Well, I guess Oh dear Lord. >> Testing one, two. >> Testing one, two. Testing one, two. testing. One, two, test. >> I'm still here. >> Busy. >> How's it? >> Every day is a new adventure around
here. You know that. >> Testing one, two. Test one, two. >> Testing one, two. Still on 10, right? >> Testing one, two. Test one, two. Testing one, two.
>> That one's a little nasely, ain't it? >> Yeah. Testing one, two. >> We should do that to this one. He's got a deep voice. >> Testing. One, two. Testing one, two, three, four. >> Testing one, two.
Testing one, two. Testing one, two. >> Testing. One, two. Did we have the big presentation last? Welcome everyone and good evening on this the 23rd day of March at the SPCSC administration building. Uh the board
had a close session at 3:30 and I'm now calling this meeting to order. Mr. Hernandez, can you please call the role? >> Yes. Good afternoon. Mr. Marcus Ellison, >> present. >> Mr. Mr. Marcostello >> here. >> Dr. Janette McCulla >> present. >> Mr. Bismicki
>> here. >> Miss Kate Lee >> here. >> Mr. Carlos Lea >> here. >> Dr. St Green >> here. >> 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? >> Motion to approve. Second. Okay. >> Mr. Ellison and Mr. Costello, thank you very much. Uh, the motion has been moved and seconded. Miss Hernandez, will you
please call the role? >> Mr. Ellison, >> I. >> Mr. Costello, >> I. >> Dr. McCulla, >> I. >> Mr. Snicki, >> I. >> Miss Lee, >> I. >> Mr. Lea, >> I. >> Dr. Green, >> I. The motion to approve the agenda has
passed unanimously 7 to zero. Thank you, Mr. Hernandez. And now it's time for recognitions and superintendent announcements. So, it's over to you, Mr. Reid. >> Good evening, Dr. Green, members of the school board of trustees, member of the
public. Um, we have some great news. Actually, Southbend schools has been or have been named new school of the year and I will not do it justice if I try to explain it. So, we invited the teacher
along with his students to u come to our meeting and present All right. Thank you very much. Good evening, Superintendent Eid, and good evening to our board members. We thank you greatly for this opportunity and this recognition. I'm Tim Richardson,
the media instructor for Southbend Schools. And I'm joined by some of our students representing the program. I'd like to give them a moment to uh introduce themselves. >> I'm Treen Craiger. I'm a news anchor. >> Hi, I'm Omari Williams. I'm also a news
anchor. >> I'm Cooper Herod. I'm a radio news anchor. >> Um, I'm Eli Bonoza and I'm more of a video editor. >> I'm Bernard Packard and I do short
films. >> Thank you. So on behalf of our students in the CTE TV radio program, we're incredibly honored to represent Southbend schools at the state level through IASB, which stands for the Indiana Association of School Broadcasters, which brings together uh
high school media programs from across the state. This year marks a major milestone for our program as we've earned New School of the Year for the third time in a row and video school of the year, first runner up for the second time. Uh we competed against more than
40 schools statewide. Here's our plaque that they gave us. Um this is a uh great opportunity for students and it's the first time that our program has earned five first place awards in a single year. Those honors go to Jesse Brownley
for field reporting, Trayen Crigglier for video package, Eli Bueno Padza for radio spot production, and Eid McCann for radio in-depth, as well as a third year in a row first place for our video magazine, Kids in the Bend. Uh Jesse
Brownley was also a live TV news anchor finalist and Cooper Heritan was a live radio anchor finalist and they got to compete live on the air down in Indianapolis uh a few weeks back. and Cooper also placed third for photojournalism. Our students come from all three high
schools and they spend rough roughly 12 hours each week in our program which is based at Riley where they can earn up to 12 free college credits uh dual college credits through Vincens's University. Our secondyear students are also participating in work-based learning. They're doing an internship with the
Southbend School's uh communication department right now. Through these partnerships, our students are producing real world content, including an enrollment video for the district, a video for the homebuilders association to showcase our building trade CTE, and also video supporting the community book
buddies uh district initiative. This work goes beyond college and career readiness. It's developing leaders, creators, and storytellers who are already making an impact in our community. And we thank you greatly for your support of our program. >> Thank you.
How much? I'm okay. and since April 3rd is Good Friday and the schools will be closed. Uh we'd like to announce this from now that it is paraprofessional
appreciation day on that date and the week of April 6 through 10th which is our spring break uh is the national assistant principles week that week. So principles please take care of
your assistance >> and we have an attendance update as promised every month we are going this is the 2425 school
year uh and if you notice there are only 14 days of green which means 14 days where attendance has been above 90% in the district. If we go to the
25 26 we already have over 60 or 70 days of over 90% and And then if you can you please make it a little bigger just so that uh if you notice like most of the
yellow days in March and February they are in the 89 88 87 we are so close to having those to green. We are working with that on that with the Casey Center
and the prosecutor's office. We are staying on top of attendance as much as we can and hopefully at some point it will just be a sea of green. And with that
I'll pass the microphone on. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. E. That is good news all around. Uh we will now have a hearing of visitors on action items 9.01 to 9.06. Mrs. Lee, has anyone signed up to speak?
>> Yes, they have. 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 9.06 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 saying their name and address for the record. Personnel issues are not to be addressed in any way during open sessions of the school board. No person
may address or question board members individually. The board president may interrupt, warn, or terminate a person's statement if the statement becomes personally directed, abusive, or obscene. If you wish to give something to the board, please give the item or items to Miss Hernandez after the meeting.
So, action item 9.06 06 is the approval of special purchase for furniture and equipment upgrade project at Gquillard Primary Center and John Pachznney has signed up to speak. >> John Pesnney 18420 Crown Hill Drive. I am not against this but I have been
asked by people who could not attend this meeting this evening to find out if there is a systematic approach or a schedule where furniture in schools is replaced regularly annually or whenever need be. Um I know it sounds like this
is an issue but I think some people feel their buildings are neglected. I don't know the buildings, but they just asked if there is a systematic approach to replacing school furniture. Thank you. >> Thank you.
>> Next, Tiana Batistell. Good evening. Tiana Batisadell, 330 Kofax Avenue, Southman, Indiana. Beyond foundational needs, there is a critical necessity to ensure that Kquilard Elementary's classroom environments are designed to be both
culturally responsive and aligned with modern instructional practices. Contemporary classroom spaces at Kquillard should incorporate flexible seating arrangements, access to instructional technology and materials
that reflect the diverse cultural backgrounds of students, especially the majority there. Research consistently demonstrates that culturally affirming environments improve student engagement, academic
outcomes, and overall school climate. Classrooms that integrate technology and inclusive design promote collaboration, critical thinking, and student agency, skills that are essential for life success. Therefore, investment in both
the basic infrastructure, basic things just desk and chairs and yes, there's a few other things happening, but the basic things should be there for Kquillard and the development of innovative culturally responsive learning environments must be treated as
a priority rather than an option for the students and families you serve on the west side. This means moving beyond traditional classroom designs and into new wave learning spaces that reflect how
students learn best today. The $8 million proposed in December of 2024 to convert Kquillard Elementary into a career hub should instead be directed toward strengthening it as the neighborhood school it continues to
serve alongside Washington High School and Dickinson Middle School by investing in a culturally responsive environment both inside and out while fully addressing the core requirements of the
federal consent decree. Thank you. >> Thank you. That's all that was signed up. >> Thank you. We also invite comments on other items. Uh Mrs. Lee, can you please share the following? >> I can. At regular meetings, the public is invited to address the board for three minutes regarding items not posted
on the agenda. If you wish to give something to the board, please give the item or items to Miss Hernandez after the meeting. Individuals may only speak once during this section of the agenda. Speakers shall properly identify themselves after they approach the podium by stating their name and address for the record. Personnel issues are not
to be addressed during open sessions of the school board. In addition, no person may address or question board members individually. The board president may interrupt, warn, or terminate a person's statement if the statement becomes personally directed, abusive, or obscene. Please come to the podium if
you wish to speak. >> Good evening. S Kessum, Kennedy Drive, Southbend, Indiana. Um, what if the way we're teaching our kids is accidentally training them to copy instead of think? In a world changing this fast,
memorizing answers is no longer enough. And with AI, our students need to know how to think differently than before. This is called first principles thinking. First principles thinking is simple. Instead of accepting how things
have always been done, you uh break something down to its most basic components and then rebuild it better. Take a fan. Most of us think a fan has spinning blades, but that's not the purpose. The purpose is to move air. And
when the engineers at Dyson went back to the basic idea, they created a bladeless fan, completely rethinking the design. When engineers uh do that, it's innovation. And right now, many students are taught to memorize and repeat. But AI can
already do that faster. What students need is the ability to question, analyze, and solve problems from scratch. First principles thinking turns students into problem solvers instead of just test takers.
The world they are entering is different. Jobs are changing rapidly. Um, AI can recall all the information faster than humans. problems are more complex. Um, and students don't need just need answers. They need to know how to question assumptions, how to break
problems down, and how to rebuild solutions. That's first principles thinking. Passive learners into problem solvers, rule followers into innovators, test takers into creators.
Bless you. Um it can uh start simply by asking why does this work or what what's the answer? Let students challenge existing solutions. Reward thinking not just correctness. We are preparing students for a future
we can't fully predict. The most valuable thing we can give them is not just knowledge but the ability to think. First principles thinking teaches students how to understand the world at its core and more importantly how to improve it. We want innovators, problem
solvers, and leaders. And that's where it begins. We want students who can adapt, innovate, and lead. When we need to teach them >> how to think, not just what to think, first principles is where that begins.
And I sent you an email on some ways to do that. Thank you so much. >> Thank you. I want to ask this orange road using my first amendment right. What I say should not be held against me, my family, or my co-workers. So I want to speak about the
recent audit and what part of it we've seen and what it really tells us not just about financing but about how our system had been operating. The audit identified significant weaknesses in financial controls reporting and oversight. These were not isolated
issues. They span payroll vendor payments and federal programs and they developed over multiple years. Some were repeat findings, which means they were identified before and not fully corrected. We're also talking about real numbers. Approximately 188,000
in question costs could not be fully supported. They were also discrepancies in the millions, including roughly 1.3 million under reported in the ESSER fund and over 500,000 over reported. That tells us the system for tracking and
reporting was not functionally reliable. Now, let me be clear. This audit does not conclude that money was stolen, but it does show the accountability systems were not functioning in a way that ensures confidence in the accuracy of
financial reporting. It also shows that corrective measures were in place but not operating effectively. That means controls existed but were not consistently followed or enforced. Any and those kinds of breakdowns don't happen overnight. They develop over time
and that matters especially here in South Bend. We are already dealing with declining enrollment, increased competition and ongoing challenges. In that kind of environment, we cannot afford weak systems. When financial systems are not reliable, we cannot
fully we cannot be fully confident that resources are being used as effectively as they should and that directly impacts student outcome. This is not just a financial issue. It's an organizational issue. We have made changes in leadership and that is a necessary step.
But changing leadership is not the same as fixing systems. If a system has been operating in an unhealthy way for years, it does not get fixed overnight. Corrective actions have been presented, but plans are not proof. The next audit
will provide insight, but we should expect that some issues may still appear as systems are correcting. The real question is whether they there is clear measurable improvement and whether those corrective measures are
>> being followed also raises important point of oversight. Schoolboard acts on the information presented to them. But effective oversight cannot stop there. It requires asking hard questions, challenging assumptions and not simply
accepting that what is presented. True oversight means verifying the systems are act actually working and that accountability is being enforced. So moving forward we need a stronger system, a stronger verification system and a stronger accountability
>> because this is about trust. Trust that every dollar intended student is making a difference. >> Thank you. Does anyone else wish to speak? Uh my name is Michael Heridan. I live at 23289 Grove Street in South Bend. Uh
first I want to thank everybody here for the work that you do for the community and know the students. It's it's a thankless work that's extremely hard and difficult. I do appreciate it. Other people do. You don't get the recognition I feel you deserve. But I want to draw to your attention a problem that seems
to be not getting fixed. As a parent of a student at a school, there's an issue that needs to be addressed. Riley High Schools has a problem with their parking lot. The parking lot is all one way. It is eastbound flow only. As students are trying to leave that are allowed to be
there, as well as faculty members trying to leave, there are cars going westbound. This problem has caused altercation time after time after the whole four years my son's been a student there. I have addressed it addressed it several times. Nobody's put this fire out even though altercations have
happened. I'm asking for somebody's assistance to help find the problem. Whether it needs to be re-engineered or it needs to be addressed that one way on in, one way out, that's all I'm asking. I don't want to take up any more of your time, but to let you know that something
is wrong. You can't squeak uh put the grease on that hinge if you don't know it's squeaking. Okay? I'm asking you please address the problem. My information is available. If you need to contact me, please reach out. I can show you the diagrams. We can talk about it. Everybody, have a great night. Take
care. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Okay. >> Good evening. Uh Jim Pritchard, 5800 Summit Hill Court. So, one of my kids and her family are relocating to Fort Wing. Since they have considerable amount of student loans to pay back,
I've been pushing them to find a good public school and find a house nearby. I was pushing that theme when my daughter finally stopped me and said, quote, "I won't risk it. I looked at the
Fort Wayne test scores and I don't think they have good control of the kids. I won't risk our boys' educations. Everyone knows that you can't have good test scores if behavior is not under control. So, and so she's going to go private.
But if any of you know a really good Fort Wayne school that I can pass along to her, will you let me know? Uh because they he's become a doctor and they have considerable loans. But anyway, you have no idea how frustrating it is for families to find schools in a public
school with good behavior and great test scores. Why can't Southbend schools provide more? Seems like a forest error. You guys keep hoping that families will come back to Southbend schools. They were going to come back. They'd be back. I think if you do have schools with
really good behavior, you need to start advertising that. go ahead and put CTE out at Clay. But as I remember, we were told Clay was too expensive to keep open with 400 kids. So
logically, if you want CT out there, you should share the building with Clay Academy High School. That is the best way to support CTE in that building and make make the taxpayers and community happy, keeping your expenses down. Let
them pay for most of the building. You could be the heroes of Southbend if you could pull that off. Oh, uh, by the way, some of you know I used to teach down at Head Start. Those teachers must make the kids behave or they'll be fired
even midyear. It's an hourly wage thing. Um, the fed uh the the feds say there's no excuses. Those kids are required to behave and they are required to learn their letters, numbers, colors, shapes, and be able to write their names and
they do succeed. They can do it. So, if the poorest kids in town can meet such high expectations, >> 30 seconds. >> Why can't Southbend schools expect the same thing from those very same kids?
Thank you. >> Thank you. John Pachesnney, Crown Hill Drive. So, portions of the state audit have been released. Based on what I have read, there is one thing that stands out. Regardless of the department or the individual, there must remain a checks
and balances between the individual or the department and the CFO who is responsible for the audit. Controls have been put into place and they should not be manipulated nor changed by anyone. The board needs to make sure this does
not change. Many nights while at the dinner table, we will be watching the news and there will be a story about violence in the city and they will show pictures of young people who got into trouble. And you don't know how many times my wife who served as a pair will
say that was one of ours, a former student. My question is this. What more can the corporation and the board do to help educate our youth about gun violence and the effects of it? Bring in more speakers, people who are victims of
such crime or who serve time, people who speak about this to our youth. I am not sure what but there needs to be something done. Okay. The involvement in the community and them standing in front of for photo ops has to stop. We need
action. Middle and high school students need to be made aware of the effects and consequences of actual victims, those who are injured or those who face the legal consequences. While you work on your policy, I think one policy should be looked at. Any
Southbend Community School Corporation employee who uses a credit card or school funds, department money without authorization, and has no proof of what the funds were used for should repay the corporation for the unauthorized use of
money and be terminated. I have no proof. This is my thoughts only. It is time to make all accountable for taxpayer money, whether it is federal, state, or local. regardless of this corporation money that comes from the taxpayers.
So, what is your plans as a board over the next nine months? I know you're going to be dealing with the consent decree. What are we going to do with Hamilton and Egleston? You know, the board had a proposal for a buyer for Egleston and I don't know what ever happened there. What about Senate Bill
239 and the effects on South End schools? What are they? The public would like to hear more plans for what's going to happen with the clay building. >> Also, Cornerstone Academy, the alternative educational, is it operational or is it coming in the fall?
Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Good evening. Tiana Batis Wadell, 330 Kofax Avenue, Southbend, Indiana. Well, it still remains. Since 1980, no school board has held any superintendent accountable to the federal court-ordered
consent decree that calls on you to be anti-racist. Instead, you continue to enable the status quo and mirror societal harm on black lives in educational institutions. It is now the final full week of March,
three months since the announcement of a committee, and yet no formal federal consent degree committee has been established by this school board or superintendent. While the formation of a committee may still signal acknowledgement of concern, it is not in itself a sufficient
response to systemic issues such as racism within your school district. Committees often result in prolonged discussion without producing enforceable outcomes, measurable change, or accountability. While it is required at this stage, it is not further dialogue,
but decisive action. To meaningfully dismantle racism, your district must implement formal systemic structures that are embedded into its daily operations. This begins with mandatory ongoing professional learning for all of your staff grounded in culturally responsive
practices, implicitist bias, and anti-racist po pedagogy. This learning must move beyond one-time training and instead be sustained, datadriven, and tied to educa educator evaluation and growth. In addition, the district must
establish clear policies and procedural controls that explicitly address inequities and discipline, academic access, and student experience. Without these formal structures, efforts remain inconsistent and dependent on individual will rather than institutional
commitment. Furthermore, your district must align its resource allocation and learning environments with these priorities. This means investing in culturally affirming classroom spaces, equitable access to materials and technology, and a curriculum that
reflects the identities and histories histories of all students. Dismantling racism requires more than intention. It requires infrastructure, just like the Riley parking lot. And don't forget about John
Adams. I'd like your cart, too. If you're going to fix Riley, fix Adams. It's an infrastructure. Racism is an infrastructure. >> 30 seconds. >> Policies, professional learning, and accountability systems must work together to ensure that equity is not
optional, but operationalized at every level of the district. And just for the record, they've already trained 1,400 staff members on internal control for finances. Can we get some training on racism, please?
Thank you. >> Thank you. Does anyone else wish to speak? >> Seeing no one approach the podium, I think we can conclude this. Thank you for sharing your concerns. We'll now move on to the academic focus.
>> Indeed, we're going to be focusing on summer school update with Mrs. is le and her expert team. Next two Good evening, Dr. Green, school board trustee, Superintendent Eid, all of our
visitors both in person and virtual. We would like to come before you today to give a high view of our Ignite summer school program for summer 22 26. Now again this is just meant to be an
overall um globalformational session and then we will return at the conclusion in early fall to share our outcomes from our summer initiatives this evening. you will see um this is
our agenda for today and then again we have our presenters with us and then we will have a Q&A for information that will be provided. So, we'll begin tonight with our first session or our first group of our
students. And that would be our K1 summer school. And our K1 summer school will be located at four, I'm sorry, five individual schools this year. Um, Misel will focus heavily on our exceptional
learners, but most of our other schools of the four that you see will focus on our K1. So, one might wonder where is this K1 structure or why is this K1 structure being designed? What we know is that when we look at
building strategic readers um in the early years, especially before students enter third grade, is that we really need to know what our students know and what are areas of focus that we need to support our both our learners and our
teachers. So what we're doing is we're using the data that we've had for our kinder students this year and our kinder and first grade students um also for this year. And what we want to know is when we look at those foundational skills that we spoke about a few months
or a few weeks ago, what is it that our students could have the opportunity that if we strengthen those early literacy skills that they can continue to grow as strategic readers? And again, this will not focus on early
entry or entry of kindergarten in the fall. These are students who are currently in kindergarten and in first grade. And now Darice will present our second and third grade IE Summer. Thank you. Um good evening Dr. Green
school board members and to our listening audience. Um as you see I read um summer school is for second grade students who are at risk of not passing the test in third
grade. It is also for our third grade students who did not pass as of yet. So that's for that's what our I read uh summer school is for. Summer school will start June the 11th through the 12th.
The students time will start at 8:30 to 12:30. Breakfast and lunch will be provided. Teachers day is from 8 to 1. The summer session will run for 9 days before our students will be reassessed.
That's important to note that only nine days. June the 25th and 26th are designated for testing days and June the 29th and the 30th are for makeup days. July 1st, we're going to provide some
type of summer um learning celebration to all of our students who attend majority of the time as well as those who did take the I read assessment as some type of motivation for them to come and um go to summer school and pass the
test. Carla will continue with working on our um partnership So for the first time in over 20 years, we have the opportunity to have a comprehensive kindergarten through 12th
grade summer school option. So historically we focused on primarily high school for credit acceleration or credit recovery and then for the most part grades second and third because um for i focus for students who either
needed to build capacity as dares said and or have not passed i. But this summer, if you recall, the state released a learning lab grant. And the learning lab grant was for local school
districts to partner with an outside organization where they could come together and build a summer skills and activity focused summer school opportunity. And I'm proud to say and I'm glad to say that we've achieved that
here in South Bend. So again, for the first time in over 20 years, we will have a comprehensive kindergarten through 12th grade summer learning opportunity. Our external partners um will be the Boys and Girls Club of Northern Indiana corridor and we will
have two sites. Those sites will support kindergarten through 8th grade with approximately 100 to 200 students per site. They will work on ELA and math academics as well as an extended day where they focus on
creativity, recreational activity, family and community service activities. And so that would be their day. Now, this particular um summer learning opportunity will run longer than our
internal SBCSC K3 because of the spec uh specificity of the grant itself. that's guided through the Department of Education. What's interesting to note, however, when we look at staffing is that
Southbend teachers will have the first opportunity to um be hired here and it will service only South Bin schools. Um some I'm sorry, South Bin students at the Edison and then the bar site. So, one of the things that we wanted to
do this summer is to kick off the school, the summer school opportunity and informational sessions with our teachers. And we wanted to be very intentional with creating space where teachers could ask deep diving questions um outcomes of what we were focusing on
for summer school and what their opportunities for employment were for this academic year. And so we decided that we would hold a town hall meeting. We did it for K8 teacher interest as well as high school teacher interest.
And again, we wanted to ensure that teachers had the opportunity to ask us those good questions before they made decisions around um opportunities that they might have. And then also we wanted to ensure that teachers had all the
information that they needed to make the strategic option of whether they would want to work for South Bin schools or whether they would want to work with the learning lab in the Boys and Girls Club for the summer. We also wanted to share and ensure that teachers were positioned well so that
when they made those um selections or those choices that they had all the information that um was needed so that they were able to do that and that went with licensing as well as whether you would like online preference or in-person preference and again which
specific grade level that you would choose to work with and the Bye. We will now transition to Dr. Qualay and we will speak about our exceptional learners opportunity. >> Oh, good evening board members,
president, Dr. Green. Um, our exceptional learner summer school program will take place in two buildings this year. We usually just use one building, but this year we decided that our extended year, our extended school year for some of our students should be
in different buildings. one because in one building we had all K12, but this year we're going to do K8 in one building for extended school year students as well as our homebound students and for students who need some re-evaluation and any compensatory
services that must be given. This will take place at Masel Elementary um for students in grades K through 8. We're going to have our other um site that's going to be Studebaker. Studaker
will have our YAS, our extended school year for students in grades 9 through 12 and it will also have our intern and our careers programming. The purpose of having of moving ESY 9 through 12 is to introduce these students to the programs
and the jobs and the careers that would that could become available to them as part of our adult program when they transition from high school into the adult program. So, we want to start introducing them and their parents to some of the programming that we have
here and in South Bend for those students who sometimes fall through the cracks. We want to be able to make sure that they can get employed once they finish with the South Bend schools. >> Thank you, Dr. Quale. We will now have Mr. Jeremy Tucker present on high
school. >> Good evening and thank you for the opportunity to discuss high school summer school. Um, the purpose and focus for summer school at the high school this year is to provide credit recovery opportunities to ensure students stay on track for graduation, to offer flexible course options for
students who need classes that do not fit within the the traditional school day schedule, and to support both academic acceleration and intervention. This year's program will be held at Lasau Academy session one June 8th
through July 2nd and session two July 8th through July 28th. Looking at our daily schedule in structure in-person instruction will be from 8:00 a.m. until noon and the virtual learning will be from 12:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. Students have access to both formats to meet
individual needs and schedules. Looking at the instructional model, in-person classes provide direct instruction. teacher support and structured learning environments. Virtual courses utilize adminum allowing for self-paced flexible
learning with progress monitoring focused on standard-based instruction aligned to graduation requirements. Looking at the student impact and reach, historically, high school summer school serves approximately 10,000 students annually across both sessions.
High school summer school expands access for students needing credit recovery, schedule flexibility, or additional coursework. High school summer school helps improve on-time graduation and overall student success. And in closing, our goal is to
ensure that every student has a clear and supported pathway to graduation regardless of barriers during their traditional school year. >> Thank you. We will now have a presentation with our EO and migrant summer programs.
Miss Julia. >> Yes. Um good evening uh board president Dr. Green, Superintendent Eid, and members of the board. Um I love to talk about summer school. Um it's one of the highlights of the year for me um because
I have a full building of children, our English learners, and our migrant um students. And it is a place where I feel that they um feel comfortable and where
they really can flourish. So we intentionally structure um our summer programs to meet the unique academic, language and social emotional needs of English learners and migrant students.
Migrant students are the students of uh the farm workers um within our community. Uh these students often face language barriers, interrupted schooling and mobility challenges which can impact their academic progress. Um, summer
programming gives us an important opportunity to provide targeted support in a focused and highly supportive environment um that is culturally responsible. Um, from a logistics
standpoint, as you can see, the program runs from June 10th to July 9th and is aligned with the other district summer school schedules. Um, we have centralized our both our two programs at
Lincoln Elementary and our EL summer program runs from 8 to 1. Our migrant summer program, however, runs from 8:00 to 4:00 pm. Again, families are out in the fields and we
provide them with a safe environment from which to thrive. Um, as you can see on the other side, staffing is a key component of the program success. So, we intentionally recruit educators who are
experienced in working with multilingual learners and who understand the unique needs of our migrant families. We hire certified teachers with an ENL or ESL license. And for grades two and three,
teachers have a requirement of having to complete a minimum of 25 hours of the early literacy endorsement. In addition, our support staff and coordinators, um, most of whom are also bilingual,
help ensure smooth daily operations, attendance tracking, and family outreach. Um, as you can see, we will have kindergarten through third grade in the EL program. And in migrant summer
program, we actually bring in prek students all the way through the 11th grade and sometimes unfortunately some seniors who may not have graduated on time. We bring them in from five counties, St. Joseph, Stark, Leaport,
Marshall, and Elcart. And um they are bus to our centralized location. Instructionally, the program focuses on both language development and core academic skills. Students receive targeted instruction in English language
acquisition while also strengthening literacy and math skills. Lessons are designed to be engaging, culturally responsive, and aligned with grade level standards while still addressing individual learning individual learning
gaps. Um, our goals include making sure that our third graders um receive targeted literacy and language instruction so they could pass that I read three um increase English language
proficiency and then on the migrant side we actually have measurable program outcomes. So we collect data in reading, math, credit, approval and something new this year is durable skills um training.
So I read three we align our instruction foundational skills um for all phenemic awareness phonics academic vocabulary is extremely important um reading comprehension fluency and these of
course are datadriven um based on assessment results and then finally we integrate English language development throughout the entire curriculum integration of listening speaking reading wring writing skills,
language objectives um from WEDA ELA standards are aligned to the literacy instruction and we support both social and academic language acquisition.
So, in closing, um I just want to say that again, um it's a great opportunity for our students to receive academic inter
interventions or remediation. Um there's also a portion of the programming that um incorporates some fun things like dance, um arts,
um gosh, STEM of course, and the kids. I I really invite all of you to come visit us because they have a great time. Um, and again, most importantly, it helps ensure that some of our most vulnerable students are not
left behind, but instead are given the tools and opportunities they need to succeed. Thank you. >> Thank you. We now have Mr. Francois to share with us rise up and rule. >> Good evening, uh, Dr. Green of school
board both of school president or board members superintendent Eid uh I'm very happy to announce that we are at our second year for our SIG grant which is u
based on the expanded learning times uh after school program Saturday school mini master and also summer school u this year as we did last year. Uh we
are going to have our first session on June uh from June 15th uh to July 6 and we will have it will be from 9 to 1 p.m. for student staff and support staff. It
will be in person. uh we have our seniors who are now going to be able to graduate on June 6 which is our graduation uh time for the June graduation. So anybody who is now going
to graduate on June 6 or the seniors will have opportunity uh to be with us in summer and also uh this summer um this rise up learning academy will benefit our sophomores and juniors who
are still working on our Plato classes. Um and also we will have the incoming juniors and incoming seniors who will be part of uh uh this first session. Um we
have uh nine rise up academy certified staff and also eight rise up support staff. Uh I I'm happy to announce that we have with this grant we've been able to hire our non-certified staff instead
of looking for jobs and swell you know they will be able to work at rise up and we did it last year. Our second session uh will be from July 13th to July 31st uh from 9 to 1 p.m. The teachers will be
in person but the students will be online will be the the three teachers will be connecting with those uh students to make sure they finish uh the classes uh online. Um
last we we have last year we did we had uh teams of teachers, three teachers um in each room and then they monitor a group of students because they have to
write uh because of the accountability purpose through the IDE every teacher supervises at least four students throughout the day and make sure he writes down exactly ly what the student has been doing but also um will be able
to help the student if they have a question in math, English or other subjects. Um also um we what we did was we made sure that at the the end of course assessment
instead of doing it in a big room there we have one room where they're going to do the final uh the end of course end of course assessment to make sure to make sure that uh there's the validity of the
test and there's the integrity of the test. So that's what we're going to do uh this summer. Again, I put there the the 2024 2025 program as example which was very successful, but I'm now going
to go there because I know time is limited. Thank you. >> Thank you. Miss Kim will now share with us our fine art course offerings. >> Okay. Um good evening Dr. Green, board members, and Mr. Eid. Um, I'd like to
share with you that we will be continuing our traditional fine arts offerings over the summer despite some rumors that have been around. Um, Summerfly will continue this summer. Um, for those who don't know Summerfly, this is a summer theater program that has
been sponsored by South Bend for quite some time. It has been existence, I believe it's approaching its 50th year. um for roughly six weeks. Students work on a summer production and present it in
July. We are returning to the July dates um from where it used to be. Uh the last few years it had been cut down to about 3 weeks and that did hinder our um production when the kids had less time to rehearse. Uh we expect to have
approximately 50 students participate. This production auditions are open to all Michigan students. In years past, we've had students from Michigan um as well as um Leaport
and our private schools, Southbend um all Southbend high schools as well as St. Joe and Marian High School represented. Um and that is open to students who are currently in grades 8 through 12. These students will receive a theater credit
for their participation. We are al also offering band camp at John Adams High School and Riley High School. These are preparations for their marching bands for the competition season. Uh we hope in the future to add
Washington back into this mix. um they are in production or in the process of growing their band back up and we are increasing numbers but at this point they are not ready to have a competitive marching band. So those schools those
camps meet will meet within a window from July 27th to August 14th. The exact times will be determined by each school um as the availability of their um resources and marching fields are worked out among their um football
counterparts. So thank you. Thank you. So that concludes our K12 comprehensive summer overview and we are excited with um again the course offerings that we can offer our students both in the
classroom and extended learning opportunities in fine arts. There's one other partnership that we learned that we will have the opportunity to um participate in again this year and that is the GE girls STEM camp. Um and I
apologize that is not on the presentation but again we learned about that just few moments before we came this a this evening. So that is our middle school girls STEM camp that we've partnered with the University of Notre Dame for the past five or six years and
so we are excited that we are can offer that opportunity as well. So, all of these things said, we are now prepared to begin our hiring and staffing decision, make those decisions beginning today. So, moments ago, um
these certified positions were sent to our no reply email. So, teachers have that information as was promised at ourformational meeting held at Edison. So, um, all the information that they need to begin to look into and make
their decision for summer employment have happened approximately 10 minutes ago and so we look forward to having those conversation. That concludes our presentation for this evening and we would welcome any questions, comments at this time.
>> Thank you very much. >> Dr. McCulla, please. >> Thank you. I do have a couple questions. So, we have I went back up to I think the first page, the first Yeah, underneath the agenda,
K1 summer school, we have 12 elementary schools. And so I'm wondering the other elementary schools that have students that are struggling, how will they get to these sites? Are we
providing transportation for them? Yes, we are providing transportation for um all of our K8 initiatives. High school will continue to be self um transport as well as um summerfly but all the other position uh opportunities will be
transport. >> Okay. And so parents that that students have to ride the bus, are they aware of where they're going to be, you know, kids going to be picked up at and what time they're going to be picked up for the summer? >> Yes, they will. They have not received that information yet, but they will
receive that information upon identification of who will be chosen to participate. >> Okay. >> All right. That was basically I think my question. I was more concerned about the uh transportation for the students.
So I think that was that was basically it. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Others. Oh, Mr. Castillo. Uh thank you for your presentation. I uh
I believe it's a credit to you people um that we run a summer program for most of our students who want to be educated during the summer and uh you guys do a
good job there of organizing it and putting it out. But I do have a couple questions here. I noticed uh in the elementary school uh programs you have uh listed uh five schools
and I could see where Wilson west side, Monroe Southside, uh Nuner on the east side and I think you have um Madison and Measel.
What about Clay? What happened to in the Clay area? We don't have any school out there uh that we could provide services for. Um with the conversation with um
transportation, we wanted to use that information of what worked well last year and on time arrival and on time departure. So one of the things that they asked us to examine is to how can we have a northsouth east and a west. Um
and because a lot of our students would had to travel further to clay IA then we identified Madison because a number of those students that we saw um that were at Clay could have were serviced during an academic year at Madison. So
basically we kind of pulled those students back um in um to Madison because that that would have been their natural boundary. >> Okay. Well, I can understand what uh the answer you gave me. U and that's probably correct.
Um, but just from uh a uh just looking at it from a neighborhood school standpoint, um you know, if we can't get anything this
summer, uh maybe you ought to look into it next year because I think it's very important for that community north of here. um you know their their kids are just as valuable as the other kids we have in our school corporation. All
these kids are very very valuable to us. >> But uh we need to I think also look at that as a as an option maybe for the future. >> Um the uh high school summer lessons I
think very extensive. Um I uh very impressed uh with what we are trying to do and everything. I do have a question about uh the
staffing for the virtual educational component. uh do we have the staffing to monitor and make sure that those uh students are assisted and helped and that there's no way of of
creating credit there that's not deserved. >> That's a good good question. Something >> that's a good question. It's something I anticipated you asking. You know, after the last couple years, um, I had the opportunity to coordinate summer school
last year, too. And we made sure when we did adminum that it was done with fidelity and validity, and I have nine very short bullet points to help you understand how we do that. So, first of all, we want to hire licensed teachers, especially in mathematics. Now, with the Edmonton program, you could be a
licensed teacher teaching a content area that you're not specifically licensed that content area because you're proctoring it. But to make sure it's done well, um, students have until midnight each day to log into Adminum. That's a software program. Attendance
will be taken the following day. This allows for the flexibility students need for other summer commitments such as student employment and camps. A student cannot miss more than two days. On the third absence, they are removed from class and will need to retake the class
during the school year. Teachers unlock each section of the program as students go along. If a student completes a section in a few minutes, the teacher will require the student to retake it because they're cheating. So, we're going to make them retake that sess section session, excuse me. For each
test, the student must complete the test between 12:30 and 4:30 p.m. when the teacher is there. Students must keep their cameras on and share their screen so the teacher can verify the test validity. And the final exam must also
be on camera. Essentially, we're taking away opportunities for students to take shortcuts. >> Okay. Well, thank you. That's pretty extensive and I I think that uh inhibits anybody from uh getting
credit that they don't deserve. The uh uh migrant program. I my question again is based uh your home base for that is at Lincoln I know Lincoln school great school there but
for a migrant program why why isn't it on the west side >> correct >> why aren't we using Harrison or Navar or somebody someplace like that >> I would have loved to use Harrison but Harrison is going to be under a lot of um construction or renovation or they're
fixing something in the building. Um, we bring students, these are not just Southbend students. So, we also bring students from five, I want to say five or four adjoining counties. >> And so, um,
>> but the core area is in the is in the west side. >> Not necessarily. No, really, they are spread. Yes. >> So, >> okay. >> And and we have moved our program. So our very first migrant program was actually at Harrison. Um then we've
moved to different buildings including the north side which is Clay International Academy. >> Okay. >> So um this year we selected um Lincoln again simply because a lot of our resources are stored in the storage
units in the basement and we had a very short um time to get going. Okay. >> Because of the end of school. Okay. Have a question about fine arts. Uh just for clarification,
uh the students who graduate here in June, the seniors, they're not eligible. >> No, they are eligible to participate in summerfly. They cannot get a credit obviously since they've already graduated. >> Okay. >> But and they won't be participating in band.
>> Okay. Okay. And uh if uh a student didn't know about the credit uh situation uh in the past and they like to come in and make sure uh and ask about it that they
participated in the program in the past but not have received this credit. Can they still go back and and try to get that credit? >> That I don't know but I'm happy to find out. >> Okay. >> So they should have. So >> Okay. My last question here. Um, in the past,
every time we've had, uh, people come in and talk about our summer school program, I've always asked, especially in the elementary grades, do we have a pre-EST and a post- test?
And you you're shaking your head. Yes. Yes. Go ahead. >> Thank you, Mr. Casello for that question and the answer to that is that um because we have to use a highly qualified curriculum, we will continue to use our CKLA curriculum and we will have beginning and of course for I read
we have that exam but again for our K1 and two we will have those um data markers as well. And I've always maintained that is that's the way to see if you're doing the job or not in a in summer school is that pre-est and post- test.
>> Absolutely. Because if you're if the scores come back and they not you don't like what they you see then you have for the next year you have a basis okay what can we do better and I think that's very important and it's also very important I think
>> for us as a board to to find out >> what you received you know I asked that several times before in the past and we never have received any any information back from what happened during the
summer school programs. And uh you know, just as a uh uh person who uh would like to have the community be aware of things like this, I think that'd be excellent on your part as well
as the school board here uh to know what what happened. So, thank you very much. >> You're welcome. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Yeah, go ahead. I have kind of a followup on the uh the high for the high school and the virtual learners. Is there any opportunity to have a space at
LA where the virtual learners could be on site if they wanted like in-person support to their virtual learning? >> That's probably a Mr. Eid question. I would just say my one concern is we don't have security then. So security works from 7:30 until 12:30.
>> So we'd have no security, no social worker, no Well, I'm there as a site coordinator, but it' be teachers. So, I I just think that that'd be the only opt >> Yeah. It just be a staffing issue. Yeah. I just wonder if some kids are more comfortable like having, you know, somebody in the room that they can ask a question of while they're trying to do
their virtual learning. I guess they can always, you know, email or call their right the instruction. >> So, the the teachers available from 12:30 until 4:30. >> Okay. >> Um and and they're as they're so the teachers have to come to Lasell Academy virtual teachers. They're in in on on
campus. they're available via CA or via the computer. Uh so they're accessessful to the students. So the one issue we had last year was students that would work at you know they have a summer job. They work in the evening. They work during the day. They take classes in the evening. Then they want their this test session opened up for the next next
excuse me session. Well we can't do that because we can't teachers aren't going to sit there 6:30 7 o'clock at night opening session. So teach students know and I will be sending a letter out to all parents and students before summer school helping make sure everybody understands uh how the program is set up and that in in order to open up a
session or to take a test it has to be between 12:30 and 4:30 p.m. >> Thank you. >> Dr. McCulla, do you have a followup? >> Yes, please. Thank you. Uh Mr. Costello brought up a point. Uh I want to ask again when I asked about transportation
that was for the 12 elementary schools that we have and K clay uh international is a K8 school. We have four of them. >> So the students that are in those K8 schools that are struggling.
>> So do are they also provided transportation or do to their to their closest school that is housing the summer school? >> Correct. So we're the schools are in clusters if you will. So the north, south, east, and west. And then we looked at um so
Madison will serve more than just Madison students. We haven't made the determination of the who yet because we have to look at the totality of students who need those particular services. So once we have that number, then those students will be clustered at one of those sites and transported to that
site. Okay. And yes, so transportation, special ed, um, EL, migrant, K1, and BGC, all students will have transportation. The only ones, not high school, >> I'm sorry. In a sense, what you're looking for, especially these K8
schools, these four K8 schools. So, you're looking at the addresses possibly where they live also. So if they are in on if they live on the west end of town so they can go to either
uh Wilson or one of the other schools that's in that area. >> Correct. So Wilson >> the the Marquette um yeah because Yeah. Edison Edison is a
K8. So yeah, as long as they can go, they can they can they're transported to a school, a summer school as close to wherever they live. I'm just worried about the transportation piece. >> We would um try our best to
um again shorten the route as much as we can. So that's why we're looking at the cluster system. So if I'm a student at Wilson and I am attending um third grade for I read and I would stay where I am but I also may host Harrison students
and I also may host Quillard students but again it just depends on the number of students who would need those services. Yeah, because the parents uh when it when it come times to setting the kids up for summer school and vacation and
all of those types of things, they one thing that they want to have to worry about is where what who how they going to get a bus. >> Correct. >> How they going to get there? >> Correct. >> And so if we can just get that, you know, taken care of it off of their mind. Uh because the kids do need it. So that's that's a must.
>> So >> and although we partnered Dr. McCulla with the Boys and Girls Club. We also know that the success of that would heavily relies on transportation. So if we did not provide that then that KA
structure it would have the attendance would have been probably negative negatively impacted. So that's why we wanted to ensure that um even in our partnership sites that we had transportation. >> Okay. I appreciate it. Thanks.
Well, thanks for sharing such a robust uh summer program. Uh I don't think many people realize how robust it is or the fact that we serve five different counties.
Um and it's it's quite impressive. Uh I I also have a question if that's okay. Mhm. Yeah. >> Um I know we have a fair number have had a fair number of second graders and
third graders who need summer school. Uh can you estimate how many actually for this year will need uh summer school because they haven't passed or you identify some kids as at risk?
um and how uh the outreach what the outreach looks like when we write to parents who were saying no we really need your kids in summer school I mean there's a law now
how how do you nuance that so that the invitation is that this is a summer program designed to enhance your stu your children's learning but from our perspective I think there's there's a sense of urgency.
>> So, um, for the IE whether your second grade I at risk or third grade did not pass, a better indicator to answer that would be after the May 11th exam. And then for those students who um are on
track for that K8, again, just keep that learning moving forward. That's what we want to do. just keep enriching, keep enriching, keep enriching and having ensuring that we're not having that summer slide or that summer lost, >> excuse me. And then the first and the
last one for the K1 we are examining again the essential standards for kindergarten and first grade and we will uh look at and and use our data to say okay what have our students what do they know and what do they need areas of
support and then that will lean us into or lead us to targeting those students for kindergarten and first grade. We've already began some of the conversations at parent teacher conferences um last week and it will only get stronger between now and May 11th.
>> Okay. Thank you. >> Uh Dr. Green, I wanted to add >> Oh, >> that um my team of bilingual ed specialists in the buildings um they make personal phone calls to each family >> and have a good conversation with with
parents. It's a good good idea, >> I think, to convey that urgency, but also that personal relationship. >> Thank you for that. Again, thank you for everything you're doing. Appreciate it. The innovation at the high school level
and in the arts. It's exciting to hear you all talk. Thank you. >> Thank you. So, we're on to the consent agenda. >> It is recommended that the board of school trustees approve the consent agenda, which includes approval of the March 9th minutes under item 8.01,
accepting any attached financial reports and statements under item 8.02, approving any attached consolidated registers of claims and distributions of payroll for payment under item 8.03, 03 approving personnel decisions listed in 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 of the corporation and approving any fundraisers described in any attached reports under item 8.06 and approving or ratifying any contracts for $50,000 or
less listed under item 8.07. Do we have a motion and a second to approve the consent agenda? Motion to approve. >> Thank you. >> Second. >> Thank you, Mrs. Lee. >> Uh,
Mrs. Hernandez, uh, can you please call the role? >> Mr. Ellison, >> I. >> Mr. Costello, >> I. >> Dr. McCulla, >> I. >> Mr. Snicki, >> Miss Lee, >> I. >> Mr. Leo, >> I. >> Dr. Green,
>> I. Motion carries six to zero. We have now approved the consent agenda and we'll move on to action items. It is recommended that the board of school trustees ratify the special purchase of eight international school buses from Midwest Transit Equipment in
the amount of $1,323,419. Do we have a motion and a second to approve? >> Motion to approve. Thank you. >> Second. >> Thank you, Miss Lee. >> Welcome, Mr. Durm. Oh, no, he's there.
And >> so, uh, we've been pretty pretty easy on you guys. We We've only had uh we received six buses at the end of last year's that were ordered in 2022. Um, we had some buses on order for Kurland that were ordered in 2023.
Those were the six buses we received at the end of last year, so the end of 2025. We had another eight buses that were on order from Kurland that we wouldn't receive until next year. And they were on order since 2024. So, we canled that purchase order. We're able to order
buses from MT. They're international buses, roughly the same price. Um, we can just get those buses sooner. >> Do we have any questions, Mr. Castella? >> Are these gas or electric?
>> Diesel >> or diesel? >> Yeah, we're sticking with diesel. We, you know, our our fuel tanks are just diesel and we were able to secure a good contract on diesel fuel here at last meeting. Um, you know, we we thought
about maybe moving back towards gasoline at some point. Um, diesel used to be the big advantage was cheaper fuel. It's not necessarily cheaper anymore. Um, gasoline buses tend to be a little easier to work on, but our
infrastructure set up for diesel buses now. And >> is it cheaper the buses themselves cheaper if you go with diesel? >> Roughly the same price. Pretty close to the same price. Yeah. >> Okay. because I know when was it two or three years ago we went with uh the
electric >> we did get two electric buses in 2023 and most of that was paid for by grant money. I think we might have paid 20,000 a bus uh for two buses,00 they're not working out real well. Um,
we use them. Um, more issues. I've met with a company recently. Um, they've made improvements in that area. >> If we thought we could get some more electric buses with grant money, we might consider doing that. I know, uh, the charging stations have been a
problem with the two buses that we have. They share one charging station and it seems like an issue sometimes making sure that we keep both buses charged. Um, this company now has individual charging stations for each one. And they actually, uh, they've had districts that
in the summertime, the charging stations are creating power and they sell that back to the grid. They, you know, they might make 15 20,000 a year per bus that isn't running in the summer from the charging stations, but um, that's probably down the road a little bit.
>> Okay. Thank you. Any any other questions? If not, >> Mr. Mr. Ellison >> I >> Mr. Costello >> I >> Dr. McCulla >> I >> Miss Lee >> I >> Mr. Lea >> I >> Dr. Green
>> I motion carries 6 to zero. >> Thank you. >> Thank you very much. >> On to 9.02. It is recommended that the board of school trustees approve the boiler room shutdown switches and HBAC alarm upgrade from Precision Control Systems Inc. in the amount of $32,250.
Do we have a motion and a second to approve? Motion to approve. >> Thank you, Mr. Ellison. >> We have a second, Mr. Castello. Thank you very much. >> Welcome. >> Thank you, Dr. Green. We are asking the
board to approve an agreement with precision control systems to install emergency boiler shutff switches in all our buildings. These emergency boiler shut off switches are like kill switches located on the outside of the boiler room. In the event there is ever a leak
or mechanical failure, the first responder can instantly cut the power and fuel from the hallway without having to step into the boiler room. This initiative will bring our facilities into compliance with modern safety codes and we'll connect everything to our digital system so our maintenance teams
are notified instantly um the moment the system is triggered. >> So we don't have a triggering system now. >> No, >> the same is necessary. Yes. >> Discussion. I guess not.
>> Seems necessary. >> It seems necessary. >> Miss Hernandez. >> Mr. Ellison. >> I. >> Mr. Cassello. >> I. >> Dr. McCulla. >> I. >> Miss Lee. >> I. >> Mr. Lea. >> I. >> Dr. Green. >> I. Motion carries
zero. Sorry. >> Oh, that's okay. 9.03. It is recommended that the board of school trustees approve the ratification of emergency purchase for annual bleachers and athletic equipment service agreement from BRES in the amount of $71,676.
Do we have a motion and a second to approve? >> Motion to approve. >> Thank you, Mr. Ellison. >> Second. >> Thank you, Mrs. Lee. >> This might be necessary, too, but you might as well tell us. >> Sure. We're asking the board to approve
the emergency agreement with BR Bleachers to service our equipment for our school buildings. We moved forward with this because we needed to make sure our overhead equipment was 100% safe for our students. By handling this as an emergency, we were able to get these
schools inspected and certified. This initiative brings our schools into compliance with our current safety codes and ensures our equipment is certified and safe for students to use. >> Any questions? Thank you very much, Mr. Hernandez.
>> Mr. Ellison, >> I >> Mr. Costello, >> I >> Dr. McCulla. >> Hi, >> Miss Lee. >> I >> Mr. Leva, >> I. >> Dr. Green, >> I. Motion carries six to zero. >> On to 9.04. It is recommended that the board of
school trustees approve transfer appropriations within gift funds to support professional development for McKinley SNAP administrators in the amount of $6,116.36. Do we have a motion and a second to approve? >> Motion to approve.
>> Thank you, Mr. Ellison. >> Second. >> Thank you, Mr. Costello. There any question or discussion? Do you want to address this, Miss Reed? I I can address if you'd like. >> He's here to answer questions. >> Please.
>> Yeah. So, we do have a lot of donation money uh which was received a long time ago without restrictions that we are not currently utilizing. So, we are trying to transfer the money from different accounts into one for professional development of the administrators at
McKinley Snap. they have the money but uh the money just needs to be moved into different account for it to be usable. Uh and that is why we are seeking the board's permission because by state board of account law uh I mean whatever the amount is when we move funds from
one index to another. I mean we need the board's approval. >> Thanks for telling us that. >> Sure. >> Mr. Hernandez, can you please call the role? >> Mr. Ellison >> I. >> Mr. Castello >> I. Dr. McCulla. >> Hi. >> Miss Lee
>> I. >> Mr. Lea. >> I. >> Dr. Green. >> I. Motion carries unanimously. 6. >> 9.05. It is recommended that the board of school trustees approve the common school loan application. Do we have a motion and a second to approve?
>> Motion to approve. >> Thank you, Mr. Ellen. >> Second. >> Thank you, Mrs. Lee. Welcome, Mr. Mer. Hi. Yes. So, this loan uh will support the implementation of our technology plan by
strengthening our existing onetoone student initiative. Um providing devices at all grade levels and carts for our middle and elementary schools. um helping ensure excuse me every
student has access to to a device >> and I'm right in saying we apply for this every year. >> Yes. Yes. We apply for this every year. This is a direct loan from IDOE at 1% interest rate much better than
inflation. We have been historically taken advantage of that. So I recommend from finance that we do this this time as well. Thank you for that endorsement, Mr. Tamid. If there are no questions, then Mr. Hernandez, can you please call the role?
>> Mr. Ellison, >> I. >> Mr. Cello, >> I. >> Dr. McCulla, >> I. >> Miss Lee, >> I. >> Mr. Lea, >> I. >> Dr. Green. >> I. Motion carries unanimously 6 to zero. >> On to 9.06. It is recommended that the
board of school trustees approve the special purchase for furniture and equipment upgrade project at Kquillard Primary Center from Sharp School Services in the amount of $410,55186. Do we have a motion and a second to approve? >> Motion to approve.
>> Second. >> Thank you, Mr. Le. And we have representatives from Killer. >> Thank you, Dr. Green. We are asking the board to approve the purchase for a furniture upgrade at Quillard Elementary School. And just a side note regarding
the building furniture facility works directly with building principles for any immediate furniture needs they may have and we try to accommodate that need. facility has currently set up procedures for schools and facilities to work together to remove any obsolete
and/or broken furniture and possibly replace that furniture that we may have in storage. This work is ongoing and is continuous. As facilities assessed the westside schools, it was determined that Quillard had the greatest furniture need. This
furniture was very, very outdated. So we asked uh the administration at Quillard, Mrs. or Miss Laura Kger, Miss Denise Boyd, and Mr. Ethan Marose to come and speak about the request for their true need.
>> Good evening, board president, Dr. Green, Superintendent Eid, and members of the board. Um thank you for the opportunity to come and speak with you this evening. Um I'm here to share an update on progress we've made at Ko Willilard. uh made possible through a very strong partnership with Mr.
Summers, executive director of the facilities, um Mr. Todd Vancouple, director of building and grounds, and the entire facility staff. Over the past years, we identified a need for updates and repairs um that were very seriously needed at Koillard.
Um we want to ensure our building reflects the level of excellence that we expect of our students and staff. And I'm pleased to report that those efforts have truly taken root and grown into meaningful improvements across our school. We've transitioned to new LED
lighting, creating brighter, more energyefficient classrooms and hallways. Um exterior lighting is being updated, enhancing safety for students, staff, and families at arrival and dismissal. Our new playground will soon be enclosed
with a fence, adding another layer of security for our children, including our new um ARR classroom we added this year. We've also successfully operationalized our outdoor restrooms and locker room for um student use. They're now
functional and accessible. Um we have fresh paint throughout the building that has helped to transform our environment into one that feels clean, welcoming, and well cared for. But these updates are about more than aesthetics. They're about creating a caring, safe,
supportive, and conducive environment for teaching and learning. When students walk into a well-maintained space, it communicates that they are valued. When teachers work in an environment that is functional and inviting, it directly impacts their ability to do their very best work. We've already seen a
noticeable boost in staff morale as a result of these improvements and the plans to move forward. As we continue this momentum, we're looking ahead to the next phase of enhancing our learning spaces. Specifically, we would like to update the furniture in several key areas. The library, which is the heart of our
school, our classrooms, where students spend the majority of their day. Our cafeteria, where community and connection are built, and our professional learning space, where staff collaborate and continue to grow professionally. These updates will allow us to better
support modern teaching practices, student engagement, and a sense of pride in our school community. We're incredibly grateful for the partnership and support that has brought us this far, and we thank you for your thoughtful consideration as we continue working to provide the very best environment for our students and staff.
>> Thank you very much. >> Do we have any questions or concerns? If not, >> the only question I had is in terms of just because there were some questions earlier like during people speaking, do you all just always just pick whoever's
most in need or is there a rotation system or how do you determine why this school gets it next and then that school or that kind of thing? Well, it's a collaborative effort with our cabinet and then the school's true need and we would provide that information to the
cabinet for the cabinet to make the ultimate decision to move it forward to the board. >> Also, it goes into the capital project planning for the district. For instance, you can see this is almost half a million dollars and we usually fund these projects through our bond
issuances. And each year when we issue the bonds, I closely work with the facilities team and the capital projects team who closely work with the building principles and leadership. Okay. So this is like a collaborative process uh on a need-go basis. As you know as a district
we need $250 million to facelift everything there. We do not have that. So that's why we prioritize ABC's right based on the need situation and then we try to see how much funding available we have. So this was one of those priority
projects that we are going to fund from our bond receipts. >> If I may go ahead >> go ahead >> please. >> I don't have a question per se just a comment. And this school this this will
help this school out immensely is way past needed. I've been to Quiller and it's way past needed. So whatever they're whatever furniture, anything else they're getting, it's needed. So I thank you. >> Thank you, Dr. McCulla. >> I was going to say out of all the schools,
>> Coquillard was probably the most neglected. And rumor has it that as they were cleaning some of the furniture, they found a book that predicted that man would land on the moon.
Wow, that was an exaggeration. >> Okay, I think we can move on. >> Mr. Ellison, >> I >> Mr. Castello >> I >> Dr. McCulla >> I >> Miss Lee >> I >> Mr. Lea >> I >> Dr. I motion carries unanimously 6.
>> Thank you. >> Again, thanks to everyone who's supporting Coco alert. >> So now uh we do well 10.01 we do not have anything from close session and we can move on to 11.01 board comments.
when board members have the opportunity to speak and those who are listening or staying should know that board comments do not include any decisions. Mr. Castillo, I want to begin tonight by
um talking about the introduction of two Southbend students into the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame. It was a great honor for me on Wednesday
night to travel to Indianapolis to see Joan Cornell and Brandon Mcnite uh being selected and placed in the uh Indiana
High School Basketball Hall of Fame. had a chance to talk to um all the family members and I was uh just really impressed
um by the uh ceremony and uh the other activities that went along with it. But I could not think of two uh better people to represent the South Bend area than uh
Cornell and Mcnite. Just excellent people. Obviously uh Joan Cornell died this past summer. Um and uh we all grieve for that. And then
Brandic Mcnite. I had the distinct pleasure of having him as a student when I was a assistant principal at Dickinson Middle School and got to know him on a firstname basis there. So it was one of these things that uh uh it like I said
it was a just a fantastic evening for everybody. I want to talk tonight about the the report that we receive from the
state board of accounts that everybody had a chance to look at online if they wanted to. Um before I start talking about and going into a little bit of detailed on some
things because number one uh I was disappointed that they didn't put out the full report that we as a board received
uh about a month or so ago. But it did give some great details to it. But before I do that, I want to thank some people for that
report. I want to thank the financial officers of the state board of accounts who put that report out there for people
who worked very hard over a year on that report. About eight or nine people involved in that. They received information from a lot of people from the board. I know I gave them a lot of information.
But I also want to thank Tim Corbett and Joe Spybrook, our two investigators who work very diligently with the state board of accounts people from the information they received
through their investigation. I want to thank Mr. Augustinino who worked very hard and diligently with the state board of accounts people
and of course I want to thank Mr. Eid and Mr. Mr. timid timid for their work in trying to get answers to questions
uh for that report. I especially like to thank the four or five staff members downtown who talked to me privately
after I came on the board about giving me information about what was going on that tipped me off. the many teachers that came forward with information
about what was going on. And that's when I realized we needed an investigation. And as everybody can see now, that investigation was needed in order to get to the truth of what was
happening. some of the things in the report and I don't obviously have the time to go through everything but I want to highlight some things because I think it's very important that you get the
idea of what we were looking at. The report identified certain deficiencies in the internal control as described in the accompanying schedule of findings and questions cost
as items from 2022 23 report that we considered to be or the state board of accounts people consider to be material weakness on our part. the financial statement findings. The
school corporation had not implemented an effective framework of internal controls. Now, obviously, I'm talking about a different administration, not this one.
They also highlighted credit card payments. Credit card transactions were proceed proceeded without documented prior authorization. However, no document
evidence was available to verify the report and had been reviewed and approved by management. In other words, there was very little control. Now, we have done something about that. In fact, is we have done something about everything that I'm talking about
tonight. I think they had what 11 or 12 credit cards out for people. You know, I can't even control my wife's credit cards, let alone trying to control 11 or 12
people. But that's the problem we have. There should be only one or two credit cards out. And I think that's what we have out now. And I'm not I'm not going to go into questions of people who had these credit cards and what they did with them
because they should have had a person making sure that what they were purchasing was correct and they didn't have that person. W2 wage and tax statements to school
corporation W2 file was issued without documented review. Most of this what we were cited had very little if any documentation to it
that was so hard about trying to do this accounting from the state board of accounts people average daily membership something we have to have in order to get state funding no documentation available to confirm
that these approvals occurred. Financial transactions as a result of the Southband Community School Corporation defy deficencies.
The school corporation's internal control environment did not provide responsible assurances that the financial transactions were properly authorized accurately recorded or
compliance with statutory requirements. Basic fundamentals we were not following. Due to the lack of effective internal controls, the following errors occurred. For example,
school breakfast programs expenditures were underestimated by almost $3 million. School lunch programs were underestimated by almost $8 million.
The lack of internal controls was a systematic issue throughout the audit. The school corporation could not provide contracts or approved payroll rates for six out of
24 employees tested. Unbelievable. I could say some things about the COVID money and how it was spent, but basically again mismanagement on it that was cited.
Now, every one of these has a corrective action plan by our administration, present administration to correct it and so it never happens
again. But I want to tell the people out there that this is far from over with. Now
is going to be the legal process to decide on who received money and why. who took money and why. The other thing I want to add to this
comments tonight is that I want to make sure that people understand this was only 2223. There is a lot of problems with 23 24 the current
years that we're right now being evaluated. a lot of problems especi especially in co money a lot of money that's missing
and I think I know where it's at and I told them where some of that money was at. I'm just one board member and I know by getting out information that's is not
very helpful to the credibility of our school corporation. I know there's problems in that area. But let me say this. If we didn't do what we did,
we would have more problems. And hopefully this will get corrected if there's people to pay a price for that which I am not looking at with glee
but so be it. And Hopefully, we'll never have another issue that faced this board as we came into office in 2025
like we did this year or last year. It was incredible. But it's to these people's credit that I'm sitting with tonight at this dayish
that we all went in the same direction together of trying finding the truth and making sure that it's corrected. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Costello. Are there others? >> Yeah,
>> Mr. Ellison. >> All right. Um I just want to kind of touch on a couple things tonight. Um things that have been in sort of in the media lately. The first thing I would want to start with there was a lot you know in today in terms of um news stories about the incident that happened
in the basketball game with Riley and Penn. You know uh there's been you know some calls for action for things they think Penn should do that they haven't done yet. You know whether there should be a boycott of uh our athletics programs with theirs. I would just say that's something I don't think we should
do. I would disagree with I think that the way the pin school board and superintendent have handled this. They've done a lot of things that I think were the right thing to do in response to the incident in terms of immediately stopping the broadcast, taking it down, keeping it off. They've
had multiple public apologies. my understanding there's been a private apology directly to the uh student that was shooting the free throw at the time and some of the other kind of things are also uh my understanding they've done under their current code of conduct or discipline the things that would involve
a student because it's a child there are limits into you know what can be shared publicly about that as I think are appropriate um so I think they've done a lot of things right but I think ultimately you know they they've got an elected school board there they've hired a superintendent they should take to
aren't the things that those that are calling for uh the um you know the saying that we we should not play them in sports or anymore. Take their considerations, take what they say, well these are the things we want to see you do. Take it into account and then look at what you're you know those that are
in power over there have are in the best position to know what they should or shouldn't do in response to this one issue. And if they need to do something that they either haven't done or still need to do, then they should do that. But if they've already addressed those in other ways, the other things and they're confident at it, then I can, you
know, be confident that the elected leadership uh and the people that are in that corporation there, you know, I don't know all of them, but many of them I know are good, honest, diligent public servants people and they're going to do what their best is to do the right thing. It's an unfortunate incident. It deserves to be taken seriously. It's not
something you want to see happen, but I think, you know, boycotting or our athletic teams not, you know, competing against Penn anymore. I think that's bad for us. I think it's bad for their students and I don't I think it's bad for the community and that's not uh the proper response in my opinion to uh you
know resolve the situation. But I understand other people see it differently and have a different opinion and that's fine. That's you know United States of America. Everybody can have an opinion. But at least if it ever comes before this board or any vote, I'm certainly would be strongly against uh
any kind of boycott of pin athletics by South M school corporation certainly at this time based upon uh what we know about the situation in terms of the the second last thing I want to talk about is uh also about the audit and the results that were released
uh that came out recently. And I think it's important um and as Mr. Costello noted that this is from a time in the past. It's from uh 2223 and there will be a 232 24 audit. I think they expect we'll get the results of that here in the next few months, late spring, early
summer. Um but I would point out that this is about things that happened in the past. Uh I kind of agree with what he said. Every single thing that they've identified in there that they think needed to be corrected or changed or that they wanted us see us do, we've done and we're continuing to do those
things. And just to highlight some of the important things we have uh created the internal control manual an office provided uh you know I believe up till now we've now got over 1,900 employees of our 2200 employees have been trained
have received training in that and that will still be ongoing and more of that kind of thing. We have done a capital asset inventory where everything all assets valued at $5,000 or more have been tagged, barcoded to allow us to keep a better uh monitoring things of
what we have and some of those kind of things. And we've done a lot of things that they've talked about in terms of strengthen internal controls where there's a lot more information now that people see for all the contracts of, you know, uh $50,000 or more online. We have a lot more detail in terms of things
that are action items. And so there's a lot of transparency and that type of aspect. We do have uh the investigators. I was one of the people that voted in favor of uh hiring the investigators and simply because they think that if a lot of people are saying we constantly have these issues or their problems including
members of the board, it's best to you know get on top of that, look into it in that type of aspect. But I would say though that it is important that we accept the state board of accounts with what they've included at least what they've put out so far. If they put out other things in the supplement or things
in the next report that are more specific or name some names or do some other kind of things, then we may have a different response. I don't want to speculate as to what they may or may not do. I don't know if they'll do a supplement and I certainly don't know what'll be in it or what the next report will be. I would assume uh it may be
some of the same, but it may be something different. But I would point out there are things that they didn't this report does not they did not find that there has been a misappropriation of funds. They did not find that there's been money missing. They did not find or have not recommended that anyone be
brought up on any type of uh criminal aspect or that kind of thing. And I know a lot of people thought that once this came out, maybe that would happen. Well, it hasn't. Now, another report comes out and some of those things are happening, then we'll address those and we get to that point. But based upon what's out
now, I'm not saying it's a great report. And I'm not saying there aren't any problems, but I'm saying it's, you know, the things that were in there have been identified and we're working for. And as we're moving forward and we think about what's best for our students and that time, at some point we need to start to
focus on 2026 and 2027 and 2028 and 2029 and not spend as much time and effort talking about 21 and 22 and 23 and 24. I'm not saying we should ignore the past. I'm not saying we shouldn't
address it, but we do have to at some point turn the page, move the chapter, and what we're coming in here talking about what our focus really needs to be on what's best for our students now and where we're going. Now, I'm kind of at that point. I understand not everybody in here and everyone watching at home,
not everybody up here is probably at that point yet, and that's fine. we all don't have to get there at the same time, but hopefully we all will get there eventually because to to really do what's best for our corporation and what's for our students. It really needs to be about the present and the future
and not about the past. learn what we need to learn from the past. Correct what we need to correct from the past. But then let's move forward and all about where we're going, where we are, and what we can do next to strengthen our corporation, to improve our test
scores, to uh have more success with, you know, graduation rate and all of those kind of things. And uh focusing on what happened three or four years ago can take away from our ability to focus on where we are and where we're going.
So I just, you know, urge everyone to keep that in mind and think about what you need to see or what you need to do to get to the point that it's all about the future and not about the past. >> Thank you, sir. >> Dr. McCulla, >> I just want to say that uh from the
people that I've talked with or spoken with me, they um because of this report that's come out, uh they've read it. Uh we still haven't gotten to um the final report and until that happens you have
to you have to just wait and see what happens and to just try to say that you want to move on. We can move on but we still need to know what happened because if you remember there was a bill on the floor. They tried to take over this
corporation on past things that happened not current but past. And so we had to go down to the Senate and fight that bill. And so you're talking about maybe moving on. We can move on, but we still need to make sure that what happened in
the past is cleaned up. We need to make sure that happens. That's what I want to say. >> Thank you. >> I forgot. Thank you. I forgot to mention earlier. Um, so Mr. Bangana is the principal at RiseUp Academy and they're doing some I spend a a day a week
visiting RiseUp Academy and and with the grant they got they're doing great things. Um um students are graduating. There's a good culture going on. So want to give a shout out to uh Mr. Bangana. And then I see Eric here Kernin U. We did a really good job this year at our sport sporting
events. past two years we had some altercations that made the press, but this year zero altercations, zero, we were not in the in the press. So, give a shout out to Mr. Kin and his staff and also um started track season indoor. We have, you know, great coaches like Cino
and Swanson um doing some great things for our athletes and then um then I got to visit the King Center, well, the MLK center now. We're doing some great things there where our kids, a lot of helping kids are there. I know back um it was always a safe haven. I can tell you a quick story. There's a kid, not
gonna say his name, but he used to stay there after hours um after lockup because he didn't want to go home. He's hid in the bathroom >> and and we had to, you know, talk to his family and say, you know, things were going on. So, it's you know, kids love being there and let's keep it open as as long as possible. You know, it's it's a
very safe place and we also have the Charles Black and O'Brien Center, but things are happening. And then um it's part of the motto we got to invest our in our kids because we keep talking about oh the kids are the future but we got to start thinking about kids are the now they they have talents and we need
help them get where they want to go and so um yeah just keep supporting our our staff and students and I think we'll get there. Thanks >> Mr. Leva. >> Okay. Um I have several announcements. Uh the the board is hosting a community
meeting on March 30th, a week from today here at Brown. The meeting will provide an opportunity to discuss discipline and the study that the corporation is undertaking. Uh someone mentioned earlier, we've we've been talking about it for a while. This will be an
opportunity to have uh the voice of the community uh respond to some of the things that we're trying to do. Uh the next board meeting is on Monday, April 13th. It's a while here again here at Brown. And then we'll have a policy
meeting on April 15th. So uh thanks for being here. Thanks for listening to those who are online and uh I'll adjourn the meeting. >> Thank you very much.