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26 meeting. Uh, a little late. I like to be punctual, but uh, as you can see, the conversation continued in as we walked in. So, uh, I I apologize. But, at this time, I'd like to call uh, the meeting to order. Would you please rise for the pledge of

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The Elcart Promise. Every student is known by name, challenged, and supported by highly effective staff, and in partnership with the community will graduate career and college ready, college and life ready. Next on the agenda, we have

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Miss Wendy Wood, communication plan. At its core, we want to ensure that every family, staff, and community member receives reliable, clear, and timely information. My focus is to make the district communications predictable and fully accessible across every

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channel we use. Key pillars of communication. First, a regular schedule so you always know when to expect updates. Second, language and access. making sure that digital tools meet ADA standards and automatically translate into our famil family's home

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languages. And third, urgent alerts. As we experienced earlier today, a streamlined system to get critical safety and weather info out instantly and timely. Our communication channels by audience. By making sure we communicate through multiple channels, we'll deliver

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information in a way that makes sense and doesn't overwhelm our audience. Staff and families connected primarily through Parent Square. Staff re receive postboard updates. Families receive monthly newsletters and both receive real-time alerts as needed.

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Our community and business partners informed through a quarterly print mailer focused on strategic growth and budget stewardship. General public and media update as needed via the district website and official social media pages for general

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news and urgent alerts. Parent Square is our communication platform. Parent Square is a primary tool for family engagement and it connects directly with Power School so our contact list stays up to date. It delivers district, school, and classroom news in one place, automatically

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translated into the family's preferred language. It also gives parents control over how and when they will receive updates. We want to keep families informed without overwhelming their inboxes. And to do this, we strategically plan our communication. Every announcement,

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families can opt for daily digest, a single summary delivering delivered in the evening to prevent notification fatigue. Emergency and urgent alerts will always bypass settings to reach parents instantly via text, push

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notifications, and email. Our social media guidelines. Social media is a great source to tell our story. We use our official channels to celebrate student achievements, athletics, the arts, and our CTE programs. To keep messages clean and compliant,

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the school pages operate under district principal oversight, and all graphics will follow guidelines to ensure they meet digital ADA compliance. Our social media pages will be centralized within our schools and programs to keep our channels relevant, engaging, and a

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reliable source of accurate information. Regular communication schedule to build predict predictability. We stick to a clear cadence. The day after every schoolboard meeting, staff will receive a postboard update and relevant information.

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The first week of each month, we send out a newsletter to families. Community partners receive a print mailer mailer every quarter and a day as day-to-day our website calendar and social channels stay continuously updated.

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Inclement weather procedures when inclement weather interrupts our schedule, speed and coordination are essential essential. We follow three the three-step sequence. First, urgent parent square broadcast goes directly to families via text, app, and email.

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Second, we push out a popup alert to our website, updated social media as needed. And third, we notify our local news partners to air their announcements, >> weather alert content. We recognize that our messages, it's not just about saying school is closed. Families need details

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to plan their day. Every alert clearly specifies if it's a 2-hour delay, a full closure, or what kind of e-learning day. We also want to provide resources to clarify transportation updates, breakfast services, and afterchool sports or activities as needed.

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Immediate incident and crisis protocols. During an active incident, getting accurate information out fast is critical. Our steps to communicate will be verifying the situation for facts and details. We issue and communicate with staff and families through parent square acknowledging situations and

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instructions if needed to be sure the information is accurate and consistent. Information will always come from the district level. Once the situation resolves, we we issue a clear closing update. Data quality, accessibility, and brand

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standards. Accurate family information is essential to the communication process. We will prompt families annually to update their contact details in P school. We'll be on track to full digital ADA compliance by the April 2027 deadline. We also run an annual

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community survey to see how we're doing. And to maintain professionalism and district brand, all publications will undergo central, excuse me, review to make sure our school logos and brand standards remain consistent districtwide.

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Thank you for your continued support of our communication strategy. >> Thank you, Wendy. Next we have uh Monica Conrad. Uh the parent complaint process. Good evening board. And um what we are

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doing is is to make sure that we have proper emphasis as the school year starts on our policy 9130. This is already an adopted policy. there's no revisions that are needed to it, but it's really just to bring more awareness of the policy and making sure that we're kind of walking through that

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policy in the way that the board had adopted it and as a way the way it was intended. Um, we have created a flowchart and I don't know that we're able to put this up on the screen, but the flowchart begins with this process

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that we have here in terms of the kinds of of complaints or concerns that might be brought to the school district. Um, those concerns don't necessarily start with the board, but they start through what has been adopted under policy 9130.

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So what you will find Oh, there we go. Thank you. Appreciate it. So what you kind of see through the columns of the flowchart, if there is concerns about our support staff, there is a process

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that this walks through. If it is a concern about any of our operations staff, that's where you see the aqua blue. Concerns with administrative or professional staff, that's where you see that middle column. Um, any kind of concerns with the superintendent, that's

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the dark blue. And then any kind of concerns with educational program, that's over to the right in the purple. So, these are steps that your board policy has adopted for how we walk through this. Each one of these steps start at a step one, and that will be

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with the proper supervisor for which the complaint is arising. Um, so it doesn't necessarily start here at this office, but it has to work through the steps that you have already spelled out in your policy. Now, what we've done to make this a lot easier um make it more

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accessible for folks to understand is we have put as of today a link on the school district website and we'll go over to that. And this is on the front page. This is on your homepage. And you'll see over to

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the right report concerns. If you click right through that, we can go to the next page. And the first question is is what's the nature of your concern? Now, if you hit bullying

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and you hit next page, that is going to take you directly to the Sprigio reporting system. So, you're getting offramped with bullying concerns back to the Sprigio process. So, let's

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go back out to the complaint process itself. So, we're going to choose a option We may have to go. I think if you hit next page and then just submit and then we'll restart it

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again. Okay. So, so, so let's just choose here uh discrimination. You can choose that one, which is the top bullet. And then you'd be asked to fill out your

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name, your address, your phone number. Does anybody want to volunteer their name at least and we'll get it moving to the next? Okay, Kelly. So, we'll stick in Kelly's name there. Okay, there we go.

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Main Street phone number. So, this is a way for once you file the complaint, we have a way of following up um you know with respard to who's complaining. Unlike Sprigio, Sprigio you can do it anonymous. The rest of these will not be

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anonymous in terms of making complaints. So, this first landing, this first spot here is to have the whomever's complaining to kind of describe what their concerns are. List that all out. We'll go on to the next one.

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And then there are some additional concerns. Um, identify who are witnesses. Maybe there's adults, maybe there's students. give names, addresses, include any kind of other evidence or documentation that they may have that

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goes along with their support that you think that we need to be reviewing along with this the statement. If we go to the next page, describe how student it might be a a particular student involved or it might be other students how they were

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affected. That's really an important concern of ours. We want to drill down on that a little bit in terms of the complaints. Approximate date and time of the incident. Got to type that in. And then if if it involves a specific

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employee or a department that gets gets described. what it is that the remediation what would remediate the concern or what relief is being sought is being is being asked for and then we

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click through that which school does it relate to what's who who's filing this is this a community member is a parent u is it a staff um is also being solicited here

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and then whether or not this has been discussed with the level one principal or department supervisor. If yes, then there should be we could go back to that principal to find out you know what first step was already taken

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to be able to elevate that. um if if there's any other teachers involved or building administrators that they want to have to get a copy of that, they can list that out as well. And then we get to

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the last page and they submit and then that is being accumulated and put together and then once we gather that we'll make sure it gets to the right step in terms of the complaint process at level one or complaint start. So there's level one,

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two, three, four. Um it would only come before the board after all those other steps are being exhausted. So complaints don't start here. Complaints start through this process. Um and I also we have um copies in written format too if

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people want to do it in written format instead of um doing it through the website. >> A quick question. Just ask a quick question or wait. >> What reasonably would be a a time frame for a response? I mean I we hear often

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that you know folks are waiting like what would be a reasonable response? >> It will all depend on what is being clicked on that. Um because if like for instance discrimination or discrimination policies have certain timelines on that um the bullying have

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certain timelines on that. So, but we now have a process to be able to kind of um calculate that out and be able to monitor also the timelines for our own compliance purposes. Okay. >> So, sorry, I don't mean to kind of give

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you a non-answer, but different things have different timelines. And I will also kind of say right now we're in the process of redoing all of our other policies and procedures. And one of the policies that will be coming before you in the next month is with regard to

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discrimination complaints. And there are some we are putting in into that policy as well dates and timelines for how that will be followed up on. >> Once you finalize those timelines, would that expectation be added to the

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website? um not necessarily only because there is so much variance between um the different kind of complaints. Uh what is for example if the complaint has to do with library books or textbooks which is

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also part of policy 9130 that's a that's another offramp. So, but we at with getting the name of the parent, um, for example, we've gotten um some requests this last week, we will immediately follow up and let them know what the

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complaint is and we can advise them, especially like if it's a Title N or discrimination, we immediately let them know what that timeline is. I think it would be helpful to have just a general statement with some kind of um expectation on there just because we've

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had so many people um complain about not meeting deadlines or whatever. So even if it's a general this could potentially I know some of them have a hard you have to follow up between 24 and 48 hours. So some kind of expectation should be on the website so people are aware.

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>> Okay. And I' I've got a followup a quick question. Who does when this is submitted, where does it land? >> Well, right now it's gonna it's landing back with our IT people who have kind of created this and then they're in coordination with my office. Um, and

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then from a first step is trying to determine which bucket it goes into and then assigning the timeline and assigning the appropriate people to it. And if I heard you correctly, um, and I I think this is sometimes a concern whenever I do anything, you know,

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online, I submit a survey is to get to your point to get a response back that we received it and we're working on it. I think I heard you say that a telephone call is placed to the parent. Not not necessarily, but we will be doing some kind of a comm communication because I

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think it also is helpful to have like for instance the ones that we're dealing with just this last week. It's written link. We're have a we have a communication written letter that's going out to the parent. >> Um, not so much that just just a minimal we received it. Yes.

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>> And we're we're working on it. Yes. >> So that will happen in either electronic form or telephonic. >> Yes. because a lot of forms enable you to download your responses so you also have a record of that. >> Okay, >> I don't know if that's possible but a

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lot of um Google forms or Microsoft forms allow you to download your responses. Is it >> is it also possible um when it asks for like certain information whatever that

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um they could download a document or a picture or supporting evidence to it um >> or upload your name >> or yeah upload >> um >> upload um on one of those screens they could upload information is can we kind of

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tweak that to give them that opportunity? >> Yes. Yeah. And that's what that other screen was intended to do was to allow for anything else. >> But that was when I looked at just saw here it looked like you could just have to type everything. But if you've already got documentation or something

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that you could upload, right? >> That having that feature would be helpful I think for for some people we're getting we're getting the affirmative. >> This is great. >> Okay. >> This is great. I have a I have a question. You know how when you uh call

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the doctor's office and stuff like that and they say if you got an emergency, you know, hang up and dial 911. Do we need to put a disclaimer at the front of this and say, "Hey, if you have a life-threatening emergency of some sort, you know, you need to go to 911 or something to that effect."

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>> I would hope. >> It's a fair statement. >> Well, yeah, but you know, you see it regularly. You know, if you call a doctor's office, that's what you're getting. Okay. And I would agree with you. >> Yeah. >> Okay. But

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you see what you see, you know, like whatever. Anyhow, just a thought. It's a fair statement. >> Thank you. You're welcome. >> Emergency, but maybe immediate. >> Yeah. Immediate something. I don't know. But I would hope people had an

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emergency. They're not going to go on a computer and type out a form. >> I agree. But you know, I'm sorry you don't. >> Okay. Well, thank you. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. Thank you. So I I I think uh the the timing on

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this, you know, not only do we have to start a school, but I think uh those who regularly attend our meetings or on listening to us uh stream uh over the past few meetings, past few months, you've seen uh you know, it's it's been a reoccurring uh issue and uh been

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brought up regarding communication uh regarding parent complaints. Um, you know, the administration heard those uh issues and complaints and took the assertive steps to take a step back, look at the existing policy, refine it,

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improve upon it. I think they've done that and I think it's been very responsive uh from the communication plan to the parent complaint process. Wendy, great job today with the tornado warning just to emphasize. >> Um, great way to pull that all together. Um, but no, I I I think it's important

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that uh we get this kind of communication in out there so people know when you have a problem, when you have a concern, when you have an issue, where to go, how to be heard because a lot of times people come here and in

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this format we can't respond, you know, we and and it's not really the the right format. and and if it's important enough for you to come here or it's important enough to, you know, I get on the right, um, technology or format to get, you know,

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get a response as quickly as possible and this allows you guys to do that. So, um, thank you for everybody that worked, uh, on this to get this ready for this meeting and the start of school. >> Can I make a couple comments? You may. >> Um, I just want to reiterate, thank you to Wendy and to Monica. Um, I put them

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on a short timeline. Um, as I've stated to all of you before, we hear those concerns and I hope that you see that we're trying to address the communication that we keep hearing is a problem and that this parent complaint process is a a problem. And so I hope that you um grant us flexibility and

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patience as we work on this and and we may have to refine it as we move along this year, but we want to make it better. So um, thank you for allowing us this time to do that. >> Thank you, Superintendent Reese. Any other anything else from the board? All

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right. Next, um our invitation to speak protocol. Everybody should have received a pamphlet. Uh members of the public are invited to to uh speak at the podium. Um we ask that when you come up to the podium when your name's read, please come up to the podium and state your relationship to Elcart Community

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Schools. Once you're there, you'll have three minutes uh to uh talk about any agenda or non-aggenda item. Um statements should be directed to the board as a whole and not individual board members. Um please do not uh speak

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any complaints against uh any personal uh staff and or students uh and keep those names um you know to yourself. This is not the appropriate uh venue for that. Um student issues again should not

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uh this is not the forum for for student issues. I think our communication plan lays that out very clearly. So, at this time, Gora, do we have any uh We do. >> Thank you. >> Francis is buoy

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buoy. Hello. Thank you for hearing me out. Um, I wanted the board to hear what I addressed to several of the um, school leadership and a few board members. Um,

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I'm writing as I'm writing as a concerned grandmother and supporter of Elkcart Community Schools to seek answers regarding what to be what appears to be unequal treatment of students when transferring out of Elkcart Community Schools.

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It has come to my attention that coach slashteer, I'm not going to say any names, have allowed two white varsity basketball players to transfer without any consequences or resistance. However, when a black

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student chose to transfer, the situation was handled very differently. This raised serious concerns about fairness and consistency. How is it that some students are permitted to make decisions about their future without interference while other

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students futures can be affected by a personal decision of a coach or a teacher? If this policy or approach were applied equally to all athletes, that would not be a problem. However, the two white

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students in question played multiple years for Elcart High School, which played some of which played varsity and were allowed freely to transfer. While the black student, who never had an opportunity to play on the varsity

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level, appeared to face consequences. This coach went looking for excuses when it came to him. and he never turned the page on that white student. Never questioned a thing.

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I've been told that this coach/teer stated he had to make a point. Okay, those were not my words. They were his that were when he was speaking to someone else. What makes this situation

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especially difficult to understand is if true it suggests that the outcome was intentional rather than the results of a policy being applied consistently which is deeply troubling. A culture student should not have the the authority to

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alter a student's opportunity or future simply to satisfy his personal pride. Decisions that impact a student's educational and athletic future should be based on policy, fairness, and the

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best interest of the student, not personal feelings. What makes this even more concerning is that coach himself has reportedly described this student as respectful, compliant, someone who consistently does what he was asked of

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him. Multiple people have been told that this one that this is the most respectful young man in the program. If that is true, then it becomes even harder to understand why he is being treated differently. If Elkart community

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schools allow adults in position of authority to use their influence in a way that is disproportionately harming black students, any student for that fact, then the issue extends beyond one individual and becomes a matter of

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institutional concern. This is a matter of that deserves transparency and accountability. Had the roles been reversed, my grandson has shown disrespect toward a teacher or coach. I have no doubt there there would

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have been consequences for him. Yet, it appears acceptable for a teacher or coach to take action that may negatively affect a student's future. That double standard is difficult to ignore. Let me be clear. No child should be

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treated unfairly because of an adult's pride. regardless of race. However, when exceptions appear to be made for white students while black students face different treatment, it naturally raise questions that deserve answers. Some may

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argue that this is not about race, but the facts, as I have presented, it appears that discretionary actions are being applied differently only to black students. I respectfully request a thorough review of this situation and an

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explanation of how this decision was made. A current community school has a responsibility to ensure that all students are treated fairly, consistently, and without bias. I look forward to hearing from you. >> Thank you.

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Uh, >> next we have Alyssa Halverson. Thank you. >> Hello members of the board. My name is Alyssa Halverson and my son previously attended Bristol Elementary and is now attending Eastwood Elementary.

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Since the school consolidated, I have been nervous about two things, busing and class sizes. However, we were told by you, the board, at the February 10th meeting, at 1 hour into the YouTube recording that class sizes would be kept to 25 children per

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class, and at 1 hour and 20 minutes into the recording, that you would be keeping bus rides to 60 minutes or below. I was seriously skeptical about how you could do that, especially for Bristol kids, but I tried to keep the faith. As you

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are likely aware, last week the busing schedules came out. It turns out that I was right to be skeptical. I know we cannot be specific here, so I'll give two times for two unnamed elementary school students, 6:04 a.m.

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and 5:45 a.m. pickup times. The schools don't open until 7:10. That means those kids will be on the bus for 66 minutes and 85 minutes, respectively. For the Bristol student, that's a change of 45 minutes from the previous year.

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How do you expect an elementary student to learn all day when they are likely have to get up at 5:00 a.m. or earlier in order to get out to the bus? How is this putting safety first? Kids are going to be walking through neighborhoods at 6:00 a.m. or earlier,

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some without sidewalks or lights, such as my neighborhood. Why is this necessary? The two times I called into transportation about this, I was told buses are scheduled to arrive 20 to 30 minutes early just in case of

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traffic or routing issues. Why are our kids paying the price for your uncertainty? If they are late, let them be late and figure it out from there. That half an hour can mean a lot to that kid. Honestly, the stop times are just

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unacceptable. I understand you had to consolidate schools and buses. I get the need. But this is affecting children's education and safety. If a child gets hit, how would you feel? Please consider moving the time of the elementary school back to the later time

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slot if you can't afford busing. These are little kids. Little kids, not near adults like high school students. As far as class sizes, I've confirmed with a fourth grade teacher at Beersley that their class has 35 students. At the

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Eastwood open house I just attended, the younger grades stuck to that 25 or lower, but the older grades range from 25 to 30 kids. So, you did not keep that promise. Thank you. Morgan Bond.

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>> Hi, my name is Morgan Bond. I'm a parent of a Melcart Community School's child. Um earlier this year towards the end of last school year I received a letter um indicating that my child has been selected as one who is in the high

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ability program. Um we later received notification that the meeting that was scheduled for information about what this program entails had been cancelled. Um and we haven't received anything since. Um, similar to um, Miss

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Halverson, I just came from the open house at Eastwood and my um, students teacher had no idea what had happened with the high ability program if anything was happening with it and so I just like some sort of communication. I'm not sure if I'm able to have

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conversation up here if I'm just Okay. So would love some kind of communication about what's happening there. I understand it's not a separate program anymore at a separate school. Is it being integrated within the classes? Essentially, just would love some

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communication about how our high ability um high ability students are being uh taken care of. So, thank you. >> If um you be uh great if you could go online and be one of our first people with our new communication policy to to

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fill it out, we can get in touch with you and uh have that conversation. >> Yeah, the form. Yes. on on the web page. Thank you so much. >> Is there actually she'd be the second person tonight? >> Is there a complaint?

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>> Any administrator that could just have a quick conversation with her after the board meeting? >> Dr. Ral is she's right there. I was already eyeing her to meet you afterwards. I'd >> still love for you to go on and try it out.

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>> All right. Thank you. All right, last one tonight. Ralph. Yeah. Can we just call you Ralph since you've been here so many times? Okay. >> All right. I I like Ralph. >> Okay. My name is Ralph Spelbring. I live

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near what used to be Elkart Central High School. If I attended a home football game, I walked when Central played Monroe, Michigan uh a few years before it closed. that made a nice day trip to

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go up there and uh on the Michigan roads. Then after the game and came back on the interstates. Uh a few years ago I went down State Road 19 to watch the Elcart High School girls play the Tippy

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Canoe Valley girls. The Tippet Canoe Valley girls beat the Elcart High School 56-1. That's why I like basketball much better than football. >> I love you.

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>> Belart High School may have five times as many students, but the team down there scored five times as many points. >> Okay, that's not that. >> Uh M Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio all

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held elections on the first Tuesday in May this year. The elections in Michigan were all financial referendums on whether to spend money on schools or roads or things of that sort. Indiana

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and Ohio had some referendums, but it was mainly primaries for the two major uh political parties. I believe it was 1990. I compiled a list

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of re school referendums. The 1973 uh tax bill allowed referendums. Figured out that three per year over those 17 years.

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This says 38 school districts this year are going to be seeking referendums in the fall. that that's a big difference. It's much more difficult uh for schools. The the finances got

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more different. Uh and I want to commend Councilman Steve Clark on the uh municipal finance board. Elcart County should get more of the local income tax money than any other entity. The city of Elcart

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should be second. The city of Gan should be third. That's the way it works out. However, I think that Elcart with a quarter of the population in the county should not receive more than a quarter

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of these local county income tax distribution. Thank you. >> Thank you, Ralph. All right, that was uh last of our public comments. Uh, next on our agenda, we have uh Wendy again with the

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excellence of Elcart. >> Thank you, President Scott, members of the board, Mrs. Reese, community members. I'm grateful for the opportunity to share highlights in the areas of academics, arts, and athletics. I'm sure it's in there somewhere. This summer, the excellence of Elcart

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was defined by employees who stepped into new roles, new buildings, unpacked boxes, provided support, and did whatever else was needed to prepare for a successful school year. Over the past week, we've held meetings to welcome back staff ranging from our secretary

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meeting to admin meetings, transportation, substitutes, and new teachers. Secretaries are preparing to welcome new students to their schools. Teachers are setting up classrooms in new to them buildings. Staff across the district are unpacking, organizing, and transforming new to them spaces into

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places where students will learn and grow. For the staff of Monger Elementary, the transition looked different. With a short turnaround, they began the year in a new building, unpacking boxes they never had the opportunity to pack, while sharing the same goal to create a welcoming environment for their students. Behind

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the scenes, our operations, technology, and security teams work non-stop to prepare buildings and support transitions across the district. Operations and technology teams coordinated the logistics and preparation needed to make each move possible. while our security team

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stepped into whatever they were needed. Mowing lawns, unloading supplies, assisting with building transitions, and truly embodying the phrase all of their duties as assigned. This summer, the excellence of Elkart is demonstrated by employees who worked

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beyond their job titles, supported one another, and without fail will be there to support our students and families once the doors open on August 13th. And in the area of arts, as seen across the high school campus, the marching band and color guard are preparing for

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the upcoming season. Students are building their skills, strengthening teamwork, and preparing to res represent Elcart Community Schools with pride. In athletics, our girls golfs, Elcart finished eight out of 13 teams at Northwood's Invite with a final score of

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418. And we're excited to recognize the Elkart High School cheerleading team for outstanding performances at the Elcart County 4H Fair cheer competition. And for our future happenings, we're excited for the first day of school on

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Thursday, August 13th. And as always, be sure to follow our district and social media pages as we share each day the excellence of Elkart schools. Great. >> Thank you, Wendy. All right. Next, we have the consent agenda.

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Um, before we uh entertain a motion for that, I'd like to amend I have a motion to amend the consent agenda by adding a contract. This contract deals with the community services with all deaf or CSA, a division of United Healthcare

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Services. I'd like to add this to the consent agenda uh subject to general counsel approval. It's my understanding that we are very close to um finalizing it. Um so I would like to add it with the uh subject to the general counsel

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approval. Do I have a second? >> Second. >> I have a second. All in favor? >> Opposed? All right. Now that's been added. Do I have a motion for the consent agenda? >> Motion. >> Second. >> Have a motion and second. Do I have any

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uh questions, concerns, or discussions? >> Sure. We have a $1,500 total donation all going to the career center. Two silver sponsorships. Um, one is from, okay, you guys, I did not bring my glasses, so this is bad. The stiff um group uh group USA, which is also util

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master, and two form solutions. So, if you're wondering, and Brandon will eventually come in this school year and talk about what it looks like to be a sponsorship with the Elkart Area Career Center. Every level gives you a different means of support. And the silver one, for example, allows you to

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have um your name recognized in a flyer at two events during the spring that allows over a thousand uh community partners to see this. And then also um it's in a newsletter that allows over 3,000 community partners to see this. So, it's an opportunity for you while still supporting our students. And

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another sponsor or another donation was $500 from Purdue University for the robotics and engineering at the career center. So, $1,500 total, which is just the beginning of what they will receive, which is so exciting. And then we have at 53 years total in service

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retirements. We have Wesley Turner with our bus garage. Um, at 11 years, we have um Barbara Oh, this is where I can't see the buses. This is great. um at 25 years uh at the career center

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as a paraprofessional and then our very own Chris Romanets who will be retiring from our area after 17 years of service. She's served in many capacities, Elkart Community Schools, but one she has spent in the administration office and she has done a great job adjusting, taking care

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of us, and you know, uh, bringing her sassy personality to give us a lot of positive energy and making sure we stayed on task. And Chris is just, she has just been a partner along the school district for many, many years with her children graduating from here. And we

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just thank Chris, we thank Barbara, and we thank Wes for their service. And um we say a special congratulations to a lot of our members that have stepped in as new principles or new assistant principles and it's very exciting for our school and we welcome a new

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principal to our district um Mr. Posie at Mary Dailyaly and we celebrate Jamie taking over at Riverview and Mrs. Nearly taking over at Eastwood and a couple of adjustments. So it's an exciting beginning of the year. So thank you to all of our partners.

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>> Elliot, it's Malone. Oh, thank you. Uh, thank you. Thanks, guys, because I couldn't read my handwriting. Um, it's Malone, Barbara Malone. So, Barbara, thank you for being patient with me when you hear this and thank you for your service. All right. >> I tried to sneak over and help you out, but I couldn't read your handwriting either.

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>> Um, I needed my glasses, but yeah. So, thank you very much, everybody. >> Any other uh comments, questions from the board regarding the consent agenda? >> Or are you going to be sad without your bestie in the office with you? I'm gonna be sad to see that little

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little thing sitting there, you know. But you you can't quit, though. >> No, she's not. No, but it's an exciting adventure for Chris. So, it's pretty cool. >> So, she sent me a message, too, that said, "Don't go on and on." And I told her I was going to go on just like that. You know, like in the sand lab where they're

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like, "And forever I was going to talk about her, but she said no." So, thanks, Chris. That's it. I'm done. >> I have three minutes. >> Just Just want to make sure. >> Done. Just make sure. >> Yep. Done. >> All right. Uh seeing or hearing no

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further comments. Uh all in favor? I >> opposed. Motion passes. Thank you. >> Seeing nothing under old business, we'll move right on to new business. Uh first on the new business agenda is the 2026 board meeting schedule. Um I present

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this the the proposed board meeting schedule for 2027 rather. Um typo of all things um for 2027 request uh we wave second reading other than the typo

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has now been corre corrected. Uh do I have a motion? >> Motion. >> Do I have a second? >> Second. >> I have a motion to second. Any questions or concerns regarding the board meeting schedule? Seeing or hearing none. All in favor? >> Opposed? Motion passes. Thank you board.

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Next we have uh Monica Conrad with the resolution regarding Mary Beck Elementary School. >> Members of the board, you have before you a resolution which kind of helps to

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bring together and consolidate both Mary Beck Elementary and Monger Elementary. So what was named as Mel Mary Beck Elementary will now be named Monger and the library will be rededicated to be the Mary Beck um library. Um we did a

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little research. Mary Beck happened to be a very prominent teacher in the early 1900s. And so all the mer memorabilia that we have about Mary Beck will continue to be honored and preserved um even though she's she's now going to

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have the library named after those. Thank you. >> Do I have a motion to accept this resolution as presented? >> I have a question for you, Monica. >> Um, I know that you guys have explained

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to us why we chose the name, but can you provide some context for the community to understand why we >> It's probably a better question for superintendent. Let me um before you get to that, >> I didn't even get to finish my sentence, but >> we're gonna let you I just want I want

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to get I want to get to the point where we can discuss it. So, I do have a motion. So, I have a second. >> Second. >> Oh, I'm sorry. >> She's trying to sit down so fast. I want to catch you sit down. >> But what I was saying is it would be

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helpful. Um especially what we talked about last time about Munger not having to transition and everybody thinking this was temporary. it might be helpful for the community to understand why we decided on that name as opposed to keeping Mary Beck

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>> and I wouldn't say we decided um IDE decided on that name um Dy uh they are preserving the data that Monger has and so in order to preserve the data we had to name the school Monger in order to keep that if we um did not choose Monger

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we would be um utilizing the Beck and it would just cause a lot of confusion down the state and cause a lot of um probably some mishaps on their end trying to get our data correct. So it is to preserve the data because we did not close Monger. We kept Monger open. We needed

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to preserve that data um for the future from now until the future. Does that help explain Daisy? >> I know I was doing it for the >> I know. But did I explain it well enough? >> I think I think that would be helpful for because I know people will have

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>> questions why Yeah. Yeah, but I do want to reiterate we will um keep the Mary Beck Library. Um we will have a plaque above that um for Mary Beck and all the me memorabilia. Sorry, I had problems with that too. Um it will be housed there too. We were not we will not take

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it down. So it'll become the We couldn't think of a fancy name of Monger. Mary Beck Mary Beck Monger. But we just sticking with Monger. >> Yeah. >> Just to be clear, it's Mary Beck, not Mary Monger. Yes,

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>> correct. It's Monger right now. >> Gotcha. >> Once you guys approve this resolution, >> any other questions or concerns regarding this resolution. >> All right, seeing hearing none, all in favor? I >> opposed. Motion passes. Thank you.

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Uh, next on the agenda, Mrs. Ross, adult meal prices. >> Thank you. The business office seeks board approval of adult meal prices for the 2026 2027 school year. Do I have a a motion to accept the adult

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meal prices as presented? >> Have a second. Second. >> All right. Have a motion. I have a second. Do I have any questions or concerns regarding the uh adult meal prices? >> Can you um share a little context with what that means because some people might not understand what the adult meal

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prices would be for. >> Sure. Um adults in our building are able to buy meals from Chartwells. Um the state essentially sets the minimum price. Um so this year they set it at a minimum of 532. Um due to just trying

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not trying to avoid dealing with change, we round it up to 550 because you know you got pennies, nickels, some of them are obsolete. So um so in in accordance with what the state has prescribed, we're increasing the meal price for adults to buy meals at Chartwell's um

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stations. Do you know how many um of our adult staff take advantage of that and actually use >> I don't but next meeting we are providing a food service update and I'll bring that information if you like. >> I'll just I would just

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>> I don't know off hand but I will be glad to bring that at our next meeting. It's also um appropriate to to um let parents know again that as we are a C district um our students again this year

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um will receive um free lunch and breakfasts. I know that has come up um a couple times um before school has started. So um just official notice that again um we're able to to do that with our status. >> Any other questions?

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All right, I have a motion and I have a second. All in favor? >> Opposed? Motion passes. Next on his inaugural trip to the uh podium, we have our transportation

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director TJ Spencer um with the transportation update. Welcome. >> All right. Thank you so much. Um good evening board. Good evening, Superintendent Ree. Um, first of all, before I get started, I'd like to just share with the district, the community, the board. You all, our transportation team is awesome. Okay? They are

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unmatched. From day one, this team has been aligned from our bus drivers to our bus helpers to our mechanics, our dispatchers, our routing team. They have fully been aligned with superintendent Reese's mission and they are like ready to move forward. Okay? Your transportation team is ready for you for

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the 2627 school year. I want to make that very clear. Okay? With that being said, our transportation plan consisted of we had to come into the district and just make a a really solid route evaluation. And so, as a result, we did consolidate 20 large yellow school bus

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routes. Okay. That allowed us to balance the transportation department out appropriately and made sure that we had the appropriate driver capacity um compared to the amount of routes that we needed. Okay. Um everywhere you go, every school district you go to, you see a big yellow bus somewhere that says

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school bus drivers hiring. Okay. And uh you know, we definitely would love to add more to our team. We are perfectly balanced. Okay. Um about two weeks ago, we had a negative. We're down 17 drivers. Today, we have a surplus of two bus drivers. For a district this size,

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that is just that that that's amazing. And so, I just want to make sure that everybody knows that. Okay. Um since we were able to improve driver staffing for the 2627 school year, we are able to make sure that we are fully

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um balanced from our leadership team. So our mechanics, our routers, our dispatch team, they are ready to provide the level of customer service that is needed for the school district and for the community because th that team does not have to be out driving buses on the

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first day of school. Okay. And so as a result, you know, the the route consolidation allowed us to go to a driver surplus, allowed us to make sure that we have our staff appropriate throughout the transportation department. Okay. Um next, uh we our

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back to school meeting, it it was amazing. Um we had the Indiana State Police here. We actually partnered with them to make sure that uh you know from a compliance perspective, our team understands you know the laws, the rules, but just had the opportunity to show them from the Indiana State Police

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perspective what it is and you know from a from a transportation department what it is that we should actually be demonstrating. And so um that was amazing and we also partnered with the Indiana Department of Education that came and just gave us some friendly safety reminders. And so um an amazing back to school meeting and uh yeah uh

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we're just we're excited to move forward. And some last but not least, just some quick updates that I I would like to share with you as well. You know, with the Bristol school closure, you know, some of our routes will have longer route times, but we're really hoping and and we're pretty comfortable that, you know, as we get through

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startup, we we've consolidated 20 large yellow school bus routes. So, we have to set ourselves up and the entire department up for success just to be sure that, you know, if anything happens, we can respond quickly and that we get our students to to school on time because we want to be sure that those students don't miss out on that instructional time. Okay, there's a lot

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of construction happening throughout the Elcart area, okay? Orange cones are everywhere and so we just want to make sure that parents are aware, you know, there that may result in some added route time. Okay, since um as I said before, we've consolidated our bus routes. That is definitely um going to

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drive a decrease in fuel consumption and deaf consumption, which is going to really focus on cost savings for the district. And we're going to be testing some driver safety technology utilizing some really cool safety systems that are going to hopefully give us some outward and inward driving facing cameras um to

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focus on safety for our team. We'll be trling that um just just a trail just to see what type of uh return that that gives on our dis that gives our district um transportation department. But we should definitely um see improved increase. We have a safe team, a very safe team, but drive it even more um

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safety uh within our transportation department. So that is all I got unless anybody has any questions. >> I have one. >> I got all the questions today. But um I think it's important TJ, this is your first time um presenting to the board

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and the community and the administration has been very intentional about addressing the challenges in the transportation department. So, I think it's important that you share why we chose you, what your background is, and I think the board is very impressed with

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the progress you've made so far. But I think it's important that the community understand why we brought you here and what your role will be. >> Okay. >> Like what do I say and what do Okay, so I'm just All right. So, um my name is

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TJ. I um uh have a undergrad Western Michigan University and graduate Purdue University. I've been in the transportation industry all my life. Um, managing school buses for Chicago public schools at 412 buses, managing four different contractors um throughout the

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Chicago land area. Um, shortly after that went over to the Chicago Transit Authority where I managed bus and rail safety throughout the entire system. Um, after several years working with the Chicago Transit Authority, transitioned over to Amtrak. MTRA was a different

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experience, super amazing, but it allowed me to see transportation from a macro organization because it wasn't in a just a small area. It was around the the country, across the country. And so I managed safety from DC to Denver and from Dallas to Chicago um railroad

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safety um across the country. And um I uh formerly taught part-time BSS entrepreneurship supply chain management for IvyTech um college. And so um are there any other questions? I don't know where to start. >> Your your largest uh your largest school

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district was um >> Chicago public schools and partnered I did a lot of um work with Orange County Schools um during my Disney internship in 2012 which was also a transportation internship as well. >> Yep. >> I would just uh thank you for um your

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introduction. uh very impressed with with with that. Um safety uh you said a number of times and it seems like that's the the paramount thing uh for the transportation department and so you know we are safety minded. So I just appreciate appreciate that. The one thing though cuz we did hear earlier uh

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about some of the transportation times right hour and 20 minutes and whatnot and I know that there's a lot of moving parts in our transportation department and we're trying to figure out from a consolidation standpoint the 20 routes and those sort of things. Um, and I know we have to be very mindful from a time

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frame standpoint, but we had a conversation in the back. I just want to make sure that you hear this. We did have a conversation in the back that is recognized. But, uh, there is the, uh, the goal to shoot inside that that that time frame. But we want to make sure if you want to speak to that like what we

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talked about back there about, hey, we know that hour and 20 minutes sounds, you know, tough to swallow, but from operational standpoint, there is a target to try to hit inside of that, right? >> Absolutely. So, as mentioned with the before with the construction that's happening around um the area, we want to be sure that we don't our students don't

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lose instructional time. And so, what we did was we anchored the buses to arrive at the school approximately 20 to 25 minutes earlier than their anticipated route time. So, to where the schools would actually open the doors and so there is a after the transportation system actually

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starts and it starts to balance out those will push the time back. But we need to to run the operation so we can understand what challenges we're going to encounter on a day-to-day basis. And until we actually see that, because it's the first time we've actually done such a large cut within the district, we have

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to give ourselves some room because the district does run a little a lot of different programs and we want to be sure that the transportation systems accommodates everyone. EJ, can you shared with us um in the meeting too? Um a question was asked earlier um how many students do our

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buses hold um and then how many were we transporting is is part of this whole bringing efficiency consolidation. Could you share a little bit about that so parents have some context of why certain things have been happening? >> Absolutely. So our our average bus size

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holds 77 passengers. I also neglected to tell you in that meeting we do have probably about 25 to 30 um 84 passenger buses as well. So we're maximizing the use of those buses as well. Um our we could have done a better job

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utilizing our equipment better. Um average route capacities are 30 to 35 students, you know, and we can double that and the students are all going in the same direction. Why wouldn't we do that? So what you're saying TJ is our buses

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were not fully the buses to incapacity that that at sometimes when I passed the buses there were very few students on a bus. So that was the big inefficiency that we had. >> Absolutely. >> EJ can you also talk a little bit about the importance of fully utilizing the

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technology that the bus uh has and also the parents can utilize and what you're doing to maximize that. >> Absolutely. So, our routing system currently right now that we're using is um called Transfinder. I can say the name. Okay. Um it's called Transfinder

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and it's a it's a fantastic routing system. Um there's just been some challenges when it comes to training um when it comes to our routing team. And so just being able to jump in and and close any particular close any gaps with our routing team just to be sure that we're fully utilizing the system that's available for us. there's still a lot of

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opportunity and once that routing system so we have the routing system that's actually the the company itself is going to come and provide additional training to our team um once we get through the start of the school year but we're going to fully maximize that system to its best capacity. Um and then once we do

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that we can do a better job rolling out our stopfinder which is the app that the parents utilize to be able to see their student bus stop time information. we can communicate through the stopfinder app and then you know um utilize the app to its maximum capacity. There's some really cool features in the app um that

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we are not fully utilizing um whereas for example just notification um to let parents know hey the bus is potentially 10 minutes away it's 5 minutes away things of that nature and so we're just not really utilizing the equipment that we have and so we're going to get there. you know, the percentage of parents that

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actually use the app and can you speak to how important it is if you're not have that downloaded and using it, how important it is for parents to do that? >> Yes. So, I'm going to guess based off of the last time I look and I'm going to just throw out there approximately 40% of our families are utilizing the

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stopfinder app and there's a large percentage that's interested in utilizing the application as well. And so, um, our team is going to get better. Um, created a very high performing transportation team. Y'all, I'm telling you, you are going to be proud of it. And so, just making sure that um our team when you know a parent calls and

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needs help with the app, we can actually direct them and say, "Hey, here's how you utilize that that app." And we're actually able to direct them through utilizing the app. But there's just some internal gaps that we need to close within our transportation department quickly. That will be done rather quickly that then we can pro, you know, provide that guidance to the parents.

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>> So, you talked about having a surplus of two bus drivers and I think when people hear that they're like, "Oh my god." But can you share why we may still need more bus drivers and what that uh surplus may be used for? >> Oh, absolutely. So, for a district this

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size, it's pretty operationally appropriate to have about 10 subd drivers. That's the number you want. Okay. Um with our surplus of two drivers, like so much can happen. you know there there may be an opportunity where we say hey we consolidated 20

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buses but maybe we need to put one more bus in this particular area to provide a better service you know um but we want to al also make sure that we put the equipment in the right places so if there are any potential possibilities of a bus being at over capacity we don't

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move that bus and we get a second bus to the rescue before we move that bus to be sure that the students you know all have a seat you see the the the videos across the country where there's like students sitting on the floor. That would not be a thing here. And so we had to make sure that we have the prop we have our our drivers in the right place to be able to

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respond quickly for the first day of school and first week of school essentially. >> I just want to remind people that TJ's only been here how many days? >> It's like day 15. >> Yes. And has done remarkable work. Um so I want to thank TJ for what he's done.

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He's jumped right in, made some critical changes that need to happen. Um and we do um hear you. But with the Bristol, he has has that on his forefront. We are working on that. Um and just know he trusts him. He's going to get the job done for us. Um and I want to say we're

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on the right path. So thank you TJ for coming to Elcart Community Schools. >> Thank you board. And again, thank you to the transportation team. >> You next Mrs. Ross finance report. Thank you. Good evening, board members, community.

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I'd like to share the uh monthly financial update uh for the month of June. We'll do the um July update at the end of this month. Oh, I have the controls, don't I? I was I'm not Monica. I don't

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Okay. All right. Uh first uh slide here is our monthly expenditures for the education fund. Uh just reminding uh the community of um our budget. It is uh an adjusted budget um wherein we uh

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increase wages the wages budget and decrease the transfers to operations by 6 million and put that in wages. So this is our new target um hoping to have a uh ending cash balance as you see there in that first column. So just a reminder there of our our goal. And then here's

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our June expenditures um highlighted here or circled. Um you can see our receipts here of uh 7.6 million and our expenditures with a net revenue of about $400,000 and the ending cash balance here at

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about 1.8 million for our education fund. Uh also just providing for context our remaining percentage here in this last column of our budget, our education fund budget. This is like a midway report. We're about six months into the year. So, our metric would be shooting

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for around 50% or better. So, you can still see we have some pressures in the education fund. We should be 50% um would be an ideal metric. And here just a kind of summary of our uh expenditures to date. Uh in that pie

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chart, uh you can see wages and benefits comprise the majority of our education fund. Um in fact um 92% of the fund to date uh we budgeted 85%. Um using 86 million as you see there the

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total expenses as the denominator. Um so still running um higher than than budgeted. And just kind of a reminder what else comprises the um education fund. You'll see the other material the other items um comprise the other 15% of

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the budget. You can see the breakdown there. professional and purchase services, supplies, curricular materials, etc. Just kind of a reminder of that budget. Okay, moving on to the next slide is our cash

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flow for the education fund. Uh as noted prior you can see the cash flow balance here for the month of June slightly increasing but still below our um kind of prudent 12% guideline would be about

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10 million in this fund. So uh next slide here is uh briefly our operations fund expenditures. Uh again just providing our budget in that first column and here you see June our June expenditures. We did actually before I

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jump down to expenditures get um our property tax revenue uh for the month of June. You'll see that is receded. The receipts are high for June um and a few other deposits there and our total expenses and you can see our um net

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revenue for this fund and ending cash balance. So this fund is doing all right right now. Um and also you can take a look at our remaining percentage in this fund as we are at the midway point when this was printed of the year the midway

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of the year. So just again kind of put that information in a pie chart so you can see what percentage of each kind of um expenditure and what uh the percentage of of the expenditures are. And just some highlights, this fund is within budget for the midpoint. As I

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noted, um the actual remaining percentage of this fund is a little higher than it's representing because we have some incumbrances for fuel that we know we're going to spend in fuel. So we do have some incumbrances of about 2.7 million. Um so actually to date the fund

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is about landing at 49% if you back out the incumbrances if that makes sense. Um, we talked about the revenue. We got our June property tax payments and we also got kind of hit, so to speak, with our quarterly and annual insurance

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premium. So, that kind of drove up our purchase services cost for this um, fund. And if I may move on, um, our cash balance for operations, uh, which is typical, it goes up and down pretty much

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based on our tax revenue. So you can see our June um receipts went up there. >> That stay on that one. >> Sure. >> I just like to make a comment so people understand. So in June we received our

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property tax payment. So obviously that increased our our operations budget considerably, but that number is going to decrease about 3.1 million every month for the rest of the year. Um, and so when we get to November, December, it's it's going to get really really

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tight. Um, and so people need to be aware of that. Um, and it's like we need to make sure that um, as we're looking at our expenses, claims, and and things that right now we're running just a little bit high compared to what our

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average monthly budget should be. And so as as we're planning this out, um, we just need to be aware of that. um because our our estimated property tax payment that we'll receive in December will will show us at the end of the year as a big positive, but then we've got

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six months to use that and that won't cover us the whole 6 months. So the the things that are happening now, whether it's the education fund or the operations fund and the consolidation, the reorganization of the of the district um to get us more financially

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in line where we need to be, it it's a process and as you start seeing numbers go down um it my hope is that we'll be able to stay within our budget because we've been over our monthly budgets. And so hopefully we'll be able to to minimize some of that and close that gap

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a little bit. So I just wanted to draw attention to that that as I look at these, I'm looking six months, 12 months out based on what our um expenditures are um compared to what's coming in. Thank you.

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And for our rainy day fund, you'll see our beginning cash balance and then our transfer and then our ending cash balance here. Um, we spoke about that uh a meeting or two ago that transferred to food services fund. And uh here's our

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combined cash balances for all of the um DLGF review funds here. And it might be cut off a little bit at the top there, but it is 24 million. against it there. 24,81,000.

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Oh, there we go. And just a reminder of kind of what we've been up against, our head ones this year. Um here's our uh we partner with policy analytics and they provided us cash flow projections. Just keep in mind these are before the uh cuts. These

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have not been woven into the cuts have not been woven into these projections, but this is kind of what we were working with. So you'll see our uh 2021 to the current year and even at the top the ADM you can see our student count dropping in that first uh row there which

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indicates less revenue obviously. So um last time we ran this report our projected deficit for the education fund was about 2 million. Now this is based on our adjusted budget. We got the bond and cuts have we have been trending less in um uh wages and benefits since the

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start of the year. you'll see that slide. So that has been built in but not the most recent cuts. Um so kind of with the mitigating factors that's where we are looking to land at this point. Um but again this will be updated. Um and

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then 2027 this is if pretty much no bond nothing changed. This is what we were up against the $12 million kind of deficit. So, we look forward to putting it all together for you and showing you the new projections as they come in. And just for your reference, and this

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will be posted online after our board meeting, you'll also see the same uh projections for the operations fund minus recent cuts and alignments. And to kind of wrap up here, um we've been tracking our savings initiatives

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this year. So the school year has completed. So um would like to report out to you um one of the most aggressive savings initiatives was um reducing you'll see the item here in yellow column, reduce

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central office, building level staff, etc. We implemented overtime and comp time controls and we have time clocks and a lot of the savings or a portion is due to unfilled vacancies. So coming over to that middle column in green compared to the first pay in August of

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last year to the second pay in July. So 2425 versus 2526 our payroll has trended down $4.9 million. Um, so all you know, more savings to come and from the last report that savings trended up last time

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I reported this $330,000 and there's some notes on the right hand side just kind of give you more detail on where the savings came from primarily from the education fund and the balance from operations and just some kind of context

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there on the right side. Um, other savings initiatives and future reporting. Uh again, the consolidation efforts, the recent alignments, uh budget alignments and food service management. Uh we're presenting on that next month to kind of show the community where we're at on those savings

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initiatives as well. >> So that includes the finance update. >> Thank you. Uh do we have any other questions regarding the finance update for Mrs. Ross? >> All right, >> we'll get right to the insurance update.

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>> Brief update here. um our insurance plan. Um although the month of June did not perform as well as June in the prior year, overall year-to- date, our loss ratio is better than last year. We're at 79. We like that number low, 79% versus

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87%. And on the last page, you can kind of see um think trends in our plan and areas that we're watching. And this will be provided to you um on our website after the meeting if you'd like to dive into that a bit more

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questions. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Thank you. >> All right, Superintendent Reese, the floor is yours. >> Thank you. Just a quick up um followup from tonight's presentations. The heart of this new complaint process that we have put in place is really about

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efficiency and we want to make sure that whenever an issue is brought to our attention, it gets to the right person quickly and is handled thoroughly. This updated approach gives us a much clearer and more organized way to resolve concerns for our families and staff. And I appreciate the board support as we put

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this into practice as well as the communities. Also, I want to do a shout out to Chris. I know she's going to hate me in the morning. um she will be upset to know that I'm um thanking her during this meeting, but I know that Dr. Rash and I have worked with her um and she will definitely be missed by all of us

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um and especially I believe Dora in our office. Uh next uh meeting um we'll be able to share the ADM where we're at and where we're projected. I know that there are some concerns out there with high class sizes, but we don't know. That's just a projection. Um right now we do

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not know how what our class sizes are until we actually see the children's faces and we've looked um handinhand with ETA about this and um we both agree we need to see students in our seats before we can make any changes or any adjustments as needed. So um please be

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patient as we work through that because yes, we want we want to make sure we do everything possible for our students. Also, um we're working on getting um board we're working on getting a list of our saving initiatives in the near near future. We're just buttoning up a couple

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little things um in the departments that we have still left um to work on. And as soon as we get those, we're going to have a complete list and yes, that will be out there for the public and the community to see as well. So, I do not believe that that 4.9 is exactly where we're at. I believe we have a little

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more savings than that. and I'll make sure we get that compiled for everybody. Okay. And lastly here, um, well, not lastly, give me a couple more minutes here. As we prepare to open our doors for a new school year, I do want to take a moment to express my deepest gratitude

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to every single member of our team here at Elcart Community Schools. This summer has brought its fair share of challenges. Yet all of you continue to meet every obstacle with resilience, flexibility, and unwavering dedication to our students. To our district staff

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who worked those long hours and continue to do so even today and tomorrow. You've tackled complex problems and stepped up to take on new responsibilities. And I really deeply thank you. To our school leaders, our teachers, and support teams, thank you for setting such a

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strong tone for our entire school community. and to everyone who stepped outside their normal roles to ensure our buildings were safe, our buildings were clean, our buildings were welcoming. For those parents tonight and ready for those students to come through those

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doors on Thursday, your hard work did not go unnoticed. We saw you and we thank you. You showed up. You're getting it done and you proved once again what makes our district so special. From the bottom of my heart, thank you for your

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incredible effort and commitment because you're truly appreciated. So, in closing on Thursday morning, those students are going to come through our doors and once again fill our hallways, classrooms, and buses. And I'm excited to launch another school year filled with many new opportunities,

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growth, and learning. Our staff have been hard hard at work getting everything ready, and we hope this is our best year yet. But just remember one thing. Together we're what? We're Elkcart strong.

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>> Thank you, Superintendent Ree. Um, anything from the board before we wrap things up? >> No, that's always coming. Anything else? All right, seeing none, thank you everyone for coming out tonight. This meeting is now adjourned.