Mt. Vernon Board of School Trustees

Mrs. Bond shared the following Good News:

1.  MVCSC recruited 19 substitutes within four weeks who are substituting exclusively for Mt. Vernon.  This initiative increased the fill rate from 50% in the  2020 fall semester to 72% in February 2021.

2.  MVCSC has named the following building winners for Teacher of the Year.  Winners are selected by their school staff:  FES-Delinda Deckard; MES-Beth Chaplin; MCE-Brianne Williams; MVMS-Kittie Masters; MVHS-Lynette Huth; and Admin/Preschool-Leeanna Seppala.   Building winners for Staff of the Year are:  FES-Nancy Price; MES-Jenny Campbell; MCE-Melissa Montague; MVMS-Lisa Lindman; MVHS-Joana Goff; and Admin./Preschool-Doris Johnson.

3.  MVHS Boys Swimmer Aiden Tierney became the 1st Marauder to reach the state podium twice in one year (2nd in 100M breaststroke and state runner-up and 8th in the 100M Fly).

4.  MVHS Boys' Basketball Coach Ben Rhoades was named HHC Coach of the Year and  players Amhad & Armon Jarrard and Razhaun Wells were named to the 2020-21 Boys' Basketball All-HHC Team.

5.  MVHS Girls' Basketball Coach Julie Shelton was named HHC Coach of the Year and players Lexi Shelton, Abby Worley and Olivia Yeley were named to the 2020-21 Girls' Basketball All-HHC Team.

6.  MVCSC celebrated Black History Month and  our diversity through various methods.

7.  Hancock Health donated N95 masks to all staff members.

Mr. Rollo presented the Hancock County Public Library Annual Report, per the attached, on behalf of Director Dave Gray who was not in attendance. 

Mr. Rollo introduced Melissa Dragoo, Director of the Fortville-Vernon Township Library, who gave the library's Annual Report.  Ms. Dragoo introduced Lola Halterman, one of MVCSC's representative to the library's Board of Trustees and Catherine Witsman, County Commissioners representative to the board.  She began by stating 65.7% of the library's budget is devoted to salaries  and benefits with 10.1% devoted to collection.  Her goal is  to increase the amount spent on collection.  The  current collection consists  of 33,339 books; 1,582 books on CD; 5,182 DVD's and Blu-rays; and 62 magazine  and  newspaper subscriptions.  2018-2020 statistics shows that there were 15, 322 library visits; 3,480 people  attended library programs and there were 4,107 wireless internet uses.  Several building improvements have been made in the past two years including resurfacing parking lot, new carpet and flooring; and reconfiguration of how collection laid out.  The library is a member of the Evergreen Indiana Library Consortium, a consortium of over 100 public schools and institutional libraries located throughout Indiana.  One benefit of the consortium is the ability to increase access to materials.  Patrons have access to almost 8 million items as materials are sent back and forth with other Evergreen users.  The library has responded to Covid challenges by adding curbside pickup and modifying in-person programming to make-and-take activities.  Wi-fi usage has doubled over previous years since the start of Covid. Digital Content has doubled in the past year with 50,251 eBooks, 1,093 downloadable videos and 9,954 downloadable audiobooks available. Moving forward, Ms. Dragoo is focused on the Summer Reading Program and hopes to reach out to our schools to promote that. 

Misty Hall, Curriculum Integration, gave a Textbook Adoption Secondary English report on behalf of Scott Shipley, Curriculum Director.  She began by explaining the process that goes into selecting curriculum.  Last October-December a committee of teacher representatives from each grade level was formed.  All secondary English teachers were surveyed and their feedback used to guide the committee.  The committee researched 12 programs, taking six of those to committee to evaluate.  The list was reduced to three and those three vendors gave presentations to the committee members as well as all secondary English teachers who could attend virtually. In February,  the list was reduced to one vendor, MyPerspectives by Savvas Learning, who gave a second presentation to committee members and all secondary English teachers.  The committee came to consensus to choose MyPerspectives for Grades 8-11.  The high school speech chose to go with McGraw-Hill and HS Etymology while 6th and 7th grade chose to keep the novel fee and add fee for current events literary magazine.   In March the committee's consensus was shared with the CTA and all English teachers surveyed.  92.3% of those surveyed chose to adopt MyPerspective for the 2021-2022 school year.  

It  is the committee's recommendation to choose MyPerspectives by Savvas Learning for Grades 8-11; HS Speech-McGraw Hill; HS Etymology-Vocabulary for the College-Bound Student and Novel Fee Literacy Magazine Fee for 6th-7th Grade.  Samples of these materials are available for anyone interested to view at the Administration Building until the April board meeting.

Mr. Elkins asked for approval of Contract Addendum (Guaranteed Maximum Price) for the Middle  School Renovation Project.  This document is an amendment  to the original construction contract approved in May, 2020, guaranteeing the maximum price of  the project.  He reminded board members that the delivery method  the board chose, which was Construction Manager at Risk, one of the legal provisions of that is that the construction manager is to develop and declare a guaranteed maximum price on the hard costs  of the project.  Mr. Elkins is happy to report that the  original target of $3.7 million hit the mark and includes all the alternative bids for wish list items.  The bid amounts and bid winners are included in the document, per the attached. 

Mrs. Walls made a motion to accept the contract for the middle school renovation project as presented. Mr. Gray seconded, and the motion carried 4-0. 

Mr. Rollo stated he received three proposals for our E-Rate Category I Internet Services proposal for 2021.  He is recommending approval of Ninestar Connect's bid for $31,200 per year for 2 Gig Internet Service and usable IP addresses.  Ninestar has been our provider for several years.    Mr. Edwards made a motion to accept  the bid for internet services as provided.  Mrs. Walls seconded, and the motion carried 4-0.

Mr. Rollo asked the board for permission to declare technology surplus, per the attached list.  These items have reached the end of their typical life cycle and/or have become damaged, therefore, no longer needed for school purposes and have been removed from classrooms.   Mrs. Walls made a motion to approve the technology surplus items as presented.  Mr. Gray seconded.

Mrs. Freeman asked what happens to these items, are they donated?  Mr. Rollo stated if still of use, he reaches out to the community to see if there is any interest.  items that are so old and not able to be repair are picked up by a vendor for  recycling. 

The motion carried 4-0.

Mr. Gray made a motion to bring Draft Policy D175 Board-Staff Communications back to the table for further discussion as a second reading agenda item.  Mrs. Walls seconded, and the motion carried 4-0.  At the February board meeting,  members tabled approval of the policy pending further input from district attorney Amy Matthews.  Board members wanted staff to feel they could approach them without it being considered unethical and wondered if the word unethical could be replaced with softer language.  Mrs. Walls thanked Dr. Parker and Ms. Matthews for their help in working through this as it is very important  to board members.  She wants staff to know they must follow the proper chain of command, but also wants to be approachable.  Of the two options presented, Option A and B, she aligns more with Option B as it does not use the term unethical conduct and redirects staff, when approached regarding confidential subjects, to their supervisor.  Option A states board members, when approached by staff regarding confidential subjects, would be considered inappropriate conduct.  Dr. Parker stated he knew board members struggled with the term unethical conduct.  Mrs. Freeman stated she feels the  board already does a good job of redirecting staff members to the proper chain of command and she also aligns more with Option B.   Mr. Gray likes then notion of Option B as it does  not discourage staff from contacting them, but states ultimately it is  their supervisor they should be talking to first.  Mrs. Freeman reminded everyone that a NEOLA policy dealing with this subject already exists, this will replace that  policy.

Mr. Edwards made a motion to amend Policy D175 Board-Staff Communications to read as presented in Option B.  Mrs. Walls seconded, and the motion carried 4-0.