Mt. Vernon Board of School Trustees

1. Work Session (5:30 p.m.)

Minutes

The Mt. Vernon Board of Trustees held a Work Session at 5:30 p.m.


2. Pledge of Allegiance (7:00 P.M.)
Mrs. Kellie Freeman, Board President

The School Board, before each meeting, offers the opportunity to participate in the Pledge of Allegiance. People attending the meeting are welcome to take part in this procedure. Those desiring not to take part may either remain in the hallway before the meeting or sit quietly in the meeting room.

Minutes

Mrs. Freeman led everyone in the Pledge of Allegiance.


3. Call to Order
Mrs. Kellie Freeman, Board President

Minutes

The meeting was called to order at 7:01 p.m.


4. Adoption of Agenda
Mrs. Kellie Freeman, Board President

Minutes

Dr. Parker announced there were additions to the Personnel Report.  Mrs. Walls made a motion to adopt the agenda as amended.  Mr. May seconded, and the motion carried 5-0.

 


5. Public Comments Regarding Agenda Items
Mrs. Kellie Freeman, Board President

0167.3 - Public Participation at Board Meetings
May only address items listed in the agenda
Must be recognized by presiding officer.
Must provide name, address, and group affiliation, if and when appropriate
Limited to 3 minutes duration
All statements shall be directed to the presiding officer; no person may address or question Board members individually

 

Minutes

There were none.


6. Reports
Dr. Jack Parker, Superintendent

Minutes

Dr. Parker stated there were two reports.


6.1 Good News
Mrs. Maria Bond, Communications Director

Minutes

Mrs. Bond shared the following Good News:

1.  MVHS Athletic Director Brandon Ecker was selected as the District 4 Athletic Director of the Year through the Indiana Interscholastic Athletic Administrator's Association.

2.  MVMS Devin Kendrix became an Indiana Middle School State Wrestling Champion.

3.  MVHS Girls' Basketball became Sectional champions for the second year in a row and made it to the Elite 8, which was the furthest advancement in 4A.

4.  MVHS Boys' Swimming/Diving had an undefeated 10-0 season.  Coach Brad Grieshop was named HHC Coach of the Year.  Brady Gray broke the 50 Freestyle School record.  

5.  WRTV 6 featured MVHS Dual Credit Health Science 1 course where students can earn a Certified Nursing Assistant certification.

 


6.2 Spotlight on Schools
Dr. Jack Parker, Superintendent

Fortville Elementary School

Stacy Muffler, Principal

Minutes

Mrs. Stacy Muffler, Principal at Fortville Elementary, gave a presentation spotlighting her school.  She began by stating she was in Year 2 wrapping up the Indiana Principal Leadership Institute, a really unique experience she has enjoyed.  Part of year two is to complete an action research project and she was happy to have been able to take two teachers, Jill Chastain and Lydgia Palmer, along with her on this journey. The purpose of the project was to support communication, build trust, build leadership capacity and focus on the process more than the product to produce long term change and implement new things at FES.  The action research project was Virtual Instructional Rounds where teachers went into other teachers' classrooms to help grow their virtual teaching skills set, give teachers the opportunity to learn from other colleagues outside of their team, provide staff positive feed back from their peers and build and foster relationships in the building.   The project was picked with the goal to target specific needs in the building.   The Plan was to do two instructional Rounds blending groups with 3-4 staff members put with teachers not on their teaching team.  Guiding questions were provided to the groups.  Reponses included 53.8% of teachers learned something new and are considering changing their practices.  97.5% of teachers appreciated getting to hear from teachers outside of their team.  97.5% of teachers felt ok/good about their approach to virtual learning.  Staff wrote notes to other staff members providing positive peer feedback.  

 

 

 

 

 


7. Consent Agenda
Mrs. Kellie Freeman, Board President

Minutes

Mr. Edwards made a motion to approve the following Consent Agenda Items:

1.  Minutes of the January 25, 2021 board meeting;

2.  Claims;

3.  The following personnel items:

CERTIFIED RECOMMENDATIONS

Erin Neely, MCE Leave of Absence February 15, 2021 through May 3, 2021

Christy Heath, MVMS Leave of Absence February 23, 2021 through May 19, 2021

CLASSIFIED RESIGNATION

Natalie Tucker, Bus Driver

Alyssa Jean-Baptiste, MMPS Instructional Assistant

Tamala Baker, MCE Custodian

Dan Vail, MES Instructional Assistant

Kayleigh Carrier, MVMS Attendance Secretary 

CLASSIFIED RECOMMENDATIONS

Jessica Rinaldi, MCE Cafeteria Prep Cook/Server

George Eldridge, MVMS Permanent Substitute

Jessica Jacks, FES High Intensity Special Education Instructional Assistant (DREAM Room)

Kim Corn, FES Custodian (part-time Monday, Wednesday & Friday)

Anthony Kinartail, Substitute Bus Driver

Cassie Halverson, MCE Custodian

Avery Hewitt, Bus Assistant

Daniel Morford, Substitute Bus Driver

Nicole Birdsong, Substitute Bus Driver

CHANGE OF ASSIGNMENT

Lisa Lee, MVMS Instructional Assistant to MVMS High Intensity Instructional Assistant

Becky Weir, MCE Cafeteria employee to MCE Cafeteria Substitute

ECA CHANGE OF ASSIGNMENT

Jeff Loy, MVMS 7th Grade Baseball Coach to 8th Grade Baseball Coach

ECA RECOMMENDATIONS

Hayden Deford, MVMS 7th Grade Baseball Coach

David Hines, MVMS 8th Grade Softball Volunteer

Blake Wampler, MVMS 7th Grade Softball Volunteer

Kevin DeFord, MVMS 7th Grade Baseball Volunteer

Brett Johnson, MVMS 8th Grade Baseball Volunteer

Steve Thorla, MVMS 8th Grade Baseball Volunteer

Aaron Britt, MVHS Varsity Girls Head Soccer Coach

ECA RESIGNATIONS

Lee Larkins, MVMS Track Coach

Michael Retherford, MVMS 8th Grade Baseball Coach

LEAVES

Stephanie Evans, MVMS Secretary (January 21, 2021 - February 22, 2021) Extended

Bonny Stites, MVMS Teacher (March 11 to April 21, 2021);

4.  Request to accept a $2529.93 donation from former MVHS teacher and cheerleading coach Joyce Beaver to help support the MVHS Cheerleading Program. 

Mr. Gray seconded.  Mrs. Walls asked for a few minutes in order to look through the personnel changes.  The motion carried 5-0.

 

 


7.1 Regular Session Minutes

7.2 Claims

7.3 Personnel Report

7.4 Overnight Field Trip Request

7.5 Request to Accept Donation

8. Action Items
Mrs. Kellie Freeman, Board President

8.1 2nd Reading Policy D175 Board-Staff Communications
Dr. Jack Parker, Superintendent

Minutes

Dr. Parker presented second reading of Policy D175 Board-Staff Communications.  Mr. May made a motion to approve Policy D175 Board-Staff Communications as presented.  Mr. Edwards seconded.

Mrs. Freeman stated she was not a fan of this policy and asked Dr. Parker if there had always been a board policy regarding this matter.  Dr. Parker stated we had a NEOLA Policy similar to this policy and it still existed until replaced with this policy.  Mrs. Freeman stated she had spoken with board attorney Amy Matthews who stated the verbiage in this policy and the NEOLA Policy was about the same, Policy D175 just made it clearer and the intent was to give board members guidelines when approached on what is appropriate to discuss.  When reading the policy from a teacher's perspective, Mrs. Freeman interprets it as teachers should not talk to board members about anything.  She wondered if the policy could be made clearer and stress its purpose is to guide board members.  She feels that board members do a good job of, when approached, directing people through the proper chain of command first before approaching board members.  She feels it conveys don't talk to a board member or you will be in trouble and wondered how it could be changed so it doesn't convey that message.  Mr. Gray stated he reads this policy the opposite way, it's not talking about the staff member talking to a board member as being unethical, that he has a board member talking to a staff member about something he should not be discussing.  He feels as colleagues they can discuss alot of things, but once you get into the specifics of any individual,  or specific area, if he continues that conversation that is unethical on his part.  Mrs. Walls stated the word unethical is strong wording and would like to see softer language.   She cited instances where staff members brought items to board members' attention that board members needed to know and she did not consider that unethical.  Mrs. Freeman wants staff members to feel they can approach board members and it is up to them to tell them they cannot discuss a particular topic.  Mr. May added he agreed it was up to board members to make it clear what they can and cannot discuss.  Mrs. Freeman agrees there should be a policy addressing this issue, but feels it needs to be clearer and language less frightening and asked Dr. Parker if it could be reworded.  Dr. Parker stated yes and would be happy to support the language they wanted.  He stressed being unethical doesn't mean you will get in trouble.

Mrs. Walls made a motion to table the previous motion until further consideration from attorney Amy Matthews regarding rewording Policy D175.  Mr. Edwards seconded, and the motion carried 5-0,

 


8.2 Resolution 2021-10 Approval Amendment & Restatement of MVCSC Retirement Plans
Mr. Greg Elkins, Chief Financial Officer

Minutes

Mr. Elkins presented Resolution 2021-10 Approval of the Amendment and Restatement of the Mt. Vernon Community School Corporation Retirement Plans.  He emphasized this is something that just needs to be done every so often to make retirement plans compliant.

Mr. Gray made a motion to accept Resolution 2021-10 as presented.  Mrs. Walls seconded, and the motion carried 5-0.

 


8.3 Resolution 2021-11 HB 1005 Opposing the Establishment of Education Savings Accounts
Dr. Jack Parker, Superintendent

Minutes

Dr. Parker presented Resolution 2021-11 HB 1005 Opposing the Establishment of Education Savings Accounts.  He presented it to oppose legislation currently running through the legislature, specifically House Bill 1005, Senate Bill 412, and Senate Bill 413, and any other bills that establish education savings accounts to expand vouchers. He opposes voucher money that continues  to flow to students for private schooling so that we can capture as much of that money as we possibly can.  The costs of Education Savings Accounts and school vouchers are covered exclusively by our state's school tuition support fund, further providing fewer public dollars to fund public schools and increase teacher  salaries.  If this bill is enacted, it will put the public school environment at risk by directing resources away from public schools to nonpublic schools that are not subject to the same scrutiny for their use of taxpayer resources.  Mr. Edwards made a motion to accept Resolution 2021-11 as presented.  Mr. May seconded.  Mrs. Walls stated it was important that the staff and community know that the board has been very vocal in their support of this by contacting legislators, etc.  and it is a very important issue to them. Mrs. Freeman added we needed more legislators who supported public education.  The motion carried 5-0.

 

 


8.4 Resolution 2021-12 Provide One-Time Paid Emergency Leave
Dr. Jack Parker, Superintendent

Minutes

Dr. Parker presented Resolution 2021-12 Providing One-Time Paid Emergency Leave so that employees not lose pay for February 16, 2021 because of weather-related circumstances making it dangerous for travel.  This resolution allows that staff members who were not able to work from home be compensated with the payment they would have received for working on that date (regular number of hours at regular hourly rate) had this emergency not occured.  It further provides that all employees who were contacted by the Director of Operations to travel to work, custodians and maintenance, be compensated at a rate of 1.5 times  the employees' regular hourly rate for the regular number of hours they would have worked that date had this emergency not occured.   Mrs. Walls made a motion to accept Resolution 2021-12 as presented.  Mr. Edwards seconded, and the motion carried 5-0.

 


8.5 Approval of E-Rate Bids
Mr. Greg Elkins, Chief Financial Officer

Universal Service Administrative Co. (USAC)  https://www.usac.org/e-rate/

Minutes

Mr. Elkins and Mr. Rollo announced they received eleven proposals to our E-Rate Category 2 Equipment Proposal for  2021.  They recommend acceptance of Logicalis' bid of $85,329.41.  This amount will be used to replace twenty-two network switches at the high school.  Mt. Vernon's 2020-21 discount rate is 60% for Category 1 and Category 2.  Mr. May made a motion to approve the Network Infrastructure Equipment Upgrade as presented.  Mr Gray seconded, and the motion carried 5-0.

 

 


9. Announcements
Dr. Jack Parker, Superintendent

Minutes

Dr. Parker announced that Mt. Vernon's substitute teacher fill rate has been going up, a reason for celebration.    COVID infection rate is down as is the quarantine rate.  He thanks administrators and faculty for their great work keeping in-person student learning happening.   

House Bill 1168 has been a passion of Dr. Parker's and he was able to testify last month regarding this bill.  This bill states that half of early graduate ADM monies would be lost , which for Mt. Vernon is  $130,000 per student a year.  That has been rolled into the state budget, HB 1001 and it has passed the house already,  The only difference is we will not receive money for this year, but should be receiving money for next year.  Dr. Parker is very happy on how this is moving.

 

 


10. Adjournment
Mrs. Kellie Freeman, Board President

Minutes

Mrs. Walls made a motion to adjourn at 7:37 p.m.  Mr. Edwards seconded, and the motion carried 5-0.