##VIDEO ID:udZHe9je24I## calling uh this meeting to order for the school district of the city of Dearborn it's uh January 13th it's a Monday January 13th 2025 roll call please truste elji here truste Barry here truste de brosio here truste petoff here truste Watts here trustees zah here president MOS here next item please the next item is the pledge of allegiance to the flag to be presented by Mr David Higgins the principal of William Ford ele Elementary and students who will lead the Pledge of Allegiance good evening everyone president mosip trustees congratulations trustar and trusty alji uh Dr Malo I'm joined by five of my really good friends of course Miss Naim Miss Nei Nim our assistant principal we have sopia Sophia jalala Adam kadua and we have Miriam and Muhammad Ali Zayn they're going to lead us in the Pudge of Allegiance ready I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty Justice amazing Sophia Adam Mariam thank you Muhammad thank you so much thank you another round before we start the um agenda item superintendent update I'd like to address everyone uh obviously uh for those who are following we have changed seats uh prior to this meeting we had our organizational meeting and elected new officers so I'd like to thank my colleagues for entrusting me in the role of President I'd like to also congratulate uh trusty Watts for uh serving as vice president as well as uh trust Zar congratulations for nomination and being elected to serve as secretary and trusty Dian braio to serve as Treasurer um prior uh to that agenda item I'd like to invite truste Zar and trusty alji to make a few remarks after uh their swor in first of all I really want to thank all those that attended uh I really appreciate your support a lot of them on my campaign team and without you I wouldn't have been sitting at this SE so I do appreciate it but I also want to thank the deror community for entrusting me to be able to sit at this sea and I promise I will do the best I can to make sure that our kids get what they need from an educational standpoint from a safety standpoint from different things my job here is to um make sure I live up to your expectation you came out and you voted for me me and now I am um you know my job is to make sure I don't lay you down and I will make sure to do everything I can thank you so much uh I'd also like to thank everyone who um put their support in me I look forward to making sure that we're tackling the issues in our school and make sure that outcomes are what they need to be so that our students are getting the most they can from our schools so that we get the most from them when they move on I want to thank my niece and nephew for coming here today and helping me um actually do this thing and uh for everyone who was out here uh who was part of our campaign thank you and I promise to make you all proud um I'd also like to use this opportunity for another message and announcement I'd like to ask uh if I could the members of the plli family who are here with us to stand up in the back Jim and Denise if you could please stand up as a lot of you might know we lost somebody very important to the Dearborn schools Community Cindy pelli was a fixture in our schools for decades she was an executive assistant to presidents of the college Andy mazara and Gail me and she was someone who dedicated her professional life to helping our students and making sure they had everything they needed unfortunately tragically a couple months ago we lost Cindy and I can say as someone who knew her that I was just happy and lucky to be someone who did know her she's someone who always put a smile on everyone's face she had that dry humor that uh just always made feel made people feel included and like she cared and she not only worked in the schools for decades but then even wanted to be in involved she ran for Dearborn school board and just like other members of her family stayed committed to this community and stayed here until her very last days and so I think what we can say mostly about her is that we were lucky to have her with us and in Arabic we say which means may God have mercy on her soul and give patience to her family and most importantly I think we can say about her more than anything else is that she was a good person who cared about her community and cared about the people who were around her and so to her family we say thank you for sharing her with us and thank you so much for being here with us tonight thank you trusty Zar and trusty alji I'd like to also recognize uh mayor Abdullah hammud who is in attendance thank you so much for supporting our school district and also representative farat I've saw him somewhere in in the background maybe he has left but we would like to also thank him for his support next agenda item please the next agenda item is the superintendent update good evening everyone uh I'm going to start with uh a moment of silence um you know sorry for the the loss of Miss plli and I think we can include her in this moment of silence along with we heard the sad news over the break of former mayor O'Reilly who passed away um mayor O'Reilly was very supportive of the school district uh being involved in the PTI I know dval I know when I was principal he had resided across the street and then he was heavily heavily involved in the foundation along with other issues and Partnerships that he created with the school district so if we could take a moment of sence silence uh I appreciate that for both of them thank you I'm going to move along Mr president if that's okay sure uh so the next I have under agenda items is retirements I'm going to uh congratulate and thank uh Stephanie elal uh over 11 years of experience and Constance Henry 10 years of service if we could express our appreciation and thank you for the years of service congratulations the next I have because there is an agenda item tied to this I'm going to call it Mr wall and Mr musin um at as we look at a potential Bond moving forward there's still a lot of work to do but um they're going to provide an update and uh some information to the board well good evening and uh thank you all uh for giving us a moment congratulations trust M up and congratulations to our two new board members as as well um we're just uh Tom Mr wall and I uh are here uh just to just to kind of give a brief overall as we start this discussion back again there are a couple agenda items that are uh tied to uh our discussions moving forward and our work moving forward and we just thought it would be a good idea uh to kind of provide a little bit of quick background to bring everybody back up to speed uh once again obviously we're talking about infrastructure uh and facility needs we want to remind everybody about the age of our buildings uh and where they are you know as as far as average age goes as well and then I just think it's important to provide that timeline and where this all began because you know uh we all have that covid Gap right everybody says oh that happened like two years ago but really it was like five six years ago because we're in 2025 and covid kind of had that way of putting that Gap in all of our lives so just to kind of put everything back in perspective and give a timeline um we uh you know this all began uh you know we started right after the 2019 uh bond proposal um with a lot of election debriefing um we uh had some brought in interviewed to outside Consultants uh for some Community engagement and we were starting that process all over again when Co hit and then that kind of slowed everything down a little bit we were able to pick back up um we if you recall we had a Citizens committee they were called the VIP committee uh and that committee uh did a lot of work in researching our facility and infrastructure needs they brought some recommendations to this board um the board then uh had requested some addition additional feedback we had some additional Town Hall meetings in 2022 and I think the biggest recommendation that came out of there was that we brought on a uh third-party company to do a long range 30-year kind of facilities needs assessment of our building um and the board gave us the okay to do that that was Fielding International came on board uh they began their work in Fall of 2022 and then presented to the board in May of 2023 at that time uh we also had to consider our operational millage renewal this was a a renewal that happens every 10 years it started in 1994 it's tied directly to our funding that we get from the state of Michigan uh and so uh we put our facility and infrastructure discussion on hold just so that we could focus efforts on that operational millage uh approval and we want to thank our voters who approved that uh in February of 202 four with a 70% approval rating uh in September of this year we or last year uh we once again had to say okay let's get this going again let's bring this conversation back on facility and infrastructure uh and we uh are here tonight uh that's kind of where we are you can see the calendar timeline of events um and there are two companies uh that are on the agenda for this evening one to assist in community engagement another to help us assess uh our the historical aspects of our buildings I think that uh in all of this work that we have done over these past uh five years now going on six years there are some things that came forward in all of our community meetings whether it was that original group in 2019 or in the work with Fielding International um and that and and this is just some highlights of some of that work some of those needs that came out of those uh those meetings this isn't stuff that the district is saying these are directly from all of the community engagement sessions that occurred from our VIP committee from our town hall meetings from the work that Fielding International did engaging the stakeholders uh of our community and you can see there there are some things that just kind of stand out that we know we need to address some things that are very important to this this community a few other takeaways that came out of both the work of both of these groups again this is directly from our community this is not what the what the administration is saying this is what our community was telling us during those during those meetings we've compiled a lot of this information uh on the first Bell which is our newsletter website which you can access directly from dearbornschools.org if you go to the first Bell there's a facilities uh tab up at the top and if you click on that tab it will take you to all this information and you can review for yourself all of that work that's been done the presentations that were submitted to the board the reports that were given by Fielding uh and their analysis of our buildings and you can take a look at all of that and so that we can all help help everybody uh kind of get back into this mode mode and get up to speed on where we are uh with this very very important discussion the uh the final thing that uh we want toh share is this so I use this analogy if I'm getting together with three of my friends and I know that one of them has had Italian food for the last five days and the other is on a diet because it's the new year and another is saying that they do not like to eat meat they're vegetarians um and I just come out and I tell them hey where do you guys want to go for dinner going to get a lot of different answers we're going to get a lot of him and and ha we're going to get a lot of different kinds of responses on a blank slate but as a good host what I might do is I might say hey I know that you've had Italian the last five days so let's not eat Italian and I know that you're trying to watch your weight because you're on a New Year's resolution diet and I know you're a vegetarian so I tell you what there are these three restaurants that I think fall in line here there's a Mexican restaurant that that fits all of these Bill how about Mexican so I can help with that process based upon what I already know uh and I'm not telling them that we're going to go eat Mexican I'm helping to steer the conversation and they then May respond and provide me with further Fe feedback that helps even more I think that's where we are with our discussion on facilities and infrastructure and I don't mean to trivia uh make it trivial or to uh make light-heartedness of a very important topic but what I'm trying to say here is that I think as a district it's our responsibility to help guide the conversation not direct it not tell people what to think but help guide people in the conversation we know already the public has told us time and time again what some of their main concerns are Safety and Security is a big concern renovating bathrooms throughout our district is a big concern making sure that we have the the newest facilities while maintaining the historical Integrity of our building these are things that our community has already told us so I think moving forward what we'd like to ask from the board is that uh is is is is kind of your sense of where you feel how you feel about us in our community engagement helping to direct that conversation not telling people what to think but actually directing with some some some more concrete ideas and plans and then getting feedback on those specific concrete plans and ideas and then tweaking them we did this several years ago and trusty Barry and other trustees who are on the board at the time you may remember pet trusty petoff may also remember um when we did the uh boundary adjustments we brought actual boundary plans to the p and they gave us feedback and said that that's not going to work that's a dumb idea no let's do it this way and the board then tweaked those ideas and we then came up with a plan that was uh had consensus across the community I think that this is a better way of moving forward in our discussions about our facilities and infrastructure uh I think it's our responsibility as a school district to help guide those conversations in that way any questions comments other than they make me hungry what you like Mexican okay all right I I enjoy working with David as you can see he can take an issue and form it into a a process that makes it very easy to understand um just so you know we have not sat on our Laurels since 2019 we've invested close to $90 million in the in our buildings from Esser funds you know from our Capital project funds even grants if you know we've started the electrical buses were on the road this week for the first time that was a $7.1 million Grant buses was on our list uh we spent millions of dollars to upgrade our infrastructure for technology we have new cameras across all our buildings which we never had before so we have done what we can but we're getting getting to the critical point now where we can't necessarily fund that unless we go out and find a particular grant for it so I just want to put out there the sense of urgency we need to address this because we can't continue on this format and be able to operate our schools we're going to have more issues if you remember we've had a big electrical issue at Dearborn High we had one at you know Bryant luckily that was during the summer so School wasn't in session we want to make sure we started addressing this so I just want to put the sense of urgency out there that we have to do it so on the agenda today are two items uh we broke it down because the board asked to get a consultant to work with the public we needed to update our numbers because all the money we put in through the grants of that 90 million and other grants for Safety and Security you know we have also the new um sensors in their bathrooms you know all that is coming from grant money Vape detectors except for the Vape detectors through general fund but those are the things we need to start working on and so today we broke the Consultants down in two sections one to work on the financial and historical side and one to work with the public because not necessarily one company was going to be able to do it all so they would basically hire somebody underneath them so we're trying to cut out the middleman and save money by doing that though the numbers today on the agenda are high we didn't want to change the bid because we asked them what will you do for us and put a dollar value now they're going to cross over so they're going to one says we can do a to z the other one says we're only going to do you know XY Z so that's why the numbers are high we'll sit down with those vendors after today and kind of Whittle down to say who will actually do what so the numbers are high we don't expect to spend that much money but we need to make sure their bid was out there so whoever piece we choose to work with the vendor will be there so that was it I I trust you JY go ahead so I was a part of the VIP for the last Bond and one of the challenges we had was um I felt like the the school district was trying to convince us this is the right way versus listening to the community and what what's needed it was kind of uh more convincing us and giving us guidelines and this is what needs to be done so so my question is what would be done differently and at that time we did have a third-party vendor I I I recall that was putting the bid or helping us so what would be done differently with regard to engagement with the community and how would you look at the proposing the bond to the community I think the first step is obviously communication we want everybody to know that though no decision has been made we're really going to put out there the information the data we've had we spent a lot of money on the long-term plan to show the needs at every single building and the priorities as they see it based upon their feedback from all the surveys and public opinions and town houses that they've held they go us a lot of data so now the point is all right as David said we got to help lead the conversation but not lead him to an answer just kind of give them the data so they can see for themselves the need see where we've been see what data we have and really where do we want to go in the future so I think those are the key points that we really have to make sure is what do they want in their school district it's their school district where I actually live in the district but you know it's our district and where do we want to go from there sorry if I could I I was just looking more Lessons Learned From the failure of the last Bond two I I would say that you know as as I mentioned there are things that we absolutely know that we need and it's a it is our responsibility to make sure we share that with the public that as experts and who live and and breathe this every day we know exactly some of the things that our schools are in desperate need of and need need to be addressed secure vestibules at all of our schools items such as this Safety and Security the balance is then listening to the feedback and incorporating that into the master plan and then that plan being delivered to you the board and then you will have the ultimate decision of deci of of saying this is the plan that we're going to go forward with or this doesn't keep keeping in mind that your vision as a board is always going to be a global vision for the whole District not everybody always has that global vision but your responsibility as board members will be to have that global vision and that's what we will have to that will be our job to bring that to you is that plan that incorporates the needs that we know we need along with those suggestions and those thoughts from our community than uh Dr Malo do you want to add just a comment I think that happened after that we we learned a lot of lessons and we met right away in the pandemic but one of the things we heard from the community I think the board did was come up with a long-term plan so we did that we spent 8 to nine months with fielding and a lot of that work has been done and a lot more work was done than what was happening in 19 we put it on pause because of the um operational millage renewal in February on for reasons uh strategic reasons and it made sense to everybody at the time but now we have to go to the next phase of taking the plans and a tremendous amount of data that we have and then going back to the community and getting additional input and I think that's the stage we're at and that's the difference from the 19 one of the major differences thank you I have a question but it may be delayed until we vote on the item but having only one um bitter first was an issue for me to see why why was it only one one did we constrain ourself with the RFP with the with the historical aspect that we originally we had one vendor for one of the bids so we actually extended the bid reached out to the vendors that some of you provided M trusty PCH cob gave us some vendors for the storical sent it back out there the one vendor said they didn't want to bid again but we had other vendors that stepped up so we did kind of work the community and reached out to other districts um we reached out to Detroit who has done a lot of his historical preservation and one of the companies that's on the agenda today was actually working on the old train depot and renovated that Depot so we know that they have some experience in that that was important for us and um timetable if this gets approved tonight yeah we talked to both vendors and made sure they understood that we had two options one was for this November and they said they they would put a Tim table again to meet this November cuz it's a city election which means it's primarily for Dearborn that they would be voting on and the fallback would potentially be next November and that would be a much broader scale State vote so we we we we don't want to actually that'll be something that the Consultants will work with the community and see which one they feel is more favorable and work with you know board members and the administration and work through that process we definitely don't want this to be rushed so we want this to be a perfect plan for the community listening to them from the get-go about what they want so we would like to get more information possibly in the next month because we need to know as soon as possible the public also needs to know if there would be a a bond coming forward this year or next year um so I I would say we would have to make that decision soon since there so many other steps that we have to do prior to putting this on the ballot oh good any other question y trusty bar not part of this discussion by you mentioned earlier that we have the buses on the road now how many electric vehicle buses we have we received 18 buses through that Grant um all 18 are here some of them are still getting the cameras and the you know all the other stuff that's necessary to put them into production but I know they were scheduled for five buses last week and I'm sure there's more this week okay good thank you I've I've seen one today my son was picked up with with the new one so that was great we are working with Highland for a uh media event later in February as well so but we want to as Mr wall said we want to make sure that the all the buses are equipped and functioning great president uh trustees are look I believe very strongly that our community everyone in the community wants to support the schools um um so I just urge all of us to make sure that we are being very aggressive and transparent with the community when we're communicating to them about these bonds way before they ever end up on a ballot because I think if we do that we will get so much Buy in that our bonds will pass with over you know we won't have to be up against campaigns against the bond or anything like that if we really get by in so I just urge everyone to make sure that we're really investing in campaigns to educate and include I know you guys are doing that but I just want to make sure that we do it even more aggressively to invest in campaigns to include and educate the community before it ever ends up on a ballot because I think if we do that I believe very strongly everyone in our community wants to support the schools they understand how important it is but I think if everyone feels included then we won't end up with hoping that a bond passes by 52% instead we'll be not worrying that it's going to pass with 70 or 75% so I urge us to just be very very aggressive in inclusion and education campaigning strong for these bonds before we put them on a ballot absolutely okay thank you thank you m Mr wall and thank you Mr Monon all right I'll move to non aena thank you Mr President uh so happy New Year everyone hope you had a great uh New Year wishing you all the best we look forward to 2025 working together uh the break is a great time to to unwind and and spend time with family but we're back and we're excited to be here um you know I know the scho students were still emailing we have had whenever we've had some weather conditions but on the weekend or days off so we have had no cancellations yet it might disappoint some of the students but we got to save those days for needed and uh eventually we know the weather is coming I can see some of the uh students here kind of grin in and chuckle in there so um but anyway I wish you all the best in uh to the board to the community to the parents to the students for a great year in 2025 I'm going to move along the agenda and I have M uh Dr patters and Miss farage who are going to come up and talk about the uh State accountability system the index scores that were recently released good evening everyone and congratulations to our newest trustees thank you do we have the presentation of I'll share it with you well um she's doing that I have a couple other items can I just yes I am uh since they're pulling up uh technology goe is that okay president um so I wanted to mention um couple things under other uh we did uh in we are in the process and the board approved this but I was contacted I was on WJR interview this morning um there's been uh positive momentum with our Vape cessation committee that's been working I know I I saw Miss Fe Nemer here she's been working with Dr swen um Miss rumler and others and we have students that are on the committee I think some of them are here and so we've been working on prevention but we piloted these uh Vape detectors at Dearborn High they're very effective it's worked out well we're now moving to the other high schools um we've gotten a very posit POS response the technology is outstanding where it can uh literally they get alerts on their phone um and the administration would know immediately and so again we know that people we want to support them we have access in lhac when they have addictions but the same token we were hearing from the public and we were seeing the new technology that's much better and we've seen it really work at Dearborn High and if it works at the high schools this year we would probably consider as long as we can budget for it for next year looking at at the middle schools we know nationally they the statistics show 8% of high school students are using Vapes and 3% Middle School nationally so those are concerns and we're going to work together with the community on that and I'll turn it back to miss farage you hear me briefly we're going to talk about the accountability system because the scores were released to the public in uh mid December I think and it's important for the community to understand how to access the scores for the individual buildings and what components the state looks at when they score our uh buildings uh with an index score um the historical uh timeline for the ASA accountability system which in our state it's called the index system as you can see it started with Esa element Elementary and education and secondary Education Act and it's changed with each president in 2015 we started a new system called ASA which stands for every student succeeds act and with that comes a new accountability system at the state level um with the new system the buildings were not required to have 100% proficiency rate for each student as it was with an old Child Left Behind if you remember in 2013 the goal and the am the ambitious goal was that every student will be um proficient by year 2013 with Essa it's not like this the state was more realistic and so was the Federal um uh accountability uh we took or they took what we had in place and proportionately they set some threshold percent percentages and they based the accountability system on there uh we included here uh the guide the guide on how to access the individual schools if you wish to look up your child's school and look at what the component scores are um Dr Patterson yes and uh as Miss frage mentioned um the school index is the most recent version of the federal and our our states version of the accountability system that started in 2017 is when it was first implemented so back with No Child Left Behind it was 100% test score the school index is much more of a multiple measures um index and so the way that it works is all of our schools get an index score between one and 100 um overall and then they are um scored on each of these individual components as well so um they get a rating on student growth proficiency School quality School Student Success which you can see listed below includes absent um chronic absenteeism post-secondary work physical education access um also includes graduation rates um English learner progress test participation in English language um English learner test participation so each school is rated on each of these from one to 100 and then there's some waiting and fractions and percentages that go into creating an overall index of one to 100 um so the um trustees you all received a memo on this recently um that has all of our school scores all of this is public information through my school data the direct CS are on the last slide that you can go and look at all of this information in detail um just a few key takeaways is that um overall since the index system was implemented we've we've seen an increase across the board in our schools um overall on average we've increased eight um points on the index system since we began measuring this um if you take a look at the family um the family dashboard it lists our comparison to similar schools as well to the state um you will see that the majority of our schools um outperform our our peers um according to the parent dashboard um and then this is something that we do use as part of our school improvement process um at each of our um elementary middle and high school meetings we review these schools with our Administration and we use this as part of our sip plan to improve our practices Although our achievement rates are not up where we want them to be the reason you see are schools are comparable to other schools in the district and improving is because the growth component weighs the highest in the accountability system and for schools that do not meet the threshold the criteria for performance they are designated one of these designations thankfully we we didn't have any schools that received these designations in the past we used to hear about priority schools Focus schools where the state intervenes uh to improve student achievement uh we haven't had any of the schools with these designations all of our schools are what is called Universal support no identification uh for CSI comprehensive support and Improvement ATS additional targeted support or TSI which is targeted support and Improvement um we're open for any questions so that that is the change from the focused p to performing that's correct in6 since 2016 we've had this specific system in place after ASA was adopted by the federal government trusty PCO okay this is an annual so it's once a year our school improvement process don't we do that um several times throughout the year so we're we're not always this is a one time thing that we um Inc orporate in one school Improvement when do we when do we use it then for that so this is used ongoing for our school Improvement efforts in buildings we get a measurement once a year correct every year we get these measurements once on these five components based on test scores participation in testing uh graduation rates and the other components that Dr P mention so when do we use it for the school improve I've been to through the school improvement process in uh elementary school and I know we do it more than once I think you're talking about the walk through when do we apply this um as part of the process in the spring or in the fall or uh so you're talking about when we go to the buildings and walk through through the buildings okay so these walkthroughs is a different tool that we use internally it was District created and when we do walkthroughs we go look for implement ation in the classrooms not specifically for these metrics for for these metrics when the schools come to central office to present what we call data presentations which took place in December and the last one was last week last week so this is when the schools uh unpack each component and they talk about what needs to be improved and these numbers are generated in from Fall measurements uh most of them uh so the testing comes from Spring assessment um graduation yes and graduate yeah so that would be from the spring of 20124 graduation rates are always one year lagged behind because they're not certified um and then um absenteeism is also from the prior year so these are all 2024 right that's what that's what I was trying to yeah and when we mentioned that it's one part of our SI um program it's um schools are looking at data continuously throughout the year when it becomes available so grades become available at the quarters and semesters this is something that comes available in the fall so that's when they look at it and use as one trying to Envision how it gets Incorporated in the decision making at the building level um and how often they are able to use it effectively to change trajectory in the building if if they see some trending um that would affect their you know Improvement process for the year all right thank you trust alj I do have a question when I look at the component student growth uh is 34% what does that include when we say because I know proficiencies are separate what is student growth in okay so student growth is measured in grades 4 through 11 um so 4th through 88th grade and then we skip until we get to 11 grade that's our next testing year um and so it's included for math and language arts um and they take a look at how a student improve from one year to the next so students begin in third grade they don't have two years of scores until they get into fourth grade so that's where it begins and so the way that it's calculated um just a overall is they take a look at where a student began they took a look at how they grew compared to their peers and they set a Target that would put the student on path to proficient icy a few years down the road and then they measure that student at that Target or below that Target um if they're above that Target then they're counted as making adequate growth towards where that we want them to be if not then they then they don't and that's kind of the fraction that they used for the the student growth component okay thank you any other questions all right thank you Dr pson thank you Mr I have one more Mr President um go ahead Dr thank you uh so obviously everyone was looking forward to the holidays but unfortunately the day before the holidays we had a tragedy um at Fortson as a student was hit by a vehicle um you know our staff our thoughts and prayers are with the student and their family uh we have been providing support um to the family through Miss Rosel dubayy and Mr farad at at uh forson um you know as needed uh the students uh you know is still critical conditions so obviously um you know there's a lot of need there but we'll continue to support I know that trustees reached out and some of them even visited myself and others in the hospital and we're trying to find out and provide support know the mayor's here and I appreciate he called me uh the very next day and uh you know finding out about the student I know he reached out to the family as well and then we were also talking on the second part is in uh president mosa we talked about this last week uh about what we can do there and uh um mayor you know we've done traffic studies in this past and then the mayor um said they're going to work on it from their end the the de police I know the de police have been there since the start of school and we appreciate that and chief Shaheen uh it is uh a state road and I believe some of the um you know traffic lights in that may be County or state so there's a lot of bureaucracy uh but we do know that we need to work on it with them and uh in the past we've worked with the county and appreciate the mayor uh taking the lead on that with Chief Shaheen and again it's a tragedy our thoughts and prayers and we're praying for the student and so hopefully you'll keep your your thoughts and prayers for the student and their family um moving through this uh very difficult situation and as an update um from the city the person who is driving the vehicle and caused the terrible car accident has been charged and is going through the legal process our thoughts definitely with the family uh of the student and uh the unfortunately her sister witnessed that accident as well and this begs a lot of questions to all of us about driving and distracted driving and the importance of coming together as as a school district as well as the city of how do we improve safety and we ensure student safety Crossing and everyone Crossing to schools and to to other venues um it's a definitely a bigger conversation but I I do want to make sure that we focus on safety moving forward even having it as a standalone agenda item where we discuss issues regarding student safety what we can do to improve that uh that area on Ford Road is very dangerous it's something that we've discussed with the mayor and uh definitely has to be addressed and uh not only that area there are also other areas in our city which are dangerous to cross and we have to find ways where pedestrians can safely cross uh I have trusty Barry and then trusty pesov just a quick follow up on Dr malo's comments uh oh yes a lot of my colleagues and I have visited the the family in the hospital president mosab and I uh went together one day I've been checking on the family a couple times they really appreciate everything the school district and the city's doing and mayor hammud uh did visit the family they were very appreciative a lot of our leaders have been checking on the family this is what dearborn's all about so but is if 2 o'clock this afternoon our young princess still needs a lot of prayers all I can say thank you trusty Barry uh trusty P yeah um for years we've been struggling with traffic safety it's been an ongoing conversation we've had um throughout the city with every neighborhood uh we've tried to implement a a variety of options the mayor I saw his one minute message about tinted windows even and the and the low visibility that um they um create and that that could possibly lead to some traffic um fatalities or altercations over the years we also have to um continue to support and I know that we started um trying to encourage driver ed again through um programs through the school district again um to try to get our students um better better educated about how to um drive safely but we can't stop the um amount of individuals who just care to disregard the rules of the road and I would hope that um I don't want this to be a wakeup call but I would hope that the schools can once again especially schools like Fortson and Deerborn High where there is a lot of uh pedestrian traffic versus um Auto in those areas as students come and go from the schools that we can bring more visibility to the concerns um whatever uh we can find I know we have had conversation after conversation about pedest indrian crosswalks over the roads but as uh superintendent Malo mentioned there's a lot of bureaucracy involved in that and and um having to deal with the uh national roads uh along with who pays for what so I hope that we continue to um band together and put our heads uh in the right places to encourage families to have the conversation with with with their younger drivers about responsibility and that a car a car is not a um for a joy ride yeah car a car needs to be handled no differently than any other piece of dangerous um equipment absolutely I would say car is a weapon as well uh trusty Watts um to piggy back off of what trusty petoff had said um you know as a parent of a of a child who's turned 16 it is terrifying to um to relinquish that control for that child but at a very early age I always taught my children that when you are walking make sure you make eye contact with that car just because there's a stop sign do not assume that CH that car will stop so it's an ongoing conversation from when they were small right we teach our children how to cross the street and I think it needs to be a continued conversation even when he was taking driver Zed it was he was no noticing how many cars would would um ignore the red light so it's the defense of driving but I think it is sadly a conversation that we have to have with our children is that don't assume that the other person is going to do the right thing um so parents it's it's a lot of scary things out there but I think it's constant conversations check-ins with them um as a 16-year-old I check his speed on uh Life 360 sorry teenagers out there but it is still a a conversation of how fast are you going um it is it's more than like you said it is a it is a weapon not only for yourself right it behind the wheel but how are you affecting those others around you so I agree with everything that everyone has said and I do appreciate the district and the City May hammood working together but I want to recognize one individual that's along with the Miss and uh Mr fat is uh uh Mr mik safe who a say a social worker from etel Ford he's been really engaged with the family working with them giving them support and uh he's doing a great job so I just want to recognize him as well apprciate yeah he's been right from the start that Friday with them all the time so thank you for doing that all right thank you --------- ##VIDEO ID:KOi7kbj--oA## uh next item please next item is recognition and acknowledgements we'll start with commendations hello my name is Yara Dre I'm a junior at Fortson High School um my name is Miram Mansour I'm also a junior at forson high school we're both a part of the superintendent student student advisory Council and we're part of the cultural Unity board initiative commendations to bus driver Bruce Barry Mr Barry was waiting in his bus after a game at Unice and honked his horn repeatedly when he saw a young child darting through the parking lot by using his horn he alerted the child's parents and the driver of another car passing through the area that could not yet see the child entering the car's path commendations to ET for students Jason bundas and Devon Mitchell for qualifying for the DECA for the state Deca comp competition at the regional Deca conference in December both competed in automotive service marketing individual in addition to qualifying they won medals including silver for roleplay and blue For Occupational exams commendations as well to Anar Sharif who is awarded a silver role-play medal for restaurant and food service management Deca stands for distributive education clubs of America and recognizes students interested in business careers commendations to debor high school students for a great showing in December at the 2024 State thespian Festival in Lancing DHS students brought home 19 Awards and the three seniors received several scholarship offers to to study theater and musical theater at the next level um before I read the honoraries I apologize if I read any of these names wrong Julius Owens Superior rating in musical theater solo Jesse good Superior rating in short film Alex cesanelli Carter kendle Christos Andreu Stefano chaga abdah YF Jesse good and Hannah Frederick for a superior in group musical theater performance Alex sanali and Ava hammud certificates of excellence in monologue Adam mlid certificate of excellence in musical theater solo Ava hammud and Julius Owens certificates of excellence in team dance Adam mlet and Emily maginity and Christos Andreu and Stefano traga certificates of excellence in Duet musical theater Julius Owens State thespian scholarship Honore one of 10 students in the state to receive this prestigious honor commendations to to Mr n jalah and Mr maym Mustafa assistant principls at Forts and high and to Mr Douglas redcliffe um interum assistant principal at Woodworth Middle School the three administrators were selected to be part of the Stu the second cohort of Michigan leaders for equity and transformation fellows this 18-month program is provided by the Michigan Association of Secondary School principles and the Michigan College the Michigan College College Access Network the fellowship aims to create a robust pipeline of equity-minded transformative principles Who Will Champion postsecondary educational access and success for all Michigan students commendations to Miss Elizabeth Myers the Maples Elementary Elementary School music teacher was nominated to be Michigan Teacher of the Year and has advanced the selection round in February the state will announce the regional teachers of the year and in May will reveal the 2025 Michigan Teacher of the Year good job thank next item trusty Barry Rec uh that there's this Championship college football national championship happening next week and more important if you want to get closer to the mic so I don't know if it's sorry more important than National Championship to me at least is that we have two Dearborn High students playing in that game on opposite sides of the the ball we have had joed for Ohio State and Jake telski uh who's playing for Notre Dame I had an opportunity to watch Jake play a few weeks ago uh they they represent Dearborn proud uh two great families and we can't lose that night absolutely did you say Ohio State he does play for I know we got we got to let it go out of respect for theat kind of thank you trusty Barry uh next uh recognition the next recognition is for the etel Ford volleyball team someone asked Mr guix Miss hen and I believe Mr Silver is here too if they want to come up um I know the girls have been waiting patiently here uh and apologize we had some meetings that went over uh We've we they came a couple of months ago to the meeting and had uh expressed concerns with the way you know their season ended and I know they were all devastated we all were and it didn't end the way they want wanted uh but I'm very proud of these students I know the board is they've seen them I think their principal their teachers their coaches their parents uh perseverance sportsmanship teamwork I think they even built a lot more Community amongst themselves uh through this process again sometimes we go through adversity we learn and we become stronger and I think that's what happened with them and so we want to formally recognize them uh for the outstanding work that they did all season I also want to mention that last Friday I was in a meeting with Mr Mark Uli the executive director of mhsaa and I did talk about you know can we look at some other processes uh other than disqualification and there's one of my superintendent colleagues is going to be on the mhsaa board and I expressed the concern with her and he actually said that it was already coming to a Forefront and that there is some discussion uh again we know we take responsibility for what we need to do and make improvements but we also feel like the consequences are not fair to uh student athletes so that's another way that this this team may make a difference if they do make some changes and uh future rules for students so I'm going to let Mr hand it over to Mr guix and we're going to call up uh uh the girls on the team all right so I'm calling them up or you guys are call go ahead we have them all come up I got a list I can call them up so first we have uh senior Maisy gerlock come uh juler junior um Jaylen Dexter have our sophomore Sophia LF um senior Eva Mendes next we have Junior Maya Harman senior Lola R song senior um Malone Margaret Mar yes senior Isabella Marco and um Junior Cynthia say I just talked to president and if any of the board members would like to get I also know that Mr uh trusty brry and others were involved I think there was like an event that occurred before the break as well so thank you for anybody involved with that uh Mr dambrosio and others yeah the the coaches did uh make an event for for the girls last December that I trusty Barry and I had the pleasure of attending and also uh trusty de bro has personal gift cards for each one of you so thank you once again thank you AC Margaret Lola Eva congratulations Casey Jacqueline congratulations Miley Sarah I can go spend them myself they got school tomorrow I might give them the day off we're not allowed to do that we don't have that power don't Isabella congratulations Cynthia congratulations Amaya congratulations for a great season thank you not yeah hold on hold on I didn't realize back board MERS in the back on the back step in the back roll on the back step yeah we're getting two perfect thank you next item next item is employee recognition good evening evening congratulations President mosip welcome congratulations to our new trustees Zar and alji so this month our employee recognition uh the first person I'd like to recognize rela come on up we could give so a round of applause baa is an ELD specialist from Dearborn High School she's got over 12 years with Dearborn schools and she was nominated for always being available to support our English Learners by creating multiple lessons to accommodate all learning abilities making learning fun and being a great co- teer teach and if you know R and if you have any experience with her this just is the just the tip of the iceberg so thank you thank you um honestly it was a shock and a surprise when they came in uh that Friday when Mr Brill came in and the rest of the team I thought it was a sip visit like we started a sip visit so um thank you so much it was an honor thank you I appreciate it thank you congratulations thank you for your service we are thankful for you second one is our non-instructional employee is arenda low she's not able to join us today she's a Technology support analyst she's got over 13 years with deborn schools and she was nominated for her fast-paced inventory of new technology and working her magic behind the scenes so thank you orenda and we are thankful for all you do and third one for today who's also not able to join us is the principal Amal sheab at Miller Elementary Amal um is currently the principal at Miller Elementary this is her first year as principal she has been an assistant principal she was first hired and Dearborn in 2007 and has worked as a par professional a teacher an ELD specialist assistant principal and now in her first year as principal at Miller Elementary School she was nominated for making an environment at Miller that is comfortable and safe consistently checking in and offering support to staff and providing opportunities for staff to train and grow in order to provide students with the best learning experience Amal congratulations for your recognition and thank you we are super thankful for all of you and for our staff thank you thank you next item please next item is the gavl presentation so thank you so I would like to um thank uh former president Barry trustee Barry for a great year of service I want to go back though to 2020 when I served with him as president the first time and we all remember that year and it was one of the most difficult times when all of a sudden we're at Whitmer Bulls in the press conference and he's there supporting and leading and working together and coming to our uh District emergency committee um crisis team and providing support that was a tremendous leadership that year with him and it continued into this past year uh four years later uh thankfully we're not dealing with any pandemic but we have other issues to address and we had a great year under his leadership uh I think there's a mutual respect that the board has and president Barry and myself and him and we're always in it for the best interest of the students in the district um and you know I appreciate how he puts the district ahead of all needs and really has worked hard I also just want to mention that uh you know we had some record shortest meetings uh under his watch but part of that is because we were able to deal with potential negativity or other things that are always part of coming to the board because of his communication and how he worked well with community members and union members um and so thank you for that uh and for communicating with me to address those concerns uh I also want to mention under his watch we passed the operational millage at 72% um and again I think he was all about uh you know learn listen Ing and and to union members to Union leadership to others to staff to parents and teachers uh I also just want to give him you know he was kind of the spearhead going back a few years and we're here with this new acceleration class because we know we want to make improvements for students and student achievement and really he was kind of it was everybody but really it was him spearing that uh as and prior to being president and I think that we anticipate improvements based on that model and I know he's been working uh very hard and he's very passionate to help students so I want to thank president Barry for a great year of service and we will call the new president up to come into the the handing of the gab handing of the gble I got to mention about the handing of the gavel I know that's very important to president uh Barry because even during covid when we were at home he found a way to do it on the monitor never forget trusty Watson reaction that was great you ever see that video yeah it was hilarious thank you very much for those comments and it was a pleasure and honor to serve this District I will continue to support our next leaders too so whatever you need I'm here so thank you on the time of meeting thank you thank you um former president Barry for for your support and your mentorship we we truly appreciate that uh next uh may I say something very quickly goad trust because it's important that this be on the record we've after the great service by trustees Thorp and McDonald of course we've had some transition with new trustees and it might look smooth on the outside but it's only because trusty Barry has been such a resource since the end of the elections and um I I probably can't count how many times I've called him but uh he always has been there for us as we've been through this transitionary process so I just wanted to say thank you very much for all of your service and I know we'll all be leaning on on you as uh one of our Deans here so thank you very much appreciate thank you I'd like to also thank uh former vice president Mary petkov for her service too uh she has served as president multiple times and last year as vice president so thank you thank you trusty P next item next item is board appreciation so each January school districts across the state take a moment to recognize and thank Board of education members for their service to staff and students tonight is even a little more special for us here in Dearborn because we are welcoming two new board me Members trustee aljami and truste Zar who were sworn in today over the last several years school board members across the state and throughout the country have encountered an increased amount of attention as some Schoolboard meetings have been used as a stage for heated debate on a state and National on State and National issues this sometimes hostile attention has made the job job of Schoolboard trustees more difficult during these turbulent times Schoolboard members have had to remain focused on their primary role and responsibilities to develop policies and make tough decisions that shape the district now and in the future in Dearborn board trustees are responsible for the third largest district in Michigan with an enrollment of just over 19,000 students and more than 2700 employees working in 37 District buildings the district district has an annual budget of over 400 million in addition School Board trustees also serve on the Henry Ford College they are the only Schoolboard trustees in the state that also serve as Trustees for a local College this dual responsibility means trustees spend twice the amount of time dedicated to serving the community they evaluate both the superintendent and the college President and must keep a breast of issues laws and legislation impacting both preschool to 12th grade students and the college below his information um our our information I want to share right now is just about the trustees who are serving right now trustee Hussein Barry has served on the board for 13 years he initially served from 2010 to 2014 and was elected again in November of 2016 has served ever since and again thank you for your years as president trusteed dambrosio has served since uh December 2020 after initially being elected to a partial term on the board both trusty Barry and D Bros are scheduled to serve through 2028 with their terms truste Adel mosip was initially appointed of the board in April 2019 he was one of the three trustees who won election to full six-year seat in 2020 and his term will expire the end of 2026 and congratulations as president I look forward to working with you I know we'll have a lot of communications forward so congratulations thank you uh trustee Mary pichoff also won a re-election in 2020 and is scheduled to serve until the end of 2026 she has served on the board for 14 years she was uh first elected in 2000 in 2006 and served from 2007 to 2010 she returned to the board after being elected again in 2014 and yes thank you for your service as vice president trustee and when she was President I believe it was a 19 trustee Irene Watts was the third trustee elected to a full term in 20120 her term expires in 2026 she has served four years on the board of education as mentioned tonight we welcome two new board members Mr Jamal aljami and Mr amarar I've known both of these gentlemen for several years and Mr El Jami and I have go back many years to my days as principal at salinaa uh I know they are both committed to serving the students in Dearborn are people of high moral character and will work hard to serve all students in our classrooms I welcome our new board members to the team and I look forward to working with them and our returning trustees in the year ahead I appreciate all the hard work and collaboration that our returning board members and I have shared over these past many many years I thank all board Trustees for their efforts and commitment to the students the work of running a school district is filled with challenges and success I know that be by continuing to work together we will be able to overcome those challenges and celebrate the success uh congratulations to the new executive board members too uh truste Zar truste d brosio uh uh vice president watts and I've already congratulated uh president mosa um we have a couple of things we have certificates for the board and then you know the theme of 80 years so we have something that we thought would be nice to share with all the board members so if we could now show our appreciation for the board of education for the great service they do during board appreciation month I would really appreciate that thank you Dr Malo uh next item the next item is acknowledgement of donations I just had one other comment is that okay sorry uh president uh just one thing we I've done this and I want to uh you know all trustees all over you know uh but we do have a couple of our employees and we may have more uh but I know Mr Taylor is a and I did get a email from a superintendent I received uh from Center Line he's a board member there he's also a staff member leads the music program and then uh Miss Danielle El zat um she's actually at her organizational meeting tonight at Crestwood so thank you for their service and I'm not if I'm not aware of anyone else in the district yes thank you school district and he is still serving okay and thank you to Malik safe and anyone else that we may not be aware of thank you because it is you know um it is it's tough It's an important job but it comes with uh tough tough decisions and so thank you all for serving the students in Michigan go ahead uh m B thank you acknowledgements of donations a donation of $600 has been offered to Sal Elementary School by the Dearborn Education Foundation to be used for a portable speaker and microphone a donation of 1,500 has been offered to Lorry school by the Dearborn Education Foundation to be used for Steam a donation of $140 has been offered to Salina Elementary School by the Dearborn Education Foundation to be used for headphones a donation of 695 has been offered to Dearborn schools by the Dearborn Education Foundation to be used for the special education Field Day a donation of $115 has been offered to Salina Elementary School by the Dearborn Ed Foundation to be used for dry erasers a donation of $270 has been offered to Fortson High School by the Dearborn Education Foundation to be used for a trip to the Detroit Zoo for the special needs students a donation of $420 has been offered to Henry Ford ele El school by the Dearborn Education Foundation to be used for lined white boards a donation of $322 has been offered to Dearborn schools by the Dearborn Education Foundation to be used for Middle School academic Awards a donation of $3,295 has been offered to Dearborn Public Schools by the Dearborn Education Foundation to be used for matap boards for the districtwide art show a donation of $50,000 has been offered to salinaa Elementary school by the Dearborn Education Foundation in partnership with PNC to be used for the green schoolyards project a donation of $450 180 has been offered to etel for high school by the Dearborn Education Foundation raised via crowdfunding to be used for the girls volleyball team end of the year celebration a donation of a large of large playground AAC boards has been offered to how school by communication is key ACC to be used as a form of communication on the playground at house school a donation of six elliptical machines has been offered to Mulla Unis school by Ali Sade in hype Athletics to be used for students while in the wait room a donation of a set of men's golf clubs has been offered to etel for high school by Jill and Ken chok to be used by the etel Ford golf team a donation of $1,000 has been offered to salinaa Elementary by Jill and Ken chokal to be used for the green schoolyards project a grant of $60,000 has been offered to Salina Elementary School by a by Community Foundation for South South Eastern Michigan to be used for the Green School yards initiative a grant of $500,000 has been offered to Salina Elementary School by the office of the environmental justic Justice public advocate in the Michigan Department of environment Great Lakes and energy to be used for the installation of the Salina green schoolyards recreational nature areas playscape into including drainage topographic changes nature elements rain Garden Play Elements and Landscaping well thank you thank you and uh many thanks to all of the donors um especially uh the Community Foundation the Education Foundation and we do have their executive director here in attendance Miss Town said so thank you so much and congratul special congrats to Salina Elementary uh for the amount of grants that they're receiving welld deserved and uh I say that school definitely deserves all the support that they need I would' like to entertain a motion to move up citizen participation since we do have some students who would like to address us so if I can have a motion to move up citizen participation so move support have a motion by trusty pesov supported by truste Barry any objections attach an unanimous role to that motion and we will have citizen participation so U Mr secretary if you can call uh the students first from the cards oh yeah would like to read that first all right our next item is citizen participation citizens wishing to address the board on agenda and non-agenda items for Action who are signed in by 7:10 p.m. by submitting a blue card to the board secretary may speak at this time the board may not be in a position to respond to non-agenda items therefore speakers should not anticipate an immediate response to their comments or questions for the benefit of all concerned do not mention the names of students or School District employees please keep your comments as brief as possible there is a 3-minute time limit on comments made to the board our first speaker is Hudson Salman who will speak about Middle School baseball and I apologize in advance because I didn't know that you were speaking if I if we knew we would have moved you any earlier but go ahead M also filled out a card for baseball is it okay together absolutely okay right um hello my name is Hudson and I'm an eighth grade student in the district I'm a member of my school's National Junior Honor Society and have been a 4.0 student during my whole time in middle school since kindergarten I have been a baseball player it's my favorite sport and the only sport I play during the summer I play in the Dearborn baseball program and the spring I play on a 13y travel team while I really love playing for both of those programs and travel I really want the opport opportunity to play with my friends who I go to school with however that's not possible as Dearborn does not offer baseball at the middle school level I look forward to attending edil and being able to become a student athlete there but in the meantime it would mean so much if I had the chance to play for my current school it would give me a sense of Pride to wear a uniform with my school's name on it and represent while competing against other schools I also know a lot of other people who attend middle schools in other nearby District and their schools offer baseball teams for them I can tell you for a fact that my school alone could fill up an entire baseball team of seventh and eighth graders because there are so many of us who love playing the game for the past 3 years I have watched my other friends play basketball football swim soccer and run track I think it's now time to start offering baseball Not only would being on a baseball team helped prepare me to be a high school athlete but it would also provide the opportunity for my peers to play who may not have tried baseball before or have have the means to play somewhere else so my friends and I are asking for your support from the board and the district's financial support to help form teams for the spring of 2025 thank you so much for your time thank you Hudson uh hi my name is Musa murfi and I am in seventh grade I want to talk about why starting a baseball program program at our school would be awesome for everyone first of all baseball is a really fun sport it's a game where teamwork is super important and it helps you make friends and learn to trust each other when you're out on the field you learn how to work together cheer each other on and have fun even when you make mistakes plus it gives kids who love baseball a chance to play for our school instead of just in a neighborhood or travel League sometimes we just want to play for our school with our classmates also baseball teaches important life skills you have to focus think fast and stay calm Under Pressure whether you're up to bat or catching a pop fly you learn how to stay cool when things get tough those skills help with More Than Just Sports they help in school and life too another big reason we need baseball is exercise let's be real a lot of us spend too much time sitting whether we're gaming or scrolling on our phones baseball gives us a chance to get outside run around and stay active in a fun way that doesn't even feel like a workout finally having a school baseball team would bring our school spirit to a whole new level imagine cheering on our on your friends from the stands wearing our school colors and celebrating wins together it would bring students teachers and parents together as a community in conclusion a baseball program isn't just about the game it's about teamwork learning important skills staying active and building school pride let's make it happy thank you for your time wow thank you Hudson and musen to your classmates thank you so much for addressing us uh president MOS if you don't mind real quick sure Ambrosio and I attended a community meeting I did not know that these phenomenal students would come up and speak but we made it very clear that we're not there in official capacity we were just two community members to support youth Athletics uh I did have a disc discussion with Chuck Sila who was here and he just left uh he's just looking at it that's all we that's all we can ask for want to make sure that later on if it comes out that yes we did attend that meeting and something definitely to be explored uh with our uh Athletics I know when I came on the board there was no soccer for middle school and that's something that I'm passionate about and uh I'm happy now that we do have soccer for uh middle schools and uh students have a lot of fun and I would I would Envision it to be the same for middle school but there there's a lot of planning uh that has to go be involved as well as funding so we will definitely uh take that into consideration NE com okay next item please and I just want to say baseball is the first sport I played when we moved to America and this is America and we need baseball that's all sorry okay is uh do you want apple pie to go with that yes ma'am is uh I is it mad mik are you also speaking M Mur okay how do you say the first name again M Mada okay Mada mik on Middle School baseball yes okay Musa was my son so full disclosure okay um and I was at that meeting too the community meeting um okay so I had a whole like speech like written out for you guys about like you know um Middle School sports and how great they are for kids but I don't think you guys need to hear that speech what I do want to tell you is this is my 9-year-old this is um Isaac and W say's 12 and I work in Wood Haven and woodh Haven I don't know if you guys know anything about woodh Haven we're a huge baseball District um we've had Dearborn kids come to Wood Haven because we don't offer baseball in Dearborn um I've emailed athletic directors I've talked face to face with athletic directors and I'm all always told like well there's barriers there's Transportation there's this there's that there's all these reasons why we can't do it but no one's ever told me like how we can do it I mean you know people baseball people I know baseball people all of us here know kids that play baseball down river they have um little leagues um in Dearborn we have um uh the Dearborn baseball Dearborn baseball I I was thinking if we could like kind of I don't know team up with them if we can you get like um get together with them and form like like hype is doing with basketball that like just came out of nowhere like Isaac's playing basketball now with Lindberg um so like I feel like my kids I feel like the more opportunities we give kids the less time they're going to spend on the streets okay I feel like there's a lot of issues with our community that a lot of people don't want to talk about and I feel like if we if we offer more we'll have more kids I feel like um like compar comparative to my district which doesn't have as many schools as we have in Dearborn but still we have more programs so we're not feeding into the high schools atel Ford has made a name for themselves which is like you I'm very proud of atel Ford but we're we're missing out the other high schools are missing out we're we're losing baseball programs we're losing them to private schools because we're putting all this time and energy into our kids I'll tell you right now my kids are playing Community ball my kids are playing travel ball um like my husband took my son to Ohio on Friday when I took him to his Lindberg basketball game so we're putting a lot of energy into our kids and then it's getting time for high school and then we're looking at the high school programs it's like okay my kids's been playing since he was five maybe I'm going to look at divine child maybe I'm going to look at another school district I don't want to do that I'm a public school teacher I 100% believe in keeping my kids in the public schools so I need I we need to do something about the lack of a baseball program in Dearborne and I'm just putting it out there and letting you guys know that I'm ready to work on a committee if you guys want we have people who are willing to work we have we have transportation we have equipment and you know like some schools need introduction to baseball and some schools already have kids who are ready to play so that's it thank you so much for your comments we fully appreciate it and we look forward to collaborating with you more all right next speaker please I don't know if he's the next speaker is nil mudi to speak about kids education Mr mud still here I think he left left okay uh I have no more blue cards Mr President okay um we do have a board followup from last meeting so uh trusty Watts I just wanted to say to follow up with the baseball um I know that we are trying to engage our our um are female athletes in softball um we are hearing from Dearborn High and the other high schools that we are not we are clearly not doing enough to engage our softball um my husband is directly involved in creating a softball feeder program for that and my daughter's on a travel team so yes I mean we grew up with with baseball so um I think there's definitely a solution there um as I was texting my husband um but I definitely think that that is something that we can the interest is there we know we have a very very vibrant Dearborn wreck team um every Friday night we were under the lights at um usually at uh let's see which Park was it several around around the the city but yes I mean I think knowing how much baseball is part of our our city and and our fields and I know that the city invested in improving our Fields um so I think that that's something that we can find a solution for trusty bar just a followup trusty Watts uh yes uh the discussion I had with Chuck silver he was very aware of the down river Junior program and uh part of that is softball so you if you put a from what I understand I didn't play baseball trar I best I was a manager for a team so but I've got a good education last week uh just another uh sport that our youth going to get to get compete in I can say something about Mr John rowski if you know him he's also behind getting youth playing baseball he reached out to myself he reached out to the recreation department uh the mayor's still here hint hint uh that uh uh the city wants to come in cooperate with the with the school district I don't know what that's going to look like that's not on me that's on you know whoever makes those decisions but uh supported by the city hopefully the school district obviously parents there was probably I'd say about 10 parents that night and they probably could have brought more uh so yeah this this is something definitely I would like to see we look into uh Dr Maliko would you like to yeah so I um think we can definitely explore these things we know right now and we're probably going to have them come at uh the February meeting with Missour we're getting a lot of success with this new basketball program we have at the elementary and there's excitement it's j packed at these schools um I'm a big Sports person I see the connection in fact I played baseball and hockey growing up so that those were my two sports um and we know people have different interests and then we also know what the Arts it connects to whether it's the sports or the Arts we got to work on all those things so I think we will have these on the cabinet agenda and get to Mr Silver and I've had also on the cabinet agenda how can we promote uh continue to promote female sports as well that's been something on my agenda the last two months um there so we can definitely think have some conversations and explore possibilities and I know there was grant funding for example for the uh elementary basketball program so we can do that thank you next item please back so we going to go back to approval of minutes approval of minutes next item is approval of minutes approval of minutes of the following Dearborn of Dearborn Board of Education meetings superintendent evaluation committee Monday December 2nd 2024 Ford report 2475 regular p12 meeting December 2nd 2024 board report 24-7 study session organizational meeting Monday December 2nd 2024 I assume that's supposed to say 202 corre corre that's that's 2024 board report 24 d77 the recommended action here is to make any necessary Corrections and move approval of these minutes so move support motion is am moved by trustee DM braio supported by truste P Lov any corrections to the minutes TR ji it maybe I misheard was the evaluation a part of this approval or is it something else uh just the minutes of just the minutes of the that was a close session yeah uh any corrections no corrections may I attach a unanimous role this motion all right will attach an unanimous role to this motion next item please the next item is Union leadership commentary this new section of the Board of Education meeting is being added to further enhance the already strong commitment and longtime partnership between District administration and all bargaining units both instructional and non-instructional union members serve on a wide variety of standing and OD ad hoc committees that drive the work in decision-making in the Dearborn Public Schools in addition Administration meets monthly with the leader leadership team of all unions as well as a group meeting with Union presidents these meetings are not required but are an extension of the collaborative partnership that has long existed in the Dearborn Public Schools this new section will further enhance the commitment to valuing all suggestions views and opinions brought forth by all staff members in the district so first we have the association of Dearborn School administrators and I think there's nobody here for that is that correct correct next we have the Dearborn Federation of School Employees there's no here for that um but next we have the Dearborn Federation of teachers and Miss Kathy Martin good evening happy New Year congratulations President mosip welcome aboard trustee Zar and trustee aljahmi um and I'm here today because I feel like there are uh we're making some good progress uh with regards to collaboration and communication after the last school board meeting where we discussed acceleration um Dr Malo reached out and we have uh successfully had at least one meeting right now where uh teachers were able to come and talk about some of the concerns regarding acceleration I feel like some things came to light that people on The District Administrative side were not aware of and I feel like some light was shed to the teachers as well um so I really do appreciate that um I'm well I'm going to say her name anyways Miss roor has been reaching out we've been collaborating wonderfully uh they've been open to hearing a lot of the concerns and we've been working proactively on solving issues and I really do appreciate the fact that there is a back and forth dialogue uh we still have things to work out however things seem to be moving in a good direction now we just need to put those thoughts and ideas into actual Solutions so I'm grateful for the partnership and for the collaboration and um I really look forward to things continuing this way Happy New Year to you too thank you music to my ears all right beautiful news thank you so much Martin uh Dr Malo would you like to comment yeah I would like to thank uh President Martin uh again it takes two two sides and uh structure and thank you for your leadership and for bringing teachers and for having structures now where we feel very comfortable collaborating and enhancing that so that we can work through these issues and I do feel like that Friday meeting Miss farage were there we had principles we had teachers was an open dialogue and we kind of by talking and sitting down were able to get through things and I know that's the first first of probably many to come but we'll continue to clap so thank you and appreciate you coming forward uh publicly with that information thank you next item please uh the next uh Union would have been Dearborn schools Operating Engineers Association but there's no one here for that so the next item is special reports and for that we have the Dearborn Education Foundation update with Miss Chassidy Townsen I know I got to move this way down because I'm super short um so tonight I wanted to um welcome our new school board members and congratulations to all the trustees and their new roles and positions and it's been a while since I've been up here um but I wanted to go back to the very basics of the foundation the foundation has been around since 1992 and I wanted to just kind of walk you guys through our website so you know how to find things that we're doing um So currently we have make a donation in honor of Mayor O'Reilly his family did um ask that in L of flowers that um they make donations to us or the animal shelter if you scroll down um we have our scholarships memorials and events and you can sign up for our newsletter uh we also have our Grant application on the front page which is for employees of the school district to apply for a grant through us um down here at the bottom is really what I want to highlight is the um we have our audit on there our 990s we also have our IRS letter that shows that we are a 501c3 and we have our grant records and under the grant records you'll see um years worth of Grants so you'll know exactly what we funded how much we funded how much was requested by the grantee um we do not list those that weren't approved by our committee um so I want you guys to be aware of that up top um you know we have some information about us which includes our board of directors then we have 18 board members currently um and we also share our partners you know those who have given to the foundation to help give back to the teachers in the classrooms um our other tab is our events we have our golf outing our Marty gr and green tie event those are our three annual fundraisers that help us raise funds to give back to teachers in the form of Grants and Marty gr is happening February 18th and you can find it here um so don't forget about that wonderful fun fundraiser um scholarships we have um eight I believe 16 or 18 scholarships right now we added two new ones this year cerica is giving 10 $1,000 scholarships um and the Stacy family um is giving out um two $1,000 scholarships over the next 5 years so these are all of our scholarships and students can start applying now the deadline app for application um is is March 30th and then they are invited to our green tide dinner at no cost to them or their parents um to come and get accept their award um and then next up we have our memorials um so you know families want to fund their scholarships um faaz um her family uh they give a monthly donations to that fund to help give money for their scholarship um so that's what these are set up for most of the time one of the unique things that we do for the district is um crowdfunding years ago um Dr moo had come to the foundation and said hey we would really like you guys to create something to where our teachers and employees could crowdfund for for crucial items and usually this is stuff that like the foundation's not going to fund or the district's not funding um we helped with the elel Ford volleyball team fundraiser to help with their ceremony um in partners ship with um Miss Hadar and Mr Barry um and then the adult education class for citizenship uh we're working with them because that is no longer funded by the state or federal government and they really want to keep offering that class so we are currently raising money for that and we're always raising money for the Sal green schoolyards that is a few million dollar project so hence the reason why you're hearing all these donations for the Salen green schoolyards so in a nutshell that is our website um but I did want to come here and um address some of the comments that were made at the last school board meeting uh we have always funded field trips but only registration and tickets for students we do not fund busing overnight stays or meals or pay for parents tickets and at the start of every school year we discuss with the superintendent Administration administrative team head of curriculum and the ID it Department what the needs will be and what they think we should be funding as we want to align our efforts with the district's needs so we use our funds wisely um the replies that I received for this year were sound Systems Technology art and music projects field trips and Chromebooks when looking at the grant field trip in question we felt it was imperative to fund a portion of it due to the outcomes the teacher provided which included inclusion social emotional learning and fostering a sense of community engagement for these newcomers to our schools as for 10 school board meetings um I know it's been a while and I have tried to get on the agenda um but I would like to present at least twice a year to you guys once in the beginning of the school year to let you know about what we have planned because we have a planning meeting in August and one at the end of the school year to let you know what we accomplished um so this year so far since September we have funded 41 grants for a total of 26,1 $1 4627 we've done crowdfunding with um teachers in schools and that has raised $1,950 180 restricted grants that we have given out is $130,000 since September for a grant total of $6,595 7 now the the grant monies has nothing to do with scholarships scholarships we give out are ranged between 20 and $40,000 annually that just depends on our our supporters and donors um but that's a lot of money you know I mean we have never given this much money to to the school district um at least not since I've been here until last year last year we gave you guys $254,000 and we are over halfway there already and we're only in January um and we do have some other things in the works you know I work on um restricted grants with people in the district here when they need help they need a partner uh they need a nonprofit I I work through all that with them and help them apply and we apply through the through the foundation so that is all I have for you guys tonight do you guys have any questions just see whats how many staff members do you have um myself one one and who is your largest corporate donor um not to put you on the spot now we no no no so Cleveland Cliffs would be first um and then Ford Motor Company and then probably SF your food service group they are a wonderful partner who was the first one you had mentioned uh Cleveland Cleveland Cliffs okay yeah and now we have a relationship with PNC so all of these are giving us $50,000 a year annually for the next three years for green schoolyards okay perfect thank you you're welcome any other question so thank you for what you do and thank you to your board and thank you to this generous community that we have the supports of Education foundations who inters support our district I was not aware that you wanted speak last year when I became that became aware that you were I felt bad but uh to get on the agenda is very simple you either reach out to the president of the board or the superintendent or hopefully both and that shouldn't be it shouldn't be an issue moving forward so if I dropped the ball last year my apologies but moving forward yeah we want to hear from you and how can we support support you and the de one Education Foundation so thank you thank you anything else uh trusty z um I just I I just hope everyone was listening when um Mason was reading off the list of donations and like everything coming from the Dearborn Education Foundation how important it is the work that you do so I I just want to say thank you and we're proud of you and as far as I'm concerned if you want to be at every meeting it's okay with me it's important for us to hear and for the community to hear about the great work that you are leading over there uh so thank you to you and everyone on the foundation my pleasure I mean I I love seeing the kids using the materials that we're purchasing you know we try to get out in the schools I am one person um it's very hard for me to get pictures of all of that I wish I could be there instead of you know the stuff that I have to do but um I do have two interns this semester so I will be sending one of them out into the field to gather those photos and start telling more of our story on social media because we do have Facebook Twitter and Instagram Dr Malik I just want to thank Chasity for her leadership and the foundation and I've over I think uh I don't know nine 10 years now I've seen you do it you've done great work uh supporting our students and supporting projects and you always have welcome on the agenda um you know we have like a long-term calendar and the sooner we get it but we always have a spot for you and always will so thank you September's September and June cross my fingers those are the two months I would prefer and I know we always have you June as well usually thank you Miss said all right thank you guys have a good night Partners y have a good night