HUNTERTOWN — With the first meeting of 2023, there was some extra business that needed done at the most recent Northwest Allen County Schools board meeting.

Elizabeth Hathaway, Kristi Schlatter and Darren Vogt all took oaths of office for 2023 and officers were elected. Kent Somers will serve as board president, with Hathaway as vice president and Schlatter as board secretary. Hathaway and Schlatter were reelected in November; Vogt was newly elected in November.

The board also voted Patricia Houser as NACS treasurer and Julie Plazek as deputy treasurer for the 2023 year.

School board members also voted to have individual emails to communicate with NACS parents, students and staff, rather than the previous single email that all of them used in the past.

“We’re opening up additional venues of communication besides school board meetings,” Superintendent Wayne Barker.

“It should be noted that when individual board members are responding to emails from community stakeholders, they are doing so as individuals and those views do not necessarily represent other board members or the corporation,” the board agenda stated.

Contact information for each school board member is shown below:

Steve Bartkus: Steve.Bartkus@nacs.k12.in.us

Elizabeth Hathaway: Elizabeth.Hathaway@nacs.k12.in.us

Kristi Schlatter: Kristi.Schlatter@nacs.k12.in.us

Kent Sommers: Kent.Somers@nacs.k12.in.us

Darren Vogt: Darren.Vogt@nacs.k12.in.us

Board members also unanimously voted to approve a request for formal bids for a new central office space.

The idea is to accept bids until Feb. 2, and a contract could be approved as soon as Feb. 13.

Ideally the space would be a building with basic office amenities as well as large board meeting rooms. Board President Somers described the space as “functional, nothing elaborate.”

No location has been decided yet. This is important as construction for the central office space could possible coincide with other construction projects, such as improvements to existing middle schools or even the construction of a new middle school.

The current central office space is located at Perry Hill Elementary School.

While the board hasn’t formally decided to build a new middle school, board members did listen to a presentation by Lindsay Simonetto and Joey Cardenas from Baker Tilly Municipal Advisors, in order to gain a better understanding of the debt capacity of Northwest Allen County Schools.

The hope is that this will help board members be able to make the most educated decision.

The board also discussed the Indiana Graduates Prepared to Succeed GPS Dashboard tool, created by the Indiana Department of Education.

This tool will help communicate each district’s progress in number form rather than a letter grade. The DOE has been seeking feedback from school districts and has made several adjustments to the site, to better reflect each school district.

The next school board meeting is scheduled Monday, Jan. 23, at 6 p.m.

The board also voted to renew the School Resource Office agreement with the Allen County Sheriff’s Department for the 2022-2023 school year. NACS currently has 4 SROs.

The board applauded Carroll High School Jazz Ensemble No. 1 for being invited to play at the Indiana Music Education Association annual conference. The group performed Jan. 14 in the Allen County Public Library Theater.