Welcome everyone and good evening. Our apologies for the lateness of our arrival. Uh the board had a close session at 3:30 and uh I'm now calling this uh meeting
to order. Uh Miss Hernandez, can you please call the role? Yes. Good afternoon, Mr. Marcus Ellison. >> Present. >> Mr. Marcusello >> here. >> Dr. Janette McCulla >> here. >> Mr. Bill Snedy >> here. >> Miss Kate Lee >> here.
>> Mr. Carlos Lea >> here. >> Dr. Stuart Green >> here. Uh we have a quorum. Uh but before we move I move to adopt the agenda, I
should mention that we're going to uh dispense with uh action item 9.09, the first reading of the policies. You may have noticed that none of us has
had access to board docs since since the weekend and uh we were unable to uh put together the presentation on for our first reading. So we will postpone
first reading of the policies until uh the next board meeting which I should mention is on Monday May 11th at 5:30 is that correct here at Brown um
in that kind of afternoon. Uh so as I say we have a quorum and we can now move to the adoption of the agenda. It is re um it is uh recommended that the board of school trustees adopt the agenda. Do we have a motion and a second
to approve? >> Second. >> Thank you. >> Uh thank you. The motion has been moved and seconded. Miss Hernandez, will you please call the role? >> Mr. Ellison, I >> think there was an additional memorandum
that was that you wanted to add. Is that on here? Uh it's not on the memorandum of understanding between the teamsters local 364 and the um
SBCSC >> do you have that one >> was this 9.07 07 >> would be a new >> should be 9.10 Okay. >> 9.1 See you'll be 910.
You have a new one. >> Not not the new one, but everything's the same except for the >> Is that on here already? >> Now, this would be 9.10. >> He talked to me at the beginning. >> Yes. >> Yeah. >> This is the me memorandum of
understanding setting forth an agreement between the Southbend Community School Corporation and the Teachers Local Union number 364. Yeah, I thought the intent was to add that as well for tonight,
>> right? >> We just added >> Oh, it is. Okay. >> I apologize for the interruption. >> Do we need a motion? >> We need a motion. >> Do we need a motion >> to add it? Yes. >> All right. So, motion
>> have a motion and a second. >> Motion to add. >> Thank you. >> Second. >> Thank you. the roll please. >> Mr. Ellison, >> I >> Mr. Cello, >> I. >> Dr. McCulla, >> I. >> Mr. Snicki, >> I.
>> Miss Lee, >> I. >> Mr. Leva, >> I >> Dr. Green, >> I. Motion carries unanimously 70. Uh, now it's time for recognitions and superintendent
announcements. So, it's over to you, Mr. Eid. >> All right. Good evening, Dr. Green, school board members, members of the public. Uh we have five recognitions and
announcements. We will start with the Scholastic Gold Key winners and we have with us director of arts is Kim Shriber, Superintendent Eid, uh Dr. green and board members. Um we have while I'm
speaking we have a slide um deck that's going to run and these are examples of our gold key winners of Scholastic. So you have a chance to see some of the work that received the highest honor for our regional competition. The Scholastic Art and Writing Awards
were founded in 1923 and for more than a century have inspired bold ideas in creative teams throughout the country. Jurors look for works that exemplify the award's core values, which are originality, skill, and the emergence of
a personal voice or vision. All education is completely anonymous. This year, our high school students earned an incredible 138 Scholastic Art Awards, leading the region and showcasing the artistic talents
happening every day in South Bend schools as they competed against students from 40 high schools across Northwest Indiana and Southwest Michigan. From CTE programs to fine arts classrooms, 53 students from John Adams,
Riley, and Washington High School demonstrated outstanding talent. They received 24 gold keys, 47 silver keys, and 67 honorable mentions at our local exhibition. Um, our students also had
the opportunity to visit and see all the artworks there. There were over a thousand works on display at the South Bin Regional Art Museum. Um, and we'd like to thank the Education Alliance for providing those buses for our students to attend.
24 of our students earned gold keys and they all advanced to national competition. At the national level, two of them earned silver keys. Paul Henry and Matteo Garcia Jimenez from Adams High School were awarded for their graphic design skills. We congratulate
our students and the teachers who guided them through this process. I know tonight we have um I know I have at least one teacher and possibly a couple of students. So, if you would like to join me at the podium. Hey, I guess they don't want to say
anything, but thank you. >> Thank you. This week is the public schools volunteer appreciation week. And when we speak of volunteers, we have many volunteers who go into our
schools on a regular basis, especially through the program tutor ND and they help our students with the reading >> which has helped tremendously in the past and is still helping. >> You should give that to them to sign off
on this. this week is or this Friday is the school principal day. So remember your principles, Mr. Henderson, I see you're here. We appreciate you. Thank you. >> Spelled wrong. >> I know. >> Uh teacher appreciation week, May 4th
through the 8th. And National School Nurse Day is May the 6th. And this concludes the recognitions and superintendence announcements. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Re. appreciate it. Uh
we'll now have a hearing. We'll now have a hearing of visitors on action items 9.01 uh through 9.10. Uh recognizing that we're not going to
have uh a discussion of policy this evening. At regular meetings, the public is invited to address the board for three minutes regarding action agenda items. Visitors wishing to address the board on action items 9.01 through now 9.10
must sign the registration sheet prior to the meeting and state the action agenda items which they will address. Individuals may only speak once on the same topic. Speakers shall properly identify themselves after they approach the podium by stating their name and address for the record. Personnel issues are not to be addressed in any way
during open sessions of the school board. No person may address or question board members individually. The board president may interrupt, warn, or terminate a person's statement if the statement becomes personally directed, abusive, or obscene. If you wish to give something to a board, please give the
item or items to Miss Hernandez after the meeting. Under action 9.06, we have Paul Anastasis. Paul assasses 5168 51680 Orange Road using my first amendment right what I say should not be held against me my
family or my co-workers so 9.06 06 is the approval of revi revised job description and title changes for a few different things. And boy, I tell you what, I read that one for the energy management. You're looking for a rocket scientist.
Just saying. >> Okay, >> stay. >> Action item 9.08. Paul and >> Paul and 51680 Orange Road using my first amendment right what I say should
not be held against me my family or my co-workers so I am addressing the action item which is the 9.08 08 to resend the enrichu. Just wondering first off uh how and why did this come before the board and who
was it that put it on the last board meeting agenda and for what reason and then I am also wondering why did it come back and for what reason and I have read the originalou
and if you and if you as a board want to terminate there is a provision And it doesn't even matter if the program is the best thing since sliced bread. There's a line that says to terminate. All you have to do is either party gives a 30-day written notice. So
I guess at this point the end of the story is so if you as the board do not want it to continue, speak up. >> Tiana Batistadell. >> Good evening. Tiana Batis Wuadell, 330 Koffax Avenue, Southman, Indiana. Here
we are a year later still debating a vendor that just as I raised concerns about previously has failed to be transparent with the public along with several other vendors the corporation has managed. Vendors should be required
to provide clear, measurable data to the community that demonstrate the effectiveness, engagement, and overall value of their services. to date. To date, I do not recall seeing the following information shared about this
vendor either in previous years or during the most recent contract period. Number of active students and teachers. Frequency and duration of program. Student participation rates. Completion rates of lessons learned. Pre and post
assessment data of program. Skills or standards mastery progression. Correlation with external test scores. I learn and I read. Teacher and student satisfaction survey results and testimonies.
A full year has passed without this data being made public, made available to the public, which only deepens the mistrust many in the community already have toward Enrichu, Inc. At what point do we stop investing time and dollars into
programming that has not demonstrated measurable impact? By effective, we should mean contributing to improvements in literacy and mathematics outcomes. Any vendor brought into the district should support systemwide growth and if
that cannot be clearly demonstrated then we should reconsider their role altogether. Thank you >> John Pachznney >> John Pachznney Clay Township this board has been together for 16 months now. It has endured growing pains in learning to
operate as a board and withstand a political takeover from a segment of our community. Though the road may have been rocky at times, it was navigated and appeared some smooth pavement was ahead. That was until last Sunday after I
completed my talk for the meeting a two weeks ago and found out on Monday there was a late addition to the agenda. Why was this done? Are we helping a friend, a political favor? Why would this board award money to an
organization that has received much financially other than grants from this corporation in the past several years? And how would it look if the investigation brought out information that would make this board look bad
because this individual or the group is in some type of issue? resend the contract on the basis for not being brought forth in the proper manner with all other things put aside. By now, the public would think you know your own
policies and procedures. Guess not. Many in the public want the board to cut ties with this organization totally. Public mistrust is going to keep growing with the board. Failure to receive the the prior vote
will show the public your policies and procedures are worthless as the paper they are printed on. A board must operate within the policies and procedures and not adhere to special interests or special agendas. If you do
not follow your policy on this matter, then why would you vote on any future policy updates if you can't if they can't be filed and can only be used to manipulate to fill someone's agenda? Thank you. >> Thank you. That's the end of the those
who are signed up. >> Okay. Thank you. Thank you very much. We also invite comments as you know on other items. And Mrs. Lee, can you please share the following? >> Yes. At regular meetings, the public is invited to address the board for three minutes regarding items not posted on the agenda. If you wish to give
something to the board, please give the item or items to Miss Hernandez after the meeting. Individuals may only speak once during this section of the agenda. Speakers shall properly identify themselves after they approach the podium by stating their name and address for the record. Personnel issues are not to be addressed during open sessions of
the school board. In addition, no person may address or question board members individually. The board president may interrupt, warn, or terminate a person's statement if the statement becomes personally directed, abusive, or obscene. Please come to the podium if you wish to speak.
>> Good evening. Trina Robinson, 914 Lincoln Way West, NAACP president. I have several concerns this evening. However, the one that disturbs me the most are comments made by your board vice president. During the conversation
regarding the policies on students use of personal communication devices in classroom, the board vice president made the comment, "Can we make this a racial issue followed by laughter. I found this remark inappropriate and deeply
concerning. Thoughtful and respectful debate is essential in policy discussions, especially when they impact students. However, raising race in a casual or strategic manner without a clear evidence evidence-based connection
to equity or student well-being undermines both the integrity of the conversations and the seriousness of genuine and racial equity issues. Matters of race deserve to be addressed with care, intention, and purpose, not
introduced flippidly or as a rhetoric device. Board members have a responsibility to remain focused on supporting student learning, ensuring fairness, and upholding professionalism. Comments such as this call into question
the board's com the commitment to those principles and contribute to a perception that meaningful progress toward equity particularly for black students may not be prioritized under the current leadership. Equally
concerning was the lack of response from the board president. Rather than addressing the comment, the discussion was allowed to continue as though nothing inappropriate had occurred. This was a missed opportunity for leadership. Silence in such moments can be perceived
as acceptance and I was disappointed that no member spoke up to challenge or clarify the remarks. Your silence, however, spoke volumes. I urge the board to reflect on this incident and take steps to ensure that future discussions,
especially those involving sensitive topics, are handled with seriousness, respect, and accountability they deserve. Additionally, at the very least, the board president owes the public an apology.
Good evening. Tiana Patis Wadell, 330 Kofax Avenue, Southbend, Indiana. The overseer of the Gear Up program has not demonstrated adequate transparency or accountability to the public regarding its outcomes. To be clear, the
community has not been provided with concrete evidence of results. What have we seen instead is contract after contract being approved. But where are the outcomes? This program funded through the United States Department of Education is intended to increase access
to post-secary opportunities for lowincome students. That means we should be able to clearly answer a few fundamental questions. How many students in this district through Gear Up are applying to college or training programs? How many are being accepted?
And how many are enrolling in post-secondary institutions? How many are succeeding in post-secondary institutions? At this time, those answers are not being shared publicly. Instead, the community sees continued spending without clear evidence of
impact, particularly for the students the program is meant to serve the most. I saw lots of juices and chips today on Facebook. That is a serious concern. Transparency is not optional when public funds are involved, especially in the
light of a negative audit. Accountability is not optional when we are discussing the futures of our children, especially following such findings. If the program is effectively increasing access, then the data should be clear and clearly demonstrated. If it
is not, then we must have an honest conversation about how to improve it or redirect resources to strategies that produce measurable results. I am hopeful that this presentation will finally provide the community with a clear report on outcomes directly tied to Gear
Up funding. Show us who is being served and how they are benefiting. Ensure that future decisions are grounded in evidence and not just continued approvals. Our community deserves more than just contracts. The children
deserve results. Thank you. Uh anvil. I'm president and owner of Sibly Machine and Foundry at 134 East Tut Street. Uh founded in 1874 in this community. I've been a clear advocate
for robotics to the community and I am very in favor of the Southbend Community Schools succeeding in that those endeavors. Uh only reason I came tonight was I didn't know who to contact but to
make you aware that uh the IDOE grant for funding for 2627 of which Southbend's been successful in the last three years to obtain is due May 15th. and some of the some of the requirements
have changed and um there was a webinar just over a week ago and there was no one in attendance at that webinar from from the community school. So my fear is that May 15th the date would pass and um
the school system wouldn't have the op opportunity to take advantage of substantial funding which has proven in the robotics community to be a huge uh advantage for students to follow paths
to engineering and manufacturing. Thank you. >> Thank you. Hello, my name is Kasul Garcia Martinez, 6125 Lstone Court and um I don't have any statements prepared, but I just wanted you to u hear my side of the
story about Gear Up. I think that Gear Up has been a wonderful program for many students in the community. I uh learned about many of the things that they did during a um session that they where they brought all the partners that were uh participating in Europe and everybody
highlighted all the benefits that they had for the students. So the students have been exposed to a lot of um options. They have been learning they have been um um actually what I know is from my summer program that they have been actually attended now college. So,
and that was part partly funded by by Europe. So, thank you. >> Thank you. All >> 51680 Orange Road using my first memorite. What I say should not be held against me, my family, or my co-workers.
So since this action item of this program came up and the board's wanting to resend it, the approval of the program just recently the Southbend CFO made a presentation on financing and budgets and he stated that money was saved by evaluating latent contracts and
to eliminate them to save money. I was just wondering if money was not a driving force in any past, present, or future contracts, how many of these entities would be knocking on our door to partner with and offer us the much neededed help they think we need?
I will quote an older generation like my parents' generation that would have said that um would always say back in their days they never had this or did this or with partners and this and that and the other. So now I'm at the age of that
generation kind of now and I'm asking the question why are we doing this and why are we doing that with some of the programs and contracts. Things have become so very different and I cannot say all for the good. The only thing we
as a community and as a society can hope for is that we safeguard the children, educate them as best as we can and in the end as they relied on us when we were young when they were younger that
we are now going to rely on them as we are getting older. So whenever we are solicited by any entity, please make sure we have fully checked them out. And only for the true betterment of our student body do we ever approve
contracts. Don't be so eager to jump at the first thing that knocks at your door. William Jones 1910 miniature rose lane to u Dr. Sur and the rest of this board. I'm here tonight. I work at Madison Steam
Academy and in light of last uh board meeting uh some constituents got up and made complaints and uh really show medicine in a bad light. But I'm here to show medicine in a better light that we
are medicine strong. Uh there are a group of small people that are just not satisfied with management or or um our principal, whatever it be. And this board has received several
complaints from uh individuals from our school. Um, I've I've emailed um some of the board members and some people just to let them know that things aren't
exactly as they're being said. Uh me myself, I've been under investigation twice with no findings because somebody decided um that they didn't like something. I don't know. But here here's the real
thing. We are uh a strong school. We have a strong principal. And the problem is protocol is being bypassed. I've never seen a teacher being able to call a board member to complain. When you
have a school principal, we have systems set up in place that should be uh followed. Procedure should be followed. And when procedure is not followed, we have problems. Um, as I said, you you've
heard one side, I'm here to tell the other side that we are a strong school. And I think we spend a lot of time um nitpicking when our kids can barely read, they can barely count.
I'm there every day. As a cognitive intervention specialist, I help them to learn math. I help them to read and also give them structure in discipline. And I would like this board to really
consider uh having not just our schools but all of our schools follow protocol because some of the complaints you get are not board problems. There are school problems and we have a school principal that is able and
capable of handling the problems. So I just want to let you know we are Madison strong and we are doing a great job. It's a lot of great things that don't go mentioned about Madison school
and that's fine too. But the complaints that I hear, I want to let you know I'm not on that side that's complaining. >> 30 seconds. That's all I yield. >> Thank you. >> John Pachznney, 18420 Crown Hill Drive.
The recent announcement of adding preK to four other school buildings was good news for many people as this corporation continues to offer educational opportunities to the community for early learning and positioning itself to help
increase enrollment. As these kids move forward from preK to kindergarten and upwards, I hope besides Facebook, other modes of media will be utilized to get the word out about the meeting, which I believe is here in miday to the public.
TV, radio, newspaper, especially the families that might want to utilize this prek program and realize it's new and what it has to offer. A thought even crossed my mind that if this proves successful, maybe going back another
year, whether it be maybe three year old, to maybe have select prek for three year olds to offer literacy and get them into the learning mode, especially in the areas where some of our schools are underperforming.
Maybe a partnership with an organization could help bring this about. It may be a way to help turn around test scores in the future. On another note, in the personnel file tonight, and I'm not talking about personnel, but I have a
question. Since Klay High School does not have a football team, why was there a strength and conditioning coach hired at Klay High for six weeks based on this report? Just seeking the need and the reason. Also on the afterchool programs,
I think it's time the board and the administration provide data showing the progress to these programs. We've asked for years, it has never come. Are these truly an academic program or are they
more food, meal, and a social time? Thank you. >> Zoe Giver, 2717 Rockne Drive, South Bend, Indiana. There's a school in your district that has been struggling all year. They've called out begging for help. And while there have been talks
that their problems would be solved, things have continued to get worse for them. When they go back to those who would be problem solvers to ask for solutions, they're told, "Be patient." And the question I have is, how long is long enough? How long should they have to wait? If you were in their shoes,
could you be patient? If you woke up every morning before work with chest pains and heart palpitations, if you were put on medication because of the high stress of your job? If you walked into work every day wondering what new upset the day would bring. If you were repeatedly ignored and gas lit. If you
knew the safety of those who you were supposed to protect was compromised. If you saw students not getting their needs met, but were unable to help or say anything. If you were talked down to or made fun of by co-workers. If things were being blamed on you that weren't
your fault. If every inch of your job and your day was under a microscope and you were afraid to do anything without retaliation. If you spent your day working in a place where you didn't know who you could trust. If you watched laws being broken and nothing being done about it. And then those same law law
breakers saying that they knew nothing would be done about it. If you had spoken out repeatedly, only to feel like your voice falls on deaf ears, could you be patient? Now, it might seem easy to say yes, if only dealing with one of these things, but what about if it was
all of them at once? What if this happened for months? What if it was years? How long would your patience be? I worry for the future of this particular school because I believe those teachers have reached the end of their patience. They are tired of
waiting and they are tired of suffering. That suffering and stress only creates an environment that's not good for anyone and that includes the students. I know many of these teachers have considered switching schools or even districts. And if that comes to pass, I hope it is all of you who have patience
to deal with the fallout. Does anyone else wish to speak? Seeing no one else approach the podium, I want to thank everyone for sharing their concerns. We'll now move on to the academic focus. >> And uh this evening's academic focus is actually an update on gear up. Uh
welcome Mr. Addie and this team. Good evening, Dr. Green. Um, board, Mr. Reid, we are plugging in and getting set up here. Let's get to the presentation.
All right. There's been lots of discussion tonight and I'm first and foremost very thankful that we have interest in the programs that we have going on known as Gear Up. um Southbend. So, as you'll see up there, gear up
Southbend, our academic focus is all about gaining early awareness and readiness for undergraduate programs. The mission of Gear Up is to created and funded by Congress. Gear Up is a program that opens doors for students from all
backgrounds. Gear Up helps students from low-income communities prepare for and succeed in education and training beyond high school so they can achieve their career goals. Siobhan, I'm going to need that where I can actually see it. Thank you. All right. The purpose of Gear Up
is that we would meet not only this mission but contribute greatly to Southbend schools as a whole and Southbend community. Gear Up in 2021 was an award by the federal government of $13.2
million to be invested into this community through the schools. We are one of only two in Indiana to have a Gear Up grant currently. We are serving 2,000 plus students in the current
sophomores and junior levels. as a partnership grant. What makes GearUp unique is the partnership means that they invest in us as a corporation and then we invest those dollars into
community partners to meet a wide range number of needs within our community through a diverse range of opportunities. You'll see on the screen um and I'm sure I have not included all of our partners, but I grabbed a range of them. You'll
see that we have dozens of partners who meet needs of our community, our students at different times in different ways. Those dozens of partners change throughout the time in order to meet what our kids need in the moment.
The challenge, how do we effectively engage all GearUp students with college and career connected options? Um, the types of services GearUp offers, academic support, interventions, college and career planning, educator professional development, family engagement and workshops, financial aid
advising, mentoring, scholarships, tutoring and academic support, work-based learning, and job shadowing. One of the keys here is because the cohort started in 2021 with sixth and seventh grade, we've had
to move along all each year pulling in different partners and programs, different school teachers, different administrators to meet these kids' needs. Most gearups focus mainly on the four-year
collegegoing culture. We opted to go a little bit different. We believe that we needed to bring options for all of our students, all 2000 plus kids, and not just focus on a sliver that would be going to the four-year college. I'd like to invite Janette Taylor.
You could listen to me all night and some of you would go, "Oh my gosh, Mr. Addie is going on and on and on." What you really need to hear tonight are the partners and some of our students. We'll have two short portions where our
students and a few partners will share their experiences with Gear Up. It's one thing for me to share all the data that we have as far as nuts and bolts, which we'll hear a little bit from Siobhan in a minute, but you need to hear the heart of what's actually happening in real
time. So, uh, Janette, >> thank you, Mr. Addie. >> Good evening, everyone. >> Is that better? >> Yes. Janette Taylor. I am a proud member of the Gear Up team, one of the newest members to the team uh since October and
also a parent um first and foremost with the Gear Up team. And it's been an awesome opportunity to be able to partner with our high schools, being able to work closely with our principles and our counselors, working through challenges and presenting opportunities for students to excel. presenting
opportunities where we are giving them an opportunity to participate in programs that um help them in their public speaking, help to build their confidence as well as giving them the opportunity to explore uh things that they might not have seen before. On some of the pictures that you see up on the
screen here, you see some of those participations like in visiting the state house. That was a wonderful opportunity for the students and being able to take them on. Several of these are college andor career fair oriented. You also see the pictures that are captured with our students that are part of the nursing program in which we are
have in which we have wonderful partnerships through IV uh IvyTech and helping those students to exceed and excel in those areas. As a parent, I had my first daughter actually graduate from Clay High School under Mr. E when he was the principal.
It was a wonderful opportunity for her. I also had two other daughters. they didn't choose to go to Clay. But however, with what I've known about Gear Up since I've been apart, that is actually something I wish I had known about that they had more opportunity to see and explore cuz maybe I would have
had more options to have selected something that I feel would have benefited them based on what I've seen in working with Gear Up. We have a wonderful team and we have a couple of partners here that assist us in those programs that help with the public speaking. I think one of the things that we aren't able to just show in clear
detail in seeing these students in the programs for instance like we have our gentleman scholars um in which they've been traveling around this uh the city through the community and even outside of South Bend helping kids to gain that confidence helping them in spelling bees and within our programs helping them in
their public speaking because introductions and tonight you'll hear a couple of the students um also be able to speak to how they've been able to gain their public uh speaking skills skills. We also have nine students that will be testing for their um state
certification through the culinary program that was sponsored through the Gear Up platform. So, I know everyone does not see all of the many things that are going on in Gear Up, but our students are definitely benefiting from them and they are getting opportunities that otherwise would not have been made
available because we do have a structured curriculum and some students are going outside of the regular course of uh high school education. And to that I would like to bring up a couple of those partners that are here.
One of our newer partners we have I empowered Jeremy Gillespie K Farlo we also have gentleman scholars Will Douglas Chef Laquisha. >> Well Laquisha come she'll come in.
>> She'll come in after. Okay. >> Wonderful. Thank you all that you all bring. >> Yes. So, I would like to for hear for you to hear a couple of our partners. >> So, thank you board for letting me speak tonight. My name is Jeremy Gillespie. I'm the executive director of the
Impower Center. Uh my background is nonprofit and for-profit. I previously worked for Beacon Health System for a decade. My background is human resources, workforce development, talent acquisition. I sit on the Northern Indiana workforce board for region 2 as well. So, I'd like to tell you about the
line of sight program. It's built on the premise of if you see it, you can be it. So, the line of sight program is a 10-week career readiness and leadership program for high school students developed by the Empower Center in partnership with Gear Up. This program
is currently being piloted at RiseUp Academy and it's delivered in school method meeting students where they are during the day. It's a 45minute session. Students connect with real world professionals, civic leaders, and career exploration while building personalized
digital portfolios via the school's platform, making good investment on that. Um, with strong early engagement, the plan is definitely definitely to expand into other South Bend schools. I just want to give you some highlights of the program real quick. So, some of the
guest facilitators that we've had tomorrow, we'll have Pastor Kenneth Lee and Councilman. He'll be speaking to the students about government and civic leadership. Who better? K. Farlo spoke to the students about financial literacy. She's the founder of the empower center and a regional vice
president for prim. Quinton Williams will be leading the students through digital literacy. He's an instructor at Premier Arts Academy in Elcart. Myself, I took the students through career pathing. And again, taking advantage of that school linking platform, building these personalized career portfolios is
amazing. time. >> Thank you. >> Awesome. Um, good evening board, uh, Superintendent E, Mr. Addie, and, uh, our team. My name is William Douglas, and I'm a director with
Gentleman and Scholars, and, uh, first of all, I'll be remiss to say I want to say thank you all for supporting our spelling bees. Uh, just a reminder, we've been known around town as the spelling bee boys, and we completed 13 spelling bees. uh this past spring award over $45,000 back to Southby communities
youth. Uh yep, thank you. Um and I'm also happy and I'm honored to partner with uh Gear Up with our scholar speaks program. So even with the spelling bees, we want to introduce literacy in a fun way and a way to express theirselves.
Now, everybody here, uh, especially that's speaking on the mic, is public speaking. And we all know that public speaking is one of the most difficult things to do, whether it's a job interview, whether it's getting a job, talking to your teachers, or talking to a school board tonight. So, I'm so
honored to to represent our our our program, and actually have one of our students here. So, thank you. Before we bring him up, my name is Corey Brazier and um I just want to say that you know over the years we've had an
opportunity to uh partner with a lot of organizations and quite honestly personally me I've been skeptical throughout the years of getting into different partnerships. Okay. Um I really had to do my research and to see
what they were all about. Um, I have to say that the Gear Up, um, the Gear Up initiative really won me over. Okay, it took a little time at the beginning, but as we saw it grow and we saw it grow
with the students. Okay, here's a young scholar I want to bring up, um, he's one of our prize scholars speak students. Um, we've we've been working with him since seventh grade and now he's a sophomore
sophomore at Washington High School and uh we couldn't be prouder of this gentleman. Uh, everybody welcome Mr. Bryson. >> Good afternoon everybody. My name is Bryson Thomas and I go to Washington High School. And I want to tell you a
little about how Gear Up has helped me become a very good public speaker. And starting off like like coming in my um freshman year, I wasn't I was a little shy. I'm not going
to lie. Um and going through like gear up with gentleman scholars, it is it has helped me to be become like a young man and
learn how to use my voice for good and know that it's power in public speaking and how you use it and Thank y'all for listening. That's all I
got. >> Thanks. >> Hello, my name is Jayen Giwali. I attend Riley High School and how Gear Up has helped me throughout my high school years. As a sophomore and a
freshman, it has helped me learn how to public speak. I wasn't good at all with my base or with talking in front of a whole bunch of people or with filling out my senses without Ann and all of that.
It's helped me with that and also it has helped me find my career choice and pursuing entrepreneurship slash cutting hair and later on I plan on
trying to start my own clothing brand. It has also helped me choose what college I would like to go to later in the future. I haven't decided yet, but at the moment I have a couple in mind.
So, thank y'all for listening. Have a good day. >> And we should probably keep it balanced. Um, there's a young lady whose track coach is going to be wondering where she is if I don't have her go right now. So,
Eisa, I know you're not counting on going right now, but Alisa, could you come on up? >> We want to honor your time, but Eilea last year um came to us and and said, "I've got a big idea." And she's going
to share about that big idea. Hi, I'm Alisa Mai and I'm a current junior at John Adams. And I moved here from Kansas last year before my sophomore year. And I knew when I want like when I moved here, I knew I wanted
to do something involving the healthc care field when I was older, but I didn't really know how to do it. But after some research online, I discovered a club, an international club called HOSA, Health Occupation Students of America. and I knew I really wanted to
bring it to Adams. And it's basically a club that offers prepared speaking, forensic science, biomedical debate, and then also real life clinical skills such as phabbotomy, clinical nursing, and surgical
technologists as an option for students to use to gain more clinical experience before they go off to school or to help them further decide kind of what they want to do with their future. Um,
I didn't really know how to start it when I first moved here because first off, I didn't know anybody and I just had no experiences with clubs and stuff like that beforehand cuz I came from a small Catholic school. Um, but I talked to Mr. Aaron Nichols, which is one of
the Gear Up adviserss at my school, and he told me all about Gear Up and how they might be able to help me get it started and all this stuff. and they did very much help me get it through. So last year we took about 10 students
including myself that qualified for the state competition in Indianapolis and then we had two move on to internationals that were hosted in Nashville that year. This year I took more students and we all almost all of us qualified for state and then we had
four students including myself qualify for internationals held in Indianapolis this year. Without Gear Up I would definitely not have been able to get it started at the school and also offer it to as many students as I could. I have
CTE students, full IB students in my club and it's just like a really diverse group. And then I don't know, it was just really helpful for us to get some help because it helped me focus more on allowing the students to learn these new
skills and ensure their successfulness rather than focus on how am I supposed to get all these students down to Indianapolis in May. >> Thank you. >> So to make it clear, Alisa, um you are the club leader, right? >> Yes, I started it and I'm running it.
I've been running it since last year and then I will until I graduate. >> And how many students have you had hanging around your HOSA club and then we'll move on. >> I had about nine other students last year and then this year there were 14 of
us. I'm still trying to spread it around a little bit, but I'm trying to promote it more for the IB students at our school, too, because they don't have the opportunity to do CTE with their schedules. Like for me, I have seven classes a day and I had no room in my schedule to do CTE like I wanted to to
be able to get these clinical skills. And it also allows our CTE students like in clinical nursing or dentistry to use the skills that they learn outside of just a classroom. >> Thank you so much. >> Thank you. >> Very good.
All right, I'm going to turn the mic over to uh Shabban for just a few minutes related to our the data. Um but Shabban can't say this, I can. uh Shabban Varajab as you see on the screen was the 2023
Gear Up Professional of the Year out of 3,000 schools out of um literally 588,000 students represented. Shabban was the first data manager in the country out of the 30
plus years of Gear Up to be selected. So Siobhan is a gem, a gift to our corporation. We are as a team impacting policy at a federal level.
Students like Eileisa are being featured even as we speak at a federal level. So this federal grant, we've testified in front of Congress, we've testified in front of the budget committees in DC.
So, we take very seriously the investments that they've trusted us with and the investment that we're making back with our partners. So, Siobhan, I'm going to have you dive into your portion. Thank you. The president of the board, Dr. Greens,
the rest of the board members, and everyone in this space, good evening. I want to take this opportunity to share briefly about the impact Gear Up is
making. I know we are in the fifth year and everyone is asking what's happening, where are the results. So by the end of this sharing, you'll see how amazing
this program is. One, I want to start by saying that a good program is one that has a good team, one that has diverse partners from the community and this could be businesses,
nonprofit organization, institution of higher learning and so on and so forth. But the most important part is the accountability part where everything we do is tracked
is reported and of course we need to understand the resources that we are putting into this where is it going so again what I'm going to share with you is the outcome that we are seeing with this
program. Before I dive into the data, I want to say that we are aware that the school corporation wants to increase graduation rates. We aware that we want to expand our enrollment.
We also want to produce leaders who will change this community, change this nation. And therefore, everything that we do is driven by the direction that the school corporation wants to go. And as I said, Gear Up has
a good leadership. We work with the school principles, the counselors, the teachers to inform every single step that we are taking. Part of the metrics that we are tracking includes attendance, we have GPA, we
have the skills and knowledge gained. And this is with regard to college and career readiness. We are also tracking the FAFSA completion, postsecary enrollment and persistence. As we do this, we are aware
that we have to make sure that this program observes equity and serves everyone, not just a given race or ethnicity, but everyone is reached. We work closely with the research and evolution office
of the southern school corporation to make sure that we compare the data that we are collecting with the bigger outcomes that the school corporation seeks to achieve. I'll be sharing with you first the
participation side of the program and I want to minimize this presentation and take you to um the data showing the participation of the students. Okay, I'm being warned that I have three minutes to go.
So every year we track the participation rate of the students with regard to different services provided and as you see on the screen we see more participation in the mentoring programs education field trips and for
sure we've done over 50 field trips since we began. We see more students participating in student workshops. We have seen student participate in tutoring programs, college visits and so
on. I'll provide this information to the public so that you can access and dive deep into the data. But I want to take you to the survey that we conducted in 2023 and 2025 to compare the progress
of the students that we serve. So allow me to shift. Okay. The work you see on the screen was a joint partnership between Gear Up and and Focus. And I want to thank the team that I worked with. They were committed.
They helped a lot in diving deep and getting all this ready. The first section shows the demographics and as you can see you have grade levels, you have the race and then you
have the schools that we serve. But I want to go straight to one of the key metrics that we track which is college readiness. One of the questions that we ask the students is
how confident are they in terms of their effort in academic work. And for sure if you compare 2003 survey with 2005
you learn that the students in 200 I mean 2025 over 60% feel more confident when it comes to the academic work. Then we asked about their preparation
for their SAT and SAT. As you can see, most of them feel confident about the exams they've taken. In terms of career interest in 2023,
most of the students reported that they were interested in arts, I mean in arts and entertainment. But in 2025 when we did the survey, there was a big
change where where over 26 two 285 reported that they were interested in business and entrepreneurship. We had 226 who expressed interest in
healthcare programs. So for us we feel like the level of awareness is increasing. In terms of financial aid awareness, we've seen an increase as well because of the exposure they are having, the
workshops they attend about FAFSA scholarship information. They feel more aware about the funding opportunities out there. I want to end with
post high school planning which is a key metric we are tracking. In 2023 only 54.04% reported that they were interested in
4year degree and above. But in 2025 we've seen an increase. We now have 63.63% of the students who want to go to the university. I can go on and on and I plan to share
this data with the public after this. But there are few things I want to end with. One, this program is strengthening academic performance. Don't doubt that because we work with partners who are providing the
services. Number two, we are seeing an increase when it comes to post-secondary awareness. The data is evident out there. The students know the options that they have they exist out there. They know the requirements.
They know the career pathways that they interested in. And the last part with regard to this program, we've seen the student foster the confidence and resilience. You've heard it from gentlemen and scholars. You've heard it
from empower. These kids are building that resilience and confidence to face the future. As we move forward, our focus will be on expanding the tutoring support cuz we feel these students need that support. And then number two, the
financial aid awareness is one of the areas that we are going to focus on. And lastly, based on the requests made from the public, we will make this program open to the public so that you can access the data and see the progress
that we are making. What we are asking for the board and the public trust gear up. It's working. Thank you. >> All right, we're in the home stretch here.
This time I'd like to have uh Asia Hill will be presenting just a little bit about parents. As kids are now juniors, rising juniors and rising seniors, the parent engagement piece is so critical because those parents are having to come
alongside their kids to figure out next steps financially in other ways. So, let's pop through these. So, I'd like to introduce you to Asia Hill, who is going to walk us through it.
>> Good evening. Evening everyone. My name is Asia Hill. I'm a proud member of the Gearup team. I am also a proud graduate of South Bend Schools, Washington High School. I have twin children who uh attend Riley High School right now and a younger daughter who attends Adam Adams
High School. Um before I get started, there was a point in time where I did uh give up on Southbend schools and I um moved my twins to a different district. But then um that hope came back to me and I move them back to Southbend schools and I don't regret it. They are
excelling on so many levels related to CTE, sports, friendships, that sense of community, which is why it's important for parents to be aware of these things so that it can um so that they can make decisions based off of the information that they have. So, I won't hold you
long. Um what to know about Gear Up as a parent. We um did a recent trip to Ball State and Indiana University, Indianapolis. Um we're still without sleep. I think it's day eight. Um so but
we took those trips and um a lot of the students they were saying well we're on this trip but we're not gear up or no that doesn't that's not for me we're not gear up we service 10th and 11th grade students so they're all gear up they all have access to the different
opportunities and resources that we have so I think that's the biggest thing that we want parents to know the uniqueness of this role and similar to my colleague here have been here for about six months. Before this, I was with access the access program through the
corporation. Um we the uniqueness of this role allows us to not only support the student but also uh support the family system. Um we cannot service the students without servicing the family
period. Next I want to talk about how to connect and stay informed. So, we have email. We have email efforts, but um the newest thing that we do have is our Gear Up Southbend parent engagement group on Facebook. We're on all social media. We
have a lot of engagement from students, but that parent piece on social media and it's private, so they answer questions before they can um get into the group. And it's it's essentially the same information that they would get from an email. But there were so many emails bouncing back from just simply
trying to get parents information. A lot of parents are on Facebook. A lot of parents are on social media. So just having another way for us to connect with them. We want families informed and engaged every step of the way. Lastly, invit an invitation to help shape parent
options. When I first came into this role, I've had meetings with several stakeholders at the school related to family engagement. Before just coming in and these are the things I see, let me run with programming. let us run with
programming. We connect with the different stakeholders to see what is needed, what is already going on, and how can we support what you're already doing. So, we will uh sorry, one second.
Yes. So, I've also had meetings with um district family engagement um individuals such as Stephanie Stewart Bridges, Erica Williams. I actually sat in on a parent cafe and it was phenomenal. It was phenomenal. And
the goal is to partner to have the same programming for the high schools through Gear Up again instead of creating new initiatives um duplicating what's already going on and what's already effective.
And lastly, our we're working on a parental advisory working group. So that would include the individuals at each of the high schools uh uh uh RiseUp Academy, Washington High School, Riley High School, Adams High School, and
South Bend Virtual. So having one or two representatives from each of those schools along with a parent voice. So anything we're creating and shaping parent workshops, anything, we have their voice distributing those surveys to know exactly what they need and what
they want to see. So shaping all things around the family system. Thank you. >> All right. And we're we'll conclude Janette with just a couple final voices. And if you'd bring us home as you call
them up, um you'll see the earlier snapshots really focused on mentoring and more of that four-year preparation. This is the nuts and bolts for a lot of our community kids, which is the workforce development side, which is huge for Gear Up. So go ahead.
>> Great. Thank you, Janette Taylor again. Um, so again, thank you all for uh listening to us tonight and presenting who Gearup is, what Gearup does, and what our objective is, which is to strengthen the South Bend School
Community um, corporation, as well as to help our students become the leaders and the academic scholars that we know them to be. And in doing so by bringing in some of our partners as I mentioned before we do have uh some of our partnerships that have given u given the students the opportunity to now be
tested and have state certifications. So we'll have Miss Laquisha chef Laquisha to come up >> of soulful kitchens our partnership also through the workbased learning opportunities. So we don't take this
opportunity just um by chance or anything like that. We take it very seriously because the success of the students, it depends on all of us. Not just with what Gear Up does, but what we're able to do together. >> All right. Hello. I'm Tiffany Reic McDaniel representing Elevate Youth
Mentoring as the executive director tonight, but also South Bend Schools as a graduate, as a parent, and as a teacher. I want to thank the board and Superintendent E for an opportunity to share what we've been working on. I'm excited to talk to you guys about it. Um, I partner with the GearUp team for
workbased learning and certifications and we have a few highlights that we wanted to talk about. Um, I work closely with Chad and his team and also CTE leadership to figure out what the district needs are and one of the things that we've noticed is that there needs to be a shift in one-off type of
activities to building a sustainable system that can last. Um, so we're focusing on teacher capacity, employer pipelines, and student readiness. And so the things that I'm going to tell you next are the stuff that's been happening in those areas. So when it comes down to
student and employer impact, we recently had 800 students engage in our career fairs um with 40 different employers. We started out with about a hundred employers and was able to get about half of them to say yes to coming. And um
that actually also served as a door to be able to have more conversation with them about placement opportunities. So, we built a structured follow-up process after those events to be able to take advantage of that momentum and um we've been able to develop placements as a
result of that. So, employer pipeline growth is another area that we wanted to focus on. So, we're now getting employers after that event to define what roles they have available, how many they have, who the uh the number of them, the supervisors and the scheduling
structures that need to exist for them to be uh meaningful and successful. Several employers have expressed an interest in doing that and building those structured placements and they had not done that before. So, it's their first time their first time getting work-based learning off the ground and
they're doing it with us. We're having conversations, working through all of the the muddiness that that can mean. Um, helping them navigate their side of that as employers and getting those placements off the ground. Another thing that I'm really proud of is the teacher capacity growth that we've had. I
started out with eight teachers um last year with uh work-based learning trying to make them champions because when I first started work-based learning um I was the only one doing it and in order for that to become sustainable we got to have more people that know how to do the things and so we started out with eight
people. Those eight people are still working and they're still growing. And it's up to 13 now that are getting training on how to be how to manage placements well, establish them, manage them, and close them well. So, the students are getting the most out of that. They are starting to do that
independently, which is really exciting. And um I'm I'm I'm just happy about that. I'm proud of that one. Um, so co and then we've also started to do some coaching and building internal capacity with other work-based learning staff to get them to go from just like events
based type of thinking to being able to so not just bringing employers in for a career fair, but being able to convert that participation into a placement or into some other deeper level of engagement with um our students and our programs. And so that's been good. Um,
we're working on student readiness. Uh we've had we've been building a course. I've been building a course for a while. And then the teachers just finished piloting that course that is going to be um a prep course for work-based learning because one of the things we understood needed to happen was when students go out, we want them to all have the same
level of preparation, right? And how do you get that to consistently happen across different teachers doing it? And so um we have a course teachers have been testing it. It's being refined now based on their feedback and we'll be able to implement that next year. And then um as far as certifications go, we've been exploring alternative
pathways for certification through community partnerships and also employer relationships in addition to doing the regular things of um helping teachers become credentialed if they can and um helping them get better attainment scores and rates and things like that from the ones that are already open. And
so Laquisha is actually one of those partners that has um opened up after school certification in culinary and she is getting students through. So, she's going to talk to you about that. >> And just before Laquisha speaks, she also presented the opportunity for the
children to actually work in events to see what it looks like in which they were able to earn money in that space as well. Chef Laquisha, >> thank you. I'm Laquishia Jackson. I'm the owner of Soulful Kitchen, which is catering company, a culinary school, and
all the things. Um, so thank you for having me. Thank you, Gear Up, for having me. Uh, love you guys. Um, so I just want to talk a little bit about our culinary program. Um, I teach after school uh, CTE culinary uh, classes
which is the certified fundamental cook certification uh, here in South Bend. And it is a um, an entry level certification for uh, career pathways and workforce developments for students to enter into the workforce um, with that knowledge of culinary. And um all
of our students also become members of the American Culinary Federation which we are very proud uh proud of those students for receiving that. They are part of our local chapter here in South Bend. Our students have also been on field trips with for at Fort Wayne Casino and Notre Dame which are the the
top of the line of course next to Soulful Kitchen uh in the city when it comes to catering in the food industry. And you know, just that field trip alone, there were chefs already trying to gravitate to some of our students. Like, we want them, we want them, we need them. There is a high demand for
culinary in this city alone. And so, um, I'm just really proud of that as well. And then I just also wanted to say that, you know, this is a ministry for me. Uh, just teaching the students and pouring into them all the things that I know about culinary. It's so much deeper. We
build family structure. Not only do we cook together, but we eat together. We know that it's always a great time over dinner or going out to eat. We love to eat. When you think of a fun event, we think of food. We think of good food, the beautiful food. So, um just really really happy to do this ministry unto
our students. It's so much deeper than just, you know, the data and all of the things that everybody's talking about in here. It's about reaching those students and and I come from low lowincome communities. I know exactly what that feels like. I am those students and so I'm happy to be here to serve them.
Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Thank you so much. And is Haley in the house? That would be our final student. >> All right. If you want to hear more stories and see, thank you for your um
listening through a wide ranging presentation. We realize uh we had lots of voices tonight, but lots of good voices to be heard. If you want to see more from what we're doing, the two QR codes up there, especially the one, the more um doppled one, you'll be able to
follow what's going on with us regularly and see what's unfolding on a range of media. So, thank you so much. Appreciate your ears and thank you to the team for um coming out and thank you to our partners who came out tonight. Thank you. >> Of course.
>> Thank you. I'm I'm sure the board has some questions. >> Q&A, >> Dr. I do. Thank you for recognition. I had it there was two slides that you showed that got my attention and the second slide I think
um I'm going a little bit too fast. That one that one's the second one. So when I look at this and academ I'm thinking in terms of academics. So when I'm looking at this slide here it says academic support and interventions. And so
when you're working with students academically, is this afterchool programs or what kind of support are you giving them? And what is the success rate of those students and what is the data to show us that they are being
being successful? That's what I like to see when you're talking about academics and support and interventions. That's what I like to see. Then the other slide, I I realize that you might not have that information today, but when you're asking the board to um vote on
giving fund or voting on funds for academic after school programs and things like that, I'd like to see some data, the success rate of those academic uh support levels. And then the next slide you had that brought my got my attention was the one that uh I think it
was the college readiness one slide. I think that was towards the end >> toward the when you had the >> the Oh, the survey. Yeah, it was it had to do with um
yeah, the college ready readiness slide post high school. That's the one I Yeah. So, this is this when it says reasons not to attend a university and 18.13% said my grades aren't good enough. That
drew a red flag for me. So, what are you doing to help those students that feel that their grades aren't good enough? because uh they should have they should be able to attend a two-year college, a four-year college, or they should be
able to go to um maybe um uh a trade school or something like that. So, my concern is what are you doing to help those students feel like their grades should be good enough to go somewhere?
>> I'm gonna throw that to our coaches. Coaches, what are you doing? day in day out because you're hearing these you're in the middle of these conversations. >> What do you say to those kids? Because I this comes up almost every day. >> So, the students are actually utilizing
the coaches in particular during their lunch periods as well as in one school in particular, they have a service hour, community service hour in which they're able to utilize that time whether they're bringing in their homework um and getting support in that. Particularly, I had to refresh myself on some of the math that they're doing.
However, because that need was there, I did that necessary research on my own and was able to support students in their math um bringing in their information uh as far as like writing their papers, helping them to get to the point where they're able to write their essay for potential scholarship opportunities. Those are just some of
the things that we do in which we also offer the different um programs as far as hey, I need support in this area. We have stu we have teachers within our buildings that we've built relationships with to where if we are not able to support them in that we connect them
with the teacher within our um school um administration to assist with that as well. >> Okay. because that is that's an important thing for me because 18.3% is still a lot and um uh so when you also
have uh uh those students who are academically not there yet um the support that you're providing do you see any success rate or are you seeing su success rate from the tutoring that
they're receiving? That's another uh uh type of data that I would like to see the next time you you present. And also it's the cost uh it costs too much and I can't afford it. So are these students getting the help? 39% is a lot. So are
these students getting the help like say through 21st century scholar programs? Are they getting uh FASA parents are getting FASA information because there's programs out there that will help those students uh be successful. So these are
the kinds of things that I'm wondering are they getting those kinds of support and those kinds of uh things for uh help them. >> Yeah. Let me you've just asked you went down the questions or the highlights were like
one right after another after another of the right questions and the right highlights. So thank you for highlighting those like the 21st century scholars. We realize the district used to have a 21st century scholar leaison in the district. When we realized we no
longer have that, these coaches, >> you have counselors. >> Yes. In addition to all of us, yes, the counselors are working side by side. We're working hopefully we're in a support role with the counselors
alongside, but we realize 21st century was one of those areas that was easy to miss. So, we're picking up a lot of the those types of >> This is the last thing I want to say and I'm I'm gonna let you go. Well, two things I would say. Well, 21st Century Scholar because I was a counselor. >> Yeah.
>> And so, I don't know that's important. A lot of parents, a lot of students don't even know that exists. I've heard that from students. They should know that exists. So, there should be some workshops that go on to help those kids know. Parents don't know how to fill those
forms out. I used to have parents come to the library and walk them through those that process so they can do that themselves. That needs to happen because there's no way in the world a student should say it's too much. I can't afford it when there's programs out there to help them do that. >> Agreed.
>> So my last thing because you have counselors counselors are there. They can help if the coaches cannot get to them. So the last thing I wanted to ask, you said something about your after your parent program or something like that. A parent program. I was just wondering is
this throughout the entire corporation? Is this in high schools? If it's in elementary, middle schools, or where's your program at? >> This is servicing the 10th and 11th grade cohorts at the five high schools. And all of our efforts are um collaboratively. So, we work neck andneck with the counselors. Anything we
do, we're looping in the counselors as well. And one piece I forgot to um touch on is Ivy Academy. So being um in support of Ivy Academy and being able to communicate and connect with students in collaboration with the counselors for
the very students who are struggling. We just got an email today about a student that's struggling. So I emailed the counselor and we'll connect to see how can how we can support this student. We got an email last week from a student just grateful saying just having a one-on-one conversation to help her
confidence. her grades literally went up just by having a simple conversation. So, some of those smaller efforts that are huge when it comes to confidence and things like this. >> Okay. So, when you said that, you brought something else to my mind because
there's uh the colleges uh that we have, we have a lot of colleges in the area and a lot of those students there need community services and so I used to call on them to come in and tutor students after school. So, that might be still an option because these students in our in
our in our um schools are struggling and they need to know, they need to know that there's help out there, people out there that can help them get to where they need to be. And so, we just need to use every effort we can to make sure that we drag, we pull those folks in,
those resources in. Absolutely. >> That's all I want to say. I appreciate your help and thank you so much. >> Thank you. >> Thank you, Dr. McCulla. Can I others? >> Yes. Um uh I want to again thank you for the uh wonderful presentation. I thought we got a lot of good information. Uh many
of it addressed questions that uh some of the people from the community had had during the um you know time to talk about uh action item agenda items or the open parts about data about some of the community things and some of that aspect. And so I I think it's beneficial
to have that. And I think for both the board and for the community in general, when you're looking at these different programs and things, you have both objective data and subjective data. I just had a couple questions about both of those kind of things. I want to commend you uh Siobhan. I think it's
great that you won the national data award year because I think that gives us a lot of confidence that the data that you share with us is going to be uh accurate uh well put together the appropriate data for this because you've been recognized very recently nationally
for uh your ability to analyze put together the data and that kind of thing. And so I think that gives at least to me I think the board to the public that we should be able to have a lot of confidence in all of the data uh that you present about any of these uh gear programs and the different community partners. you had said in
terms of some of these slides like this one uh where is it possible to put all of the data from the different years since we've been doing gear up for all the different community partners like online somewhere would people be able to go to one of those two QR codes and get
a link to where if they want to click through all of this in more detail see the demographic data going back so many years for all of the different partners just to make sure that that's available to anyone who wants that level of detail. Um, I don't know if that's available online now, but if that's
something that uh can be provided and maybe, like I said, put up on one of those QR codes or, you know, another way just to make sure um that people can get as much detail as they want or as they need about all of the different partners that have been with Europe over the
years. Would that be possible? >> Thank you so much for first of all for congratulating me. But again I want to say that one we respect data privacy.
>> What we will share out there is just a summary of what is happening. >> But for anyone who wants the details I think we can provide that information provided we follow. >> Yes. I mean obviously you have to respect privacy but you'll be able to
share what you can >> um you know going back as far as you can. And I think the more you can share within those confines, the better. Uh just for people that are more interested in more than even the extensive data that you shared tonight. Uh you know I
think the second part of course is more of the subjective things and I I think it's just important for um to understand you know and I know that Gear Up's been around since President Clinton uh passed it back in 1998. So, it's been a national program that's had a lot of
success over the years that has been while we've been involved with it, you know, here in South Bend more recently when you, you know, you went on and got this. It's what, a seven-year grant? >> Sevenyear grant. >> Two grant. Um, but it's a nationally proven uh program that's been around
for, you know, decades that focuses, as you noted, on, you know, improving career readiness. that focuses on lowincome students to help them understand that they can go to school for colleges, how things I understand you've even gone beyond that to make sure they're aware of their non-ol options and that type of thing. But I I
do just want to clarify and it's my understanding just to make sure everyone that all of the people that are served in this program, these students, the parents, these are they choose to be in this program, correct? They're recruited, but like no one tells a kid, you have to be in this gear up program, you have to go to touring. It's all uh
student driven, student volunteered parents know about this. They sign up for it because they think it would benefit their child and that type of aspect. Would that be correct? >> Yes. Yeah. We um it's one of the best
kept secrets out there. For instance, we have students that will get their full one-year and two-year associates through Gear Up funded like the Ivy Academy and other types of scholarship programs that we have. And the key for us is just
trying to we have so many partners doing such great work getting all of that out in the hands of our parents and our students where they can grab hold of it. That is one of our greatest challenges. So that's why we have you see these QR codes with link trees and people could
pursue how to dive in the gear up handbook and all that sort of thing. So >> and I do see one of the slides and we didn't go into as much detail but that there's a partner scoring guide. So the different community partners that you're using this, they're vetted. They're, you
know, either not for profofit or established benefit. They have to show that they have certain levels of qualifications of experience. Show that they've been successful what they do to even be eligible to receive gear up funding or that type of program. And that's already built into the program.
Correct. >> Yes. Excuse me. Yeah. We have h a clear process of on boarding partners. One, we work closely with the chamber of commerce and they have a list of all the
community partners that are doing amazing work in this community and when we are mapping or trying to find out who to work with, we use the resources that exist to identify them. And before we bring them on board, they'll have to
submit their proposal. And that comes after we've met as partners to share what the school needs or what the students need, the milestone that Gear Up seeks to achieve, but also clear processes on how to get everything done.
And that is also followed by you know data tracking and reporting to make sure that we are all accountable when it comes to the services being provided and the dollar that we are giving out there. We are very intentional in everything that we do. >> Yeah. And I did appreciate you shared
you do surveys, you talk with uh teachers that teach or help participate in the program with principles. One of the things I saw was a letter of support that we got from one of our high school principles that mentioned, you know, a tutoring program that exists in this building that he meets with them every two weeks to discuss how it's going, how
student attendance is, uh, any additional support they may need and that kind of thing. Um, a lot of these people that are working these programs are SBCSC employees, whether teachers or pair of professionals or or that kind of thing. So, it's uh, you know, built throughout the system. you know, it's
our employees, our uh principles that are there serving our students, our parents. You know, it's very heavily involved. I just the last thing I want to understand is that you said it's a seven-year program and so it will be up to, you know, an opportunity to try to renew it for another seven years to
track another cohort and be able to continue to provide to uh even more students, you know, the next coming generation the ability to again get the financial literacy, go on these college visits, uh become more aware of financial aid options and that kind of thing and to en encourage them and uh
and so it'll be important I guess I know for us as a board and community that you know what do we need to do in order to support you to make sure you're in a good position to write to continue that program so we can continue to receive these resources to support uh the next
you know group of seventh graders and on the next generations of students >> yeah we've we've already we've already have the process in place where we're not shy about going after federal funds to help our kids and that's we're
working on that as as we speak. But we also have understood that we need to build in sustainable opportunities. So for instance, when we did our career ignite event at the fairgrounds, first year 600 kids, seventh and eighth or eighth and nth
graders, seventh and ethn,200. We realized that our age, our kids were going to age out of that because the cohort moves forward. So we partnered with JA, Junior Achievement, to take that over. we handed it off sustainably and this year they had um 4,200 students
show up at the region event. So for us we are very conf conscious about anything it takes to sustain and hand off to those partners who can go beyond what we're doing. Let me add that we are also using the data that we're collect
collecting to inform the next proposal writing stage. We also work with the research and evaluation office to tell us what needs to focus on and more specifically the risk data which captures the academics attendance
behavior of the students and so on. So we are using that information to inform the writing process. Thank you. >> All right. Well again thank you uh for all the information you shared and it certainly seems like you all do a very good job your team and you provide a lot of good things that our students need.
I commend you for that. >> Mr. Castello, >> I also want to commend uh your staff uh and you uh Mr. ready uh for your presentation tonight uh to represent an
area of education that is very important uh if we're going to be a a wellrounded educational institution here uh because you're reaching out to some
students that other programs uh might not reach. Um I do have some qu have a question though and that is um you receive a lot of money uh through
the federal government and I think for the most part uh you do a very good job of funneling it in the right direction and let me um make people aware of the fact you take a lot of trips with students educational trips uh to areas
that they wouldn't have uh the advantage to uh because of the money and everything else to take and um I think you do a very good job of that. But um there has been
uh in the past some events that take have taken place um that I think money could have been spent other places. Um, do you have any idea what I might be talking about?
>> I'm We try to be pretty thoughtful about where we're investing and what we're doing, so I'm not sure what that would be. >> Well, it had to do with a trip to Chicago. >> Oh, I >> for for a Chicago bowl game. >> Absolutely. I'll be glad to address
that. Um, we took a we took a group of 160 kids up there. About 160 50 a large group and yes the students culminated in a Bulls game. The rest of that event
they also had an entire day working with the Bulls staff which worked us through workshops that had to do with all the things that it took to bring that event on from a work for or from a career development type day. We had an entire
day in which we heard from the promoters, we heard from their um finance people, we the whole range of it. And then put right in the middle of the day, we realized that our kids, a good number of our kids had never been
to Chicago like that. So part of it was that we also took those kids to the Dabble uh Black History Museum. First time the majority of those kids ever had been to the Dabble. life-changing experience. So to juxtapose it with the
workforce and career aspect of it with to do Sabo where they got to see not just got to see the range of history that happened. >> The focus on the trip was for the B bowls game though. >> Yeah. >> Uh no the focus of the focus of the trip >> that was the culmination.
>> There are some other aspects of it that I understand. >> Sure. >> That you I've heard that before. Okay. of things. Uh, could you tell people how much that trip cost? >> 1.8 million. >> Do you remember?
>> It did not cost 1.8 million. Whoever shouted that out. >> $25,000. >> $25,000. Um, >> my point that I'm trying to make >> is that
nobody is perfect uh in deciding which things are going to be enriching for students and things that are not. From a just a PR standpoint
though, um I heard a lot uh inside the school corporation. Uh you know, when money is tight and things get rough, they start to look at
expenditures. And all I'm saying is is that in the future, um, I think we ought to make very clear our intentions ahead of time so people understand what what's going on and
which I think most cases you do. >> We try. >> Okay. I'm not, you know, uh, just because I'm picking on one of many other things that you have taken place. I'm just saying that I thought that was a tremendous amount
of money spent in areas that we could have done other things with those students. So, thank you very much. >> Thank you for your comment. >> So, thank you very much for the um update. It was wonderful. Um >> I would say while it is a lot of money,
I'm going to just um what Mr. Costa said if half those kids learned about a job they didn't know existed in sports and they love sports and they think they want to work in sports and they came back and said I may only be like 5'4 so I might not be in the NBA however
I could work in finance I could work in the front office I could be an athletic trainer whatever they learned that day and whatever cultural experiences they had that's worth a lot to a lot of kids >> we thought so >> and I would also um I didn't I did not write this and it just disappears So,
never mind. But, um, positive relationships with adults and being with adults on that trip who can answer their questions and talk about those careers, I think, is also really important. And I think what's great about this program, a smart thing by the government, um, that's a seven-year investment in
students. So, these are relationships they're building with the various partners, with the internal staff. They're feeling like they're adults who care about them. And there's lots of evidence that caring adults make a huge impact on children. Yeah. The thing the work that you're doing with these kids,
just being there to talk to them over the lunch hour when you know lots of times even if their parents were saying it to them, you know how parents are, we might not be listening to them, but we might listen to you. And I think there's there you can't put a dollar value on that kind of work. Um, and on the 21st
century scholar piece, I think one of your partners, I think, is the Community Foundation of St. Joseph County and they come in. I just want to make the the shout out for them that they're doing great job with those workshops they come in and do to help the kids get through their steps and um I'm one one of their committees where they show the the data
points comparing all the area high schools and which steps freshman, sophomores, juniors, seniors have completed and Southpin schools continues to grow and shine. And I think a lot of that has to do with the Gear Up team and how you partner with others including the community foundation. So thank you so much for all the work that you're doing. Appreciate it.
>> Appreciate it. >> Thank you. I actually wanted to mention about the different workshops that we've done for the 21st century scholars. So, there have literally been days set aside to walk those students through that process and we also have them go through their FAA. Uh, one of our sites in
particular, we had a senior that's not necessarily in our cohort, but anyone is able to participate. She literally went through the entire process, did her FAA application and her college application all in the same day. So, those are the things that we work on. >> Yeah. >> Thank you.
I've got one more thing to say. I appreciate the fact that you are working with the children on the 21st century scholar in the FAA because I've had four students. A couple of them work at Walmart and a couple of them work at uh Martins and those students what shocked
me was they didn't know anything about the 21st century scholar. So we have to reach make sure that we're reaching we're getting that that information out there to students period. if you have to make an announcement on the on the loudspeaker that we have 21st century scholars so they can fill that out just
to make sure students are being serviced. But I understand that that uh IU put on this put on a program as well when the 21st century scholars came in and took the students through the ninth grade, the 10th grade, 11th or 12th grade things that they have to fill out
each year to get their scholarship. Just make sure that students are aware of it. That's all I'm asking. I appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you. Can you help us understand a little bit about the funding structure? So, Gear Up is a is a federally funded program and
what are the expectations of the the the Fed in providing a grant like this? Yeah, it's it is a federal funded program and there are levels of service that much of like the one slide that we had up there that
>> I won't go over it all, but just pull it up for you so you can visually see it. >> So our levels of service include all of these. So the expectation from the gear up federal funding is that each location
will um assess what is needed. When we went after the grant, we had to say, well, these are the levels of service we're going to provide that are common to all gearups. But then we went another level. And that other level for us was we said we're not just going to focus on
a smaller group of kids. We are going to focus on >> an entire cohort of 20 at that time 2200 kids and find ways to reach and give opportunities to every every student. So that's that's the idea is that federal funding is supposed to infuse a
community to develop over seven years young leaders who then access um further opportunity postsecary readiness opportunities especially four-year type opportunities and then they are now the community leaders that emerge after
that. So I don't know if that helps but >> yeah and and related to that then since you're preparing to do this process again >> what are some of the metrics that the the federal government has in assessing whether gear up has been a success or
not? >> Yeah the big shift the big shift over the last three four years since we've been a gear up has been shifting from um that uni focus on four-year college mainly that these undergraduate
potential kids also have a full range of options. We have been the one gear up nationally and I've spoken I don't know how many places you've spoken about that shift that's happening to give workforce opportunities. >> We have led the way nationally in that
conversation. our first year that five four years ago, four and a half years ago, people would look at us and not laugh, but be like, "Come on, this is a four-year college program." Now, they're not laughing anymore at us because it is
the trend of where the entire um federal workforce is heading. So, the ed department is now in the labor department. gear funding, trio funding is now in the labor department. So, we've led the way
in saying we're we're going to meet what the feds want, which is a full range of workforce opportunities. >> And given >> May I ask a question? When is this presentation going to end?
People are we need to vote soon. >> An easy question. I understand. I'm I'm I'm I'm ready to get on a plane and see my daughter for 40th birthday. So, it's good. Thank you. >> Well, the reason why I ask is because I
think the question is, how do you assess a program like this? And I would imagine that your evaluators in looking at a field trip even to the Bulls game would have raised some flags >> and as and wondered what contribution
this was making to the kids uh education when uh it's really not a zero- sum game in what you're describing, right? >> It's not as if the funding for that program could have gone for something else. >> It's really your discretion. And and I
wonder about that whether the evaluators are as vigilant as they should be in calling attention to the kinds of field trips we're offering, the kinds of support systems. Uh are there would you like to just briefly very briefly talk
about our relationship with edges shift Carol and the APR since you just finished the APR? >> Okay. Thank you. Um so gear up has very clear metrics that we are tracking and one of the external
evaluator that we are working with is Edoshift. We compile the data. We write an overview of what we've accomplished and then she uses that information to build
the entire annual performance report. Yes, we have the metrics that we are tracking and one of them is do students know the options that are out there? Do they know the requirements that they need to, you know, accomplish before they get in whichever pathway?
But of course, do they understand that we have resources out there to support their success? So those are the specifics that we track. >> Do we adjust as we go? >> We adjust as we go. >> Okay. >> Yeah. Thank you. >> Okay. Well, thank you very much. Uh,
I'll join with others in saying, you know, I appreciate learning more about the program and, um, it sounds like you're doing really excellent work. I think especially the coaches who are in the schools working closely with the students that probably makes all the
difference in the world. So, thank you. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. Appreciate it, everyone. Board President, can I ask if you would just go out of order for just today? Mr. Snider is not feeling well. Can we do action items first and then go back to
the consent items because I have questions on the consent agenda? I'm just asking, do we have to >> You can You can do that. Like all of the action items or just a certain one?
start with all of the action items. Uh can we just go out of order do the action items and then come back to the consent ag consent agenda >> up to the chair. >> Consent agenda is in >> Can we go out of order and do the 9001
all the way to 9.10 10 and then come back to the um consent agenda because that's what I'm asking. >> Sure. >> I appreciate it. Mr. Snik is feel isn't feeling well. So I don't want to hold
him up by me asking questions. >> So we will do that and uh then we'll move uh to action item 9.01. the approval of change order.
Uh, it is recommended that the board, it's very nice of you to suggest this much. >> I appreciate it. >> It is recommended that the board of school trustees approve the change order to the 2026 districtwide mega capital
project. Adams High School emergency gym re- roof contracted with Midland Engineering in the amount of $674,000. Do we have a motion and a second to approve? Motion. Thank you, Miss Mr. Costello.
>> Second. >> Thank you, Miss Lee. Uh I thought Mr. D might be here. Welcome. It's been a while. Um, basically the membrane on the roof has delaminated and it's come loose of
this uh roof structure and at this point we have it uh cement block down to hold the membrane down. So it's sort of an emergency. We can get by for a little while with it block with the cement blocks on it, but it should be addressed
fairly quickly. >> So we agree this is probably necessary. Oh, definitely. If we Yeah, it's on the main gym, so we're worried about the uh gym floor underneath as well. >> Okay. >> Thank you, Miss Hernandez.
>> Mr. Ellison, >> he's walking. He's right behind you. >> Hi, >> Mr. Gustello. >> Hi, >> Dr. McCulla. >> Hi, >> Mr. Snicki. >> Hi, >> Miss Lee. Hi, >> Mr. Lea. Hi,
>> Dr. Green. >> I motion passes unanimously 7 to zero. Thank you, Mr. Hernandez. 9.02. It is recommended that the board of school trustees approve the change order uh to
existing train US incorporated contract for this is all in code VFD replacements at Riley High School and Jefferson Intermediate in the amount of $155,59. Can you help us understand what's going?
>> Yeah. Um motion the VFD drive. >> I make a mo motion. >> We have to make a motion. Okay. My apologies. >> Motion. >> Motion to approve. >> Mr. >> Just you're gonna >> Okay. All right. We have two. We have
um Mr. Ellison as well. So now please I'm sorry. >> The VFD drives are a component of the HVAC system at Riley and they are about 20 25 years old. So they basically just ran out of life and these control the
motor speeds, the RPMs of the motors which uh right now we're running at 100%. So when we turn them on they run 100%. We want to be able to ramp them up to save energy and save also the life of the motors. So it's part of a energy savings project as well.
Okay, sounds good. Anybody? Mr. Hernandez. >> Mr. Ellison, >> I. >> Mr. Costello, >> I. >> Dr. McCulla, >> I. >> Mr. Senki, >> I. >> Miss Lee, >> I >> Mr. Lea. >> Hi, >> Dr. Green.
>> I motion carries unanimously 7 to zero. >> Thank you. >> Appreciate it, gentlemen. >> It is recommended 9.03. It is recommended that the board of school trustees approve the level data services renewal agreement. And Mr.
Munger is here. Do we have a motion and a second to approve? >> So moved. >> Thank you, Miss Lee. Do we have a second? >> Thank you, Mr. >> Ellison. >> Ellison,
>> I don't know what happened just now. >> Mr. else and you're on the board. Yeah. >> Uh Mr. Mer, welcome. >> Hi. Um yeah, so Level Data handles um four
different data connector profiles for our district. Um we've used them for over 10 years. Mhm. >> Um they handled the connection between Power School and Active Directory
uh for provisioning, excuse me, student email accounts and distribution lists. uh the connection between RDS and Active Directory for staff, email accounts and distribution lists and um the
integration between P school and Versatrans for student transportation software. >> Okay, it's very clear I think. >> Mr. Hernandez, >> Mr. Ellison, >> I >> Mr. Castello >> I
>> Dr. McCulla >> I Mr. Mr. Snediki. >> Hi, >> Miss Lee. >> I Mr. Le, >> Dr. Green, >> I. Motion carries unanimously. 70. We're on to 9.04.
Thank you, Mr. Mer. I appreciate it. It is recommended that the board of school trustees approve the inaugural special education parent advisory council uh CPAC by laws and charter and welcome Dr.
Scott Brileley. >> Good evening. Um the department of ex exceptional learners would like to create a CPAC which is something that's regulated by insource but also um uh accept accepted by the state. Most
states already have this going on and Indiana will probably be mandating it in a short period of time. So we want to get ahead of the packs have a CPAC organization that we can collaborate with and work with our parents within the school district.
>> Thank you. >> Yes, sure. >> So will you be the liaison to the the group? Like who is the staff person who runs? >> Sure. Our staff liaison will be the assistant director, Mr. Joel Boehner. Um he's connected in more ways than one.
Yep. >> And so it kind of makes him the perfect person to be the liaison and as a matter of fact um school leaders any school leader and I plan to just be a part of the program but he will be taking the lead on this. >> Thank you.
>> Thank you very much especially for initiating it. Uh Mr. Hernandez >> did we have a motion and second? >> Damn. Can I get a motion and second? >> Motion to approve. >> Second. Thank you. >> All right. >> Mr. Ellison,
>> I. >> Mr. Costello, >> I. >> Dr. McCulla, >> I. >> Mr. Snicki, >> I. >> Miss Lee, >> I. >> Mr. Lea. >> Hi, >> Dr. Green. >> I Motion carries unanimously. 70. I was so excited to see Miss Dr.
Bradley. >> Uh, so 9.05, 05. It is recommended that the board of school trustees approve the 9th through 12th ELA textbook adoption in the amount of, if I've got this right, $700,000.
>> Little under that at a bargain. >> I'll make a motion. >> Do we have a motion and a second? Mrs. Lee, >> motion. >> Thank you, Mr. Castello. >> Second. >> Mrs. Miss Lee and Castello. Yeah.
>> Now we have >> three >> three. >> Welcome team. >> Good afternoon Dr. Green, school board members, audience both present and virtual. We are going to abbreviate our presentation tonight and
just scale it down to um the the hot topics or the hot points so that we can ensure that uh we're sharing the compliance measures of what um the team went through as well as the costs. So I
am now going to turn the mic over to Miss Regina. Just really briefly um how we came to this decision is we asked um all ELA certified teachers to be on the committee. We have two members, three
actually with lit literacy specialist Amy here and they're going to talk about why Savas and why we came to this decision. >> So sorry. So one of the reasons we uh kind of came together to talk about getting a new curriculum is the one that
we had was extremely outdated. Um, and we wanted to make sure everything that we did was student centered. Uh, one of the things that a lot of us English teachers say, we don't want to just teach the old dead white guys. Um, and so we want to make sure that who we read and what we read represents our students because there's nothing worse than our
kids not being able to be represented. And so as we looked at our my perspectives, we felt that there was real world value in their text. Um, but also being able to have our students be able to see themselves in that text. Um, and we also know that this is going to
support all of our learners as it has a different levels um to meet students where they are currently, but not only that, but to raise them up to get them on grade level and past grade level. So, so with the teacher editions of the or
the textbook itself and all the programs that it presents here, um we found that the textbook itself provided a lot of services both for both the teacher and for the students. um had a lot of resources here for sort of planning and timing for many of his reads which
allowed which I thought was very important for the the the management and the time management of this of the the teachers um particularly who are pre sorry planning the unit we're kind here uh frequenting questions and and um
practice by depth of knowledge. So, as the we start the units, we start the reading, we start off with more or simple questions, we go deeper and deeper as time goes on. Um, there's plenty of scaffolds in the book for students um as well as formative assessment opportunities for teachers to
um take advantage of and help those students uh gain a better understanding. Um, and it seems to be very flexible um novel choices that they also provide as well based on the unit or content being taught. Um and additionally there's a
lot of uh digital material there that is very flexible for both teachers and students once again which again I liked. Um a lot of extra readings online for those who need that extra material as well as um sort of custommade uh assignments you guys that you can make pretty quickly by using uh standards
that they actually provided from each state. We can use Indiana standards to create an assignment for things that need to be reviewed so on so forth. Um, and there's even like a writing program within the digital service that is um, very flexible in how it is run. So, it
can help students through the writing process. Um, whether we help it or um, it creates that sort of routine for them. It's kind of AI um, reinforced, but it's not like generative AI. It is something that um, is looking at their
writing, looking at their expression or the written expression and trying to assist as needed. Um, and it also has rubrics that are both pre-made and can be very easily customized between them. >> So, the committee um looked at five
vendors, all approved by the IDOE, and based on the committee, they took the top two choices and we actually went on the road and spoke to every single English teacher um at the high schools and it was unanimous and they chose Savis. So, Mr. Kroger, if you want to go
to the budget slide. So with this six-year adoption, um it includes digital licenses, hardback class sets, teacher materials, professional development, and what they loved, novels for the students. Okay. And we were
really excited. Um I would like to introduce Carol Anderson. She's our rep for Sav and she's going to be with us for six years. So we're really excited to to work with her. Any questions? there are funds to subsidize more uh
novels and the like. I mean the concern is that students at this level need to be reading full texts. >> Yes. So Savis provides novels and we're also using funds from the call grant um to buy other novels as well. So students
can have multiple novels um per year. >> Okay, that sounds good. Nice to have two award-winning teachers on the committee. >> Yes, >> a newly mented teacher of the year, >> Mr. Castella.
>> I know this is very important uh to our teachers and students. Uh, so I will continue to support it, but I find it really terribly
when gifts are given to board members to support uh this company. I guess they came from the company. Uh, I will not accept it and it will stay right here.
Are there other question uh or concern questions or concerns? So we can roll the question. Mr. Hernandez >> Mr. Ellison >> I >> Mr. Castello >> I >> Dr. McCulla >> I >> Mr. Snediki >> I
>> Miss Lee >> I >> Mr. Lea >> I approve >> Dr. hearing >> I motion carries 70 to zero. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> And all the teachers who weigh in on this
uh 9.06 uh >> it is recommended that the board of school trustees approve the revised job descriptions and title change from energy savings manager to district
efficiency and automation manager. Someone's going to have to unpack that one. And direct and um eliminate the director of evaluation, research, and testing and adding director of data and reporting. Eliminate data content
manager and adding research specialist. >> What? >> I make a motion. >> We have a motion and a second. >> Second. >> Thank you, colleagues. >> Got you. >> Uh thank you, Mr. president uh for
sharing the uh opportunity uh with me. Uh I will only talk about the uh revision of the energy savings manager job description and the rest is Dr. Bo Yan's. Uh so we have had a job description already approved and
budgeted by the board for the energy savings manager. Uh however, please note that the energy savings manager role we could not fill with any employees. uh that is vacant but budgeted and the role was basically an analysis and desk job.
It was not supposed to be a job who would control the temperature in our schools. We have people uh already here in our facilities management for the role. However, simple calculations show that we have approximately $7 million in utilities for the district and even if
an excellent candidate is hired, even if the person uh saves 5% of utility in a single year, which is unrealistic, but that will yield us approximately $350,000 in annual savings minus the
salary and benefit of such a high ranking official. I mean we will possibly save 150,000 or $200,000 at most, right? Uh so I do not think I mean that is something we should put so much effort into and that is why Mr. Reed and
I we had an idea to expand uh the scope of this job to something more broader because this is the age of AI. We do have a lot of schools and departments. We do have many processes often those are not documented. There are process automation scope. So this person will be
responsible to document all processes, analyze all processes and find overlaps uh problems and then find automation scopes and then we'll also write codes or you know like uh implement automation opportunities and then implement and
train our employees and into our systems. So basically Paul is correct. I'm looking for a rocket scientist here. But I uh do uh request the board to at least approve this so that we can advertise the job and see if we can find
a valid candidate because if we can this will be an excellent opportunity to save millions of dollars and also in future possible administrative job consolidations because uh I mean process audit will also incorporate job description audit
right so mit can add to that if I have missed something. Okay. So, I'll give you an example. We had two people full-time as we receive invoices. Their full-time job was to
basically take those invoices and type them in a spreadsheet and you get between two to 300 a day. So, that took their whole time. One of them left us, I believe. Yes. >> And so, the other person
uh now has the burden of doing this. But as Anav said in the age of AI, so what we do is you put all of the invoices on top of each other, you scan them and you ask Gemini to
uh put the invoice number in one column, the quantity in another, the amount in the third column, and the person simply checks for errors. So the job of two people
was reduced to one person who does basically the oversight and just simply checking for accuracy. So this new position will be that plus going around buildings looking for ways
to incorporate technology or non-technology to look at systems processes. How can we operate more efficiently? How can we evolve? So that's what we're
looking not for a rocket scientist >> including the energy savings portion of it. So yeah for the whole district it is basically the southband vers version of doge it will be DM department sorry district efficiency yeah
>> it will be those department of school efficiency yes >> but it will not be a department it will be a single person district efficiency and automation manager but uh uh the do uh abbreviation is good to hear >> you want to ask something
>> quick question I just want to clarify actually because you got it's a lot going on here. So, >> are are we saying that >> these jobs are going to be bidded posted so people can bid on them or are we saying that there's people already in
these positions that we're just title changing or what are we saying? >> Two two of these positions there are people in them. We're simply expanding and expounding upon their job description. >> Okay. So So >> So two of them are in there. the one
that is that has nobody that will be posted will be the the dose position. >> Okay. So I'm not understanding why this was not under uh certified staff or new hires or why
this was not under non-certified staff and what is the salaries connected to these positions is what I are this are these salary changes or what are we looking at? No only the job description is changing for those two with people in them. The third one which is the u the
revised description and title change from energy savings manager to district efficiency and automation manager. That's the only one that will be posted once approved by the board and interviews will happen after that.
U as these are all job description updates that is why uh this is under uh action item and not in the higher uh list there. >> Okay. >> Sorry Mr. Cassello I've already had this discussion with
Mr. Eve and Mr. me about this. Um, I still am not in favor of it and I think they're overlooking the need for energy savings manager.
um not only from the standpoint of hopefully the money that you can return to that position, but more importantly,
you lose the identity of the person you turn to when you have an issue in a building with heating or cooling. And with that,
you're guessing who to call. Uh, I've been in these buildings for many years. It doesn't sound that grave, but I want to tell you something. When you're hot,
it's miserable. And when you're cold, you're even more miserable. and you need a person to come in, check it out, and to see what is going on. Under this is a flip of the coin and
generally calls downtown telling you that something's wrong and it doesn't get fixed right away and it needs to be spontaneous. So that is the reason why uh in most cases I'm a firm believer in trying to
save money. This one is a little different because again I don't think you take into consideration how much money you can save uh on a person who's very knowledgeable and that's the person that you want to
hire for something like this in order to get the job done. May I? >> Sure. >> U there is a person for that purpose right now. His name is Nick Herman. uh
when the only time we experience any overheating or underheating or is in the fall and in the spring when we switch systems because you have to drain the pipes and you have to switch from
heating to cooling and there is that those two weeks where things could get very hot or could get very cold. uh we are experiencing that right now but these are the only two weeks that we experience these things
>> besides that any situation in any of the buildings any of the rooms >> what what is the title of the person you're referring to you say you got somebody like that right now what's the title >> I don't know his title exactly but he >> well if see that's the
>> he he's a foreman Mr. Costello he's a foreman and what you just described the need to call someone and ask that complaint about temperature we already have that covered in our facilities management team because we don't have an energy savings manager right now so I
would ask you who do you think is taking care of that right now I mean if we don't have that person right so we are taking care of that right now I think I mean your understanding about the energy savings manager role is a little different from what we actually planned uh but it is fine but I I can assure
you, you know, I mean, what you just described uh is being taken care of and will continue to be taken care of. >> Yeah, I know that, but it's the timely matter of getting it taken care of, I'm concerned about. And um that's where my
focus is. And again, unless you really have a title to a situation PR-wise, it's going to be a disaster. And um I'm just thinking about the people who
have to work in those buildings. Thank you. >> Can we make Nick the energy savings manager forment? >> Uh well that will just be a title change you know but with the same job responsibilities basically and also all
the schools I mean they have a work order system. I mean even here right I mean if we see that one room has very cold or high temperature I mean we just put a complaint or uh or a ticket in the work order system you know and that gets
escalated into the current structure in the facilities management team uh so we can do that perhaps but I mean I don't think that will be necessary uh because his current role already takes care of everything and his boss is the director of building and grounds so that
encompasses everything there including energy savings already you know but the new role or the previous version of it I mean that was designed to take care of the energy savings from an analytical aspect okay so a director of building
and grounds or a foreman is not does not have the expertise or the knowledge to take care of that function so we are just expanding it through this new role I'm gonna can I just say you had me at modernize the operational infrastructure of SBCSC, which is a direct quote from
one of these job descriptions >> because I I think there are a lot of things operationally that haven't been reorganized and moved into the right places for 2026 or maybe possibly 20 oh 2002. So, I mean, I think there are things we just have to do and I think
these are the things we need for accountability and transparency and all the things that we're working toward. I think this rearranging, of course, I do want an organizational chart so I understand how all these pieces fit together. You know, I'm always going to ask for an orc chart. So, but >> go ahead. >> That's great.
>> Yeah, I can just add I'm actually finishing up the organizational chart. I have all the departments together. So, I anticipate giving that within a week. >> Yeah. That would be great. >> I don't know whether you have any questions for the items I submitted, but
just very briefly, the current director of research, evaluation, and testing is retiring and we want to realign our resources to we're going to still do research and evaluation, but we're going to focus more on building data solutions to help automate things to make things easier
for departments, for teachers, administrators. So that's what this adjustment is about. Overall is cost neutral for the district. >> And if I may add just one remark, uh a dear friend of mine just handed me over the physical plant employees collective
bargaining agreement for 1987 to 1989. So it has all the positions listed that we had at the time for facilities management and energy savings manager was not one of that. I'm just making a remark. >> We did have rocket science.
>> Okay. >> They probably didn't have them back then, right? >> Before they even knew they were rocket science. >> Okay. I think we're ready to call the questions. >> Mr. Ellison, >> I >> Mr. Castello. >> No. >> Dr. McCulla. >> I'm going to say nay. And I'm going to
tell you why I'm saying nay. Because I don't like everything bunched up here. I like to know the the specifics and I like to know the salaries that's attached to this. So my vote is nay. Okay, >> Mr. Snicki, >> I'll say nay. >> Miss Lee, >> I. >> Mr. Lebo,
>> I approve. >> Dr. Green, >> I. >> Mr. Did you vote? >> I said I. >> So four to three. Motion passes. So we're on to 9.07.
It is recommended that the board of school trustees approve the 2627 wage adjustments for non-certified non-unionized hourly employees. >> Mr. Tamid, welcome. >> So moved.
>> So moved. >> Second. >> Second. >> Questions? >> Okay. Uh >> how much you raise? I get to non-union employees. I'm not non-union.
>> Uh you are not an hourly employee, Mr. Snic. Uh >> so is that are you done with negotiations now with everybody? >> Uh no, we are still negotiating with the facilities management employees.
>> What? >> Uh the facilities management employees including the custodians. We actually have our second session scheduled tomorrow starting at 9:30. >> However, All the IIA's done and >> yes >> now can you let them know
now over microphone when they could get their check back check of to the January. Yes, sure. Uh, so the para profofessionals, the office personnel, we already negotiated and the board
approved their agreements. So the next paycheck uh May 5th, we'll have the new rates including Mayth. >> Yes. >> So everybody on on this that done now is going to be May 5th. >> Uh not everyone the I is we just
finished the negotiation like uh this week, right? Yes. This week. So they will have their new rates on the May 20th paycheck. We will need a little bit more time to implement that. >> Yes. But including retropay from January.
>> Okay. It's not going to extend into June. >> It will not. >> No. No. >> All right. But do they get interest on this? >> Money we've been collecting interest on. >> That was their money. So any interest we
collect, they should be able to get it, right? >> Well, It adds up to a lot. >> They're getting the retrop pay. So >> that's awful lot of money. >> Take care all these wages together and what we've been collecting on their interest off their money.
>> Man like to have that. All right. Uh All right. I'm ready to go. >> Well, then we all are. Okay. Uh we'll call the question. >> Mr. Ellison, >> I >> Mr. Castillo. I
>> Dr. McCulla >> I >> Mr. Snediki >> I >> Miss Lee >> I Mr. Lea >> I >> Dr. Green >> I motion carries unanimously seven to zero um
okay the chair will be requesting a motion to postpone action item 9.08 08. >> So, it is recommended uh that the board of school trustees postpone action on item 9.08.
Well, I have a motion and a second. >> So, moved. >> Ze. >> Thank you, Mr. Snake. Uh discussion is there.
>> So we're voting to postpone 9.08. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. >> Mr. Ellison, >> I >> Mr. Costello. >> Hi. >> Dr. McCulla. >> Hi. >> Mr. Snicki. >> Hi. >> Miss Lee.
>> Hi. >> Mr. Lea. >> Hi. >> Dr. Green. I motion carries unanimously to postpone 9.08. So 9.09 we me I mentioned earlier that uh we're
going to wait till next board meeting to talk about the policies in a first reading and >> not necessarily next board meeting. Right. >> No, it's just postponed until >> Oh, you're talking about 9.
9. >> Okay. Yeah. Yeah. This is the policy >> and again we didn't have access to board >> doc >> to put together the presentation. >> Thanks. >> So uh 910 >> and we have with us I'm sorry to
interrupt. But we have with us uh or maybe I should wait until the me >> motion and >> okay >> sorry >> that's good. No, it is recommended that the board of school trustees
uh approve, sorry, the me the memorandism of understanding setting forth an agreement between the South Ben Community School Corporation and Teamsters Local uh 364. Is that the full
>> Okay. Hi, John. Welcome. Would you uh >> do I have a motion in a second? >> Motion to approve. >> Thank you, Mr. Ellison. >> Second. >> Thank you, Mrs. Lee. >> Gentlemen.
>> Yeah, I'll go ahead and give it just an overview. So, there's actually twous in front of you. Uh, one is for the office uh personnelou. It's primarily a compensation alignment. Uh it establishes the minimum starting wage of $20 per hour uh for bargaining unit employees with the minimum starting wage
of $20.50 for main office secretaries. Um and those are effective January 1st, 2026. So the purpose um of this is just to support recruitment and retention while maintaining clear and consistent wage floor for those personnel.
The secondou is the paraprofessionalsou which is focused on classification uh coverage and benefit alignment. So it clarifies that which paraprofessional and instructional aid positions are included within the bargaining unit uh which would include special education
title one bilingual preschool monatory kindergarten and related instructional aids or instructional aid roles. Uh it also expressly excludes pair professional positions offered during the summer uh summer months from the terms of the agreement. Uh for instructional aids, theou replaces the
perfect attendance incentive uh with a modest longevity stipen of $50 per year of service after five years in a part-time uh position. Overall, the paraprofessional standardizes covered roles and align benefits while preserving operational flexibility for
the administration. Oops. >> Are these two John? Is these are these two separate? >> Uh yes, there are two separateus. Uh the board previously approved the office personal agreement. Uh the first is just
an addition to that because we missed one bit. However, the secondou uh the board recently recognized the IA group as a formal union. So we are folding them into the paraprofessional collective bargaining agreement with some added lines specific to this group.
So that's what just Matt described. However, the raises the basic rates will be same $20 minimum plus 20 cent every year of recognized SBCSC experience. >> Thank you.
>> So I was here two weeks ago requested recognition. Uh you guys surprisingly uh granted that recognition the same night. Um we had a meeting the day after we elected a committee. I got some representatives from the committee that sat with me in negotiations. Uh we sat
with the company with the school corporation last Thursday uh for some hours. Uh went as smooth as I expected it to go. Um we are here now tonight uh requesting that you approve theou to
fold them into the paraprofessional contract. We did vote this yesterday >> and it's okay with you. >> Yes, please. >> Well, since you asked so nicely, I'll call the question.
>> Mr. Ellison, >> I >> Mr. Costello. >> I >> Dr. McCulla. I >> Miss Lee I >> Mr. Lea >> I >> Dr. Green >> I motion carries six to zero. Congratulations
>> again. >> Thank thank you for the >> negotiating team which seems to be having a good record this year. >> It usually takes two to three hours. So now we'll go back to the consent agenda
>> and I'll leave that to Mrs. Lee. >> Okay. It is recommended that the board of school trustees approve the consent agenda which includes approval of the April 13th minutes under item 8.01 accepting any attached financial reports and statements under item 8.02 approving
any attached consolidated registers of claims and distributions of payroll for payment under item 8.03. 03 approving personnel decisions listed on any attached reports under item 8.04, adopting any attached resolutions under item 8.05, which are required to be
adopted annually. Accepting any gifts to the corporation and approving any fundraisers described in any attached reports under item 8.06, and approving or ratifying any contracts for $50,000 or more listed under item 8.07. Do we have a motion and a second to
approve the consent agenda? >> Motion to approve, >> Mr. Ellison. Thank you. >> Second. >> Thank you, Mr. Castillo. >> Question. Question. >> Yes. >> Can you pull 8.07 out for a separate vote, please?
>> Or I can just ask the questions. I can just ask the questions if that's okay. Yeah. >> 8.07. Okay. So, 8.07 7 the 50,000 uh contracts for 50,000 or less. Um under
that number five I need I have a question. It says specialized staffing solutions kitchen help and someone tell me what that entails. >> Don't they don't they hire at temps? >> It be they're a staffing agency.
>> Yeah. So, are we hiring a a contracting out our kitchen help? >> What happens is uh when they call off, we don't have anybody like they don't have a substitute system. So, we call the specialized staffing solutions and
they send people in. So, this is paying back for services already rendered. And we're using our own kitchen help, but this is just um in case we don't have enough people there. >> Yes, ma'am. >> So, how how how long is this contract?
>> Uh this is uh paying back for services already rendered, which means they already provided the people and we're simply paying them back, >> paying an invoice. >> The board approved their contract. >> Yes, it had been.
>> Okay. Oh, >> it had been like when uh Chartwells first started. >> Oh, okay. Thank you. Is >> that satisfactory? >> Not particularly, but um because I'm not
quite sure how did we get into a contract with them. We got into a contract with them through Edmond. Uh I'm not sure how how this works. I'm not quite sure how this works because um I don't want to outsource our our We're
not outsourcing, are we? >> We are not. No, this is simply in in case of an absence at a kitchen or something >> like a substitute teacher except a substitute person in the cafeteria. >> So,
so I can I can I can I can live with that as long as I know we're not outsourcing and we're using our own kitchen help. >> We are. Yes, ma'am. And as of July 1, everybody will be folded in. >> All right. Just want to make sure we're not we're not outsourcing. We're not we're not uh
>> you we're not u slighting our own kitchen help. That's important to me. The other question I have is uh number 15, the FiveStar Life. What does that even entail? I don't know what that is. What do they do? >> Okay. FiveStar is a Michigan-based group
that provides services u okay they provide different services for different age groups. So um I'll give you an example uh the state the IDE is paying for 1,000 of our students to go up to
fivear next year and they're starting with the fifth and sixth graders. So they're paying for one semester and we have to match it by paying for the second semester. But that contract will will be coming up once uh once it's
written up. Um FiveStar also provides um like for students our students go up there and they have you know like team building exercises. They have uh
horseback riding. They have the uh rope challenge, >> walking the rope and basically learning to trust your teammates and they also do uh metal forging >> archery.
>> Archery. Yes. So, and now they are expanding in the >> uh services for business leaders and school corporations. But the contract you are approving today is for John Adams high school students.
>> Well, this and it is paid for by Gear >> extended to the other high schools at some point. >> Yes, it is. Right now, Gear Up is paying for uh I believe Jackson Middle School students to go up.
>> Okay. Appreciate it. Thanks. You're good. Can we >> Good. Thank you. >> Okay. Bless you. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. Let's call the question. >> Okay. Mr. Ellison, >> I
>> Mr. Costello, >> I. >> Dr. McCulla, >> I. >> Miss Lee, >> I. >> Mr. Lea. >> I. >> Dr. Green. >> I. Motion carries unanimously six to zero. U. We do not have anything from close
session and I believe we've now come to the point when board members have the opportunity to speak. And just if you're listening uh know that uh the board is not voting on anything at this point. This just for
board uh comments. Uh if you are listening, don't leave yet. Our board next board meeting is on Monday, May 11th. uh at 5:30 here at Brown. >> Uh would anybody like to provide some?
>> Yeah, I will. Okay, Mr. Larry, >> I know we had um Thank you for saw Trina Robinson come and speak, but our board member um even though he's not here, I can't speak for him, but I do apologize for any behavior that any board member
does. And um I hope that board member does apologize. Um >> yeah, thank you for that. And I'll agree to apologize as well and especially I need to review
the situation. Well, if there are no other board comments, u I'll adjourn this meeting and thank you for being here.