Hello? With patron concerns, just remember you have five minutes. I know. That's it. Yeah. Come on. You can just stand. I mean, we can't comment on anything. We can just say what you want. Thanks. I'm Larry Mitchell, branch. I'm on the redevelopment council to open ten, and we've got a big dilemma in front of us. As you guys and you guys surely know by now. In other words, the, previous 10th District expired, and we're in the process of starting
a new TIF district called the Toyota TIF district for another twenty five years. We signed a resolution on January 12, and, it was called a victory resolution. And but there there is a it's it's it's a pretty large document, and it it puts a lot of, it puts a lot of fear in my to my
heart that that is gonna be it's gonna be twenty five years of uncertainty. And as as the as a new TIF district is established, it was established the same footprint as what the previous one done. But at all of the the redevelopment commission has to do is make an amendment and get approval, to, commissioners. And, basically, it's open ended. I could go out and buy more ground. I can taking clear ground.
It's supposed to be to provide to capital for infrastructure. And that generated a public hearing. The purpose of that debt resolution supposedly was to have a public hearing. There's a public hearing on February 9, and there was probably a 100 people there, mostly taxpayers, and basically 100% to as against farming in the new tip District. If it does happen, it will increase, tax payers.
It will increase the taxes for taxpayers of Gibson County. Basically, basically all in Gibson County. But since the new development is mostly in Union Township, it will tremendously increase the taxes in Union Township. Oh, Baker Tilly was just down our meeting last Monday night and gave us a lot more information. And it it didn't give any any projections out five, ten, fifteen years from now. It just gave what it is.
As it really did affect too much, much like for next year. North Gibson had a big problem. And if you guys follow the history, that is the North Griston struggled, and they kept asking for more pass through. It just was extra fun because because they think it's because they was hurting. Now I think I think North Gibson will be okay because that because they've got a base of a $700,000,000 building there that all of these things hangs.
But Gibson County, Union Township, basically, the only base that they have is about 10% or less. That's most of the daycare areas. So there will be very little base come through to to, like, South Gibson School Corporation. My heart's in Gibson County. I was born and raised in Gibson County. I've got quite a bit of acreage in Union Township. Uh-oh. My four daughters went to South Gibson, and I just went South Gibson to not
have to go through the struggles that struggles that North Gibson went through for for at least fifteen years, twenty years. He had probably twenty years before they got very much passed through it all. And so I would hope that you guys would take a stance against this against adopting as as a parliamentary resolution. We could wrap it up next. So anyway, I think I think it's gonna be detrimental for South Gibson to and
especially the taxpayers of Union Township. And I would I would think think that you I would ask that you support against, confirming a new resolution. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Anybody else? Hi. I'm Dawn Hasner. I am coming to the board, in behalf of the parents that feel against the change in the middle school basketball girls coming together, for the future as just one
team or an a and a b team. I would like to pray. Coach Basher did a great job presenting and and all due respect to him. He has a great program, and I respect that. I respect him as a person. And I wanted to say that first and foremost that he does a great job, and it's nothing against that. It's against it's for the children. And so from my view and point, the projections that I have, you know, I bring into the board and that you will see on this letter, and I have a daughter that's in Saint Scrampa in fifth grade. The current numbers from those classes, there's 11 students from Saint Scramble, and there's several
students that can be from HubSpot. So, therefore, I felt those teams could have two teams individually at their respective school on their own. Four branch and Owensville, I know combined this past year. I know there was only one student from four branch that played on that team, but Holy Cross is bringing numbers of seven over so they could have a team at their respective school. And then, Owensville would have their own respective school. So I'm just looking at individual numbers are that will be coming up the future that I feel that we can make this not official for, the future, but to
look at each, year individually and make those decisions. So I know that's hard on our athletic directors, but I also feel that there's their job to do so and lift those numbers. Because I feel for the kids that aren't gonna play, that are gonna do the self selection, if we have multiple tiers like an a and b team, that they will not choose to come out and play. And that's our time for individual growth. It's our time for socialization. That's what I feel like the middle school should be, not that we're just geared toward as sports. That's it.
That's my main concern. I know coach Basher pointed out certain things such as having better competition. I'm not quite for sure where that comes from because I felt like we're still be playing Posey Bill. We're still be playing Tecumseh. We're still in there, so I don't see how that we would have better competition for our roles based on that point. Another thing that was brought up was coaching. Our coaches, Tim Smith has been around for a long time, and we have volunteer parents that do a great job. Greg Kissel has run a great program through the little titan basketball, and so many
of his parents have stepped up in the sixth grade where it's a volunteer position and coached. I do feel that coach Basher, if he's concerned about that point, could help the middle school team. He has a bunch of assistance that he would like to see that that his place could be brought to the middle school, or if he wanted to show them some videos or practice certain plans that that could be brought down to them. That was one of our main concerns of coaching. Another point that Stacy brought up was inconvenience to parents, in the last school board meeting. So some parents may not even allow their child to play if it's at another
school. So they cannot get their child from Owensville to Hopstead. I know certain practices come right after school each day, and there's transportation that way. But we know that the gyms are all booked in full, so they have practice at five or 06:30 and have to run both ways. So a parent may have trouble getting them to and from an animal for kids, or their work schedule is inconveniences them in that way, so they may not allow their child to play in that route. We also talked about competition. Another parent has brought the issue of we're competitive still.
The EAC, they've won six EACs. The respective schools have done that in the last year. So like I said, we're competitive even with this students that we have if they're, like, multiple weeks here and they're not just an a and a b team. So our kids are still competitive at that level. So I would just like to just take a closer look, and I don't have a perfect solution for it, but I just feel that certain kids are going to drop out on their own because they are not going to if we put them in a and a b team for the future in that.
So I think that the current projections that we could look at them just individually, and that's what I like to do each year instead of, like, just making it official that the teams are combined. Alright. Thank you. And I thank you. Anybody else? Onto reports. We have a report from one of our consultants that shows what the forecast today is for. You'll see the dip that'll be coming next year from the senate bill one, senate rollback. The outside of the March financial statements for ECA and the school corporation.
Okay. To consent items. So this evening, the consent items, include the minutes from the previous board meeting, personnel items, and claims from mister Armstrong. We would ask that you approve those consent items at this time. Motion to approve consent items. Second. We have a first and a second. Any questions? All in favor? No. I Opposed? Motion passed to action items. So tonight's theme you'll see will be out of state trips and overnight trips to a great extent. The first one is 5.1. It's a field trip for third graders to at FBCS, the May 4.
The trip crosses state lines requiring board approval, and we would ask this is an annual trip, and we ask you to approve it at this time. I'm gonna approve the first. I need a second. And a second? Discussion. All in favor? I'm not. Opposed? Motion passed onto FFA overnight trips. Item 5.2. There are two, overnight trips for the FFA. These are also annual trips. They would ask that those, be approved by the board this evening, and the FFA funds those trips. I'll make the motion to approve both of the FFA overnight trips.
I'll second. And we have a first and a second. Any discussion? All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion passed. To the band. So I'm a jerk. Item 5.3 is mister Winstead's annual trip to, out of town. It's to Cedar Point this year. It requires three nights overnight stay in Ohio. This is a reward for students for all the hard work they did in band during the year and the fundraisers, etcetera. Also an annual trip, and they, request your permission to go to Ohio, June. Go to the group and go to the annual band summer trip. Got a first. I'll second. A second.
Any discussion? All in favor? Opposed. Motion passed. Down to 5.4. This is simply the first transfer I've asked for for this year from education operations for expenses. Covers, January through March. Motion to approve transfer of 600,000 education operations. I'll second. K. We have the first and second of transferring from education operations. Any discussion? All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion passed. Onto 5.5, approval of addition of Girls Wrestling.
It's item 5.5. We're approached, early last fall about, girls becoming a sanctioned sport. It just has a sanctioned sport, the IHSAA. They've had a pretty solid turnout at the middle schools, and so they'll be coming to the high school next year. They anticipate maybe up to eight girls participating. That's a fluid number, obviously. It is a sport that is growing. Closet County Schools have it on their own. South Ridge has a pretty strong program. I think Castle has it. It's it's pretty prevalent around here. The season runs a little bit before the wrestling program for the boys and ends
in January. Matter of fact, they were dealing with snowmageddon last year to get to the state finals. So, so the the, athletic department is asking for permission because we will need to hire a wrestling coach, and we'd also want an assistant wrestling coach to, supervise the young ladies. How's that gonna go? I know when golf first started, they didn't pay the coach. Will we pay this guy? It's it's part of the ACA stipends. There's already wrestling in there, so it's not differentiated by male or female. We just have it. Yep. Good question. And so, you know, it is gonna, require some uniforms, things like that.
The the coach the male coaches have have been working with the female coaches already. I think they'll work really nicely together and sharing things. But it is something that has an interest level now, so, they would like to fill the team next year. So does this filter all the way down with the middle schools where we need middle school? No. Not yet. We've we've been able to do that through that feeder program. It's not been an issue there. And most of their honestly, most of the wrestling will probably be on the weekends because with small numbers, you're not gonna have a bunch of duels come here because they want full teams if they're gonna travel. So most of this will more than likely be in, competitions.
Probably try to get one duel in here, but with the numbers being what they are. So but the middle school continue to where it has The middle school is where it has been and see the streetwear growth. You know? And there there's other sports that could come along, which we don't wanna get into that just yet. What is the what is the full roster number for this? Question. I think it's closer to 12 or 13, isn't it? I don't know how many weight classes are. I don't know how many weight classes. Closer to 12 or 13.
It's it's even not uncommon. I know there are high school boys teams that can't fill a field full teams, so people won't wrestle them in dual events. So with eight interest in as as is. Is it true that you could It's possible. With the best. And, you know, if if that's mostly freshmen as it as they matriculate through the school and more join in, they could get to a full roster at some point. I think Southridge has some really solid numbers. Mount Vernon has some really solid numbers, but it it may take a couple years for the Sure. Numbers to So there may be some girls, sophomores, juniors, seniors that might?
They could. They could if they have an interest. So Just see how Do they have coaches already picked out? Or We'll post for coaches and, hopefully, find some. That, once again, is not the easiest thing to do with my coaches in any sport anymore, but we'll have to post and and start that process. But by doing it now, Nick has time to work on getting it ready, work on scheduling, officiating, traveling. It does add expenses to athletic department as anything will. But, so but they're asking permission to field team next year. My concern is still hard.
I guess we can do discussion. I mean, we're not supposed to discuss until we have emotional data. Is we consolidated the girls program Mhmm. Because they didn't have enough participation, and now we're trying to add another sport. We're gonna further put pressure on the other. That's an absolute concern, mister Finger, because, when lacrosse is an emerging sport, volleyball for males is an emerging sport. That's concerns of high schools across, Indiana because girls' basketball across the nation is declining
as we've talked about in the past. And, if we start to add sports, it is gonna pull from other sports. It's gonna require more additional dollars. It's gonna require more bodies. Probably gonna require additional athletic director help with the number of athletic programs that could be going on. So all one would anticipate that potentially they won't impact current sports. It's run from November to January. If they're wrestling, they're probably not playing basketball now. They could be swimming. But, yeah, it is it is a concern. Black football is another one that's been out there, but all these things, they they're
gonna run concurrently with other sports and impact them potentially. So it's gonna have to be well thought out as we continue down these possibilities in the future. So out of the pack, you said there's a handful of teams? Yeah. I don't know who all has a team in the BAC. Mark Posey has it. Mark Posey does, Mount Vernon does, South Ridge. Beyond that, I don't know how many have teams. I know I think they have a conference wrestling tournament, though. Booneville has a team. Sure. Matter day does. Probably. It's one of those things that's kinda been slowly taking off and emerging.
Some of the schools have had it for three or four years now, but this has been the first time really we've been approached with the numbers that could justify having a a team. And if we don't have enough numbers, then we're with no team. Do we have anybody on, like, to make a motion? Is there a way for us to project the the cost and table it for now and come back with a projection of what that might be. Yeah. I'm looking at the athletic funds here now at the March. So we're down it's down to 31,000. So I don't we don't have a lower impact that would be.
The impact The stipends don't come from there. No stipends. But I mean, won't the uniforms and other stuff come out of that? And they're gonna probably need to form a booster club like others have done to help offset those things. That's where most of that comes out. Yeah. What runs through there is just usually some supplies. I don't know. Let's see. They bought cookers and grills out there before. K. They're gonna wanna get in on the fundraising activities. It's I'm sure they'll use the same nets and everything. It would be transportation on the probably the small buses, the transportation, coaching cost comes
out of another fund. Then it in uniforms, you're probably talking a couple thousand dollars to get started, and that's probably on the high I'm guessing on the high end because you're not gonna lose a lot. But, I I did talk to him about the idea that they would need to have some boosters to try and help out with getting some of that stuff done because everybody else has booster clubs as well. And so Is it just that they need to have a booster club, or were there any goals set or anything to get started? No. They just came to us with they felt like they had enough numbers to fill
the high school team. They had girls that wanted to wrestle in high school. And if we don't have a team, they can't wrestle. Their wrestling career essentially ends here with the middle school unless they were to go somewhere else. Are there any other sports other than lacrosse on the horizon that you know of? The only one that I think is finished on the horizon right now is lacrosse. As long as spring sport? It seems to be year round. I think when is it Yeah. It's a It's a spring sport. They're club sport. Yeah. Back to you.
Yes. And then Lacrosse has huge numbers attending and participating. They have good numbers. It really impacted baseball when it first came to town. It really took a lot of numbers away from it. There's lacrosse, like, the boys and the girls are in opposite seasons or No. No. They're not. Right now. Oh, okay. I'm just seeing all this. One was in the fall, one was in spring. They they decided at this point to stay as they are because it allows them to practice. They control when they practice games when they when they're played, etcetera.
They can do it on Sunday. They can do it on Wednesday. They can and they did. Okay. And they did. There's no Is that because they're a club? Yep. If they come under the umbrella of the access, double a, and us, then they would be limited when they could practice play, etcetera. Obviously, Sundays are out. But that is the only one on the horizon that I'm aware of. I'm just aware of this. You know, black football has been out there. Volleyball has kinda started. It's more Central Indiana. It's kinda bigger, and they're playing volleyball to my knowledge right now So they they got a man young men. But beyond that, I don't know what else we can do.
College college college for Bryant's. Right? We want no memorial has a boys team. Is there any information on the size of the other one that seems at the high school as it were mentioned? I don't know those things. I had mister I had Nick look out to see, like, who's who's got assistant coaches, what does it look like. I don't think you're gonna find a team that has, like, 25. I think they're gonna be smaller at this point because they're all fairly new everywhere. I wanna say that, mostly, has about seven to nine to 10 grads, in those schools for them as well. And that's not even unusual for some boys teams.
I think mostly can't fill the whole entire boys team right now in wrestling. So those that are interested in middle school that you know of right now, do they do they you may not know that. That's okay. But do they play another winter sport, or do you think they primarily just do wrestling? I wouldn't know that. So that I would just know that there was I was it shared with us that at least eight were interested in wrestling next year on the high school team, and that's why they came to us asking for a team. Because they've seen their numbers, I guess, go pretty well in the middle school, and
they're seeing it kinda grow. And so they wanted an opportunity for the girls to to wrestle in high school, middle school. So from a cost standpoint, we're looking at uniforms. So let's say, 2,000 that you're right. Like, I I think that's on the high side probably. So your math, your Maths are already Yeah. It's already in there. All that. Headgear, all that could is probably already taken care of. So I'm gonna have their own, probably, I guess. Their own shoes. Own shoes. I'm just thinking about from a from a cost standpoint for us. I don't really see it as a as a huge out, and we have a,
I'm assuming, transportation costs. We would have a coaching cost and then probably one assistant that would be volunteer. Officials officials cost. Yeah. Yeah. And now they and that's another thing. First, starting now is they've got a not on schedule, but they gotta try and get officials. All that stuff has to be lined up for next year, if we wanna participate. So I'll make a motion to approve the additional control wrestling. Awesome. That. We have a first and second. Any discussion? All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Aye. Motion passed on to group hiring between April 22 and August '26.
So it's the annual, permission to hire during the summer. Will there's anybody right now or staff? Or where we look at some non search staff or we're in good spot. But if somebody were to resign in June and we need another person, we go after them, we get them on board, and then they'd be approved approved at the next board meeting. It's what we've done. This has been standard practice for years. I know that we approve hiring between, April 22 to August. Second. Got a first and second. Any discussion? All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion passed.
Onto summer camps. So 5.7 is approved. The twenty twenty six summer camps for athletics. It's the annual June, July summer camp time. So they asked your permission to, advertise those and get them off on the line. Do you know how many summer camps there's gonna be? I'd have to look at the form and see me a month. I don't see anything here. Tennis. Tennis. Football. Cheer. Potatoes. Or See there. Here we go. Football, basketball, girls, cheer camp, wrestling, tennis camp, cross country, track soccer, boys, basketball, baseball,
and volleyball. Everybody's having a summer camp. I'll make a motion to approve the summer camps. Sure. We have a first. I'll second. We have a first, second. All in favor. Aye. Opposed. Motion passed. Onto walk on overnight trip. Yep. Item 5.8 showed up this morning, so we wanna get on there. The Envirothon team earned a trip to the state competition in West Lafayette. It's an overnight trip, and they wanna go since competition. So and this happens before the next board meeting, so we ask that you consider allowing them to go to the Advairathon state state competition.
Is that an epic faith thing? Science. And this is tough. Yep. Is there a cost that way for it? They got some donations and have students that they cost the students. Are they taking buses? Or They'll take the small white bus. Those are always fine. Good. Okay. Okay. We have first and second all in favor. Alright. Both. Motion passed on to discuss our I'm sorry. Discussion. Discussion items. I was hoping that you would be supporting a lot of us to look into. There's a this Triax.
It's a allows local government to collect unpaid fees from state refunds. So, basically, we follow through this agency, and if somebody is supposed to have a thousand dollar refund and they owe us a $100, $100 comes off the refund before they get it from the state. Emily sent this to me, and I've had a great opportunity to dig into it, but I know a lot of people use this. But I will tell you, evidently, that when people find that out, they're not happy. Mhmm. But, they want somebody to start with.
And this would, like, feel like cafeteria. Cafeteria. We'll probably be talking about bringing back some fees for materials down the road since they've sort of backpedaled on that. I make a motion difference. So that's for the individual or family or single parent, yes, have the tech or money state tax money due, and they owe us money so that we can get that money out of the refund? Yes. So are we we notify them before that happens?
Oh, yeah. Trust me. These people have been getting Oh, yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah. But, yes, we would, that would be part of the communication we would have. It would basically say that unpaid balances could be deducted from your tax credit. This isn't like a collection agency, is it? No. It's not really that good with. It's just a a best a service fee that you pay annually to I don't exactly. It's not like a software we No. No. You submit a list of Mhmm. People with balanced students, and they take care of it.
Okay. Support. Sounds like a win for us. Yeah. You asked for our support group. Is it just support. Right? Yeah. I really just wanna export right now. I I I wanna make sure I know exactly how it works before Sounds good. Notifications. No. Gotcha. Support. Go, Mark. Thank you. Since you're good from the guy Go get him, buddy. On to administrative board concerns and announcements. Just some things to share. Ball State recently did a study on value added, which took into account something besides test scores. It took into account poverty and things like that. And, you know, any study can be a a variety of ways, but it really
did cast a light on how good our schools are really doing When you start looking at eighth grade, iLearn scores, for example, eighth grade online iLearn scores, we were in the top 10 in the state. When you start looking at value added, it looks at what they think you're gonna be at, what you came out at, and it was a really nice study to see that there was another methodology being used to show that we're doing really good things at South Gibson in our classrooms. So I wanted to share share that with you. You know, it it's an interesting study, and it's got a lot of people's attention. So I wanna share that with you. I also wanna remind you that, the IDO your so we recognize all three of
our k eight schools at the state department of education for the 95% or better IRE past reach, which is very makes you very proud because you've got all three of your schools achieving at that level. It was really nice. The the teachers and the principal went. I stayed back here to keep an eye on things, and it was nice to have them, the teachers that could be there, to participate in that, see it. So it was really nice, and actually had the former TWIG interview mister Wall for the so it made his day as well. And so, also, SAT scores have not been released. They're still embargoed just like our scores.
But as you know, the SAT scores are an accountability measurement for next year, and our initial scores, what we're seeing is we're very positive about where that will be as far as points are concerned for students just because we will get a school grade at every school that will be released in late November. I'm betting early December at this point, but our SAT scores are are moving in the right direction, and, I wanna share that with you. I I also wanna remind you that, next year, we will just to I keep harping on this, but the cell phones, particularly in the high school, will not be
allowed to be in the classroom, in the hallways, in the cafeteria. We'll be the DOE is supposed to, release of what a policy could look like. The policy really nice is more like out of sight, out of mind. So they did take out us having to find places to put them, but if, you know, there will be actions if the student has it out using a classroom when they shouldn't be, but that is coming. We've seen an ISBA version. But until we see the DOE version, we won't put together the final policy, but we will make it as, friendly as we possibly can. The ISBA version, it was watches, phone, anything.
That's the state. Yeah. Watches, phones, glasses. That's not gonna be the easiest thing to try and address. But, if you know, so, they they put that in there. This the glasses concern me more when it comes to testing. Mhmm. Because, you know, if a student has that on there, you know, obviously, they have access to a computer potentially to assist with a test, and that could be very problematic. But, yeah, all electronic devices. And, honestly, I fully expect next year in the legislature that these things might be addressed as screen time, for schools that wanna wanna talk about how much screen time
a student has. So we're we're far from done. There's a lot more things. And next year being a biennium, we'll see even more things in the legislature. They'll come come down the pike. I hate to think that I'm sitting here in late April thinking about the legislative session next year, but that is our current reality of both sides. And, also, I wanna remind you that graduation is May 22. If you could let mister Adams know whether or not you'll be in attendance. I really liked last year, those that were there when we kinda split it up so everybody was able to shake hands with students and participate in the event instead of sitting on the stage.
And I think it it makes a little nicer if you get to participate. So if you're there, I'd like to do that again that this year if it's okay with you. I'm really looking forward to, actually, a month from tomorrow graduation. Oh, we're already fully in next year. Trust me. So I just wanted to share some of those things with you this evening, keep you updated. The things, you know, iLearn's going on. I fully expect that to go very well. A lot of good work going on our schools. Great. There's all the scores on the test. You know, it it it feels like you're always reporting on testing, but but it's the outcomes of good teaching. And that's the measure we have.
And as we look at school grades, I expect us to do okay the first round time out. I mean, we're working hard at it. It's not, you know, not something we've been ignoring, but we want to shine at every possibility. So, you know, we're we're gonna work to get those things to where we can shine and continue to shine. We have 430 plus on the other district list for next year. It's climbing. That's more than we had last year. Now that could change. Not all of them may show up, but it's it continues to climb. I'll show it at this point. One second. Got a first and second all in favor. Aye. Motion passed.
Thank you. Thank you, everyone.