We're glad to have the perfect scores for the I read recognition here this evening. The principles from each school are going to present though when we're done. I'd like to get a picture with the students and with the board members so they can put those on their social media sites later. So, we're going to do a little bit different this time. We're going to start at the back end of the alphabet. We're going to start with
Owensville this time. Do something a little different today. hard work, huh? You guys do the hard work getting ready. Our teachers do all the hard work. That's true. Jasper Bedwell. Nice job. Do we do have some cords right here? So,
if you guys will walk like right over here, that would be perfect. Brayley Bell, Adriana Rice. Ruby Garrett and Leo Pots. Just stay right there. Now we'll have Hopstock.
Dr. Alhorn. Okay. So, we're super proud of our two elites. If Harper Blankenburgger could please come up and Mr. Miles Smith and at this time Mr. Wall branch will finish this up right
anger Elliot Chloe Emtt, Joseph Mangold, Wyatt Rice, All right. What? Laya seat. Esser seagull. I want to thank you all for the hard
work you do to make sure they successful like this is what a great honor that they are getting perfect scores in second third grade. What we expect though within 9 to 10 years here on the exam no pressure there. Thank you for all you do to help your
children. So if you guys will kind of squeeze in board members if you get in there as well and when I get out We won't mistake you for one of the children. There we go. Come on, Grezy. There we go. All right. So, everybody say cheese.
Cheese. All right. So, I'm gonna get out of the way so you can do so. I'll send these to you later, principles. We got one over here. take your children go home and study. It's a lot to deal with. So, thank you
for being here this evening. So the next order of business this evening is officer Fred Sleer, SRO Fort Branch Community School. He's going to come and give us a short presentation on the great things that the SR program at Fort Branch is doing. Let's welcome Officer Slater to the
You did say short, right? I did say short and we'll see how well he I've never been very good at that. Good evening. My name is Stephanie Slater. I'm with the I'm the school resource officer at Fort Branch Community School as well as a deputy for the Gibson County Sheriff's Department. I want to
thank you for giving me your time this evening, allowing me to talk about my school and inform you of some of the things that we're doing over there. My first and primary role as a law enforcement officer sworn to protect and serve our community. And under the law enforcement umbrella at Fort Branch
Community School, I do a variety of things. We investigate everything from from a variety of issues ranging with students, student disagreements, poor decisions, more serious concerns of student home life, parent custody issues
to self harm, inappropriate technology, and everything in between, but I'm pretty sure you guys know that's what we do. Okay. So, I'd like to talk more about what we do as an SRO and what we're doing at Fort Branch. First of all, I'm a teacher in the sense that I I
in law enforcement, I tell students about my job in the school and outside in the community. I educate them about juvenile law and provide information on safety issues like bicycle scooter safety. And for younger students, I cover 911, personal safety, stranger
danger, and read stories to them. I'm a mentor being in front of the school during drop off fist bumps and providing musical education through classic rock Fridays. Uh played at the appropriate volume
as necessary for AC/DC. I'm the first person at the school they see and I want to set the tone for a good day. I talk to them in the mornings. I know them. I talk to them between classes. Uh they tell me about their weekends and evenings. Um, and I can tell if they're
struggling. I can tell if there's something going on. Um, they confide in me. And when they do, I make sure I follow up because I want them to trust me. Because I want them to know that I care because I do. Um, having this type of relationship with them means that I
receive a lot of texts, phone calls at night, weekends, but I'm their deputy. I'm their cop. Okay? And so they call me. And this holds true for teachers, staff, parents, and kids. And this is all part of see something, say something. Okay. I've done numerous home
visits so far. I've done six already this year. Picked up kids, took one to Little Miracles today. Um I patrol bus routes, follow buses. Last year, social media was really blown up about two students that nearly got hit apparently
to the parents um over on 175 or 600 South. We talked about that as a group of SRO's and we decided to do something about it. So myself with all the other uh SRO's from South Gibson, we decided to do a blitz on that area. We ended up
ticketing over 20 vehicles and some of those vehicles even got towed. Okay. So um when the media heard about it, there was uh it was it was so positive from both the parents and the bus drivers that we now do this every year in all of
our communities. Hopstoinsville, ours. Um, you received a copy of the new safety management plan. That's something that Dan and I worked very hard on. Uh, as we dove into the SMP for the school, we discovered so many inconsistencies
from building to building that we um created one manual that was easy to use. It was quite an accomplishment for us and uh it's so good I think that the EBSC, East Gibson, and North Gibson have all asked us for assistance down theirs.
Okay. Um, I've done some other things. How am I doing on time? All right. Sure. Yeah. Okay. Just checking. I don't have a stopwatch. Um, we've done a lot of things in Fort Branch, like u if you go through there,
you'll see right close to the school, you'll see all the safety crosswalks and everything that are there. Now, I went to the town board. Um Dan and I discussed that because we had so many kids that were walking and riding to school and we just really didn't have the appropriate signage or markage for
that. So uh we actually did a traffic study and presented that information and data to the board which was then very successful getting that accomplished. It was an expensive thing but they went ahead and did it because you can't argue with data, right? Um
the other thing another thing I I worked on I was real proud of we we did um for branch didn't have any go bags. They didn't have anything in the classrooms. Well being an EBSC guy they that that was something that every classroom had. So I set about working with outside
agencies and long story short we got that accomplished. Every classroom now has one of these emergency kit bags that the teachers now take with them when they leave the classroom. So, if somebody's hurt or injured in the event that we have to evac, they now have something they can actually do something
with to help those kids. Okay, that was a big deal. Um, then there again, that didn't cost the school corp anything. The program I'm most proud of. Still good. Okay. Program I'm most proud of, however, is the development of the sheriff's safety patrol. This is very
near and dear to me. Um, I spent three years working on this. This is the third year for it. Um, this program has recently received national attention in the National Association of School Resource Officers magazine. That's a um USwide publication. They they profiled
our program. Thought it was great. Safety Patrol is not a club or crossing guards. Um, these students are becoming leaders and safety experts. When I started, I had three students. This year, I had over 17 apply. Um the
students have to be in seventh or eighth grade. They can't have any attendance issues, no behavioral issues. They have to have good grades. They have to be a positive role model. Then they go through an interview process. And if selected, they're presented with the sheriff's bad uh vest, badge, and ID
card. Once on the team though, more importantly, I think, is they have to maintain all these requirements, okay? Uh inside and outside of school. And I tell them they're just like any other community leader, right? They're on that
247. They're representing not only the sheriff's safety patrol, but their school. And so they sign it for a year. And that means they work every day we're at school. What do they do? They're at the entrances in the morning and at dismissal. They inspect the playground, make sure it's safe for the kids to
occupy every day before recess. That's extremely important. Um, they take ownership. I had a safety patrol member call me on a Friday night and tell me that he saw a suspicious person sitting on the soccer field and he wanted me to know about it. They've addressed people
in the building. Uh I remember we had people there from the that take the school pictures. I had two safety patrol members. The guy still talks about he said these two safety patrol members walked up to him and said, "You don't have an ID badge. You need to go to the office."
They've addressed people inside and outside the building. And then they notify me. They put up and maintain our flag. They've had class to demonstrate how to do that. They help our younger students in the morning in the cafe and in the hallways. They help at school events. They give fist bumps and hugs
because they learned that from me. Uh what's in it for them? They've received their CPR certification as well as AED and stop the bleed. They're all certified by the American Red Cross. These are seventh and eighth grade students. uh American Red Cross for life saving
and life- saving skills. They're all passcertified for fire. That's training that uh deputies get. And this year that we've uh they're going to receive TCC training. Um that training isn't normally out there for civilians. Deputies get it every year. And it's a
casualty uh uh it's casualty care and it's a it's a variety of uh medical stuff that they're going to get an age appropriate version of that. But um I'm really excited about them getting that training. They have fun as well. They get special lunches and I buy them
donuts every Friday because I'm a cop. And they get they get a Christmas party and they get to do special activities. They turned the new jail before it was open. They were able to meet and see the prosecutor's office. We went behind public areas at Demsville airport and on the runway, experienced the firetruck
equipment and did a tour of the Evol wartime museum. These students are learning to lead and communicate in an era when these skill sets seem to be lacking. In closing, I want to thank all of you for your support. Okay, in this job, it
takes a team effort to be effective. At Fort Branch, we have an effective team. Um, I cannot emphasize enough how important it is to have a principal and a support staff that works with me, that supports me, that I trust, and that makes me feel like I'm as much a part of
the team as anyone else in our building. We do not always agree. We don't. Uh, but we would trust and respect each other enough to know that our team will always make the best choice when we put our collective resources together. And that's been my experience 100%. I'm
thankful for Amanda and Mark and the staff at Fort Branch Community School and I'm hoping that this board supports all of us so we can continue to ensure that we do everything necessary to prevent the loss of life that we are seeing all around us in our schools.
Just in closing, I want to speak on behalf of Dan. Zach is not here and Riley. We will protect our kids and our staff and our schools with our lives. And that's not a hollow promise. That is absolutely the truth. And I want to
thank you for your time and if I can ever be more helpful, you know where I work. point out all of ours are they you can see from SR the relationships they're able to build because the great personalities they have they work so hard they take the job very seriously
we're really lucky to have this job u you know it's really nice that he and I can even kind of jab back and forth because it means we have a good relationship we have a good working relationship and that goes all the way down to the kids in kindergarten so I want to point that out and I will say this though I just want I'm a South guy just don't make that mistake I'm a south
guy So it's right now. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Loyal and true. Well, you know, I love this community. It's been a part of my life my entire life. I went to this high school. I went to Fort Branch Community School when it was Marlet. Okay. All right. Do you guys have any
questions or anything? So, is that just at Fort Branch? You have that um that team of yours? That's correct. Currently, uh, we've looked into, um, um, I know Dan and I have talked about, you know, expanding it out, uh, and that may be something
that we are able to do in the future. It's been school has a different program that, you know, it's not a one size fits all, right? The safety program works well before. Zach's got a program that's uh, after the belt, right, where they're learning more of a hands-on. Riley's
doing things with sports and and tutoring and things like that. So finding a mix that we could eventually encompass everything as one program is the ultimate goal. Just say thanks always. I think it's refreshing to hear what you guys are doing. They could have plugged any four
entities in and it would have the same impact. You guys do a great job here. The relationships that I hear about and I see and the fun things and the camaraderie you have with the students that's going to help them out their entire lives. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
We appreciate you very much. How do I do? Yep. Open the floor to patron concerns. Uh Mark Baron Bacher, fourth branch. Uh, I just want to voice concern about the uh
recent incident you had with an employee concerning uh controversial comments concerning the Charlie Kirk shooting from last week. Uh, I feel that that situation is no longer a personnel issue because it has
state and national uh repercussions. So, I'll give you some information and I'll explain. This is my All right. Uh the first piece of paper I gave you uh everybody keeps talking that the
issue with the uh employee uh the freedom of speech uh argument debate. Uh I think everyone's pretty much familiar with uh freedom of speech and the first amendment of the US constitution. Uh you
may not be aware that Indiana has its own uh bill of rights and freedom of speech and I just wanted to read that for you. It's a out of the 1851 Indiana constitution article 1 section 9 which says that no law shall be passed restraining the free
interchange of thought and opinion or restricting the right to speak write or print freely on any subject whatever but for the abuse of that right every person shall be responsible. Now, the two-page handout I just gave you, uh, that is a news article, uh,
published in the India Capital Chronicle September 14th this year. And I just wanted to point out a few things. Uh, on the first page, uh, repercussions from this uh, shooting has already uh, had some examples in the
state of Indiana. uh on the first page uh an employee of the Indiana Department of Child Services uh stated that a worker was no longer in the agency after making a comment that was imported and does not reflect the
values of this agency or the standards that have been set by this administration. on the next page at uh Ball State University uh had a similar situation. Uh the administration at Ball State University is aware of social media post by two
university employees. Both posts were on the employees personal accounts and posts do not reflect the culture on our campus nor the enduring values of the university. Uh the administration is gathering additional information about the folks in order to determine what disciplinary
identity is appropriate and permissible under the first amendment and constitution. Well, what wanted to bring to the board's attention is what I have highlighted. Indiana Attorney General Todd Kea also has a message for Hoosiers. If you quote, "If you have evidence of Indiana
educators or school administrators making comments that celebrate or rationalize the assassination of Charlie Kirk, we need to hear from you. These individuals must be held accountable. They have no place teaching our students." He encouraged people to submit evidence
to his eyes on education portal which previously have been used to report pro- diversity and pro-LGBTQ actions or materials. So, like I said, it's no longer a personnel issue. It's a
the state is inquiring about that incident. And yesterday, the vice president and the federal government are requesting mention on that incident. So, uh just make the board aware that
the decision you make other people are want to know. Sorry. Thank you. Any other patient concerns? If none close and we're going to agenda um starting with reports
uh report I basically put under the board agenda where responsible to make sure we meet certain percentages to the states even though there's really no penalty for not their guidelines. U
health care costs will rise 13.6% in January. um entered our audit season fund finished August with a negative balance which was lower than the negative before and I list what the uh
negative balances are in accounts and kind of an interesting one of South Gibson's not just South Gibson we have contracted drivers if you all know and in the past all those contracted drivers plus all their subs all our subs all our
drivers were in one pool it's managed by has the state police now say that if you have drivers that drive for you, you have to have your own pool. So, uh Kevin Harmon with three drivers underneath him, he has to have his own pool. Even a
single contractor who happens to have a sub maybe one day a year have to have that person in a pool unless of course they participate in ours. So the way to do that is if if Tim takes a day off and
hires a substitute driver, South Gibson will now play pay my substitute driver and deduct it from what I would have received for that month. It's a lot of paperwork for basically no good. I'll say it online. So anyway, that's g
you're gonna be seeing some more vendors pop up. Uh let's see. And budget. Uh we're working on a budget. We're trying to finalize things. I decided to take a little bit more time than we do normally to try to go over each line a little bit closer with all the changes coming on in
the future. So, we're working on that and we'll have a meeting on the 14th for a budget to ask permission to advertise and then on the uh 28th hopefully have a budget adoption that has to all be finalized uh and posted online by October 4th for the
form three and then within five days after being adopted by the board. Any questions, comments or concerns? Thank you. On to consent items. Tonight's consent items are made up of
personnel items and claims for Armstrong. We ask those be approved this evening. We'll need a motion. I move that we accept the as presented. I'll second it.
We have a first and a second. Is there any discussion? All in favor of the consent items. All those things on to action items. We have 5.1. Um,
yes. Um, tonight we bring to you the HubSpot HV HVAC upgrade phase three. As you can recall, the boilers and chillers and hot water heaters were replaced. The summer of 2023 at Hobot in Owensville.
And then the summer of 24, we went to Hob, done the uh, east west wing by the cafeteria. This past summer we went to Owensville doing that same wing. Now this year we're going back to Hobot and doing the the wing the most south wing.
So it'll be the two side wings and the office. Um, it is our recommendation to award the contract to Mel Contractors uh for the base bid of 629,387. Alternate number one in the amount of
396 546. Alternate number two for $519,22. And alternate number three would just replace the drop ceiling in that entire hallway of 123,000
for a total of1,667,955. I'd be happy to answer any questions you may have. The goal would be to be the same thing at Owensville next year. And then that would just leave the uh library, cafeteria, and gymnasium at each school.
You know, we may be able to accomp encompass both those into one phase. Maybe it just depends what it cost. Did you see much of a price increase in the similar scope work from one school to the other? Um so I mean we've been bidding it early
and it's it's been favorable. So it's uh it was a little less than we were projecting. You know, prices have been all over the place, but it's, you know, a million dollars used to get you a very large job. And, you know, right now, you
know, almost 1.7 just does a wing. Uh, but there's there's a lot of metal, a lot of copper. It's all done on lifts. Every bit of it 25 foot in the air. So, it's a fastmoving project. Also, you know, to complete it in the summertime.
I think Dr. Curry said we do have an extra week this year built into the schedule which will help but but it's a lot of work to do some is that so I'm looking at the time to completion that's what 35 days so theirh quote did not include like the
weekends okay it's like work days yeah yeah yeah yeah so we always have them finished two weeks before school starts uh to be substantially complete So the teachers can get back in, get their room set up.
You know, during that time, there is test and balance going on and cleaning, but for the most part, two weeks before school starts, they get back to class. This greatly improves air quality and humidity control. Nothing wrong with the systems we have.
Just when they were designed, humidity control and air quality like this was not part of it. Make a motion to approve Daryl's recommendation on the HS HVAC project.
First and second. Is there any further discussion? All in favor? I sir. Thank you. 5.2. 5.2 is the first reading of the special
update from July 2025. There's no vote required this evening. Any questions? We'll bring it back to you either in September 30th or on October the 15th to finalize it. Since September 30th is basically just to deal with the budget. So no questions, we can move on.
Okay, that's me. All right. So what we have here is you know our facility. This is our guaranteed maximum price from this project. There are um several things built into it that would come
back to us if we don't use it like things like u you know the soil tested fine but we wanted to capture a dollar amount if if we had to do lime stabilization. So that is in there. If we don't use it they will come back. Uh and there there are u soft cost in there
from the uh architect's fees to uh redoing the bullpen. We don't have an exact price on that yet. I've been working with the company that does all of our work. So that they kind of gave us a budget number. The only thing that's not included in this, which we
have figured into the bond that hopefully we will sell next week, is the greenhouse. you know, we're getting all the uh utilities marked. We're trying to make it so the students don't have to walk across the parking lot to get to the greenhouse. We just didn't have any
hard numbers. Um so I didn't want to put it in here and change that, but we will have those. Where is that being located? So pos if we can just right outside of the the agriculture room. They have an overhead door.
Yeah. But there are utilities in that area. And that's what we're checking into. So that's right there by the by the wait room. Yes. Yes. Triangle. Yeah. In the same greenhouse. No. Yeah. It it'll probably have to be a
different footprint within that greenhouse. Yeah. You know, the the structure is there, but all the panels, exhaust, everything's seen better days.
something of the same size, similar size. So, it it all depends where the utilities are at. So, so that's why I didn't put it on here. We just don't know. But, uh, it is a desire to get it where they don't have to walk across the parking lot and they'll have access to that large garage they can work out of
and take things even out into the greenhouse from there. So, they've got more physical space to work with and closer to the classroom, which is a bonus. It's a safety bonus for sure. Yeah. So, we'll be bring we'll have more
information on that soon, but um pretty well. Everything else uh was was bid. Um and uh the bond should sell the 24th. The bond sale. We're hoping to go out
with a couple days of that for the ordering of the facility, the barn if you will, and we get it ordered. That would be a long lead item, but and then the goal is to finish it by the August. Correct, Mr. Manley? Yes, sir. All right. The start of school.
Along those lines, I forgot to mention, but it should be on your screen. Uh, we got a double A+ rating and an A+ underlying rating from S&P. So, and with the Fed meeting coming up, felt it was a good idea to wait till after the Fed meeting and see what the
interest rates were. We're hoping that'll be a favorable outcome for us as well. So, That was today, was it? Tomorrow, I believe. And the forecast come down. We'll keep you in the loop on how that all goes, but we're hoping to get those things ordered and
rolling. So, it'll impact baseball a little bit, but we've had co coach Seagull and I have had some conversations. It was going to impact something. So, uh, but we'll work around that as well. So, Any other questions?
That leads us to administrative and board concerns or announcements. Hard to believe we're already halfway through September around the corner. Just reminder that September 30th is a budget meeting uh here in the library. Same time.
Same same time. Yeah. So, is that in here? Yes. Okay. I think that's it. Second. All in favor?