##VIDEO ID:XNbA7LQoBis## of education and public for the purpose of conducting the school district's business and is not to be considered a public community meeting this meeting is an in-person meeting at a70 callx here in Benton Harbor in addition a live stream of this meeting is available at the following link questions may be submitted beforehand to Natalie D singer bhas.org or presented in person during the public comment section as indicated in the agenda board members may be contacted through the emails listed below request for special assistance including for persons with disabilities may be sent to natalie. singer at bh.org I call this meeting to order officially at 609 p.m. we'll Begin by reciting the pledge of allegiance to the of the United States of America to the rep for it stands one nation godis withy secretary trip King please call the president Robinson present vice president Bor yes I mean president secretary triplet president treasur kraton trustee rocket Martin pres trust Doyle trusty Gavin pres Madame President a quorum has been established all right awesome next on the agenda we have approval of the agenda as a reminder today is our work session majority of the items here are just discussion however if I'm not mistaken there is Dr bus you indicated there may be a vote today but I don't actually see a staff report tied to it is it the insulin litigation it was but we we we determined that we had more time so it all righty so as of today we have no actual actions that we're taking votes on is there a motion to approve the agenda is so move is there a second or support support the motion has been made by secretary triplet and supported by vice president Bowens any questions comments or concerns hearing none secretary triplet president Robinson yes vice president bow yes secretary triplet yes truste rocket Martin yes truste Doyle yes truste Gavin yes mtion Cary all right awesome next up is the review of the board Norms the Board of Education norms for B Harbor area schools we will treat each other with respect we will listen to learn we will refrain from side conversations we will use our time wisely starting and ending our meetings on time we will challenge ideas and not people we will ask questions when in doubt there will be no surprises at the board table we will practice the seven Norms of collaboration those are pausing paraphrasing posing questions putting ideas on the table providing data paying attention to self and others and presuming positive intention we had an amazing meeting um last time so I'm hoping that we can continue to posit POS energy today um next on the agenda is public comment on agenda items is there anyone present to make a public comment on an agenda item all right do you need me to read the public comment statement all right I'll go ahead and begin reading that the Ben Harbor Area Schools Board of Education recognized the value of public comment on educational issues and the importance of allowing members of the public to express themselves on District matters today there are two areas for comment on the agenda of which you may decide when to speak public comment on agenda items and open public comment we request that each interested participant complete a public participation form using legible writing to ensure that responses are appropriate and properly focused her B Harbor area schools bylaw 01 67.3 which governs board participation and board meetings we request that you preface your comments with your name address and group affiliation when appropriate each statement made by a participant shall be limited to a three-minute duration of prer bylaws no participant may speak more than once on the same topic until any other persons have had the opportunity to speak on that topic participants May remove their masks when addressing the board participants shall direct all comments to the board and not to staff for other participants the board will listen take comments and questions under advisement and not respond at this time I president will refer questions to the superintendent for research and response please ensure that your public participation form includes your contact information as requested if you have specific questions for the board or executive team that require followup please email those directly to natalie. singer at bhas.org you have the floor thank you testing thank you good evening Tiana bati wadell 330 kofax Avenue southman Indiana um the executive director of Jack Aspire which is in the Michiana area so I am a concerned citizen why has Dr buts continued to submit a strategic Plan update that does not list logical and concise metrics and evidence to improve the district's academic and behavioral data it is unacceptable that Dr but's illogical approach to the district and school Improvement has been on display for all of these months as truste Gavin previously stated the evidence for the indicator quote increased student achievement as measured on local state and National assessments unquote would be proof that student achievement increased on local state and National assessments and no other type of metrics it is embarrassing that this is what has been submitted as the community reviews a whirlwind of The Logical responses not knowing that it really all does not make any sense it makes us all look bad that this is what this board is accepting and allowing to happen this long unfortunately the district has still not made available the uh uh the the meeting from the last two weeks so I'm unaware of how great the meeting was um I know that there was things that were listed in that meeting that I have concerns about uh president Robinson is it okay to continue about the cops grant that you all discussed last week since the video was not made available are you asking me if you can speak on it because it's not an agenda item on your agenda tonight pleas I appreciate that thank you so much why was there an agenda item for the cops a practice of community policing when according to their website you've already been awarded $500,000 to have community policing why do we need police in schools what evidence are you using that shows having police in schools is beneficial to black students and students in B Harbor area schools currently the evidence clearly indicates that having police in schools does more harm than good ballooning the school of prison Pipeline and harming black students disproportionately and police should not be in bit Harbor area schools I'm looking forward to how you will clearly inform the community that the district did not meet the 18th month partnership agreement goal due to just for district culture and climate and I'm still wondering where Miss kraton is at when will this be addressed and I don't know if you guys are timing me do I keep going you have 15 seconds okay thank you jackon Spire foundation and several additional of citizens according to the survey that has been out for quite some time demand that the bitten Harbor Area School Board of Education recommend and vote for the termination of Dr Kelvin buts thank you thank you is there anyone else for public comment on agenda items all right hearing none we'll proceed to approval of the meeting minutes um so the next December's regular board meeting will be taking votes on closed session 911 2024 and regular session 1112 2024 I do see that 1112 is pending audio was there something wrong with the audio Dr bus or what's the update or Miss singer with that with the audio um that was we were taping live and not from the app so there seems to be some issues and I got to get we we're working on trying to retrieve the audio from that okay all righty um so we have no we have no video at this time we have video no audio no video no audio at this time okay so miss singer if um I'm not sure how we'll go as far as processing that Dr um secretary triplet has the votes and things of that nature so if down to the bare minimum we may not be able to capture all of the comments and things of that nature that was made but at minimum we're able to capture the votes which is the most important thing what was passed and things of that nature okay so we'll expect to have those um by the next board meetings okay all right so next up on the agenda is board business reminder protocol as of 9913 2022 all comments will be limited to two minutes per truste per topic up next we have our 21st century education presentation being presented by Dr Sydney Jordan you have the floor thank you madam president and uh boy trustees and Dr buts waiting for my team to show up here so I can introduce them I will start with myself my name is Dr Sydney Jordan I'm the vice president of strategic Partnerships with uh 21st century uh Ed and joining me wait till they join here for a second and on the uh Zoom we have our CEO Marlon Lindsay we also have Dr Jerome JT Taylor Watson who is the vice president of products services and integration uh Ser strategies and then we have Danny Bates who's the executive director of products services and integrated strategies I will first turn some time over to um uh Marlon Lindsay for for some opening comments thank you uh Sydney members of the board Mr chair superintendent of the Bon Harbor community I'm delighted to be here with you it's it's a great pleasure to uh talk with you today about um I think what is the quintessential issue uh of our time getting our students ready to thrive in the rest of the 21st century imagine having every Bon Harbor student graduate reading on grade level fluent in English proficient in math doing uh complicated equations that would only qualify them to work in the first Industrial Revolution uh we're now on the fourth Industrial Revolution and the key factor that determines Full Employment and whether our students try to survive or thrive in the fourth Industrial Revolution is stem literacy and the 21st century Ed we Define stem literacy with a formula stem literacy equal the four C's plus the 2 PS with the four C's being creativity critical thinking communication and collaboration plus the two piece being problem fin in and problem solving our mission in this day and age is to ensure that our students are already to thrive in the rest of the 21st century because if we don't get them ready it's not a matter of um if they'll be left behind they really will be left they're left out this is different we're in a different time so we're delighted to be here with you to talk about how 21st century Ed is excited about the potential of a partnership with Manon Harvard to get his students ready to thriv in the rest of the 21st century uh thank you for allowing us to present to you today back to you Sydney thank you Marlon 21st century uh Ed ensures that not just that the students will be able to learn about the future but that they will be able to change the future what you will see next is a video that will show and demonstrate our partnership with districts across the country and internationally imagine a classroom where every desk is a world on to itself where the way a student learns is the exact way they are Tau at 21 Ed we call this the system of first we discover where the school district stands in their stem integration strategy at four distinct levels discreet integrated immersive or comprehensive but this isn't just data these are actionable insights stem bring this plan to life we need a shift we believe that all teachers yes all teachers can become stand leaders through design things inuse pedagog and to empower Educators we need tool pedagogy AI allows Educators to become the very teacher their students need by creating individualized lesson PLS according to their interests dispositions strengths and weaknesses in this St Century takes a village to raise a 21 centur graduate with our stem Expos students and their Community explore stem together and as this journey continues we share this knowledge with the world through our book and video documentary Series this transformation is larger than one student one teacher one school one District or even one country it's a call to all of us let's work together to ensure that stem education is accessible engaging and a top R success for every school now we would take some time to for you to be able to witness a demonstration of our pedagogy AI tool that will be presented by Dr JT and Danny Bates gentlemen all right good evening uh thank you so much for uh having us uh tonight um very excited to show you our artificial intelligence tool this tool as uh Danny brings brings it up is a tool that we will put in the hands of Educators uh in your District we're already doing this uh many school districts here in the country and internationally uh it is a platform that allows your teachers to create a real time instruction uh for their students to engage their students uh not just in stem but uh supporting uh English language arts math science uh and social space we had opportunity to uh do this uh yesterday with a few um from Bon Harbor all right so U St you're in the room um I'm going to need someone uh to uh give me um a great level to build this course off of so we're going to say create a unit of study for students in grade I just need uh someone to call out a grade level for eth grade okay let's create a of study for students uh in grade eight and I need a subject area ma eating okay so we're gonna create a unit of study for stud focus on that that's actually funny I actually tth grade math for 11 years uh specifically focusing on what in a gr math give me like a specific top okay y pre-algebra alra concept prealgebra is fine specifically on pre-algebra now for eth grade students um and your eighth grade teachers or your middle school teachers they have um you know tons of curriculum surrounding this but with artificial intelligence it allows us to bring in the voice and choice of the students so we're going to align this um just with time purposes um and since the Detroit mines are planned this Thursday and they are doing so well let's align this to football so let's align this to the Detroit Lions uh NFL team for NFL football so our AI tool is going to take students uh interest and love in Le say sports and it could music we could have chose video games we could have chose a favorite movie this since uh since uh Thanksgiving week we'll do a football all right Danny so go ahead and click save just um in terms of time and so if you were using like a general AI tool for teachers it would have given out sort of like a lesson plan for teachers our platform is not a just a lesson plan for teachers it's actually the way in which the student is going to engage uh in the um activities so it our platform pedagogy is going to ask for further parameters I'm going to kind of go through these um just because of time uh so look at all the Persona this this course could be written in the voice of an Entertainer an entrepreneurial thinker inspirational motivator practical expert um all those things um let's just do for this purpose today let's do yeah inspirational motivator um the level as well there um can you click level oh perfect there are three levels if the students are just learning pre hour level let's see our graders are just learning all these pre-algebraic Concepts so let's play beginner obviously the audience um our Stu our teenage students in Middle School let's let's do teenagers um and then the writing style it can be professional it can be academic it can be written formal or humorous let's make this little uh inspirational motivator let's make it a little fun so let's make it humorous the other um feature here and you don't get most AI tools teachers are really going to love this because in the additional instruction you can say be sure to include um you know um some names of the give me one give me your quarterback who's the quarterback with inro lons Jared G there we go so we want to make sure that they Golf and maybe some other players uh that the students I'm really really like um teacher can put this here but they also can say be sure to include Hy multistep equations or you know how to solve for x or any of those other things that they're going to they want to specifically uh focus on so put um say also be sure to uh teach the students how to Sol multistep equations um and this gives um the teachers the flexibility uh if they know there's something they're teaching that's coming um up or something that students going to be assessed on they can make sure that is uh included here to give students practice and opportunities with this okay we're going to continue to move um in terms of language this can be translated in over 70 languages and so if you have students in your District who speak a different language it can be Unwritten in their language and then using our immersive reader you can translate back to English this um definitely help the English language Learners in the district let's just do English for tonight we're going to ask the AI to generate the tiles and you'll see this after the course is presented but we want the AI to kind of create the imagery um and so we say yes and then look at all of the different image Styles uh that uh is available you that's available thank you uhhuh uh let's for there we go uh let's choose a yeah you can choose one Danny so you can see all the different options that are here we're going to choose for this there we go just a little slow and and Dr JT continue to call out some of those uh items because the screen is pretty small so oh oh it is okay so we're gonna choose um image style photographic uh image uh oh I think we might have lost Danny oh there we go he's coming okay we still have you okay I'm I'm still here I think we lost you okay got it so let's let's go to uh the next one would be the micro earning format we don't need that uh because we're not creating a credential course uh we have options to um also include custom data this gives uh the teachers the opportunity to upload attachments um you know when I taught this I would have been able to upload a worksheet or some other um resource that I had and our AI tool will extract from that resource um to build the course but for today let's just say no competencies is the area where we can um insert your standards so we would use the Michigan standards here and so if they were you know as a partner we will already have them here they will be in the library and the teacher can just add that standard um as well tonight we're going to just ask the AI to create the competencies and create about five uh competencies great um and then looking at the content modules are how the students engage with um the course and and so modules are about the week worth of work um for tonight let's just show them two mod let's show one module just do the time so they can see what a week's work looks like and then we those to um we can also for validity purposes cross check the content with another AI um and all the other AI platforms out there tonight just so we can generate this um in the few minutes that we have I'm going to say no um this platform also allows not only content but images and videos to be uploaded right into the course because you have students who are auditory Learners they're visual Learners so we'll say yes and yes there we also say yes to a glossery and a study guide because I know as a former eighth grade teacher I want the students to have fun and uh you know resources like these but I also want them to be prepared for the final um exam and then in terms of the modules as we just said are we're going to build a week's worth of work so in in each module the first question is asking how many content Pages would we like um to be built and so tonight we just going to say show one um content page just so they can see how it looks we can also include an open-ended freeform assessment like an essay I always wanted my students to write out the rules so I know that they knew how to solve a multi-step equation so we're going to say yes here and look at what happens yes to when opening the assessment our AI tools going to create the assessment and the rubric for the teachers to score it's saving them a loads loads of time we also going to say yes to a quantitative assessment we need the students to see multiple choice questions of buing the blame true and false giv them different types of assessment uh to uh demonstrate their learning and then my favorite part is of adding and a Project based learning activity uh to every one of our modules giving students some Hands-On opportunity to just demonstrate their learning in another way don't have to worry about creating projects anymore because our platform will included not only will include the project but include the rubric to score the project as well again saving them a lot of time um also I think a feature that students will really love is idenification feature um we're not going to gamify the course tonight but that feature is available so that every time the student completes a competency and demonstrates proficiency with that competency they'll earn the bagage and as collect all of the competencies um badges throughout the course at the end of the course they would receive a certificate and students really love that feature but tonight let's just go ahead and say no let's click continue yes and let's go ahead and click create so what's happening in the background here's our status bar here what's happening in the background our AI is going to work all right it's saying it's going to take about five minutes to create that experience um four a graders U aligned to the Detroit Lions something that you the students will really really like um but teaching them that of pre those pre-algebra uh Concepts and AI is already at work it's about 4% creating it uh now I'm G to ask Dan to um so we created a course yesterday on um 11th grade I believe it was were ninth grade fashion a business management course and um fashion uh yesterday and so I want to just show I know miss Gavin I can't every see everyone but I believe miss Gavin is there um Miss G if you can see a Runway to revenue uh building your fashion Empire um and we were able to um hold over that cor under um our um B Harbor St initiative proposal uh so that you can see that see that for us um we were also talking to uh Mr triplet the co-curriculum team and expository writing and expository text came up a lot and so um our teams kind of went to work today Mr triplet if you're in the room you can uh hear me and we created uh three forces uh using pedagogy around expository text uh the Lions Legend and literacy expository exploring expository writing the third one uh that you see on the screen is for early lers so that's you know all the way up to about thir fourth grade and then in the Middle School course around expository writing is game plan for writing mastering expository uh e and then the last course that you'll see for the 11th graders uh is scoring with analysis this is really taking a critical analysis uh and uh critical writing so I thought you would appreciate um seeing that um we have a QR code for the board tonight so if you want to get access to these courses Danny can you just bring up the four courses again just go back out to the main page uh I believe syney is going around with the QR code now you have free access to these um courses uh all you have to do is go in It'll ask for um for you to uh enroll into it and you'll be able to see all of the activities all of the essays all of the projects um Mr trip I think you're really going to like it Gavin I think you're really going to like the runway to revenue but we want to show you the power of what this tool can do just a conversation about expository writing and here we have three courses that can be used throughout you know um Intermediate Middle in high school uh the power of a tool like this in the hands of your teachers just revolutionary in terms of how they will be able to engage students uh in real time learning that um includes their voice and and choice and things that they be interested in uh learning um I'm going to stop here uh as Danny um almost probably ready to bring up our course that we created uh tonight um if there are any immediate questions I think we're still within our our time we're still within our time I'll take a question uh from uh the worker while Danny's grabbing the course we just created on a grade Dr JT you're missing uh again I don't see you up there I see your cell phone say that again I said I don't see you but I see your cell phone yes my internet was kind of steady here I am I'm right here okay yes yes I um I I think I know I a this is to to my colleagues we had um an amazing time if I do say so myself in our curriculum meeting and um so when when we talk about this um this in particular the AI tool and and um lining with State Standards assessments we talked about um um those teachers who are in training but we don't have in those positions with certified staff um that that's non certified but they're in training and so we have a lot of gaps and vacancies and so how how would you all um pay close attention to that how would you all be able to assist us with that as being one of the situations since you've done your research from Ben harbar school yes so we have uh a professional development series called in the emergence them leader where as Marlin talked about this St literacy being that third of core uh literacy so we have eight uh intensive workshops uh that that your teachers certified n certified teachers will go through um and at the conclusion of those eight workshops we certify them as them leaders um that means they'll be able to train other teachers in their building on their teams along the uh best practices of design thinking Project based learning inquiry based learning which really moves the needle for um the students that we serve um and we also that CER certification is validated by one of our University Partners I and because of your region it would be with our uh University partner Howard University that would validate the completion of the hours and they will also get a certificate from Howard University um so they become extremely credential um I again didn't really get to do a full introduction um my background my doctorate is in teaching and learning I am the curricular list um for our uh company and so we make sure that you're certified not certified doesn't matter I'm doing this all over the world um training teachers uh to be proficient um and so that's how we will support we we want to know where they are where you want to go as a district and then we help you know uh get them there I one more question and what type of uh support um and training would you have available since you're uh um ma uh PhD in in curriculum and instruction what type of workshops and what have you would you have available for um the person that holds the position of director of curriculum how do you work with that our professional development is mandatory that we because we don't just do it with teachers we want to uh certify any and everyone that's uh in the district and and specifically your uh directors your supervisors your instructional coaches we maybe help train up some those people so you say you're director of curriculum that's a role that I had in my career when I was in public education and so we were Mentor we were trained because the whole idea is that you know we're not going to come and occupied we want them to be empowered so that they can train and as teachers whether they come stay new come certified uncertified that they're skilled though and that they would be able to run uh the training I'll give you a quick example if I'm not by the time in Jamaica we're working with the Ministry of Education and youth and we're working not just with the teachers and the principes and the schools we're actually working with the education officers because we're training them up we're doing the eth workshop series they'll finish this may and then the Ministry of Education they've been trained the education officers now they are going to do the next eight Workshop Series so we're building up the capacity of the district leaders School leaders as well as of the teachers did I answer that Mr triplet you sure did thank you a question yeah yes about how much time are you talking about for the workshops or or this program for span of a year how much time would have to be committed to it yeah yes so for we're talking about specifically for the stem for the train for the training eight workshops with six hours each so they are full days um we work in every District we do in all different kind of ways uh it's you know rarely you get all eight done in a year um the way that it works between each Workshop there's about 30 to 45 days of actual instructional coaching from our team because we want them to go implement the practices and show proof of implementation proof of student growth before we move on to the next Workshop if you think about like a graduate course a graduate program because they are becoming certified it's very intensive it's action planning but uh here's the thing whatever your initiatives are like say if your initiative is Project based learning we're going to roll that in to our professional development if you are going to do expository learning um and makeing sure that all students are you know proficient in writing there's a writing initiative we'll roll that in so it won't be more work for the teachers we're going to align to initiatives and make sure um that we are focusing how we deliver our workshops to support what you're doing and trust me teachers love it because it's not more the same they get it's enhancing what they do so they build really empowered to go back into the classroom over those 30 45 days and Implement uh what they've been learning they're pretty super excited and to see the student grow because that's the goal right to see that the students are actually growing from these best practices and these um you know Implement these these U implementing the best practices Dr JT um this is uh Mr triplet um when when you look at uh stem program steam programs and what do you have you people your your mind go directly to science can you explain the way in which you explain this about how stem crosses all curriculum and and so that and how we can use that in all areas our court court subject areas can you explain to the board and to those who are listening our teachers as well yes so you heard Marin talk about some um foundational uh principles under what we call STEM literacy and these are so that's the four C's and the 2ps uh collaboration communication critical thinking um and uh critical thinking creativity problem finding and problem solving those skills cross all subject areas those are the skills that they need for Real World um application in the classroom as they um go on to college as they go to careers and so we we believe that stem literacy should be in every class so you're right we say stem is not just about science technology engineering and Mathematics this is not a just for the kid who is good in science that's not what stem should be because that's creating an inequitable system this is stem literacy every student that graduates any of our programs our partnership should graduate stem literate whether they go into a stem crew or they going to a s enrich career because as we all see St is everywhere even our jobs today we have to include technology we have to be proficient in artificial intelligence and your students will become our proficient in these things and so stem literacy goes across the band then one more thing I would like for you to share with the board we talked about this that um about us not going through Based on data testing and what have you to identify just certain students that would benefit from this this is for everybody including our special education students and so it would be completely districtwide can you elaborate on that as well absolutely um one of the things I was most impressed with um meeting with the team right front of begin because we generally have to push districts to want to expose all their students to them and not just the kids that they feel like are stem so I was very encouraged with that so yes this is prease well for all students um becoming stem literates so that they have those proficiencies that the world of work is looking for so and and that includes our help as I just showed you our platform supports um English language learners but also our students with disabilities right uh we were just in a a training with a group of teachers in Connecticut today um and it's a whole special needs program they're using our um pedagogi platform to modify instruction you know teachers say I can't modify you know the regular Ed instruction for the students while pedagogy can do that right we can put in those promts and now your special education teachers can support or a resource class can support those students using this platform so this is for all students there's no criteria to get into this there's no program every student every teacher would have access to this thank you all right so I so I'm going to actually we're at about 650 so our presentation's been about 4 minutes so I'll take one last question and then we need to proceed if it was a question or was it a comment uh can you tell us tell me again maybe I miss how would you deliver this to our district how would you deliver this to our teachers professional development would it be virtual would it be in person just tell me how they would be getting this training yeah so this would be for your District we've decided to do this in person um so it would be it would be iners um training uh we can do if you need some of those days to be virtual because again we do virtual as well we'll work with your director of curricul instruction supervisor curricul instruction to kind of map that out but we are available to do the uh eight workshops in person I think depending on the level of certification how many teachers where they are you know it might make sense to be in person to really kind of dig deep for the each of the days that we work together um so that you know be a decision made by you uh Dan could you bring up the course I know that uh we we have to go um and we're not to go through the anatomy of the course but I do want you just to see that the course that we just created together that eth grade course uh you see start into preal or game plan for Success um if we had time go through it we'll put it on your um The Proposal so where you guys said the QR code you went to the other course we act course there so you guys can bruse it as well thank you so much for your time I truly appreciate appre appreciate I'm turnning back over to Marlin thank you so much everyone uh thank you I'm just I'm just uh you're just going through me to get to to me I I do want to say this um you know stem literacy is our cor work uh we are the only uh company in the country and quite frankly globally that's pushing stem literacy as Co for to stem it's not just um that you can have kids do more robotics or quoting or stem programs and become stem literate it requires a comprehensive stem education system for all students to become stem literate and stem literacy produces to the core competency that are required for Workforce Development so it is from stem literacy to Workforce Development is the work that we do suut from with their students teachers and all that are are are there fired to beion for work of% back to you all right thank you team thank you JT Danny Marin thank you to the board uh I will hang around and uh if you have additional questions that come up I'll be able to answer those for you but thank you for your time all right and just so the board knows there is a staff report T1 where the board is being requested to invest in the um 21st century proposal which is a little bit later in your agenda um so we're going to proceed and then if there's additional comments or things of that nature they can be made at staff report T1 so thank you so much for your time and thank you to those that joined us virtually to provide the presentation um we're going to move forward NEX is committee of the whole um this is just a conversation discussion that we wanted to initiate um trusty Doyle um I believe sent the inquiry I'm pretty certain sent the inquiry and so what she would like to consider um for the upcoming year is going to a committee of the whole framework where there are no committee meetings no separate committees just one Committee of the whole which would be the work session if I'm not mistaken um trusty Doyle and I'll give you the mic to kind of talk about your reasoning or what your um thoughts were and then we can kind of open it up for a brief conversation um my thoughts about um the committee of the hall is just so we can all gety do my thoughts were to start the committee at a whole so we can all get the information at one time like the finance committee we already saw this presentation we we spoke with this company if we if we had a committee of the whole everybody would have seen it at one time and then we could actually get moving a little faster on a lot of other things versus it needs to go to this committee it needs to go to this committee it needs to go to this committee before it makes it to the table if we have a committee of the whole we will see it all at one time and I think that would just streamline it and make it even better better for us as a board and the superintendent not to have so many meetings and that's my thought about it all right any other comments or input from the board trusty Gavin I agree wholeheartedly I think that it would be an opportunity to streamline um our efforts exact same thing that trusty do said I would recommend that if we do this that the work session be organized in a way that we receive reports um in an effective you know uh template that actually gives us the information that we need in order to make um informed decisions and that we you know we're here for several hours anyway you know if those hours can be broken down based on those committees and we're actually receiving the information that we need to make sound decisions but I agree I think you know the administr admin Administration team the superintendent whoever is here doing the work they have to do triple work sometimes and it takes away from time that should be dedicated to you know taking care of the students and the staff and doing what the district needs so I'm in agreement as long as it's organized in a way that actually allows us to make informed decisions and I also like the fact that it's transparent um the community can actually see you know we're seeing what the Community is seeing all at the same time and when you have that transparency it builds Community Trust so I'm in support of it as long as it's organized and we can bring somebody in to help us make sure that the committee of the whole is organized properly all right vice president bone I think we meet as a committee as a whole twice a month um I also think this conversation should not be happening until January when our new trustee comes on but I also want us to look at in order for us to get ObamaCare it had to go to the Health and Human Service Committee in order for us to get and that's on in order I'm trying to in order for president Trump when they were doing the impeachment hearings it had to go through committees um government works best when we follow the committee structure as what we do we continue to meet as a whole I think self-accountability on what we're doing in the committee make sure we're communicating is something but I think we need to be careful in getting it I would also like to see what other best practices are our fellow school districts doing um because we do meet as a whole twice and government works in the Committees you know they wanted the data centers those had to go through committees education you know when they're doing getting rid of meat back in the day was another test scores um a test name those went through committees when they're developing the budget those go through committees thank you all right and so just to respond um it was a request from trusty Doyle to add it to the agenda today and I know that in January we'll have an organizational meeting where we will decide whether we continue work sessions or go to one meeting those types of things are schedule and so I did um approve and and move for with allowing her to put the put it on the agenda so that the conversation can start at least get started and we can kind of have an idea of where the table is so that when we come into the organizational meeting in January there's always there's already some sense of idea as to what the will of the board is and it will be simply a vote versus us taking an extended amount of time discussing it then secretary triplet I I um you know I I do I I agree I agree with committees but in anything that you do um I think that people have to have an understanding of what those committees are the purpose for the committee the committee does not make decisions and I think a lot of times things are are presented at committee and people are making decision is not coming to the Board of Education and so as long as we understand if you do if you do committee as a whole um as truste Gavin stated whatever it is that we decide to do that we need to be professional in doing so and that we need to understand what it is you know I I um we we we we we've basically in my four years here we've op operated from a transactional perspective and so um with new board members um each time I came in as a new board member two years later there were two more new board members and what have you but once you establish your protocols and what have you is is very important either way if we do it effectively and efficiently it it will work for us and I think every time we start growing in One Direction you know we are we are not a well oil machine in in order to for us to even consider one meeting a month that's just my opinion because we have too many different um things that we need need to work on as a board like yesterday in our curriculum committee we um uh director cus presented had some things on the agenda and so as we went through and talked in committee we said are we prepared for that we discussed if you think we should bring this to the board right now are we ready we made necessary adjustment I think it was you know it was good for her it was good for us we discussed it and so a lot of things that was originally on the committee agenda some of the things were removed because we wanted to make sure that when as chairman of the committee um and truste Gavin was in there we make sure we bring it before our board that we're bringing something that our board can move on and be able to see in in a so it had the pros and cons in all of it but the best way for us I mean the thing that we're going to have to do is we're definitely going to have to do our part and do a lot better as a board of education in either way we're gonna have to do better than what we've been doing agreed um the only thing I will I will add one thing um I considered the possibility of Shifting or merging committees I tried to do it last year there was some Kickback I think from one or two people um but I like the idea of merging facilities and finance potentially merging student support services and curriculum um what I what I have seen is that you know I like committee framework because when the superintendent knows that his committee supports something you already have three votes to be able to pass it at the board table and so always you know in moments where there may be frustration reminded him you know you have three people that'll pass it but what I've seen happened is that we've kind of been bottlenecked and limited in what we can do and what can come before the board table because it hasn't come before committee but committee hasn't met so then the board is the table has been limited because something hasn't passed through a committee due to a lack of a meeting and so you know those are some of the things that I know that we all want to work through and so I do want us to start having this conver ation um kind of marinate over it over the next month so that we have a stronger idea as a board of you know what our pleasure is going into January um keeping in mind that we will have um Bradley returning and so his voice will also be accountable vote um at the decision table in January but I just wanted to make sure that I um gave honor to trusty Doyle's request and at least allow us to start this conversation um so I'm going to try to keep us forward if you guys could kind of marit over that your thoughts as it relates to committee and things that you think would make us move a little bit smoother up next is exposion and re-entry hearings I don't want to take too much time on this so there was a request from trusty Gavin I believe um to have attorneys present at our um exposion and re-entry hearings I did ask that Dr buz just do a quick cost analysis for us because I like to make sure that we're considering all factors and making decisions and so um I did ask that he would give us estimated cost that it would be potentially if that was something that we did um and so what he's provided to us is that the attorney cost is 275 per hour um travel costs start when the attorney Begins the trip and So based on the um 2324 exposion hearings um the estimated total that he estimated was $1,450 now that doesn't mean that would be standard that will be that high or that minimal that does not include travel time but I just wanted to kind of get that number out there so that the board would be aware of what the potential cost would be for attorney fees if we did proceed with having attorneys present and just wanted us to know the numbers secretary triplin and then we'll go trusty gav just like we did I know um in in in past when we did have our attorneys there and they had to reconsider when we had to re restructure when we were in debt and what have you and do some cutbacks and what have you but um we also can wipe out um wipe out some of that um travel time because just like we just did this here the turn can appear there well we have our technology up to date and up up to park so can you check into that virtual attendance yes ma'am yeah and and and it is it is something um also while we're talking about the expulsion piece um and it's been brought up again for us to go back to our old um to our way that worked where the because a lot of things wouldn't even go to to the actual expulsion hearing if we had the pro the process was follow properly the the expulsion the um as I stated before it come from the principal the principal sends it to student services or yet the student services and the student services make a recommendation as to whether or not it goes before the board of education so when you got those two steps there's a process for you know a hearing with students services and what he have the student services make that decision as to whether or not it goes forward to us even come and when it comes to the board of education then you have three Representatives that will be there and the Board of Education versus an individual make the decision for what's happening with the students in our community thank you secretary triple trusty Gavin thank you president Robinson um that that was the first thing that came to my mind is that I wouldn't be asking the attorney to travel I would expect the attorney to join us on Zoom like the attorney joined us um on Zoom for um you know the consultation regarding the re-entry hearing and it was it was no longer than an hour and the I guess what I'm looking at is you know the reason you have an attorney is to prevent you from spending you know making you know $100,000 mistakes right and so in the long run especially when you're dealing with expulsions you know removing students from school there is a wealth of knowledge that you learn from the attorney being present in terms of protocols um legal procedures moving forward so the attorney being present at one meeting we got information in terms of you know what should and shouldn't be happening in schools um that would prevent us uh from being sued if we actually take that information and utilize it so you know I would say this cost analysis should absolutely include um the zoom option and absolutely include how much are we saving this is my first time even you know I I was on the policy and discipline committee this is my first time even hearing that there were two 20 students that were proposed for exposion we got no information about what happened um you know after that bra and so you know there's some there's some there's some blind spots there's some lack of information um and so we need to have an attorney uh involved and not only that we need to be informed about you know what is happening um in the schools especially as it relates to um expulsions all right any other comments from the board before we move on to the next topic I think I would anticipate it more uh being longer than Maybe an hour with the attorney because you'd have to have given him the information ahead of time to look at right so you have to consider that too he'd have to look at this information I don't think he could just come online listen to that hearing and make a judgment call so you'd have to have given it so you probably want to more hours to that okay and put in that would up the price some but virtual would probably be better than having to drive through snow or whatever the other part I would like to emphasize is that our main goal since we put in pure mediation our main goal is not to have explosions and that's what we're going to be striving for that's what we're going to be working for that we can get our youngsters to begin to solve problem solving work through some issues so that we don't have to have any you know that's what we that's that's our main goal and that's what we really want to focus on none we want everybody to be able to stay in school every day to get the things done that they need to get done all righty so we're going to move forward um I didn't hear anybody that was against um potential cost of having attorneys pres so I'm pretty sure they can come virtually but if you could just circle around um and have that update for us and and whether or not they would factor in how much time would they consider that they would need to prepare for the hearing if that's going to be a second hour if that's going to be a0 five those questions are very important because for example I realized that on my place of employment I'm charged $75 every time I send an email those are some of yeah so you have to be careful I second guest them emails now right I know so we just want to make sure we know all of those things um I gave the cost analysis but I don't want us to make a decision and not consider all of the factors so that was a good point yes Madam president mad president secretary trip and this right here as just to picky back seriously on what truste Gavin stated there are unfortunately there are a lot of mistakes that have been made when it comes to how we consistently discipline our students from the from the principal level to the central Administration level there have been several mistakes just for me just observing so that's where when you come in you talking about you know in the Board of Education being the ones that make that decision the the representative of the board and and and and the reason that it was changed and I want to bring this to this board the reason that it was changed was the previous administration they brought students up for expulsion and there were over 10 mistakes made from the principal's office by the time it got to us and we could not expel that student because of timelines deadlines mistakes that was made at this level and so that's when the anger came and you know like you said you got three you got four people just switched over and said okay you give this person the the power and so uh uh an attorney is necessary because really seriously you know people can be sued and we have to make sure that we are on top of our game and we just have to be honest with ourselves as we sit here at this table as our community has expressed so L and so powerfully that there are lots and lots and lots of mistakes made and so we need to reconsider that that's something that's very very pressing that we as a board of education we need to we need to consider that and not look at individuals because we like them and we you know we we kicking up with them this is business it's not personal all right so we're going to proceed um I'm gonna pass the floor to Dr bus so you can talk to us about the TR update on the insulin litigation um and the Cent contract that you'll be proposing to us thank you madam president with the TR um insul litigation this um this blast that you all have in front of you is in reference to a class action lawsuit it was for districts that were self-funded we were self-funded um under our previous chro we're now um fully funded uh again but for the for the districts that was self funded and or had certain insurances um there's been a class action lawsuit they reached out to ask if we wanted to join so basically if if one this would just be additional monies coming back into the district we have to do nothing else but to sign a contract basic a memorandum of agreement to join into the lawsuit okay so I'll read the first paragraph so people have an understanding of what is said entities Nationwide have started joining a nationwide lawsuit against various insulin manufacturers Pharmacy benefit managers and other defendants accused of artificially inflating insulin prices at the expense of employees and Health Plan entities including Insurance pools lawsuit defendants include among others is it Ellie Li Eli ly and Company Novo Nordisk Incorporated what is that copi aventus us LLC those entities eligible to join the lawsuit include any self-insured employer any employer that contributed to employee medical Benefit Plan cost or other healthcare costs any insurance pool so the question that I would have is are we are we going to be spending additional monies um by joining in this um lawsuit no ma'am okay so the contract is just us saying we want to be we want to join into this class action lawsuit want to be represented in the in the class action lawsuit okay any questions from the board I know we probably you may not have had an opportunity to read fully through it um this is not anything he was essentially hoping that we would take action today we're not taking action today so there is time to read through the contract or do additional research on um this actual litigation but are there any questions from the board table at this time trusty rocket Martin Dr bus do you have any idea about how much they're suing for not at this time okay so we would know our settlement cost I mean our settlement part right right okay but I know class action lawsuits because I've been involved in them uh different products and stuff you do get some benefit from it freely and it doesn't cost us anything M secretary Tri um so our attorney our law form firm has has presented this to us so it's something they think that we should do um even if you don't get a lot of money it's the principle of the matter as well because our employees our staff students and I don't know who all was affected by this as far as our insurances what we paid and what have you so I think this like is is kind of like a no-brainer if our attorney came and said this is something that we need to be involved in it's not going to cost us any money but we're standing on principle and then if we get money that's fine money that that that that we deserve back then I think that would be u a no-brainer all uh vice president Bowen you know I support this I just have a never mind I was I was going to say Please Speak use your voice sir so do we have a 401k or do we have like if say for example you're investing in stocks and you are suing that company I don't know like maybe my mind's just going oner sorry disregard all right so we're GNA proceed um next up we have superintendent it is 7:15 um so I just want everyone to put on your seat belts because I am going to whip us through the remainder of the meeting so we're going to give it to Dr bus for the partnership agreement update and strategic Plan update thank you madam president um to be very brief for the partnership agreement update and strategic plan updates I'll be presenting at the December meeting after we get our results from The Benchmark um review I think that'll be a more accurate um representation of both the partnership agreement update and the Strategic Plan update in our next steps okay so um Miss singer can you notate for your notes that the presentation didn't occur today I know Dr bus may remember but sometimes I don't so I just want to make sure we don't um Overlook it that he needs to do it on the I think that's that 12 okay is it the 10th 10th okay okay so we're going to proceed up next we have our student support services update Miss Nicholls you're not at the end today yes good evening thank you for not being at the last basically today okay so updates from stud Support Services first I want to let you all know we're going to have our fall culture and climate surveys for um our students our family and our staff um I did provide um um the actual surveys examples for you all to review um and we should have the results of these um in February so just so you are aware of that next is our athletics department update um we have some congratulations to go to our students um so Latrell Johnson for football made first team in the Lakeland conference fall Awards um so he was for offensive and defensive um Timothy London offensive and O verus over vertus excuse me Franklin Franklin Franklin averus thank you Franklin uh defense and I have a my name is C either so people get M um wrong too um deanii McBride defensive and then we had our honorable mention um Brian broal jayen Hutson Maurice Ford Marquel Johnson and massiah Lacy so those were our football yes a a huge congratulations and then volleyball um we had honorable mention for um lovely Douglas and M monana Ducket awesome awesome and for you all to be able to come and support because um our basketball season Fall um winter excuse me um season has started I provided you something in your package package there was that the pass yes okay thank you like this okay next is our from our family engagement and community events so um December is literacy so we're going we're focusing on literacy with our um building so at fairplane East um it's the holiday literacy and math night and at MLK so that's on December 10th at six o'clock and then we have MLK for the holiday literacy night and that's on December 12 from 5 to 7 and then Discovery enrichment um Center is always magical at Discovery and that's on December 11th uh from 5 to 7 so the surveys that are in the book that's following your update these are examples of the surveys that the students are taking yes so it's several um I can put on the screen here so so say for instance Discovery Enrichment Center do you have the okay so this one is similar to the um MLK so I don't know if this is the example that you have in there yes so this is for the students and then we have one for staff so if you see the school Personnel it'll say PBIS positive School climate survey for school Personnel so yes these are the examples but they will be so the one on that are for staff and secondary and our elementary that is online so they will be submitting those surveys online okay and then my last question do we have any incentives for um Return of the surveys so we are working on that because it's starting back in December the first two weeks in December so we are working on um incentivizing all right any other questions from the board trusty Gavin um thank you so much um thank you director Nicholls what I would um encourage us to consider I mentioned it before is you know when you look at surveys and the um their usefulness right I know that you know it's good that we're doing surveys and what I would recommend is that we consider an opportunity for students and staff to be able to do daily you know have the option to do daily exit surveys that way we can take that information and make Corrections real time um sometimes like you know if we do a survey and we don't get the results until several months later uh we don't really have an opportunity to address um the concern of the students and the staff but if we create some type of system just like you know corporations do it all the time um if we create some type of system that will allow um our students and staff um to and parents really to give input real time they may give us Solutions ideas um concerns and we can address them real quickly so really excited about um the the Student Success congratulating the athletes and that we are um collecting data and just offering a recommendation that we consider collecting data you know creating some type of system that will allow us to um analyze the data quicker so that we can make those adjustments real time thank you all right any other comments or feedback secretary tripet yeah I'm just kind of I'm just kind of confused a little bit when I when I look at U student services the roles and responsibilities of student services um when I looked at the job descriptions I'm seeing things that are are being presented that was not a part of the job description so I just need some clarification um I did not know the student services was over letics I did not know the student services was over security and I really have a problem with uh the fact that the student services director is over Athletics when you have a principal and the athletic director is an assistant on in the building of the principal at this high school and so it it it it just to me it it undermines the work of the principal it and and and and it have them up top reaching down into school business and I I brought this question up earlier in the year and every time certain people become the athletic director that don't want to sit up under a specific person then we I don't know who makes these decisions but we need to look as a board um if I am the principal at this High School the athletes come up under me these are my students and the assistant principals and the staff and everything should be up under that principal I feel like it's undermining of the role I'm not talking about the individuals that's in it also when we talk about and and and hopefully in the very near future that we will identify a a um a a director of campus safety and school security because we front like that's a that's a precedent and we're gonna put a camera system in bam with no leadership and I think that when when I when I think of student services I I I I guess it must be a broad umbrella so I'm not clear and I also think and on behalf of them because when I you know when the student services person presented what was happening as related to literacy in the school I just it kind of threw me off because we have we do have a dir of curriculum and so I just don't know how all of these people are in all of these different spaces and places and that's not that's not on you um uh uh director Nichols and I do appreciate your efforts let me put let me preface it with that but I also think that we we we um that it's just it's too much cross and it's not it's it's it's just not clear and I'm I I I hope hopefully the as we close out as a board of education the major the majority of us will be returning um to the board of education so those are some things that we need to look at and and because when I see students Ser you serving students and it can be very broad but you can also overload a person and and we cut we we cut their pay we cut we we did the roles are they paid a lot less than the Chiefs and it seemed like they just have so many more responsibilities being added on people just making it up so we need some clarification on structure but thank you so much for what you are doing and I do appreciate the professionalism which you move forward miss Nick all right so um just speaking to that not sure how it was beforehand but I know the student Support Services piece and everything that comes under it was developed when the previous superintendent um created the position he lumped everything under there for um who's the uh Mr Mr Miller had those things yeah we athletic reports that's what we got so so we can always look at what duties for I know that we are going to have to have a conversation about restructuring and what school looks like in the upcoming year and so those are some things that we can discuss at that time the overlapping of the job descriptions whether the current roles have too much under them if we need to tear them apart or switch change or rearrange it we have the time to do that um so thank you so much for your presentation I like having you up top I don't think it's fair that you sit through everything and then by the time you get to your presentation we're tired and not as engaged and you're giving us really good stuff so we'll switch it up um each each meeting so that everyone gets an opportunity to have us when we're still full of energy and excited so we're going to pass it on to teaching and learning I'm not sure if the curriculum and sped committee had any other updates beyond the presentation that we were provided or can we pass it over to miss cup um just basically with the teaching and learning again we did go through had a great um I think we had a great meeting I'm looking forward to working with uh director cusp um on some on some areas she did go through a narrow and at this particular time just on the 21st century proposal was my understanding that we were not going to take a vote on this tonight not tonight yeah that we that we the purpose of this was to bring it to our colleagues so that you guys would have a visual and also have an opportunity to um to to review what what's being submitted what have you and I I would like to turn the floor over to um truste Gavin just to just give us a brief thing before before director cus come with what she presented what your thoughts of what the presentation was Century 21 okay um I was impressed um I've from a teachers a former teachers perspective what was presented took them about I don't know 10 minutes to do um that was developing a lesson like that with the um supplemental materials in a way that would Inspire Learners probably would have taken me at least you know a few days to pull together um what took about 10 minutes and so when I think about you know a teacher having to differentiate the lesson having to make sure that it is interesting and scaffolded for different Learners making sure that they are challenged um making sure that it's it's a up to-date lesson and has the videos and the media support and all of that um the the rubric and you know all of those materials and time that it takes to develop the lesson and not to mention the platform also it looked to me like the platform has a a place to maintain the grades it does the lesson plan you know teachers need to be able to focus on delivering that lesson and to me this is a program that allows students to really be engaged and learn and step into the 21st century whether you're a special um education a student in special education or whether you are a student in you know more of your your higher level classes and as a I just looked at it like okay there are times when my son is bored there's times when he's finished with his work sitting there and this is an opportunity for him to actually be able to you know be engaged um and so I'm impressed with it um I'm impressed with the technology I just hope you know that we will make sure that we provide the education Technology support to make sure that it can be delivered uh with Fidelity so I'm I'm in support with the program and the presentation and I think it will make the lives of teachers um a lot easier and the fact that they can come out of this with a certification from Howard University of course um of course I'm going to be um impressed with that um especially with the different levels of teachers certified and non-certified that we have here and just the whole stem the engineering piece that that designed thinking mind frame um our students will be on another level if it's if it's executed properly okay thank you um if there's no objections from the board I would like for uh director CBS to actually just begin with the 21st century education Proposal with T1 that way we can kind of continue this conversation if at all and then we'll proceed you can go back to the top since we're already on this subject if that's okay with you your hair looks nice today by the way thanks do you want me to read T just present T1 the reason for board consideration the Board of Education shall approve all textbooks or contracts used as part of the educational program of this District purchases over 28,40 need board approval according to the most recent state of Michigan Department of Education threshold backs an analysis the district is prepared to purchase 21st Cent Ed to help achieve two key goals red ring chronic absenteeism and improving academic performances measured on local state and National assessments over three years by combining personalized interventions enriched learning opportunities stem-based seal programs and community-driven events 21 Ed stem education system offers a cohesive framework for continuous Improvement policy reference 6320 purchasing and 2210 curriculum development funding source is sr3 strategic plan reference academics Benton Harbor area schools will increase student achievement as measured on local state and National assessments recommended action that the Benton Harbor Area Schools Board of Education votes to approve the purchase of 21st Cent Ed comprehensive stem education system as presented totaling 1,333 188 all right so some reason this this says inum you got something you want to tell us on this report Dr B say interim superintendent that was done a while back okay tell me something okay um go ahead we've been in talks about before I brought this to you uh if you recall when I first became interim you charged me with making sure I vet stuff early before I brought it so we've been talking for a little over a year now so all yes okay okay um so we've heard from secretary and trusty Gavin that they both were highly impressed with this program I would say that they probably are two of the most difficult people to have highly impressed so to have them both highly impressed to me is something that's extremely positive um you all are in support of the investment in the the 1 million3 33118 yes support yeah I wouldn't call it uh a difficult being difficult but I'm I'm not going to play no games you're going to bring no just bring the money for your exactly you're not going to get your no change on the side if it's not going to affect if it if it don't make sense it will not happen not under my watch and so people can you know and I'm not being shady or anything I know it wasn't Shady but I mean for real I just you know for real I felt it in my heart I felt it in my soul as as we talked about yesterday if if you guys could have witnessed um trusty Gavin just put the um Topic in Bam Bam Bam Bam Bam like you said in 10 minutes it was great great we do not have a curriculum per se the system that we have purchased right now that our teachers are working on it's going to give us a lot of good data as to where our students are but this will now when we move to this this will bring our teachers back to the table as we talking about aligning our curriculum in this District at gr levels cross reference conversations um where we can and they and they are align aligned with the standard we will no longer allow anyone not even the teachers to lowall our kids to say well they can't you know this thing about every you know if if if you guys pay attention that people just oh they read at a third grade level everybody just say that it's just like thir grade level and from a historical perspective they can never uh you can't measure that oh you got somebody my child is in the fifth grade he's reading at 12th grade level okay those were put together by textbooks to sell to school district to say that they have the information and data in there to let you know what grade level these kids are reading at you can keep on playing and saying kids can't read and we also talked about some serious Gap analysis why can't they read well of course you won't be able to read if you had substitute teachers first grade second grade third grade and fourth grade okay let's have some real conversations stop playing and we still need if you teach fourth grade you need to be teaching fourth grade work regardless of where they are and get them there because I've never heard very every now and again you might hear RI but I've never heard rigor I've never heard high expectations our students are excelling in colleges and universities despite the quality of Education that we've provided for them from this community and so I think that this is something that will Empower our teachers as well because we have teachers that have been booed on the ground forever and every time we shift at the top everything shifts we throw the bath bathtub out with the bath water and and what we do is we really disrespect um um our teachers and and and their their commitment to the school district and their knowledge in the actual classroom with what is expected so yeah any any kind of support if you can do your homework I I just say is absolutely amazing also turning back over to um curriculum director um cusp um at this point I can just let her go through and give you the update on I don't want to take your thunder and I appreciate um having the opportunity you have your your your your feet on the ground now you guys and I want to thank you too for coming in and um navigating through we got we got some things that we need to work through but I believe that we will be able to work through those things but in not one thing for me as as our president stated we didn't get to elaborate on it if there's anything that we don't have in place and we're not prepared and ready for it it's okay it's not it would it will never be against any of you all sitting over at that table we don't have it we don't have it you don't have to to feel any kind of pressure that you because we expecting something from you no we we we we can work through that but if you don't have it you don't have it and so uh again we have to be able to trust what it is that you all say to us because we are not a part of the day-to-day operation but we do hear from our teachers we do hear from our parents we do hear from our community and we hear from them on a regular basis more than anybody would ever know in some instances Okay so I turned it over um gav do you have anything else if possible I would like to add um in that short period of time and I said a few days it really would take several weeks yeah to develop what they developed within those few minutes I asked them to create you know they had to create three modules for business management introduction to business management and fashion you know how teach the students how to create develop a business plan their financial plan conduct you know competitive analysis this this is a high level of learning and then it I told them to also make sure that they incorporate case studies that included africanamerican entrepreneurs and it put out you know a case study on Damon John for the the founder of FUBU Oprah Winfrey story Tyler Perry's story right and so I'm not just going to you know endure I I was actually like At first I was like okay who are they what are they about what do they want that that was my mindset at first but when they actually showed me the tool and showed me how this tool works and how we can use this and how it could really take our students to the next level with the gaps that we have in our district I recognize that as long as we do what we're supposed to do on our end and we have to do that we have we have to make sure that we have somebody in education technology who's going to make sure that this is implemented with Fidelity but as long as we do what we are supposed to on our end our students will be engaged and they will be on another level so to me you know it is worth the investment as long as we do what we're supposed to do on our end trusty right yes my um my question is this for that million and a half how many years do we own this will we own it yeah just for three years you're talking to us not to him we just as a committee you weren't I'm asking yeah no no he's not a part of this conversation we at the board wait a minute right now I'm asking she ask we can answer it because we were there if you if you would give us that it's a three-year contract okay every everything that we everything that they develop it goes into a library it's ours right that's and they yeah I'm telling you I'm here as the chairman of the curriculum committee but I didn't ask but you should have so right now not a part of discussion from the floor secretary triplet has the floor as the chair so that's why no he gave you the chair so he's the curriculum chair he's cheering to me and that's why he's trying to answer your question he has not given him the floor right that's I'm I'm just so he's cheering right now we discussed all of this okay and so what it is is that that all of this stuff belongs to us and then after you know we talked about the fiveyear plan and what we said no we want to see what you do the first year we go into the contract and negotiation that's why we wanted you all to look at it so you can see it and say are there any options if it does what if it's not working if it's not doing are there is there any window for us to make some adjustments and changes because like I said we have a lot of turnover so basically yes everything that that we have that within those three it belongs to V har area school all of it for eternity yes it belonged to benh Har area school okay so after won't be pulling it back no we won't and hope and then this is a this is this is another thing it will give our teachers and this is what we be working on the curriculum committee our teachers will be teaching if you teach fourth grade you will be teaching fourth grade material period but it also has things in there to assist those who might need assistance because we can't hold back everybody and if everybody in this school district cannot read then why do we need them somebody people people are teachers are teaching every day and kids can't read then we got to look at it in in a different um in a different manner so um at this time I'm going to turn it over to um direct director cus and she's just doing a presentation to bring us up to what what what we'll be doing for next for the meeting attent you have the floor there is a doent in your packet that outlines the changes to uh the proposed changes to the uh course guide um the course guide is also included uh we use the suggesting feature in the document but I uh went through and highlighted as well to draw your attention to each one of those um proposed changes some are related to just secretarial sorts of changes because of the change of Staff some are related to grade level um and prerequisites based on um need and practice within the building um there are some added courses to give more electives also pre-algebra to help us uh better prepare the students with prerequisite math uh skills there is also um additional courses for uh school to Career is listed specifically for students to sign up for um also teacher Aid and office Aid to give seniors the opportunity to have leadership roles in the building um this was a collaborative effort with middle school and high school and um counselors and administrators we also had a um training session with relle Bowman from mve who is the uh Michigan Merit uh credit Guru uh she is the only person at mde that is the expert on credits uh so some of the changes you'll see are are reflective of that information that she presented one specifically um um would be World Language um I I'll paraphrase what she said but basically it's either zero credits or two credits there is no one credit when it comes to um the requirements for World Language so the uh the requirement to earn those two credits is to have a novice level of proficiency which is about a four to five year old uh Lang language proficiency so that you'll see that change for both Swahili and Spanish okay so SW Swahili still has it as one credit so that's going to be updated to two so Swahili 2 Spanish 2 French two would be one credit but the first level of the course is two credit okay okay U director C and this what we what we asked heard to do was for you all to the highlighted areas the crossed out areas are the areas that they have taken out of the manual okay when we get ready to vote for it next at the next board meeting that stuff will not be in there you will get the final copy of what it is the highlighted area has both the the change and what would be remov and some areas with the green lines that's what's being taken out yes so when you go through and look so please go through and look I did not I know we did talk about um the the career in technical education and thank you for bringing those for putting those those sheets in um in our in our folders as well if you guys will look in our folders where you got in the back now you can see the Ben Harbor High School Korean sech education these are the things that are at Ben Harbor High School and then on this sheet right here is the sheet where all of the other schools like graphic arts that St Joe High School Automotive is at Lakes Shore EMT is at baring spring and Country side uh has agriculture and natural resources many of these programs were at benon Harbor High School Once Upon a Time and in the trans in the transition of dismantling these programs were taken away okay and I'm going to speak my truth in my understanding okay so and that that it was a countywide effort but it was also uh U an inside job as well but now we have to be looking at we can't continue to look back we have to look move forward how can we do what is that we can do within the guidelines of CTV director um Wilson Arlene Wilson is is a part of it and I have asked the superintendent to make sure that she is a part of this um when we talking about uh curriculum and what have you that she be a part of the discussion be a part of our meetings and what have you I I also want to say um to director cuff it often times when it's reported from Central Administration that teachers and principls were a part of this process do you guys have any documentation of minutes where or or meetings where you met with these people how many times you meet these meet with these people and um with their signatures on it when we have those type of professional development because we're hearing one thing from our Central Administration office and our staff is saying that these things have not happened and have not transpired so if there's any documentation so that we can make an informed decision you have records when you all got together to discuss this curriculum with the high school principal the Middle School principal even if it was last year if you have any kind of documentation so that we can be clear because we don't know what we don't really know what to do you know when they saying you guys are saying that we've done this and they're saying that this did not happen so we want to make sure that everybody is on the same page so I'll I'll get with you all record on that Dr thank you sir and I just wanted to say with the book that I just gave you all that goes with the U presentation that Mr that excuse me Dr Jordan gave from 21st St Ed it's a book that um was compiled from suffk Virginia and it is a book that documents it's a documentary um of of the program so if voted in at the next board meeting each of you would give it will be given a chance to write a chapter in the book documenting how this process goes through Benton Harbor so those are your books to read that they've donated to you all so kind you gave us some homework yes Madam president just want to make sure I understand so you can go ahead uh director C she okay your district testing schedule we just provided that uh for reference the state assess assment is um already set and then the additional um assessments are scheduled out to reflect the need for Progress monitoring and benchmarking to judge the efficacy and and help to inform decisions for classroom teachers so were you able to put that in writing the district testing schedule as we discussed yesterday or can we have that before it it is in it should be in your packet okay question um two questions uh one is have we considered any kind of um tutoring for students like after school tutoring anything like that uh for our students and secondly how important is it for our classes to meet the NCAA standards for certification for being able to count so the first question for the after school tutoring we do have the extended day two days a week for um Elementary and the opposing two days of the week for secondary we also have Varsity Tutors that Miss Nichols could give more information about she I believe she's talked about that before um your other question was about the NCAA requirements because yeah th those are just noted in there um for students who have interest in pursuing D1 Athletics uh there's specific course requirements that have to be checked off uh for eligibility so for example the CTE construction trades class doesn't meet any of those NCAA requirements but it doesn't mean that it isn't a valuable learning experience for the student um I suppose you could correlate the NCA requirements to kind of a traditional list of college entrance transcripted courses okay thank you I have a question that I didn't get a chance to ask earlier if it's okay um it's pertaining to um the 21st century Ed proposal the language of the staff report says that it is going to counter or help us with um absenteeism and so I just want to to understand how you see this program doing that and it could be from you or um thank you madam president essentially it is the engagement okay kids are so excited and when we bring that stem vest into the district to have 60 different uh areas of stem galvanizing the community you will see and feel that excitement from parents and students and as the design thinking of how it is getting the students voice and choice now they are totally engaged they're rolling up their sleeves in these classrooms as they're deeply involved in their learning and they want to come to school because they're excited to learn Madam president yes sir I want to apologize to trusty rock at Martin because just the thing that I said that we were doing in the report it just flipped around and happened so want to apologize to you my colleague and that's what I'm saying we're going to have to you know protocol and and things have to be established and must be followed at all levels from the top to the bottom but um if you have any other questions as well but we did talk about the attendance peps okay um yesterday and U you that's something everybody throwing well okay y'all got an attendance problem so let's how we gonna help and that's why I just want to make sure that it it you well we were we were we were very candid okay and saying that ain't gonna help with our attendance problem because was our attendance is people ain't taking attendance okay the records ain't being kept properly the attendance problem is how you taking attendance when you have so many staff that's that's that's not even EMP power school and you have substitute teachers in there let's have a real conversation because the attendance might not be correct okay and so um um so that right there is a completely different thing but it hopefully that they will be enthused enough to be able to say that I want to be there okay I want to be there so you know again so like we we did talk very straight up Madam president don't come in there just trying to throw no stuff in there about you're gonna help an attendance that is not gonna help they can be there every day some classrooms attendance is not taking okay okay yeah thank you very much all right so we're gonna keep it moving um up next we have human resources do we have an HR Community update at this time or we gonna refer to Mr mcder go ahead Madam president due to the holiday um we would be meeting this week we're not going to be meeting meeting so therefore we will not discuss the report until the next the 121 meeting so we're going to go ahead and skip that whole process if we can into the next meeting you have the floor for um staff report H1 thank you Madame President staff report H1 employment of Staff subject for board consideration to approve the employment of Staff in accordance with the revised school code and other general laws of Michigan large okay facts analysis it is recommended that the board approve the superintendent recommendation for the hire of the following Personnel policy reference 3120 4120 employment of professional and support staff strategic plan goal reference Personnel leadership Bon Harbor area schools will recruit hire develop and retain the best staff to improve student outcomes today presenting uh For Hire uh Mr Toronto Townsen for the position of Athletics administrative assistance here at Benton Harbor High School effective 122 2024 recommended action that the Benton Harbor Area Schools Board of Education votes to approve the employment of the four mentioned staff okay this is a Mr towns in okay yes sure go vice president BS were you wanting to you didn't want I'm sorry I might have misunderstood so you didn't want to go over the HR I mean I guess we can go over it but we haven't disc this is all new this new fresh to everybody yes okay so so we are not taking any votes so what trusty Bowens is I mean vice president Bowen is wanting it to be clear to the table is that the HR committee has not reviewed the hires that are that are noted however we will have met and will be reviewing the recommendations at that time but the board has seen them as well so we'll they'll come back um board table um and then you have your H2 um if you want to just the in L of what the chair has said um the staff can our board can take a look at H2 Mr mcder will be presenting two individuals um for hire and then for H3 there's one resignation that'll be presented um December 10th there are no answers that the HR committee has at this time however you guys have questions you can ask Mr mcder now or we can send those questions via email prior to our December 10th meeting trusty Gavin question is and I may have mentioned it before just in regards to the resumés oh remembering the resumés yeah I'm pretty sure that when we make these decisions the resumés are available to HR and so I'm hoping that when they're presented to us that they can be provided electronically um so that we can review them before we're at the table can you get that sent out you guys are on vacation right now by the holiday noted so can you get those sent to us Monday that would be what but I can make sure you have your emails before we leave tonight okay thank you and just moving forward if we can just just have them along with them okay secretary split yeah I'm I'm I'm looking here so we got new hires then we got transfers that's within so um you want it separated it no no no these are this right here is is a new hire and I see the transfers and then I see the actual resignations um the actual resignations um the the the transfer so we we're looking at um Sarah kadat correct is going to be transferred from teaching El at Ben Harbor High School they're teaching kindergarten y making me nering kindergarten if I can share a little bit because I did get permission from everyone's name mentioned here to share Fe these are voluntary these employees requested um on a transfer so again I'm I'm struggling with this from from this division um when the high school has several vacancies in court area and people are making requests when you know the state came in and said your students at the high school were not proficient in mathematics and you take a math teacher and make her an instructional leader because that's what they want to do or uh I just say hey I I I want to go I want to go down to kindergarten and then you just leave The English Department vacant I I'm just questioning I'm just concerned about and and and and again I want it to be perfectly clear to the superintendent and everybody else that worked in the school district this is the thing they tried to close this is the place they tried to do the damage hear me nice cool all of them and I mean this from my soul and I'm watching your moves I I'm watching your moves because now we have one less English teacher at this high school so how many certified English teachers do we have at this high school and just because people say well I want to do so and so so and so this is where we need you right now I know you have right of assignments and all of these different things but this is very uh that that's concerning to me and it looked like it's a lot of things that are happening at this high school with personnel and all types of things that's becoming very concerning to me I just want to put that on the record but I appreciate this right here us being able to have these discussions and when we talk about resignations extended resignations that people are resigning why doesn't happen it happen immediately and put someone in an intern basis I mean these are discussions and what have you we can't pick and choose because again I'm going to say this in our close out Madam president it's like 30 seconds in between the removal and the termination of people who work in this District who from Ben Harvard it happens immediately on site on scene and any any other position any other place any other space it's a long drawn out situation so I I don't know if you guys can discuss that or I could talk to to the superintendent about my concerns and in these matters that are pressing here uh vice president Bowen um secretary triplet we duly note your concerns we thank you sir when we have our our HR meeting um that we have not had to be at Liberty to go through this and discuss this and the vacancies and everything we will get that up to to you next week um with the follow-up Marvin can you please make note to secretary triplet concerns and we will get that followup on also I would like Dr buts if there's any legal um thing legal ramifications when a person resigns um can they stay or can we say well we want to take your resignation right now um are we at Liberty so those are some of the topics we'll be discussing at our HR meeting to bring to you guys and give you guys that report and and I want to State for the record that that is just a a thing that we are re searching yes we're in no way implying that that is something that we desire to do it's just a general question being asked right that is correct president Robinson can I just add one thing um so uh our administrative our administrative contracts read uh when someone is leaving they need to give the district 30-day notice thank you very much just want to add that all right and so then we have our standard um update on vacancy positions Mr mcder director mcder likes to provide us with an access link to that so that we can see them um at each of our meetings so I know that secretary triplet asked a question about you know our gaps at the high school this should be current as it stands Mr mcder for him to be able to look into that information if he' like okay thank you all right so up next um we have facil you have the floor real brief um are we I know that the office manager position was covering like a lot of rows and with that transition is there is this position going to be posted are they looking to fill it within who's going to cover you know all those other duties um as as the transition takes place thank you so the goal is uh pending the board's vote if the transfer goes through we will then post the business office manager position um open to the public for one to apply got you thank you so um follow up to truste Gavin's question are some of the duties because I know that um Miss Brock Carter was doing kind of triple Duty with her role are some of those duties going to be removed from the office manager role now if she's um if she does get the promotion will it be edited you know altered slightly or that's still up to be determined could you repeat that question I want to so what I'm asking is I know that she was doing doing triple double kind of triple Duty so if she is promoted to Director of Finance the position as it stands is it going to remain the same or is are the duties going to be decreased for whoever comes into the role as of right now the position the position will remain the same um Miss Brock Carter has been doing the roles of the business office manager and the director or previous CF okay so that's why she's kind double duty correct okay all righty all right so we're going to move forward I did I just noticed uh director Dash is absent I don't know how I did not notice that prior okay so um facilities committee update secretary triplet are you providing that today yes the general update um just basically we did um if you look at the he he sent out supposed to be submitted in here um but he did give us updates on the um the the track and field um how it was how how it was coming um it's moving along foundation and stuff has been laid and what have you can go out there and you can look at it um we did talk about um also what's happening as it relates to um the gym with the gym floor and the facilities around the gym in its entirety we um are concerned about the the cleanliness and and and of our locker rooms for our visitors and what have you when people don't want to come we don't want people to come to our school and don't feel comfortable if they want to take showers and things we want so we'll make sure all of that is um he's checking into that we did talk about signage and what he have you some our concerns about how the Aesthetics of how our school and our high school um look we also um I thought he was going to put this end Dr B I have it do you have the information he he shared it so with you yes ma'am board he did not I'm looking at it now so what we can do is get we can get that update at the regular board that'll be fine the the the facilities committee does not have anything that they're voting on at the next board meeting but we can send that stuff okay so if it's great things in store then we can save that update for the regular board mean if if no one has any objections vice president bman have several questions on the um facilities committee um I looked at the track field and I it was beautiful the work that's aren you on this committee um I've been so that it's not a democracy so I decide not to go um the track field I've noticed is bigger than normal is that one monkey don't stop show are you calling me a monkey no absolutely not okay I have the floor um the track F looks bigger than what it normally is is that making our field shorter or is that any requirements with our kids doing football actually what we had to do was um because of some because of the drainage it's not bigger we shifted it over four feet it had to be shifted in order for in order to ensure proper drainage because of the big heel that comes down so it just shifted over four feet so and they're going to do another layer of asphalt on that correct it looks uneven when you they're going to put the the top layer so the asphalt is is over the the uh Rock the The Rock portion so you got the soil you got the rock you got the asphalt and then we got to put the topping on it so the top is where the for the uh athletes run on is the turf actually and then they'll paint it and line it Etc so that's the last that and and install a new because of the drainage and the shift in the field in the uh track we had to we're going to have to install a new um sprinkler system for the for the football field but it's already it was built into the contingency fund so everything is we we have not gone over budget so everything will be completed this spring and on track for okay now when you're driving on Empire back in the day you could drive by and you could see graduation you could see the football games it's weeds I hope in the spring that we make sure that if we could burn it down I don't know making sure that it's gone um also another question is I love the gym floor um the gym and everything but my question is does the district intend to fix the locker rooms and when I say fix them make them modernized we'll follow up on there thank you yes I'm still y as chairman of the facilities committee which I am the official chairman of the facility committee those are things that you could ask at the facility meeting if you would come but and those are areas that we we've talked about since um director Dash has gotten his footing and what he have we given our new directors and opportunity to get their footing everybody's feet are planted now it's getting ready to snow so they'll be able to have some Footprints hopefully they'll be able to resignate throughout this community so those are issues so once again I know it's very difficult um you can't lead if you can't follow and so sometime people struggle with that and I make an asserted effort to be able to follow to the best of my ability regardless to who's at the helm so we we we we did get some business taken care of Madame President um and that information that the superintendent gave that U information was given at the facilities committee meeting um when the transition had to be made about the shift in the water and all of that stuff so we'll make sure that the committee do their due diligence and I will make sure uh vice president um Bowen that I bring you up to speed sir on what it is is that you have missed by your lack of participating I apologize for not participating well I will tell you we've only had two meetings out of 30 of the years so I think that's a representation of our leadership of that committee I know and and and Madam president I'll close out on that I'm still waiting for the HR any type of documentation from HR notes who was there any minutes anything so thank you so much minutes so we're gonna um we're gonna take a pause take a pause I think we've had more than two meetings um I know I've been on more than two myself I missed this past Friday due to a funeral trusty Gavin thank you um president Robinson and chair triplet my question is about I don't know if this is a question for um secretary triplet or if it's for Dr bus it's regarding the driver's education I think is a program that was set to start at earlier this year we're still not there yet and I'm wondering you know is it possible one to have because it's something that's so important is it something that can be included in the regular updates um and two I'm I'm just a little confused in terms of it sounded like there was some company that we were talking to who said that they were able to you know train the trainers and then we're putting our rfps and there's no you know response to them so I'm confused because if we were already talking to a you know a company before we even did that why you know what is the what is preventing us from being able to move forward that's one what did you know why aren't they why aren't they responding to the ifp and then to um how soon can we put something together so that we can vote on whether or not that service is going to be provided um at no charge to the students or not so Dr buts um also who who is in charge is this under would that be under facilities we talking about the driver's education component who is this actually under is it under curriculum or is it under facilities it was previous PE but previously under Mr Corson who was over facilities student support service Etc it has fallen under my perview we did put it out um the RFP I have been speaking with those companies I'm going to reput out an RFP to make sure we um some of their some of the requirements we had were a little bit stringent for them to be able to comply with but there I've been um researching so there are some ways there are some there is some wiggle room that we can do and I'll be reposting those so that the original date start date was this spring and we still we are still on target for that okay so I guess like and with um but we can talk offline to make sure we it needs to be up under a specific area so that we so that we can talk instead of just it's being you that's handling it than it falls up on one of those categories and how however you place it but in all sincerity you know uh vice president Bowen and I we do clown a lot on here um with what with the work that we're doing we have been through a lot of serious transition you know um with with things changing with our chief from Chiefs to directors from June to August finding people putting people in place giving people an opportunity to get their footing that they weren't ready um in many instances just like we got with um losing Chief Financial Officer business manager having to step in and get those things that those are not excuses those are reality and so I think that you know for the most part I feel this really has really like been my second official meeting with facility and not as a committee and this is really my first initial committee meeting with curriculum since this um started and so one thing that I'm not going to do I'm not going to force anything for anybody um I'm going to give you the respect as the superintendent and when you say they're ready or they're not ready that's okay with me but I I think that it's unfair for us to uh put them in a position when they like literally it's almost like they got like this and y'all start running and just you know just not to be Shady or anything but towards the end of June people stop working prior to at the beginning of June people stop and so we just dealt with a lot of things that we just don't discuss publicly but it is a reality so I think all of our committees um and then with the new board which is basically our board um we'll be able to determine how we'll move forward but the emphas is going to be on us so um so we will say Dr bus would this be under curriculum since it his driv education would it be under curriculum or collaboratively with curriculum facilities and student service let me give you an update so I make sure I won't overload let me let me speak with the cabinet so no one will feel overloaded okay thank you just a point of clarity my question was also regarding um whether or not that course would be um for a fee or if it would be included as a part of the curriculum um for free to students at what point will we be able to make a decision on that is that something that we can do you know the immediate future do we have to wait until chosen a company it sounded like you wanted to do it and then you know there was this you know other back and forth I guess what I'm wondering is what does it take for us to be able to make a decision is that something that can be on the next agenda who decides in terms of pay for students so I'll I'll give you a followup on that because I need to look and see how much was allocated make sure that the allocation in Esser will allow for that I thought you said that we already receive additional funds from the state that would allow us to offer the program for free we got to make to we so Gloria Chapman from um OPD office of partnership District did say that we could put some of that in U 218 so I want to just make sure before I prpe and I want to um I'd like to do a follow-up before I give any any um misleading narrative to that so I'm hoping that the hope is that it we can offer at with with no cost to the students do and and I I myself personally that would be the that that should be the ultimate goal that they don't pay a dime we get millions of dollars millions on top of millions of dollars because our students qualify for not having money having the funding and so most of our programs is based on them not having money it is not up to us we don't need to teach them anything if we can provide I took driver's education at Ben Harbor High School in the 10th grade I didn't pay a dime it was a class and so I I I I just I I'm I would be 100% I would not support it if they are even act to pay one penny so that's the direction we need to be looking at how can it be fully funded it be specifically for students only that attend Penton Harbor High School that and I'm working with the uh with the RFP to try to make sure I finesse what you're asking thank you trusty Doyle I agree I think it should be free for our students all right so we are going to I think that was a wrap up of fac if go ahead truste uh raar Madam president are we gonna have a chance to discuss this before we vote on them yeah right now there's nothing up for vot to vote yep so we will yeah he will whenever it comes back to the table it'll be a full-fledged conversation and discussion and staff report um that we'll be addressing so right now we're at business and finance we have um I'm not sure if there's a member of the finance committee that would like to give an update today if not we can defer that to 1210 and allow uh Miss Brock Carter to provide the budget revision that she'll be reviewing with us defer to 1210 in the live broadcast okay so you have the floor after that we go into coms thank you madam President we can't hear you uh Mr Brock Carter you speak louder thank you Madam president that's it I can hear you now thank you secretary triplet bless you I would like to present a budget revision um on our 2425 syncing fund budget this budget revision is necessary due to our um new school security system through verata um that project wasn't originally budgeted on our 2425 um initial budget so now that that project is approved we need to amend our budget so that we stay in compliance with budget requirements and that we have the correct sying fund ending balance so I just presented a slideshow on um the revisions I just wanted to kind of give a brief synopsis on what the syncing fund is and what it can be used for sying fund is uh a levy a tax levy on the taxable value of the real and personal property of the school district each year for the purchase for the purpose of creating a syncing fund syncing funds can be used for the purchase of real estate or sites for the construction or repair of school buildings for school security improvements or for the acquisition or upgrading of Technology the next slide shows our original sying fund budget our fund balance started at 10.22 million we have a revenue estimate of 1.95 million from property tax and an expense estimate of 5.9 million resulting in a ending fund balance of 6.27 million that was our original budget and the net change in the syncing fund was 3 .9 million 3.95 million and with the budget revision our beginning balance will remain the same that is of as of July 1st 2024 our Revenue estimate is the same from property taxes we haven't heard from our property tax Authority that there will be any changes in our Revenue but our expense estimate will increase due to the Vado project so that new expense estimate is now 7.5 million ending the sinking fund balance at 4.67 million and a net change of 5.55 million the next steps would be for the 2425 syncing fund budget revision resolution which is on staff report F1 I just want to read staff report F1 before I take any questions if that's okay go ahead the sinking fund reason is going on reason for B board consideration the syncing fund budget has been revised to reflect updated revenue and expenditure estimates for the 2425 fiscal year facts and an analysis the proposed budget revision reflects the new school security system improvements approved for the budget approved after the budget was adopted in June 2024 policy reference is policy 6231 for Budget implementation the recommended action is that the Ben Harbor board Ben Harbor Area Schools Board of Education votes to approve as presented the 2425 syncing fund budget revision does anyone have any questions trusty Gavin thank you um you said that the um the net change is is negative yes that's just showing the fund balance is going to go down um okay so the balance is 1 million5 I'm the comments have me a little confused I'm sorry the ending fund balance as of six 30 2025 on the budget revision will be 4.67 million that will be the ending fund balance okay I'm looking at this it says syncing fund 1 million 526 that is the portion of the spata project that is going to be ped from the sinking fund corre it's four there are four digits in there 5026 versus three 1,500 you see 1 million there you go yeah so is that is that I just corrected it if you want to refresh your screen yeah 526 is what it just say 52600 th000 it is so 1,526 792 20 cents so that zero should not be in there correct okay got you okay so you're just saying that we spent we're spending 5 million but there's still a fund balance of 4.67 million we're going to spend 7.5 million are you looking on the budget revision slide number four yes yeah we're going to spend 7.5 million all together in the sinking fund with all of our projects that is for the year estimate okay the net change to fund can you just explain that a little bit for yes that is the amount that is the change the amount of that the sinking fund balance is going to decrease so we started with 10.22 million on July 1st 2024 we're going to add in approximately 1.95 million we're going to subtract 7.5 million and that's going to leave a balance of 4.67 million but the net change from the beginning balance to the ending balance is 5.55 million thank you so that's so plain thank you see that's why you sitting over there and we sitting over here because I was gonna act like I knew she was talking about to ask her later and this is the without the inclusion of the EI AI project right that has that's that has been factored into this right the AI project AI project that's that's 20% in and that's funds that's that's not from sying funds sying funds can only be used for certain purposes as indicated on slide two yeah I was G yeah I was gonna ask that you got T I'm yeah no I just you know again so when you talk about and and I think people need to understand when when we talk about our syncing funds and how does that when they talk about it come from taxes and what have you uh it doesn't come from individual tax like like from people is not added to their taxes or anything like that it's just a that if this a part of the 18 Mill yes it's a part of the Mills that's just a standard you know that's a standard with the community approved correct yeah for that so people don't think you know and this money has has lied here dormant for some years and as as our district just properties just fail down and so again just having an understanding of what you can use the syncing funds for so when will they reup if you will they reup every year um at the end of the school year like around June or July we get kind of a catchup payment um it's kind of it's different from what we get on a regular basis they kind of do an audit of all the properties and make sure everyone's paying what they're supposed to pay and then we get a like a lump sum payment around June or July and it' be like about what on an estimate about 1 million two million three million four million five million anything like that you have a general idea or is that something you can check into I can check into it I don't want to missp speake right so like for the you know just historically the last five six years we've been Harvard has been basically getting five million or six million that come back into that sinking fund every year I can say just off the top my head I know it's at least two million right and so you you know it builds up and that's something that that's just standard correct okay so that's what I just want for for for the board and you know clear making clear that when we have educational pieces that do not come out of the thinking it you know it wouldn't come out of the thinking fund corre not the build y thank you for that clarification and what the thinking fund is is about you're welcome all right so if there's no other questions thank you to our directors and Miss Brock Carter um today for your reports we've made it through fairly quickly it's 8:29 so I'm going to try to keep us going um board Retreats I know we previously discussed trying to do I think it was a meeting for last week we weren't able to make that happen but then I thought about the fact that we're getting ready to have a new board that had that is going to go through a new storming and forming and norming just one person so we can it probably would make you know that one person throw to mix my shake things up quite a bit you never know I get sh either or check up or get shook so I think it would probably be effective that we as a board do that do our training pieces and our Retreats with with our formal new board so that we can learn each other and build on those teamworking and networking um aspects that we need while we are are forming um with the with the change or adjustment in in one board member so I'm thinking um just so that you guys can kind of play it ahead your organizational meeting we have done them where we've merged them we've done them where they've been second I mean they've been two separate things I think that it would be best to have them be two separate and so I'm looking at potentially a Tuesday the 8th datee as the organizational meeting where officers will be determined and then that way you'll have your board meeting the following Tuesday so if there's a shift in any officers those individuals have an opportunity to prepare um for their next board meeting so those are just some throwing those dates out there but I think that we should do our um our trainings and Retreats once we have our new seven um starting in January I didn't have trusty Gavin um has the state offered a disposition about that decision we haven't even gotten a response yet okay from not a formal response so are we you mean like an appeal to not have it counted against or yeah have we prepared any type of you know formal requests that they reconsider the terms of that requ being all of us okay yes okay and Madam president and and and trusty gu the the partnership agreement the 36th month within itself was going to require us to have five meetings anyhow right okay yeah so but they were saying we would have uh done two in the first yeah the last on the tail end it it would be three so now that we did not we still 36 months we still will be you know saying that we within our parameters so we do our organizational meeting and what have you we can also put that and put our calendar in there we can put those in there it might be um um and and uh but I do you know we do have we were to go back in and look and see if there were any meetings since that that where we had seven of us a workshop where we had seven of us but the majority of the workshops that we've had um we weren't qualified because it might it was only six people six of us it was six and you have to have seven so we never did pulled the actual data within that timeline within those 18 months okay so I and that was something you had T me what I can go back and look at that I forgot to do that go ahead yeah what I would also like to add you know one if it's possible for them to be more flexible with the number then the other meetings that we had could qualify count and then the other thing is if the new board member and it you know I don't think it's illegal to ask new board member how he feels about committee as a whole I don't know the rules but you know if it's something that ends up being an interest um of of the board you know it seemed like it would make sense to have a training that helps us to establish understand what committee is and I'll just say real quickly I know that you know trusty B vice president B asked you know what others are doing we just went to masb meeting and they were teaching you know how to establish how to bring in new board members and that um school was saying that they are moving to committee as a whole so I think it's it's where folks are moving okay we did a committee training um a few years back I think it might be CBA 232 or something like that um but there's nothing wrong with us going over um doing thatc training because it may have changed because I know that mesb has kind of shifted the Committees that it even suggest that you have so that's a great idea of having that as a um a training option okay so we're going to keep it moving is there anyone here for open public comment all right um I'm sorry I didn't have any new business no one is responding for open public comments so we're gonna uh take it to superintendent announcements and comments followed by board member announcements and comments and it's 8:34 so we've done great this evening thank you madam president and Dr bus by the way I would like to acknowledge that he attempted to get a vacation day today which I declined so um sorry to tell you business on record so he's going to Georgia this evening um which is why I was so uh trying to get us out of here timely because he's planning to get on the highway tonight I don't know that I've ever declined a request before but I had to decline today so you have the floor sir thank you madam president all I want to say is um I would like to uh wish the entire board a happy wonderful Thanksgiving or a a graceful time with their family during the holiday break um if you do not participate in Thanksgiving just a a time uh of a reflection with your family during this time and thank you for all the hard work that you are doing and thank you for all the uh the attention that you've given the the programs and the the the hard work that you put in on each of these meetings thank you trusty D yes I would like to thank everybody for coming out i' like to thank all those who will watch this and also the directors I thank you guys you guys are doing a great job and you too Miss singer can't leave you out um let's see I'm really excited about the central 21 Ed the 21th century Ed um project I'm really excited about that I look forward to um hopefully getting that into our district for our children I think they could really um grow from that as well as our teachers also the committee of the hall I think we should you know look into doing something different this board has been running with these committees for a while as I don't know how long y'all been doing it but I feel like you know times are changing we need to do something different maybe do better maybe it'll work better than the Committees I'm sure we can always go back and I also want to um take note that the credits were going to go back up to 22 credits in 28 I think that's wonderful I don't know why it dropped but I think that's wonderful and also the track is really looking nice I'm I'm I'm happy to see that it's coming along so well and it'll be ready for the kids track season you guys have wonderful holiday on purpose all right Dr bus have forgot something go ahead thank you madam president and I must always remember thank you for the the wonderful cabinet that I have um I'm very thankful for all of you and I hope that all of you get the rest that you need over the holiday break um do not open your computers until Monday morning but uh I'll be back on Tuesday Wednesday excuse me I put in my vacation time Madame President uh as she said earlier I had to move it so I want to take and Tu just Monday Tuesday he was trying to take off Monday and Tuesday this week I thought respectfully declined thr told him to throw it on the back of Thanksgiving so who keep documentation of the vacations and and the I keep it and you is in Skyward and you can pray it yes sir how many vacations I in just for me oh yes sir you got it yep it's there you will not have me on the Orange is not the new blackag okay thank you very he did he did did a great job advocating for itself and trying to get off today too uhuh no sir what's the difference with you taking I just want to spend time with you can take it on the end of Thanksgiving can't you and you can fly all right uh trusty Gavin I want to thank everybody who came out and who tuned in through zoom and who will on YouTube I want to thank all of the staff and everyone who is put so much work into the district and um I want to say that I um I'm super excited for the possibility of free driv education and I'm hoping that my colleagues are also in support of that I think it's it's very important for us to think about you know I don't know who all has been in in situations of um poverty or you know groceries are up everything is up the cost of everything is up and if the state is saying we have the dollars to offer this service um this this learning experience for our students I think that we as a board um should make that available to our students um and the cost will be coming from the parents we will be pulling dollars from them so I think it's a I think it's you know it's something that we should move fast on and make it available and so I'm excited for the opportunity of that um I do want to acknowledge um Mr pollins who did ask at the last board meeting you know if we can provide um CTE services to students um if there are courses that are available at other schools can we make sure that we're providing that to them as well and so I'm I'm grateful to um our curriculum committee for making sure that that information is available um in in this packet right so that students can see what's available here and our students can also see how they can take those courses elsewhere and still attend Ben Harvard area school so I appreciate um I appreciate uh chair triplet and um director cups for making sure that that aail that information was available uh uh as well thank you Mr poins for asking that question and us being able to answer it I would also say that you know if we do have um members of the audience who ask questions even if it's tough questions you know if we can get in the habit of making sure that we provide that answer to them um you know in a timely manner just so that they feel like their time invested here is worth it um it just makes us better um I'll just end with that I'm super excited about this program and I didn't mention that they also spoke about inventions that can come out of this and also videography and documentation services documentaries that can come out of the work that the students work and um them even being able to create a book from the work that they've created with this curriculum so I'm just super excited about what's possible uh for our students and what's to come the meeting yesterday was the best board meeting that I have attended since swearing in and so I'm just looking at the possibilities of what can happen uh Ben Harbor area schools all right thank you up next we have trusty rocket Martin yes um wishing everybody a Happy Thanksgiving and also I want to say this I'm a firm believer of protecting my own so I will protect my school district I will protect my school board I will protect my my students and my teachers and I resent personally I resent when somebody comes in and attacks any and so as a firm believer of protecting your house I will protect my house and so um I'll just put that on the record people can say what they want but I will protect my house and this is my house the district is my house and nobody I mean absolutely nobody comes into my house and disrupts it or talks about it or downplays especially when you don't live in this house doesn't all right missionary first lady trustee is as a call you thank you for your comment up next we have secretary triplet there been tril in here okay I was looking at your mouth and it didn't move I didn't know you would practic pil with I just would like to say an awarity piggyback on what you know Miss it's just so good to hear Miss rocket say my you know sometimes it get kind of lonely you know and I know that I'm not the only person that loves it and I don't expect anybody everybody love it in the way in which they they love it but I I do I I have I can look down through I had I got the best I got a quality education from Ben haror area school I got one of the best educations there were ever offered in this country from Ben Harbor area school so I I don't I don't expect you to even understand where I'm coming from and you don't have to okay I just you know for me is it my daughter coined it you know um in a miss Ben harber pageant that you know how do you look at the Tiger The Eye the tiger she said we are Tigers we are tigers we're Tigers Michael Mike Mike okay security can you please tell Michael to be quiet thank you former student but anyhow and she said you know I I don't look at the tiger um I look at the tiger as a cunning competitor and never the prey okay and so just be know you can't be mindful people you know when you're talking about leadership and you come to a place you know the the most disheartening thing about it all is that our kids are are scattered all over and all these different forign places foreign places and they have attacked this place on so many different levels because this is the one of the most powerful places there are and so we look over here I look over at this table and this has absolutely nothing to do with people who are hired in that do not come from this community but it is is great to look over there and see tigers sitting at that table and I I and and it doesn't take because your your hometown should be proud of you you know and your cons and what you're doing but you can't come up in here any you know people come have this assumption I don't know where you get it from or where they get it from you can't just say anything about our kids you can't just treat our employees that lived in this community to pay taxes and you can't just treat them no any kind of way and I think it's just irresponsible for you to come in and think that that's okay it's a blessing we look over here at our um Central Administration staff and it's not to diminish or anything but our all of our Central Administration staff is new in these roles everybody has an opportunity and and and everybody has to have a first chance you didn't just come you know people sometime but what we have right here and I think you guys is a blessing and so I'm I'm done with the lowballing of our kids if you teach in this district and you you you run around talking about our kids and I'm not going to support you have you be out here talking about saying bad things and being disrespectful to our community I'm not going to support you you know we have people in here University of California that's that that that got degreed that that's looked over and dog for whatever people personal reasons or what have you but been trained all the way through you know and people just I I just listen to what you say I this this office in this high school office is a tough place to be and I don't know what it is that everybody attacks and comes immediately the previous the one before that all of them they come directly for that office people don't look at your milit your your elementary schools when they when they do your data they look at your high school and it's like everybody that is sitting that office people have done their very best from the top to destroy that individual instead of wrapping your arms around those people and standing in the Gap so it's not new to us we're familiar with it but sometimes it's disappointing when you don't see any different especially when people give you a chance to Excel and to grow and you want you should have you should have that same type of courtesy and I'm not talking from an individual perspective I'm just talking about from those R I respect all of you all I hope you all have an amazing Thanksgiving I I I I sit here and I look at y'all I can I can remember some of y'all in elementary and y'all so grown and fly mouthed and what it's just so funny but it's so you don't you don't you don't know the pride that I have I sit here with my sister who was my boss at one time in Stern Bronson Elementary School she talk all that treasure you know but she still my girl and like she said this these are kids 07 03 94 they love this place and I'm proud of y'all so thank you I'm gonna say what I got to say I think i' like like old people say I've earned it and y'all I wait I waiting for that clock to ring I promise to God I swear for God I was going to hit I was gon to get arrested tonight with this popcake but thank you so much and the president get got her neck look at her neck finally get a short meeting and he going keep that's why I did it cuz you your neck like this no but thank you all y'all have a great holiday love you all and y'all turn your computers off and bring them back on Monday morning early because I got something for you vice president Bowens um first thank you for coming out um to the staff you can see the love the genuine respect and teamwork um and it's an honor to serve with you all I want to say um may not agree with each other we may call each other go off or you know do what we need to do but we still I believe we are here for the right thing um and the people elected us here for the right thing you know biton Harbor area schools as secretary triplet says give people a chance when everybody else would look over you you Google your name you got a mile long rhetoric and it shows a trend I was even your number one fan and you would never notice you would never know who was rooting for you in the back saying when there was a vacancy I thought you should be superintendent I think God this I was out voted I protested without the parking lot secretary triplet told me to get my butt in here I protested I was rooting for you but looking at the results and the behavior greter Whitmer says listen to what they say but watch what they do and when you watch what they do and you think it's cute you think you're the next s Freedom Fighter when you're just fighting to make a name and look radical you look you're a Rebel Without a Cause what are you getting out of this to come into somebody's house and disrespect them and the Japanese household you would be dealt with you gotta ask yourself a lie can't stand the truth stands so Dr buts as I told you before go ahead and dust that Dirt Off Your soier Shoulder don't listen to what they say you got to see their actions I want to say um stay encouraged secretary triplet we've seen the lost in your family and everything and I look forward to coming to your facility committees meetings if I'm treated as a trustee that has a right thank you and God bless you and if you well Lord no no Lord no Lord I would just like to say I appreciate everyone um we've done really great in learning how to navigate conversations without um too much shade when the shade is thrown is a bit comical so um very excited for where the board is headed I think we do great work together I appreciate our full administrative team and all of the staff that are here with us um making this work I'm a proud parent of a student of Ben Harbor area schools and so um I have my children here because my children are know better than anyone else's students and so if I'm asking you to trust me with sending your students to me then my students are going to be here so that I know what the parental experience and the educational experiences and where the gaps are I'm able to see them um so it doesn't benefit me as a parent with a student in the district to also be on the board so um I appreciate the effort that's being made and the changes that are taking place I do have an Ask um for January's meeting there's a lot of money that we've invested a million dollars here and there into this curriculum and this service and this project and I would just like to see how the Pieces come together and that would be more so for Miss CBS director cbsh so like where does 21st century line up with communities and schools and the African-American curriculum that we invested in and the letters training and all of these millions of dollars that we've invested in the school yeah I just want to see how all of this works together because it's hard for me to see how the pieces go together in towards the goal that we're attempting to accomplish and so if we could try to do that for January that'd be great I think that might be helpful for everybody um but other than that that's all I have um so I look forward to seeing you all at the upcoming board meeting on 1210 and if there's no um objections I'll ask for a motion to objn is there a second or support the motion has been made by secretary triplet and supported by vice president Bowen any questions comments or concerns yes Madam president no I don't have any secretary triet can you it's so funny because triplet says all the time baby let that neck turn it show a turn a like that and I kept talking you like this I knew secretary CH please call the vote president Robinson yes vice president bow yes secretary triplet yes truste rocket Martin yes trustee Gavin yes trustee Doyle yes motion Carri all right meeting is adjourned as of 8:54 p.m.