it classified employees? Uh, it was my understanding that, that this was a whole new class of, uh, employees that would be eligible to do this kind of work. And it sounds like we've got maybe a handful of people that were all, that were classified that were doing this type of thing, and the new pay structure kind of affects them. So I, I, I apologize that that wasn't what we were trying to do. And I'm, I'm hoping as a group here, we might be able to address that here in the future and maybe, you know, make it a little better than what it was. So thank you. Um, I was able to, this past month attend the ISBA, um,
yearly annual conference. And the, I always get their acronym wrong, the superintendent that it's, it's the board members and superintendents conferences together. And, um, you know, the past couple years, I'll be real honest, I go and I think our people could have led that better. We've got better ideas than those people. Um, but this year, um, the first two, um, it's two days. And so the first day sessions that I went to, I had to work that morning. So I was rushing there and I was frustrated a little bit
and traffic and all the things, and I get there. And both sessions were all about students. And it was so lovely and wonderful. And then I sat through one about school finance, Mr. Hatcher, you would've loved it. Um, the state is, um, and in conjunction with IU is offering a, um, micro credential. Have you heard of this Mr. Hatcher, for board members, um, to better understand school finance. So I'm going to delve into that. And Mr.
Hetcher, I'm going to ask you to be my personal tutor please. So, um, but I think that it's good that, um, the state is pairing with the university and, um, helping not just their future teachers to understand school finance better, but also, um, school boards as well. So, um, but I will go back to all about students and, um, I think those who know me well know that that should always be our focus.
And that is what I'm always preaching and talking about is if we're not making decisions, whether it's case courses that we're taking or how our due process is done, all of those things, if we're not looking at it through the lens of how does this benefit our students, we're missing the point. And, um, so I think everybody, I think THA and K, everyone here in our township who that is their focus always and, um, that we're working for the betterment
of our students. And, um, this past week our, um, our school district lost a very integral part at Southport High School. And, um, Alicia Tasker was a lot to a lot of people. And I think that sometimes we can look at a room and we just see people and humans. But Alicia saw people's hearts and she took the time to stop and, and make space for every person that came to her.
Whether it was me or Jane or Brian, or a student or a teacher. There were stories after stories after stories. They made this Amy Boone, thank you, Amy Boone made this amazing, allowed the staff to write things about how Alicia touched their lives. I could read that over and over and over again, and we'd never know what people are dealing with. We never know which one of our students are in an abusive home or have food insecurities,
or the parents don't speak English and they can't communicate. But Alicia reminded me this week that I have to stop and look at the whole picture in order to understand the situation. And she excelled at that. Um, so it's my prayer and my hope and my charge from now on to be more like Alicia and stop, put my pen down and listen to what people are saying so that we can move forward and that I can meet the needs of that person.
'cause Alicia did that, so very well, Very well said. Thank you. Um, thank you for the, the presentation on the Perry Township Education Foundation. Learned a lot about some of the, the initiatives, and there's many, and they're def definitely worthy of support, an impressive list of endowments and grants with that on the public hearings. Thank you Mr. Hatcher, for the budget capital project plan and bus replacement. A significant amount of time that you've, you and your group have put into it is coming
to fruition soon here. So, and thank you Mr. Sampson. Uh, in regard to the collecting bargaining agreement, it's really important to have a good working relationship that when you're trying to come to an agreement, especially when you have goals and objectives on each side, which may not always be the same, but one of the last things you said was really important that it's a respectful process and a lot can be accomplished when you start there. Um, congratulations Dr. Bulmer.
Looking forward to opportunities and the things to, to, to come from that e echo, Dr. M's statements about the, the course adoptions. Those are very interesting and very much needed on, on the donations. Wow, that was an incredible donation by the Perry, uh, middle school and academy. Uh, PTSA, uh, Mr. Spencer, I don't think we'll tip pull out the tote board for tonight on that one. No, that's our, uh, but, but, uh, I think that highlights
the importance of our groups. We have a lot of nonprofit groups that, that, um, are doing, doing great things. And that, you know, the basketball one that was read just just before that, there's a lot of work going in by a lot of people and they're doing it to, to benefit, uh, different areas of, of our, our township here. That's all I have, thank you. But it is kind of a nice, uh, there we go. Um, a nice, uh, bit of, uh, learning that we get to do, uh, in the snack size form, I would say.
Um, and the last thing, uh, with the collective bargaining agreement, um, the last couple of years, uh, both with the leadership of Mr. Deaver and Mr. Sampson, um, the collegial nature of those interactions, um, I've been impressed by just from hearing from both sides, um, that is not automatic. And to have, um, the, a working relationship like that to then both have both sides say it went well is is not common in my understanding. But I did wanna, wanna, I don't know if I'm seeding some of my time, but either Mr. Sampson or Mr.
Hatcher, if you could briefly speak to the new money that we receive and nevermind Dr. Spray's gonna handle it, because I know there's, what looks to be, and then what is. So, um, with that, again, I hope everyone has a safe and enjoyable fall break. No, I, I appreciate that, that intro there. Um, so, um, obviously we're in kind of a, a different time fiscally within the state, but also leadership within the state. Um, and, and priorities too. So a couple things over the last couple of years that are impacting what we're seeing in, in our school district,
but in K 12 public education as well, is one, is that over the last couple of years, we continue to funnel funnel hundreds of millions of dollars to vouchers. Um, and that hasn't been money that's been added to the state pie for public education, it's just been that our piece of the pie has gotten smaller within, within that, um, we were told we received 2% of new money, um, to public education. That doesn't mean that we got 2% because we also had over $800,000 that we had in a grant to pay for textbooks that was then baked into the formula.
So of that 800,008 into our 2%. Um, and the two other things I just want, want to mention as, as we're going through this and we're having these conversations and, and the conversations are very respectful and collegial, that doesn't mean we always agree, um, on, in the beginning. And we have those hard conversations. We have 'em as ongoing. Um, PEA always ask us, Hey, what about positions? Are we being cognizant of adding positions and subtracting positions and that sort of thing. Um, we are also in a situation in Perry Township. We're down almost 500 kids right now, um, in the district. And when you're in a state that pays per head, um,
that is something that's a significant budget when you multiply that round, roughly $7,000 per kid. Um, and so, you know, um, I would love to pay our teachers more, um, every single time. Um, I feel there's a great value in that, having high quality teachers in, in, in our, um, uh, our classrooms. I talk all the time when I go and especially the, the elementary students, the kindergarten students. It's about who's the most important people in our, in our schools, adults, and those are our teachers 'cause they're the direct connection to learning. Um, and that's what we're all about. And so, and then I ask them
what they think a superintendent does. 'cause I say a lot of days, I don't know, um, depends on the day. And I say it can be as as, um, silly as if you look at it that way. As you know, making sure we have enough buses that kids get kids back and forth to school on time and safely, that the kids are fed, the lights are on, that our teachers get paid so they don't have to worry about their bills so that we buy instructional materials and, you know, all all of the different things that go into how we run schools to make sure the most important thing happens every day and that the students are learning. Um, I do wanna just make one other comment and appreciate, um, the work that our leadership, um,
both on the PEA side and administration run by Mr. Hatcher is with our school, um, Hoosier School Benefits Trust. Um, insurance isn't what it used to be. Okay. It used to cover a lot more and it used to be a lot cheaper, right? And both of them gone the opposite directions. Um, but trying to consistently try to come up with the best solution and think about families as a whole is, is, is pretty important. And so that 4% increase in those was something that takes a lot of meetings, a lot of time, a lot of consternation amongst those committee members. So I appreciate that, that as well.
Lastly, I'm gonna end on a, on a very, very, very high note this morning. I got a chance to go over to Clinton Young Elementary School and visit the, um, first grade teachers as they were doing their literacy le lessons and see firsthand, um, many of the decisions that we've made at this board table. Um, and in, um, conversation with our, with our leadership, esp, especially on the, the literacy side, um, and, um, curriculum adoption materials, um, instruction. Um, even got to see some of the, the AI software that we talked about a couple of months ago, and students utilizing that and seeing the, the consistency
of practice in a first grade classroom, um, going forward as far as literacy. And I was very excited about that and wanna really thank all of those teachers, all of our, um, literacy coaches and, and professionals, um, that have gone through this training. Um, and, and Aaron and Jeff and, and everybody who's done just a, a whole lot of work over the last 18 months plus, um, to, to get us to where the point we are now that I truly feel like we're gonna, this worm is gonna turn on our, our reading results. Thank you. Alright, our next meeting will be here, uh, Monday, October 27th, 2025 at 6:00 PM Hope to see you all then.
In the meantime, have a lovely evening. We are adjourned.