Welcome everyone and good evening on this 9th day of March at the SPCSC administration building. The board had a close session at 3:30. Uh I'm now calling this meeting to order. Uh Mr. Hernandez, can you please
call the role? >> Yes. Good afternoon. Mr. Marcus Ellison, >> present. >> Mr. Mar Castello >> here. >> Dr. Jani McCulla. Mr. Bill Snideki >> here. >> Miss Kate Lee >> here. >> Mr. Carlos Lever >> here.
>> Dr. Stuart Green >> here. Thank you, Mr. Hernandez. >> We have a quorum and we can now move to the adoption of the agenda. It is recommended that the board of school trustees adopt the agenda. Do we have a motion and a second to approve? So move.
>> Thank you, M. Thank you. So, we have >> seconded. Uh, the motion has move been moved and seconded. Mr. Hernandez, will you please call the role? >> Mr. Ellison, >> I. >> Mr. Castello, >> I.
>> Mr. Snicki, >> I. >> Miss Lee, >> I. >> Mr. Lea, >> I. >> Dr. Green, >> I. Motion carries. Seven to zero. Six to zero. Sorry. Thank you, Mr. Hernandez. Now, it's time for recognitions and
superintendent announcements. So, it's over to you, Mr. Reed. >> Good evening, Dr. Green, school board members, members of the public. Uh, last Monday, March 2nd, was the read
across America day. Uh I believe the Friday before was the drop which is drop everything and read deer at Marquette school and that was probably the best time ever just reading for the students
at Marquette. Uh next thing is March 1st through the 7th is the school social worker week and I believe we have a proclamation for that. We do.
>> Whereas social workers positively impact the lives of millions of Americans daily in hospitals, schools, child welfare agencies, community centers, and within the federal, state, and local governments nationwide. Whereas for more than a century, social workers have worked to improve human well-being,
advocate for justice, and support everyone's basic needs. In as much as social workers select this profession out of a deep commitment to help uplift, defend, and transform the lives of people, their families, and communities. Whereas the 2026 theme, social workers
uplift, defend, transform, shines a light on the resolute spirit of social workers who transform lives while bringing hope, healing, and justice to the communities they serve, especially in times of profound change and challenges. Because social workers follow a code of
ethics that calls on them to stand for equity in every community, uphold human dignity, and fight injustice. Whereas social workers are on the front lines defending vulnerable populations, including immigrants, LGBTQIA2s
plus individuals, and those facing discrimination or poverty while uplifting vital social safety net programs and ensuring the rights of everyone. Considering social workers assist those navigating trauma, grief, and systemic biases, and help people
recover from natural disasters, public health crises, and other issues while transforming their lives in encouraging ways. In as much as social workers confront oppression and racism, advocate for human rights, and advancing fair policies for all persons by obliterating
barriers that prevent individuals and families from thriving. Whereas social workers care for those who have mental health issues are recovering from substance use disorders and support the well-being of children. Because the profession continues to grow with more
than 810,000 social workers in the United States who transform lives by shaping a more just and compassionate society through leadership, education, advocacy, and direct practice. Now therefore, in recognition of the critical contributions of social workers
across our nation, we proclaim the month of March 2026 as National Social Work Month and call upon everyone to join the National Association of Social Workers and Southbend Schools in celebrating and supporting the vital work of social workers who uplift, defend, and positively transform our communities
each and every day. Attested to this day, March 9th, 2026. >> Thank you. That's all announcements and acknowledgements. >> Should we acknowledge the social workers who are here? >> Yes, we do acknowledge. And uh we have a few with us. Uh
Miss Weinberg, I believe. Would you like to say something? >> No. >> All right. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. Miss Weinberg, before you leave, I just
want to say that I worked with Miss Weinberg at Wilson Elementary quite a few years ago, but an awesome awesome social worker. Thank you for everything that you do for our South Bend School Corporation students. Thank
you for your service. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Thank you for saying so. So, we'll now have a hearing of visitors on action items and 9.01 through 9.16.
Mrs. Lee, has anyone signed up to speak? >> They have. So, I will read. >> Thank you. >> 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 9.16 must sign
the registration sheet prior to the meeting and state the action agenda item 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
session 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 the board, please give the
item or items to Miss Hernandez after the meeting. So, we will start with 9.01. Paulastis approval of between SPCSC and teen works. Paul's 51680 Orange Road using my first
amendment right. What I say should not be held against me, my family, or my co-workers. So, this is for theou between South School and the Teen Works. It's kind of vague. Um, when I read through theou, it says in item one that it will be for students in and around
South Bend area. I don't know, can anybody define what in and around Southbend area would be and how far out does that go? Then it shows under 4A, it will provide John Adams campus subject to schedule approvals. How much of the school are they allowing the program to
use? Is there a charge for this program? How many children will the program be able to serve? Is there a maximum that will be allowed? And have we ever used this company in the past? And why is the duration in this contract orou I should say kind of a longish one that goes all
the way till January of 2029? Just curious clarifications. >> You can just stay. >> Okay. >> 9.02 approval of the Marathon Health Clinic agreement. Okay. Paul asked 51680 Orange Road using my
first amendment right what I say should not be held against me my family or my co-workers. So for the agreement on Marathon Health Clinic, I was wondering out of 100% of our employees, what percentage are using that free health clinic? And so since we just switched our insurance because of the cost, is it
cost effective to not only pay for the employee insurance, but to also pay for what was stated a free clinic at its start in the amount of about 5,291,000 in that four-year span? I don't I don't mean to rain on anybody's parade, but just wondering about the financial
responsibilities. That's all. >> Do I stay again? >> You do stay. 9.03 approval of the FMLA service contract. >> Okay. Allis 51680 Orange Road. Use my first amendment right. What I say should not be held against me, my family, or my
co-workers. In regards to the EFMLA, from what I gather, this will track FMLA leave. Don't we already have someone that track takes care of this internally right now? And are we downsizing our own HR and getting rid of some employees?
And are we going to this model which will cost around $96,000 a year for basic or 114 to 132,000 for expanded coverage? >> Do I stay again? >> You do. >> Okay. >> We're going to skip 9.04 though and go
to 9.05. Approval of the seller proposal. >> Okay. All right. Pauling as 51680 Orange Road using my first amendment right. What I say should not be held against me, my family, or my co-workers. This is on the 9 uh the action item 9.03 and 9.05. They
look to be almost the same thing. In the uh PDF, the presentations were both almost identical. It looked like the only difference was in 9.03 103 they were offering a call center support and the 1094 1095 federal forms which I
might add that were done already this year by our own employees. So I'm not really sure maybe there can be clarification on that too. Okay. >> Okay. Okay. And now we're skipping the 9.15 sucasm.
Good evening. Uh S Kasum for 22 Kennedy Drive. Uh this particular item is about Mr. Tedd and I want to say that I am so impressed with what he's done as CFO. Just incredible. Um, we've gone from an
absolute mess to uh incredible organization and transparency. Um, I think he's done a wonderful job. Um, he's taken us from uh zero level transparency to a level three
transparency, which is phenomenal in this short a period of time. And I know if his contracts extended, he could probably get us to level six transparency. which not a silver level, not a gold level, but a platinum level of
transparency that would be uh a shining example for rest of the schools in the country. Um for those of you that don't know, he was sumoki for his MBA at Notre Dame. And so I'm quite sure that he's very capable of
taking us to the next level. and I strongly recommend that we keep him for all the good work he's currently doing. Thank you so much. >> Thank you, Sue Ecman. >> Sue Ecman, uh, Westside resident. I
pretty much would ditto everything that Sue said as well. I truly recommend that, uh, an F's contract be extended. Um, I think the progress that he and his team have made over just this last short
period of time is remarkable. I come from an accounting background and when I listen to anything that he or their group present, it is truly just right on key with what accounting practices should be. He's brought back what I felt was a
disastrous situation that we had prior and the remarkable uh just in general bringing it back and and and finding monies that we can use for good instead
of maybe wasting. But I would strongly recommend that he be kept on. Thank you. >> Thank you. That's everybody. >> Well, as you know, we also invite comments on other items. Uh, Mrs. Lee,
can you 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, please. I'm not sure what they're 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. Let me be clear in saying that 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 again, S. Ken 422 Kennedy Drive. Um, as I consider the literacy challenges we face, I've been thinking
about how I first learned how to read. Some of you may remember the colorful plastic magnetic letters and numbers. Um, I had a set of those and my mom would place them on a white metal board or the refrigerator and uh, she would scramble them and I
had to put them back in alphabetical order and numerical order. Then I had to group them by color. After that, she began arranging simple words and showed me those that were also in the books.
Simple, lowcost, effective. Later, I used flashcards. Again, simple and effective. I was three years old when my mother started teaching me these tools. By the time I was five, I was reading at a third grade level. My point is that we
need to start very early with simple lowcost activities parents can do at home. We could even incentivize participation. For example, parents could receive a gift card when they bring their child in for independent testing showing the
child knows their letters, numbers, and colors. When I was the statewide director for Kaplan Educational Centers, I helped people rapidly learn English. A core component of that program was helping students learn the 10,00 most
common used words in everyday language. What if we applied that same idea to children? A clear progression, letters, numbers, colors, most common words they need to know. Simple, structured, and
effective. Optimization does not have to be complicated. There's a new AI supported school model called Alpha that accelerates learning by tracking focus, identifying knowledge gaps, and adapting
to each child's learning style. At Kaplan, we also evaluated learning styles, visual, auditory, and emotional, and then taught using the approach that worked best for each person. In most cases, we could identify this within
five minutes. I would like to see us focus on optimizing learning and that does not require huge committees or complicated studies. Sometimes the best solutions are >> simple and practical.
>> I've sent a sample to your emails and I hope that you will take a few minutes to review it and consider the possibilities. Thank you. >> Thank you. Jesus Pedraza, principal of Edison K8, home of the Marita Roles dual language
immersion program. Today I want to speak on behalf of our CFO Anaf Takmeid and his team and his team for the awesome work they've done. I mean, he saved the corporation millions upon millions of dollars. And I
want to ask the board, Mr. Eid, to approve his contract. And I was also thinking maybe we can give him a stipen. For every million that he saves, he gets x amount of dollars. Just just a thought. Just a thought.
But I also want to say that um this school board, Mr. Eid, our CFO, who doesn't mind coming up here and sitting down on that chair right there to answer whatever question the
community might have. That is true transparency. Anav, thank you for what you do to serve our community. And I also want to say for any other organization or entity or anyone else, I
mean Senator, may anyone who wants to come and say, "Hey, we want to tell a Southbend schools how to run things to to appreciate that the way that that things are set up is for this
school board with Mr. Eid and our team to allow our community because we vote for each and every one of these members up here to represent us. Allow this board and Mr. Eid to
decide what is best for South Penn schools because anybody that is trying to do anything to take from South Penn schools, you're doing a disservice to our
community. So please extend his contract and let possibly there might be a possibility of a a stipen for for each million x amount of dollars. So thank you
and thank you and your team. Thank you everybody. following 51680 Orange Road. Use my First Amendment right. What I say should not be held against me, my family, or co-workers. So, with the most recent court ruling concerning Clay High School, some in the
community may wonder why we endured the whole battle to come back to keeping Clay. Thus far with all the disruptions to all the students, families, staff and community, some people might say and some people have said to me and other people uh that some people on the school
board should offer an apology to many of these students, family, staff, and community that it's so negatively impacted to go through all this. So now if we get to truly keep clay, now is the time we can create a regional CTE there and that would hopefully maybe wow the
community. I know it's been said we have $8.5 million to use, but I have do have a couple questions. First, how much and where is the money that Clay High School had designated for its renovation years ago?
Um, then you also have uh the money that was set aside for the building disposition and demolition of certain buildings. Well, Marquette was sold. We're not tearing that down. So, we save money there. Um, I don't know. Egleston
sounds like maybe something's going on there. I'm not sure. So, if that doesn't happen, then we've got about $2 to $3 million, which uh some of that may be used for the CTE since it is on the operations side of the budget. Uh I presented a CTE layout at a previous
board meeting and I don't have any dollar amounts like I said before, but I would be willing to discuss it further. And it has been said that by Dr. Green, we have a lobbyist in Indie. Who is who is this person? Who chose this person?
and how much are we paying this person? And with all the new Senate bills hitting the floor, we should keep very watchful eye on this. Some bills are being presented with very little concern to Southbend schools, but there is some concern. And then eventually all those
little concerns, if you rope them all together, now becomes a big concern and it hurts us badly. So we need to watch that, too. June Pritchard, 5800 Summit Hill Court. So I'm confused. Out in the north townships, you now have kids traveling
great distances just to attend school. Meanwhile, their parents are all stressing out about when AI will take their jobs. Yes, I believe about 20 to 30% of workers will need job retraining. The business community knows what jobs are needed in the future and which will
go. Do you? Careers Academy as businessmen on their board sees this, knows this, and I believe wants to work with everybody in town and you to try to meet the needs of our community,
but you will not work with them. You think hurting families that pay the bills is a good idea. Forget future referendums. Meanwhile, you're too busy repeating the past. The previous administration used inner city kids to drive down enrollment at Clay High
School. It looks like the child exploitation continues. Before, at least there was hope that mingling with a serious student population might influence these kids in a positive way. Now that reason is gone.
So why put Cornerstone at Clay? You think busting kids from all over the corporation way up to Clay will be cheap? And how can you possibly afford a 3:1 teacher ratio? What is this cornerstone program? Does it have a proven success rate? Adams is using
five-star life with a great track record. Or is Cornerstone just a contrived jobs program created for family and friends at taxpayers expense? I have questions concerning two of the program components. How will family counseling
happen when parents cannot attend? Play high school is not on a bus line and is far from where these families live. Additionally, students taking responsibility for past bad behaviors will not happen when they can say they were unfairly targeted to fill up the
seats just to keep Careers Academy out, which is the truth. No. Wasn't this program supposed to be at Studebaker? If I were the parents of these targeted kids, I'd be furious that they were setting up the children for failure once
again. For their entire careers, these students have been held to a lower standard of accountability and behavior. Inconsistent discipline makes kids >> so cruel. These families need real help, not exploitation.
Time to get serious and find someone to be in charge who has the right priorities. The north side needs a high school now and the entire community needs to mobilize for the AI layoffs headed our
way. Thank you. Good evening. Tiana Batis Wadell, 330 Kofax Avenue, Southbend, Indiana. Well, this has been a formal issue since 1980, since I was two. The South Bin Tribune reported on
January 26, 2026. A guest column is titled, "Public needs more info about Alternative School. On behalf of Oltha Jones, ed chair of for NAACP and myself, the public still needs more information on the
cornerstone alternative school. What's the purpose and philosophy of the proposed alternative school? How will the district ensure placement decisions do not disproportionately impact black boys and girls, students
with disabilities, low socioeconomic status, and other protected groups? Given the district's history since I was two, will the district publish racial and demographic data on placement? Will this be a real school or a disciplinary
warehouse for black boys and girls? Who will be the teachers and will they be required to hold certification? On another note, reporter Deon in the South Bend Tribune dated on March 5th, 2026 shared the perspective of local
organizations that have studied the racial school discip discipline portion disproportionalities in South Penn and how the proposed committee is a waste of time and resources. It's March. No formal followup on this committee.
Don't worry, we're not going to get a committee either. Whoever is worried that said that we didn't need a committee, we're not going to get a committee. What's the status of the federal consent decree committee? Is it a go or a no? Who's on the committee? What are their credentials in relation
to racial disparities with student discipline in public education? What data sets are you using? Who's in charge of naming these data sets? and what data was used to determine that these factors are relevant. How will the
data be tracked, collected, and analyzed? It only seems fair and just to the public that a transparent strategic plan of action for the federal consent decree committee be shared with the public
prior to any final reports of your findings being shared. And as far as um uh the contract for the CFO, he's just doing his job duties and responsibilities. I just want to remind
the community that it was past board members and current ones that failed us because they didn't fire our last superintendent. Thank you. >> Good evening. Mike McManis, 51940 Lilac Road. I wasn't intending to say anything tonight, but some of the previous
comments compel me to stand up here and let you know again what great improvement this board and the new superintendent and Mr. Mr. >> have have done to turn this school board
around in a year. And I expect with your talent and the efforts that you've made that that will continue. And it is necessary that that continues because we have heard time and time again, including tonight, that there are not
only people coming after this board and after this school system to knock it down in this community as well as the people in Indianapolis. The public school system has been the
backbone of America and American freedoms since this country was founded. And if we're going to continue to move forward and try and reach the goal of equality of all men and women, then we
have to have a strong, strong, well-funded public school system. So all of you in the community that are here tonight, remember that. Tell your neighbors and when it's necessary, let these people
know that you are standing behind them and that we will not have our public school system taken away from us. Thank you. >> Thank you. Does anyone else wish to speak?
Okay, seeing no one else approached the podium. I want to thank everyone for sharing their concerns and we'll now move on to the academic focus. >> And the academic focus this evening is a title funding update. Uh Darice, this is Darice Austin
Phillips and her team. Summer school. Summer school. Got it. Good evening, President Dr. Steuart Green, >> Mr. Eid, and the board. Good evening.
So, we're here to share with you um about all the titles, and we're going to specifically talk about title one, title two, and title four. Even though we encompass a lot more than just those
three, we're going to try to narrow this down and be as quick as possible because dealing with federal grants, it's um it's a lot of laws and a lot of procedures and a and a lot of things that we have to follow so that we'll be
in compliance. I'm going to introduce to you my team. I have Dr. Germaine Smith, um, director of federal funds. Um, we have our budget supervisor, which is David Moses. Um, Jackie Reid, our administrative
assistant, John Copek, which our inventory specialist, Delbert Smith, who is not here tonight. He's our data coach for non-public schools. We have our part-time compliance officer, Miss Pat Pitman. we have our that supports our
director of fiscal grants. Um Emma supports all the grants throughout the district, not just the title one too, but she supports our grants. That's why she's here. Um and we have our consultant um Misy Ba Mazi, Dr. Nathan
Williamson, and Dr. Cindy Hurst. Um I was able to be um trained years ago um under Dr. Williamson. He is a wealth of knowledge and supporting our title grants to make sure that we are in good and regular standard with the state.
Sorry. Okay. So, we're going to talk about title one, then title two, title four, equitable services, and other grants. Go ahead. So, we now have 57
um percent of our students are considered free and reduced free um poverty level. That number seems to be a little low because South Bend anytime you have over 40% of your students in
poverty, the whole district receives um free lunch. However, um the complication with that is that we did not consider our reduced students and so therefore our funding is now low
because of that. um we only calculated our free students. So our free students is considered just 57.7% in poverty. We have a a higher number um
and that we will be calculating recalculating that to ensure we include our reduced students in the coming year with title one. um it supports the goal is to support um students who are
academically low. We also provide title one also provides professional development. It also has to support family engagement. It has to support homelessness foster as well as um
family engagement. As I said before, we have 13 title one student schools in South Bend and we have 13 non-public schools receiving title one services. We
have other schools that are non-public schools that are receiving title two and title four and we will talk about that later. But under title one we has a we have approximately 142 staff members. We also um include our homeless liaison,
our compliance officer, our teacher and learning coach. So this year the numbers for 2526 our budget is 9 million $694,000
is what we have. you can see u um a overriding um budget um allocations. Each one of those are broken down into further details, but you can see um as for the $9 million and this is including funding
that we send to non-public schools. So how we get our funding is from the US department of ed who calculates our total amounts then send it to the state. The state then send the funding to the local education association which we are
the eleas. Here are some of our title one schools. You can see our public schools here and you can see our non-public schools. Next thing is our title two which we focus on the student achieving
achievement also by providing um professional development and including principles teachers. There are three categories in title two. The first one is recruiting um um differentiated pay.
We can talk about that later. Um category two is professional development where we spend a lot of our funding. Um we used to in years past do reduction in class sizes but we no longer are doing reduction in class size.
Here are some of the categories that we offer. Um, again, recruiting. We offer funding for all of our principles and assistant principles, our administrators to be a part of the Indiana Association of School Principles. You can see that
we also provide all types of professional development. We have included in our title two to ensure that our social workers also are given the professional development that they need as well as our counselors.
Here's our title two budget for the um 25 um school year 25 to 27. Um that budget um is a year and a half long and that budget includes 788,000
which is also um some of that funding is given to non-public schools. Title four um grant is covers the three categories well-rounded education um we also have safe at safe and healthy
students where we support social emotional learning PBIS um summer sports camp we were we were able to provide some additional funding for sports um for Mr. leaves a department to ensure some of our
elementary school sports can increase. We were able to do some of that fun funding and also technology is another area where we support our digital integration team. Here's the budget for title 451,885.
Next, we're going to talk about talk about our equitable services to non-public schools. Thank you. As the local educational agency, we have a mandated responsibility to provide
equitable services to eligible students, teachers, and families in non-public schools. There's an expectation from the federal government that we share the title grant funds with the non-pub pubs and include
their wishes within the grant. There are 4,92 eligible students spread out across approximately 21 plus non-public schools. This does not include students who are eligible for a special education
or title three services. And as you can see on the screen, uh we have um funds for our title one basic grant. Uh also title two improvement of instruction, uh title 4, and we have a total grant award
of for our nonpubs 3,39269,000. We are required to ensure that students in non-public schools get what they need and that it's comparable to public schools. The same level of compliance for public schools exists for our
non-public schools. We are also required to ensure compliance with all federal funds um and the fund requirements. To this end, we engage in timely and meaningful consult consultation,
initiating early ongoing consultation with non-public schools officials to plan services typically beginning in the spring and going throughout the course of the school year. We work to verify eligible students to
ensure that non-public students who reside in the district's title one public school attendance areas are identified. We determine equitable shares uh by calculating and providing the equitable shares of federal funds for non-public
schools based on the number of children from lowincome f uh families. We engage in oversight of services, ensuring that services provided to non-public schools are secular, neutral, and non ideological even when using non
uh third party contractors. Um service delivery um deciding in consultation with our non-pub officials how services will be delivered. The level of compliance for public schools is the same as that for our
non-public schools. As a department, we are working to strengthen our communication with our nonpublic schools in order to build trust and support meaningful and ongoing collaboration. Our focus is to maintain effective
partnership that ensures students in non-public schools receive the services and supports they need while also meeting federal compliance requirements. We are working to ensure that our oversight and services are delivered in
a timely and consistent manner and that our consultation process remains collaborative, transparent, and responsive. Our goal is to ensure that all eligible students, regardless of the school that
they attend and their teachers, have e- equitable access to the resources and services supported through federal title funds. Maintaining strong relationships with our nonpublic schools is essential because at the end of the day, they are
not just their students, they are all of our students. at this time. So this process is not a easy process. It's uh takes a lot of work, a lot of steps. So this we're going to talk about each member of our team here. We'll talk
about our cycle and we'll try to go through this quickly. So the first step is a pre-application process and in this pre-application process I have to write this grant up and all grants including special ed title three which is our
bilingual title one part C our migrant digital integration the high ability the McKenna Vento every grant in South Bend has a part to play in this pre-application
to get data from them to make sure ensure that we're all working from one cause and that is to improve the student achievement of our students. So that's the first thing. Once that grant is approved, they will not approve the
title grants or any other grants until the pre-application is approved. So that's the first step. After that, we need to determine all what are our schools. Last time, if you can remember, we hired a someone to help us with to do a comprehensive needs assessment. We
have to do that for all of our schools to make sure that either they are targeted assistant or they are comprehensive schools. That's um something that we must do for each school in the district. Um which is a part of this pre-application.
After that is done, after that is um approved, we can write the title one, the title two, title four, and all the other grants. Um you can start writing them now, but you won't be approved until the pre-application and you
determine what our schools are. So that's the next step. After we write all the grants, then it's time to implement and monitor everything that we said we were going to be doing on the grants that we implement them correctly and we monitor them because we
do have a compliance officer at the IDOE and then we have to turn in our final um reports. One thing that makes this not so easy, we have so many grants that's overlapping each other. We have fun year
23 and funy year 24 and funy year 25 and then we have an amendment on all of them at the same time trying to stay in compliance with all the fiscal responsibilities so we can have at one time six grants
open um to ensure um that our funding is correct and that we're doing what we said that we we said that we wrote in the grant that we would do. So, our next team, we will start with our budget
supervisor, our our masterful David. Um, when I got here, he was um holding down the fort, I must say, um with um doing a lot of these things um that he was doing. So we're very appreciative of him
as he shared how he starts um with his part of the grant. David. All right. So the grant cycle begins in December of January of a particular year when the Census Bureau publishes the small area income and
poverty estimate. That is the primary data source that the Indiana Department of Education uses to determine title one, two, and four allocations to local education agencies. And that information, we can look at what we've gotten in previous years and start to estimate approximately how much
we'll be getting for the coming school year. BA based on that information and based on how much Congress chooses to fund the programs for the coming year. Congress funded the education department for FFY 26 at the end of this January. And then we look at the October 1st
enrollment poverty counts from for our own buildings to the rank and serve determinations for SBCSC's title one program. In March through May, as we consult with the non-public schools about provision of services for the coming year, we collect their own enrollment and poverty information to
see which of their students fall into the attendance area of title one school that would serve the grade span and then use that information to generate the per people allocation that would determine how much of the title one grant is set aside for services to those students. Title two and four uh equable services
allocation is based on total student count uh for Southland's community schools and for the non-public schools and that information is usually available on the state website. So we don't need to get it from the non-public schools for those in June through September depending on when the IDE releases the planning allocations for
the coming year's school grants. We generate the actual allocations for non-public schools and for our own and for the title one program we determine how much is set aside at district level for administration services students based on homelessness services students
in the foster care system. Districtwide other districtwide initiatives and then our own building level allocations and work with principles to develop their plans for the portion of those allocations that will not be needed to govern staff members. And then we work to submit the grant applications to the Indiana Department of Education.
Um, next slide. In September through November, the Indiana Indiana Department of Education reviews grant applications and decides uh whether or not the expenditures meet the reasonable, allocable, and necessary requirements. And we work with
principles to revise their plans if the IDE did find any issues. In February through March, we get the carryover of the unspent funds from the previous year's grants. and we will create a grant amendments budget out that carry over to get it spent down. And for title one, the deadline to amend
the grant uh ends at the end of June. So we usually do another amendment towards the end of the school year for any last uh things that principles want to start up. The grants obligation period ends September 30th and December 15th is the deadline to liquidate those obligations and
submit our final reimbursement requests to the United Department of Education. Title two and four grants, they last for two years instead of one because they don't have carryover provisions. So, but they have the same overall deadlines of September 30th and December 15th. Now, I'd like to pass the microphone to our
invaluable administrative assistant, Jackie Reed. >> Thank you, David. Uh, so I am Jackie. I'm the administrative assistant. My job consists of all the purchasing for titles one, two, four, SIG and Mckin
Vento. uh I process them for both public and non-public schools ensuring accuracy and timely procurement of materials and services. I reach out to our vendors to make sure we are getting the best pricing
uh after material has been received. I do follow up to make sure we get our invoices and process those also in a timely manner. I also have to process the traveling arrangements for different conferences and also make sure people
get their reimbursements in a timely fashion. Next is John. He's our grants inventory specialist and John's been with us for about three years. >> Uh good evening. Hi, my name is John Copc and I am the inventory specialist
for title one. Uh basically my responsibilities are uh once everything is ordered I received the physical inventory. Um I'm located at Clayia and I want to give a shout out to the administration over there because
they're very nice and accommodating to me over there. Um, so then I go through I receive all the title one, title two, title whatever. I receive all of it, the physical inventory. Um, I then go through every piece
and I inventory it and mark it on RDS. Um, I then put the famous Title One label sticker on all the products. Um, I then work try
to coordinate with the schools or the personnel, the title one personnel at these schools and try to coordinate them on a delivery schedule, letting them know when it's coming and so forth. Um then I also maintain my own personal
inventory which consists of physical uh files and I have and some computer uh entry files uh at in at my own personal computer. So uh I pretty much receive everything and try to get it out as fast
as I can. And shout out to the moving crew at the service building. They do a great job. They help me out a lot. And uh shout out to those guys. Good evening everyone. My name is Pat Pitman. I am the part-time title one
compliance officer and my responsibilities mainly deal with uh meeting with uh the title one schools to make sure that they are in compliance with title one requirements uh as requested in the title one crate.
The title one crate is uh an electronic monitoring system uh that we have to upload all of our documents that the state requires. So I review, evaluate, and monitor those files as they are
uploaded from all of the title one uh schools. I manage the title one compliance issues in the district and the schools. I meet with the director of title one and report on title one compliance programming and issues that
might come up. I cons consult and collaborate with the title one uh administrative staff on the resolution of IDOE compliance concerns and the completion of title one reports and then
any other duties uh that are requested of me to do by the title one director. So, our next presenter, oh, I meant to say that our our our nonpub school data coach, Delba Smith, was not
here tonight. She was not able to uh attend. But our next presenter is Emma Dockri, who is the director of fiscal grants. Good evening, President Dr. Steuart Green, um trustees of the school board, Superintendent Eid, and all that are
present present at tonight's meeting. Um my role is responsible for the oversight of the financial side of all grants. Um that includes the stewardship compliance um for any local, state or federal grants, any awards that we receive here
at the district. Um so the fiscal officers which which are more on the program side they're responsible for seeking out the grants. They apply for the grants um as Miss Dice described. They complete the proposals on what uh
the funds are needed for and how the funds are going to be spent. They do all of the activities involving um spending the funds, procurement, um any ordering, also tracking those expenditures, and
then they verify payroll for any staff members that are paid out of the grant. Um I work with fiscal officers regularly and department heads. Uh we work together. um they meet directly with the
awarding entity and once they meet with the awarding entity based on whatever the categories where the funds are approved they determine the allocations. I then work with the fiscal officers and based on the state board of accounts coding identify what those code accounts
are which describe what those expenditures will be and then I'm responsible for putting those account codes in the system in the financial system which separates um them spending and me um with the internal controls of how the funds are spent. Um the next
step is um encumberment um and following the procurement process that is with the fiscal officers but I also track and monitor again to make sure that we're spending within the categories that uh we were approved. I also monitor spending deadlines. Um,
so as David described, there's different periods of where a grant closes and then we have a certain period to uh then make those expenditures after that encumberment date has passed and then I do the final reimbursement and a reconciliation at the end of that. Um,
once a grant has closed and we've done a final reimbursement, then there's a different process for a close of a grant to make sure that it's netted down to zero. if we have any um expenditures that maybe need to be refunded, any of those activities that would be financial
in nature, I would perform. Um within the grant department, any of the grant related documentation that's required to be sent over to the central business office, there's a central repository or a central location of where all of that documentation is kept
and maintained, including everything that goes out for reimbursements. and then I assist with any audit requests. Um that documentation is separate from what the fiscal officers would manage in terms of um the application and any
program um documentation that they would keep. Um, and last but not least, I will introduce our consultants that are here tonight, the Madzi Education Group, who are responsible for assisting the district with overall compliance of state and
federal grant funded programs. And that is Dr. Nathan Williamson and Dr. Cindy Hurst. >> All right. Thank you, Miss Dockery. I uh appreciate the invite, Dr. Green, and members of the board and Superintendent Eid. um and and Miss Austin Phillips and
Dr. Smith for the invite to speak with you all. So, Mazi Education, we are a consultant that specializes in school finance, especially matters of grants management. And so, uh we've greatly enjoyed working with the school district
for uh quite some time now. We started at a one-day training and uh several of the people up here were not yet in their roles and so very glad to see the district um staff up. Uh is one of the largest school districts in Indiana with
the large one of the largest amounts of federal money. Uh if you've ever had the pleasure and I say that a little bit sarcastically of managing federal money, uh they don't just cut a check and say have fun. there's a lot of rules and requirements that go with it. And so
that first day of training that we were with you all, I think Emma was was pretty new if I remember correctly. And then I think David, you know, was not new and really carrying a lot of the program pieces. And so, um, definitely glad to have Miss Austin Phillips and
Dr. Smith on board as well. Uh, you know, the state lets us spend a certain percentage on administrative costs because these programs are not easy to implement. Uh even with staffing up, Southbend is still being pretty uh conservative with its spending on admin,
which I would admire because you're trying to get as much money to the schools as possible so that we can spend more money on teachers and students and staff and families. So that definitely is great to see. Uh one of our tasks here is really just to make sure that
the funds are balanced, that they're managed well. Um we want to prevent any negative balances from occurring. So when a grant is applied for uh we spend that right amount, we receipt that right amount and we can close it out. So that definitely is a goal to prevent any of
those continued negative balance uh that we've had. The next piece I would say is because we work with such a large number of school districts in Indiana and then based upon some of our prior roles, we really have been able to see what the best practices
are in a lot of different places to really give those suggestions to South Bend to become as efficient as possible and also maximize the money for kids. And so we want to try to insert those ideas uh so that the money at the end of
the day is making as big of a difference as possible. So Dr. Hurst, do you want to continue with the next couple points? >> Sure. >> Um as you can imagine, um the purpose of federal programs that we're talking about is really to improve educational opportunities for students. And in order
to make sure that happens, there has to be a really well functioning team in the background behind the scenes doing the work. So when we talk about the bullet of um building internal capacity within the district, that is where we bring new folks on this team together and uh
provide guidance on roles and responsibilities. We support the development and the drafting of grant applications or amendments, reviewing related documentation that may go uh or be submitted to the DOE for review. It's
continually coaching on what best practices exist in federal funding and best ways to expend uh the funds you have available. Providing insight to the team on processes, policies, and practices that especially maximize
efficiency, transparency, and promote communication. We also want to make sure that funding opportunities are maximized throughout the entire planning and budgeting period. And last but not least, one of our final
commitments from Azie is to seek new and additional revenue opportunities through competitive grant funds. Uh between myself and Dr. Williamson, we've earned more than $150 million in competitive grant funding for organizations,
including Indiana schools and districts for new or expanding educational projects. So, we're excited to bring that opportunity here to South Bend. Um, within that scope of work, we're also talking about seeking out those opportunities, helping develop the
proposals and budgets, and then setting up the systems once the grant is awarded. That's it. Like I said, we're excited to be here. We're excited to partner on all of these different um ways to support Southbend.
So, um before we do questions and answers, u we want to say that that is our goal as a team to not only ensure student achievement, but just to ensure that the federal grants are so wellrun
that if this team were to disappear and another team come on board, they would have the policies and procedures in place and not have to go um dig for it or look for it. We want to make sure that we are in good standards with the
Indiana Department of Education, in good standards with our neighbors, the um nonpublic schools. So, that's our goal. That's our that's what we've been doing in the last year. We we're coming along and we should have a binder, a guidance
doc document for how all federal funds um should be ran. Um any questions you might have? Now, are all these people are they new to title one?
>> No. >> Because in the past years, Title One's always been in the hole. And it worries me. It's way above my head what all you were
saying. And uh but almost every year title one is in the negative. Now all these public schools you guys money going to are they going to the public
schools or are they them kids being brought to our schools? >> No, the money is going to public schools. We have 13 public schools and we have 13 nonpublic schools. the students, >> not public schools. Are they teaching
the kids in their schools and and we're giving them title one money? Is that what you're saying? Um, Nathan, what we're saying is that the students that should that would attend a title
one school in South Bend, if they attend a nonpublic school, we have to provide the same amount of funding that we would provide if they were in Southbend schools. So yes, those students that are
in non-public schools that would have attended a South Bend Title One school would receive equal amount of funding. >> Uh may I ask uh our CFO to come up to
the podium for a few minutes? Uh >> hi. Uh, this is way over my head. I'm sure you listen to it all. And I, you know, is each person able to give out
different parts of this grant money? Is every individual there is able to say this is going to this school and this is going to that school? Is that the way it works? uh our accounting system will keep a
track of all the expenditures going out to each of these schools uh by the cost centers. That is the uh function of the accounting there >> because as you know in the past title one always been in the whole uh
now you as CFO would you be able to I think you do a lot of it now is it's I would like as a board member to have one person explain this to me and I
would like that person to be you. And if you have the time and energy, I know your contract's coming up here in a few minutes if you're still here and it hasn't been voted on yet, >> but uh do you have a relationship with
all these people? >> Uh I do. For instance, >> I know a few of them, but I don't know. I know Miss Phillips, but I most of them I don't I don't know. Emma Dockery here, the lady who is on the rightmost corner there, she reports to me. She is one of my directors in the
finance team. Even though Dar as the executive director of grants does not report to me, uh, but she works very closely with me and my team because >> and I'm not just talking about title one or title two, title four.
in the past eight years before this board took uh and it'll come out eventually but uh just about every one of our I'm not saying anything's illegal but it was
misused and just about every one of our huge grants whether it's gear up or whether it's Taiwan or whether was it something else it it's been misused or not used properly or I need someone I could come
to besides Mr. Es. I would like you to be the person and uh if we have to vote on it later we can if you're if you get your contract again I'll have to pick someone else if you don't get your contract.
>> Sure. Sure. Mr. uh Mr. >> Mr. He's have to be the only guy in but I would like to have when you bring something to the board. >> I like what you did trying to explain it
but sometimes it's way over my head. >> You are very welcome to come to my office. >> I will sit down with you and have a one-on-one with you to share with you everything that you're asking. I have that in I have that well documented so that you will be able to understand it.
Yeah, I I will share a little bit context here, Mr. Snakei, to answer your question. Uh if you want here, >> but uh so but I would like and and I'm talking about all big grants to have
yourself and Mr. Eids sign a paper be I know our secretary and president got to sign it, but before we get it and these people that assures you guys
uh that it's legitimate. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> And not I don't trust I trust you know I have no reason not to mistrust you right now. >> Yes. >> Uh but uh in the past I trust a lot of people and and so I don't know who to
trust right now. So uh I think you proved yourself Mr. He's proved himself. But I'd eventually want uh you two giving us let let them give the explanation. I think they did a very good job.
>> Yeah. even though some of it went over my head. But uh um and another thing while you're up at the podium, would you I've been getting a lot a lot of emails and a lot of conversation throughout the whole corporation
that uh you're leaving the corporation. Would you assure >> the corporation >> what your status is? >> No. Uh I think we are on two different things but I I can talk about the grants portion only. Uh you are perfectly
correct. Uh we I actually did a presentation with my team last year uh February on grants. We approximately spent uh $64 million in state and federal grants. We have around like 50 plus different grant funds. Okay. And uh
if you take a look into our previous audit report which is public, you will see that there are seven findings on federal grants only. Okay, I cannot discuss about the findings that will come in this audit. But at least what I
can share is there are internal control issues in grant management that we will definitely have to address. And they're doing a great job there because I mean Darice is perfectly correct. When I took over as the CFO, I only had David Moses there and he was uh holding the force,
okay, with the federal grants and Emma was there and we found out that there were a lot of uh grant reimbursement spending which was serious severely hurting our cash balance and Emma Dockery with the team did a great job there. We had $102 million cash reserve
at the time and in a very short period our cash balance grew by $17 million solely because we were just timely submitting for the reimbursements. Now as the CFO and treasurer of the district I am also held personally
accountable for grant management and definitely I'm in a grant the financial portion should be under the CFO's uh portfolio which currently it is. So, >> well, you're basically in charge of it anyway. >> I mean, everything has to go through you,
>> right? So, >> title, the director of title programs is the director of title programs. >> Yeah. I mean, title grant or there are other grants which are instructional in nature. For instance, we have the special education department. Okay. I
mean, they don't necessarily report to me, but for the financial portion of the grant management, I mean, it should definitely be under the finance team. Otherwise uh it will not make any sense and there is no district in Indiana where grand department is under a different team than finance but
definitely there will be instructional people who will report beyond finance uh department's portfolio. >> It may be if I interrupt uh Mr. Naidki, I think that the title programs are under strict rules.
>> Yeah. >> By the federal government and this isn't money that's fluid. It must be accounted for and it must be used in the ways that the title grants expect them to be used. >> Yes. >> And I think everyone up here knows that
there's really le very little flexibility. In fact, if anything, the recent challenge to the DO uh Department of Education is that those rules have been too strict. But I think the greatest anxiety that I bring to this is that if it goes to the states where they
don't have any rules and haven't worked out the protocols, will title money get to the kids and the teachers in a timely fashion for the the needs that our students have? >> Yes. uh so I think this is where it's
really in the hands of uh Raw and Phillips and the expertise she brings to this that the finance department can't handle alone. So I would say, you know, I I think that if there have been some
issues about how to use title money, that really comes back to the question of how fluid is the money in title, but really it comes back for me, what is the need that we're identifying in title schools? We're identifying kids with
great many needs who living at or below poverty. We're looking at teachers who need some specialized instruction back instructional background. The parent piece is huge. I mean, there are lots of experts here who
are determining how to use these funds. I just want to offer a little perspective on where things might have gone a skew in the past. But the government itself for all its we discuss
its quirks uh it's very strict. This isn't money that just goes away and disappears you know and I think >> we're always in the hole. >> Can you can can you explain this or is title always in the hole?
>> I think uh Mr. Snide is referring to the general situation uh which also concerns some other grants because there has been previous over expenditures in some grant areas and Dr. Green I completely agree whatever you were saying about the specificity regarding the title grants.
uh however I would like to add that there are other federal grants sharing the same compliance structures okay or similar compliance structure and I completely agree that for the federal grants including title and special education other grants there will always
be the instructional component which will be beyond finance which has to be managed and maintained by the instructional department but at the same time there will be financial portion of the grants okay we will have to be in compliance not only with IDOE but more
importantly even so with the state board of account and finance department should manage that portion. So instruction and finance should work hand in hand there and uh it cannot be under one single department there. Okay. There should be specific segregation of duties for
internal control perspective. >> Okay. >> And unless I'm mistaken I think Mrs. Awesome Phillips is agreeing with you. >> Yeah Mr. >> Mr. Dice Austin Phillips is the perfect person for that because she has an a
total understanding of the curriculum and the total understanding of the finance that supports it. So just by her being in that position she can make sure >> she is one of the few I know >> you know that no extra expenditure.
So, >> so just yes or no on second part of my thing. If that passes, >> yes or no, you're here to stay. Let the public know. >> Uh, I think this is the academic focus
presentation and I should really not talk about that. If you have a specific question for me, I mean, we have action item 9.15, then we can talk about that, Mr. >> Okay, we got a two or three year contract, right? >> That's coming up. Who's coming to fight? >> Who's coming to an ext?
>> Oh, we we got you for three years. You signed a contract, right? If we approve it. >> Thank you. >> Uh if if there are no other questions for me, uh I'd like to leave. >> You're you're you're making the people spread all these rumors and
>> I just wanted to clear that up because they're worried about you leaving. >> Okay. Uh we we can talk when the action item comes. >> Thank you, sir. I appreciate it. M Phillips, I know you want to add some clarity. Um, no. I was just saying that one of the things about title and all
the grants, it is to be expended. It is to be used to support our students. Sometimes it's we're not trying to save. We say we're going to spend this amount of money. We have to spend it. So sometimes we don't spend it all. And
that's what we're here, our team, to ensure that we spend. we have to spend 85% of what we say we were going to expend and a lot of times we fall short of that. So we're not in the hole as far as it it affecting the general fund but
is in the hole from the federal level that we did not spend what we said we were going to do so that we can improve student achievement. So I want you to know that um title is not just a budget. I always say it's like a a philosophy.
So if you say what do we need to improve student achievement then the US Department of Education say I'm going to give you additional funding to support that student achievement over and beyond what our general fund can do and they
are expecting us to spend that and we will be monitoring on the education side that our students are improving. We also will be monitoring on the fiscal side that we are expending what we say we're going to do that's in our grant. A lot
of times we do have funding that we have to send back to the state. We are going to ensure that we don't send anything back and sending something back does not affect the general fund. So it doesn't put us in the hole with the general fund but it it it it the question the state
asked why didn't you use this funding? We gave this to you to improve student achievement. We don't want those questions asked of us. We want to ensure that all of our funds are being expended. You want to say something that
you did a wonderful job. No, great job. Well, if that's the end, I want to say thank you to my team, but I have two people especially I want to say thank you to, and that's David Moses and
Jackie Reed because today is their birthday. >> And they decided to not miss their dates tonight >> to come and have a date with us tonight. So, I want to thank them and say happy birthday to them. >> Thank you. >> And thank you, board.
>> Yeah. Thank you all. We're really grateful for everything you're doing for us. >> And with that, >> thank you. >> Go celebrate with your friends. >> So, we're on to the consent agenda. >> Yes. It is recommended that the board of
school trustees approve the consent agenda, which includes approval of the February 23rd minutes under act under item 8.01, 1 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. 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. 06 and approving or ratifying any contracts for $50,000 or less listed under item 8.07 of which there are none. You know, before I call for a motion, I
I just want to make sure that the public, which has been in right and rightfully so vigilant about our expenses in the corporation and the extraordinary stewardship we have in the office of finance, that we review every
single contract under $50,000 at our uh meetings uh weekly meetings. So we are even though we don't share them with you uh at agenda planning with three board members and the administration we go over all those expenses and that's where
much of the questioning occurs. So I there is a level of transparency that you may not be aware of but there is a great deal of transparency uh that goes well beyond past practices. >> I also said of which there are none but there actually are some. So just ignore
that I said that at the end. >> Okay. So, uh, do we have a motion and a second to approve the consent agenda? >> So, move. >> Thank you, Mr. Snideki. >> Second. >> Thank you, Mr. Ellison. Uh,
>> do we have a actually Mr. Hernandez, can you call the the role? >> Mr. Ellison, I >> Mr. Gustillo. I >> Mr. Snakei. Hi, >> Miss Lee. I >> Mr. Lea. I >> Dr. Green
>> I motion carries six to zero. >> Now that we have approved the consent agenda, we will now move on to action items. >> Action item 9.01. It is recommended that the board of school trustees approve theou between SBCSC and Teen Works.
>> And we'll make sure we answer your questions, Paul. Uh, do we have a motion and a second to approve? >> Motion. >> Thank you, Mr. Leva. Do we have a second? >> Second. >> Thank you, Mr. Ellison.
>> Um, >> I can answer any questions. >> Mr. has agreed to answer any questions. >> Okay. >> About the the uhou between SBCSC and the teamworks. Yes, Mr. Castillo. >> Yes. Um
explain to length why uh thisou is about three years uh which is a long period of time and uh you know uh you might want to just uh
identify just exactly what this group means to kids. It's it's an MOU with the Youth Service Bureau and it will work with Adam students. It is zero dollars to the
corporation. The only commitment we have is to have our students uh have the opportunity to sign up for it. So they will do all the transportation to and from work sites hourly wages plus bonus
structure for employee of summer perfect attendance etc. They will work with them on soft skills training all food during program hours clothing and equipment. They will also provide professional development weekly
uh resume and soft skill building towards the end professional mentoring from team works full-time employee college and postsecary success planning HR training and then mock interviews at the end so that when they go into the
workforce they will be prepared. Uh the reason it is for three years is because if you keep on reading it will also say we can pull out of the program any time for no reason. So we could make it for
one year, two years, three years and then if we think we're not our students aren't getting the benefit, we can pull out. >> In other words, if the program isn't working, you can pull out of it. >> Yes, sir. >> Okay. So do you know the metrics that people
are using to measure the success of the program so we can make that judgment? >> We can put in >> the metrics. And I think it'll be helpful to include in that mo all of theus that are presented to the board the questions that the public is asking
you know as well as metrics especially if in the end of the day we're determining whether the program is a success or we say look it's going for a year and a half we're not sure >> and this goes hand inand also with the new diploma for the high schools that
you have to have the three >> well I like the idea behind it and I think it's solid and I and hopefully Hopefully uh there will be other students who feel the same way. So >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Can you please call the role? Mr.
Hernandez. >> Mr. Ellison. >> I. >> Mr. Costello. >> I. >> Mr. Snakei. >> I. >> Miss Lee. >> I. >> Mr. Lea. >> Hi. >> Dr. Green. >> I. Motion carries six to zero. Thank
you, Mr. Hernandez. 9.02. It is recommended that the board of school trustees approve the Marathon Health Clinic agreement. >> Do we have a motion and a second? >> Motion to approve. >> Thank you. Thank you, Marcus.
>> Second, >> Mr. Lever. Seconds. It uh welcome Miss uh Mrs. Johnson and Mr. E. Can we can you tell us a little bit about this? >> Oh, sure. So, we started the clinic um
back in 2013. Um a lot of uh research went behind it. Um it was when we found out that less than 50% of our population at the time actually um went to a primary care visit. Um the 201213 school
year was a catastrophic claims year for us and and about $50 million. So we decided to research and um implemented the clinic um August 2013 and it has been a huge success. Um, as
we went through the team care renewal uh for the insurance this year, there was talk on the table that we would no longer need the marathon clinic, but um we met with all the union groups and everybody was vocal and they wanted to
retain the clinic and luckily uh enough um sharpened his pencil and said yes, we could keep the clinic and it has been a success. Thanks for that overview. That's an important background.
>> And we are trying to increase the use of the clinic. So we are meeting with them on the 19th to talk about uh u incentives to have our employees use the clinic.
uh they do a lot of preventative care and if we stay on top of that then we will not need the other care so it's worth it. >> Okay, sounds good. Can you call the
question? >> Mr. Ellison. >> Hi. >> Mr. Costello. >> Hi. >> Mr. Sniki. >> Miss Lee. Hi. >> Mr. Leva. Hi. >> Dr. Green. >> Hi. Motion carries 5 to zero
>> 9.03. It is recommended that the board of school trustees approve the EFMLA service contract. >> Do we have a motion and a second? >> Motion to approve. >> Thank you, Marcus. >> Second. >> Thank you, Mr. Leva.
This is yours, too. >> Yes. So we have um antiquated system with our AS400. um managing FMLA has always been internal on spreadsheets and in order to
be in compliance um I'm proposing the EFMLA which is a web-based system which if the employee um needs FMLA they will be able to access the link on our website and they'll be able to complete
and uh file for the FMLA although the medical document mentation still needs to go to the doctor for them to certify that they qualify for an FMLA. Um we would be on the end user as approving
the FMLA. It will eliminate a lot of data entry as well as a lot of paperwork that we currently do now. >> Sounds great. >> I know. I'm excited. >> And it it supports compliance, right?
like it. >> Yes. Yes. >> And then from I recall from what you were saying in agenda planning that as people fill out the form they'll automatically get some response as to whether everything is there.
>> Correct. >> And if it's not the person needs to go back and complete it. >> Yes. >> This also makes it so efficient. >> Well, absolutely. >> That was your word. I'm looking at our 2000 2025 and current 2026 and we
probably processed about 300 already. >> Wow. >> So, it's a lot. >> Wow. >> Well, thank you. Mr. Hernandez, can you call the role please? >> Mr. Ellison, >> I. >> Mr. Castello, >> I. >> Mr. Snicki, >> I.
>> Miss Lee, I >> Mr. Lea, I >> Dr. Green, >> I. Motion carries six to zero. >> On to 9.04. It is recommended that the board of school trustees approve the all one renewal.
>> Do we have a motion and a second to approve? >> So move. >> Thank you, Mr. Snakei. We have a second. >> Second. >> Thank you, Mr. Ellison. And you're both here. Well, the EAP program is the employee
assistance program and this is giving our employees a chance to get help with certain things. So, for example, if they have a legal need, they they can get access to an attorney for a consultation
through this program for a half hour or an hour depending. So that's one. Uh for mental health, they can get up to five sessions with a qualified >> u counselor uh all other help. So as far
as the specifics go, I will defer to Katie Johnson. So, uh, the when we actually get a FMLA, we make everybody aware that we do have an employee assistance program. Um, upon new hires, it's part of their onboarding
packet. So, everybody's aware that they have this available to them. So, it's total confidential. So, we don't know who's you utilizing the service, but at least we offer it and we make sure that they know that it's available.
Great. Any questions? Mr. Hernandez. >> Mr. Ellison. >> Hi. >> Mr. Costello. >> Hi. >> Mr. Smeiki. >> Hi. >> Miss Lee. >> I. >> Mr. Lebo. >> I. >> Dr. Green.
>> I. Motion carries 6 to zero. >> 9.05. It is recommended that the board of school trustees approve the seller X proposal. Okay, Celerex is a benefit admin system. Our current benefit admin system is with
Optivise. Optivise notified us that they're discontinuing the service and their last day is will be June the 19th. Uh with the implementation of our new finance HR system, uh been working with
K9 on um trans transitioning over uh to a different benefit admin system. So, we've been talking with Celerix way before um Optivvice told us that they were not going to be in business and um
it's the same compatible uh but it's going to help us more on the team care side of it because we're limited with the information that we have on under the team care. So what we propose is um
going with Celerex and we are going to have employees enroll in that one platform. So they would be able to enroll in medical, dental, vision, life and not have to use two separate systems. Currently the platform team
care for medical and then for dental and vision and life is with our current admin system. It's confusing uh to our employees. So, we'd like to combine it, use one system for the benefit admin system to make it easier for the
employees. >> That sounds great as well. Thank you, Mr. Castillo. Uh on 901 you you stated that uh that did not come out of general but 902 9003
9004 9005 are those all expenditures out of general? >> Yes sir. >> Okay. I thought so. I just wanted to make sure. Okay, Mr. Hernandez, >> can I get a motion in a second? I think
I >> motion to approve. >> Thank you. >> Second. >> All right, I'll second it. >> Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Hernandez. >> Mr. Ellison, >> I >> Mr. Costello. >> I,
>> Mr. Snicki. >> I, >> Miss Lee. >> I, >> Mr. Lea. >> I, >> Dr. Green. >> I. Motion carries six to zero. Mr. Johnson, thank you for all your work. >> Thank you. >> You've really moved things along in HR.
So 9:06. >> It is recommended that the board of school trustees approve the ratification of an emergency purchase for a replacement locksmith vehicle from Jordan Automotive Group for $54,074.
>> Do we have a motion and a second? Motion to approve. >> Thank you, Mr. Ellison. >> Second. >> Thank you, Miss Lee. Mr. Durm. No, it's not. >> May I ask what that for?
>> You can ask the chief. >> No, I'm here. So, uh, on January 28th, uh, our locksmith vehicle, which was driven by a locksmith, was rear ended. uh and that collision caused very s severe damage to the vehicle which
basically deemed it uh totaled. So I asked for a replacement vehicle. Obviously we have seven buildings we need to re key this year. We plan on rekeying and uh currently getting a vehicle that would put all the equipment
back in the vehicle so he could officially do his job um for the purchase of this vehicle. Um, also in the purchase of this vehicle, um, saving $2,500. Uh, these vehicles are hard to find. We found one at the same dealership,
uh, where the rebate was going to end at the end of February. >> Didn't we just buy one not too long ago? >> That was the one that was rear ended. >> That was that was it. So also in the process it was determined
or it was initially determined that the person that ran into him didn't have insurance. Later after further investigation uh person did have insurance but very with uh with low liability um on the insurance. So working with Katie Johnson and HR to
help kind of recoup some of the costs that we are spending on the new vehicle. >> 54,000. I should have air conditioning, right? >> It does have air conditioning, sir. >> All right, good to know. Mr. Hernandez,
>> Mr. Ellison, >> I >> Mr. Costello, >> I. >> Mr. Snicki, >> I. >> Miss Lee, >> I. >> Mr. Lea, >> I. >> Dr. Green, >> I. Motion carries six to zero.
>> 9.07. It is recommended that the board of school trustees approve the three invoices for Information and Records Associates, Inc. >> Do we have a motion and a second? >> Motion to approve. >> Second.
>> Thank you, Mr. Ellison and Mr. Lea. Mr. Munger, welcome. >> Do you have any background you can provide for the three invoices? >> Um, yes. So this was work that was uh
performed by information records last year. Um the first invoice was for um extracting student and staff records from AS400 uh from a program called Doc View.
And the second and third invoices uh are for scanning um student records and indexing. I can anticipate someone asking, "Do we need this?" And I can remember you're saying, "Didn't we scan like how many
thousands?" >> Um, I think it was 900,000 student records. >> 580,000. >> Yeah. 580,000. Sorry. >> So, we might need this. >> And now we're all caught up with scanning, right?
>> Um, well, not quite. Yeah, some some of the schools um uh are still catching up on their scanning. Okay. >> But that's something we don't have to
pay a third party to do. >> Okay. Thank you. And any questions about >> that, Mr. Hernandez? >> Mr. Ellison. I >> Mr. Castello. I >> Mr. Seni.
You waiting for my answer? Yeah. What? Oh, do I agree? >> Yes or no? >> Mr. Sniki. I >> guess I >> Okay, >> Miss Lee. >> I Mr. Lea. >> Hi, >> Dr. Green. >> I motion carries six to zero.
>> Sorry about that. I I was just asking him to ask him to whisper a little bit louder because I couldn't hear what he was saying. >> Okay. >> On to 9.08. It is recommended that the board of school trustees approve the two invoices for incident IQ. >> Do we have a motion and a second to
approve? >> Motion to approve. >> Thank you, Mr. Ellison. Mr. Leva, I appreciate it. >> Uh, I guess this is yours as well, right? Yes, >> M. Mer. >> Yes. Um, one invoice is for the IT help
desk and the other one is for the facilities. they use a similar system that we use. Um so we use it for tracking help desk tickets or AV requests. Um we also use
it for IT asset inventory. Um and people who submit the tickets can track the progress of the ticket >> and so facilities uses it or similar. It's a work order system and they can
they can track maintenance and costs and things like that. >> That sounds great. Any questions? Mr. Hernandez. >> Mr. Ellison. >> Hi, >> Mr. Castello. >> I >> Mr. Sedi.
>> I. >> Miss Lee. >> I Mr. Lea. >> Hi, >> Dr. Green. >> I Motion carries six to zero >> 9.09. It is recommended that the board of school trustees approve ratification of payments to IvyTech Community College
for past due CTE dual enrollment programs in the amount of $159,43.77. >> Do we have a motion and a second? >> Motion to >> Mr. Ellison. Oh, sorry, Mr. Snicky. >> Mr. Finley, Dr. Finley, are you gonna
>> who's who is this belong to? >> So, I'll help. I'll You can do it. You can do it. >> I'll I'll do some context. >> Good evening. Um, so this was one of those uh deals before I walked in the door. Um, this had been an agreement with IvyTech for the automotive program.
Um I guess at the time the instructor was out due to illness and then subsequently resigned. Um and then what we um so the my predecessor or I think one of the administrators um in the higher levels had worked out an
agreement with IvyTech to have the kids go over to IvyTech to do the automotive program. Since then, the decision was made right before we knew the status of Clay uh to continue that program because we couldn't move automotive back and forth into Clay. So that we stayed with
IvyTech. I was not a part of that. I didn't do theou didn't do the agreement. Um, and then I got a bill from IvyTech here about three weeks ago and then I sent it to an's office and and we just realized that the payment or the
invoices had not been getting to our central office. >> So they don't know where IvyTech was sending them. Don't know if they sent them. Uh, but my office verified that the students were actually legitimate students. They were correctly uh build. Uh, why we're getting them now, I can't
answer that. But this is in a rears for 2023. >> Wow. Okay. >> And enough. Did we decide did they did we get bills for 24? >> Uh some >> some. >> Okay. And some of them had been paid and
some of them hadn't been paid. So that's as far as I can answer that. >> Uhhuh. >> My office never processed any of them. >> Okay. We are now. >> Yes. Yep. So I'll give you an idea too. um for those classes those would have
been for the first year students as well as the second year students. >> Okay. >> Um so there are always more um the larger uh portion of it is the first year students. Um I also was not familiar with um because I wasn't a part of those either but there was a CNA
class that was done and agreement for that that's also on that that is not automotive and I can't speak to the CNA class. >> Okay. >> We've paid all our bills now. that I will yeah >> uh based on the board's approval we will
submit for payment for this >> okay I'll ask the board >> oh Mr. Castello, >> a have a question here. Is this one of these items uh that next year will be eliminated because of the program being
implemented out at Clay? >> Yes. We're hoping to hire a full-time uh autoshop instructor. >> Yeah. >> And by doing that, we will stop sending the students to IvyTech. >> That is our goal. Um I think what we'll have to figure out. >> So I want to
>> Oh, go ahead. So, I'm going to >> vote in favor of paying this bill, but I want the people out there to realize >> that uh we are going to start using Clay High School more in the future for for our
special programs and CTE. So, thank you. Yeah, and I do want to reiterate that was the rationale for the prior decision to continue with the program was the status of Clay was at the time we were looking at Studebaker. So that's how that all goes way back to that point and
then we hadn't decided on the career center yet and we hadn't had an instructor. >> Um so we are going to be advertising for the instructor. >> Uh likely now this is just a preliminary scenario. It's not a gospel at this point in time because we because we still need to look at some um some facts
and figures but likely if we have an instructor for Clay and we operate that that will be the entire first year will be at Clay and the students who would be going into the second year which is a much smaller number would probably do their last year at IvyTech or have IvyTech come over. I'd have to work out
with IvyTech but it would be a much smaller number of students. >> Thank you very much. And my little comment after that is I wish we' have done that three years ago. Thank you. >> Looking at these invoices though, it
says it's fall of 23 and spring of 24. So I assume there's still a fall of 24, spring of 25, fall of 25. >> I I'd have to defer down off on that one. >> Did Did we get Did we get an invoice for that? >> Uh yes.
>> Okay. So have we already voted on that or that'll just come back later? >> Um >> this is a back and forth. >> Yeah, the problem is uh unfortunately we do not have like setus for all those
programs with IvyTech as Dr. Finley uh shared here that it was before his time. Yep. >> And we are receiving the invoices from IvyTech on a peacemail basis because many of those are from 23, 24 or 25. We are receiving those now. So we are both
of us are in contact with the IvyTech accounts and uh management department there. Okay. So they are sending us those invoices peacemail. So at this time I mean it is very hard for us to say that we are done. uh we don't know yet but we are rec reconciling and
whenever we receive something for which we do not have an MOU or contract we will have to come to the board for your approval because that is what the internal control says. >> Okay. And I would add too just to put things into context the instructor for a system or for that kind of a situation
with salary and benefits would be upwards of 80 to $90,000 a year if we' had our own instructor um for that as well. So that it is more expensive definitely to do it at IvyTech, but I also want to say that that's not grossly disproportionate to what we would have
done with an instructor as well. The issue is that it we're we haven't we're being build in our rears. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Mhm. >> What's her name is? >> Mr. Ellison. >> I >> Mr. Costello. >> I
>> Mr. Sniki. >> I >> Miss Lee. >> I >> Mr. Lea. >> Hi. >> Dr. Green >> I. Motion carries 6 to zero. >> 9.10. It is recommended that the board of school trustees approved new diesel
fuel contract for corporation bus and vehicles with Keystone Cooperative. >> Do we have a motion and a second to approve? >> Motion to approve. >> Thank you, Mr. Ellison. >> Second. >> Thank you, Mrs. Lee. >> Thank you, gentlemen. So, as you recall,
back in January, you had an item on the agenda that you pulled from the agenda. >> Um, we had learned information that we could possibly get a better number from Keystone, who we're currently using. Uh, the intent was to go out for sealed bid. >> Um, but in light of political climate,
we learned that we needed to act a little faster. We did get pricing from both cooperatives, Mansfield, who had offered the original contract, um, and from Keystone. Keystone came in as a low bidder. We were able to secure a price lower than our price was last year's
contract. So, it's 220 a gallon before taxes. With taxes, uh, it's like 2.89. Um, which I think in a month or two, it's going to look really, really good. So, I was happy that we were able to secure as low a price as we were able
to. Um, we are still bidding 300,000 gallons even though we're in due March. Um, we were trying to get information from maintenance so we could bid together. Um, they do use diesel fuel. Um, so we left the the bid at 300,000
gallons with the understanding that maintenance would be using some of that 300,000. Um, Keystone is also uh we have gas cards through Keystone for all our vehicle maintenance facility vehicles and we're going to work out something with Keystone so that our maintenance
vehicles can use those same gas cards and can go get fuel at any station in the city and not have to go to Nelson where their current contract is at and they should also see savings there. Um I think uh the price that we've got now compared to what we had in January we're
still saving 80 something thousand. So um um just to add to that in general we would go for a sealed beating process as uh Mr. DM mentioned however due to the situation and also due to the fact that
we are being able to secure substantial savings and we are going through a cooperative purchasing both of which are allowed under IC 5-22. Uh so we are uh asking for the board's permission to apply the special
purchasing method for this diesel fuel contract. >> Okay, any questions? He does. >> You're very You're being very polite when you said it was a clerical mistake. Uh I know what happened and I'm glad uh
for your due diligence of looking around and understanding these things need to be bid out. So, thank you so much. We appreciate your hard work and effort. and our full intention is to start the process in
December of this year so that we can go to sealed bid and do it properly for next year. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Castello. >> Miss her name is >> Mr. Ellison. >> I >> Mr. Castello >> I
>> Mr. Siki >> I >> Miss Lee >> I >> Mr. Lea >> I >> Dr. Green. >> Uh I motion carries 6 to zero. >> 9.11. It is recommended that the board of school trustees approve to scrap and dispose of 15 inoperable transportation
fleet vehicles with an estimated revenue of $22,500. >> So these are our oldest buses in our bus replacement plan. >> Wait. All right. >> No motion yet. >> I'll make a motion. second.
Okay, this Lee and >> I usually don't catch it, so that was like I'll second it. >> Okay, here we go. Okay, sorry about that. Um, oldest buses in the fleet that we need to to dispose of. Uh, they're Max Force engines. Um, they are have
little very little value. Um, we have tried to go out for auction with similar vehicles before trying to get at least 3,000 for them and apparently we were laughed at when we asked for that. So, um, we can take them and scrap them for
1,500. Um, and that's what we intend to do. So, at least we could put something back into the general fund. >> Okay. Thank you. Questions, >> Mr. Hernandez? >> Mr. Ellison. >> Hi, >> Mr. Casillo >> I
>> Mr. Sniki >> I >> Miss Lee >> I >> Mr. Lea >> I >> Dr. Green >> I motion carry six to zero. >> Thank you. >> On to 9.12. It is recommended that the board of school trustees approve the little lose beauty and Barber College
educational services agreement. >> And do we have a motion and a second to approve? >> Motion to approve. >> Second. >> Mr. Ellison, Miss Mr. Leva got in just ahead. This is Lee.
>> Well, hello again. Uh, this one is, uh, probably a little bit better news. Um, we have, uh, secured an agreement with Little L's, uh, barbering. Um, this was an attempt to go ahead and expand our existing programs. Uh, we currently have a cosmetology program with Vogue that we
cap with 10 students. Um, and we would we were trying to expand to barbering. Uh, so we have done this. Uh, it's a similar tuition. uh it'll be 2262 per student per year. So we're looking around uh it'll cap at 10 students for now. Um it'll be about $23,000 for our
students to go there. So we will have up to a total of 20 between cosmetology and barbering. So we'll have uh we'll continue our agreement with Vogue and we'll also or begin this agreement with Lil's. >> Sounds good.
>> But very similar arrangement. >> All right. with the expectation, if I recall, to expand >> if if we go there. Um, it's there's several things we've been flirting with, and these are just different ideas, and I don't want anyone listening to think that there's an intent to to change
these or um, currently we're using third party. Uh, at at one time there was discussion when they were doing initial discussions about what the community wanted for the new career center. Um so there was a time discussion about um doing uh cosmetology at clay and or
studaker or you know those various things. So those aren't off the table but it's our intent this now for this for the near or for the near future to continue use these third party providers. >> Great. Thank you Mr. Castillo. at at one time
uh th this program had transportation problems uh a couple years ago. Uh have they been straightened out or do we have issues with that anymore getting kids over there? >> No. Uh actually I'll be really honest. Um this year once we got some kinks out
kinks worked out. Um overall transportation worked really well. A large uh number of those kids do their own transportation, but um transportation has worked out very well for CT this year. We had those hiccups at the very beginning of the year, but we've largely worked I think we've worked those out. >> Okay.
>> Yep. >> Okay. Thank you, Mr. Mr. Hernandez. >> Mr. >> I had a question. >> Sorry. >> Um I'm just looking at and I'm just wondering about section 8 just more like why that's in there. I'm not, you know,
necessarily objecting to it, but it's talking about the department suspension in Iran certification that the contractor does not engage in investment activities in Iran as described in Indiana code. Is that I just haven't ever seen that in any of our >> I believe that was added by our general
counsel. That was not on the original. I think that was the new uh he added that. >> I mean, I know things are different with Iran than they were the last time we met. So maybe that's now going to be in all of these type of things. >> Yeah, I I can't speak to that. Unfortunately, sorry.
>> I just we haven't I had never seen that before. So, I was just wondering why, you know, I guess a war would be a reason why that might be in there now, but I was just wondering that song. >> Yeah. >> Okay.
>> Mr. Ellison, I >> Mr. Cassello. Hi, >> Mr. Saki. Miss Lee. Hi, >> Mr. Lea. Hi, Dr. Green. >> I motion carries 5 to zero.
>> 9.13. It is recommended that the board of school trustees approve the 2026 summer academic experience and college credit program with Vincent's University. >> Do we have a motion and a second to approve? >> Motion to approve. >> Second.
>> Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Ellison and Mr. Leva. Welcome, Mr. Addie. Yeah, this is an exciting program for our kids. is fund funded by Gear Up. Um up to 30 students will have the opportunity to earn between five and six
credits including for those who are familiar with um that first step toward college getting that psychology credit under those psychology credits under their belt before they hit that freshman year is a real benefit. Um they will as
a part of this have the opportunity to uh spend time on Vincent's campus, do pre-work and work during the summer. That's like in a hybrid situation. So it's not just go down for three to five days type of thing and then come out
with credits. It's there's a robust nature to these credits. And then as a um really a celebratory piece of it, they will also go to Chicago for a three-day venture. So, it's pretty comprehensive experience. Um, we're
proposing up to 30 students and it's not to exceed $64,000. >> The Castello, >> is this out of Europe? >> Yeah. Yes, this is Europe. >> That's exciting. Between this one and then the consent agenda that we just
that was just approved. We'll have 40 kids over the um spring break go to campuses ranging from Florida all the way to Maryland to Ohio to Pittsburgh. So our students are um really having opportunity that I would venture to say
very few in this entire region are having the opportunity to see. >> I would love to see after the after spring break have some students come back and reflect on this opportunity. I would love Absolutely. >> Yeah. Yeah, that would be the consent
side of it. These kids will be late summer. We can have these kids come back. >> But yeah, the spring break. Yeah. >> Yeah, that would be wonderful. >> Yeah. >> Great. Thank you very much. Um, Miss Hernandez, >> Mr. Ellison, >> I, >> Mr. Costello,
>> I, >> Mr. Snakei, Miss Lee, I, >> Mr. Lea, I, >> Dr. Green, >> I. Motion carries five to zero. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> 9.14. It is recommended that the board of school trustees approve the first
amendment and extension to the advanced therapy solutions agreement extending the term through June 30th, 2026. >> And I see Dr. Scott Bradley walking toward us after spending a very long night. >> Thank you for being here. Can you help us understand this?
>> Yes. Good evening. Prior to my coming on board as the director, um the exceptional learners program moved to a consult consultation program with our non-pubs. That incurred a lot of complaints and as a result we had to go back to some
direct services and in doing so that meant that they had to find um speech therapists who could come in short notice, most of them through a third party vendor. And this was a third party vendor who came in to provide some direct services as well as some
compensatory services for our speech therapy program and the non-pubs. Um the contract expired in February at the end of February. However, to remove this person would put us in the same position we were in last year, which is a lot of
compensatory services, and we didn't want that. So, we felt that we would extend the contract. however, negotiating at a lower hourly rate and then it is highly unlikely that we will use them after June 30th. >> Call for a motion.
>> What will what will we do for next school year then after June? So, we have other speech therapists on board, but this particular person that was working through this vendor was working specifically a nonpubs
part-time. We have made arrangements to hopefully hopefully hire her in as a direct >> um a direct provider for the upcoming school year, but we will not be using this third party vendor. They're just too costly for us. >> Okay. >> Okay.
So, I'm going to go back and ask for a motion in a second. >> So, move. >> Thank you, Mr. >> Thank you, Mr. Ellison. >> Now, any other questions for Miss Dr. Scott Bradley?
>> Mr. Ellison, >> I >> Mr. Cassello, >> I >> Mr. Snediki, >> Miss Lee, >> I >> Mr. Leel, >> hi. >> Dr. Green, >> I motion carries five to zero. Thanks so much.
>> And here at 9.15, it is recommended that the board of school trustees approve the contract extension for CFO an offid. >> I better call for a motion in a second. >> Motion to approve. >> Second.
>> Thank you, Mr. Ellison. Leva, there any questions? >> I suppose not. >> Mr. Ellison >> I >> Mr. Cassello >> I >> Mr. Sedigi Miss Lee
>> I >> Mr. Lea >> I >> Dr. Green >> I motion carries five to zero I know Mr. Snaidi had to leave early to attend to a personal matter and he wishes he could have voted but I think he'll be happy
with the outcome as I think the finance group back there is all smiles. >> Congratulations Mr. Tom. >> On to 9.16. It is recommended that the board of school trustees approve the contract renewal for board legal counsel
Peter Austinino. >> Do we have a motion and a second to approve? Motion to approve. >> Thank you, Mr. Ellison. >> Second. >> Thank you, Mr. Leva. We have any questions or concerns? >> Mr. Hernandez, would you please call the role? >> Mr. Ellison,
>> I. >> Mr. Cassello, >> I. >> Miss Lee, >> I Mr. Lea. >> I. >> Dr. Green. >> I. Motion carries five to zero. Congratulations, Mr. Augustino. >> Thank you. We'll
>> maintain his seat. Uh we don't have any items from close session in item 10.01. Uh so we've come to board comments uh when board members have the opportunity to speak. And just in case
you're here waiting with baited breath for board members to make comments, they don't include any decisions at this point. Uh, so I'll tell you right now, if you plan to leave, the next board meeting is on March 23rd at 5:30 here at
Brown. Would anybody like to speak, Mr. Castello? >> Thank you, >> Dr. Green. >> Uh, I want to start out tonight by uh saluting the boy basketball teams this
past week. Uh, they all won at least one game in the tournament. Uh obviously uh then on Friday and uh Friday night uh Washington and uh Adams was eliminated,
but Riley made it to the championship game and was leading through most of the game and then lost it at the end. I am very very proud of the uh players and coach and everybody involved in that
basketball program over at Riley as well as at Adams and at Washington. Washington had a record this year uh that was uh losing, but they started uh I noticed because I went to
uh the game on Tuesday night with Adams and on Wednesday night with Riley and on Friday night was with Washington. And then of course Saturday night I went back to see Riley play. But the game with Washington, they had four
underassmen in their starting lineup. And uh I look for big things from them next year. They uh they got some talent. I think they can uh obviously improve on that record and and do a good job next year. So uh good luck to uh Mr. Scott in
and the Washington High School team. Um, I want to comment about the article in the newspaper uh on our committee. Uh I don't know
where we're at with that right now, but I do know that that committee uh looking into uh the racial proponent of uh the disciplines that that's being that would
have been given out to people. Um we are going to take a very good look at that and evaluate it. Uh, I want everybody to know that we're very very concerned uh about what we see and we we do want
answers and hopefully uh knowing uh this body like I I do uh we're going to have people on it that I think will uh work hard and research and
make sure that we don't have any racial discrimination at all in our school corporation and if we do we'll take care of it. Um I just want to uh personally
um thank Mr. Amid for all the work and dedication he has given to this office um that when he took over and I can tell you right now uh in my
opinion it was a mess uh that he inherited and uh or let's put it this way problems that he in inherited And
he has worked with transparency and honesty with every board member and every employee in this school corporation
and with the public in general and I salute him. Uh Mr. Eid has shown tremendous leadership and has worked very hard with Mr. Amid
in order to get us back on the right track. We've got a state board of accounts report coming out and it's going to list some of the areas
where in the past we have had problems with uh obviously because of the confidentiality of it I can't mention anything tonight um but this board
Every member of this board has tried their darnest to make sure we're on the right track. And I thank Mr. Eid and I thank Mr. Amid
uh who being right at the top for their dedication. And I know that in the long term, this situation that we had in the past is over with and we're on the right
track now. So again, thank you so much for what you have done and I will look forward to working with you for at least another nine months or 10. Thank you. >> Anybody else? Yes, Mr. Uh yeah and I
would just like to you know um echo some of what uh Mr. Gel was saying also about you know the article that was in the paper where people want to know more about the uh you know committee that we're going to have to look at disparity and race and that kind of thing. Um we are committed to that. I think it's
something that we need and it's meant to comply not just with the mechanics of the consent decree but fully with the spirit of the consent decree. We have not done a deep dive, a deep study of this type of information previously in this corporation. And I think that's
needed. That doesn't mean that's the only thing we'll ever do. That doesn't mean we're not doing anything in response to information we already have or things that we already know about uh disparity or bias or any of that. But I do think we I don't think anyone has the
perfect solution or knows exactly all of the issues that are are causing those disparities. And I think that we need to study that that that's important both for the mechanics and the spirit of making sure we're complying with what the consent degree is supposed to do. And that's, you know, we're moving along. I think we're going to have
another public meeting about that at some point where we're going to have some of the experts come in to, you know, a working meeting or whatever so people can get more detailed in a more uh explicit fashion about exactly, okay, this is what we're going to do. This is why. This is how it's going to be do.
This is who's going to be involved. Um, you know, we've got a lot of different things going on, but that's coming, I think, relatively soon. We don't have a time, but that that is going to be coming. So, you're going to get a lot more information about that, you know, as we go through the process of beginning and doing that type of work.
Um and so you know I can understand uh the people the concerns they expressed in that article their thoughts about this and I would just say that you know we're committed to uh achieving what we want to achieve on that that more information a lot more information will be coming. Um so just you know work with
us and wait and listen as that comes on but that we're you know if you're on the side of you know addressing those issues um that kind of thing that's truly what we're trying to do and we think this is the best way to do it. Again, it's not the only thing that we're going to do, but we do think it's an important step
to take. And so, that's sort of our motivation there for that. >> Yeah, thanks for mentioning the fact that the board is committed to this and that uh we'll have a public work session in March, the end of March. I think we
need to schedule it. I'm speaking ahead of when I actually have spoken to the board about a date, but I I think the promise is there and the desire to have that meeting sooner than later is is quite clear. So, thank you, Mr. Ellison.
>> I can go. Shout out to the John Adams mock trial team. They came in second, which is pretty big accomplishment considering um a lot of the competition teams they have out there, Trinity, St. Joe. And I also want to uh comment what
Mark said about the basketball teams. We got some great talent, some great coaches, and we're doing some good things at elementary school level and the middle school level. Help these kids, but when they get to high school, you know, um be ready for the the new,
you know, the level of athleticism and and and talent. But thing is watching these games, um there kids going to St. Joe Marian and um Pam Mishawaka and we got to find a way to keep these kids here. That's why I said Mr. Eid St. Joe Marion do
they offer on talking about academics do they offer stuff that we don't have? >> We offer the same if not more. >> Okay. So AC we have the academics to get these kids stay here. So athletics do they have anything athletics? Do they
have gyms that are bigger than us? Do what do they have? We have everything if not more. >> That's why class was telling Mark. So there's no reason why we can't keep these kids here. So I think it's maybe our marketing team or talk to our high school get our high school coaches together. What can we do? Unfortunately,
you have to recruit. I mean I wouldn't want to a coach go knocking on doors so telling parents send their kids here. But we have to they're recruiting against us. They're taking our kids. So we have to find a way to keep these kids in our schools. And you know it's parents have the the the choice to send
their kids to wherever they want. I understand but we have to find a way to this is what we have to offer. They don't offer anything better and let's let's keep this talent here and let's find ways to you know communicate that to our families. >> Okay. With that I'll now motion to
adjourn the meeting uh by with a voice vote. >> Do I hear uh >> any eyes? Hi >> Mr. Castello.