Transcript
Vigo County Oversight BoardJun 25, 2026
About this transcript
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 · Jun 25, 2026
- Length
- 0:58:44
- Lines
- 182
- Transcribed by
- mlx-community/whisper-large-v3-turbo
0:00:00 — open the recording at 0 secondsSpeaker 0 Good morning. Please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance.
0:00:09 — open the recording at 9 secondsSpeaker 2 I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
0:00:22 — open the recording at 22 secondsSpeaker 8 (chair) good morning first up we have some a couple minutes to approve that were circulated we
0:00:34 — open the recording at 34 secondsSpeaker 10 (board member (reads minutes/claims, also questions presenters)) had a public meeting April 30th and we had executive session June 8th there's no questions
0:00:41 — open the recording at 41 secondsSpeaker 12 or discussion I'll entertain a motion second Thank You Jim and Carrie all those in favor say aye
0:00:49 — open the recording at 49 secondsSpeaker 10 (board member (reads minutes/claims, also questions presenters)) Aye.
0:00:50 — open the recording at 50 seconds Wonderful.
0:00:51 — open the recording at 51 secondsSpeaker 10 (board member (reads minutes/claims, also questions presenters)) We also had two invoices come in from Barnes and Thornburg. Their services performed through April 30th for $3,458.50. And then the services performed through May 31st for $1,104.50.
0:01:11 — open the recording at 1 minute 11 secondsSpeaker 11 (chair) Had those available if there's any questions. If not, I'll entertain a motion to approve those. thank you heather thank you mark for the second all those in favor say aye all right our friends from gibraltar and the school corporation you ready i don't know how
0:01:34 — open the recording at 1 minute 34 secondsSpeaker 8 (chair) we want to do this there's apparently two microphones here you just pull a chair up sure I believe the health department is using the council chambers for education today.
0:01:58 — open the recording at 1 minute 58 secondsSpeaker 25 So do I need to touch a button or anything to get that? You kind of have to hold it.
0:02:14 — open the recording at 2 minutes 14 secondsSpeaker 30 I'm live now.
0:02:17 — open the recording at 2 minutes 17 secondsDr. Hensel (staff (Vigo County School Corp. superintendent)) Well, first of all, thank you again. I know we've presented before, and we appreciate the opportunity. What we're here to do today is to give you an update based on some questions. that you all have asked so what we're going to share today is gibraltar is has some more specific information about how we can handle north and south being renovated into middle schools why that's an advantageous from the construction side as well as what they can become as middle schools the second thing that we're going to present is we were challenged to think about
0:02:52 — open the recording at 2 minutes 52 secondsDr. Hensel (staff (Vigo County School Corp. superintendent)) is there anything we can do from the ordering or rethinking pieces of it that would reduce the overall cost and what we're going to do is to present an option on what may be possible on the west side of the river the net result in terms of taking a look at the entire 15 to 20 years of implementing the entire thing is a result in about a 30 to 40 million dollar reduction in that overall cost um though that option was presented to the school board on monday night there has been no decision made on whether or not in terms of where the school board stands on this particular option
0:03:31 — open the recording at 3 minutes 31 secondsDr. Hensel (staff (Vigo County School Corp. superintendent)) but that option has been presented to them we want to present it to you as well especially since it can result in about a 30 to 40 million dollar reduction in that overall cost of all buildings over the 15 to 20 years so i want to make sure you stress that's not like a one a beginning or an annual or repetitive savings it's just the one time for all the modernization cost and it's due to just rethinking how great configurations on the west side so it's on the capital construction cost yeah correct so with that being said I'm going to turn it over to Gibraltar to let them answer those
0:04:08 — open the recording at 4 minutes 8 secondsDr. Hensel (staff (Vigo County School Corp. superintendent)) questions and go from there and Jim I can give you my microphone so that you
0:04:11 — open the recording at 4 minutes 11 secondsJim (consultant (Gibraltar Design)) guys don't have to share about the board. So good morning we appreciate the opportunity to be here with you once again I do want to start off by sharing yesterday evening I was up north and
0:04:24 — open the recording at 4 minutes 24 secondsJim (consultant (Gibraltar Design)) many of the leaders in that area were asking about Vigo County and so they're paying attention people are watching and they're cheering for you but it was just interesting that they were really informed of what's happening here so I do commend you it is a difference of west central Indiana and everybody is well aware of it so I'm sharing a positive because sometimes when you're doing what you're doing it's hard to sometimes hear those so there's your positive so as dr. Hemslel said we were charged with two items one you know because you've been so transparent you've received a lot of
0:04:54 — open the recording at 4 minutes 54 secondsJim (consultant (Gibraltar Design)) information you've taken a lot of questions but you also have given us the charge to look at some things and so we're back and the school board has done the same thing dr. Hemslel mentioned we we met with them on Monday and so we want to provide you with the same information so we'll start with we're going to do the Terre Haute North and South as middle schools and then the
0:05:14 — open the recording at 5 minutes 14 secondsSpeaker 45 West Vigo plan yes yes
0:05:28 — open the recording at 5 minutes 28 secondsSpeaker 49 do you need to say that on the mic yeah so we'll just restate what Commissioner
0:05:34 — open the recording at 5 minutes 34 secondsSpeaker 8 (chair) Clinkenbeard said there's a little difficulty getting the PowerPoint on to
0:05:39 — open the recording at 5 minutes 39 secondsSpeaker 10 (board member (reads minutes/claims, also questions presenters)) the YouTube live stream so they're gonna upload it into the comments perfect
0:05:44 — open the recording at 5 minutes 44 secondsJim (consultant (Gibraltar Design)) thank you so the first thing we did when we started talking about Terre Haute South and Terre Haute North being high schools and turning them into middle
0:05:53 — open the recording at 5 minutes 53 secondsJim (consultant (Gibraltar Design)) schools we looked at what those objectives would be and obviously you have to stay focused on the instruction and you have to stay focused on the learner and so you are in really a unique opportunity to backward build and so in our world we look at where are we going to be at the end of this they're either going to kids are going to go to college they're going to go enlist in the military or go to an Academy go Army beat Navy or they're going to go into the workforce so there's options there but we've got a backward build and
0:06:19 — open the recording at 6 minutes 19 secondsJim (consultant (Gibraltar Design)) prepare for the skills that are needed so given having said that high schools have changed greatly middle school demands have changed greatly so we are backward building that and using high schools as middle schools allows for a lot of space it allows for that intentionality of middle level learners which are very unique I taught middle school and they are unique individuals they need interaction they need space but then the academic side of it they need rigorous and a variety of a curriculum so the flexibility the purpose purposeful planning of all of this the other thing that was great was
0:06:57 — open the recording at 6 minutes 57 secondsJim (consultant (Gibraltar Design)) mr. Jarvis from Terre Haute South presented he's the athletic director and presented on the power of youth programs in those developmental he talked about the athletic side of it having the space you have at a high school used as a middle school would allow for a lot of that as well so in a time of choice that that matters so the objectives are clear what we focused on as we progressed into this. The other piece of this, I forget I'm doing this, would be as as any building you're going to look at the functionality of it. It's got to work for what we need in those modern learning
0:07:36 — open the recording at 7 minutes 36 secondsJim (consultant (Gibraltar Design)) environments. We got to look at the value. You want this to be sustainable for a long time. I know Dr. Hemsle has talked about long-term planning whether it's a maintenance plan, facility planning. I know Donna and her team have been amazing in long-term budget planning, but it has to last and because you're accountable and you have to be fiscally responsible the efficiency part of this is one we will look at and have we've already started that with the with the school systems and then we clearly want it to look nice and the big piece of it is i mean
0:08:06 — open the recording at 8 minutes 6 secondsJim (consultant (Gibraltar Design)) it's got to be flexible so it can change and morph as decades go on you don't want to be staring you know in five years or ten years from now saying i wish we would have done x so making sure that that we're thinking through all that and being very purposeful so very well
0:08:27 — open the recording at 8 minutes 27 secondsSpeaker 59 (consultant (Gibraltar Design — construction/site planning)) established that these two former high schools would be outstanding middle
0:08:33 — open the recording at 8 minutes 33 secondsSpeaker 60 (consultant (Gibraltar Design — construction/site planning)) learner opportunities for your children over the long long term the other look that we examined was the constructability what what with this plan becomes very advantageous from the construction side so first of all the plan will allow for the schools to be vacant when the middle school construction and renovation takes place no students no staff will be in the building so for students and staff who have lived through construction it's manageable you can do very successfully addition renovations to schools but when you
0:09:08 — open the recording at 9 minutes 8 secondsSpeaker 60 (consultant (Gibraltar Design — construction/site planning)) have kids and teachers and staff not in the building you can save money you can accelerate construction schedules you can do the projects faster doing them faster also saves money the other thing that happens with construction is and it's part of a blended approach with the asset of like a gym or an auditorium or some of the performing arts areas cafeteria the investments the district has made to keep some aspects of the building in good shape means less money needing to be invested in those things and that also is a big benefit and then
0:09:41 — open the recording at 9 minutes 41 secondsSpeaker 60 (consultant (Gibraltar Design — construction/site planning)) lastly like the areas of the building that were very problematic or have I think we've said before just aged out whether it be sewer lines roof areas that you can then by this plan reduce the footprint of the building needed so you have less square footage you have to overall construct and deal with to create a middle school so you you demolish and get rid of those problem areas and then restore and refresh and rebuild the good parts that then become great middle school so that's a little bit about the construction side of
0:10:11 — open the recording at 10 minutes 11 secondsSpeaker 62 implementing this plan for those two buildings to be middle schools
0:10:16 — open the recording at 10 minutes 16 secondsSpeaker 64 (consultant (Gibraltar Design)) at west vego just the phones of the building are easier for us to deal with this whereas at south high school north high school the location of those sewer lines and other things add to the complexity to make it very difficult to have learners in the room yes so if you're comparing
0:10:31 — open the recording at 10 minutes 31 secondsSpeaker 59 (consultant (Gibraltar Design — construction/site planning)) contrasting and we'll touch on west vego here in a minute and show you kind of why is it looking
0:10:36 — open the recording at 10 minutes 36 secondsSpeaker 62 better at West Vigo to do construction while the students and staff are still there
0:10:43 — open the recording at 10 minutes 43 secondsJim (consultant (Gibraltar Design)) so regarding people have asked like what will stay what would go what does that look like so
0:10:49 — open the recording at 10 minutes 49 secondsJim (consultant (Gibraltar Design)) what we look at for construction purposes is what would be the minimum standard for a middle school and this isn't everywhere but this is across the state across many of the schools in the nation what is that minimum standard well obviously on the left you can see that safe and secure entrance is always going to be number one for everybody. The main entrance or the main office where that's located, but then you get into auditorium. Does it have a good gym? You know, and some of those pieces, does it have flexible classrooms? That's the minimum standard that's expected.
0:11:21 — open the recording at 11 minutes 21 secondsJim (consultant (Gibraltar Design)) If you were a parent or grandparent walking in, you would look for those things. Like a media center, you would look for things like that. An enhanced opportunity is what you're looking at. So at a day of choice in Indiana, there are a lot of school tours going on, whether it's from economic development business partners, whether it is from community members who are families that are shopping for schools, or families who are trying to decide, am I going to stay here with my kids or am I going to go shop? So the tours are a big part of it.
0:11:49 — open the recording at 11 minutes 49 secondsJim (consultant (Gibraltar Design)) So when you look at the enhanced opportunities, you have amazing opportunities for physical education. Why is that important? Because the demand, first of all, middle learners need to move, but also what's on the curriculum now for Indiana would be you would have amazing opportunity to do that also the fine arts I know that is a very important to Vigo County so you could expand some of those opportunities down to those lower grades those middle grades and then on down if you if you have the teaching staff to do
0:12:19 — open the recording at 12 minutes 19 secondsJim (consultant (Gibraltar Design)) it so there's a lot of benefits as far as just looking at what's the expectation of a building and then what's that enhanced opportunity
0:12:30 — open the recording at 12 minutes 30 secondsSpeaker 59 (consultant (Gibraltar Design — construction/site planning)) so for this next segment of our presentation we'll recognize that north and south are very similar in many ways identical so
0:12:41 — open the recording at 12 minutes 41 secondsSpeaker 60 (consultant (Gibraltar Design — construction/site planning)) i'll go through what's relevant with one of the middle schools site and building in this presentation and then know that it's the same for the other so overall when you look at the site same things apply like when you think about the track and the other site assets you have on the current campuses those are the same things of like an auditorium that's inside the building for these middle learner opportunities and then also it sustains the sites as excellent for the community and extracurricular and co-curricular things besides just the athletics so that's like optimizing the
0:13:15 — open the recording at 13 minutes 15 secondsSpeaker 60 (consultant (Gibraltar Design — construction/site planning)) site in addition to optimizing the building is the key point and i'm not going to read all the bullet points for you you can read those for yourselves so then we look at the building concept
0:13:30 — open the recording at 13 minutes 30 secondsSpeaker 59 (consultant (Gibraltar Design — construction/site planning)) so i want to bring your attention to the right hand side lower right hand side of the building
0:13:34 — open the recording at 13 minutes 34 secondsSpeaker 60 (consultant (Gibraltar Design — construction/site planning)) plan that gray area so that's some of the more problematic parts of the building that would be demolished and then we would rebuild the classroom and science areas and renovate those those are the the most extensive parts of the building to get refreshed. We're going to take the old pool and create a very flexible, adaptable, adjustable, an agile space that can be anything it needs to be for the next decades for the middle learner, whether that be something that might come to mind like an orchestra quartet might want to play. So you can have a small performance space like that.
0:14:08 — open the recording at 14 minutes 8 secondsSpeaker 60 (consultant (Gibraltar Design — construction/site planning)) If you needed to do some things with media, robotics, even if you need to do some physical education things. So you can take that old pool space and reinvent it, and it's right in the center of the building, so it becomes a real hub of learning and activity for those middle learners who do need that social interaction, the behavioral things, in addition to the rigor of the academics that most of the classrooms would afford them. So that's how we envision that. And then in the performing arts area, you can think about orchestra and some of the other assets that are already there
0:14:36 — open the recording at 14 minutes 36 secondsSpeaker 60 (consultant (Gibraltar Design — construction/site planning)) that are already right-sized as well. If you remember the square foot illustration I brought with the square foot tile. So here you have space and things right sized for that middle learner student environment in the areas of like band and choir and so forth.
0:14:55 — open the recording at 14 minutes 55 secondsSpeaker 59 (consultant (Gibraltar Design — construction/site planning)) And the same is going to be true for the other building.
0:14:59 — open the recording at 14 minutes 59 secondsSpeaker 60 (consultant (Gibraltar Design — construction/site planning)) Also think about, I don't want to be remiss in saying like getting daylight into the building. And then when you saw that gray demolition, that's an example of less roof footprint to have to manage. and then all that sewer and the things that aren't working that all gets redone and it gets done right and it gets done right for the long term when we invest
0:15:16 — open the recording at 15 minutes 16 secondsSpeaker 76 (consultant (Gibraltar Design — construction/site planning)) in these two schools as middle schools a lot of us are visual creatures so so
0:15:26 — open the recording at 15 minutes 26 secondsSpeaker 59 (consultant (Gibraltar Design — construction/site planning)) again we can refresh the exterior now like what you see on the right hand
0:15:31 — open the recording at 15 minutes 31 secondsSpeaker 60 (consultant (Gibraltar Design — construction/site planning)) side of this illustration that's a that's when the building is removed and the grass area shows up there in this illustration where it's been removed we need to rebuild an exterior so we're going to be able to rebuild it in a new fresh image one that evokes community pride and starts to speak to the to the middle learner and what the community has as an asset here in Terre Haute and Vigo
0:15:50 — open the recording at 15 minutes 50 secondsSpeaker 81 and and then
0:15:59 — open the recording at 15 minutes 59 secondsSpeaker 60 (consultant (Gibraltar Design — construction/site planning)) you also there's one small addition that would be needed for the safe and secure entrance you all know you walk inside the building right now so what we're going to do is bring some of that main office area function as a new addition so when you build a new addition now you get to rethink how you want the exterior main entrance to be so you're not spending money just for aesthetics you're getting the function and the value done first and foremost with those priorities and then you get the advantage of using those same dollars to create a
0:16:27 — open the recording at 16 minutes 27 secondsSpeaker 60 (consultant (Gibraltar Design — construction/site planning)) nice new fresh entrance and that can happen at both buildings there are going
0:16:31 — open the recording at 16 minutes 31 secondsSpeaker 76 (consultant (Gibraltar Design — construction/site planning)) to be things in the inside of the building that will be important we're gonna be able to refresh the classrooms here's a look at all the different things and this isn't an exact design
0:16:46 — open the recording at 16 minutes 46 secondsSpeaker 60 (consultant (Gibraltar Design — construction/site planning)) and finalized but it just sort of gets your mind to think here are some opportunities that can happen in this old pool area in between the auditorium and the cafeteria and then there are some aspects of the existing building so So we like the interior brick. That would be really expensive to recreate as a new building construct. But when you have it existing, you want to try and take advantage of it and let it stay and then enhance the rest of the building around it. So this hopefully tries to get some feeling about how we can blend new with the old.
0:17:18 — open the recording at 17 minutes 18 secondsSpeaker 60 (consultant (Gibraltar Design — construction/site planning)) And then when people walk in, there'll be some that could still recognize the building as their former high school. But for the middle learner, it's going to be like a new, exciting learning environment for them.
0:17:30 — open the recording at 17 minutes 30 secondsSpeaker 10 (board member (reads minutes/claims, also questions presenters)) we hear before we move on to west and we hear a lot about the roofs at north and south i assume those will will take the opportunity while there's no one inside to make sure those are done correctly and yes we'll have any yeah yeah so that will be done and corrected and then by
0:17:57 — open the recording at 17 minutes 57 secondsSpeaker 59 (consultant (Gibraltar Design — construction/site planning)) reducing the footprint of the roof you don't have to invest as much money as
0:18:01 — open the recording at 18 minutes 1 secondSpeaker 101 well so both things can be true okay so the objectives around West are any other questions on the high schools being turned into middle school
0:18:14 — open the recording at 18 minutes 14 secondsSpeaker 102 that would be the hope
0:18:16 — open the recording at 18 minutes 16 secondsSpeaker 57 anyone else okay so on
0:18:24 — open the recording at 18 minutes 24 secondsJim (consultant (Gibraltar Design)) on to west vigo so a big part of this was we heard from the oversight committee and the school board you know we're obviously trying to look at the most efficient fiscally responsible plan to bring forward and there were six options if you remember back when and now we are bringing kind of the school board said so it's kind of 6a and that's 6b trying to frame it in their mind so it's it's just taking west vigo and looking at it a little differently looking at cost savings look at operational savings i mean cost as far as construction savings operational savings so we're
0:19:01 — open the recording at 19 minutes 1 secondJim (consultant (Gibraltar Design)) looking at about 30 to 40 million dollars in savings but i appreciate that you approached it as far as being fiscally responsible and really charging us to go back and take a peek look at what we could do so the strategic part of this if you remember in red and i know people who are listening can't necessarily see this right now but in red originally in the plan on option six fayette elementary was going to be a k-5 and then sugar creek elementary was going to become a middle school we would have then um west vigo high school so there the red
0:19:42 — open the recording at 19 minutes 42 secondsJim (consultant (Gibraltar Design)) kind of represents what it was because i we didn't want you to try to pull that from memory because it's been a minute so now what we're saying is working with dr hemsall working with the staff working getting a lot of input there's a real need for pre-k everywhere but there's particularly a need obviously in in in this area so this would allow for some pre-k when we talk about backward building that curriculum how powerful that would be to have some pre-k options and and Fayette is in pretty good shape it's one of the
0:20:11 — open the recording at 20 minutes 11 secondsJim (consultant (Gibraltar Design)) buildings in the district along with sugar creek that the condition is better than most and so no new addition would be needed to make it a pre-k through two which is obviously cost savings academic program would pretty much fit because in those pre-k you would need like a restroom within the classroom some of those things that are more age appropriate and it can it is conducive to that and then you get into Sugar Creek which would now be that upper elementary having taught or having been a principal in an upper elementary knowing that we had a feeder k2 program
0:20:50 — open the recording at 20 minutes 50 secondsJim (consultant (Gibraltar Design)) there is a there can become a big difference and you can really target individualize what those buildings are doing and the academic opportunities for kids that's that's
0:21:00 — open the recording at 21 minutesJim (consultant (Gibraltar Design)) an advantage in this model and then the west vigo junior senior high school model there are other
0:21:07 — open the recording at 21 minutes 7 secondsJim (consultant (Gibraltar Design)) districts roughly probably 70 to 80 districts total in the state of indiana that have junior senior high schools and that's for usually a size purpose of the district or because they're trying to write size in a larger district i mean there are various reasons but some of the benefits of So that is obviously academics, you can share staff. So sometimes when it's hard to find people to teach physics or a world language or an art teacher or special ed, you name it at this point, being able to share is very beneficial to your kids and what they're going to get.
0:21:40 — open the recording at 21 minutes 40 secondsJim (consultant (Gibraltar Design)) Most concerns we hear about a junior-senior high is like, is my seventh grader going to be hanging out with the senior? So there is very intentional separation, but there's also common sense use of common spaces, cafeteria, an auditorium, a gymnasium. So it's done in a way that's really, really smart. But again, I commend Donna, her team, Dr. Hemsall, the school board for, you know, really giving us some good feedback on this and then all of you
0:22:07 — open the recording at 22 minutes 7 secondsJim (consultant (Gibraltar Design)) charging us to go back and take a look at it. So that's a piece of the, any questions on that piece? Because I know those are the changes per se.
0:22:17 — open the recording at 22 minutes 17 secondsSpeaker 113 You touched on my biggest thought there was just the, the, getting from a 13-year-old to an 18-year-old. Right.
0:22:22 — open the recording at 22 minutes 22 secondsSpeaker 115 The separation, I assume there was intentionality given to the separation of, you know.
0:22:28 — open the recording at 22 minutes 28 secondsJim (consultant (Gibraltar Design)) And you will see in the plan here when we get to it that there is, it's very intentional. But again, there's some common sense, some very sensible common areas that we would share.
0:22:42 — open the recording at 22 minutes 42 secondsDr. Hensel (staff (Vigo County School Corp. superintendent)) I also want to reiterate there, we already have 6 through 8 and 9 through 12 already sharing spaces.
0:22:49 — open the recording at 22 minutes 49 secondsDr. Hensel (staff (Vigo County School Corp. superintendent)) the difference between what we're talking about and what we are now is that six through eight is treated and designed as a completely separate building the seven through twelve junior senior high would come together with one office area but you'll notice when we go through this we are still intentionally keeping seventh and eighth grade separated from the nine through twelve but by bringing it together with a one building concept instead of two separate buildings that happen to be under one roof we gain some staffing opportunities and some opportunities for
0:23:23 — open the recording at 23 minutes 23 secondsDr. Hensel (staff (Vigo County School Corp. superintendent)) kids that don't exist when we treat them as two completely separate entities and so that that's the difference the similarity is that we still keep the seventh and eighth graders on one part away from the ninth through twelfth graders the advantage is by bringing it in one building there's more overlap and sharing of resources instead of treating it as two separate facilities
0:23:42 — open the recording at 23 minutes 42 secondsSpeaker 59 (consultant (Gibraltar Design — construction/site planning)) so another look at construction again so and by the way when we much like when you do two middle schools at the same time
0:23:59 — open the recording at 23 minutes 59 secondsSpeaker 60 (consultant (Gibraltar Design — construction/site planning)) you're buying power if you will manufacturers when your quantities are duplicated or doubled the pricing starts to go down as well and that would be true with high schools and renovations you know when you grow the volume you can start to leverage some pricing to your advantage similar to working on one site only so on the west side of the county when we look at Fayette and Sugar Creek Consolidated and we recognize hey those are in good shape let's put the preventative maintenance aspects of those buildings at the end of the
0:24:38 — open the recording at 24 minutes 38 secondsSpeaker 60 (consultant (Gibraltar Design — construction/site planning)) district-wide preventative maintenance cycle if you will so let's wait on those and then address them later and then focus our energies on just the West Vigo High School campus where it's a middle school high school now so you're going to reduce costs there some of the complexities we can show you a plan that starts to remove some of the complexities at West Vigo and so there's just this overlay if you will and then also if you're familiar with the buildings you know the middle school portion of the building if you look carefully it is a different era of construction and different type of
0:25:10 — open the recording at 25 minutes 10 secondsSpeaker 60 (consultant (Gibraltar Design — construction/site planning)) construction and in many ways not very good construction and it's just really worn out so we are going to show you a plan that demolishes that portion of the building so you can again like north and south do away with a really expensive portion of the building that would have to be renovated a couple of
0:25:32 — open the recording at 25 minutes 32 secondsJim (consultant (Gibraltar Design)) considerations for each of the buildings obviously was that grade configuration but then we had to look at what is the current enrollment so we up at well if you can see it the current enrollment for Fayette is at 307 but this concept would allow for the flexibility that if you would get an influx of kids and have that growth that may come then you're this could be anywhere from 374 for the capacity so but does the classrooms allow for flexibility now the the classrooms as far as first grade second grade kindergarten pre-k some of that is
0:26:05 — open the recording at 26 minutes 5 secondsJim (consultant (Gibraltar Design)) a placeholder but some of it is necessary based upon where the restrooms are located with the classrooms because of the age group so but this gives you an idea of again no additions would be needed of how that would be laid out
0:26:22 — open the recording at 26 minutes 22 secondsJim (consultant (Gibraltar Design)) sugar Creek the first floor sugar Creek again we looked at grade configurations
0:26:27 — open the recording at 26 minutes 27 secondsJim (consultant (Gibraltar Design)) which would allow for some interesting dynamics with the teaching piece of it if they were deciding to team or continue teaming but the current enrollment is 452 and it gives enough room to be around 494 so there is again flexibility obviously the third grade fourth grade again just placeholders so it gives you some idea those are classrooms but then where those are in relation to the administration and the cafeteria the gym and the music This is second floor, special education. Again, these are placeholders, but that's flexible in where the placement of it is.
0:27:06 — open the recording at 27 minutes 6 secondsJim (consultant (Gibraltar Design)) A lot needs to be considered when you're talking about students with special needs.
0:27:12 — open the recording at 27 minutes 12 secondsSpeaker 10 (board member (reads minutes/claims, also questions presenters)) I think Sugar Creek is probably where a lot of the savings came from, right? Because that was a pretty extensive addition and land acquisition.
0:27:21 — open the recording at 27 minutes 21 secondsSpeaker 64 (consultant (Gibraltar Design)) Well, it included athletic spaces. it also includes complicated construction because of the ravine on the one side of the building.
0:27:33 — open the recording at 27 minutes 33 secondsJim (consultant (Gibraltar Design)) So some of this we've already discussed, but just again, there would be intentional separation in space for 7th and 8th graders. And then some of those common sharing spots would be like your gyms and your cafeterias and your media centers. And utilizing that staff in a really smart way helps financially but also helps it with the attraction of trying to attract and retain staffing which everybody's struggling to do so that's a big piece of it so this model with the efficiency and effectiveness and the academic opportunities for kids is pretty solid the teaming aspect of this some of the
0:28:10 — open the recording at 28 minutes 10 secondsJim (consultant (Gibraltar Design)) staff members through feedback it allows for a lot of instructional kind of neat opportunities that sometimes because of just the facility the barrier of a facility it can be difficult but this would allow for that
0:28:30 — open the recording at 28 minutes 30 secondsSpeaker 59 (consultant (Gibraltar Design — construction/site planning)) so we'll use this site diagram just to drive home a couple of more points in the shift there's no change to the laser focus of the opportunities for the
0:28:41 — open the recording at 28 minutes 41 secondsSpeaker 60 (consultant (Gibraltar Design — construction/site planning)) students and the learners very simply you see the new parking lot there to your left that was the footprint essentially of the current middle school that has aged out and has worn out and so all that roof area all that old building that would be more costly the most costly to update is gone above that in the drawing you see like what looks like a wing and you could think of that as the seventh and eighth grade wing of the building that would be built new so it's not going to disrupt the students to try and renovate while they're in the
0:29:16 — open the recording at 29 minutes 16 secondsSpeaker 60 (consultant (Gibraltar Design — construction/site planning)) building we can build that new then tear down the old so again keeping an eye on hey what can we do to help minimize staff and student disruption the biggest asterisk in blue you see there is the new central main office but you see the intentionality of if you just easily could visualize going into the main office and you go one direction for the junior high seventh and eighth graders you go the other direction for the senior high school portion of the building you still have the assets of the gyms so you have that in place on
0:29:46 — open the recording at 29 minutes 46 secondsSpeaker 60 (consultant (Gibraltar Design — construction/site planning)) the campus and they would be refreshed and minor updates we would envision taking the old pool and turning that into a new purposeful all grades in the building cafeteria but then we could work through how the serving lines and those types of things and the scheduling can work so that it can easily handle appropriately the grade 7 through 12 thought process of feeding the children. The other thing we can do is now create an identity for the gym and athletic entrance. And there when the new parking lot is there you have a much nicer flow for the visitors
0:30:21 — open the recording at 30 minutes 21 secondsSpeaker 60 (consultant (Gibraltar Design — construction/site planning)) who come for performing arts from the moment they get out of their car and see an entrance and can walk up to the building and then be right there where the auditorium is. So a lot of advantages when we reorganize the site. And if we go to the building, the next drawing, you can start to see even things like traffic flow and the red lines and how buses can be separated from car riders. We know with middle learners, the parents tend to, there tends to be a growing trend of more parents taking their middle school children to and from school.
0:30:56 — open the recording at 30 minutes 56 secondsSpeaker 60 (consultant (Gibraltar Design — construction/site planning)) So therefore, we have an intentional parking lot to help that flow. all the other requisite pieces the yellow that you see the orange yellow is new addition construction and then the blue is the heavily renovated areas of the building we're visual so again some illustrations you can see how a new entrance could be created how that can be very pleasing for the people who come and have the building revealed to them and it'll look new and fresh you can see in the foreground to the left in this illustration how you could create that
0:31:28 — open the recording at 31 minutes 28 secondsSpeaker 60 (consultant (Gibraltar Design — construction/site planning)) athletic entrance for people going to basketball games and being at that awesome looking gym that's been restored so that's how we could start to begin to visualize here's a look at the new main entrance for the building and again to the right you're going to the grade 7-8 to the left you're going to the high school portion and I think lastly the last illustration so you can see we're very conservative we're not trying to finalize any design we can start to see hint of what could be the performing arts entrance in the big box of the
0:32:01 — open the recording at 32 minutes 1 secondSpeaker 60 (consultant (Gibraltar Design — construction/site planning)) auditorium that's still there behind in this illustration with the parking lot that we created in the foreground any questions about the bricks and mortar and how we've made the adjustments and created the savings so we wanted to do
0:32:23 — open the recording at 32 minutes 23 secondsDr. Hensel (staff (Vigo County School Corp. superintendent)) in conclusion was just kind of remind us of how we got here if you recall when we first walked you through how did we go through the different options option one was a new constructed high school for the entire county as you can see the second option is one for the entire county that's not newly constructed for the high school but reutilizes Terre Haute North as the location option three is to stay the status quo keep all 23 buildings just refresh all 23 buildings over the next 15 to 20 years it is the most expensive option it yields the no savings moving forward other than
0:33:05 — open the recording at 33 minutes 5 secondsDr. Hensel (staff (Vigo County School Corp. superintendent)) cuts to opportunities to kids in order for us to adapt to any funding changes that would happen at the state level anything that would be the impact of senator enrolled act one or any other actions that the state legislature might take over the next 20 years would be a reduction in student opportunities in order to deal with those to address those things or to come back and make immediate rip the band-aid off kind of decisions to close the school or to restructure things without the overall plan guiding the process but to just act in response to whatever the state
0:33:41 — open the recording at 33 minutes 41 secondsDr. Hensel (staff (Vigo County School Corp. superintendent)) might do the fourth option fifth option and sixth option was to have two high schools with one on the west side and one on the east side option four was to utilize the north high school location option five was to utilize the south high school location for the east side high school and option six was a new build if you recall we had a patron come in and ask about what if we were to have two high schools but they were both east of the river and there was no high school west of the river so we took a look at that and presented that i think back in february if i'm not mistaken
0:34:16 — open the recording at 34 minutes 16 secondsDr. Hensel (staff (Vigo County School Corp. superintendent)) but we presented that to you a pretty long time ago. Each of them, except for staying the status quo, generate education fund savings. These are annual savings. These are annual savings that give us the flexibility of dealing with future changes in state funding. State funding is what drives the education funding. This is the people side of the equation. Option one and two create the greatest amount. option six creates the next greatest amount and the reason is because of the efficiencies that we gain by building a new high school we gain more efficiencies
0:34:54 — open the recording at 34 minutes 54 secondsDr. Hensel (staff (Vigo County School Corp. superintendent)) in the middle school and as we work our way backwards more efficiencies at the elementary level than what we do in options four and five the operation and that's annual savings so those can be reinvestments of that money if the state does not make funding changes or they can be flexibility of dealing with future funding changes and dealing with those things that other communities won't have the flexibility to deal with. The second line was the annual estimated operational fund savings. If you're taking care of fewer buildings, we free up some dollars that we can then either address
0:35:28 — open the recording at 35 minutes 28 secondsDr. Hensel (staff (Vigo County School Corp. superintendent)) the losses through Senator enrolled act one property tax caps and other items, or more importantly, reinvest that money back into the preventive maintenance of those buildings. We do continue to maintain you'll notice that there are asterisks next to option two option four and option five and seven those asterisks are to remind us that even though those generate greater in the cases of option two and four savings in the operations fund compared to option six those savings would be eliminated if we wanted to bring them up to equal middle school opportunities in
0:36:07 — open the recording at 36 minutes 7 secondsDr. Hensel (staff (Vigo County School Corp. superintendent)) terms of gym space auditorium space and those other things that already exist if we utilize north and south as the middle schools if we choose not to do those upgrades these are the savings if we want to create equalized middle school opportunities and we want to come back and add those gym spaces those auditorium spaces then those savings that are generated and identified there with the asterisks actually go away and it actually creates even a bigger gap between option six and option five and seven if you come back and upgrade those things to those equal type of
0:36:41 — open the recording at 36 minutes 41 secondsSpeaker 148 opportunities is this option six the revised the options two or that option six is the original
0:36:48 — open the recording at 36 minutes 48 secondsDr. Hensel (staff (Vigo County School Corp. superintendent)) thing that we talked about if we go down to the blue line that is how the actual modernization cost of all the buildings moving forward compared to option three which is keeping everything So we generate anywhere from 136 million dollars in savings with option two in terms of comparison to just upgrading those buildings to zero dollars if we keep all 23. So it's a comparison back to that option three again that 136 million dollars in savings is not 136 million if you're going to come back and add gym space add auditorium space and so forth
0:37:28 — open the recording at 37 minutes 28 secondsDr. Hensel (staff (Vigo County School Corp. superintendent)) to equalize those middle school opportunities that's why there's an asterisk there each of those options as you'll see generate quite a bit of savings compared to keeping all 23 schools it's because we're not remodeling or modernizing all of the buildings the ones that cost the most though our option is option five putting it at south does create the least amount of savings not only for the education fund and the operations fund but also in the overall cost of modernizing all the schools over a 15 to 20 year period of time the reason is
0:38:01 — open the recording at 38 minutes 1 secondDr. Hensel (staff (Vigo County School Corp. superintendent)) because we can't vacate honey creek middle school which means we can't vacate dixie b and hoosier prairie which means we may have to keep sarah scott as a middle school which means we cannot vacate scherger grove and farrington grove as an elementary and there's a domino effect that keeps more buildings in play in option five than we have versus option six it reduces the
0:38:22 — open the recording at 38 minutes 22 secondsSpeaker 150 (board member) number of buildings fewer buildings to take care of and option six so you're here at 13.8 million annual savings how do you short term medium term how do those funds those savings get deployed like where do you immediately put those for students teachers in the immediate aspect of
0:38:40 — open the recording at 38 minutes 40 secondsDr. Hensel (staff (Vigo County School Corp. superintendent)) things we we use it to take care of attrition so that people don't lose their job so so we may have lower class sizes we may have some things like that at the beginning as we work towards getting the staffing in the right size. And what I mean by attrition is not immediately laying people off, but letting the natural course of resignations and retirements take its course over time. It can be reinvesting in student opportunities. It could be creating a course that we're currently saying no to. Now we get to say yes to it because we've gained efficiencies.
0:39:12 — open the recording at 39 minutes 12 secondsDr. Hensel (staff (Vigo County School Corp. superintendent)) And instead of having seven kids at North that want the class and nine kids at South that want the class, we now have 16 kids who want the class. with those savings we can offer that opportunity for those 16 kids that currently we would say no to it would allow us to pull our resources together to add opportunities in the career center so instead of saying no to an opportunity where there's only seven or eight kids at north interested seven or eight kids at south interested and four or five kids at west interested
0:39:39 — open the recording at 39 minutes 39 secondsDr. Hensel (staff (Vigo County School Corp. superintendent)) pulling our resources in a career center now gives us the backing to say we can say yes to that class because now we're talking about 20 kids that we can pull together by relocating it to Dixie B next to the Ivy Tech campus it even opens up more opportunities as Ivy Tech and Vigo County Schools partner to offer opportunities for learners at both Ivy Tech and at Vigo County School Corporation that separately we can't do because we simply don't have enough students to sustain the program but combined we do so that's how we would use those initial savings to do so in the operations
0:40:15 — open the recording at 40 minutes 15 secondsDr. Hensel (staff (Vigo County School Corp. superintendent)) fund is to put it back into preventive maintenance into the buildings that we already have from the people side of it it's the increase of smaller class sizing and saying yes to courses that we currently say no but we also give ourselves the flexibility of dealing with future adjustments that the state might make in future funding i remind you from when baker tilly was here and and I think Stiefel was here, since 2010, if you use the rate of inflation as your marker, we're actually about $12 million behind funding where we should be if the state had kept up
0:40:51 — open the recording at 40 minutes 51 secondsDr. Hensel (staff (Vigo County School Corp. superintendent)) with that rate of inflation in the funding aspect of things. So in essence, that's $12 million that we've had to address through an operational referendum. We only did 7 million, which means the other 5 million has been cuts we've made to kid opportunities opportunities for children is what we've done the last row which is kind of the teal row that is you'll notice option four five and six are different that accommodates the change in the thinking of the west side if you recall options four five and six had the same setup west of the river so all three of those options do reap the benefit of
0:41:35 — open the recording at 41 minutes 35 secondsDr. Hensel (staff (Vigo County School Corp. superintendent)) of that cost savings that we are reaping by rethinking the west side in terms of the education fund and the operations fund we did not go down a deep dive as to how much of a savings that would be there I believe would be a little bit more of a savings in the operations fund and in the education fund but I don't think it's significant because we had already captured those efficiencies by having all elementary kids in one location all middle school kids in one location we still have that there are some advantages by having the seventh and eighth grade with the freshman
0:42:08 — open the recording at 42 minutes 8 secondsDr. Hensel (staff (Vigo County School Corp. superintendent)) because of the way licensing is done with the teacher so i do believe there is equivalent of maybe one or two teacher savings in that in the long term one or two teachers one teacher today when you add in salary average salary with benefits is around 90 to 100 000 per person so that gives you some some concept of that we usually think of a teacher of they they make forty six thousand dollars a first year teacher or forty seven thousand but there's also teacher retirement fund savings social security savings medicaid savings health insurance savings long
0:42:45 — open the recording at 42 minutes 45 secondsDr. Hensel (staff (Vigo County School Corp. superintendent)) term disability and some things like that so all that adds up and when you think about it from an average teacher perspective salary plus benefits is around 90 to 100 000 per teacher
0:42:57 — open the recording at 42 minutes 57 secondsSpeaker 156 Any questions?
0:43:02 — open the recording at 43 minutes 2 secondsSpeaker 157 (board member) In all your calculations of the cost of the various options, do you consider the disposal of the buildings that you're going to retire, the demolition or minimal maintenance on them?
0:43:22 — open the recording at 43 minutes 22 secondsDr. Hensel (staff (Vigo County School Corp. superintendent)) That was a point-blank question that I asked Jim through the process. of it did those numbers that he in give us include those costs and the answer was yes those numbers do include the provision of soft cost we tried to overestimate soft cost because we don't have a location done so we try to protect ourselves by overestimating those so those are not hard construction costs those include the soft construction costs if you go back to that very first day i think the first time i presented to you all when we presented that i do want to
0:43:58 — open the recording at 43 minutes 58 secondsDr. Hensel (staff (Vigo County School Corp. superintendent)) point out um i updated those things on those last two rows to include 2027 projected cost because we are at a point in the calendar where it would be really difficult for us to get bidding done in 2026. it's possible but it would be difficult and so therefore we just went ahead and made the assumption of 27. I got my numbers on how much to increase it based on conversations with local contractors and basically they were been telling me around the four to five percent is what they're seeing and projecting and so I used four and a half percent and split the difference on that.
0:44:35 — open the recording at 44 minutes 35 secondsDr. Hensel (staff (Vigo County School Corp. superintendent)) I also had some people tell me a caveat that if there are some factors going on in the world with that are beyond their control that could end up making that more than just four to five percent but we use the four to five percent because that's what they were currently
0:44:50 — open the recording at 44 minutes 50 secondsSpeaker 151 telling me that they are projecting as they give estimates out into the future
0:44:57 — open the recording at 44 minutes 57 secondsSpeaker 10 (board member (reads minutes/claims, also questions presenters)) when maybe this is a question for carrie i guess when will the school board act on that or they staying with six are they going to move to 6b or
0:45:10 — open the recording at 45 minutes 10 secondsSpeaker 93 or are they waiting for a recommendation from this board?
0:45:14 — open the recording at 45 minutes 14 secondsDr. Hensel (staff (Vigo County School Corp. superintendent)) I'll let Carrie affirm or contradict what I'm getting ready to say.
0:45:19 — open the recording at 45 minutes 19 secondsDr. Hensel (staff (Vigo County School Corp. superintendent)) I think that where we're at right now is we are awaiting where the oversight board is and where those recommendations are because the oversight board's decision, the county's decision will cause us to back up and rethink how do we utilize the funds we have available to us the options that we have if the recommendation from the oversight board is that we should consider such a partnership and the county chooses to engage in that partnership it changes our answer in terms of how we would go forth we are hopeful that that's the answer so that we can address both
0:45:53 — open the recording at 45 minutes 53 secondsDr. Hensel (staff (Vigo County School Corp. superintendent)) high schools at the same time and all of our high school learners can get modernized learning experiences as quickly as possible but until we have that answer we're trying to figure out what's the best way for us to redirect if we do not have that partnership opportunity so therefore we're we're currently waiting especially since i know you guys are starting to get close to finishing your work and get the information that you need to make such recognition kerry do you is do you agree as a
0:46:24 — open the recording at 46 minutes 24 secondsSpeaker 163 member of the board or did i say something out of place there no i think
0:46:27 — open the recording at 46 minutes 27 secondsSpeaker 165 you summed that up well there's been a lot of consideration and i think board members are very happy to see a cost-saving alternative for the west side so um i think just waiting to see what
0:46:39 — open the recording at 46 minutes 39 secondsDr. Hensel (staff (Vigo County School Corp. superintendent)) the county partnership might look like our feedback from the west um vigo community has been overall positive there have been some questions and some concerns obviously we had questions and concerns on the original plan as well i would say that the feedback that i've gotten in the last three days is that there are fewer concerns with the newest option versus the original option but to say that there are no concerns would not be true there are concerns and that's true of every single one of these options if the state funding was still at the level that it was back in the late
0:47:16 — open the recording at 47 minutes 16 secondsDr. Hensel (staff (Vigo County School Corp. superintendent)) 90s and early 2000s and it had kept up with inflation if we had not went through the iterations
0:47:23 — open the recording at 47 minutes 23 secondsDr. Hensel (staff (Vigo County School Corp. superintendent)) of property tax changes that have occurred and at the school level we've
0:47:28 — open the recording at 47 minutes 28 secondsDr. Hensel (staff (Vigo County School Corp. superintendent)) had three or four more iterations than counties and cities and so forth have had I don't think any of us would be looking to do anything different than to stick with the smaller learning environments for our children this is
0:47:43 — open the recording at 47 minutes 43 secondsDr. Hensel (staff (Vigo County School Corp. superintendent)) part of dealing with the reality of where we are with enrollment it's part of the dealing with the reality of where we are with state funding which is the the driver of the people side of what we do and also the reality of funding from
0:47:58 — open the recording at 47 minutes 58 secondsDr. Hensel (staff (Vigo County School Corp. superintendent)) the property tax size which is the modernization and the preventive
0:48:02 — open the recording at 48 minutes 2 secondsSpeaker 163 maintenance side of the equation
0:48:09 — open the recording at 48 minutes 9 secondsSpeaker 171 any other questions for dr. Hensel or Gibraltar
0:48:14 — open the recording at 48 minutes 14 secondsSpeaker 172 I just want to say thank you. Thanks.
0:48:21 — open the recording at 48 minutes 21 secondsSpeaker 8 (chair) Next on the agenda, we're hoping to have a representative from the Casino Foundation. We weren't able to make that happen this morning, so we'll try to catch them at one of our next meetings here.
0:48:36 — open the recording at 48 minutes 36 secondsSpeaker 10 (board member (reads minutes/claims, also questions presenters)) So moving up to comments from the public. I think we have a couple people here. I don't know if they want to speak.
0:48:44 — open the recording at 48 minutes 44 secondsSpeaker 8 (chair) Please come up to the mic so that we can get it on the... Sorry, it's a little awkward, but we can pull a chair up for you. And this is public comment. There's no obligation of anybody in the audience for us to answer, but you're free to ask.
0:49:05 — open the recording at 49 minutes 5 secondsSpeaker 180 If you don't know the answers, that's okay, too.
0:49:08 — open the recording at 49 minutes 8 secondsSpeaker 182 I'm curious of the demolition at North and South and at West Beagle Middle.
0:49:15 — open the recording at 49 minutes 15 secondsSpeaker 184 This microphone is still on. This one appears to be off.
0:49:19 — open the recording at 49 minutes 19 secondsSpeaker 186 The demolition at West Beagle Middle and the demolition at Terre Haute North and Terre Haute South,
0:49:25 — open the recording at 49 minutes 25 secondsBob Murray (resident) I'm curious how much roof space that takes away, you know, that will no longer need to be maintained since the roofs are, you know, disasters. And how much square feet that actually takes off of the buildings? Because I know there's going to be maybe some addition. So in total, how much square feet is going to be gone and how much roof is going to be gone?
0:49:59 — open the recording at 49 minutes 59 secondsSpeaker 190 25%?
0:50:00 — open the recording at 50 minutesSpeaker 193 Yeah, I'd say 25%.
0:50:03 — open the recording at 50 minutes 3 secondsSpeaker 192 25% reduction in square footage?
0:50:06 — open the recording at 50 minutes 6 seconds Which is 10,000 square feet.
0:50:08 — open the recording at 50 minutes 8 secondsSpeaker 198 Yeah, that's why I was...
0:50:10 — open the recording at 50 minutes 10 secondsSpeaker 53 (presenter (Gibraltar Design or school corp. staff — unclear which)) In excess of 30,000 square feet.
0:50:13 — open the recording at 50 minutes 13 secondsBob Murray (resident) In excess of 30,000. Okay, that's why I was trying to narrow it down. Okay, and that's at those two, at North and South? What about West Vigo?
0:50:24 — open the recording at 50 minutes 24 secondsSpeaker 202 West Vigo is a net reduction because the middle school's not going to be there, but I'm trying to...
0:50:30 — open the recording at 50 minutes 30 secondsSpeaker 204 Okay, that's fine.
0:50:32 — open the recording at 50 minutes 32 secondsSpeaker 53 (presenter (Gibraltar Design or school corp. staff — unclear which)) Okay, all right. So a net reduction in square footage in total at West Vigo.
0:50:37 — open the recording at 50 minutes 37 secondsBob Murray (resident) Yeah, so middle school's essentially gone. So I didn't know how much square foot was in the middle school at present.
0:50:47 — open the recording at 50 minutes 47 secondsSpeaker 209 You know you don't know the score feet of the middle school right now not off the top of his head
0:50:55 — open the recording at 50 minutes 55 secondsSpeaker 212 Okay, all right, thank you
0:51:09 — open the recording at 51 minutes 9 secondsSpeaker 219 Mr. Murray
0:51:12 — open the recording at 51 minutes 12 secondsSpeaker 220 Are you sir? I'm outstanding
0:51:17 — open the recording at 51 minutes 17 secondsBob Murray (resident) Murray, Tarhout. In my 35 years of being involved in planning and construction in the United State, new and remodeled buildings, I like option six. From experience, I know that remodeling building that is vacant is a heck of a lot cheaper and more efficient than one that's occupied. One of my sons was involved with Woodrow Wilson remodeling and I know that that year he suffered academically from all the furor of the remodel. They also many years ago when I was at the National Public Accounting firm, excuse me, I was involved in three site selection committees and all three
0:52:26 — open the recording at 52 minutes 26 secondsBob Murray (resident) of them the quality of the education facilities and the cities that they were considering was one of the top things that they considered and I think
0:52:40 — open the recording at 52 minutes 40 secondsSpeaker 224 it's even more so now. I think that the building a new shiny one high school and then having the two present north and south vacant so that you can remodel
0:53:05 — open the recording at 53 minutes 5 secondsBob Murray (resident) them without disruption and considering the fact that the sewer pipes are embedded in the concrete it would be very disruptive for the students to that have to undergo that so I would strongly recommend you going with option six if possible and at my age my sons my kids and grandkids are both through our systems so you know I don't have a dog in the fight except that if we don't do something to attract industry and people to our community our real estate taxes will go up because as our population drops you are going to have to pay more
0:54:07 — open the recording at 54 minutes 7 secondsBob Murray (resident) and property taxes to keep our services as they are so please consider doing what is right for
0:54:22 — open the recording at 54 minutes 22 secondsSpeaker 226 our kids thank you wonderful thank you anyone else
0:54:28 — open the recording at 54 minutes 28 secondsSpeaker 230 commissioner i know you don't pass up many opportunities to get on a mic so
0:54:37 — open the recording at 54 minutes 37 secondsSpeaker 233 yeah so uh kind of an opinion and observation more than um questions so as we have gotten
0:54:49 — open the recording at 54 minutes 49 secondsSpeaker 234 (commissioner) through this process seen a small contingent of parents who are still in opposition of this but I've seen a larger group of students growing in support of those especially North and South students having the opportunity to talk to some 15, 16, 17 year olds and their perspective about life is much different than mine possibly but knowing that they can comprehend and understand that North and South coming together is okay is important to me and I think along this process is something that I have enjoyed the most is talking to those students
0:55:22 — open the recording at 55 minutes 22 secondsSpeaker 234 (commissioner) and understanding the realities of what they are going through on a daily basis. So just to reiterate the whole process of this is for parents that are opposed, we're trying to find a way to do something without casting a further burden on their wallet, their groceries, and things like that. We're trying to find a way to do something publicly, privately, and to get a project over the finish line that no other community is doing. And to me, and I was in six different Indiana counties yesterday, that's innovation.
0:55:59 — open the recording at 55 minutes 59 secondsSpeaker 234 (commissioner) And we're trying to find a way to be innovative and to be what Bob had just mentioned, that shiny house on the hill that is doing something different. I think it's really being modeled. So if I can say anything, I'm just really extremely happy to see West Vigo middle and high school students, North and South students clearly understand this process and be open and willing to mutually come together
0:56:31 — open the recording at 56 minutes 31 secondsSpeaker 237 (commissioner) and just be an all-around great school corporation and student body for Vigo County. So that's about it. Thank you.
0:56:43 — open the recording at 56 minutes 43 secondsSpeaker 242 Anyone else? Looks like we're all good.
0:56:47 — open the recording at 56 minutes 47 secondsSpeaker 10 (board member (reads minutes/claims, also questions presenters)) Next meetings, I know we're planning on a meeting July 14th, depending on if we can get a representative from the Casino Foundation back before then. Maybe we'll squeeze in another. But as scheduled, July 14th will be the next meeting of the Oversight Board.
0:57:10 — open the recording at 57 minutes 10 secondsSpeaker 11 (chair) There's no other business. Take a motion to adjourn. Thank you, Jim. Thank you, Heather, for the second. All those in favor? All right. Thanks, everybody. Thank you.
0:57:43 — open the recording at 57 minutes 43 seconds Thank you. Thank you.
Marked moments above are where the archive's reviewed highlights were drawn from. Everything else on this page is unreviewed.