The Elizabeth Forward School Board held its August regular voting meeting Wednesday, Aug. 19.

The meeting began with Superintendent Keith Konyk’s report. He informed the board that the district is preparing for teachers to return Tuesday of next week, with several new teachers being welcomed to the district.

Konyk announced that Thursday and a half-day Friday will be clerical days for teachers to prepare their rooms, along with open houses for third grade at Mount Vernon and sixth grade. Students return Aug. 31.

“I walked the High School today. As you can see, it looks a little different than it did last year, and there’s still plenty of work to be done,” Konyk said.

He explained that maintenance and facilities staff are preparing the high school, along with all other district buildings.

Konyk also explained that a breaker at Central Elementary stopped working.

“The breaker stopped functioning. We had to get a replacement piece of equipment for that,” he said.

He explained that the cost did not meet the public bidding threshold of $24,500.

Public comment

Public comment included Margaret Morgan, who spoke about her concerns regarding access to public information about the construction project. Morgan noted that she asked, “Can this be posted?” following construction updates at a previous board meeting.

She said that was “the last time a community member could get on our website and find out information about the project,” explaining that taxpayers are the ones paying for the project and that all she is asking is for the board to keep taxpayers in the loop.

Morgan also requested that soft costs be published publicly for everyone to see.

The second comment was from Stacy Adams, who spoke about concerns regarding an investigation she asked the board to pursue at the previous meeting.

“The Indiana Gazette has now reported the extensive involvement of Trisha Martell in River Valley School District business. Tonight, I’m asking again, what is Elizabeth Forward going to do about it?” Adams said.

“If EF taxpayers paid for time that was actually spent performing work for River Valley or a private vendor, then you should determine what can be recovered. Those are our tax dollars, and if they paid for work that did not benefit this district, we deserve them back,” Adams said.

Adams also raised questions regarding a trip Martell took.

“Records show River Valley paid approximately $747 for Trisha Martell’s airfare. Elizabeth Forward then reimbursed her approximately $1,187 in connection to that trip. Something doesn’t add up,” Adams said.

“Publicly available photographs also show her wearing River Valley apparel on that trip, and she was with the River Valley team during that trip. That trip was also approved by EF Board for her to go on,” Adams said.

The statements regarding the payments, photographs and Martell’s activities were assertions made by Adams during public comment and were not findings announced by the school board during the meeting.

Adams asked Assistant Superintendent Perry, who also attended the trip, whether she understood Martell “to be representing River Valley in any capacity? Did she represent EF at all in that trip?”

Adams encouraged the board to “get ahead of this now” and investigate the matter using an independent investigator.

“She doesn’t work here anymore is not the answer. Investigate what happened when she did work here, and this simply cannot be dismissed as a personnel matter.” Adams said.

Adams also said confidential materials should remain confidential but that public documents should be made public. She offered to meet with the board to review the records.

Solicitor Megan Turnbull explained that the board took Adams’ comments seriously when she raised the matter at the previous meeting.

“The district has obligations to do so, to take it seriously, to investigate, and to respond appropriately,” Turnbull said.

Turnbull also noted that the board did not have to make a motion to add the investigation to the agenda because the issue did not require such action.

The final public comment was made by John Straub, who requested that the district add a link to its website that would allow the public to see additional information about where money is being spent.

“We see a spreadsheet with all the costs, but we have yet to see the 18% soft costs the whole time. We have no idea what that money was spent on,” Straub said.

Straub also said, “We would not need to be spending the money on lawyers,” arguing the board should make documents public instead of requiring community members to use Right-to-Know requests.

Board approves agenda items

The Elizabeth Forward School Board approved all agenda items from 6.1 through 15.2 during its regular meeting Wednesday.

The approved items included meeting minutes and financial reports; updates to the district calendar and educational plans; curriculum purchases and agreements; construction change orders and furniture purchases for the high school; and a series of personnel actions involving professional staff, support staff, extracurricular positions and athletic coaches.

Among the education-related items, the board approved revisions to the 2026-27 school calendar and the district’s 2026-29 Comprehensive Plan, as well as updated plans and agreements for student services.

The board approved a $6,897 pilot social studies curriculum from Discovery Education for fourth and fifth grades and a $24,900 pilot grammar and writing curriculum from Schoolwide Inc. for kindergarten through second grade.

Facilities approvals included several change orders associated with work at Elizabeth Forward High School. The changes included both increases and decreases to existing contracts.

The board approved the purchase of $15,398.30 in new high school music room office furniture, media center furniture and a music laptop storage cart from W.B. Mason Interiors.

The board also approved numerous personnel matters, including classroom aides, new professional employees, cyber virtual instructors, custodians, extracurricular positions and athletic coaches. It accepted several resignations and approved employee leaves of absence.

---

Reminder

These articles are intended to provide brief summaries of Elizabeth Forward School Board meetings. All coverage is provided voluntarily and free of charge for readers. Due to writing and space limitations, not every discussion or agenda item can be fully covered. For complete context and further understanding of meeting topics, readers are encouraged to watch the district’s livestreams and archived recordings available on the Elizabeth Forward School Board YouTube page.

Meeting Link: https://www.youtube.com/live/VZELw2xzWAo?si=lPzhp3rT3pYDHqqA