Board of School Trustees Meeting

Mrs. Bond introduced Ivy Zhu, a 5th grader at McCordsville Elementary School who shared the following Good News:

1.  The Mt. Vernon High School Football Team won Regionals and is headed to Semi-State.

2.  MVHS is hosting a NASA Exhibit in their media center through December 13 called "Apollo and the Next Giant Leap!"  This local exhibit is made possible thanks to the Mt. Vernon Education Foundation, the Main Street Arts at the Carnegie, and NASA.  An actual moon rock was on display for the opening night.

3.  Mt. Vernon Food Service celebrated National School Lunch Week with trivia, prizes, and musical entertainment, which included MVMS Principal Ben Williams and students.

4.  Mt. Vernon celebrated Red Ribbon Week with a variety of activities designed to educate students and bring awareness on the dangers of drugs.

Mrs. Bond introduced Mt. Vernon Middle School 7th Grade Teacher Ms. Deb Thomas who was recently recognized as an Indiana Department of Education Top Ten Teacher of the Year.  Ms. Thomas has engaged students through cultural awareness and community learning for over 29 years.  She was selected as a finalist through a rigorous process with the platform of leading a mental health initiative to benefit students and staff after the recent loss of a fellow teacher at the middle school.  She has advocated for mental health resources for the education industry because students who have experienced grief and trauma need a safe more supportive learning environment filed with well-trained adults.  Ms. Thomas received an award for being the Top Ten Teacher of the Year at the 2020 IDOE Teacher of the Year Banquet.

Dr. Parker presented Ms. Thomas with flowers and a replica of a billboard in her honor.  He recognized Ms. Thomas as an exemplary teacher with rock star skills and a heart of gold who makes Mt. Vernon look good. 

Ms. Thomas stated it was a privilege to represent Mt. Vernon and thanked everyone for their support, especially Dr. Parker, board members, the administrative team and MVEF Director Renee Oldham.  Through this process she has met alot of amazing people and was very humbled by the experience. 

Mr. Dodd, Principal at MVHS, introduced Lilly Grant Finalists Tessa Freeman and Tony Fleming.  Mark Anderson from the Hancock County Community Foundation explained that HCCF has the privilege of administering the Lilly Endowment Community Scholarship in Hancock County, a full four-year tuition scholarship award.   Eligible applicants must be ranked in the top 15% of their graduating class and plan to pursue a baccalaureate course of study, to be completed in four years, at any accredited Indiana public or private college or university.  Student applications are submitted online and reviewed blindly (without name) by a third party who selects eight finalists, two students from each Hancock County School.   The winner will be announced in December.

Tessa Freeman is ranked 4th in her class with a gpa of 4.214.  Her school activities include starting a chapter of Champions Together at MVHS which provides a way for students with disabilities to participate in sports; spearheaded with Student Government to start  Mental Health Week at MVHS; volunteers at  Hancock Regional Hospital in the emergency room; Million Meals Movement; Marauder Mentor Program; Marauder Mob Spirit Club; Hope House; captain of the girls' basketball team; and, been honored as Basketball Academic All-County and Academic All-State for cross country.  Tessa plans on pursuing a career in the mental health field and attend either Notre Dame or I.U. majoring in neuroscience.

Tony Fleming is ranked 2nd in his class with a gpa of 4.270.  His school activities include:  the Spread Program at St. Andrews Parish that assists adults with disabilities; volunteer at Head Start; volunteer at Hope House where he serves on the Youth Executive Board; Kid's Closet; Student Government; Million Meals Movement; Mt. Vernon Theatre where he is currently producing this year's production of Shriek; Marauder Mentor Program; National Honor Society; co-founder and treasurer of One World-Foreign Exchange; Marauder Mob Spirit Club, African, and Best Buddies.  Tony plans on pursuing a career in the field of psychology focused on criminology or the forensic side of psychology attending either Butler or Marion College. 

Mrs. Stacy Muffler gave a report spotlighting Fortville Elementary School.  She began by saying that on Delayed Start Wednesdays, the focus has been on grade level instruction and essential learning skills students must learn before they go on to the next grand level.  Delayed Start Wednesday  Essential Learnings work is tied to their School Goals. Goal #1 is all students at FES will improve their reading proficiency as measured by NWEA with the objective being 80% of the students will meet their projected grown in NWEA as evidenced by the end-of-the-year NWEA Reading benchmark assessment.  She used kindergarten as an example.  Four essential questions PLC are:  1) What do we want students to learn?; 2) How will we know if they have learned it?; 3) How will we respond when they haven't learned it?; and 4) How will we respond when they already learned? She feels all teachers should be able to answer these four questions about the content they are teaching.  For kindergarten, question #1 was students will be able to identify all uppercase and lowercase letters.  A Smart Goal was set at 85% of kindergarten students will be able to identify these letters by October 22, 2019.  Pre-assessment data (proficiency before any instruction is given) showed 11% of kindergarten students knew their upper and lower case letters. Question #2: End-of-unit assessments showed that number increased to 46%.  Students were given incentives to reach the 100% mark.  Teachers met to discuss what instructional practices worked making it a true team effort. Actions will be taken to ensure every student will be proficient by the end of the year.

Dr. Parker gave a report on student enrollment/ADM and transfer students.  2018-2019 student enrollment was 4,121, increasing to 4,220 in 2019-2020 (This includes 11 virtual students and 5 partner students), for a net enrollment of 4, 204 and the amount we collect ADM on.  However, we do collect money in other ways for the 11 virtual and 5 partner students.  Dr. Parker shared a chart  showing cohort growth from 2015-2020.  For instance, current 5th graders, when in kindergarten, had 238 students and now currently have 289 in grade 5.  Total enrollment was 3535 in 2015, rising to 4221 in 2019-2020. There were 692 transfer students in 2018-2019 and 644 currently.  104 transfer students did not return to Mt. Vernon this school year.  There are 93 transfer students new to the district this year generating $602,268.  15% of that amount is allowed to be moved into the Operations Fund, meaning $90,340 was moved. Since we still have room for additional transfer students, we will be able to continue that practice.  Other figures show that if we had kept an open enrollment, where students could transfer in at any time, it is predicted we would gain an additional 1,795 students by 2029-2030.  With no open enrollment, it is predicted 145 additional students by 2029-2030.  With our new policy for transfer students, it is predicted 412 additional students by 2029-2030, a decline.  The new transfer policy gives us the ability to manage the number of transfer students we accept as we keep a close eye on the number of students in each building.  He reminded board members, once a Marauder, always a Marauder as we want to keep students once enrolled, and that includes any siblings of current transfer students.

Mr. McCarty made a motion to accept policies C100,C125,C150, C275, E175, F125, F175, and H150 as presented.  Mrs. Freeman seconded, and the motion carried 5-0.

Mr. May made a motion to delete policies as outlined (6320.01, 6325 and 6440), due to the adoption of new policies that render them obsolete.  Mrs. Smith seconded, and the motion carried 5-0.

Mr. Rollo presented a list of technology items that have reached the end of their typical life cycle and no longer needed for school purposes.  Al items have been removed from the classrooms and/or school use. He asked that they be declared surplus items so they can be disposed of.

Mrs. Smith made a motion to declare the technology items presented as surplus equipment.  Mr. May seconded. 

Mrs. Freeman asked what happens with them now.  Mr. Rollo replied, chromebooks may be able to be sold for parts, everything else is in bad shape and will be thrown away.  He will use a recycling company to get rid of things.

The motion carried 5-0.

Mrs. Freeman made a motion to approve the four resolutions (2019-14: Resolution Authorizing Requesting and Approving Additional Appropriation for the 2019 Pension Debt Fund; 2019-15: Resolution Authorizing Requesting and Approving Additional Appropriation for the 2019 Debt Service Fund; 2019-16:  Resolution Authorizing 2019 Loan for Bus Purchases; and 2019-17: Resolution Authorizing the Reduction of 2019 Budget Appropriations) as presented.  Mrs. Smith seconded, and the motion carried 5-0.

3 relate from public hearing section

17- have ability to reduce our 2019 budget, odds are slim that we need to do this, 

if dont use an appropriation can ask dlgf to roll over to next year's budget.

1st kellie  2nd beth  5-0