This meeting is a meeting of the board of education in 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 inerson meeting at 87 KFax here in Don Harbor. In addition, a live stream of this meeting is available at the
following week. Questions may be submitted beforehand to Natalie. BHS.org representing in person during the public comment section is indicated in the agenda. Board members may be contacted through the emails listed below. Requests for special assistance, including for persons with disabilities,
may be sent to Natalie. Bhas.org. I call this meeting to order officially at 6:06 p.m. We'll begin by reciting the pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it
stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Secretary Schupler, can you please call the role? Is he supposed to still be here? He's the first presenter. Yes. President
Robson, present. Vice President Barnes, Secretary Triplet, present. Treasurer Bradley present. Trustee Rocket Martin present. Trustee Goyle present. Trusty Gavin.
Madame President, a coin has been established. All right. Next up, we have approval of the agenda. The only items of business tonight are finalist presentations and community Q&A. Um, a debrief of the finalist candidates and
then next steps. Can I have a motion to approve? I so move. Is there a second of support? Support. The motion has been made by Secretary Triplin and supported by Treasurer Bradley. Questions, comments, concerns? We can't hear you. You have the floor.
Can we have tech assistance for guidance? Mike, did you have a question or just Okay. All right. The motion was made by Secretary Triplet and supported by Treasurer Bradley. Secretary Triplet, can you please call the vote? Evan Robinson, yes. Vice President Bowens,
yes. Secretary Triplet, yes. Treasurer Bradley, yes. Trusty Rocket Martin, yes. Trusty Gavin. Trusty Doyle, yes. Motion carries. All right. Up next, we have the review of our board of education norms.
The board of education norms for Benton Harour Area Schools. We will treat each other with respect. We will listen to learn. We will refrain from side conversations. We will start our meetings on time. We will use our time wisely. Starting and ending our meetings on time. We will challenge
ideas 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 your table, providing data, paying attention to self and others, and presuming positive intentions. Next up,
we have public comment on an agenda item. Is there anyone that would like to make a comment now? Just so you guys are aware, there is a question and answer period this evening as well as an opportunity to give us public comment actors after you've heard
all candidates. All right, hearing none, we'll proceed. Just a reminder of our protocol. As of 9:13 2022, all comments will be limited to two minutes for trustee per topic. Our first item of business are our
superintendent presentations. Each of our superintendent candidates will have 10 minutes to present. Following their 10-minute presentation, we will have a 15minute question and answer period with the public where you will be able to ask some questions
directly and they will answer. Um, each of our candidates other than Mr. Days are in a separate room, so they will not hear his presentation and then after he completes his presentation, he will go back to another room and we'll bring in the second candidate. So, without
further ado, we introduce to you our first candidate, Mr. Jeff Bass. you have the floor. And then so you're each of our candidates have put together a super brief PowerPoint presentation of about
three to five slides, but they're going to tell you their vision um and what they bring to Benton Harour Area Schools. You have the floor. All right. Good afternoon, Benton Harour Area Schools Board of Education. Good afternoon, community members. Uh gives
me great pleasure to be here tonight and for consideration for superintendent of schools in this great district. Uh I know I have my presentation. No clicker, right? Is it a clicker up here? She can click for you. You ready?
Clicking for me. Just say click. All right. Moving hard schools. I didn't even say click. All right. and moving Ben area schools forward. Uh, proud candidate Jeff Dace. Click.
All right. Student performance. Now, of course, coming in as a superintendent, you want to look at the data. You want to see what has been going on to propel us into the future. That old saying, you can't you can't understand where you're going unless you know where you are now.
So, usually if we're presenting student performance data in such a way like this, as I pulled off of the website, you can see by the grades, number assessed, advanced or proficient, advanced or proficient percentages. um
kind of low. Not kind of low, it is low. But I, for example, um I changed my approach to presenting data a couple of years ago because I have been in low per districts that have been identified as
low performing. But I'm a strong proponent of even if districts have been identified as low performing, you have to find those highlights within that district. And there's a lot of highlights even within districts identified as low performing. And I'm sure there are in Ben Harbor area
schools cuz if you look at this data, you actually have singledigit numbers when we're talking about performance from third through 7th grade. We go up a little bit um to double digits for 8th grade, but also single digits for 11. My
style and approach to going over the data and finding those highlights, you can see in the next slide, I'm sorry, click. This is my approach to data profile. Now going back looking at those single
digits, we have to identify what's the profile of those students, those singledigit students and getting the grade getting those students who are advanced or proficient. What are their academic performance? What is the cognitive and learning characteristics of those students where we can get from
teachers and talking to other stakeholders that have had the engagement with these students? What are their behavior and emotional skills? um enrichment and involvement. For example, are they working with certain tutorial centers within the within the district?
And what are the teacher comments? What can we glean from this? We can glean the highlights within the district. Now, you use those profiles for the district and you start slowly but surely gradually increasing that throughout the district. So, yes, we all know I can be here and
say, okay, 90% of the students are not performing at advanced or proficient. However, with that percentage, you got 10% that are. We have to start highlighting the good within the district and slowly replicating that. So, if we get profiles of the students
that are actually performing now, we may capture a parent that is actually engaging with their student full-time. You have that parent present to other parents. You may have some uniqueness within that student that you say, "Hey, they're using they're using this tool or they're using this resource." then we
bring that into the school and try to instill that within them. So I I want to get down as as much as possible to those groups of students and those individual students who are actually performing and now let's try to replicate that coming
in. We look at the, you know, talking to the stakeholders. I talked to some of you all tonight. We discussed curriculum. One of the questions was I asked, I said, "Well, do we have a curriculum?" Came back where do we? That that is telling. You know, a lot of times you come in and people mistaken
curriculums for programs. Curriculums. We want to make sure we're following standards. What standards are we following that's aligned to the Michigan to the Michigan the MSTEP test to the SAT to ensure that we are designing those activities, we are designing those
lessons that when students are taking those assessments at the end of the year, it's not a smack in the face that they know and they've had some engagement with those. And again, it goes back to my first interview. This is going to take time. It's going to take time where I come in, I see what's going
on, I hear what's going on. I have those recommendations for improvement. I have strategies and I think I have a wealth of strategies throughout my career as you know assistant superintendent of teaching and learning being in various districts where I've been over academics where I've been over social emotional
development where I've built those relationships. So it's going to take time. However, we have to have the commitment of the board, the commitment of the community to say, "Hey, we're all going to roll up our sleeves and we're going to not only find these highlights within our students throughout the district, but we're going to invest the
money and invest the resources to make sure that we can replicate that. So, year one, we might be looking at, you saw some single-digit numbers. We may go from three, we may go to 10. Still a low number, but we're talking about progress." And you highlight that. I've been around the district and I see some
of these in the in the lawns who have edu staff. We need substitutes. Well, what about highlighting those students that are actually advanced or proficient or who have made drastic growth and saying this is a student that made great growth this year or this is a student
that was advanced or proficient. Now they bring they bring the good because they have their friends talk to each other. If their friends are accomplishing that, man, I want to be like that as well. You take the sports teams when we go into these schools. How do we know these students are the ones
that are um advanced or proficient? Just like you take you put banners in your gym room, let's put banners in these buildings. Let's put banners in our central office so we know and we can identify those students that are high achievers and then we can replicate that. I think we underestimate the we
when people talk about peer pressure, they always talk about it in a negative way. But peer pressure can actually help when they find out, oh, the student that I hang with every day is actually doing this. What are they doing? I want to get on that level, too. They're being celebrated. I want to be celebrated, too. So, that's part of the approach of
getting down to the individual students. I talked to some students today. They gave me valuable insight just on I asked them about the good, the bad, and the ugly of attending Bren Harbor area schools and they gave me that insight. We are adults that we talk a lot about how to improve schools and how to improve student performance, but we
don't get down to talking to the students and drilling down to them enough. Also, we got to celebrate the current current success. I just mentioned that with students who are performing and the history. I'm sorry. Go back. I'm I'm messing you
up because I'm not saying click. All right. This is the click. That's my fault. All right. So, just these are some names and just talking about like bringing them back and te and letting them tell their story about about students. Matter of fact, I was at I was
at Chick-fil-A today. Now, he talked to me a little bit too long, but it was an engineer that actually came from Bender Harbor area schools and he was just talking and I took his number down. His number is uh his name is Tony. I told Tony I'll reach out to him if um I'm
just so blessed that they select me select me for superintendent. But we need to have those highlight those stories and bring them back in front of our students so they know. I'm a big proponent and touchable role models. Somebody that actually came from where you are that is that is being
successful. So we bring them back to talk to our kids so our kids see them right in front of them and say, "Yeah, I can be successful coming out of Ben Harbor area schools no matter what the state says." Cuz gradually we're going to be making that progress going forward. Quick.
All right. And how do we do this? Upgrade the story. And I say upgrade because we don't want to erase it. Ben Harbor has a great story. There is a lot of fraud. Everybody I talk to in this district when I go around in the community they talk highly about the
schools. So we don't want to erase that. We want to upgrade the story when we're talking about Bend Harbor area schools. New new version begins now. How will we do this? Stabilize finances and man and manage facilities. Um increase enrollment and boost community
engagement. Again it's going to take a village. A lot of people say they want change. A lot of people say we need this. But when that critical decision comes, then are you going to turn your back or are you going to say you cuz as superintendent of schools, I'm going to always have the why. I'm going to always
frontload you with why we're making this decision. It's not personal, but this has the best interest of the students and the staff at heart for Ben Harbor area schools. And sometimes those are not favorable favorable decisions. Well, favorable for the district, but some
people may not like it. invest in teaching and teaching and leadership. Leadership matters. Teaching matters. Again, going back to that edu staff, we need certified staff members. Um, quality certified staff members. That's how we're going to move this needle because regardless when people look at
Ben Harbor area schools, they look at the state report card and they look at how you're performing in the state. Yeah. But we through the communication department and through our through our communication, we need to continue to highlight, but we got to make sure not only in district our in district
assessment curriculum and all of that are aligned to the state assessment. So we're all headed in the same direction. We don't want to we don't want to hear this talk well we're making strides on our internal assessment internal assessments and then when we get the state assessments we're still hitting
the floor. So we got to make sure we look at that. We do the backwards mapping. We do that alignment and we make sure that we're headed in the same direction when we're talking about academic achievement planting and keeping great teachers. Again, I have teachers again, we're only as good as those teachers. We are educational
institution. So, we need quality teachers. And I told someone again, uh, student first. Yeah, we say student first, student first, but we need quality staff, quality teachers who have that student first mentality, that they're willing to do whatever it takes
to make sure that that student reaches their full potential. That's why I applied here. That's why I'm here. I'm willing to do that work. and I just need people to be on board with me. Um, elevate instruction and academic performance. Again, when we talking
about and that goes back to we talk about attendance and enrollment. When you got a good product, they're going to come. But we got to show that we're constantly making strides and we're making that progress. That's a one will be in the school. I don't have a problem engaging with the principles, engaging
with teachers, engaging with students. So yeah, they can tell that story of man, my superintendent does this, my superintendent does that. Some of the times those are the stories that teachers will come back for because they want to feel supported. Teachers need to feel supported and that when they come
here and you're asking them to do the dirty work of academic achievement, increasing that that they're going to have the support along the way. Ensure accountability and collaboration. That first word everybody say they want it accountability. accountability, but
accountability is not nice all of the time. It doesn't feel nice all of the time, but that's where those relationship building come in. So people know upfront, these are the expectations. Hey, if we go here, this is what you can expect. If you go there, this is what you can expect. Having
those conversations before we get down to what they call difficult conversations, not necessarily difficult for me, but if people have not been engaged or not used to that, it becomes difficult for them. So, you got to think about the people that you're working with. And I am, you know, a people person where I don't want anybody to
feel surprised or feel shocked, but you will get the expectations upfront. This is what we're going to do. Hey, we hope that you you're along for the ride and that you can meet these expectations. And then that collaboration. Superintendent can't do it alone.
Teachers can't do it alone. Parents can't do it alone. It truly is going to take a village. But you got somebody here before you that's willing to do that, that's willing to put in that work and like I said, willing to do whatever it takes to make sure Benton Harbor area schools is making those strides that
it's not going to happen overnight. It's not going to happen overnight that we're one of the identified as one of the greatest making the greatest growth or one of the greatest districts. But it can happen. It can happen. And you got to believe in that because you have someone in front of you that does
believe in that. overall goal sustainability. We don't want to just get there in one year and then drop off the next year. No, we talking about sustainability. So, anybody that leaves our schools, they know this is the expectation. This is the culture in Benton Harbor area
schools. We don't accept less, we accept more. And we're going to hold you to it. And that goes for adults, that goes for students, that goes for parents. This is the culture. So when I say upgrade the story, upgrade the story of yes, it can and we will do it together.
Thank you. All right. So ladies and gentlemen, we now have open Q&A for the public. So if there are any members of the public that have a question for Miss Lease, now is your opportunity to ask.
Please come forward. All right. Thank you so much. Hello. Good evening. Good evening. And if you could state your name [Music] high school. Pleasure to meet you. Pleasure to meet Thank you for your
presentation. Um really really got some good notes from you. I also think back so we can get the mic. Let me try again. Okay, I'll just talk from back here if I could. Um
I have several questions but I'm just going to ask one and then they get a sidebar. But um how do you plan to build trust and consistent engagement? um with families, with the students, and with the wider the greater of Benton Harbor
community. Well, no, nothing is easy, but that's kind of easy one. I'm I'm overly visible. And I think visibility, even without saying it, a lot of times is translated to that you care and you're willing to step where we're stepping and you're willing to be with
us. So, coming in, I'm I I'm coming in and seeing what's going on. Like I said, talking to those stakeholders, seeing what are what's the good, the bad, and the ugly. What's working? What do what are some suggestions for improvement? And not necessarily making changes, but
making my list of, okay, this is something that maybe need to be tweaked now. Going doing my research or reaching back into my repertoire and saying, "Okay, this is a strategy that may that may work or may help." Just like I said, frontloading frontloading with a lot of stuff. If I'm going to when I make that
decision to change or tweak things, then there will be a why behind that. And I think a lot of times when you decrease the surprises, that builds trust and that builds that buy in that, hey, at least he's willing to come to us and talk to us and give us the full story
behind just making a decision where people are feeling like this came out of left field. So, I think talking and like I said, being visible with the communities at events, I think that goes a long way with trust, especially for me because I'm not here. I'm not from here
and that matters. You know, I have to come here and see the community, get a feel what's going on, but that's going to take time and that's going to take a lot of engagement with the community and the stakeholders. Very good. Thank you for that. And, um, one follow-up question to that. Can you give us some a
couple of examples of what has worked for you in the past coming from the assistant superintendent of academ um what your your previous title? I have a lot of them but I used to be over teaching and learning. Teaching and learning. Okay. What has worked for you
in the past in terms of family and community engagement and building because the you know we have very strong teachers in our district. Um but the I think one of the biggest issues is is we have gaps, right? We
have gaps between the the families or the caregiver care providers and um and then the community. So I just kind of paint us a picture of what you've seen that has worked very well like you would say we have to implement this. We have to bring this over from what I've what
I've worked with in the past in in terms of in terms of using your support team uh within the district. Yeah. I don't know if if we have to bring this, but something that was dynamic in the previous district when I was indicator and I was just talking to someone about
the curriculum and we were talking about I'm a big proponent of early childhood education. I think you need to instill those skills and have that foundation at the early childhood level. One of the things that I did in Decator was be the before day one initiative. So everybody
that was pregnant, we went to the hospital and actually engaged with them and the district gave them books and we partnered with it was a community organization called Baby Talks Indicator and while we're giving them academics, they help them out with prenatal um when
they had the baby pampers and stuff. So that's like partnering with a community organization because e educators know but parents don't know that if you have books and you read to your kids while they're in the womb, they come out with a better vocabulary. What are we hearing
about? All of our students are coming with deficits. Deficits. Deficits. So we actually can decrease that before they even get here. But we are the educators. A lot of people put a lot of that on the parents. They're not educators. So we have to use our expertise and use our
strategies to help them out which ultimately can help us out less deficits coming into the schools. Teacher can teach closer to grade level and get them on board and we have a better student coming from that. So that's one example. Okay. Thank you. Thank you Miss Adams. I
believe you had a question. Thank you. You said a lot. Um, and I heard a lot. Thank you. I heard you say some things that that I'm hoping that not just you, if chosen as superintendent, but our
board members as well. For many years now, my brother's keeper, the birth of Obama, just added my sister's keeper. We've been working on this thing for years and we are trying
our best now with this new administration. We're at a standstill, but Obama has made it possible. Just like the black universities at seeking funding for them, more is becoming available on another level through my brother's keeper. The plan was to put
this into our schools and work with the scholars that are studying in our universities to come into our schools locally and work with our children and lighten the load of our teachers, you as superintendent and your administration
under you to do some of the data search and and a lot of other things. And I'm hoping that if chosen that you will take something like that into consideration. Everybody doesn't know it, but everything has shifted and changed and we are working at becoming a certified
community for the Obama Foundation. And I'm hoping that you will take something like that into consideration because a lot of other communities across the nation under Obama's foundation is doing the same thing. Michigan is unique because we have aligned ourselves with
other communities within the state of Michigan as a whole. Being that we were the state that was put under emergency management under um all of the communities of color, we chose to stick together and to try to do some things to
ensure not only the safety but the well-being and education of our babies. And I'm hoping that you sir would take something like that into consideration if chosen. Yeah. Just like I said, that goes back to relationship building and engagement. You you're not you don't
listen to people just to say no, I'm not considering that. Everything that comes is on the table for consideration. So, thank you for the information. All right. Any other questions from the public? Okay. So, we have about three here. Four. Okay. And just if you all
could be mindful that we only have 15 minutes of time for question and answer. So if you could get straight to your question. So I want to make sure that you do get an answer. All right. This is the question that I have. With the property that we have, would you lease it or would you sell it?
When you if you become superintendent, would you take a look at what the district owns as a whole or as property-wise and would you sell it or would you lease it? Well, I can't give a definite answer. Now, one thing I would have to look at
is are we acquiring any revenue off of that land? And then that's part of doing that three, five year projection as far as with your budget. So, tent tentatively, if we're not making any revenue, then it goes back to the
consideration of, hey, maybe we need to sit down as a team, as a committee, and decide what we're going to do with this. if we can possibly make revenue off of it, then that can benefit the district. Those are things that we would consider when we're talking about going forward as far as selling or leasing leasing the
properties that we have. All right, we can go to Mr. U Bishop. How y'all doing? My name Dary Bishop. Uh Mr. McAfee, how you doing, bro? I seen you slide in here. My question to you, Mr. Davis, how you
doing? How you doing tonight, sir? all not just during the school year but also during the off season like primarily the summertime. What's one of your remedies if not the remedy remedy that you may have that could be effective with dealing with not just a simple level of black-on-black
crime but also something as complex as post-traumatic slave syndrome dealing with extreme feelings of suspicion negative motivations and violence against selfropy others even members of one's own group. I asked that question because as a basketball coach and mentor, I've been getting a lot of text
messages this week. A lot of our youth at odds with the community, their peers, and their parents. And the only people they can reach out to is me and my other coach at the little school because they feel like the public school not giving enough support during uh the summertime. You kept talking man because the first part of that blew me away. But uh great
question. But what I can some if it's impacting our students within the district, something that has worked for me is again it goes back to talking to those teachers, talking to the administrators within the building. Who are your high-f flyers? Who are the ones that maybe
you've had uh issues with bringing them in over the summer? Or if you're saying the students are coming to us expressing concern out there in the community, then we do the community outreach. As I said, I'm highly visible. I'm not stepping anywhere where I don't feel safe or I don't feel comfortable. I've already
been around been the harbor area. I walked yesterday in the 90° and I can do this. I can do this and I can engage I can engage with the community. So that's not a that's not an issue. But when you said in the offseason there is no
offseason as superintendent of school. There is no offseason. Yeah. So, like I said, um, in the community, stumping the grounds. I'm I'm not afraid to go where you all are are and have gone, but I like to be proactive. You know, we're talking about
some people think of the summer as the off season, but having engagement, talking to those youth, talking to the community members, getting insight on them of why don't you feel safe or why you don't don't you feel comfortable, and then as a committee or a team
enacting an action plan to address that. All right. I believe Miss Seats had a question. Okay. And then we had I believe there was one more and that will be the the last one we'll have time for. So, Miss Seats. Uh yes, sir. Thank you for your
presentation. Have just a couple quick questions. What is your position on field trips for students outside of the community? And then the other question would be describe how you would work with principles
in a district this size. My position on field trips frequent many and get them out. They need exposure. Uh as a principal my kids went to San Francisco, New York, LA. My
last year they actually went to Puerto Rico. We had a group. So I'm a big proponent in exposure. And that's not necessarily saying that it's not anything here, but you need to broaden their horizons and let them know that it is stuff outside of Bend the Harbor. We do want our students to compete locally,
but you want them to compete on a national level and if possible globally as well. So, they need to know it's more out there than just Benton Harbor. And that's not a slight on Benton Harbor. I just believe in exposure and engaging with principles, as they say. That's my jam. Leadership.
Leadership matters. I believe leaders are the key component within a school district because they are the connect between the central office board of education and the teachers. So we need principles who have that savvy who have
that knowhow to make sure they are developing their their teachers so they are providing that quality instruction for our schools. Ultimately that's how we're going to go up. So, um, yes, superintendent of schools, but principles and that leadership within that school is a key component. And we
got to make sure we're building their capacity as well, so they're dynamic throughout this process also. All right. And then one final question. Sure. So, I have um questions and comments. Oh, no. She got the heated question. Um, so we if you some I just
need you to ask your question now cuz he only has 15 minutes and then your comment you can be made later. So we know that literacy is an issue nationwide. It's an issue statewide. It impacts all kids, not just kids at Ben Harbor area schools, but our kids are disproportionately impacted at high
rates because they're black and they come from empowered communities with disadvantaged. And so I love how you had our our stats up there on the board. you had um particularly third grade I think we had four kids or five kids that were proficient and 4% proficient but I want
to look at Barry and Rhysa because Barry and Rhysa community had 10% of its black children proficient in reading for the 2024 or 2023 2024 school year. So that problem is not just here. So what what
the issue has been or what the solution has been to to get parents involved. I'm a parent. I'm always involved. My kids learn how to do letter sounds, knew how to do CBC words before they came to school, and some of them came to school and still got left behind. And so, how do in schools when they come into
schools, how do they how do we increase literacy outcomes for all children? Because, like I said, it's not just a problem in our district. The problem is every everywhere. And so, we have a lot of kids that come in with a need dis disproportionately high. And so, how do
you lighten the load for teachers and students that need to get effective, efficient, and equitable instruction in our district? And I think I mentioned that earlier. I'm a big proponent of early childhood education, but I also talked to a young lady who is a
community resource. So, you got to utilize your resources and not just feel like it's all on the teachers or all on the all on the schools. Yes, that's a big majority of our of of our jobs to make sure that we do that, but
maximizing resources. Um, a lot of people don't like to say tracking, but when our students are in kindergarten, where are they at? And as long as they're showing that incremental growth where when they're in third grade, they're as close as possible to that grade level, then I think that's progress. Because again, we're talking
about state scores. Yeah, they may be identified at that, but I'm not going to go up to a school a student and say, "Oh, you're a low performing student." No, you need you need growth. You need progress. We're committed to helping you. And as that student, whether it's small or as large, we got to celebrate
that growth and celebrate those highlights with them. And gradually, they're going to see you're going to turn that exttrinsic motivation to intrinsic was like, "Oh, I get celebrated when I'm doing good or when I'm growing." And you'll see eventually they go from kindergarten, they may be
here, but when by the time they're in third grade, hey, they're close to grade level or at grade level. And gradually we're going to change those single digits into double digits. And we keep doing that. And I think we'll get more and more buy in. Now people are seeing, oh, Benton Harbor is making strides.
Let's go back over there to Ben Harbor. They got resources. They got the teachers feel like they're being supported. So that's going to increase our enrollment and that's going to increase our certified teachers. So it's a domino effect. But again, it takes a whole village. Thank you. And I I I want to have one more comment. I'm sorry. I
know we got to move on. I can't. Okay. Is it a question or just a comment? It's it's a comment mostly because like I said, the the the proficiency is low across the board. The state of Michigan is 17% black kids. Baron Reese is 10% black kids. And so, how what is your
example of moving a district into the proficiency? like how how do you plan to get our our proficiency from these low numbers or not how do you plan to but what is your evidence that you've done this for another school that's part of that curriculum I answer this real quick
do you have data from your other school oh I got great to show do you have the data that you show the proficiency okay so may started get one question out and let him answer that question and if and we really and we really don't have time for this second question but I'll allow
him to to wrap this up and just Again, for the public, we have to get straight to the question. And and I and I appreciate the background and everything that you all are giving, but I want you all to keep in mind that these are extremely educated individuals that have worked in the field of education for
years and they have done their research on Benton Harbor area schools. So, they have the background information. I want to focus on you all's questions. So, go ahead if you can answer if you have examples. First of all, I have to do that review. Do we truly have that curriculum? And
then we embed like proficiency scales within there where we have what we can do with students who are below what we can do, what we can do with students who are above level when we start. But all of it has to be aligned to what they're going to be assessed on when we're talking about the state assessment or
internal assessments. So that's just one approach. And then when you talk about data, I've moved the school 700 students as an elementary teacher. I've moved a district with the most identified in Chicago level one and level one plus schools 12,000 students. So data I I can
move I can move data. I can show I can train teachers and principles on how to do that. But again, it's just going to take time. So I don't have enough time to show you all of that or answer all of that, but I got strategies to address that. Okay. And then Dr. Collins, if there
were some members of the public that were not here for the meet and greet. So, if you could do me the honor of just refreshing the public on who Mr. D is like you did at the meet and greet and then we'll do that at the end of every candidate just in case we have we have a few
people that were not here at 5. Definitely. Uh this is Mr. Jeff Dace. Je Jeff Jeff is the deputy superintendent of schools in Rock Island Milan school district in Illinois. He has been and
served nine years as a central office administrator, nine years as a principal, five years as an assistant principal, four years as a classroom teacher. Uh Jeff has done a lot of work in high poverty schools and districts
and has seen a lot of achievement take place as a result of the work that he has done. He is reportedly organized. This is what his references have said. Uses data sets to drive decisionmaking. He's a systems thinker. He builds
positive relationships with families and students. Uh, I know that Jeff has done a lot of work with young black men in schools that he's worked with and has started groups for men of color or young men of color to really get them to feel
good about themselves and to really move forward as far as achievement is concerned. He um is someone who is kid- centered, developed systems of accountability, led uh DEI work, related well, and fights for communities of poverty, and
he also created PLC's. That's what some of his references have said about Jeff. So, uh he has a long history of doing work with Chicago public schools and in other districts outside of Chicago. Thank you so much, ladies and gentlemen.
If we can give Mr. days around withdrawals. Thank you. Thank you for having us. Thank you. Thank you so much. And then Dr. comments. Once each uh candidate has gone, they can choose to leave or they can choose to stay through
the end of the meeting. It's up to them. Okay. All righty. So, that is uh Mr. Jeff B. Very excited about candidate number one. Um we will be receiving Dr. Simone Griffin shortly.
They just have to get her from her room. and she will also be giving a 10-minute presentation followed by a question and answer period. That's fine. You can you can talk about her um while she's coming. So, she's
going to give Dr. Simone Griffin's introduction as she's um entering the room. Okay. Dr. Simone Griffin. She is regional director of learn well educational services. She has been spent two years in central office
administration, one year as a director, five years as sight of site leadership experience. What her references have said is um Griffin over there that she unapologetically fights for students.
highly articulate, stellar communication style, clear in goal setting for herself as well as for the teams that she works with. She's passionate, relational with colleagues, families, and students. Always focused on students first. She
builds others up. She's a voice for students and parents in the classrooms. She goes in daily to learn about what kids need. uh someone stated that she's one of the smartest people they know. She's data driven. She also is a
decision maker and she is involved in transformative collaborative uh endeavors and understands change management. So without further ado, I present to you Dr. Simone Griffin. Hello everybody. because I only have 10
minutes. I'm gonna get right to it. One of the things I want to say prior to us moving through the PowerPoint is coming out of the pandemic, we all knew that there were challenges, right? What we didn't know as we left that pandemic is that our children were really suffering
not just academically but socio emotionally too. So, one of the things I'm going to talk about today is we know what we need to do. The question becomes, how do we do it? We know there are challenges, but what framework are
we going to put in place to systemically and comprehensively address all the things that our children need? With that, I want to unleash to you the tiger spirit. This is my presentation and my proposal. If you could go to the next
slide, please. So while we don't have a silver bullet to solve all the problems, there is a framework that is researchbased that will help us with the how. We know the what, but this framework, miracles
framework, that framework helps us with how we get there. Once our strategic plan has been created together as a team, we know what we want to do. The miracles framework will help us with how we get there. We all know that when we
plan a trip, we going wherever we're going. We always map out how we get there. Whether we want to take the tollway, the highway, or the streets, and where we're going to stop with rest breaks, right? We plan that out before we even get in the car. Well, with the
strategic plan. This is our continuous improvement plan that helps us be able to achieve what it is we want to do in terms of student outcomes. And so, I'm going to unpack those. I can't see very well. But I'll unpack the letters. Miracles.
M stands for motion towards excellence. I improved instructional core. Rlevant and rigorous coursework. Dr. Griffin, feel free to take the mic and move to where you can see. Thank you. Yes. Get
comfortable. Yeah, I appreciate that. I appreciate that. I'm not a podium person anyway. A was attract and retain high quality staff. C. Commit to accountability. L. Learning environments that support student success. E. Establish expected
targets driven by results. And then S, of course, sound fiscal stewardship. And then I have this quote that is incredibly important to sort of ground us in this work. We need to understand that every child is gifted.
They just unwrapped their packages at different times and sometimes in different ways. Next slide, please. I'll very briefly unpack these. So with the M motion towards excellence, this is us looking at our enrollment, making sure
that through community strength and educational innovation, we make sure that Bitten Harbor's existing community pride and family commitment to education is always prioritized. By implementing that strategic enrollment and management plan, we make
sure that we know who's in the district, how we can support them in the district as well as bringing those babies that let the district back. But what's important to know about motion towards excellence is the verb motion. Urgent urgent work has to be done. As I was
talking with the teachers before, we have 180 days in the school year. When you subtract the holidays, the breaks, time off for mental health, your ankle broke, kids not coming, we don't have a lot of time. So the information is
urgency and that undergurs every other component in this framework. Making sure we don't waste time. I improved instructional core. This is where my teachers come in. We have to make sure we affirm them in ways that they feel
comfortable and they have self-efficacy. You know that self-efficacy means this I can do it right. There's a lot of challenges before us. You know you have to do your mental health back in the day. All they have to do is read right now, right? Well, now we have to provide social emotional support. We got to have
gifted and eol instead. Well, guess what? We have to make sure as a leadership team that we provide our teachers with the professional development support that they need in order to be successful. So we can't just ask them sort of review unit plans. We
can't ask them to understand and be able to imply the standards if we don't first make sure that they get the support they need in order to do so. So with the improved instructional core, that's a professional development excellence where we provide them with multiple opportunities for job embedded
professional development. We know we can't come bring somebody in and pay them a bunch of money. They come in one thing and they gone, right? So we have to maximize our money. How we do that is we make sure that the teachers have an opportunity to develop their own plans and we can find out what
they know and then we share that among best practice. I may be really really good at looking at data but I have some teachers that are really good at intervention. Maybe they are the ones who present to the rest of the team around how to build that skill set. So really making sure we leverage what we
have looking at those standards unpacking those standards so we have that rigor there. Next slide please. Relevant and rigorous course of study. When we talk about relevance, we understand that when you want to close
these test scores, you can do so with project based learning. So we're not just learning in isolation, right? Because when you go out to work, they don't say, "Hey, I want you to do this reading." No. Whatever your task is, you have to incorporate multiple types of skills. They're not separated like that.
So with relevant uh and rigorous course of study, that's where the intervention comes in play. We have to be much more intentional by reviewing our curriculum to ensure that there's rigor. And rigor just means that you're being our kids are getting that productive struggle. I
know if my kid is operating on grade level, I'm not going to give him the same work I give to a baby that's not reading on grade level. It has to be rigorous at their level and then relevant. They're not going to always care about Shakespeare. So, how do we make sure that we introduce 1619 and
hiphop into the curriculum, but that there's rigor there. That's that culturally responsive piece. We prepare our students for college and career readiness success. And then a we attract and retain highquality staff.
As I mentioned earlier, we've got to make sure that we're cultivating the capacity of our teachers. Well, here's the other thing. We can't do that if we don't start with a foundation of respect. We've gotten to a place in our society where the teachers are not affirmed and they're not respected like
they used to be. We have to make sure that's where we start. You can't go to Walmart and cuss somebody out and not get handcuffed. With that being said, we make sure that we affirm them that they have the opportunities to share best practice,
but they also have the opportunity to make sure that they can get together as a team and work together. affinity groups being able to get together and not have to talk about data cuz when you get to know me that's all I'm going to say because if you didn't if it's an
adjective I don't want to do it I don't remember artifacts it has to be numbers for me but there has to be spaces where they can lift their hair down and be able to vent to each other about what this experience is because it's not easy right that's our attractive retaining and we provide them with this Ben has
got to be a place where we going to work and need. C commitment to accountability, systemic excellence through clear expectations and support. Here's where that robust accountability comes in. We're transparent, so we know
exactly who's doing what, and everybody's clear about the expectations. So, the accountability is in place. And so, what does that mean? My school leaders, my principles, my APS, they're in those classrooms. their school work plan. They're being held accountable for those every interim
benchmark cycle. They're going in classrooms and they're getting ongoing feedback and coaching so that teachers know where they stand. And by the time we get evaluated, nobody's shocked, right? So, we know the goals and we know how we're going to evaluate those goals
and we want to make sure that everything is all about evaluation. There's ongoing coaching and support. That's where the commitment to accountability is. Not just for teachers, but for the board and the community as well. We have to share what's happening inside the classroom.
Why? Our most important uh project is there. So, we can't be secretive. We must open our doors to ensure that there's transparency. We won't have a problem with the accountability if you're honest. That being said, let's go on to L. Comprehensive mental wellness and
positive school climate. I can't learn if I don't think my teacher likes me. There's a lot of research you guys in the middle school area in particular where the teacher student relationships trump your parents.
They stop listening to your mama. So if the teachers don't think your kids can learn or they ignore them, that plays a role in how they see themselves. And so we have to have an identity of family environment where they get to be who they want to be. They decide that, not
us. So in that environment, everybody gets a mental plan. We build everybody up so that you don't have a problem with bullying and we're making sure we're nipping those things in the bud. So we have the opportunity to have a safe and
supportive environment. Right? That we can maximize those minutes in order to get the outcomes that we want. But we can't do that if everybody who wouldn't work or people are jealous or there's a toxic work environment. We have to cohesively
collaborate and that's why we model for the kids, right? And so when they come in, they already know how we do school because what? In my classroom, I have an ambassador who helps that child feel comfortable and welcome. I can tell the kid, "Here's what you need to do. Here's
where you need to go." Also, for my parents, we have Google Classroom, so they know exactly what they have to have. You don't have to ask Rayway. Why set them up to lie? Open up that Google Classroom on your phone. Oh, you have algebra tonight. I
look forward to seeing you soon. That's exactly right. We make the learning environment one that's positive because it's strengthbased. Our kids will find out where they are on any given subject. So they know that
they have some stuff that they're good at that. No child is bad at everything. You start at what they do know and cultivate what they don't know. That's what helps build a positive school environment and climate. And above all, we make sure the building is clean. Um
army, you know, we got to be the floor. We don't clean up the company, we clean up. All right, let's go on. [Laughter] reach establish establish expected targets by results.
Here are the ingredients for how we unpack the strategic plan. Remember the strategic plan is what we do. We're going to raise our attendance scores. We're going to our attendance. We're going to move it from 82 to 85. Here's where that gets unpacked. That means for
every school in their school work plan, they have an attendance goal, right? That's where that happens. And we look at those metrics through our data dashboard every week to find out how they're moving those scores and provide them with that ongoing support. So everything
isn't got you, but it's also support. But we find out sooner rather than later. We don't look at the data at the end of the year, but it's too late to impact it. It's their data at that point. Babies have already failed. but with the expected targets that are driven by those results. We could also find out sooner rather than later where
we have to course correct because it makes no sense to be teaching the same way doing the same thing and the students still fail. The data will tell us if we're on the right track, if we're close, or if we're buying. And we get an opportunity to make those changes
because guess what? I believe in reality checks. Let's talk about what reality checks are really briefly. Reality checks are the opportunity for you to find out where the kids landed on the standards with the assessments whether it is in the middle
or any other type of interim benchmark assessment. And it helps you to backwards map where the kids landed so that you can make the changes in the classroom so that the student still grows in those areas. So if I'm in second grade, I'm taking nap. I know
what my Wit score is. I know that I'm working my world knowledge on phones, bodyic awareness, wherever I fall in that strand so that those targets are being looked at through the data. But not just the teachers, students are setting goals, too. Parents are coming
into family night to be uh educated about where their kids are. Students are going to learn how to do their own car pickup, student conferences, because they'll know their scores as well, according to the state standards. Every
classroom should have a a real time data wall and the schoolwide should also have a data wall. We know whether we follow ACT, Octa, whatever the assessment is, we should be very clear about what the goal is according to the school work plan,
coaching and support and evaluation by the leader. By the time we take our state test, there should be no surprises. All right? And then of course we monitor the money. Sound fiscal stewardship. We're strategic with our resource management
for maximum student impact. We know we grow. With that, we have to be increasingly strategic with every dollar. Here's where I believe we have to be careful and be mindful of the different companies that we bring to our district. One of the things that I was able to
save in my previous district was I created a program manual, a program management manual. Well, I evaluated the vendors that came in the school. Yeah. Because if we're evaluating teachers, if you come in my building and you're working on my kids two days a
week, I'm connecting you to the strategic plan, right? If I'm committed to accountability. So, you said you're going to help me raise my third grade reading scores. You're going to close that gap cuz I as a school I have a I have a goal, right? If I got that goal
and I brought you in to help me close that gap, then Dr. Let's talk about your data because if you don't help us raise it, like you said, in your scope of work, right? We're at the meetings, too. We're
at reality checks, too. And we're presenting on how you're closing those gaps for our kids. So we can get what we call ROI, return on investment, and then we can determine whether or not we win the contract for the next year. I'll close with this.
Miracles is the how we all come together to fill in what goes in each of those pieces. While I have ideas, I would be more than honored and excited to work with each of you in our community and our board to ensure that through miracles, we achieve all our objectives
for every student to be able to be college and career ready. Thank you for your time. All right. All right. So, Dr. Griffin, our community is going to ask you questions
for the next 15 minutes. And as a reminder, we're going to get straight to the question and not take two minutes to build the foundation for the question. Just want to make sure we use as much time as we can. We'll go with Adams, Miss Adams first.
Raise your hand, Miss Adam. I'm sorry. people raise your hand so they can see. Thank you and thank you. What a wonderful presentation. Thank you. Um
you said a lot and I'll just stick to the question. The foundation already been laid but I will give it to everybody at the end. I heard you say a lot. My question to you would be, are you willing to work with the scholars in the universities free of
charge to Benton Harvard area schools to act as counselors that we no longer have and keeping up with the data and earning towards their masters, bachelors or what have you
and teaching our children at the same time free of charge through my brothers and my sisters. keeper with the Obama Foundation. As we become a certified community, those are the things that we will have available to us. Are you willing, if chosen as Benhar area school
superintendent willing to allow? Now, why would I say no? Oh, that's so neat. You're coming up with the five figure discount. Yeah, let me just cut it later. Yeah. Yeah. You I'm getting it for free. Absolutely. as
as long as they're certified through the state. There are policies and laws we have to adhere to. I'm not trying to go to jail. I'm too little. So, I just want to make sure now if you climb, it's fine. We're going to make sure that we're adhering to the laws of Michigan and the policies from the board cuz
yeah, I can't find the suburbs. All right. Great presentation. I'm blown away. Thank you so much. Um Cindy Goodson again. question for you is um how would you if chosen would you have re um let's
say there are research projects for grant funding being being um on the you know uh research projects I was let me tell you why that's wonderful I was over uh research accountability and data for my district so I was the person who
oversaw research practice partnerships there I mean go you scratch my back I scratch yours They're amazing and I think Andrews is a university or something like you already knew that. Let me tell you what they do. They're wonderful in the sense that if you allow them in the district, they will give you
funding and access to that research. That's one of the things that we're missing in especially our marginalized school districts. The re research that comes out, it goes to other districts. But when you bring them to your district and you give them access to your students and access to the classrooms,
you get access to that research and that information. It's free. What about doing the research in house? How would you approach the IRB? If I, for example, were going to go out and do a research uh project on our district, I would have connected to our gaps. Yes, I would
connected to our gaps. For example, we are losing kids, right? This district had over 2,200 kids. We're sitting at,200. So that's one of my priorities. So where I plug in the resources is going to plug in those gaps. So that's where you should because that's going to go into the strategic plan. I don't care
who you are or what you do. Even me, I'm connected to one of the components in the miracles plan, right? And so sure you are welcome to come and work with us, but you're going to whatever you do has to plug into the plan. And one of the plans and priorities are we got to increase our enrollment. We got to bring
our babies back to our district, right? The other thing is uh growing our teachers. So if you have something around that that will be helpful. You have something around helping our babies get literacy and being on grade level. There are multiple ways that partners can come with especially universities
can come in and help us to close our gaps. Project based learning. Yeah. Wonderful. Professional development. That's right. Very good.
Awesome. Thank you. Awesome. I have a question in regards to what would be your experience or your game plan in regards to community engagement and being community involved like we have a commission. We have grassroot organizations that
provide services, the resources. How would you tap into us? As long as you all understand that I'm TA TLC and I'm not too proud to bank. I'm coming to everything. Yeah. When you come to those organizations, I've done it in every role I've ever been in. I've had to go
and work with the community. With community engagement, it's wonderful because it's an opportunity to find out what's happening outside of the district and being able to connect and soften those walls. So, the community is one of the best ways to help close opportunity gaps because they usually have access to
information we don't have. And in many cases, it's grants, it's opportunities, it's money. I've worked with multiple nonprofit organizations where I definitely would not have known about some of the opportunities if I hadn't connected with those organizations. I've
presented to those organizations what was happening to the school because in many cases the uh community organizations they feel cited, they feel excluded. So I go to their meetings and I present on what's happening in the district and I ask them to come in because many times this is what happened
when I was a principal on the west side. uh some of those members are retired in those nonprofit women. So I can get them to come in and help us with with those things that we have. So we can talk about opportunities and engage in community. Absolutely. Because many of them are still excited and still vital even though they're retired to come in
and help us with the work that we need to get done with kids. Um real quick question. Um our teachers are are amazing at Ben Harbor. I feel like we have some of the best teachers in this city, best teachers in the state. Um, we come to the to our schools
and we provide a lot of high needs for our kids. A lot of my kids by the second second week they're calling me mom sometimes and that's a lot to take on. And so, how do you plan to support the emotional uh, physical, mental wellness
of teachers that are giving so much to our students? Yeah, that's a great question. There are multiple ways. I want one of the things I talked about were the mental wellness plans. When kids start the school year, everybody should have a talent portfolio. One of
the major pieces of that portfolio that they fill in is an assessment for their social emotional needs. There are surveys and assessments. There's panorama education that will ask the kids questions about their experiences. And then we develop a plan for them, the
wellness plan to help support them and them to learn how to support themselves through their educational journey. One of those great things are the grief and loss therapy. There are there's a national organization that provides resources for children who have suffered loss.
we are connecting with those organizations or they can help us with the strategies because we don't have to have all the answers but we do need to be tenacious in going to find them and so when we talk about the emotional piece that's one piece but the other piece is connecting in the project based
learning social emotional learning standards our teachers need to know where they are and look for ways to incorporate them in what they teach so kids have an opportunity to learn self-awareness and self-regulation that way they can say oh I know I'm feeling stressed out I'm going to go to the calm corner There should be a room, a corner
in every classroom, in every building where when the kid starts to feel disregulated, they're empowered to make a choice for themselves and their body to remain in control. They can go to that calm corner and get regulated for skills that they've been taught from us or been a part of an organization so
that they don't feel powerless because we know when a kid is disregulated, it's because they're frustrated and they're unable to communicate their needs, but it's still communication. So, we start there. The other thing is PBIS. You guys have that in your district. We make sure that we're providing positive behavioral
intervention systems. We're starting with the what the kids can do, not with what they can't. The other thing is restorative practices. I invented this particular document. Every time a child is removed from a classroom, they get the opportunity to tell their side. Even
when you get arrested, you go in the room and you get to write down what happened, right? where that very same thing is going to be available for our students and put in the system. The student will have their say. The teacher, everybody's involved, but the student will be the opportunity to complete a discipline infraction form
where they get to tell their side and that's when the conduct in investigation is conducted. So, it's not just one-sided. We take one person's word because that's the adult. As much as I love my adults, I've been in this game since 1998. And unfortunately, not y'all. Nobody
here. Nobody in here. Assault people lie. Mhm. And so we have to be equitable in our investigations to ensure that our children are not harmed. Those are restorative practices too that we will
employ. Crisis prevention. There's training. You can be crisis prevention institute certified so that we know what to do when our children are struggling and they're having a crisis. So, we don't have to be mom, but we do need to have some components that we're trained in to know how to funnel that baby to
the right place when they're not in a space routinely to be able to handle what's happening to them. Does that make sense? Very good. All right. Any other questions from the public? Mr. Bishop, how you doing? Well, thank you. One thing I did mention to you earlier while
we were speaking while I was incarcerated I've taught class and facilitated on several things self- loveve leadership cognitive behavior theory and things like that. My question to you is in the district that's under staffed and with risk between the
principal and HR they restrict the principal from hiring certain teachers even some from Andrew University. Would you be open to um hiring community members like as as as volunteers to come in and help in any position in the school? Like Yes, of
course. As long as they clear all, you know, background checks and state regulations. Why not? You have a child here. You're one of the coaches here. Sure. We would definitely welcome you back to help us close some of these gaps. You will be a part of the strategic plan. Yes, ma'am. I asked that because I have a I have a robbery. Bless
you. I got a robbery, but I don't have a drug case or anything against women and children. I was allowed to volunteer as a coach, but I was restricted to volunteer for anything else because the personal issue I had with the prior superintendent. And I asked that because my community activism prior to I mean in
advance of working with a couple of the board members and several other people that's here in the room and they can attest to my character and my track record publicly and privately. And as well as me having my own nonprofit and my LLC for public speaking and podcast organization, I feel like my input should be valued and I'm more effective
than some of these teachers in the classrooms when I come into the school building. Okay, that's something we would look at. Thank you. Absolutely. Any other questions from the public? We have about four minutes, so we have time for one or two more questions.
Is there anybody that has not had an opportunity to ask before I go to Miss Adams? Okay, go ahead. Okay, so thank you. We have all these schools and what I've learned in in their years is that me myself is a visual learner and our
children are as well. Mhm. We have all these schools and if Tyler Perry can take two bathrooms and make it to where he is right now, can we take or think about taking one of these schools using our city's brownfield authority
board to invest in starting filming with our youth? The city worked with the school once upon a time with the radio station. But can we think outside the box on
something like that? I would love to. That's CTE. In my prior life, I worked in radio. My first degree is in media communications. So, I absolutely believe in radio and television, but I also believe in a lot of other opportunities because it's not about what I like, it's about what the kids like. So, when we
talk about CT, we have to have more pathways for them to be able to develop who they want to be. Remember, this is an identity only curriculum, right? So I if it's totally fine to want to be a plumber, you know how much they charge? Yeah. Yeah. They not poor. They not
poor. They you want construction, whatever it is. You want to be a pilot, we have to make sure that we give our kids enough choices, enough pathways so they get to decide who they are. So I'm open to all of it as long as it's something that's structured in the
strategic plan and we got the money. All right. And we have time for one last question. If there is a final question from the public, so with your presentation, it was really thorough. I almost feel like I don't need to ask anything else, but can you
give another example of community engagement? I know you referenced going to meetings or I mean meeting with them, pulling them in. What does that look like? um is it they they're able to come and be in the building as support. They have um regular meetings where they're
combined with board members. What does that look like? Well, it looks it depends on the organization. Uh what I've done is I've met with them. I'll go to their meeting, introduce myself, talk about my vision, possibly do a presentation, and leave some literature
about the school district. Then I will get information from them. I attend their meetings or they can come into the district if they want to partner with us. It really depends on the the uh organization. There have also been nonprofit organizations where I was able to plug them into something we were
missing. For example, we had math scores. Our middle school kids, we had to get them ready for the algebra test they needed to take before they graduated. One organization was able to come in and do an after school program with our kids, saving us that money for us to be able to get more kids by the end of the year ready to pass that test.
So it depends on what the organiz or organization offers but above all I go to them I introduce myself the vision for our school talk about my goals and what we plan to do for the year and then they share with me what they are like what is their mission what are their
goals and we find that alignment where do we connect and that's where we build the relationship to go forward to help the kids okay does that answer your question awesome thank you ladies and gentlemen if you could please give Dr. Simone different a round of applause.
Thank you so much. Um we're going to if it's okay with the board, we're going to take a a quick recess while we get our third candidate. It is 7:20. will return at 7 7:30.
Okay. We are returning from recess as of 7:35 p.m. Dr. Collins, you have the floor. Okay. For those who were not here for the meet and greet, I would like to take this opportunity to introduce our last candidate, and that is Dr. Dallas Lee.
He is a sup assistant superintendent of educational services and opportunities at a school district in Illinois. He has also been instructional director for middle schools and Prince George's County Public Schools in Maryland,
adjunct faculty member of John's Hopkins University School of Education from uh 2019 up until the present principal. He was a former principal of Prince George's County Public Schools and resident and assistant principal
District of Columbia Public Schools Community Academy Century City Public Schools. So he has been identified as someone who is a big supporter and mentor, a great listener, has many tools
in his tool box as a teacher for all. Teacher for students as well as for adults. highly organized and structured, understands systems, sees the big picture, and is goal oriented. He's someone who served as a principal and
assistant principal for 10 years and has served three years in central office administration. So without further ado, I introduce to you at this time Dr. Dallas Lee. All right. And Dr. Lee, feel free to take that mic and move around if it's a
little bit easier for you. Good evening, everyone. My name is Dallas, and I am honored and grateful to be with you all this evening. Before I share with you my vision for educational excellence for Benton Harbor area
schools, I want to frame for you my thinking because when thinking about the specific vision for Benton Harbor, there were two beliefs that stood up in my mind that stay with me all the time. Belief number one, children deserve an
excellent educational experience, especially children of color. Second, when our children leave us and they leave our high school, they should be able to go anywhere, do anything, and be whoever they so desire to be. You know
why? Because we would have equipped them with the skills and the confidence in order to do just that. So, I ask that you journey with me this evening as I take you on the journey towards better together. Now, when learning about the
district, I had the opportunity to read through board meeting minutes, watch the board meetings, and meet with individuals within the community. If we can go down, please. When learning, I came up with six priorities for Benton Harbor area
schools. What we know and what we'll do. First thing, governance shifts have created fragmentation. slowing focus and weakening public trust. What we'll do the priority, please keep in mind on the right are our priorities. Priority
number one, unify leadership, clarify direction, and center students. What we know number two, inconsistent instructional expectations across classrooms, limit equity, and weaken college and career prep. what we'll do.
Priority number two, anchor teaching in equity, coherence, and postsecary readiness. What we know. Number three, students want to feel safe, proud, and seen in
class, on stage, and on the field. Third priority, anchor safety, belonging, and connection in culture and practice. It's who we are and what we do. Next thing that we learned, we risk losing talent
when systems don't support growth or connection. The priority, grow our people and keep our people. Next, we have a 24 million reserve. But aging buildings and rising costs require
urgent, disciplined investment in what matters, the priority. ensure fiscal stewardship, operational discipline, and trusted follow-through. And the last thing that I learned, families want more than connection. They want to be seen,
heard, and included as partners. Our last priority, build systems that invite, inform, and involve families at every level. That's what I learned. Those are our priorities, the things that we'll do. And now, let's get into
the how. If we can go down, please. Now, these were supposed to unfold out so it wouldn't be so much text to read at one time, but I'm going to go from priority one to priority six. I won't read each how because those are our strategies. The what we'll do. I am going to
concentrate on the ones that I'm most passionate about if that's okay. Good. Strategy number one, unity, leadership, clarity, direction, and centering students. First thing on our mind would be to reset and align early governance agreements so that way we work as a team
on behalf of our community and our young people. Next, bi-weekly alignment uh touch points with the board president so we always stay on the same page. And lastly, quarterly studentled uh briefings on the board. I found this
as an opportunity when looking to uh build trust within the community to give young people the opportunity to every quarter come before the board just like we have the opportunity to share and share their input, their perception,
their experiences because their perceptions and experiences matter and we can learn from them. Second priority, anchor teaching and equity, coherence, post-secondary readiness. I'm going to go right to uh making sure that we have instructional essent an instructional
essentials guide so that way throughout the entire district per grade level per grade band we know what good teaching looks like, sounds like, and feels like. And this isn't something that I would create in isolation. It's working with principles so that way at the end of the
day we have coherence and we remove inequity. So if one young person wants to go from one Benton Harour school to another, they get the same learning experience. That's the goal of the coherence. Third priority, and I I invite you all to if I don't touch on them, write them down. I'll definitely
talk about them when I get there. Okay. Third priority, anchor safety, belongingness, and uh connection. I'm going to jump to the one that I'm most passionate about, and that is PBIS, restorative practices, and age appropriate discipline matric matrices.
All three must work in tandem. You have to be able to restore the student when they made a choice that's not so great. You have to have clear discipline expectations and PBIS systems and structures. And by PBS PBIS, I don't mean parties all the time. It's teaching
young people how to behave when they come to school. The Benton Harbor way. Next priority number four, grow our people and keep our people. I'll talk about the two that I'm most passionate about. One, the Benon Harbor area
schools burnout index and action loop. Teaching is hard. Teaching has gotten harder. And I will never be able to take away that pain that comes from working a very difficult job. And just as difficult as
it is, it is super rewarding. But we must tap into knowing what our teachers are experiencing and staff members before they burn out. So it's my belief that we can on some quarterly basis take an index ask questions and this all
boils down to me learning conditions. I do a currently in my district where we give a survey out to teachers. We learned about their teaching and learning conditions. And then we as a leadership team do our best to shift what we do. So that way the conditions are just a little bit better in a job
that is super super difficult because research shows that it is that classroom teacher that has the most impact and influence on young people in that classroom. Next, fall state interviews. It would be my goal to in the fall learn how people are
feeling about their experience working in the district. So, if we're doing something right, we do that thing well, and if we're off the mark, because those first couple weeks starting school are really tough, we can fix it. The goal is
to grow our people and keep our people. Next priority number five, ensure fiscal stewardship. Facility for tracker. This is one I'm passionate about. I understand the state of our buildings and I understand the financial toll that it's going to take
to to make sure that our buildings are in a better space. I do believe that there needs to be some way for the community to know that we are aware of the state of our buildings and not just the state of our buildings but our plan to make sure that we are addressing some of the more immediate needs so our
buildings are conducive for teaching and learning and I believe it should be forward- facing. And lastly, uh, build systems that invite individuals in to feel like they're a part of the community. And this is where I'd want to do, uh, family councils and feedback
loops. One thing I've learned about the district is that there are certain families that don't feel as connected with the district, specifically our Latinx families. And so, it would be my goal to to create some form of a council where I can learn from my Latinx families. I can learn from different families in different neighborhoods. And
then I have feedback loops. Once I've learned, then we'll do. Then we ask how it's going. And that's cyclical. We do that all the time throughout the year. I'd like to go to the next, please. This is my first 100 day plan. Month one, Tiger Table Talks. And that's
just a nice way of saying I'm going to be everywhere all the time listening. And it's not just to listen, but it's then to take what I'm learning and do something with it. And we'll get get into that in month two. Within that first month, I'm looking to learn about district safety and
facility. That's that's an audit. So, upon coming on board that first month, I want to do a walk of all my buildings. Are they ready for young people? Are they ready for students? Are they ready for teachers? Are they ready for staff? Are they safe? That's my principal mindset. So, it's not just one building,
it's all of them. And then what in those buildings are the top five priorities that keep those buildings from being as safe as we get ready to go into the fall and the winter months where HVAC can or cannot be your friend. Next, governance and community 101 ones.
Making sure I have a touch point with board members in addition to um first responders in the community sitting down getting to know who they are, my student government association leads, the the union president. So that way we are all on the same page with how we communicate. I won't go through all of
them though, but please feel free to ask questions because I I did put some time into it. Uh I'm going to go into that second month align. So once I have spent some time learning what that first month is like, that second month I want to make sure that we tackle things that we can actually do the quick wins, 10
things if you will, and then report back out to the community. Uh, I want to go to this this this third one here from month three, excuse me, month two, the culture and climate systems launch. Being new to the district, being new to the area, I have high expectations and I
have a vision for how our young people will acclimate to how what we expect in our schools. So it would be my goal to create a committee of individuals where we have alignment between PBIS restorative practices and then very clear consequence expectations per
school that are great appropriate but that's not work that I'd want to do in isolation. I'd want to get it started with committees. I want to go to my last column month three. This is where I'm starting my instructional walkthroughs in buildings with principles because I need to know what instruction looks like, sounds
like, feels like, because that informs my professional development for and with teachers for and with school leaders. This is work that I've done in the past as a principal supervisor, supervising 12 different middle schools. Doing that work with principles allowed me to better understand the learning they
needed, then preparing them to teach their teachers. And lastly, council feedback loops. Once I have the opportunity to sit down with different constituents, it's then creating feedback loops so I can share with them the things that I learned, the
thing that we did as a district to get better and then we just keep that cycle going throughout the entire year. The goal is to get better at getting better. Can we scroll down, please? I want to leave you with this quote. We are confronted with the fierce urgency
of now. That is who I am as a person. I believe that tomorrow is today. And children, specifically children of color, deserve an exceptional educational experience. And I believe it because I received it growing up on the south side of Chicago. Very quickly through these pictures, I grew up on the
south side of Chicago Earl Elementary School and decided to become a teacher because of my first grade teacher. and I saw how much energy and passion she put into the job. And I went on to be the first in my family to graduate college. From there, teaching on the south side
of Chicago, becoming a principal in Prince George's County, Maryland, and then schooling on down to the bottom. The one of the things I'm most proud of is earning my doctor, the first in my family to do so. But here's my belief. Like, my story is not an anomaly, but
the fact that I'm able to do these things surprises me every single day. every day. I'm shocked right now that I'm standing here in front of you, but it should not be shocking because children deserve. Not only do
children deserve, but it is our responsibility, a moral imperative if you will, to give our young people, who in my opinion sometimes are the furthest removed from opportunity, our very best. So when they leave us, they can do what
they want to do, be who they want to be, and go where they want to go. Thank you. All right, ladies and gentlemen, let's give it up for Dr. Lee. All right, so we're going to now open it up for questions and answers. All right,
you have the floor, please. Right. So my question is what is your knowledge or experience with the science of reading and teaching as it relates to increasing literacy outcomes for all students? Sure. In full transparency, it is not
the space where I was trained through the science of reading. And while that is not the space where I was trained, I do understand it is the way that we should be training our teachers. So at this space now seeking to serve as the superintendent and understanding that the science of reading is best practice.
It's me looking at the resources that sit before me the budget side and human capital side to organize those best practices supports for our young people because right now looking at the data reading the research the science of reading is the way to go to make sure that our young people are reading at
better rates than they currently are and have been in the past. Next question. Okay, we'll go to Miss Adams and then Thank you and thank you. No, thank you. You are a perfect benefactor of what
Obama birthed when he um brought forth my brother's keeper. Yes, ma'am. And congratulations for being the first in your family. Truly appreciate that. you're the type of leader that he spoke of. Are you familiar with the uh the
milestones that he put together? Not not intimately. I do know he's done deep work to improve community involvement within different spaces, but I'm not intimately aware of the uh the work of that actually throughout the the
the earth. Sure. He has even in other countries indeed. um very much so alive although things have shifted and I just hope that all listening ears will refresh by googling what those milestones are. Sure. I appreciate you
for sharing and having met you earlier I do know you're super passionate about making sure that our young people have access to these opportunities my goal to partner with to make sure along with administrative procedure we are doing what we can for our young people through
those types of programs. here. I remember. Yes, ma'am. All right. Any other questions from the public? Miss seats. Oh, I'm sorry. I'll come back to you. Okay.
Thank you. Uh my question is how should this district curriculum be split between college prep and vocational courses or programs? Sure. So I believe often that multiple things can be true at the same time. And so it would have
to take me doing a little bit of research, but what's common place is that young people have opportunities to explore those vocational tracks through either afterchool opportunities or through weekend opportunities or through special programming within schools. We'll have to take a look and see what
are state obligations. That's our first northstar is making sure that we're following state uh expectations for the curriculum. And then from there we see where do we have a little bit of room for nonlinear thinking, nonlinear planning. Where are the resources that can be made available so young people do
have the opportunities to engage in those more vocational practices of which you speak. But our first obligation is to make sure that they are prepared according to state guidelines and it is something I do believe in. Uh very quickly I just did I did my dissertation around just like ways to
engage children of color specifically sec on the secondary level and research noted that when children are engaged deeply inside of school they are more apt to perform and excel academically. So I'm with you but it would just take me doing a little bit of research to see what do we have to work with and what
under what confines can I have a little bit of flexibility to give young people the opportunity to be more engaged in school. I'm with you. Hi. I'm saying yes like I'm holding the mic. I'm sorry. Go ahead. Hi. I've heard you mention vision and mission a lot during your presentation and in a
community like ours, it's very important to us. Um coming in as a new superintendent, um what are your vision and mission personally with our district? And can you highlight three key areas of focus that you plan to address coming in? Yeah. Can you ask that one more time so I can understand
the mission vision part? Yes. So I would like to know what your personal mission and vision is coming into Benton Harbor area schools and if you could highlight three key areas of focus that you'll address. My mission is to make sure that every young person for whom we are
responsible has access to an enriching and rigorous educational experience. So that way they can say I love my school because that's my mission. My vision is to make sure that young
people come to school, they are safe, they are loved, and they are taught well. That would be my vision. Safe, loved and taught well. And from there, it opens up
the doors for them to then buy into the mission that I have. But when students feel like they are safe and loved, they'll they'll rise to the occasion. And you had a second part to that. Sure. Yeah.
First for me is safety. Um safety and belongingness. I'm going to put those together. Second is making sure that the the staff who do the work, regardless of position, are well You have to take care of your people,
especially in an era where it's difficult to find good people. And my third thing is to make sure that we are engaged in a form of continuous improvement. It would not be my goal the first year to have
systems and structures in place for continuous improvement. That is work that I have done in the past where we work on getting better, getting better through systems and structures and cycles. And it's a very rigorous process. We won't get there yet, but my first year is making sure that we have an eagle-eyed focus on getting better.
And what does better look like? So that's that's important to me. Continuous improvement. All right. U Thank you for your presentation. Um Umbella, thank you for that question because I want to dovetail. You
mentioned that your three key areas and my question was actually uh two parts. First, how do you plan to make our district safer because safety is a big concern for students, parents, staff, right? Um, and then how do we get safer
in the districts, particularly the high school because this is where I work, but not I think it's the most at this point it may be the most uh lacking in safety, but and then number two, how will you attract and retain these highquality educators and
staff who are both academically and effective um and cultural components in serving the Benton Harour students? Uh, they're academically effective, but they're c culturally competent for our
specific unique body of students. Thank you. I'm going to approach the how around safety first. I'm not going to use the phrase Google me, but I served as principal at of one of the most challenging schools in Maryland where they could not keep a principal and there was a revolving door and I was assigned to that school and I ended up
staying for 5 years. But the space in which I walked into that school was it was unsafe. Uh and that was the first thing on my mind which prompted me to think in that space today. So when I think about the how then and wanting to transfer that experience to this one,
it's first re reviewing all forms of data before school even starts. I'm looking at uh the infraction data. I'm trying to get a qualitative understanding of the student experience. I'm doing walkthroughs of the building to monitor flow. Like I'm sitting down with principles to say, "Okay, if you're
having some issues with safety, what are what do your um transitions look like?" like I'm going into the weeds with the principal to help them think through safety expectations for their building and then that's where it comes into play like I was discussing earlier making sure that we have clear expectations for
conduct in our buildings is becoming aware of them and if they don't exist we have to teach them and hold students accountable to them but I want to be clear that alongside holding students accountable we have to care for them at the same time so it's doing an assessment of where we are making sure
principles understand where those blind spots are that keep the building from being as safe as possible. Because in my principal mind, I'm thinking about arrival, dismissal, breakfast, lunch transitions, uh, afternoon dismissal. Like, I have that type of awareness that I'm helping principles think through.
But I want to go into something a little bit deeper here because it's not about just making sure spaces are safe and students have consequences. Students have to have schools that they are proud that they go to where they're engaged where they want to make better decisions
and that doesn't happen overnight. So I want to be clear and saying that that's my vision but that is a very slowmoving process that one I've engaged in before. I love doing it, but it takes technical work and adaptive work where you can change people's hearts and minds because
it's not always the kids and that takes a little bit of work cuz our kids don't come to us perfect. And how do I attract and keep good teachers? I'm going back to when I served at that school, challenging
school, I had a very low turnover rate. And whenever I would go to a hiring fair, because I know some of my old staff members are watching now. Hi y'all. I was competitive. So if I knew there was a hiring fair, I was there an hour early sitting there. This is before people had to be super
creative postco. If I knew there was a hiring fair, I brought out gifts for the folks who agreed to sign up to come to my school because I was clear with them. This was one of the more challenging schools, one of the hardest things you'll ever do in your life. So, if you agree to come on, I have something for you, a little gift, and
I'm making a big deal out of it. I mean, I'm I'm going crazy every time because I wanted to create that sense of of competition with my peers because they're looking around like, "How does this guy at one of the worst schools have one of the most robust staff? My people didn't leave me."
But when it came down to attracting, it's getting as creative and not being afraid to make good trouble and taking the risk to find the people. So we got to jump in our car and go down where some folks know they may not be
going back to next school year to their school and say, "Hey, come talk to me." We do those things. Before everybody had to start using the internet, I created my own videos and started sending them out to people saying, "Would you mind just coming and talking to me, taking people out to breakfast, listening to
what they need in the school, and doing my best to acquies to the type of leader they need?" And when it came down to keeping people, you know, I just believe in my people. I spent time with my people. I did my best to develop them to where
they would not want to leave. And when it was time for them to leave because it they wanted to excel and do better, I gave them all the room to do so. But at the end of the day, I expect teachers
I expected teachers to care for our children and it was my responsibility to care for my adults. That would be no different in this role. you. Some of you might be just a little bit older than me and I'm still
responsible for you, right? Your entire person so you don't have to leave a bit of who you are to the side when you come to work. You get to come to work to be who you are every single day. And it is my job to grow you so you're
better. So one day you go out and you make school systems better because of the work that we've done. So you keep your people by knowing them, taking care of them. All right. So we have it's about 8:02. We have three minutes left. We do have
time for one more question. If Well, we do need you to have a mic because it's recorded. We want to make sure that those watching virtually know what's being asked. Perfect. Uh we'll have a high um a high level of violence.
um how do you approach addressing an antiviolence um awareness or movement or h what what have you done in the past because you said you worked in similar district rough districts indeed uh that's the only type of work I've ever
done and I don't ever want to think that we can disconnect the violence that young people experience outside of school from their school lives and so that is what I mean when it comes down to talking about like the heart and mind work because we need to work with staff so they understand that young people come to school with everything that's in
their book bag that we see and things that we may not see that are in their book bags. And so that requires training so we know how best to respond to the needs of young people who experience violence outside of school. And we have social emotional supports built into the
school day somehow. It may not exist right now, but it is something I believe in and it is something that I would need to organize and it's work I've done in the past. I also want to acknowledge violence inside of schools
and it's a multi-pronged view of the situation. One, it boils down to engagement, but two, students may just need to be taught how best to restore when there is some form
of a misunderstanding or a disagreement with someone else instead of resulting to violence. And I know that may sound like a quite lofty goal, but I believe that our children can learn those behaviors. I believe our children can learn the language. I believe our children can learn the dispositions to
solving conflict and conflict resolution differently. It's work I've done in the past and it wasn't easy and it wasn't always sustaining cuz the young people would be great for weeks and then we come to school the next day and it was them full moon days and we were like did
we even do the work? Is being clear that we're going to have these es and flows. That's the reality of it. But we can't lose sight of what is possible. The traction that we've gained teaching and retteing and having having super high expectations. This is
my last thing here. This would be my work with school leaders because research research shows that the principal excuse me the teacher has the most influence over the student. The principal has the most influence over culture and climate. So it is my responsibility to make sure
that those principles understand what the culture and climate should look like, sound like and feel like in their buildings. Be it culture expectations, culture walks, the PBIS piece, it is co-creating that with principles. But I can't even act as if I can be responsible for what that looks like in
each building. But those leaders can and will. And it's work that I have shared as an expectation in the past to principles that I've supervised. And it would be a non-negotiable coming into here into this space not because of the need but
because of the expectation. Okay. Mr. Bishop, I'll allow for your last question and then that'll be it. Did you still have a question? Okay. My question can you hear me? Yes, sir. Yes. My question for you is um we live in a climate where most people aren't
willing to plant a tree if they can't enjoy the shade of it. And in this district as well as other majority black and brown areas, there's a history of certain leaders and positions rather being the mayor's office, city hall, city commission, or school boards that
they make decisions that benefits them specifically and financially as opposed to the benefits and the well-being of our children and parents. And my question is to you, how would you navigate a climate like that should a situation arise? would you be willing to do the right thing even if you should lose the support of the people that's
around you longer it's in the wellbeing and interest of our children first thing that came to my mind is keep the main thing the main thing I'm not here for title or pay I'm here because of the moral imperative
that young people deserve young people deserve and I have a skill set and love for the type of work that needs to be done so keep the main thing. The main thing and in this case, the main thing is me focusing on making sure that our young
people get what they need in order to succeed and thrive and make sure that our staff and teachers get what they need in order to succeed and thrive. And at the end of the day, making sure my integrity is intact because I've always thought as a principle that I need to be able to lay
my head down at night and be able to sleep peacefully. That's the number one thing I've always held on to is if I can go to bed at night and sleep well, I know I'm I'm doing the right thing. Now, I'm not saying that the work won't be difficult. I know what I'm signing up for.
That excites me. I'll talk to my therapist about that. But all right, so ladies and gentlemen, we have for you Dr. Dallas Lee, if you could please give him a round of applause. Thank you very much. So, we would like
to thank um those of the public that we know that everyone in the community is busy. Most of you have worked all day, have children and relatives that may need you, but you actually took the time out to join us for the meet and greet as well as the Q&A. And that means a lot to
us because these are very important decisions um for us to make because we know that they not only impact the district as it stands, but it impacts the trajectory of the district in the future. So, we thank you and we honor you for your presence um this evening.
We are going to open up the floor for public comment shortly, but I did want to give the board an opportunity to debrief if there were any comments that the board would like to make. At this time, you will have closing comments at the end. You can choose to just marinate on your thoughts now or you can choose
to give comments. I did want to give the board an opportunity to to debrief. No one has a a comment. We can go straight to the public. All right. So, hearing none from the board, I just want to make sure that you
all um are aware of our next steps. So, I do want to take this time. Um, this is probably going to catch him off guard, but I would like Dr. uh Christopher Burning to please stand. So, as you all are aware, it is June 24th. Dr. Buts is uh no longer our
superintendent as of June 30th. We are planning to take our formal vote at our Tuesday, July 8th meeting. So that means that there's going to be a window of time where we will not have a superintendent in place that eight days and then after that we have to negotiate a contract. So that means there's going
to be a short window of time that we do not have a superintendent. The board did select uh Dr. Bernick as its interim superintendent for that brief time frame. So I just wanted to take the opportunity to acknowledge you here for being willing to step in the gap and
stand there for us during this transition. So I just like wanted to honor you as well. Um so as stated we do have our three candidates which you all have heard. I hope you all understand um now why they made it to the top three. Um and so as
stated um we will be making our decision our final decision on July 8th. This window of time that we have in the meantime is going to be used for indepth background searches. Um, so HYA will continue to do in-depth searches. I um
have also, and this is a FYI for the board as well, I have done two references so far um for our candidates with their current district. The only candidate that I have not had a chance to complete the reference check for, I
believe, is Dr. Griffin, but her contact communicated with me today. So, I should be able to get that third one wrapped up and I will have the their responses uploaded to the portal. Um, and so we're going to have the next week or so to get those background checks back. Um, it'll
give our board time to marinate on our candidates, our interviews, our applications, and their presentations. Today, we do invite the public back July 8th. You would like to give us additional comments at that time. But at this time, um, we are going to open the
floor up for public comment. Our candidates are not here. They have, uh, exited the building. So, if there is anyone that would like to give us your feedback at this time on what you've heard today, we are here to listen.
If anyone would like to make a public comment on the presentations, you can choose not to because I also understand that there's a certain dynamic that one of these individuals will be your boss. And so if you stand up and you say go for candidate number two and we pick number
one, it might be a little uncomfortable, but we do want you all to feel comfortable being transparent today. So if you would like to make a public comment, please come to the forefront. It can be on your thoughts. It can be on your favorite candidate. It can be anything you like because it's open public comment.
And if you do not use the opportunity, keep in mind we will make a decision and you had this opportunity to allow us to hear your thoughts. So this is why we had the community forum because we've been attempting to be completely transparent and allow the public to be a
part of this journey every step of the way with us. So you have the floor. Good evening. Um, first and foremost, uh, my name is Ashley Williams. I am a resident of Ben Harbor, 125 Parker Avenue. Um, teacher in the community,
um, parent in the community. Currently, my children are not in Ben Harbor Area Schools District. Um, they were for three years before I decided to pull them out for reasons um, for safety and literacy development. And so in that
journey, what I found is that literacy development amongst black children seems to be something that has been majorly focused on in disadvantaged districts. However, through my research, I've learned that this is a problem nationwide. And so when our candidate um
Jeff D got up and he had our data um that might have triggered me in a way that um I had a response that I shouldn't have had a response. Maybe I felt like I was attacking him for the data, but I know based on the data that I've looked at countywide, statewide, is
that proficiency is dropping all over. And to say that you can turn that around is a tall order because it's it's dropping everywhere. That's why the science of reading is here. The science of teaching is here. And we're putting in things in place in our building grades uh one through three to make sure
that we make improvements. And we we're going to be the best at literacy instruction for our kids. I'm claiming that it's happening. And so one of the things that I listened to hear um Dr. Griffin, she talked about phonmic awareness. She talked about building
kids fluency. She talked about teaching kids at their just right level. So she has that knowledge about um the science of reading and how to move kids forward, I believe. And also uh Dr. Dallas Lee got up and I almost felt like I was at church. Um I wanted to ask him like, "Man, are you a pastor? Like where do
you go to church at?" um and he was the one um that spoke to my spirit about moving the needle for our kids. But I'm happy with either Dr. Griffin or Dr. Lee based on the evidence that they came and showed us the things that I know and
understand on how to listen to and look for when people are making decisions for improving outcomes for our children. Thank you. Thank you for your transparency and for being bold and being the first one to get up and and make that statement. I think you
probably broke the ice for others. So I welcome any other comments. We would ask though. Yes, ma'am. The mic is there. You can walk. You can walk. You have strength. Good.
Um I enjoyed and I was compelled by all three finalists and I want to say a thank you and appreciation to the board for picking three dynamic uh finalists for our superintendency. speak a little bit louder. I'm sorry. Can you hear me now? I said I was I wanted to express
some gratitude and appreciation to the school board for y'all picking three dynamic finalists for the superintendency. And in cohesion with everything that was said, I was moved by it. But the uh the issue of uh school safety and accountability and our children feeling comfortable while
they're at school came up and um one of the seniors who just graduated, Shana Khan, sent me a message on Facebook for me to read to the school board and she had a lot of positive to say, but she wanted me to highlight specifically one of the things that she felt like the new superintendent should make an area of
concern and it says one thing that I didn't like about my four years of high school is a staff laughing, security guards, teachers, and janitors, etc. The security guards were picking and choosing who to let slide in the hallways, who to pick with when it came to how we were dressed. I remember watching the security guard shaming the
girl based off of how she looked or was built. They're supposed to make us feel safe in their environment that our parents want us to learn in, not judging us in any shape or form. Said some teachers had their favorite students. When they came to the bathrooms, they were not cleaned all the way. Maybe they need some better cleaning supplies.
And I read that because I know the district short staffing is also a lot of uh account accountability and discipline and structure being geared towards the students. But I'm going ask y'all whoever y'all pick for the super superintendency they able to
develop and execute some type of full holistic healing and proper direction when it come to our children. Like everybody got to be held accountable from the school board down to the janitor. Like I read a quote, "You judge a boss by how you speak to the janitor." And they got to go uphill like that, too. Because I've been conducting
surveys all week from the middle school and high school students, and I plan to make them all public and send them to your emails as well. Thank you. Thank you. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Stop right there.
Our secretary is going to provide you with some assistance. This the class. This ain't the class for you. Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate you and thank you all. Mary Alice Adams,
formerly known as Commissioner Mary Alice Adams, still Commissioner Adams because I happen to be a commissioner for the plan zoning for the city of Benton Harbor. I've spent, oh gosh, I've been a Brownfield Authority board
member since 2002 to present. I'm formerly a commissioner for the city, the great city of Benton Harour, Michigan since 2011 to 20 Well, I served 12 years.
Actually, I'm a proud resident taxpayer standing here because I am responsible for some of the decisions that have been made for the growth that others seem to shine on. But what they don't understand, I appreciate each and every
last one of you because the decisions we have to make as leaders is not hard. Especially when you don't have money nor people that you can tax to get any. See St. Joe, they have a lot of doctors
and lawyers and nurses and some that have went to, you know, school, come home and they can pay their taxes because they have these jobs that one of the, you know, world's largest appliance makers give a job to. We all know the
story. I'm going to have to go there. But how dare anybody? I grew up in Ben Harour. It used to be beautiful, black and white, where people got alone. Then there was a couple of white flights that took place and we were left to fend
with nothing because they picked up the factories and took them with them. Now, if the thinkers that know how to really think outside the box could help us all do something that creating some jobs, not only job, but manufacturing to pay
us so that we can create more safe spaces for our babies. Because everything costs, but not everything because we knew how to get a jump rope. We knew how to get extension cord and we got to whoop and make a jump rope.
We shot marbles and stuff. These children today are into different things, but we just want to create something to where we can probably create ourselves a paycheck. I've sat downtown down there for $25 a meeting. Commissioner Adam, please wrap up your
com your time. Terrific people that I've heard from you today. And I just hope and pray that I can get any of you to be on a call that's taking place Friday with Obama's people. We've been given two regional directors and they weren't
here from those that we plan on planting my brother and my sister's keeper right here in the school. And any money that comes through coming here for our babies, I'd like somebody to email me, please, so I can get you. I'm off every Friday.
So the information one to one to two. Okay. 1:00 to 2:00. Thank you. Okay. Um, Brenda Terrell, um, educator in Benton Harour Area Schools. So, I listened to the
candidates tonight and I was impressed, but I was mostly impressed by candidates one and two. And if I put them in order,
I'mma put them in order by two and one. I'mma tell you. Um, Dr. Simone Griffin, she brought it. I'm just going to say it. She brought it. And she talked about curriculum. And
you know how I feel about, y'all already know. But I don't even want to get into that cuz I get myself worked up. But because it's about our kids and the way she talked, it was almost like she knew how we felt. And we have to get somebody in here
that can relate to us, that's really willing to put the work in. And I really believe that we can work well with her because, you know, I have a zero tolerance for foolishness. And I have a zero tolerance for people
messing with our kids because I'm not gonna stand for it. I don't I don't sugarcoat anything because I don't know how to do that. Cuz when you sugarcoat stuff, you start making people get confused of what mean. And so
I'm really looking forward I don't know who how you all are going to vote, but you say say it. If we don't say it, I'm really looking forward to working with her. Okay. Good evening, esteemed board of education. Start the timer.
They'll start it. I know they will start it. Um, how how do they say that? I need to regain my time from that comment. But my name is Ronaldo Triplet. I am a proud graduate of the 103rd
class of Ben Harour High School. the class of 1978 where I served as the president of that class for four years. Um, I am so proud to be a Tiger,
but I want to say to my colleagues on this board of education, I am so grateful for the work that you all have done. I recused myself from the two sessions prior to I have never
visited the portal. I will visit the portal tonight. But I want to say to you all that you all did an absolutely amazing job. I want to uh say to Dr. column when you stood here, I asked you, can we trust
you? And to hya had an opportunity um couple of weeks ago, just out of the blue, the Holy Spirit told me to go to the state board of education meeting and I drove by myself. And when I went up
there and I got in the room, I saw Hya there and my mind immediately went to h got them. Aha. She going to come up here and tell them what's going on in Benton Harbor.
And then I went back to our seven norms of collaboration because when they got up and they spoke and to the representatives, I'm so glad I got an opportunity to see you all tonight as well. They got up and spoke. Dr. Collins and the team from HYA, they are
assisting our state, the state of Michigan, the state board of education in the selection of our new state superintendent. And so again, I know, you know, we um you know, we've been in trauma and I
know we've I I don't I don't like to say that. I'll take that back. I I'm not going to claim that. I don't I don't I don't I don't do the disadvantage. I've never met a child in Ben Harour to who introduced themselves as I am disadvantaged Ronaldo triplet. I am
underserved Trenton Bones. I am underprivileged. I've never met any of our kids speaking that language. But I do want to say and I'm going to close out. Thank you Dr. Collins for your professionalism and to the HY team. But to my to our board,
I am so proud to be a part of this board of education. You all did an amazing job and I think we should give them a round of applause. Good job. Well done. Thank you.
Thank you so much. You have the floor. Yes. Awesome. Awesome. So again, I agree. I agree. I feel you guys have selected three awesome candidates. They all had their positives. They all had um
their history, right? And the examples or outcomes that they have experienced. you know, we've had a joke or I've made a joke like team Griffin already. However, right? Um, and it's because
it's it is holistic, right? I I don't usually do or reference my wellness, but it is the the process of including or represent the whole person, right? I don't know if we've had a person in place or that all of our teachers are
inclusive of that, right? Whereas we are thinking about the child's mental emotional right even spiritual to an extent because spiritual is your place in the world right we don't have to talk about a religion or denomination but what is your space and place in the
world and just hearing her speak you would feel that you had a place whether you were a teacher a student vendor grassroot um community entity and so I feel that that is what is needed in our community someone that understands or is
willing to be connected in every way because we all need to do this work together regardless if we just started, right? Or have have longevity in it because there's new things that need to be utilized and made aware of that sometimes the kids know about it and
because the adult doesn't, it doesn't happen. And we have to remember that no ch no child or most children do not learn the same. And so having that diversity, having that second and you know, plan A, B, C to Z if needed, I was
a parent and actually more than one applicant. But again, I just want to say thank you. I feel that we would be well with number two. And uh you guys did an awesome job though. I mean, I literally was thinking like, oh, I know someone was going to be short changed in one area or another. And they all had
different personalities, but they had the heart for our community. So either would be awesome. And again, they were great applicants. Thank you. Any other feedback from the public? Got our same our core team right that's
coming to the mic. Thank you. Um Cindy Goodson again, Benton Harbor, class of 1986. Um four-year vice president of this amazing class. I'm following your footsteps. my former varsity uh cheer uh cheerleading coach would see me coming
home to visit and I want to thank you. I would be home visiting when I was living in Houston over the years. He would say, "Gen, we need you. We need you." I would come home to to and be here for just a weekend. We need you. I'm I said, "Okay, he he call me. Call me. We need you."
And when we would be able to have a minute to to talk for two seconds, say, "What what you need me to do?" I don't know, but we need you. And um and I just want to thank you for just dropping that seed continually. I never in a 35 years being out of high school would have
thought that I would be back here working here at Benton Harour High School. But I'm here and when I tell you it has been lifechanging, lifechanging. I have transformed into someone who um these kids have
opened my whole soul up in a way that I've never even thought that could happen. I'm learning I'm learning so much about me through these high schoolers, through all the kids, but I'm I'm here at the high school. Um congratulations to every single board member y'all that y'all did that the
work of finding these amazing candidates. Of course, I agree. Two then one. Um, they were all amazing, but two then won in that order. Um, I didn't have a chance to ask the other two candidates about a plan. I I would hope that y'all
would do this for me. Um, as you're continuing the the interview process, the you they they touched on safety. Well, the third candidate did, but I want to know what would be a real
strategic plan, an idea for um for reducing the violence and what does that look like? We know we have restorative justice. I'm part of that team. Um so, I'm going to leave it at that. That was my main thing. Please um if
y'all can follow up with an action plan because I know we've got the curriculums have to start. We have to start in at the younger ages, but they when they get to the high school, they're they they're fighting and they want to fight so much. What can we do on top of everything that we're already doing and planning to do?
What is their plan for anti-violence? Thank you, Miss Glisten. I want to make sure I noted what you said correctly. You know, you indicated you had two favorites. Number two, Dr. Griffin. Dr. Griffin and then Mr. Dace. Mr. D. Okay. Yeah. All
right. Any other feedback? from the public. All right. So, we would like to thank you all. You do phenomenal today. I know that there were moments where I kind of uh reminded you all of the expectations as it relates to questions. I wasn't
trying to be rude. I just wanted to make sure everyone had an opportunity to ask their questions and that we were equitable with the amount of time the candidates were speaking that um everyone got that same opportunity to be heard. So I wasn't attempting to be rude, just tried to make sure that we
were able to get through and that the mo the meeting moved fluidly. Um so at this particular time, one last reminder that we will be taking our vote on July 8th, which is next month. since the Tuesday.
Um I would ask I would like to first say thank you to the public for your feedback regarding the candidates. It's been extremely valuable. We do greatly appreciate your comments and your feedback that we have selected three amazing candidates. So we thank the
public as well as Secretary Triplet for your feedback. I would ask and I normally don't do this but there are people that are missing today. I know that there are some on virtual, but we have a lot of community members that are missing missing. If you all could use the power of social media that we use
when we have a concern about something and express your your experience this evening, how you felt, how you feel about the candidates. You don't have to go into personals, but just help us in getting the community engaged in what you experienced today so that we can make sure more people are in the loop regarding how amazing our candidates
are, how impressed you were, and any additional thoughts that you have. that would be extremely helpful because anyone that did not come tonight can look at the video. So you can mention that they can check out the YouTube video to see the presentations but they can also have an opportunity to give us their thoughts July 8th if they go back
and watch the meeting. So I'm just asking that you all help us in communicating that information um to the general public as well as on social media. So at this time we are actually at the end of the meeting. I'm going to open up for board member announcements and comments. And we're going to start
with Trustee Wat Martin today. And a reminder before you start talking, pull your mic up really close. Yes, ma'am. Nice and loud. I appreciate everybody being here today. I appreciate the comments that I've
heard and I may not say much at times, but I'm thinking and I'm taking it all in. And I'm the type of person I don't make quick and ready judgments. And so I I'm letting it all marinate and I'm keeping my options open. I've heard
what you said. Don't think I haven't. I have um And so with that being said, I'm ready to give us a good superintendent. I appreciate the process that we had to go through. It was long. It was um we put some time in. We put some training
in. This was not like an overnight thing. as you can tell. And so I told um Dr. Collins, which is which is also my uh high school colleague, that um you know the process that we
took. I'm I'm happy with all three and I'll say that in a way that we got eligible people. You know, we don't we have people that can lead this work. However, we do have to make a choice. And so I've heard your voices. I have my
own thoughts and um you know I'm just going to marinate and see how we all gel a and come together to give you the best superintendent that you can have and I promise as a board on my part that I
will support my superintendent. Thank you Trusty Doyle. Yes. I I would like to just thank everybody for coming out. You guys, can you hear me? It might be my mic cuz I'm right up on
top of All right. Okay. So, I just would like to thank everyone for coming out. Your input was valuable. Is valuable. Um, I'm just looking at all the people and these people I know and I've dealt with and
like I say, your input is important and it means a lot that you guys are here telling us, letting us know we're not making this decision by oursel because it's a it takes a village. Like some of our people said, it takes a village. It
takes all of us. And I'm grateful to see you all here. I'm grateful for the people that are watching. Please, please, please chime in on which ones you liked um best. Um what else? I think that's it. You guys have a wonderful
evening on purpose. Thank you. Next, Trusty Gavin. Thank you, President Robinson. Are we allowed to like be candid about our thoughts on this or This is your comment. No, this is your comment. Okay.
Um, I came in um with a couple candidates at the top of my list and I I knew it would be challenging. It's a very good problem. Very good problem. But I know one thing
I knew was that our kids deserve the best. I knew that without a shadow of a doubt that our kids deserve what we saw today. And I am beyond excited about this problem.
But I came out after this experience real clear on a candidate. Real clear on Dr. Griffin. Real clear. I'm clear because what I heard and what I saw was genuine
connection, clear solutions, clear actionable solutions as to how to get in here, get involved, and do what it takes to take our district where it needs to go. not
just for the students but every entity that is connected that is needed in order for our district to to be successful. And she had a clear plan of accountability
even for the vendors, even for the businesses, even for, you know, for everybody who wanted the grassroots organizations, anybody who wanted to be connected to this district. She had a clear plan of how to connect them, how
to expand our resources, and how to hold everyone accountable, empower everyone to hold themselves accountable, including our children. And my main reason for sitting at this table
or even being involved in anything is mental health support for our children. That's my reason. That's my purpose. That's my hidden agenda, right? And what I heard was a person who had a strategy
for a mental health plan for everybody that connects to our children. so that they can properly serve our children. So, I left you I'm leaving very clear on who I would love to see connect with our
community and lead this district to the next level. Does that mean I'm not open? Does that mean that I don't want to I absolutely want to hear what everyone has to say and what everyone's thinking, but from the folks that came to the podium, it sounds like we all are on the same page. And just lastly, one thing
that I heard when she was speaking and I felt was that even people who don't necessarily get along can start getting along again because the problems that we have been facing can be solved and we can be empowered to solve them together.
Thank you. Good to have you. And I would like to say I appreciate your candidness and you breaking the ice as a board member and being bold enough to just lay it out there who who you support. So, thank you for that. Up next, we have
Treasurer Bradley. All right. Good evening and thank you everyone for coming out. We uh thank you all for being involved and you know helping us with this process. Um, I will say this. I'm leaning towards um candidate number
one. Um, definitely uh with this central office experience, we're going to need need that. Um, but I'm not opposed to candidate number two either. So, you can mark me down for that. Um, the arduous task of selecting our next superintendent was winding down. It was
not an easy task to say the least. We've had some awesome candidates, but I am glad that we are getting it done. Will everyone be happy? We hope so. But we all can agree to disagree. And with that, we must be careful how we disagree. Next, now that we are putting in place a new leader, let's remember
how we got down this road. Our outlook as a board must change with our vote. We are saying we trust this person to lead us. So, let us let them do the job that they were hired for. And yes, it will take some time for us to get to know them and for them to get to know us. And
no, I am not saying we don't have our concerns, but we must be mindful that we are here to govern. Starting now, let's watch how we address our employee, the superintendent, one another, and our staff members. Let's focus on governing and not micromanaging. Let's stay out of the weeds and maintain
our 25,000 to 50,000 foot view. We are not involved in the day-to-day operations of the district. And if that's an issue for some of you and you get upset when I say when I or others say this, then you really need to do some self-reflecting and ask yourself, what or who am I serving for? A favorite
passage of scripture of mine says it like this. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or deceit, but in humility consider others as more important than yourselves. Everyone should look not to his own interest, but rather to the interest of others. Philippians 2 3 and 4.
Let's make sure that we inform staff and members of the community to follow the chain of command to address complaints. It's not that we are not concerned about your issues. We are concerned, but there is a proper way of going about getting things done and when it is appropriate, we as a board will step in. Give our
central admin team and the superintendent time to address the concerns and issues. Let's not gaslight the community and make mole hills into mountains. Let's focus on moving forward and not looking back. This is not about you or me, things not going my way or your way, personal agendas or personal
grievances. This is about moving this district further into the 21st century. With all that is going on around us locally, at the state level, federally, and around the world, we cannot continue to have a smallminded view of issues. It's much bigger than that. We must
think big picture. And then the other thing I saw in leaderboard magazine from MASB which was very timely, they had an article for the board members on page 36, the uh red carpet treatment um discussing onboarding a new
superintendent by uh Jay Bennett, one of the facilitators uh at MASB. So check that out and I'm glad that that was in there. You all have a good evening and thank you for coming out. What page was that, Brian? Um that is that article is on page 34. The red
carpet treatment on boarding a new superintendent requires careful planning, clear communication, and ongoing support. Thank you. They told me you had a hot statement written up. I knew you were coming. All right. Up next, we'll have Secretary
Triplet. Thank you, Madam President, and I I am so grateful for uh what AI brings to the table. even my own thoughts. Thank you. Oh, no, no, I wasn't talking I wasn't talking about you. I wouldn't dare do that.
I I wasn't talking about you. But again, like I said, I I'm so appreciative of AI and um what it actually brings to the table and it takes us to the next level. Um today has been um a a a a special day
for me. Um today is my mom's birthday and um you know I had a chance to um talk to my father and my siblings and we miss our mother so much but I could see her saying you know you got to go and
you got to continue to do the work as I said and I mean this from the bottom of my heart and you all look so amazing on the other side of this table. y'all really look dignified and and all of those things. You know, when you when you back in the back, you grunting, leaning and, you know, being slick at
your mouth and all of those things. But, um, again, to HYA, thank you for a job well done. We appreciate your professionalism. We appreciate your integrity in this process. And um also um
I'm this is my first time hearing and seeing them and I was very very very impressed. I am not at this particular time prepared. Yeah. Yes. Um I'm not particularly prepared at this particular time to say who I'm
leaning towards. they'll still get some more work to be done um as we go through and and hya finish the ne the last step in closing um out the process. But again to this community, I am I I am so I
prayed about this. So I know that God is going to give us the very very best for our children. And I'm so appreciative to our president as always. I want to give you um um give, you know, defer to you and and and to let you know that I do
appreciate your leadership. Um to Trusty Gavin, I appreciate you standing on the wall and just staying on the wall regardless of what other may have thought, others may have said. I appreciate, you know, uh and to to to
all of you all, you all are doing an absolutely amazing job. Um, as Cindy said, um, I was her cheerleading coach and, um, I was a coach here. I was a Tiger mascot and I was a coach here for 28 years and some phenomenal women and
young men came out of that program. As a matter of fact, our president was one of my varsity cheerleaders as well. So, um, it's greatness in Ben Harbor. I cringe when people say negative things. It's greatness. It's greatness here. and um
and and this is the season of quant of quality versus quantity. So I started here with 15,000 students. I was formally educated from kindergarten to 12th grade. There were
15,000 students in this district. And for me now to see 1200 and 1300 I've been through it all. So sometime if I get a little I've lived it. Okay. So again, thank you
so very very much. Uh my colleagues and you guys, you guys rocked this and I'm looking forward to um finding out who's going to be our new superintendent on July the 8th cuz I whoever it is, we're going to go in a great direction. Amen.
Amen. Amen. All right. Thank you, Vice President Bowen. Thank you. You know, Mr. Dace brings a calm demeanor. Dr. Griffin brings that it factor.
Dr. Lee reminds me of President Obama giving a great speech. It makes you believe again. But what really got me was when she talked about the restorative justice plan where the kid gives their side of a story. You
know, back in 1998, a little kid did a strike at a school. He just wanted to read that book. It was the Robinson Caruso book. The teacher said, "No, it was too advanced for his grade level." So, he watched the news and see Northwest Airlines was going on
strike. So, he got a strike paper and told his teacher, "If I don't read the book, I'm not doing no work." Well, his parents believed if that teacher called, you were in trouble. and he didn't get to tell that side of that story. He got a whooping when he got home. He did ring
and get to read that book. So, I like that part where the kid gets to tell that story. That kid that got that whoop and went on strike was me. So, often times we don't get to tell that story and get to hear the kid thing. And I think that's extremely important. But
when we're looking at who we want to lead the district, they may say what they want to say about us, but we bring that swag. We bring that pride. We bring that it factor and it's time for us to own it. Yes. Yes. And let's be proud. We're from Bitten Harbor Tiger in. When I was in Detroit,
we used to come to the games and just be to be under the Tiger M. I was a Cavalier at that time. If I was to vote today on my top two, I would select Dr. Griffin and Mr. Lee. If I was so able to
select my top one, it would be Dr. Griffin. I believe it is time for us to bring bold, unapologetic, strong leadership. I think this would set us into a new direction and
the candidates were amazing. It's just Dr. Lee has it for me and that's who my vote would go for. Thank you and God bless. Dr. Lee, I'm sorry, Dr. Griffin. Sorry. Sorry. I told you it's, you know, it's the air factor. Both were good. Dr.
Griffin was the best. All right. So, I am the final one. I'll make it as brief as possible. I would like to say thank you to my board of education. We have had many challenges, many hot topics, many discussions and debates and
fallouts. I think out of everything we have ever done, this is the most cohesive we have ever been. And God works in mysterious ways because in my five years on the board and four years
as president, this was the most intimidating process I have ever had to initiate. And I could only imagine what it was going to be like to come to a consensus at the board table to try to be in alignment with what the public wants, the profile that we selected.
There's so many factors that was involved and understanding as I stated earlier that this does not just impact the current stability of Benton Harour Area Schools but we are impacting Benton Harour Area Schools trajectory and essentially making or breaking the
district. And so I know that there has been communications um in the public from individuals that may not have been in interviews were unaware of what the candidates brought and there has been doubt expressed by the candidates that
we selected. I think it's very important that the public knows that every individual that is sitting at this board table is dedicated to the well-being and success of not only Benton Harbor area schools but our students and our staff. And so I just want to put it on the
record and I know that this is a little bit different than what everyone else has said, but I find it professionally offensive that anyone would ever indicate that we would choose sele candidates who were not the best options out of the pool that we have. I have a
student that attends Fairplane Middle School as well as Trusty Gavin. We also have grandkids, nieces, and nephews that attend the district. So it's just not about the community's kids. This is the future of our children as well that we have been charged to protect and we are
doing our best to do so. And so I just want to honor you all for coming, for giving us your ears, your voice and and taking this journey with us so that we can know that we didn't just do this as seven people who are often judged by all of our municipalities, but we actually
made a community effort. So today, I honor you. I thank you. I'm extremely excited um about the future. And I do have a candidate in mind. Each time my trustees ask me, I say, "Oh, I don't know." I do have a candidate. I have two
favorite. I won't say which are my two favorite, but one of them when they were speaking, I could see myself walking into a building with that individual and presenting as a board president and the superintendent. I could see it. And so, I will just leave it at that. I am
pretty certain I know who my candidate is, but I will allow God to continue to speak to me and I will continue to look at what the public says um as well. So again, I ask that you all please call your friends, your co-workers, get on
social media, communicate about this process so that we can have others involved July 8th. And with that being said, I thank you all. I thank the board. I thank our amazing staff. And again, thank you to Dr. Bernick for standing in the gap in this transition.
Can do it. You can do it. All right. So, one last reminder, we do have a budget hearing Thursday uh at 5:30 and then we have the budget amendments, approvals at 6:30. Just want to make sure that the public is aware of that.
We've made public notice, but I'm telling you now, we'd like you to come back. Also, reminder to the board, and I know they're probably like, "What? We still have that meeting." Um, so that is all I have. So without further ado, is there a motion to adjurnn? I so move. Is there a second or support? The motion has been made by Secretary Triplet and
supported by Treasurer Bradley. Any questions, comments, or concerns? Hearing none. Secretary Triplet. President Robinson. Yes. Vice President Bowen. Yes. Secretary Triplet. Yes. Treasurer Bradley. Yes.
Trustee Rocket Martin, yes. Trusty Gavin, yes. Trustee Doyle, yes. Motion carries, Madam President. All right, meeting is adjourned as of 8:54 p.m. Have a great evening. Thank you.