Transcript

Vigo County Oversight BoardFeb 12, 2026

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Automatic transcription, not the official record. This is what speech recognition heard at the meeting; it mis-hears names and numbers, and no editor has checked it. The clerk's minutes are the official record. Every line links to the moment in the recording — check anything that matters.

Voices were separated automatically and named from the meeting's speaker roster where the evidence supported it. An unnamed voice shows as Speaker 12 — a machine label, not a person's name.

Meeting: Vigo County Oversight Board · Feb 12, 2026
Length: 1:22:56
Lines: 259
Transcribed by: mlx-community/whisper-large-v3-turbo

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0:00:00 — open the recording at 0 secondsSpeaker 4 (chair) all right good morning first off we have minutes to approve from last Thursday's meeting those
0:00:18 — open the recording at 18 secondsSpeaker 6 were circulated via email I'll make a motion to approve the minutes as submitted thank you
0:00:26 — open the recording at 26 secondsSpeaker 4 (chair) Carrie all second Thank You mark all those in favor say aye aye any opposed great we also have the minutes from our brief minutes from our executive session Tuesday 3 30 motion to approve Thank You Carrie second Thank You mark all those in favor say aye aye any opposed great before we get kicked off here I want to correct um the paper had us maybe i think misquoted here saying that we were not going to present something that was fiscally responsible to the city council or the county council we've gone back
Highlight drawn from this moment: Oversight Board hires Barnes & Thornburg as counsel for its school-plan review
0:01:07 — open the recording at 1 minute 7 secondsSpeaker 4 (chair) and watched the video mark clearly said we are not going to present something that is not fiscally responsible so just want to correct that here and make sure we're on the same page i got a number of questions about that it said i said it mark didn't mark was presenting he didn't even say it so i just want that to be on the record here uh in terms of engagement letters the board has reviewed the engagement letter from barnes and thornburg that's what there's any discussion if we can have that now otherwise i'm entertained a motion i move to approve
0:01:41 — open the recording at 1 minute 41 secondsSpeaker 16 I'll second.
Highlight drawn from this moment: Oversight Board hires Barnes & Thornburg as counsel for its school-plan review
0:01:43 — open the recording at 1 minute 43 secondsSpeaker 4 (chair) Thank you, Jim. Thank you, Heather. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. All right. Great. Any opposed? Thank you. Do we need a motion to authorize me to sign that as well?
0:01:55 — open the recording at 1 minute 55 secondsJim (oversight board member) Yeah. I'd make a motion to authorize the president to sign the engagement on behalf of the board.
0:02:04 — open the recording at 2 minutes 4 secondsSpeaker 25 Okay. Thank you, Jim.
0:02:05 — open the recording at 2 minutes 5 secondsSpeaker 24 I'll second. Thank you, Mark. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Aye.
0:02:10 — open the recording at 2 minutes 10 secondsSpeaker 4 (chair) Thank you. any opposed great uh we do have a couple uh based on discussion tuesday i have a couple questions seeking clarification from mr barry so we'll probably hold on that one until next week he has not gotten back to me yet moving on to item number four i think what everybody's here for we have dr john newport here from the school corporation to kick things off on the facilities building costs welcome dr newport thank you very much
0:02:39 — open the recording at 2 minutes 39 secondsDr. John Newport (school corporation staff) Thank you for the opportunity to come here and present the facts and the information that we've been looking for for several years now.
0:02:46 — open the recording at 2 minutes 46 secondsDr. John Newport (school corporation staff) Dr. Hensel senses sincere regrets. He knows that birth certificate working in this conflict. And so he senses regrets and I'm here on his behalf along as a resultor to share details about the process that led to the school board decision which we now know as option 6. So first, I also want to thank you for taking the time to visit two of our existing high schools this past Monday. I would really appreciate you getting into boiler rooms and up on the room with us to see what eight acres of roof looks like that it maintains, to look at the size and scale of 500 or 650 sometimes
Highlight drawn from this moment: Oversight Board hires Barnes & Thornburg as counsel for its school-plan review
0:03:28 — open the recording at 3 minutes 28 secondsDr. John Newport (school corporation staff) killers in boiler rooms, six boilers in their high school, and really seeing how that process of how we've been working in the last several years making upgrades and doing it in a way that is future thought minded to where we have opportunities for flexibility where if we are in our existing facility, the hardened lungs of our 24 million dollar HVAC project in the boiler group is ready to take off whatever form or capacity those abilities they may have or they may be able to move to a new facility. we've got plenty of options to do that with so the working time is not wasted we also uh as we
0:04:09 — open the recording at 4 minutes 9 secondsDr. John Newport (school corporation staff) walked the building we kind of showed you some nuggets throughout the building uh some of the
0:04:14 — open the recording at 4 minutes 14 secondsSpeaker 37 (district or Gibraltar presenter) somebody just texted me to make sure thank you uh some of our nuggets that we're also looking at
0:04:19 — open the recording at 4 minutes 19 secondsSpeaker 39 (district or Gibraltar presenter) with the um for example our early college programs in our high school we popped in one of those rooms i want to give you a little more specific numbers because we talked about some of the savings that our families see with that but 1,430 VCSE students earned 12,686 college dual credits last year. 137 students, most of them seniors, earned an Ivy Tech credential which is the Indiana College Corps, a certificate or a technical certificate. Those 137 students were eligible to walk in Ivy Tech's graduation before they walked in their high school graduation a month later. This totals 2,157,000
0:04:58 — open the recording at 4 minutes 58 secondsSpeaker 39 (district or Gibraltar presenter) thousand three hundred thirty seven dollars in post-secondary savings for vcsc families that's just talking secondary and what i'm trying to highlight as we talk about our facilities is we have elementary lego robotics leagues that are competing at the state state level we have drone clubs that have seen success our middle school math counts teams participate in the upcoming regional competition very soon at rose holman our battle of the books students read over 17 young hoosier novels in preparation for the battle of books competition we have in a jeopardy
0:05:26 — open the recording at 5 minutes 26 secondsSpeaker 39 (district or Gibraltar presenter) style competition later this spring and our high school music programs are placing at the state competitions this year and our musical programs are top-notch programs all of this is great teachers great counselors great administrators and great students and great parent support working together to do great things but what we're trying to illuminate today is how we can work together to where the facilities aren't restricting those great things and that's probably one of the things that from the school board's objective of this plan is to create an opportunity
0:06:00 — open the recording at 6 minutesSpeaker 39 (district or Gibraltar presenter) for our facilities to not get in the way of our students doing some of those great things. So I'm sorry I'm a curriculum guy so when I'm here to report on facilities I gotta throw that curriculum stuff in there a little bit
0:06:09 — open the recording at 6 minutes 9 secondsSpeaker 37 (district or Gibraltar presenter) as well. So our primary objectives today that we're going to go through is the primary objectives of new high school, our preliminary concepts, the budget planning that's taking place and the VCSE long-term goals. Up to this point I'd like to walk you through the process that led to the board's decision to recommend option six to build a high school east of the river, renovate West Vigo High School west of the river, consolidate to four middle schools and ten elementary schools, reducing the district footprint from 23 school
0:06:43 — open the recording at 6 minutes 43 secondsSpeaker 37 (district or Gibraltar presenter) buildings to 16. We have taken into consideration the realities of our enrollment. The McKibben study that we took that took place predicts a declining enrollment that looks to plateau in 2030. Right now we're sitting at around around 12,500 which is less than what
0:07:01 — open the recording at 7 minutes 1 secondSpeaker 39 (district or Gibraltar presenter) the McKibben study had predicted would be at this time but the trend of decline is matching. It's just a little bit it's just declining a little bit more than what the study had impacted. We
0:07:12 — open the recording at 7 minutes 12 secondsSpeaker 37 (district or Gibraltar presenter) completed a comprehensive facility study with Gibraltar to understand the realities of the condition of our facilities. Unlike previous facility studies that have taken place, we did more than just look at the pipes, the equipment, the roofs. We looked at education spaces, the amount of square foot of a modern classroom that we want to see our students and teachers be able to engage with. We looked at input from teachers, staff, custodians at the building level and administrators to really look at the teaching spaces instead of just the infrastructure. We
0:07:46 — open the recording at 7 minutes 46 secondsSpeaker 37 (district or Gibraltar presenter) We had work sessions with our maintenance staff to really obtain input. As we walked around the tour on Monday, we talked about how our air handlers are designed
0:07:56 — open the recording at 7 minutes 56 secondsSpeaker 39 (district or Gibraltar presenter) for 25 years or on year 54. That's because of the good care of our maintenance staff and the care that they look into keeping those machines running and working effectively. And so having them in work sessions with the Gibraltar team and the engineers allowed us to really share what their tricks of the trade are to get into the real condition of the buildings and how we can also prioritize the work based on what might be old but is working well. We don't want to replace it, just replace it.
0:08:24 — open the recording at 8 minutes 24 secondsSpeaker 37 (district or Gibraltar presenter) We want to replace smart and replace the things that need replaced because of the condition they're in. We produced a plan with options with the number of schools to utilize in a current or new capacity or the number of schools that we may need to close, the number of schools we may need to raise or repurpose. We worked with financial specialists to align with the realities of revenue of the district, our operations funds, which is based on property tax levies, and how we have learned recently with our presentation from Stiefel
0:08:55 — open the recording at 8 minutes 55 secondsSpeaker 37 (district or Gibraltar presenter) of how that has changed in the last 15 to 20 years for our district. We also worked with the education fund. That is our largest funding source and relies on any estate tuition reimbursement, which is based primarily on enrollment. Later, we'll illustrate the education funds potential savings based on the consolidation of schools and the ability to create staffing deficiencies within less buildings. With enough lead time to right size our staff, we believe we can do that through attrition and we have enough time if we can start doing that now with these plans being put in place.
0:09:28 — open the recording at 9 minutes 28 secondsSpeaker 37 (district or Gibraltar presenter) Earlier this fall, we made a request to the Vigo County Commissioners that consideration given for a partnership between Vigo County and the Vigo County School Corporation to build a new high school east of the river. Tonight we'll share more details as the costs associated with that partnership and how the overall plan can be accomplished through construction groupings. Now I'm going to introduce Chris Kingery who will get into the details the components of the facility study. In his presentation you'll be able to see the school board's
0:09:55 — open the recording at 9 minutes 55 secondsSpeaker 37 (district or Gibraltar presenter) vision to have a comprehensive plan that factors into that that looks at a new high school but you'll also see how it also leads to it touches every building the plan touches every building in the district with new construction or modernization of existing buildings to meet today's educational environments it keeps equity of access to facility options consistent across all grade levels elementary middle and high throughout the different facilities it is kid focused and learning environment friendly and it recognizes transportation logistics within the Vigo County
0:10:31 — open the recording at 10 minutes 31 secondsSpeaker 37 (district or Gibraltar presenter) geography with a river running down the middle of it and three bridges to cross. It also allows for flexibility with the reality of enrollment. The current trend is on the decline. We have options within this plan to adjust if the trend continues. We also have options with this plan and if this all works out we'll have options for time to react if enrollment increases. With that I'll bring Chris up.
0:11:01 — open the recording at 11 minutes 1 secondSpeaker 42 (district or Gibraltar presenter) Thank you, Dr. Newport. As I get started, I want to share a few things from just my observations.
0:11:09 — open the recording at 11 minutes 9 secondsSpeaker 43 (Gibraltar consultant) So we work with school districts across the state of Indiana. The challenges and the, I would say, opportunities that Vigo County has aren't unique. Every district is trying to find a way to be fiscally responsible. They're trying to make their districts more efficient, and they're also still wrestling with we got to provide the best opportunities for our students and so that's happening in every space the other piece that's not unique to just Vigo County is the the fact that high schools are the main draw it's the first
0:11:41 — open the recording at 11 minutes 41 secondsSpeaker 43 (Gibraltar consultant) thing that families see it's the first thing that businesses see and every every district is trying to get their high schools to be that beacon for the community again Vigo community Vigo County is not unique to that also trying to make those same decisions so one thing that I do want to to make sure that we also as we jump into today there are no construction documents made there are no details to that level there's no site selected we went through this process with the board to make sure that they understood we were combining
0:12:13 — open the recording at 12 minutes 13 secondsSpeaker 43 (Gibraltar consultant) staff input with what we were able to see from a programming standpoint at each of the high schools but then also looking at our experiences for modernizing and renovating old high schools to building new high schools across the state of Indiana pulling that together and along with Dr. McCormick and her involvement with 21st century learning at the state level to be able to know if you're doing a new high school what needs to be in there and you know the hard thing when you start these conversations is you
0:12:43 — open the recording at 12 minutes 43 secondsSpeaker 43 (Gibraltar consultant) just look at how do we make what we're doing now and just update it and it's not as easy as that because we're talking about updating spaces from 1971 to make sure they're fitting for students in 2026. Now I will tell you that being in all those classrooms and with staff they're doing the best that they can with what they have in front of them and they're making it work you know for students but when you look at a new high school or a new build you want to think beyond that you want to think what do they need for now but also plan for what they're going to need in the
0:13:14 — open the recording at 13 minutes 14 secondsSpeaker 43 (Gibraltar consultant) future so just want to reiterate where we did this exercise to combine the programming to get enough information to be able to have an idea about what the expected costs would be for a new high school. So when we go through this four step process we've shared with you before, and this was during the facility study phase about what we went through all the way to the end, it's it's no different when you go through planning for a new building. And so you start with that facility assessment, which is, you know, getting the input, making sure that you understand what's working in the building,
0:13:47 — open the recording at 13 minutes 47 secondsSpeaker 43 (Gibraltar consultant) what's not working in the building, but then you move into making sure that staff is included. And so we appreciate that the Vigo County School Corporation allowed us access to the principals and to the staff to be able to get that information. And then there's that checks and balances on budgets because as you know, there's way more needs and there's also wants and you want to make sure that you accomplish your needs before you even get to the wants. And so that budget balancing happens throughout the process.
0:14:16 — open the recording at 14 minutes 16 secondsSpeaker 43 (Gibraltar consultant) As we jump into future ready high schools, again, we don't want to just look at what they're doing now. We want to look at what they need to be ready for in the future. We've talked about in previous meetings that we're asking teachers to teach differently. We're asked students to learn differently and we want to make sure that they have those spaces. So when we're going through this process, I just want to make sure that you know we're looking for not just now, but we're looking into the future about what we're asking kids to do.
0:14:42 — open the recording at 14 minutes 42 secondsSpeaker 43 (Gibraltar consultant) When we look at the guiding principles of programming, we are looking at 21st century
0:14:47 — open the recording at 14 minutes 47 secondsSpeaker 47 (Gibraltar consultant) learning in those high schools. It's very different than what we experienced. I know that when we did our tours earlier this week, you walk through and like it looks the same as it did when I was sitting right there and that might even be my desk or my locker that it is the same. But those kids being asked to do and the tools that they have to learn are different than
0:15:04 — open the recording at 15 minutes 4 secondsSpeaker 43 (Gibraltar consultant) what you experienced when you were in the high schools. And so we have an eye on that future ready high school to make sure that we are. I'm sorry. The guiding principles is not only including what is being asked of the state as we keep changing graduation requirements, pathways, wanna make sure schools are equipped for that. There's also some uniqueness to the programming that Vigo County has that other schools don't, and we wanted to keep an eye on that when we went through the programming. There's some things that are important that needed to be included.
0:15:35 — open the recording at 15 minutes 35 secondsSpeaker 47 (Gibraltar consultant) When we get to preliminary concepts, we started to quantify, and the beginning part is,
0:15:39 — open the recording at 15 minutes 39 secondsSpeaker 43 (Gibraltar consultant) what are those major program components that we know what the square footage is going to be? We know that you're gonna have to have some certain pieces, And there's also some special pieces too, specific to Vigo County. And I'll keep in mind too, when we're looking at a new high school parallel, we're looking at how does that apply to West Vigo High School? Because we said in the very beginning, the goal is same opportunities and experiences no matter your address. And so if we're looking at a new high school and what needs to be included, we also measured that to what needs to be
0:16:08 — open the recording at 16 minutes 8 secondsSpeaker 43 (Gibraltar consultant) in West Vigo High School as well, and is it feasible? So that was part of this process.
0:16:14 — open the recording at 16 minutes 14 secondsSpeaker 47 (Gibraltar consultant) Now again, as I jump into this visual that's in front of you want to reiterate again we have some ideas about what a
0:16:21 — open the recording at 16 minutes 21 secondsSpeaker 43 (Gibraltar consultant) new high school that would accommodate 2,700 students or even up to 3,000 students what you would need and this is again no site has been selected this is if you were to have a site this is the programming that we've combined from
0:16:36 — open the recording at 16 minutes 36 secondsSpeaker 47 (Gibraltar consultant) staff input from our knowledge and experience with high schools to what is unique to Vico County so we're gonna walk through this a little bit and why I have 2,700 students that is the projected enrollment with some cushion if north and south were to be combined but also know that you could grow up to 3,000 with this design as well without adding square footage it is just about scheduling it's about how you're using each class but we just wanted to make sure that when we went through this process there's that flexibility of understanding
0:17:09 — open the recording at 17 minutes 9 secondsSpeaker 47 (Gibraltar consultant) and then there's still so many things and jim's going to get into it a little bit later that
0:17:14 — open the recording at 17 minutes 14 secondsSpeaker 43 (Gibraltar consultant) would still need to be decided which I told you there's a lot of work to do and it is how big do you want the gym how much do you want it to be able to see reviewing parking all those different things for a site turf no turf all of that still needs to be weighed and vetted for a new high school but we wanted to give a baseline today about what a high school in today's dollars would
0:17:36 — open the recording at 17 minutes 36 secondsSpeaker 42 (district or Gibraltar presenter) cost moving into the floor plan concept when we're looking at this we're looking at the
0:17:43 — open the recording at 17 minutes 43 secondsSpeaker 47 (Gibraltar consultant) the again no construction documents are made but we have it far enough to be able to have a visual to understand it when you're designing a space like this you want to look for efficiencies when schools were designed in 1971 and how they're used today walking through there's there's some inefficiencies that we have learned that you can have multi-use spaces that check off five boxes but it's in one room to be able to use that and we've accomplished that applying it to this design You look for efficiencies of square footage, hallway passages. You look for community and evening use.
0:18:17 — open the recording at 18 minutes 17 secondsSpeaker 47 (Gibraltar consultant) You know, one example would be the cafeteria is a prime space to be able to use for events, for community use. Where the current high schools are designed, they're deep into the building where you can't lock that off for the evening to be able to separate it, make it easy for patrons to be able to access it. So there's lots that goes into a new high school to be able to look at where do you have the educational wings, where do you have the common areas.
0:18:46 — open the recording at 18 minutes 46 secondsSpeaker 47 (Gibraltar consultant) You look for to create that separation for the lower high school and the upper high school because even though they have some similar pathways, you still like the idea to have them in separate learning areas of the building to look for efficiency for shared spaces. as I go a little bit further we also looked at future forward because when you do a high school think of you're not doing it for a 10 year 20 year you're looking at a 50 year solution for the high school and so when we went through the early we wanted Vigo County to be ready for
0:19:19 — open the recording at 19 minutes 19 secondsSpeaker 47 (Gibraltar consultant) anything and the idea is that outdoor learning labs the opportunity for you know career pathways I know that CTE we've talked about being able to take over one of the elementary schools Dixie B to have close access to Ivy Tech in that partnership but on the other side that might not be where it's going to be in 50 years from now and so if you have a brand new site and you're building a building you want to make sure that you're planning for 50 years down the road in addition to that is I know the question was asked the last time that we were together is that
0:19:52 — open the recording at 19 minutes 52 secondsSpeaker 47 (Gibraltar consultant) you know a design scalable to be able to what if you were to have one high school in the entire district and there you would look at the expansions on here to be able to increase more classrooms without impacting the rest of the building and the other thing too to be able to know if you were to have each high school to have a pool 50 years 40 years down the road where would that go and you want a master plan for those things so that it's not an afterthought thought when that decision for future generations to be able to make that.
0:20:25 — open the recording at 20 minutes 25 secondsSpeaker 47 (Gibraltar consultant) I want to go into a few renderings and this is actually the destination of where the prototype classrooms will be and the idea of what we learned from staff input is what needs to be in those spaces and we had a chance to walk through one under construction right now which will be ready we're assuming by spring break to be able to let teachers experience that the other nice thing is about we're looking at additional electrical outlets in those spaces we're looking at shifting teaching walls to be in the strategic place adding technology
0:21:01 — open the recording at 21 minutes 1 secondSpeaker 47 (Gibraltar consultant) adding occupy sensors for lights you know for efficiency with lighting and give teachers opportunity to dim which they don't currently and so that is going to be in the prototype classroom for us to be able to collect survey information about what do you like what do you not like what's missing which furniture pieces do you like what flexibility do you need in that space and so wanted to give you an idea of the destination of the prototype classroom and why is there a light in there i i would say that was probably the highest consistency of input from staff is that
0:21:32 — open the recording at 21 minutes 32 secondsSpeaker 47 (Gibraltar consultant) in if we're doing a new high school we got to find a way to get natural light to come in those corridors and one of it is for the aesthetics and you think about being in that classroom all day long and you want that natural light but the other piece of it is a safety I mean we've all probably been in high school and there's a power outage just for a few minutes until they got things turned on be able to have natural light coming in the corridors makes a huge difference for safety reasons as well so looking at the science lab prototypes again we have
0:22:02 — open the recording at 22 minutes 2 secondsSpeaker 47 (Gibraltar consultant) shifted from think about the science labs that we experienced where you had a a lab and you had a classroom space and it was all together in one area and some days you were lab day and some days it was a classroom day but you didn't use the labs all the time we want these spaces to be flexible and that's part of what's going to happen in the prototype classroom with flexible increased technology as well you can kind of see here we're bringing electrical outlets from the ceiling to give kids more access to power right where their
0:22:29 — open the recording at 22 minutes 29 secondsSpeaker 47 (Gibraltar consultant) workstations are and increase that flexibility for whatever program when When the schools were designed 40, 50 years ago, you had one pathway of science and that classroom was designed for just that science. Now we are able to design a classroom that can be any science pathway that you need. And I like this because you're thinking, how do you get to efficiency in a floor plan? How do you design a building? And there are certainly some efficiencies. I just gave you the example with the science labs. If you look at the top, that is a conventional classroom lab.
0:23:04 — open the recording at 23 minutes 4 secondsSpeaker 47 (Gibraltar consultant) that's one that we experienced and when you walk through north and south that's what you see today you have that work area and then you have the learning area and those square footage of those classrooms are pretty large when we look at a new high school one of the things that we would look at and what we have included in our thoughts for this conceptual design is that you want to have some shared labs because the labs aren't used all the time you could have a lab that could be used for 20 different courses during the day if they need if they have that shared space.
0:23:33 — open the recording at 23 minutes 33 secondsSpeaker 47 (Gibraltar consultant) And then you still have close connection to the classroom. So instead of having a lab and a classroom, you have three classrooms that are sharing a lab that would meet everybody's needs. And that's how you find some square footage efficiencies. When we look at these concepts, they're grayscale on purpose because they've not been developed beyond, you know, we still need to have way more conversations than this is down the road. but want to give you an idea of fresh off of walking through the high school in the field that you've got. What does a new design look like?
0:24:08 — open the recording at 24 minutes 8 secondsSpeaker 47 (Gibraltar consultant) And this intentionally brings in the natural light, natural light into the corridors, natural light into the cafeterias, and be able to have these open, flexible spaces. We know that it's important for students, those common areas for students to just relax and be are very important. Kids are there before the bell, they're there after the bell at the end of the day, and to have those common areas for collaboration is important. So just wanted to show some image to start thinking forward to beyond what we just saw on Tuesday. So at this point, I'm going to turn it over to Jim Thompson.
0:24:45 — open the recording at 24 minutes 45 secondsSpeaker 42 (district or Gibraltar presenter) He's going to walk through the budget for this and then the construction estimated budget, and then we will wrap up shortly. Thank you.
0:24:54 — open the recording at 24 minutes 54 secondsSpeaker 56 Thanks, Chris.
0:24:55 — open the recording at 24 minutes 55 secondsSpeaker 58 (consultant) Good morning, everyone. Nice to see all of you. I would echo Dr. Newport's comments about your willingness to take the time to use your feet and your eyes and your ears and walk around and see and sense the assets you do have in that are used every day by hard-working teachers and administrators and I could sense the vibe of the administrators in the buildings who are commenting about you know if they had a little opportunity they put it in there about what the kids are doing all right like they knew they were there to show you
0:25:39 — open the recording at 25 minutes 39 secondsSpeaker 58 (consultant) the buildings and look at this but they had a little opportunity to say look what these kids are doing they were telling you and while we talk about Gibraltar having the opportunity to go all over the state of Indiana and we're human we can't help but make comparisons and while you're not unique in Indiana for a variety of reasons for wanting and how to get to the best results for your student learning environments I would probably submit you're unique in a couple of ways if I may first of all fascinating to watch your county and your school district and the citizens see a pathway that is
0:26:23 — open the recording at 26 minutes 23 secondsSpeaker 58 (consultant) unique and you know that that's why the five of you are sitting here from my sense being a humble visitor here and maybe hopefully a welcome guest you are so poised to seize an opportunity and even in some communities I hear boy I wish we could do something like that because you know many counties maybe some are small and rural maybe many of them are they don't have that and then you have this different pathway to explore the other thing I think that's
0:27:03 — open the recording at 27 minutes 3 secondsSpeaker 59 (consultant) unique is I'm a big believer that absolutely teachers many of yours in
0:27:12 — open the recording at 27 minutes 12 secondsSpeaker 58 (consultant) this community you could put them in a tent and they would succeed but why
0:27:18 — open the recording at 27 minutes 18 secondsSpeaker 59 (consultant) would you put them in a tent right I've heard educators longtime educators our founding chairman of the board was state superintendent public instruction in the 1980s and he used to call challenges for teachers sometimes splinters under the fingernails if you get that analogy so you probably saw some splinters under some teachers fingernails when you're walking through the building you know the idea is that if you don't pull it out it can start to make your hand hurt
0:27:45 — open the recording at 27 minutes 45 secondsSpeaker 58 (consultant) and your arm starts hurting and if you're really unlucky it starts to infect your whole body because it just becomes so hard every day to overcome it and you know the illness analogy so and you know buildings are living breathing entities they age like we do in our human body and commendable work by your maintenance team
0:28:08 — open the recording at 28 minutes 8 secondsSpeaker 59 (consultant) did you notice there's no trash on the floors things are clean as clean as they can be part of that then immediately some of you said oh that looks exactly the same yeah because I'm guessing in this community you're unique because your culture is we take good care of what we have but sometimes that works against you because it still looks new and people wrongly assume
0:28:29 — open the recording at 28 minutes 29 secondsSpeaker 61 (Gibraltar consultant) oh it looks clean we're good but as chris pointed out and as dr newport in his introduction said
0:28:36 — open the recording at 28 minutes 36 secondsSpeaker 59 (consultant) this next unique opportunity you have is to be forward thinking and create something that I am confident will be 50 years in its lifespan, with one really significant exception. This new high school, if it comes to be, will change, change repeatedly, and will be done with such smarts that it'll be to your exacting specifications now, five years from now, ten years from now, twenty years from now, it's going to be easier to maintain so it's going to put more money in other places like we talked about funds. It's going to be more energy efficient and when Mr. Kingery talked to
0:29:29 — open the recording at 29 minutes 29 secondsSpeaker 58 (consultant) you about programming and those things and the reason we showed you that lab classroom conversation is we just wanted to illustrate that you can take space and change the space if the size of it originally remember my little square
0:29:50 — open the recording at 29 minutes 50 secondsSpeaker 59 (consultant) footage four walls make a room typically but if the room is the right size it can be one thing one month it could be something else the next month I could take you to some of our projects where you know here's something else that's really nice you don't need an architect every time you want to change it once it's done right and i went to a school and i'm very close friends with the superintendent for the last 20 years and she has changed it three times so usually i get a little text and said look what we're going to do
0:30:18 — open the recording at 30 minutes 18 secondsSpeaker 59 (consultant) this fall and she shows me the room and it's different i'm like oh it's a gaming room now or it's a nursing lab and like you know and because again you get one chance to build it right
0:30:30 — open the recording at 30 minutes 30 secondsSpeaker 58 (consultant) then you got to use it time and time again and change it and so all those things go into that which is I think a nice segue to budget so I've been doing
0:30:40 — open the recording at 30 minutes 40 secondsSpeaker 61 (Gibraltar consultant) this 40 years so one of the things I love about education and I don't know what all your industries are but some industries are very competitive and very secretive like I don't think when the Sony plant was here I don't think Sony wanted all the other competitors and they're looking at their plant figuring out how that got done so they could go off and compete with Sony at the time they were doing DVDs and things in town but you get the idea of competitive industry education is not that way you're not that way you let people come
0:31:09 — open the recording at 31 minutes 9 secondsSpeaker 59 (consultant) to you and say look what we're doing with robotics stem elementary learning steam anything and other districts are that way and the school board had an opportunity to just see a little bit of that by visiting what some other districts have done to move their high school planning and I pretty much could assure you every week somebody in your district is getting great information from another colleague somewhere else in the state. And so we love being able to go around the state and collect all this.
0:31:37 — open the recording at 31 minutes 37 secondsSpeaker 61 (Gibraltar consultant) So the next comment I'd say about budgeting is it's a collection of everything Gibraltar knows and we only do public education and higher education. So that's the last point I'm going to tell you is, you know, Vincent's University is
0:31:49 — open the recording at 31 minutes 49 secondsSpeaker 59 (consultant) just down the road, a wonderful Ivy Tech institution. You know, these students are only three months removed from their next phase in life.
0:32:00 — open the recording at 32 minutesSpeaker 61 (Gibraltar consultant) And my observation is, and your community is wonderful to see, as Dr. Newport talked about the next college, early college credits and those types of things and the IVTEC credits students are receiving.
0:32:15 — open the recording at 32 minutes 15 secondsSpeaker 59 (consultant) When you can do a new high school, it is fair to say there are expectations of technical training students that come to their door, Ivy Tech's first-year students coming to their door, universities and students coming to their door, or your employers here in town coming to be employed in their businesses. And economic engines grow, and there are studies that prove that if the
0:32:46 — open the recording at 32 minutes 46 secondsSpeaker 61 (Gibraltar consultant) educational system in the county is vibrant and doing things and we don't have time to talk about
0:32:53 — open the recording at 32 minutes 53 secondsSpeaker 59 (consultant) other states and what they've done to align industry and education in their counties like farming to ag in their community because it's all farming in another state but my point being you have a chance to do exacting specifications the way you see your vision in this county for the next 50 years and sort of reignite that and our buildings do change people hospitals change everything changes so sometimes too fast but that's just my commentary so all of that thinking the best that we can bring you puts into a budget so I do
0:33:28 — open the recording at 33 minutes 28 secondsSpeaker 59 (consultant) want to have a moment to put my teacher hat on budget means two big components are buckets of money. The first is what you pay the contractors. So we're building something, so we've got to pay the bills for the materials, the labor, and all that. In the school industry, the vernacular is either a construction estimate, or it's a construction budget, or it's the construction cost. The bucket itself for decades has been called hard cost. I don't know
0:34:03 — open the recording at 34 minutes 3 secondsSpeaker 61 (Gibraltar consultant) why other than I think well it's hard steel and hard I do not know as old as I am but that's hard
0:34:12 — open the recording at 34 minutes 12 secondsSpeaker 59 (consultant) cost so it's very important we don't confuse you when we rattle off vernacular and you're trying to follow the line items and the rows but am I are you with me with that like so what we pay the contracts everything we'll call it hard cost we'll call it construction estimate construction budget the second bucket of money is over here which we'll call soft costs and that is legal fees soils testing, utility connections, furniture, technology devices and things that go into a school and on big projects like you have there are many many
0:34:48 — open the recording at 34 minutes 48 secondsSpeaker 59 (consultant) aligned items going to soft costs, architect fees, engineering fees, you have testing during construction so we're going to group that, call it soft costs and generally accepted practice is 25% for that budget. You don't, at this very early discussion stage, try to itemize it. You just use 25% and it works. It is a little bit conservative. Nobody likes a budget that then needs to circle back. So 25% is a good number and it just includes all those things.
0:35:21 — open the recording at 35 minutes 21 secondsSpeaker 59 (consultant) We're presenting what we call bond budget, too, because we insert the word bond because it helps people realize, oh, it's not just the contractor's bill. It's the whole effort.
0:35:33 — open the recording at 35 minutes 33 secondsSpeaker 61 (Gibraltar consultant) So we say bond budget, hard cost, soft cost. It's everything included. So any questions about the structure of budgeting and how we look at it in the school business? So far so good? Great. And you got to taste the budgeting from the presentation that Dr. Hemsall and the district did about their other budgets of education fund and those different funds.
0:35:57 — open the recording at 35 minutes 57 secondsSpeaker 59 (consultant) So, again, there's no site selected. The purpose of the illustrations, though, were to develop a framework from what to budget from. Quantify and qualify where we are with budgeting. Is that helpful? like so the illustration shows yeah 100 acres is you know we get all these questions all the time well how big should we get for a property we'll look for 100 acres uh it's good if it has two uh road accesses so like it doesn't have to be on a intersection of a street corner but it'd be nice if there were two ways on and off the property because that's sort of just a common sense it
0:36:35 — open the recording at 36 minutes 35 secondsSpeaker 59 (consultant) doesn't have to be you can also build a second way off a property if it has access on one side you can build a second side to to get off the property 100 acres also in today's environment you need to plan for drainage and storm water so some of the property is just an area for water to be detained before it goes into the river and so you have all these different pieces that fit into that and that's the purpose of that illustration and then when you start to put important extracurricular co-curricular and athletic venues on the property which are very important and those
0:37:08 — open the recording at 37 minutes 8 secondsSpeaker 59 (consultant) have changed too. We're doing fields that are soccer only and you have some of those. We're starting to get questions about women's lacrosse and so we're asking, we're starting to have clients ask us to figure out how to accommodate that. And you know it's nice
0:37:23 — open the recording at 37 minutes 23 secondsSpeaker 61 (Gibraltar consultant) because for the most part IHSA likes to duplicate uses of fields so they try to have spring sports and fall sports that allow you to use a field for two different reasons. Like we
0:37:34 — open the recording at 37 minutes 34 secondsSpeaker 58 (consultant) have many clients who have chosen to do soccer on a football field because that's all they can do but so anyway all those different things when we go to a building we do you know we can't
0:37:44 — open the recording at 37 minutes 44 secondsSpeaker 61 (Gibraltar consultant) help but create a shape that starts to help us quantify rooms and sizes and get all those pieces put together we showed you those labs and classrooms that can be anything it needs to be every year so you just quantify all that but it's not the floor plan it's not the design it's just again to help quantify it's probably similar to any of you that are in budgets and you think for For example, gee, what did it cost me to buy that two years ago for hospital beds?
0:38:10 — open the recording at 38 minutes 10 secondsSpeaker 59 (consultant) And so then you pencil that number into your budget. It's kind of what we're doing, only we're illustrating. What kind of shape does it have to be? Okay, how many square feet is it? Okay, qualify. So at a very high level for you, the top part of this budget you see is the hard cost. So that's like the construction cost. Generally, that's a good ratio between site and building. So then we have some prudent contingency. Some watching this or in the room may say, that's far too low. We'd never use 3%. We'd use 20%. These are just budgetary decisions that you make and you can always adjust.
0:38:52 — open the recording at 38 minutes 52 secondsSpeaker 61 (Gibraltar consultant) And then you'll arrive at a subtotal or like a construction cost, and then you see that 25% I mentioned for soft cost. And just to help everybody, if you didn't hear what I said or you just want those notes, As you can see, I started to try and put some prompts there for soft costs in the fine text.
0:39:08 — open the recording at 39 minutes 8 secondsSpeaker 59 (consultant) And that leads you to a bond budget, a bond construction budget of hard and soft costs that we've shown there. And then the element of time and market conditions can influence that. And you'll be a little bit of an economic engine when you have this much construction going on in a county. I don't know what happened when you're building the casino but you know and the rest stops but you know those things start to generate a little bit of economic engine maybe even some people from neighboring counties come in to start doing some construction work for you but if you wait a year
0:39:45 — open the recording at 39 minutes 45 secondsSpeaker 59 (consultant) as Dr. Hemsworth pointed out as well we are in a time where every year there have been not level but construction costs increases so again frequently asked question well how much does inflation each year so now you have a range now we are showing 2026 that's where we are if we went one year from now you can see a range for inflation to budget for or anticipate what i would say is some things go up more some things go up less so you have a range because you're trying to account for averaging of how all that comes together very rarely but on occasion
0:40:25 — open the recording at 40 minutes 25 secondsSpeaker 59 (consultant) I've seen just public articles about, particularly in like Northwest Indiana, about steel pricing and how steel has gone up or something, labor costs have gone up. Generally, though, it's an average across the entire industry of all the things that go into building a building. I want to go on to the next slide until you've had a chance to look at this. Hopefully it's organized in a way that's easy to follow for you.
0:40:53 — open the recording at 40 minutes 53 secondsSpeaker 68 Good. any questions mr. president your committee that want to ask something
0:40:56 — open the recording at 40 minutes 56 secondsSpeaker 21 before I go to the next slide nothing in here for land right maybe a little bit
0:41:05 — open the recording at 41 minutes 5 secondsSpeaker 72 (Gibraltar consultant) for the soft costs like but like like acquiring a new property no we haven't
0:41:10 — open the recording at 41 minutes 10 secondsSpeaker 61 (Gibraltar consultant) picked one so yeah Jen I'd have to check because legislation changes now every year it used to be that you can only buy land at an appraised value so you probably Google it and get your price value of land in this. But soft costs, the idea of soft costs is, you know, when you're budgeting, you don't have legal fees, you don't have exacting costs of finance, you don't have geotechnical for soils. So if someone were, like you just asked, you might be able to put it into your soft cost budget. You just have to be aware of, at the next level of budgeting, and I think many of you
0:41:49 — open the recording at 41 minutes 49 secondsSpeaker 61 (Gibraltar consultant) done these budget your own budgets for business it's not what is the exact cost it's have you a line item in the budget that makes you think about it like oh I don't have furniture in my budget well I'm gonna have to buy furniture I need a line item for that if the furniture costs X or Y that's not the point at
0:42:07 — open the recording at 42 minutes 7 secondsSpeaker 77 this exercise so thank you for the question but we just tried to put our arms around yeah I just wanted to make sure that land acquisition costs were not included here in that unit that just is something we'd have to get into at the next level.
0:42:22 — open the recording at 42 minutes 22 secondsSpeaker 59 (consultant) Any other questions before we go on? And by the way, it's not the length of time we spend with you each time, it's the quality
0:42:30 — open the recording at 42 minutes 30 secondsSpeaker 61 (Gibraltar consultant) that we try to provide you and learn from you what else we need to do to help you. So we don't mean to go fast or rush, we just try to get to the point. Hopefully it's appreciated.
0:42:41 — open the recording at 42 minutes 41 secondsSpeaker 81 It is.
0:42:43 — open the recording at 42 minutes 43 secondsSpeaker 61 (Gibraltar consultant) Okay. So this is just a very, very partial list. I bet you have five things that you're thinking, I hope our new high school would have this, or what about that? And could we do this? And some of the things, it's fun.
0:42:59 — open the recording at 42 minutes 59 secondsSpeaker 58 (consultant) You know, I like the conversations. Hey, are we going to have school colors in the gym? Or what kind of wood floor are we going to have? Because I play basketball and I really want to know. I love all that. And that's what I mean by exacting specifications. You go through a process, just like Mr. Kingery explained when we did the facility assessment study process.
0:43:19 — open the recording at 43 minutes 19 secondsSpeaker 59 (consultant) You get input. You refine input.
0:43:23 — open the recording at 43 minutes 23 secondsSpeaker 58 (consultant) I am confident your needs will be met. Wants are a little harder, right?
0:43:30 — open the recording at 43 minutes 30 secondsSpeaker 59 (consultant) Like with your own children when you raise them, they see something, they want it, but they need it. The other thing I would say at this point when you see this partial list, when you have the opportunity to build new, you are unencumbered, generally speaking.
0:43:43 — open the recording at 43 minutes 43 secondsSpeaker 61 (Gibraltar consultant) The site, as you asked, is it selected yet? No. Is it costed? Not exactly.
0:43:50 — open the recording at 43 minutes 50 secondsSpeaker 59 (consultant) So that can create some challenges, but generally speaking, you can build what you feel you want your budget to afford. And you always build it with master planning for expansion and all those things. Let me restate that. We always build it that way. but the partial listing is just an idea that we're not forgetting about these things so we're just trying to create like we're not putting turf in until somebody says that's in the budget
0:44:13 — open the recording at 44 minutes 13 secondsSpeaker 72 (Gibraltar consultant) we're not putting a pool in the project budget until somebody says we're putting a pool in this
0:44:18 — open the recording at 44 minutes 18 secondsSpeaker 84 project i was gonna i was gonna ask for clarification on that so the numbers you provided
0:44:21 — open the recording at 44 minutes 21 secondsSpeaker 72 (Gibraltar consultant) on the last slide were not including a pool correct and this is just the partial list of what's not included these are additional items additional that someone would have to and we can
0:44:31 — open the recording at 44 minutes 31 secondsSpeaker 61 (Gibraltar consultant) do this for you we can cost these and say well what if we wanted to pool well then we can put a number in for it as an estimate but these things are not included so athletic venues it means we're not doing IHSAA hosting so you're probably familiar with your wonderful collegiate cross-country venue it's not that cross-country venue that you're getting in your high school campus it's not an extraordinary number of typically the athletic hosting venues are more in terms of seating capacities we did what's right for what your high schools would have to compete and have a nice venue
0:45:09 — open the recording at 45 minutes 9 secondsSpeaker 61 (Gibraltar consultant) for the community to watch their children plenty of seating for that but it is not to invite six counties in and have a 15,000 seat gymnasium I wouldn't
0:45:19 — open the recording at 45 minutes 19 secondsSpeaker 88 hold you to any cost but do you have any just rough ranges on any of these
0:45:23 — open the recording at 45 minutes 23 secondsSpeaker 89 millions tens of millions and most of all those cases yeah there isn't anything
0:45:30 — open the recording at 45 minutes 30 secondsSpeaker 61 (Gibraltar consultant) here that's just a few hundred thousand it's all millions if that's a need because of what the committee would like to look at we would take your direction if you felt like you'd like us to try to do what I did on the building and site new high school estimate we could compartmentalize this we'd want to work with the school district and dr. Hemsall and his team but if that's a need we can certainly bring that back to you you just have to communicate to the district and we bring it to you or you tell us now so just to be clear and thank you we said
0:46:06 — open the recording at 46 minutes 6 secondsSpeaker 61 (Gibraltar consultant) it in the affirmative like additional considerations meaning additional money or another way to look at is what you asked these are not included these are not included in budget estimates we wouldn't want anybody to think oh you're getting a pool for this budget or you're getting these other 50,000 seat and gymnasiums and those things. And this is not disparaging any of that. We work for you and what you feel you need in your community and every community in regard to these items in particular is very, very different. There is no standard, if you will.
0:46:46 — open the recording at 46 minutes 46 secondsSpeaker 61 (Gibraltar consultant) While there may be many kinds of comparative standards on a classroom or a science room or those things, these communities decide.
0:46:53 — open the recording at 46 minutes 53 secondsSpeaker 68 Did I cover enough before I go to the next slide?
0:47:00 — open the recording at 47 minutesSpeaker 4 (chair) Can you clarify on the note, it says it's not within the correct bond budget. Is that current? It should be current.
0:47:07 — open the recording at 47 minutes 7 secondsSpeaker 93 Thank you, sir.
0:47:08 — open the recording at 47 minutes 8 seconds Yes.
0:47:09 — open the recording at 47 minutes 9 secondsSpeaker 94 We'll fix that typo before it gets out to the committee. Thank you.
0:47:18 — open the recording at 47 minutes 18 secondsSpeaker 79 Okay.
0:47:21 — open the recording at 47 minutes 21 secondsSpeaker 59 (consultant) So moving on to now this gets maybe even farther than you would all like but most importantly you see this summary here the bottom row same exercise for all the options because we can extrapolate what might the budgets be for each of the high schools in regards to the different options. So I'll leave you with that. Turn things over to Dr. Newport now.
0:47:52 — open the recording at 47 minutes 52 secondsSpeaker 99 (district or Gibraltar presenter) Thank you, Jim. So I'm going to tag in here and just talk a little bit about the top part of this graph here. As a reminder from Dr. Hemslel's presentation at the last oversight board meeting, six options
0:48:07 — open the recording at 48 minutes 7 secondsSpeaker 39 (district or Gibraltar presenter) were reviewed and presented to gather perspective of the costs. These options were presented in an apples to apples comparison, so that's why things like preferred preference for a turf field preference for an aquatic center at each side preference for those were kept out of these numbers so we can keep an apples to apples because we don't have turf sites at our current facilities we don't have aquatic centers at all of our schools
0:48:28 — open the recording at 48 minutes 28 secondsSpeaker 37 (district or Gibraltar presenter) we don't have those those kinds of things and so we want to make sure we're able to do it as an apples to apples perspective more time has gone into the school boards option six as it is a truly comprehensive plan that touches every occupied building with new construction or modernization it keeps equity of access to facility options learning environments and student-based resources consistent across all elementaries consistent across all middle schools and consistence across both high schools it recognizes transportation logistics with vehicle county geography
0:49:03 — open the recording at 49 minutes 3 secondsSpeaker 37 (district or Gibraltar presenter) and allows for flexibility within the realities of our declining enrollment trend while allowing for enrollment increased flexibility if that were to hopefully happen. While option six is the school board's endorsed option we have modified the savings calculations to illustrate five other plans to compare in an apples to apples effort. Option three I'm going to start there this is a reminder is all schools continue to be used as they currently are. That was 15 elementary, five middle schools and three high schools so it is indicated as zero
0:49:36 — open the recording at 49 minutes 36 secondsSpeaker 37 (district or Gibraltar presenter) dollars in savings. Starting from left to right one of the things that we want to at least show the calculations for and show the the math behind it is a one single high school new high school build east of the river for all Viggo County high school students it would represent it represents four middle schools and 10 elementaries an annual savings of about 12 million 144 thousand 314 dollars and if you were
0:50:03 — open the recording at 50 minutes 3 secondsSpeaker 39 (district or Gibraltar presenter) to extrapolate that into a 10-year education fund savings we have the 121 million 443 dollars and
0:50:09 — open the recording at 50 minutes 9 secondsSpeaker 37 (district or Gibraltar presenter) 100 443 thousand and 140 dollars option two would renovate and utilize north as a single high school for Vigo County 10 elementary schools four middle schools it represents and you can notice there's a bit of a drop to 11 million or 110 million or 113 million over the 10 years it'd be 11 million uh 353 000 38 38 dollars annual savings and note the drop in savings is due to the domino effect of if north high school is utilized as a as a high school then otter creek would need to remain a middle school rather than become an elementary as in option six and then we would also would need to
0:50:53 — open the recording at 50 minutes 53 secondsSpeaker 37 (district or Gibraltar presenter) then also keep Rio Grande as an elementary school and so the domino effect of moving down on down that loses the amount of savings in our annual costs option four is renovate and utilize north as an east of the river high school and renovate west vigo as the west of the river high school we would have 10 elementaries four middles and two high schools this continues that little bit trend to the 94 million 923 410 10-year savings or an annual savings of 9 million 492 341 again this is a part of the drop that the otter creek would remain as a middle school
0:51:35 — open the recording at 51 minutes 35 secondsSpeaker 37 (district or Gibraltar presenter) real grand would remain as an elementary school and does include the west fegal high school being utilized as a high school and sugar creek consolidated would also be renovated as a middle school as part of the plan in option six and then finally in option five we renovate and utilize tarot south as a high school east of the river and utilize west vigo as a high school west of the river going to this would need to be 12 elementaries five middle schools and two high schools with the 10-year savings at this $67,920,120, which was about an annual savings of $6,792,012
0:52:21 — open the recording at 52 minutes 21 secondsSpeaker 37 (district or Gibraltar presenter) on our education fund and the reduction of savings is because Honey Creek Middle School in this scenario would need to remain as a middle school, Sarah Scott would need to remain as a middle school, and Dixie Bee and Hoosier Prairie would need to remain as elementary schools. And so as each plan
0:52:36 — open the recording at 52 minutes 36 secondsSpeaker 103 (Gibraltar consultant) kind of dominoes as we look around and trying to utilize existing properties and existing assets the part that it comes to is that we talked about with that the school board was very intentional about is having equal or equity amongst our different facilities amongst our different plans and so if we have if we take north and south and turn them into middle schools as they sit today and in a renovated and modernized facility they are very appropriate would it's just consistent to middle schools across the nation with their gym
0:53:09 — open the recording at 53 minutes 9 secondsSpeaker 103 (Gibraltar consultant) spaces with the cafeteria spaces with the auditorium spaces and would wear and actually it would be an addition of the auditorium spaces because a lot of middle schools have cafetoriums or gymatoriums and so utilizing those aspects will be a great benefit the other great benefit to it is the athletic facilities are there that they can be modernized and then we can host middle school football in a way that is very intentional with those sites having those facilities from when they were a high school and then it would allow the
0:53:42 — open the recording at 53 minutes 42 secondsSpeaker 103 (Gibraltar consultant) new build to really represent what a modern high school is with the different
0:53:50 — open the recording at 53 minutes 50 secondsSpeaker 106 amenities and facilities. Jim's going to continue on with the bottom part of this.
0:53:57 — open the recording at 53 minutes 57 secondsSpeaker 59 (consultant) So just real quickly we had this I think I think it was asked a couple weeks ago To put a timeline into perspective of a new high school, let's use just like here and now. Things get approved. They go forward. You could, by fall, if a site were selected, you could start to begin construction, which would obviously be the site development, moving the dirt around and getting it prepped. By spring, you'd start to see things coming up out of the ground. and about two years later the building's all buttoned up and you see the outside and workers
0:54:37 — open the recording at 54 minutes 37 secondsSpeaker 59 (consultant) most of them are on the inside and by august of 2029 you could be opening a new school it's about 30 months of construction timeline so two and a half years depending on weather and other factors it can take a little longer i would be pleasantly surprised if it could go faster so that was a bit of help for you.
0:55:06 — open the recording at 55 minutes 6 secondsSpeaker 109 (Gibraltar consultant) So the last thing we have is the summary of the work and the sequence of the work. Probably going to the next slide. Oh, I have it. And so we've put these into groupings. These groupings are not an order of
0:55:20 — open the recording at 55 minutes 20 secondsSpeaker 37 (district or Gibraltar presenter) completion. They could be commingled with happening at the same time in various formats and I'll kind of illustrate that as I go through and explain each of the groups. So group one this is the ask that the school board has asked to commit presented to the commissioners and the commissioners has asked the county this is the ask a new high school east of the Wabash River. We believe that we are very hopeful that through this process that along with the partnership with the Casino Foundation that the county can can hopefully come
0:55:51 — open the recording at 55 minutes 51 secondsSpeaker 37 (district or Gibraltar presenter) on board and partner with the school corporation to build a high school east the river in an economic development project we recognize and respect and are thankful of the deep looks into the accounting and the funding structures of both the school district and the county and thank you for your work with that because we're very appreciative of the transparent way in which which this oversight board is doing it in a way that everyone can understand and recognize so thank you thank you for your work group two this represents the Vigo County School Corporation's bonding capacity
0:56:28 — open the recording at 56 minutes 28 secondsSpeaker 37 (district or Gibraltar presenter) part of this work this work would modernize and renovate West Vigo High School we would modernize and add classrooms at two to three elementary schools with Devaney, Benjamin Franklin, and Fayette being those schools those schools we would expand to be able to house six to seven hundred students to allow for that domino consolidation that I mentioned earlier of some of our other elementary schools and lessen that footprint of our facilities. We believe this could be completed with the current DCSE bonding capacity and maintain the current tax rate, .2424, .2424, the debt service rate,
0:57:08 — open the recording at 57 minutes 8 secondsSpeaker 37 (district or Gibraltar presenter) and so that these projects could be completed without raising any property taxes within the debt service rate. And so our hope is that groups one and two create a partnership of existing capacities and existing funding structures to do it in a way where a lot of work could be done without an impact to the tax rate. Group three, until we really get groups one and two decided, it's kind of hard to really understand what the financing may look like for group three. It could be in multiple different ways, but one of the things
0:57:40 — open the recording at 57 minutes 40 secondsSpeaker 37 (district or Gibraltar presenter) that it looks to do is modernize and renovate repurpose the middle schools, Sugar Creek Consolidated, Territ North, Territ South, and modernize Woodrow Wilson. with group four we are we'd be looking to modernize those elementary schools that were as part of option six that will remain with fuquay lost creek riley tarrytown honey creek otter creek and sarah scott all becoming middle schools honey creek otter creek and sarah scott would need very little modifications to them as they are they've either recently been updated or
0:58:11 — open the recording at 58 minutes 11 secondsSpeaker 37 (district or Gibraltar presenter) our schools that are younger of our within our inventory a lot of these this we can accomplish and already have began to accomplish with our geobond maintenance efforts and it's ongoing even now for example blanche fuquay just received some air handler upgrades lost creek is having a roofing project currently going on right now terrytown just got two new chillers and some new air handlers. Honey Creek's chiller has been recently replaced and as we're looking at replacing some of the chilled water pumps within the boiler room. Otter Creek just had a new gym added. It just
0:58:52 — open the recording at 58 minutes 52 secondsSpeaker 37 (district or Gibraltar presenter) had a new chiller replaced and the cooling tower is next on the docket for our HVAC maintenance of effort plans. And Sarah Scott has recently received new boilers and has also had their chiller replaced within the last five years. And so those are some of the examples that the living maintenance plan of the school district is continuing to maintain those likewise sarah scott's roof has been replaced in the last couple of years as has otter creek and then finally group five is kind of the some options we have for choices where we can look at modernize and repurposing
0:59:26 — open the recording at 59 minutes 26 secondsSpeaker 37 (district or Gibraltar presenter) dixie b into a career center farrington grove into an alternative school sure grove into an early learners early learning center a lot of those modernizations repurposes can be probably done within our operations fund and because there'll be it wouldn't be need to be a lot of major major overhauls but we can utilize those spaces our alternative education and virtual school is it is a merit very much a need they've grown out the space that they have where they currently are and so putting them into a building like Ferenton Grove is a great reutilization of that as I've talked
1:00:00 — open the recording at 1 hourSpeaker 37 (district or Gibraltar presenter) about some of those different funding options there's we've talked about the the opportunity with group one to partner with the county we've talked about vcsc maximizing its bond capacity and putting its best effort out there if there was to be a nasa a community to the community for a referendum that may be something that may need to come to play but then the last thing we haven't talked much about is how the excitement of all these partnerships and all
1:00:24 — open the recording at 1 hour 24 secondsSpeaker 39 (district or Gibraltar presenter) this growing may grow the private donation aspect in the private donors and that's a piece of a lot of these things that we looked at earlier with the turf fields and some of those options we have opportunities to expand that and tap into resources that we really have not gone to that scale before but with the momentum we believe that can go with this plan there's an opportunity for that yes jim
1:00:50 — open the recording at 1 hour 50 secondsSpeaker 115 the 222 million dollar estimate that's just group one cost that's correct yes 200 the 222 million
1:01:01 — open the recording at 1 hour 1 minute 1 secondSpeaker 109 (Gibraltar consultant) $2 million is the Group 1 cost of the new high school east of the river. So in conclusion, let me leave you with this.
1:01:15 — open the recording at 1 hour 1 minute 15 secondsSpeaker 37 (district or Gibraltar presenter) Today's presentation has intended to walk you through how we came to option 6 and the best option for students by allowing enrollment trends, aligning with current budget realities, and offering maximum flexibility to provide opportunities for kids. If you'd like to see any other buildings, we're happy to make arrangements to accommodate. If you'd like to hear about economical impacts of schools in our community, we can put you in touch with some economics professionals. If you have more questions about the financial impacts of school, we'd be happy to have Steve will come back.
1:01:45 — open the recording at 1 hour 1 minute 45 secondsSpeaker 37 (district or Gibraltar presenter) Or delve into further questions of what schools can and cannot do with our funding capacities, Kristen McClendon can help with that. And finally, thank you for the opportunity to get the facts out about what we're doing and why. we're very thankful to your commitment time and energy and talent to help our community determine financial capacity of community partners to accomplish something that can make a difference in the lives of thousands of children thank you
1:02:12 — open the recording at 1 hour 2 minutes 12 secondsJim (oversight board member) the group one building one high school was 222 million and that's your number six option but back there number one which was building one high school also it was like i can't remember the number but
1:02:33 — open the recording at 1 hour 2 minutes 33 secondsSpeaker 126 it'd be 252 million why why explain why those are different 256
1:02:50 — open the recording at 1 hour 2 minutes 50 secondsSpeaker 6 yeah would it be because of the increase from the west vego students joining and
1:02:55 — open the recording at 1 hour 2 minutes 55 secondsSpeaker 109 (Gibraltar consultant) so it would be a larger building yes it's one school and so it's an increase of the students
1:03:01 — open the recording at 1 hour 3 minutes 1 secondSpeaker 139 (oversight board member) from west vigo and um yeah that's it so uh what was the cost i think it was in one of the previous presentations and i don't have it in front of me but just or an idea of what it would cost to
1:03:14 — open the recording at 1 hour 3 minutes 14 secondsSpeaker 143 renovate west in that group two project yeah let me have jim help with that cost for renovating
1:03:25 — open the recording at 1 hour 3 minutes 25 secondsSpeaker 139 (oversight board member) I don't think it was straight out a line in one of them but when we talked about the comparisons of option one versus you had like that bottom line I don't have probably had basically the differences of it was the cost savings
1:03:42 — open the recording at 1 hour 3 minutes 42 secondsSpeaker 92 between the cost you could kind of deduct that it seemed like West Vigo's
1:03:46 — open the recording at 1 hour 3 minutes 46 secondsSpeaker 152 renovation was like 52 million okay yeah 52 million is the number that's in my
1:03:50 — open the recording at 1 hour 3 minutes 50 secondsSpeaker 156 head yeah yes 79 million 79 million for West Bega are you planning or is the plan
1:04:03 — open the recording at 1 hour 4 minutes 3 secondsSpeaker 143 on the other side where you have all your groups laid out would they happen
1:04:07 — open the recording at 1 hour 4 minutes 7 secondsSpeaker 139 (oversight board member) substance like you wouldn't start group two until group one finished my group
1:04:15 — open the recording at 1 hour 4 minutes 15 secondsSpeaker 158 wanted to really need to be bumped together bunched in together so in
1:04:19 — open the recording at 1 hour 4 minutes 19 secondsSpeaker 139 (oversight board member) theory if you went with option one one high school you'd have potential savings from not renovating West and I'm more thinking like timeline when you get then to group three if it's ten years down the road and you see decline in enrollment and all of that is there a possibility that hey in group one this time frame we've built this high school that holds 3,000 some we only have 2,000 some and one of himself concerns was that now we have one big huge building that's not being used but then could you in theory once you get to group three
1:04:58 — open the recording at 1 hour 4 minutes 58 secondsSpeaker 139 (oversight board member) you wouldn't need maybe to modernize Woodrow Wilson or Sugar Creek consolidated you could then transition those two and those student population into the large high school and have like a middle school high school combo and I I know it's a little bit.
1:05:15 — open the recording at 1 hour 5 minutes 15 secondsSpeaker 166 What's the question?
1:05:16 — open the recording at 1 hour 5 minutes 16 secondsSpeaker 139 (oversight board member) Is that something that's attainable or worth putting time in and kind of looking at logistically
1:05:23 — open the recording at 1 hour 5 minutes 23 secondsSpeaker 167 what the cost, the potential cost changes and savings would be?
1:05:28 — open the recording at 1 hour 5 minutes 28 secondsSpeaker 109 (Gibraltar consultant) I think that's some of the cost savings that we looked at was from a staffing perspective that was reflected on that chart.
1:05:35 — open the recording at 1 hour 5 minutes 35 secondsSpeaker 103 (Gibraltar consultant) When we went through the facility study process, we looked into a lot of data points and a lot of factors from also from past lessons learned at the referendum that failed in 2022 one of the things of that process of leading up to that referendum there's a lot of community forums Dr. Hayworth had over 90 community meetings where he obtained input from people in the public setting and in that process it was very very clear from the data that a single one school for the community was not desired and that was how that helped drive that
1:06:09 — open the recording at 1 hour 6 minutes 9 secondsSpeaker 103 (Gibraltar consultant) part of the plan as we've gone through the process in the last two or three years there have been additional conversations to really understand some of the cultures between within our district and the West Vigo community is very proud of their school they're very intent on wanting to maintain the facility that's one of the things where new build versus a renovation Overwhelmingly, we've heard that the renovation of the current high school is the preferred option because even though the Green Dome is not really conducive to hosting large events,
1:06:48 — open the recording at 1 hour 6 minutes 48 secondsSpeaker 103 (Gibraltar consultant) hosting multiple wrestling tournaments or hosting multiple basketball tournaments, but what it does provide for the community is very much what they desire. When you go there on a Friday night basketball game, that gym is packed. That football stadium is packed. and they're very worried about the identity being lost of a single site. And so as a school district, we wanted to listen to that and really understand that impact. The other piece that we looked at with that is the option for a smaller school opportunity.
1:07:23 — open the recording at 1 hour 7 minutes 23 secondsSpeaker 103 (Gibraltar consultant) Our district is so large, there's concern that if we consolidate to a single site, that a lot of our students that are on the outskirts of the district will look at options outside of Vigo County for that small school opportunity. Currently, West Vigo has right around 100 to 120, they fluctuate, of students that attend out of their 500 on permit from north and south to experience that smaller school committee. So around 20 to 25 percent of the students of West Vigo are already Vigo County residents getting that smaller experience and it
1:07:55 — open the recording at 1 hour 7 minutes 55 secondsSpeaker 103 (Gibraltar consultant) gives us that opportunity of flexibility and options as a district to be able to who have where the opportunities that they may be able to utilize in a smaller school setting and have that experience but they'll still have access to some of the resources that we can provide with a Career Center that we can provide with other opportunities for our students logistically they would still be able to we still be able to make sure they have access to that and then the other piece that as a former chief operating officer I was over our transportation
1:08:28 — open the recording at 1 hour 8 minutes 28 secondsSpeaker 103 (Gibraltar consultant) department and I just know that every time there was an incident or an accident on I-70 it shuts down two of the three ways across the river and and that what I mean by that is if I-70 is shut down all the traffic's diverted to 40 and as often as that happens even in the administration building oftentimes when the end of the workday we can't get out of West Terre Haute and get across the river because 70 shut down or sorry or 40 is shut down and you need to make your way all the way up to 63 in order to get around from a logistics of
1:09:05 — open the recording at 1 hour 9 minutes 5 secondsSpeaker 103 (Gibraltar consultant) transportation I really worry about that for our district be able to continue to offer the consistent opportunities for our students of moving around the county when we're bottlenecked to how we can get to both sides of it and so looking at those aspects what our school board and our Walter and design team facility study team has also looked at a lot of different those different data points
1:09:31 — open the recording at 1 hour 9 minutes 31 secondsSpeaker 37 (district or Gibraltar presenter) and then looked at our facilities and an equity perspective and trying to figure out a way that we can if we can utilize those north and south sites that would
1:09:44 — open the recording at 1 hour 9 minutes 44 secondsSpeaker 103 (Gibraltar consultant) make great middle schools with the amenities that they have with them then those middle schools can make great elementary schools within the amenities that we have in them. I think of some of my friends who are elementary principals and having two indoor gyms and what that can mean for, we just changed indoor recess. And so those, creating those opportunities and flexibility across the district was really keeping it equitable.
1:10:10 — open the recording at 1 hour 10 minutes 10 secondsSpeaker 170 All right. John, just one thing to point out.
1:10:14 — open the recording at 1 hour 10 minutes 14 secondsSpeaker 171 (district staff) As we formulated the plan, obviously our intent would be that one and two, groups one and two go together. Our bonding capacity is around 150 million. We could generate about 150 million for those group two projects, depending on what the interest rate is at the time we sell bonds. So if you look at that, 79 million was the original budget for West Vigo. The rest of that, Devaney, Franklin, Fayette, would be coupled in there. Those two projects, in our mind, the perfect world, both projects going on at the same time. OK?
1:10:48 — open the recording at 1 hour 10 minutes 48 secondsSpeaker 171 (district staff) Then obviously as you moved into options, group three, four, we could change our focus or we could resize depending on what the results of are the one groups one and two. If we see an uptick enrollment, obviously we'd have to go into group three and adjust when we get to that point. Just to interject that. Thanks, Donna.
1:11:09 — open the recording at 1 hour 11 minutes 9 secondsSpeaker 173 Thank you.
1:11:10 — open the recording at 1 hour 11 minutes 10 secondsSpeaker 174 At what point does a referendum come into play in this?
1:11:16 — open the recording at 1 hour 11 minutes 16 secondsSpeaker 99 (district or Gibraltar presenter) To be determined. There's too many unanswered questions to be able to give that. I can tell you it can only happen on an even year.
1:11:23 — open the recording at 1 hour 11 minutes 23 secondsSpeaker 103 (Gibraltar consultant) So if it were to happen, it would be 2028 or 2030.
1:11:28 — open the recording at 1 hour 11 minutes 28 secondsSpeaker 180 What triggers the referendum?
1:11:33 — open the recording at 1 hour 11 minutes 33 secondsJim (oversight board member) The cost of the project, or is it a change in the tax rates or structure?
1:11:41 — open the recording at 1 hour 11 minutes 41 secondsSpeaker 103 (Gibraltar consultant) I would say in my mind what would trigger the need for a referendum, or at least the need for the ask would be once we get through the capacities of group one we don't know how much can be utilized or is able to be utilized or willing to be utilized we do know how much with because it's it's our area is group two but one of the things that we learned with our hvac project is it was budgeted for a 24 million dollar project once the bids and the everything came in for the designs it came in about 22 million and then we were able to have construction savings of
1:12:18 — open the recording at 1 hour 12 minutes 18 secondsSpeaker 103 (Gibraltar consultant) another million so in the end we had three million dollars available that we could then recircle back around into some of those projects and so i envision that kind of example with group one and group two that as we get down the road and we get into some of those details of final costs and the final numbers that group three what it may look like if it was was to be a referendum process
1:12:43 — open the recording at 1 hour 12 minutes 43 secondsSpeaker 111 could be very well impacted by the savings generated from groups one and two
1:12:48 — open the recording at 1 hour 12 minutes 48 secondsSpeaker 187 jim when we're talking about those group two just to be clear that's within our current tax right now so the 24 the 24 cents
1:12:59 — open the recording at 1 hour 12 minutes 59 secondsJim (oversight board member) but pathetically the only thing we were looking at at group two we wouldn't even be needing to talk
1:13:05 — open the recording at 1 hour 13 minutes 5 secondsSpeaker 171 (district staff) think about a referendum you wouldn't necessarily have to do a referendum but as we all know the laws are consistently changing on what triggers a referendum cost rate all those things go into it we would obviously work with legal counsel on all those issues that's that's why we employ ice miller to help us work through those those issues but the group two would be within our current structure under the you know within the caps yeah and I think Chad
1:13:34 — open the recording at 1 hour 13 minutes 34 secondsSpeaker 30 (oversight board member) from Stiefel outlined a couple of the triggers for a referendum there's there's
1:13:38 — open the recording at 1 hour 13 minutes 38 secondsSpeaker 171 (district staff) several different triggers and there's and they change from year to year those
1:13:43 — open the recording at 1 hour 13 minutes 43 secondsSpeaker 4 (chair) targets change we're running close to I think we're trying to keep these under 90 minutes so we got 15 minutes here so maybe as succinct as we can be in the in the answers here I know Mark you've been waiting to ask yeah what what if
1:13:58 — open the recording at 1 hour 13 minutes 58 secondsSpeaker 83 it's determined that the county cannot come in and support financially to the
1:14:01 — open the recording at 1 hour 14 minutes 1 secondSpeaker 198 extent that that maybe is preferred right how does that change your plan I
1:14:09 — open the recording at 1 hour 14 minutes 9 secondsSpeaker 39 (district or Gibraltar presenter) don't think I'm the right person to be able to provide that that involves probably a conversation with our school board and some of our other partners but
1:14:20 — open the recording at 1 hour 14 minutes 20 secondsSpeaker 144 it was a big one it is a big one yeah Jim maybe this is a question for you how
1:14:29 — open the recording at 1 hour 14 minutes 29 secondsSpeaker 4 (chair) long is the timeline to get the new high school designed and entitled and like
1:14:33 — open the recording at 1 hour 14 minutes 33 secondsSpeaker 59 (consultant) ready to break ground so if you remember the slide because of the size of the project it is so if we kept moving and property were selected by fall so it's it five or six months you could start on the site aspects we're still designing the building aspects and so it would be about nine months to then you know
1:15:01 — open the recording at 1 hour 15 minutes 1 secondSpeaker 61 (Gibraltar consultant) finalize everything for the building aspects yeah it doesn't start and stop
1:15:06 — open the recording at 1 hour 15 minutes 6 secondsSpeaker 4 (chair) but yeah nine yes okay that's what that's about what I'm used to as just
1:15:10 — open the recording at 1 hour 15 minutes 10 secondsSpeaker 207 confirming that and has that process started designing the high school no sir
1:15:16 — open the recording at 1 hour 15 minutes 16 secondsSpeaker 103 (Gibraltar consultant) okay and mark circle back around to your question the board would need to decide whether to use its current body capacity differently than is currently being presented
1:15:28 — open the recording at 1 hour 15 minutes 28 secondsSpeaker 4 (chair) dr. Newport how many of these groupings do you need to do in order to realize the savings on the education fund previously present up presented on a previous slide
1:15:40 — open the recording at 1 hour 15 minutes 40 secondsSpeaker 39 (district or Gibraltar presenter) Well, in order to do the full savings, the group, the option six plan is one through four. One through four. It's the overall of everything to incorporate. That's option six is the overall of all of our buildings being impacted, being consolidated and or being repurposed, closed or raised.
1:16:08 — open the recording at 1 hour 16 minutes 8 secondsSpeaker 30 (oversight board member) So it may be 10 years or more before we realize the education fund savings presented on the other slide.
1:16:15 — open the recording at 1 hour 16 minutes 15 secondsSpeaker 217 Totally, yes. However, we would start now with our, as retirements happen, we would start looking at our staffing very quickly.
1:16:22 — open the recording at 1 hour 16 minutes 22 secondsSpeaker 30 (oversight board member) It would start phasing in, so to speak. Yes. Great. Do we have any rough cost estimates for groups two, three, or four?
1:16:33 — open the recording at 1 hour 16 minutes 33 seconds Can we go back to one second?
1:16:34 — open the recording at 1 hour 16 minutes 34 secondsSpeaker 222 one through three get all the consolidations. So that would be the end of the, that would be where you get all of your savings. That's true. Yeah, one through three. Or is just modernization.
1:16:48 — open the recording at 1 hour 16 minutes 48 seconds Group four doesn't need to be done to achieve your goals.
1:16:51 — open the recording at 1 hour 16 minutes 51 secondsSpeaker 4 (chair) Group four, I'll just repeat on the microphone here, group four does not need to be done to realize the operational efficiency savings. Groups one through three do.
1:17:01 — open the recording at 1 hour 17 minutes 1 secondSpeaker 39 (district or Gibraltar presenter) Yeah, that is correct. Thank you. The group four, we would love to be able to modernize, but one through three does incorporate the savings. Yeah, thank you. Thank you, Donna.
1:17:25 — open the recording at 1 hour 17 minutes 25 secondsSpeaker 230 Anybody else?
1:17:27 — open the recording at 1 hour 17 minutes 27 secondsSpeaker 232 Any questions?
1:17:28 — open the recording at 1 hour 17 minutes 28 secondsSpeaker 193 Chris I'm going to call you out here I don't know if we had a great conversation that at
1:17:35 — open the recording at 1 hour 17 minutes 35 secondsSpeaker 4 (chair) Terre Haute South on Monday I believe we're standing in the auditorium on the stage and talking you had some renderings there about what a renovated auditorium could potentially be and we talked I asked you the question of if that changes whether Terre Haute South's future is middle school or as a high school and you had a great answer can you compare I think we refer to them as shared spaces that currently exist at North and South and how do those compare to a modern-day high school when you look at the the
1:18:10 — open the recording at 1 hour 18 minutes 10 secondsSpeaker 47 (Gibraltar consultant) function of the spaces the flexibility of the spaces you have auditoriums that were built for like one purpose at the end during that time frame when we are modernizing auditoriums today we are looking at multi purposes multi groups coming in to use that space and so they're used as instructional spaces as well during the day and in addition to that they're used for the evening performances you know when you have a grand auditorium when it's complete you
1:18:38 — open the recording at 1 hour 18 minutes 38 secondsSpeaker 235 have your elementary schools coming in your middle school is coming in you know to be able to provide some programming for that all right that's good yeah Thank you.
1:18:47 — open the recording at 1 hour 18 minutes 47 secondsSpeaker 4 (chair) Any other questions from the board? Before we move into public comment, I would like to thank Commissioner Clinkenbeard for being here. It's a Councilwoman Wager back there. Thank you for being here. I saw the auditor was here for most of it, so thank you to him for attending. You have something else, Dr. Newport?
1:19:09 — open the recording at 1 hour 19 minutes 9 secondsSpeaker 158 Just one quick thing. Just kind of a recap.
1:19:11 — open the recording at 1 hour 19 minutes 11 secondsSpeaker 39 (district or Gibraltar presenter) The cost of Group 2 is estimated to be about $140 to $150 million. And that is with the current bond capacity of .242 rates. It would not affect the tax rate. Group 3 costs will be determined when the scale needed, when the impact of inflation and how much we're able to accomplish between now and then with 1s and 2. And we're just continuing to do work. So we are continue to do work within those buildings now. So the kids there benefit, as you saw on our tour on Monday.
1:19:46 — open the recording at 1 hour 19 minutes 46 secondsSpeaker 241 Thank you. Thank you.
1:19:52 — open the recording at 1 hour 19 minutes 52 secondsSpeaker 242 All right, public comment?
1:19:57 — open the recording at 1 hour 19 minutes 57 secondsSpeaker 247 Commissioner Clinkenbeard.
1:19:58 — open the recording at 1 hour 19 minutes 58 secondsSpeaker 246 (public commenter) It's still morning, so good morning, guys. Yeah, thanks. I just, as I was listening here, and I've been thinking the last few days, and I did jot a few things down. I think what really most of us saw over the last couple days that Montezuma Elementary School is going to be closed. I think that is just underscoring the reality of what we're going to be going through many communities in the next few years. You know, while these types of discussions that we've had over the last few months, they are painful at times, I believe they are absolutely necessary and we have to keep the taxpayers
1:20:36 — open the recording at 1 hour 20 minutes 36 secondsSpeaker 246 (public commenter) in mind in all of our decisions. You know, like I say, they have been painful. It's been incredibly stressful. But I'm really proud of the community for realizing something has to be done, you know, and we have to come and have arguments and have these discussions and make tough decisions. So I think that we're moving forward and I'm appreciative of that. Something that a couple of us have talked about also, it's becoming clear that the state of Indiana is wanting local communities to come up with answers to these issues
1:21:10 — open the recording at 1 hour 21 minutes 10 secondsSpeaker 246 (public commenter) and the communities that figure that out will survive and thrive. The ones that don't will be left behind and I want our community to survive and thrive. I think the work that you're all doing is actually more than just deciding if the county will help with the funds to build new high school. You're also helping to make sure our school corporation is viable for decades to come. I just want continue to thank you for all you're doing and helping us move County forward and and I did want to also your presentation the other night to the
1:21:42 — open the recording at 1 hour 21 minutes 42 secondsSpeaker 246 (public commenter) council I really appreciated the comment that you made that you all would never do anything you know do not recommend anything that would put our county in jeopardy and the other services that we have I know you guys are all putting everything you have into this you've been very thoughtful and this is going have to be a community solution and I think this is a big step so I just want again thank you and look forward to continue to work with you thanks thank
1:22:13 — open the recording at 1 hour 22 minutes 13 secondsSpeaker 248 you Commissioner
1:22:17 — open the recording at 1 hour 22 minutes 17 secondsSpeaker 4 (chair) anyone else all right I think we had previously decided that we'd with Monday being a holiday that we would meet Tuesday the 17th I know a number a A couple of us have a conflict, so we're going to go ahead and cancel Tuesday's meeting. So our next meeting will be Thursday, February 19th at 1030 in this room. With that said, I'd entertain a motion to adjourn.
1:22:44 — open the recording at 1 hour 22 minutes 44 secondsSpeaker 253 So moved.
1:22:45 — open the recording at 1 hour 22 minutes 45 secondsSpeaker 4 (chair) Thank you, Carrie.
1:22:46 — open the recording at 1 hour 22 minutes 46 secondsSpeaker 253 Second.
1:22:47 — open the recording at 1 hour 22 minutes 47 secondsSpeaker 4 (chair) Thank you, Mark.
1:22:48 — open the recording at 1 hour 22 minutes 48 secondsSpeaker 256 All those in favor? Aye.
1:22:50 — open the recording at 1 hour 22 minutes 50 secondsSpeaker 255 All right. Thank you.
1:22:54 — open the recording at 1 hour 22 minutes 54 seconds Fisher. Mark.

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