There's a camera. Oh, that's one. There is a camera. No. Just remember there's a camera. Yeah. Okay. We are left. Yep. And when you say search is first one. Alright. I'm gonna call the school board South Gibson School Board meeting to order. First, I will see if there's any Patreon concerns. Alright. Onto reports. You're still being short changed. I don't have all the January reports, guys. I didn't put them on there. We got December reports, and these days billing reports are end of the year and the January.
Okay. Thank you. To consent items. So tonight's consent items include minutes, personnel items, and claims. And I do wanna point out a couple things under personnel, that we do have a school psych on here to be employed for next year, which is a huge boon for us. It's been four years since we've done been able to do that. That should save us some money in the contract in the long run and have somebody dedicated completely to South Gibson Schools. And I wanna put it on your radar that we have been in contact and working with a SLPA who works for a contract vendor who works for us, who
wants to come to work for us full time. So in order to do that, we would have to give them a a, basically, a finder's fee and, employ her under the under our window then. They're fine with a finder's fee. We they'd be employed under our window, and we would ask them to sign a four year agreement that if they pay if they leave, they would pay back a prorated amount of that finder's fee. But we don't believe they'll be going anywhere because the husband's gonna be, based here in the Mount Carmel area and medical field for five years, which also would save us money in the long run with contracts, etcetera, and have a dedicated member who
we already know is pulling at a high level. But we'll be bringing that to you to the next board meeting. Don't want to put on the radar that we were able to talk about that today. I don't think mister Harris even knows that yet, but we, I talked to her today. She's accepted, and I said pending board approval in March. So I'll bring that to you in March. If you got any more questions, feel free to reach out to me. S s o p. S p s o p. My apologies. There's so many acronyms. SLP, which is the the version we absolutely need and want, so that'll help us out and that'll be full time for South Gibson Schools only. So but I just wanted to put down your radar, but we'd ask that you
approve the minutes personalize your claims this evening. Alright. I make a motion that we accept those items. Second. We got a first and a second on consent items. Any questions? All in favor? I. Closed? Motion passed. K. We'll go on to, to claims as part of that. Right? Action items. Action items. Sorry. So item 5.1 is Edmentum. They came to me with the new diplomas that are coming into effect. There's gonna be some kids that have a hard time fitting some things in, so
we wanna use Edmentum to allow those kid only those kids who need to do it. They pick geography and hip to the world in the summertime, a projected cost of $3,200, which is a a very reasonable amount. Mister Rohrer would supervise to make sure that they're on track, but this would be only for students who need to get that because they would be in jeopardy of not being able to get all the classes they need in order to follow the programs they're doing. So we ask that you approve this as our summer program for those in need. So would this be a virtual class for them? Yes.
We're already using Admitum, for other program another program as well. It's been pretty successful. Motion to approve the admission cost. I understand. Got a first and a second. Any questions? All in favor? I'm not. Opposed? Motion passed. Item 5.2 is girls' middle school basketball. I don't see the mister Brasher and his staff are here this evening. This has been an ongoing issue for us for since I've been here. I think he goes beyond. But I'm gonna ask mister Brasher to explain it because he came to me, I don't know, it's about September, October, I think it was. We had a conversation. We've been having conversations throughout the year and wanting to bring it and get it
to you in time that you would have time to think about it, and we would also have time to prepare for it next year. So I'll leave it to mister Brasher. So I don't have to bore you with all the nitty gritty details. I have been working with, our coaching staff and the principals. I hope you guys want that as well. And the middle school ADs about our middle school basketball situation. So long story short, you may be hearing this and thinking our girls' basketball program is going on the tank, and that's far from the case. We still have very high level, a lot of high level players coming in.
This past weekend, we just had our youth tournament this weekend. We have a team for every grade six second through eighth, minus sixth grade, and second through fifth, they all played for championships. Our seventh grade had to divide, and I firmly believe that they would have been able to be together. I think they could have done better this weekend. And then our eighth grade competed and they've loosened by a couple points in the tournament. Long story short, we have been having to consolidate middle school basketball, girls' basketball. Even when my wife who graduated from here in middle middle school, they had five girls at Fort Branch. But for the last four to five years, it's been getting really bad.
On the back, you can see, two, three years ago, we went from potential 12 teens to 10 teens. Two years ago, potential 12 teens at fifth through eighth grade at our three community schools. That's where I get the number 12 from down to eight. This year was 12 potential teams down to six. And projecting ahead to next year, we're looking at potential 12 teams down to six as well. So what I am proposing is consolidating those, our three community schools together at the eighth grade, seventh grade, sixth, and even fifth.
Because next year, we did a little poll of the fourth graders at our three schools, and there was, like, eight to 10 girls combined between our three schools that are interested. Obviously, that number will increase in middle school because we'll get the Saints Peter and Paul and Holy Cross kids. Anyways, what we'd be looking at is, ideally, we would have two, teams per grade. I firmly believe eighth grade next year will probably be able to field two. Seventh grade, I can almost guarantee they will not. They'll build field one to sixth grade, might be able to do as well. And what we do is we work with the middle school ADs to, field a
schedule for them, that is gonna be competitive right now. They are only able to play some of the teams in the PAC, not able to play any of the teams in the SIAC conference. And they're really hamstrung in who they can play, and then some schools are getting frustrated because, like, we don't have a team this year. So then what's kinda happening now schedule wise is they're filling those gaps with other teams, and it's being can be a little more difficult to once you lose those dates to get them back. You look at it practice wise. Like, for instance, my daughter's a fifth grader.
They're practicing together starting in late December, early January. You're looking at about five to six weeks of practice together once or twice a week and then having to cram a bunch of games in on the weekends in about a month. Whereas if we go to this model, they can practice together multiple days a week starting October. The practices will be much more efficient. The coaches will have a better chance to have long term development. It can be a game on, like, a Tuesday night. We can learn from that and be better for it, practice things, and get ready for the Thursday game as opposed to, well, this didn't work well, but we got
three more games. You can't really practice on the weekend. So I think the coaching's gonna be better. It'll allow me and my staff, which I've got Ron Collie and Anna Hacker here tonight, to be a little more hands on with our coaches. I think it's gonna allow our middle school ADs. We can probably get higher level coaching because we're not having to scramble. We're gonna be able to find coaches for these teams. I think the scheduling is gonna be a whole lot better. They'll get a chance to play every PAC team, especially, a lot most of our teams will, and then we'll just have a really top notch schedule for them.
And I I come here. We're already doing it as you can see, essentially. And what's happening every October is it's we're it's a stressor. I mean, who's gonna coach them? Or go to the field team? What's the schedule gonna be? If we didn't get it go if we can get the approval now, now we've got eight, nine months to start finding coaches, to start developing a a great schedule. And I think it's just gonna be a huge benefit for our program. In a perfect world, we keep our three teams at our three schools. That's what ideally would have, but our hand is being forced here. What I wanna do is make sure we're prepared and, have a plan as opposed
to just flying by the seat of our pants every October, and just haphazardly putting something together for our girls. So we want mister Brasher to help select the coaches, be involved in the teams. We've also talked about Redmond College Gibson Southern because they'd still be community schools. We just go under Titans. Yeah. So it gives them Titans just to keep it you know, because you're still not in your school community school aspect. So Yeah. With consolidation, just pressures, busing, and scheduling all taken care of? So we will have a plan for that. We already we so with that consolidated, we've been doing already.
Like, we were busing. This year, Owensboro house our sixth graders. So they have figured out transportation for our Hopstead and Fort Branch kids to get out there. Eighth grade was at Fort Branch, and seventh grade was at Owensville No. Fort Branch. Fort Branch as well. So they've been we've already been in the process of figuring that out. Doctor Perry has been good with working with mister Engelmeier, getting some transportation for those kids, and transportation provided to, and the parents pick it up pick them up. And from talking to Sarah Spindler Owensville, it's been really smooth and seamless. She was honestly expecting a lot of complaints, and she said she didn't have any.
So it's been a really nice process for that. Is there any other budgetary or any constraints that you see as I don't see base whatever you think about doing this? Not at all. If you look at it, we're in the ECA items, we're already set to pay six middle school coaches. And if we have we can at least pay the sixth, seventh, and eighth grade consolidated. So it's even better because now we're paying sixth grade in the in the contract that's not in there for sixth grade, just seventh and eighth grade. So we would have to maneuver a couple of things around, but I don't see us other than trying to find uniform costs, really adding any budget items to it.
Great. And we wanna have a conversation with the with the principals about you know, we have a lot of combined sports now as it is. So And taking those funds that are generated because we've been anticipating good crowds would be better crowds and splitting those funds once we've got paid for officials and things at the, the host school, then disseminating them once the other k school so that sharing it. Was gonna have it. Because we look at that athletic fund, and for each school, it's different. So, you know, we don't wanna cut one school short. And that's all have good jobs.
Oh, yeah. Well, we talk. And that's something Doctor. Berry had a conversation on. Can we just create a middle school basketball fund and just pile all the money in there? And at the end of the year, once officials are paid and everything, just Owensville gets a a set a third Owens hops out in Fort Branch and maybe set some maybe divide the fourths or something and and have a small amount to buy the next round of uniforms or something. So try to have a plan for that to wear. Because I would imagine, if I think of, like, at least the high school level, football is obviously your number one moneymaker. I would imagine girls and boys' basketball are probably next.
I'm sure the same is true at the middle schools. Crop cropped up, so to speak, sports that don't bring in as much money in the middle schools, so, you know, they're not trying to snag a ways to find uniforms, etcetera. And there's one thing you know about our community. We show up for our, I mean, I was talking with Brian the other day. Any youth tournament that doesn't try to find a way to get Gibson Southern teams in their tournament are crazy because we just our parents and our grandparents and aunts and uncles support their kids and want their kids to be successful. So I think it's would be, in my estimation, especially as, the varsity coach, I
think our girls will come in that much which they're already coming in very prepared. The fact we play two freshmen this year. So they're coming in prepared. I think it's gonna give them just that little extra leg. But would you say it's fair to say that they need practice practicing against better competition Correct. Helping Yeah. We can have our best competing. It's the classic iron sharpens iron. So, it's I think it's gonna be a huge benefit for our program going forward and, just getting them together earlier and having them practice against each other and then going against I think the schedule is a big part of that as well.
We'd have a much stronger schedule across the board. Point number four. Just comment on a question on the disadvantages. Mhmm. Never even thought about that. But having the talent pool, we're getting that much closer together. Yeah. We will be developing a great a much better future since we went to high school. I mean, I I was talking to a couple of girls at Owensville, and they they like all their classmates' teammates, but they said it's kinda hard when you pass it to a girl. You never know if they're gonna catch it or not. So we would be able to create teams of similar talent to where everybody's gonna get improvement there. Well, I think our reserve team at the high school played north how many times
this year because of numbers? Coach Kyle is three or four. Three. Three. And we contemplated a fourth game. I have really good friends with their ideas. Like, we might just have to develop an NBA seven game series because that was unfortunately, girls' basketball is just we are very fortunate. We have plenty of numbers, freshman through senior. But, like, coach Hackerts are this year is a c team, but our freshman coach. And nine 80% of your games are against JV teams, and they go out and they win 80% of their games. So the talent pool for us is there.
And I think this is girls' basketball, for whatever reason, is hurting in numbers across the board. Now our high school numbers look great, and I think this will help our high school numbers in some level as well. That's the idea is to make sure that Coach Rasher's program, it gives us a different story and continues to excel at the level it has. Okay. I have one more question. So will the games if we host a home game, will they be divided between the communities too? Or is that We've been kicking around a couple of ideas with that. Talking to the I I've been talking with, Ronnie Robinson, Sarah Spindler, and Zac Pollemsome.
What we what how middle school schedule I've learned this in the last month. Middle school session works. It's gonna be best so we can house, like, seventh and eighth grade at one school, like Fort Branch, for example, or Hopstatt, and then fifth and sixth grade at another one. If we do have classes with like, let's say we have two seventh and eighth grade teams, then that gold team will be at a different gym. That's just something once we can get this approved, we'll figure out all the logistics of but the schedule would be seventh and eighth grade together because that's where it's easier to find like, our seventh and eighth grade titans could play seventh and eighth
grade north. Right. So then it's easier to get two teams there. More referees are more willing to come, and they can ref two games as opposed to one. So that's something that we have been already had a good discussion about, how we look at scheduling for that. So we have a plan in place once that starts to come to fruition. This is cool. I'm sorry. I know we don't call under our school district, but they are our theater. Will this be open to St. James Girls? So that's something doctor Perry and I have discussed. And we ran into an issue this year where the diocese or Evansville are very adamant.
Is that alright? What word would you use? I think they're like us. They want their students to play for their if they're combining, they want them to combine with their But then they don't have a team. They always find a way for them to get to a team. This is the South Gibson. This would only be the South Gibson kids because the diocese is very persistent. The congregation time? The diocese this year basically put their foot down and said either you're gonna play for the diocese team or we won't let you play for another team. That happens with track. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So this would be a South Gibson endeavor unless they chose to matriculate in our
schools. Yeah. Unfortunately, that's just kinda how it's works across the board, track and with this as well. So, yeah, that is a unfortunate downside of that. But they they haven't been allowing them to come really anyways. So it's gonna be something new. Not something new. Yeah. We had a situation this year where we thought we had a plan workout for a girl, an an eighth grade girl to come to be on the Hobbs or Fort Wayne Jonesville team, and the diocese came and said, no. She has to go play for resurrection or whatever school. Some school. Yeah. And if you remember my experiences in the past, they don't combine with public schools
in Vanderburgh County. I know. I'm just trying to get the best of the best for our program. Yeah. We want we want that too. We wanna continue that, but in this scenario if they're not going to continue back down the private school. Yeah. I would like to be a parent's decision to do that. Not if they're enrolled at their school. I had parents who wanted me to ask that. Yeah. And I I wish there would be some way around that, but, we're kinda stuck in a tough spot there with the diocese and them not really allowing that to happen either. They kind of funneled them towards their diocese schools.
Would you anticipate if you consolidate the teams when you're having a b or gold and maroon or whatever, a and a b t? Do you expect any more dropout, though? That's I'm more concerned on that issue if you're gonna even hurt yourself. I don't think so. We're already so we have the school ball, but we're already kinda consolidating anyways with these travel teams that have been going on for a long time. I think if if anything, what's gonna do is lessen up those weekends and maybe
make it more attractive to kind of be with, open up more just open up weekends for family time more and allowing those players to kinda be with players more of their caliber. And what's happening is a lot of them will play, like, in eighth grade with your school team, and then they don't wanna go play high school anyways. We have, I think, probably four or five girls that have been doing school ball this year that have already expressed, I don't wanna play high school. And this does not impact the boys whatsoever. This is girls' girls' online. I just have boys that concern of the going and picking up because single parents.
We've been doing it for four years. Yeah. I know. I know. But Yeah. There are issues and Sure. Kids because they don't have a ride back home or whatever. You know? Is this just advisement on what the plan is going forward, or is there any we would like your improvements on this and move forward? I'd make a motion to approve the program as you've outlined it. Just wanna say thanks for all the detail. You're welcome. Present all that so well. I'll second. Yeah. We have a person second in discussion. And so if the number's warranted, then you would go to a and a b
team at each level if you need it. Ideally ideally, that's what I would love to have happen. And like I said, I believe, mister Harris could probably test this better than I can. I think we would have enough at the eighth grade level next year and probably possibly even the sixth. That's gonna be hard to tell because of the girls, I would anticipate playing over half of them are at Saint Peter Paul or Holy Cross right now. Because this year, we had to consolidate the fifth grade as it was because we had one Hopstot, zero Fort Branch, and, like, six or seven Owensboro girls.
Now my daughter's team had probably 10 girls, and then Holy Cross probably had, like, five or six. So you're looking at potentially 15 amongst the three schools. So that would probably be enough to warrant two teams at the sixth grade. Seventh grade, I can almost go to the grade right now saying you would only have enough for one team. They may have had seven this year. They had seven per school ball. They'll gain one from Saint James, but I think we also might have a little bit of small initiatives too that were here this year that that expressed that they
may be going with something else. And then fifth grade has already did a straw poll, and you're looking at six to seven between the three schools for fifth grade next year. So you'd be looking at one team for that, maybe two for six, one for seven, and two for eight. Okay. As long as we encourage the numbers and still give. Yeah. And that's our goal. What what kids an opportunity if they come out. Yeah. We won't I've been doing this for eight years now, and we have never cut anybody at the high school level. And I don't have the intention we would find a way to keep everybody on a team. That's something coach Kyle and I have really talked about that a lot, that we
wanna keep giving young young people a chance to compete and be on a team. I think there's a lot to learn in that. Now I'm not gonna say there's never been a conversation with a girl who didn't like the role we've given her at the high school level, but we've never told a girl you're not on the team. We've always found a spot for them to be if they want that spot. And I would try to continue that vision down to the middle school level as well. Okay. That's fine. We have a first and second. All in favor? Aye. Closed? Motion passed. Gotcha. Alright. Thank you all for your time. I item 5.3
is the acceptance of the project lead the way engineering grant. It is a two year grant worth $40,000 total of 20,000 per year, which will cover the cost of, mister, Jingle Boss training. It also cover the cost of items that we need to buy to get this started. They'll have to start one class next year, and the next year, they'll bring on another class. The idea that this could be a pathway, this could feed to four t, This could feed to, the career center. It could feed to internships. So, you know, I think this is a a really good opportunity to for us to get some project lead the way, into our schools.
Mister Jinglebaugh and his wife and a couple other people were wrote the grant. We just found out about it. So, we would be responsible for an annual fee of about $3,200 to keep our project that we leads away licensure. But, if this goes the way we hope, I think that would be a good investment. But the $40,000 should cover most of the cost for the equipment as to get it set up. I think you'll be moving back into the the large old tech room, if I'm not mistaken. So we just, ask your approval before we sign off on accepting the grant and
so forth. I'll make a motion that we accept this grant. I'll second. We have a first and second. Any discussion? All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion passed on the 5.4. Simply to accept the conflict of interest forms provided for Rachel Heim and Steve Grisevski and Vincent Davenport just as a annual event. Did you send one, Steve, but I don't see the edit? No. Because I didn't I didn't get involved with the multipurpose.
I I wasn't allowed to at work, but that's the only reason. If anything, when our sales is involved, I didn't really get like, when we did the ones at Owensville and the ops at someone else, basically, the, the item allows you to do a annual status. That way, you can just blanket across And I'll I'll sign when I have no problem doing it. So We're just looking for look out for corporation to each of you Yeah. Because of the businesses that you're in. Okay. And that's been making news a little bit in the area lately, so we'll make
sure that we're on top of that. I have no problem side. Thank you. It should be this great, Rachel. Yeah. They should deny. Somebody should motion, but just say Rachel. You just need to sign again. That's the middle. Yeah. You have to bill out some information too. Yeah. To fill out. I don't make a motion. Okay. Weeks out of the pocket for this one. Thank you. I'll second. Okay. We have first, second, and discussion. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion passed on the 5.5 softball trip? The annual trip to Murfreesboro, Tennessee with softball teams coming up.
I wanted to get that before you before, the March board meeting. They asked for permission to do so. I know. Go ahead, Clint. Sorry. I'll make a motion to approve the softball athletic group. I'll second. K. We have first and second on discussion. They're taking, I would they're driving one school buses down or have a I think they they get to be That's what I thought. I took the small the short bus to stay on. Alright. I understand. There's very good competition. They pay for it all. That's what I thought.
Yeah. K. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Sorry. Opposed? Motion passed. Onto discussion items. Just a reminder, you know, the the the girls soft sectional wrapped up. We had once again, we had a great crowd that evening. The basketball game, we played great game. Beacon Dressler is off to state this weekend. We had several wrestlers that did very well, went to semi state. Wanna let you make sure that you know that the HVAC project at, Hopstock Community School is we've met this past week. It is set to kick off, the day after school gets out in May. Although in spring break, they're probably gonna come in and get up in the ceiling
and get some stuff done and get ready. We're also kind of excited because tomorrow, they're gonna store for about a third of the pad on the multipurpose facility out there. So they've been working really hard at it. Anything you wanna say about it, mister Ingramheimer? Yeah. I mean, the weather really only slowed them down a week when there was snow there. This building kinda reminds me of a iceberg. There's so much underground there. It's hard to imagine with all the infrastructure utilities. So, you know, kinda my thoughts are is once the pads poured, we're almost halfway there. I talked to Dan and Ace, and he got all the, for the floor, all
the heat And and the floor heating's going in. Center points reroute the transformer. I mean, just some coverage, drainage, electric, gas lines. But there's a lot been a lot of boring and been a lot going on. And we'll have some more of those overhead views over time. As you can see it, the, I think I told you last time that the building is due to arrive on flatbed trucks March 2. So it wouldn't surprise me at all if around the March, there's at least a skeleton out there to look at, which and then, you know, the the sign will be lit up on the side of it.
So, you know, from about October to May, it'll be really nice when people come in and they see titans on the side of that building lit up nicely. I think there's a there's a lot of good stuff going on out there. It's they've they've done a bang up job, and we're really excited about it. And one of the reasons they're pouring tomorrow is because of the weather Thursday, and they didn't want the, the floor stuff to blow away because there is a bit of a breeze up here from time to time. Yeah. I think. But it's exciting to see it it going going along, and kids that I've talked to are really excited about it. So just wanted me to know where we're at that. Thank you.
And for announcements, anybody would like to make a motion to adjourn? Motion to adjourn. Got a first. Okay. Second. All in favor. Second. Motion passed. I've got some papers here selling, guys.