Trustee Chambers? Here. Trustee Torres? Here. Trustee Taikahi? Here. Student representative Meggia? Here. And superintendent Lakal? Here. Alright. Thank you very much. Thank you, sir. Can I get approval of agenda? I move the Board of Education approve the agenda for the 04/13/2026 regular meeting as presented. Second. And no discussion. And no discussion. I was getting there. Any discussion? Too late. We voted. Alright. It passes. Approval of minutes. Can I get a motion? I move the Board of Education approve the 03/09/2026 regular meeting minutes as presented.
Second. Moved by trustee Martin, second by trustee Torres. Any discussion? Motion passes. Alright. So before we move on, we have a special presentation. I would like to welcome, superintendent Jason Mel would love to come up and talk to us about the 2026 Ingham ISD special education knowledge proposal. Thank you very much, for the opportunity just to give you a few minutes of a of an overview. I know superintendent Leko and her staff have done a fantastic job already presenting and pushing information out in various methods. And I know you have two active, advocacy members with inside the board.
So very thankful for the support that we received. But, I'll kinda go through about the next eight to ten minutes, quick overview, and then answer any questions that you might have just to make sure that everybody can be informed about this upcoming May 5 special education facilities bond. So one of the things I think is really important right up front is to be transparent with taxpayers, what we are asking for. So we are asking for point five five mills over a 20 period that would generate, $99,960,000. That would be specifically for special education facilities named at the Beekman Center and Hartwood
School. So those two facilities serve our students with the highest levels of, of, special needs from throughout our service area. Kind of three major reasons as to why we are going out at this point in time to ask. The facilities at this point are now 53 years of age, Beekman 58 and, Hartwood 48. So, obviously, they were built at a very different time period, which kinda leads on the next one when we think about trying to make sure that we provide the right types of supports for the students we serve. These were built before many of the accessibility laws and standards were created, as well
as safety looks significantly different. We wouldn't design schools where they are designed today. They did the best they could with what they had back in 1968 and 1978. And then, of course, as we think about the, individualized instruction, the supports with respect to therapy, the medical needs of the students, you know better, you do better. These are students that when these facilities were designed, different students that we are serving today from what they were back in the sixties and seventies. So a quick overview of how did we get to where we're at. This is actually a picture. If you've never had the pleasure of seeing the Beekman Center, congratulations. This is 1972, and guess what?
It's still the way it looks today. Except for there are less trees, That's not a joke. This was actually facility was began construction in 1966, opened in 1968, and the only structural renovation it's had has been a roof replacement 2014. Now it's known as the Beekman Center because Marv Beekman began as the special education director for the Lansing School District in nineteen fifties. At that point in time, special education was completely voluntary. In fact, it was a significant social stigma around that. Most parents did not want their child identified in any way, shape, or form having
special needs. It was unique because most school districts didn't offer anything like this, but Marv was a significant advocate on behalf of students and believed that this was something that all students should have. We entered in the nineteen sixties. Of course, it was an era of civil rights. Students with special needs were not guaranteed in education, and he believed that that was not appropriate as well and continued to champion the cause. He wrote op eds. He did tours. He gave speeches all over the state saying that he believed that everybody, regardless of ability, should have a right to education. From that came the idea of what are you gonna do if we pass this? Hey. We need to get a school.
And so the idea of that school then was pitched. As a reference, construction began in 1966. The feds pledged half the dollars. The ISD, the other half, six months into construction. The feds backed out their half the dollars. The ISD had to pony up the rest and try to figure things out, and making sure that the school would then be constructed would be $1,400,000 that could buy you 50 acres and construct a school back in 1968. Yes. Inflation is completely real. Looks significantly different today as we all know. But to put this in the context, right, there were no laws with respect to providing students with special needs education.
This was a huge deal because this wasn't only the first school in the land scenario. This wasn't only the first school in the state of Michigan. This is the first school in The United States built just for students with center based needs. It was a big enough deal that when the facility started, first lady Nixon actually wanted to come visit. She came in 1970 because she wanted to see what a school looked like for serving students with special needs. The population, as you can imagine, quickly swelled. Couple of reasons. First, it was very difficult for schools to understand how many students should we build this for because what they couldn't do is they couldn't go to East Lansing and
say, hey. You've got 40 kids. Hey, Okemos. You've got 50 kids. Hey, Holt. You've got 20 kids. Let's add all this up, and we'll go to school to the appropriate size. They built the school for a 150. Now why couldn't they do that? Because these kids weren't in schools. They were in one of two spots. If they were lucky, they were at home. More than likely, they were institutionalized. That's the reality of what we're talking about. So we have to go back to that time period and understand the context of the challenges that were that were there. By the early seventies, the population is well over 300 students. Not only there were there more students in the area, but many families from throughout
the state actually started to move to the area so that their child could have an education. That's you have to, again, think about the challenges of what families were trying to overcome. And so with that, the ISU recognized there was a need for a second school. The Hartwood School then began construction in 1976 and commenced operations in 1978. So when it comes to the ISD, one of the things that's very important is people realize we are made up of our partner schools. We have 12 traditional school districts. If you reside within one of these 12 traditional school districts, you are part of Ingham ISD, and this would show up on your ballot.
If you've not received your absentee ballot by now, that means you'll be heading the polls here on May 5. Reside within these areas who are eligible to vote. As we think about, what we are trying to accomplish with respect to facilities, we also have to recognize some of the challenges. Again, mobility devices are very important for our students that are there. Many students come utilizing a wheelchair. So when we think about the service needs of our students when they when they enter into the school, quite often they're transitioned into another device or another standing unit.
We quite often have three or four different devices that are there as part of therapy for our students. Again, the therapy spaces that we have, making sure that they're appropriate for the needs of the kids that we're trying to provide those supports for. ADA. When this school was started, as I referenced in 1968, the Beekman Center, and then Hartwood in 1978, We were the first school in the nation. Now fun fact, Marv Beekman was actually tapped by the Michigan Department of Education after the school was created. He actually helped design the school. There was no other school to build this on. They did the best they could. He was tapped by the Michigan Department of Education to become the first director of
special education for the state of Michigan. They said, congratulations. He said, what does that mean? They said, you go write the laws. He literally authored the laws which came into effect in the nineteen seventy two, nineteen seventy three school year. At which point in time, uncle Sam contacted and said, congratulations. You're up to help write the laws. And he did. He continued to advocate on the national level. He had a heart attack, which actually stopped him from some of his work, but he still gave testimony in front of the STEM education committee. IDEA came into effect in 1975. ADA was still years after that. So designing a school, again, we would design it differently because we know better.
So think about those context of what's there. And so we do the best with what we can, but we have cramped spaces that we adjust to the best learning for our kids. So three three kind of main goals, like, pretty straightforward. Accessibility, as we've referenced, noting, the differences of the time periods and what we're talking about, engagement and how important that is to make sure that all of our students have opportunities to be engaged during their learning processes and then, of course, safety. Something I wish no school had to talk about, but something that is very realistic for all schools to have to take into mind. And let me kinda bring this back.
If we think about designing the school, how do you design a school for students that can't run away if a bad actor shows up? Everything about these schools has to be designed differently because the students we serve aren't our neurotypical students. So we have to think literally from the ceiling. I'm looking up the ceiling if you join me here for a minute because this is the view of many of our students when they come in at times in their wheelchairs all the way down to the floors where at times they're gonna be receiving therapy. Everything we do has to be thought of differently, but we're trying to take it
from this lens again, those three buckets, accessibility, engagement, and safety. What you see is conceptual rendering. We have already passed resolutions between our board and the, Lansing School District Board. Should we be successful in May 5, we will acquire 20 of those 50 acres that were originally purchased and built directly adjacent to the current facility. We are purchasing that for the legal minimum of $1. So getting as invested possible to be free, the idea would be construct the school. After the school is constructed, move the students over, and then tear down the current
facility. So we are trying to be very thoughtful about that as well because you can't just take these kids and move them to another school thinking about the challenges they have. We need to make sure we identify the right types of spaces throughout this process. Safety and security, as I kinda reference already is very important as we think about how do we control access, how do we design school differently. What you see actually is a picture here from High Point School. High Point is the most recently built school in the state for students with special needs. It's down in Washtenaw ISD, and you can actually see how they've set up some of their, vestibules to make sure that students, either wide doors, so that way students
can can easily proceed through, but also those are controlled, secure environments. And that's really important for us as we consider how to set this up. So whether it's building codes for egress, whether it's fire protection, air quality, all the standards we wanna make sure that all of our students would enjoy. And then as I referenced earlier, student first environments. Considering how do we design a school that has to look different because of the students we serve. We have to start and look at all aspects that are there. What you see again is another picture of Midside High Point. I'd reference a couple of things real quick. I already mentioned the challenge some of our students have with respect to the wheelchairs.
When you're looking up all the time, what you're looking at matters. You see direct and indirect lighting as well as they take advantage of natural lighting because it's much easier on the eyes. You also see bumpers along the walls because for our students in wheelchairs running into brick walls is not a lot of fun. So just small things that we've learned as we go throughout this process. If you think about how to design the classrooms in a universal manner, easy access to outdoor spaces, all of the play areas that are there, we wanna be student first in all that we do. With respect to where we started, as I referenced, we were asking for point five
five mills over twenty years. I think this is important as well for people to understand what is the impact, what does that mean with respect to my own home. So market value, of course, is what you paid. That's actually the street value. Taxable value is half of that. It can never be more than 50% of market value. So if you purchased a home for $400,000, your taxable value is $200,000. So just a frame of reference when we're looking at balance because that can be challenging. With respect to the, Ingham County equalization, department, the information that we were provided, The
median parcel throughout our service area comes in at $153,000 of a street value, that's $76,000 of taxable value that would end up being 42, just over $42 a year. That's about $3.50 a month. I don't think you can get that big me coffee for that, miss Abby. We believe it's reasonable, but we also recognize the challenges we have. We wanna be respectful. We wanna make sure everybody is educated. So absentee ballots, there were over 70,000 absentee ballots that should have already been mailed out. If you've signed up for that and not received yours, please get a hold of
your clerk soon. Beyond that, the election day is May 5, and we just wanna make sure that everybody's informed. The last thing I would I would state is something I think is very important. With respect to the students we serve, you have to understand that these are students with our highest level of challenges and needs. But let me take you back to the pathway for how do kids end up there. So as a father of two young children, right, I remember when we found out we were expecting, and you start to daydream a little bit about things that might happen. Maybe they'll play on the tennis team. Maybe they'll be involved in the play.
Maybe they'll be the valedictorian. Maybe they'll stay out of the principal's office. I don't know. Lots of different things you start to think about from your own experiences. Right? As that pregnancy continues, from my situation, I think many others, what do you start to think about? All you want is them healthy and safe. What no parent has ever wished is for their child to age out as a Beekman bobcat or a Hartwood tiger at 26 years of age. Students are there because it's the most responsible way for us to make sure that they are provided the appropriate services. But students aren't there because they're choosing because that's where they wanna be in the
schools of choice. They're there because it's the best way for them to be supported. What questions might you have? So students from both buildings will be moved to the there's one that's going to be rebuilt? Beekman would be a full rebuild. Great question. Hardwood would see heavy renovations. So the $99,960,000 would essentially be split $65,000,000 for the rebuild of Beekman Center. That includes the tearing down of the current facility as well. And then $35,000,000 for heavy renovations at the Hartwood School. Students from seven districts currently attend the Beekman Center. Students from all 12 districts attend Hartwood.
Some of that has to do with programming and the services that are provided, but we try to, as best as possible, minimize travel time, and so that's why we have students. If you think about our county kind of geographically, the most populated area is the Northwest Quadrant. So when we can, we take students for shorter bus rides to the Eaton Center. How will that look at Hartwood during construction? Great question. So what we've discussed is a couple of different possibilities, couple different scenarios. One is a slow staggered approach. First, Hartwood will be secondary to Beekman.
The Beekman Center will be tackled first or would be second. So first would be trying to stagger that to see if we can create the right types of opportunities with inside those wings. Second is if we would had to maybe look for an overload whether it either be at Northstar or other facilities to figure out ways to ease that burden to make sure that we don't have too many challenges. Obviously, these are students with some, significant medical challenges. So dust, debris, sound is something we all wanna be concerned with. But we're trying to come up with the best solution, and that's a problem I'm looking forward to being able to solve. Anything else? I apologize.
I may sneak out because I'm on my way to the Oakland School Board to go do the same presentation. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Alright. We will move on to our recognition. Trustee Martin, do you have any recognition? Yes. Do I ever. Alright. Recognition for this week. And thanks to everybody who sent things in. We'll start with McDonald Middle School. Big congratulations to the middle school archery team who participated in the Michigan NASP State
Archery Tournament on March 14. With over 2,000 archers and 41 teams from Rhode Island State competing, the junior Trojans placed sixth in the state. This placement has earned them a spot in the National Archery Tournament this May. Special shout out to Chloe Mont, whose score of two seventy two seventy eight ranked her as the sixth place in the middle school division. The additional high school team finished ninth overall. Both teams have qualified to go to the national finals in May in Louisville, Kentucky. Congratulations to the following students for placing first in the Regional Science Olympiad Tournament on
March 21, Anderson Maher and Miles Palashuk in helicopter, Severin Anderson and Sean Dye in hovercraft, Madeline Keane and Ashley Barker in water quality, Eloise Hedden, and Sean Dye. Right at do it. The team placed third overall and will compete in the state tournament on April 25. From Robert L. Green, Michelle Traven, media and library paraprofessional, was awarded a Reading is Fundamental Drawing.
She received 100 free books from our school library. From Marble, Ally Lovers, one of Marble's fourth grade teachers, won the Grubaugh Orthodontics One Class at a Time grant. She was recognized on Friday, March 13, with a $1,000 check to support social emotional learning for children in her classroom. Way to go, Ally. From Glen Keane Elementary, we had our professional development day for kids the day before spring break. It was a huge success with kids leaving a lot of different projects, lead leading
with a lot of different projects, including crochet pot holders, crud cutted bags, and the three d printed object of their own design, bookmarks, oobleck, and many more. We kicked off our mindful move in drop in class this week. Every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, kids have the opportunity to drop into our PE Room and participate in mindful movement by a yoga instructor. And then from, East Lansing High School, Dave Rosen and Dave Marsalier took a 135
students and eight adults to Orlando over spring break. They enjoyed four days in the Disney Universal Parks Disney and Universal Parks. And most importantly, a performance by the marching band at Epcot Center and a performance by the Orchestra at Universal City Walk. It was a great trip, and our East Lansing students represent our community and district well. We're so proud of them. Mister Rozen? It's Dave Rozen. Rozen. Sorry. Mister Rosen, I apologize if you're out there. Those are all the that's the recognition I have for you today.
I was wishing to hear all the great things our schools are doing. Anyone else have any recognition? I have one I wanted to mention. I wanted to acknowledge and recognize, Casey Keaton. Casey is the assistant director for student volunteer programs at Michigan State for the Center for Community Engaged Learning. And And I wanna recognize Casey because, on an annual basis, he comes to us at the beginning of the year and does, a fundraiser, with student organizations on campus to be able to provide supplies to our buildings.
And he's done that with us for a few years, but most recently, he reached out to us because, part of, one of the events that they do, and he said this is the sixth year putting on the event that launched on MLK Day and ran for Black History Month. And the event aims to fill school libraries with books on topics of social justice and with characters representing diverse backgrounds. Their goal is to improve children's access to books, especially those that share diverse perspectives. So Casey and Dan DiMaggio, who also works for the university and whose, wife works
for us, they reached out and asked East Lansing Public Schools if we wanted to be the recipient of these books this year. Last year, the Lansing School District was the recipient. And then, recently, we found out that they completed their book drive and they raised over $2,500 in donations to purchase books. And they've also had several new books donated and purchased for the initiative. They're ordering the books, from also a local bookstore, Hooked Bookstore in Lansing. And, Casey and Dan are working with our director of, equity and social justice, missus
Burton, to identify some areas of need with the diverse books. But it's just been, he's been a great partner for us in a couple different capacities, so I just wanted to, recognize Casey Keaton for that work. Awesome. Very close. Thank you, Casey Keaton. Next is our student representative report. Hi, everyone. I'm glad to be back. No Tanya today, though. She wasn't feeling well. We actually have a lot to catch up on. I feel like we haven't had a meeting in, like, it's been a while. Yeah. Yeah. So I wanted to start off with sports. Actually, tennis. I'm coming from tennis, but we had a tournament this past weekend, at Loynorex, and
we took first place with, all of our doubles flights placing first, and then all of our singles place placing runners up. So that was pretty good. And then our softball girls had a win against Hazlett last Tuesday and Williamson this past Saturday. Track actually has a meet today. I don't know how they're doing, but they've had multiple meets also this past week with some wins scattered throughout the events. And girls soccer won their first league game against Grand Ledge, and the lacrosse boys also won last weekend. Academics wise, applications for both the board, and to be a member of the National
Honor Society went out this past weekend, so we're glad that all these students are super interested in helping out our community. We also have the mental health summit coming up on the twenty ninth, which is, like, an event that provides numerous, mental health resources, some inspirational speeches and some other things. And this will pose as great support to our community. And it also, you know, it's a good way for students to get involved and also to gain some, you know, volunteer hours. Everyone also there's a lot of state testing this week. I don't know if people are aware.
Like, the juniors are gonna be taking the SAT tomorrow, and they have two other, tests following that. And sophomores have the PSATs next week. And then freshmen might also have some sort of, like, state testing next week. I'm not sure if it's, like, MSEP or PSAT, but they have some sort of state testing. And then jumping back to the past, I think this was, like, maybe the week before break, but our basketball team had a great run this year. They made it to the state finals. And KJ Torbay was named or I'm not sure how to say his last name,
but he was named mister Basketball. And he and his dad are the first, like, father son duo to have one. And that's all I have. If you have any questions, please let me know. Thank you. Thank you. Alright. We'll go over to superintendent's report. Superintendent. Thank you. Once again, I'm gonna continue to include our registration link for, kindergarten and pre k families to begin the registration process for their students for this fall. We're usually pretty good at not overlapping with the student representative report, but I've got
a little overlap tonight. Our third annual mental health and wellness summit is coming up, and that will be April 29 from five to seven. The event is free and open up and open to all of the community. And the summit will include presentations, local resources, wellness activities, refreshments, canines for change, and raffles, and it is sponsored by the mental health advisory committee. Our East Lansing health East Lansing Health Center is offering athletic physicals. So it's just another opportunity for our students to access the health center.
They have a couple days set aside specifically for physicals coming up. One of them is Tuesday, May 5 from 8AM to 04:30PM and Wednesday, May 13 from 8AM till 06:30PM. And you do need to schedule an appointment. I have the phone number here or the, health center's website that's also included here. And if students get their physicals now, that we set for all of next year. And there's also at our website, there's an FAQ on the physicals, from the health center as well. Measles preparation, from the Ingham County Health Department.
I had an opportunity last week, one afternoon, to attend a webinar with our Ingham County Health Department around measles preparedness. There are no known measles cases in Ingham County, or any of our bordering counties currently or at least as of last Thursday. But the health department is, working to ensure school leaders are aware of symptoms and how to how to respond to a confirmed measles case. And they also have provided us with, a brochure that is linked here and access to scheduling vaccinations if, any families still need measles vaccinations.
Next, a little bit about our construction update. The high school addition is taking shape. Window frames and glazing have been installed for majority of the exterior. All exterior masonry is completed. Framing and drywalling is nearly nearly complete for much of the new office and commons areas, and interior window and door frames have been installed. And we can display some of the photos up here on our screen so you can kinda get a view of the progress that's being made on our high school, front office, secure entrance, and cafeteria, and commons area addition.
So, there's a couple of the exterior views. I know the facilities committee had a opportunity Friday to, do a walk through. So if there's any additional, information that you all have from your walk through, that you want to share or point out on these photos, you are more than welcome to chime in. And then project still is on on time, on budget, scheduled to be complete this summer before our students come back to school, this coming fall.
And finally, one more staff PD day still this school year, Friday, April 24. There's no school for students. There is for staff PD. And then, two other, normal dates. May 25 is Memorial Day, so there's no school. And, we are somewhat nearing. I think we're still about, nine, ten weeks away till June 5, our last day of school is a half day. And that's all I have today. What does he think? Thank you very much, Superintendent Legel. Any questions, for the superintendent?
I'll make one comment about the walk through for the Facilities Committee. One thing that I got a kick out of was, mister Hastings, was he he was kinda showing us around. And, I had asked, like, do you really consider when to be done early as they were reporting a little bit? He's like, yeah. But, you should know that we, we're doing all of the final cleanup in house. And I was like, why? I said, well, because we can save some money by having our guys do it. We'll get it cleaned the way we want it, and then we'll have more money
for some of the other projects in the model. And so I thought that was just a great illustration of his character and his priorities for the schools, but also how hard those guys were in the summer. So shout out to mister Hastings of his group. That is, that is common from mister Hastings. He's looking always looking for ways that we can do more and save money and also ways we can, employ some of our folks in the summer who are only school year workers but would like to work in the summer. And so he's always looking for ways for those who wanna work in the summer,
other ways we can employ some of our other staff members. And this is one of the ways we can do it. And I, I always just say we'll be done before school starts. I'm, that's because I've gone through enough construction projects to know that something always comes up. But I do, I I know that they're looking to be done early summer, but I'll just be really thrilled if we're open, and ready to start it off when the kids all come back to school. But we are on budget and on schedule. In fact, I, we have right now, some funds that have not been designated, just
based on some bids coming in lower than we had estimated. So we have a really expansive wish list going and are awaiting, estimates on some of those projects from Clark Construction so that we can evaluate, the cost of some of those wish list items and then prioritize them and see what else we can, do with the excess funds for the middle and high school. The the bond proposal was was only written for middle and high school, so all of the even the excess funds have to go toward the middle school and or
high school. Can I also just amplify for a third time the mental health and wellness summit? I remember after last year's summit, which was phenomenal, that the Mental Health Advisory Committee did note that they had wished that there was better, representation from the board. So if there's any way you can drop in, like, Tali, you went to the first one. Right? It's just the coolest event. They lined the whole hallways about the high school. There's giveaways. There's, like, massages. Right? Like, who couldn't use a little shoulder rub. Right? So, if we have an opportunity, please put it on your calendar and swing by
just to walk through and, feel the energy, that's happening during that, event. It's really great. Yeah. Alright. We'll move on to our consent agenda. Can we get a motion? I move the Board of Education approve the consent agenda to include the following item. A, new hire. Hiring of John Tuttle, one point zero FTE, district wide school nurse at BA step 16.5, effective 04/27/2026. Second. Alright. Moved by trustee Martin, seconded by trustee Curtis Hyland.
This is a consent agenda, so there is no, discussion. So with that, all in favor? Aye. Any opposed? The motion passes. And mister Tuttle is not here today, but we congratulate him on, this, position with, his fencing. Alright. We'll move to public comment. This is the opportunity to address the board. Speakers are are to confine their remarks to five minutes. If a speaker requires more than five minutes after all other persons who have requested to speak during this part of the meeting have spoken, that speaker will be allowed
additional time. The superintendent or other district staff may comment to clear up or avoid significant misunderstandings. So if you would like to, give a call to comment, there are blue forms at the front you can grab and fill out. And I have a few up here right now. So, first is Sarah Wilson, and she'd like to speak on special education concerns. Alright. This is gonna throw me off, but I just wanna start with, regarding the special education millage. We absolutely support that. We are 100% for it.
That said, we do kinda have some harsh words tonight for the East Lansing program. You may remember us. We came to the March 9 board meeting. Our son has attended this district for seven years and I'm sure you had no idea who we were prior to that meeting. We are not the complaining types, certainly not the formal complaining types. We have gone along and relied on the expertise of the education professionals in the district and have given them very little pushback. But something changed. It became clear to us that there was serious issue with the White Hills ASD program. My husband emailed the director, of special education, doctor Armstrong, and cc'd superintendent Laco on
March 5 after conferences outlining our concerns. On March 6, I emailed superintendent Laco directly requesting contact, providing both of our phone numbers. In fact, about 90% of what I said at the March 9 meeting was me reading the email I sent her. After receiving no response to our emails all day Friday and all day Monday, we came to the board meeting on March 9 and spoke of our concerns. Unbeknownst to us at the time, about five minutes after we walked into the Administration Building, we did receive a reply from doctor Armstrong to my husband's email he sent on March 5. That reply contained what's called a prior written notice.
It has some vague assurances that we would receive weekly communications that we were concerned about and that our son would get the required time in gen ed while seemingly quietly acknowledging that these things had not been adequately done previously. And that message overall would have been fine, but then it contained something else that I really had, like, a visceral reaction to when I read it. We would not be allowed to amend our son's IEP due to the current IEP review being due April 30 and that it was best practice to wait until the actual IEP meeting almost two months away.
I had to take a moment to articulate in my conscious brain why I was perceiving this as the threat it was. Then it hit me. Doctor. Armstrong had actually suggested two school days prior that we could do an IEP amendment. We had been discussing our son hitting one of his language goals at his parent teacher conference and she asked if we wanted to do an amendment. Had we crossed some magical line where there was no longer it was no longer reasonable to amend an IEP? Had best practice changed in two days? Was there any discussion about specifically what we might want to amend?
Had we even asked to amend the IEP yet? No. What we had done was push back against the claims made during the conference that doctor Armstrong was running after the possibility of amendment had been discussed. What we had done was go above her head and cc the superintendent in emails about her concerns. What we had done was walk into the Admin Building where a board meeting was about to be conducted. This denial of an IEP amendment wasn't about what we might actually want to amend. It was about showing us who runs the show, who has the power. It was retaliation for daring to advocate for our son, for bringing someone who was above her into it.
It was a threat that if we cross her, she will obstruct us whenever possible. It was an action that actively worked against the best interest of a student in her charge, an 11 year old boy with autism. After this, I was lucky enough to speak with someone who has been involved with special education at the state level for decades. He felt mediation was appropriate for our situation. I contacted the Special Education Mediation Office in Oakmas. The goal was to have a mediation meeting during the week of April 6. On March 20, an email was sent to doctor Armstrong from the mediation office requesting to know if the district would participate. A second request was sent on March 26.
A third request, also one about having a facilitator at our upcoming IEP meeting, was set for April 7. I confirm today there's actually been at least one more email and two phone calls with no response. Doctor Armstrong has not replied to any of these emails. Obviously, there's a little tension here. Why would you not want a facilitator at an IEP meeting? It would not be someone I've ever met. They're present to keep parents in line as much as school officials. If you plan to handle yourself in an above board manner, what would be the harm? Unless you're really planning to play more games. Our son goes to middle school next year, a completely new environment that we're not
familiar with, and yet we have to do this new IEP this month. We're going into this blind. There have been no information sessions for special education students about what to expect. Previously, I would have thought if we didn't get everything right in this IEP, we could just amend it later. But can we? Apparently, two months of school isn't important. How about four, six, maybe nine? Given how doctor Armstrong has conducted herself already, of course, I'm concerned we won't be allowed to adjust things to best serve our son. There are several problems with this overall situation. Doctor. Armstrong's power trip after being caught red handed violating our son's IEP being only one
of them. East Lansing has an exemption to state law for ASD programs. Instead of five children from an autism classroom with one certified teacher and one para, a number have surely arrived at based on research and data, we are allowed eight children with autism per classroom with one additional para. This does not sound like a huge change, 2.66 children per adult versus 2.5 children per adult. But in reality, this creates a huge additional workload for the certified teacher who is responsible for ensuring that all the proper documentation it does and has to design all the lesson plans and accommodations for children who have vastly different needs and are in multiple grade levels.
This must increase the actual teacher's workload by around 50%. For a month, the for a month, the per person who does all of this was replaced essentially by a warm body, just day to day subs. I think this could explain why we've had two teachers quit midyear. It's just too much. And on top of that, having miss Williams and doctor Armstrong be your bosses, I see how they treated us as parents and I can only imagine being their employee must be like if they set their sights on you. And this cover up after the teacher finally quits is enabled by the bizarre environment of secrecy around the ASD room. I have it on good authority that parents have actually been told they're not allowed
to communicate correctly with parents. We as parents weren't being told who was working in the room with our child even after bringing it up twice as a specific issue. I actually learned Ms. Zambova had resigned through a bounce back email because apparently informing IT was a priority, but not parents. And we certainly weren't being told all the ways the IEPs and subsequently state law were being violated. This kind of secrecy relies on exploiting the disabilities of children. If our son could talk, we would know more. And as someone who spent two and a half years in a unit investigating crimes against children, I find this situation beyond troubling.
After the response we received from the school community following the March 9 board meeting, we know we cannot allow ourselves to be silenced. There are so many frustrated people and, honestly, our son's situation pales in comparison to things I've heard from other parents. So tonight, after receiving no contact whatsoever from anyone above doctor Armstrong for the last five weeks, we are here to inform you, again, that there is a big problem. We have located or I located what you call the grievance procedure under section thirty one fifteen in the policies. So tonight, I want to make a formal complaint to the board against doctor Armstrong
for violating policy thirty one fifteen, nondiscrimination, anti harassment, and nonretaliation. This complaint is made specifically to you, board president Lyons, as superintendent Laco has been cc'd in a long series of emails with doctor Armstrong and is well aware of the situation. If she doesn't endorse it, she has yet to say anything. Thank you. I have, next, Forest State at Special Education. We really hope not to be here tonight. We assume between emails that include the principal, the special education director, and the superintendent, things will get cleared up, especially since we brought it to the board's attention last month. Unfortunately, that's not the case.
Our son, Nick, is still being denied his right to the least restrictive environment. You know, that pesky federal law. That's not only an ethical responsibility for any school district, it's also state and federal law. And still not being met, the last email we received in the form of a prior written notice, of course, insists that he is receiving two hundred and five minutes of gen ed time a week, and that's adequate. His IEP requires six hundred to nine hundred minutes. He's receiving one third of the minimum time he should be in class and no one sees a problem with this. Gen ed time is very important for a number of reasons. First, allows him to socialize with his peers.
Nick gets waves, high fives, and fist bumps from his classmates when we see him around town because because he's been in classes with his peers. Losing that time increases his social isolation, leaves him sad and missing people. Since Misenbova is gone, Nick spends part of every day asking his about his classmates and looking at his class photo and pointing out people. Some days after that, he cries. And what do I say to my son who doesn't understand why he can't see his school friends? Well, buddy, hopefully, maybe someday, the district will start following basic professional ethics, human decency, and the blah.
I don't have any evidence to support that, mind you, but it'd be nice to say. It's also a science and social studies class. He has not received that regularly in two months. Would that be acceptable if he was a gen ed student in the high school? Yet we are assured his time for the past two months has been academically rigorous. Without half his core classes, Wade comes home with less than a quarter of the work he used to. Would you believe that if that was your son? I don't. Speaking of that, I've been a day to day sub. I've been a long term sub, and I'm currently a teacher. Despite that, I've never heard of a class having a day to day sub for
five weeks before they hired a long term substitute ever. Twenty one years. If they've been a math teacher at the high school or an AP teacher with a district of had over a month without a certified teacher providing lesson plans, I somehow doubt it. So the question is, who is it that doesn't matter to the district? Is it elementary students in general or only those who can't speak for themselves? Which is it? We were told the pair was designing the lessons, making sure the class ran smoothly. I sincerely hope they were compensated accordingly. I'd be shocked if that were actually the case.
Even if she was, it isn't her job. I want to stress again, this is not casting aspersions on the pair as the subs or mister Alton, the current long term sub, was doing what he can. Again, we have no problem with any of the staff or teachers at either elementary school. They've been outstanding educators who do both their best with both of our students. Although I think it's a major problem, parents aren't informed when a parent moves buildings or quits. They're a vital part of every classroom, and they are part doubly so for education. The fact that they're ignored and treated as extra is insulting. The problem clearly lies in administration.
The principal superintendent, special education director have been included in every email. Yet who watches the watchmen? Who oversees the administrators? You. Yet since coming before the board, we've been met by more stonewalling, less honest communication, sporadic emailing at best, and a confrontational attitude. We haven't had anyone from the district or the board reach out to us for more information, reassurance, anything. The district is currently being sued in federal court. That hasn't helped either, apparently. Who has contacted us or members of the community? Parents who are facing similar frustrations, issues, ill treatment. It's the single best thing to come up this for us.
So why aren't there more of them here? First, public speaking's most people's number one fear. A system of oversight that requires public speaking is a system that does not want to be informed. But the worrisome reason that another dad expressed to me is the concern of retaliation. Retaliation. Not retaliation against him, but against his son with special needs. That he's afraid of that, not without reason, is just disgusting. This district isn't. It isn't meeting his IEP, not even close. It isn't providing a way for parents to understand what's going on in the schools. How can there be trust with no transparency?
Why are parents only able to see a performance of a realistic observation? It isn't interesting communicating with parents by actually responding to emails. It isn't concerned with providing academic rigor. It isn't concerned with providing consistency in the classroom. From what I can tell, no one in the administration has any problem with those things. None. I'm a teacher. I've talked to special ed teachers, administrators, and a district that struggles with special education services too. It ain't easy. So we come here again tonight to ask you to do two simple things. Do better. Just do something. Next, we have, Kathleen Brady from ASD Boyhoods or that wants to talk about ASD
Boyhoods. Good evening. My name is Kathleen Brady. I am a parent of a first grade student at White Hills Elementary. He is in the ASD room. He has been in the program for four years. Two weeks ago, I sent an email to the board about when he concerns communication, data collection, and IEP implementation. What I am sharing today are specific examples of those concerns. I am here because I am concerned about my child's safety, support, and lack of consistent implementation in his IEP. My son has an IEP. My son is nonverbal, which means he relies entirely on adults' communication, support, and safety.
On paper, it outlines support. But what has been happening in practice does not match what is written. Since his teacher left in February, there has been significant gaps in communication and consistency. During this time, I did not receive consistent behavior tracking. I received emails stating there is behavior, but not what happened before, during, or after. This is not meaningful data. From February through mid March, I did not receive phone calls regarding incidents even when behaviors occurred. My child is in first grade. At this age, he requires a high level of structure, supervision, and consistency.
I have not been seeing that. My child already needs extra support to keep up. When the support isn't consistent, it makes things harder for him to put and puts his future behind. I have made repeated efforts to communicate and resolve these concerns directly. I have requested a new IEP in February to better understand what is happening, and that meeting did not take place until last week. I was told there were multiple substitutes. I was not given clear contact information despite multiple requests. I did not have direct access to classroom information.
I could only communicate with administration. I did not have clear visibility into what was happening from day to day. There has been a consistent pattern of multiple unanswered emails. A meeting was offered and never confirmed despite eight follow-up emails. I contacted the superintendent and copied the superintendent sorry. I contacted the assistant superintendent and copied the superintendent on multiple emails. I received one response, but no follow-up. I received no response from the superintendent. This added a lack of clarity and support.
My child's IEP states that he receives consistent one on one support adult support. At the most recent meeting, I was told this was not happening and was not possible and would not be in his new IEP. These supports are not optional. They are required. After the IEP meeting, there were serious incidents just within two days. He hit another student. He left the classroom and had to be brought back by another staff member. He had a severe headbutt incident with visible bruising. There were about 10 additional incidents in the same two days. These are serious safety concerns.
I do want to acknowledge the current long term substitute has been helpful and communicates more clearly. However, he is not a certified teacher, and I still have concerns on how services are being delivered. This also highlights what has been missing, consistent communication, clear data, and structured support. These are things that should have been in place all along, not just recently. I'm also concerned my child is missing time in the general education class. I asked multiple times for information. At the meeting last week, I was told he's only attended about five times since early February. His IEP states one hundred to three hundred minutes per week.
This shows missed services and lack of transparency. These challenges with staff, consistency, and support. There have been multiple staff changes, including the teacher leaving midyear. This is also the second teacher to leave this position in the last three years due to the lack of support. When there is not enough consistent staff, it becomes difficult to try provide structure and support. This is when we see gaps in data, misservices, and safety concerns. These concerns are not in the past. They are happening now. This is a clear breakdown of communication, follow through, and oversight. These are leadership responsibilities.
When there is lack of oversight and accountability, it directly impacts students' safety and IEP implementation. We chose to stay in East Lansing because we believe it would provide strong support for students with special needs. Right now, that has not been our experience. I'm asking the district to ensure that IEPs are consistently implemented, supported with accurate data, and held to clear accountability because right now, I am not confident that that is happening. My child is in first grade. He needs structure, support, and safety. This is not just about my child. It's about making sure all students who rely on these supports actually receive them.
My goal is simple. I want my child safe. I want him supported, and I want his IEP to actually be followed. Thank you. Do we have any other There you go. If if I need just one Oh, no. I I don't know. Oh, no. I I don't know. I'd like Ron too. Oh, yeah. Especially because that clears up one thing very clearly. One of the emails that I received was included the fact that my son has two hundred and five minutes of of in his gen ed time, but then doctor
Armstrong labeled the wrong student, Kathleen's student. That's a FERPA violation. When I called it out, she said, oh, no. I just mistyped the name. The data is right. 205 is does not lie between 600 900, and I know I'm not a math teacher, but I do know that. So that was clear FERPA violation in the prior written notice. Add that to the joint. You can't come in and just complain. You need to make suggestions. You need to figure out how to improve the situation that we find ourselves in. So this is the this is the speech I'd rather have given tonight, but I
couldn't. Education's in a weird place right now. Drastic reduction and potential elimination in the US Department of Education is a prime example. The book bans in school libraries. Fewer people believe a college education is worth it. I teach English. AI sucks. More specifically to East Lansing, though, there's the issue with the former high school principal who wasn't a principal, the bathroom and violence problem at the high school, the federal law dispute against the district, all of which are in the news. In times of upheaval and doubt in public institutions is not the time to endanger trust.
Trust is based on clarity, consistency, and communication. In short, transparency, and that is sorely lacking. We tried going through the administration, and the only one to respond sporadically at best has been more of a hindrance than a help. No one from the board followed up with us after our last meeting. No one asked if things were better for our son. If we have been contacted by admin, nothing. We need you to look into things. That's what we need. Follow-up on issues. If people will trust in the school board the way many are losing faith in the administration, front of you.
What does that tell you about the district? You can't make good decisions, though, if you don't have information. You need more transparency just like we do. When Sarah's going to observe Nick's class, she was presented a board policy that makes it at the principal to his discretion, arranged ahead of time, and can last no more than half an hour. Maybe there's good reason to put that in place. I've never worked in a school with those policies, but I could see it, especially as part of COVID protocols. COVID's open, but the rules are still being used. Clean up the rules and board policies to make sure there aren't lingering issues that have a road transparency.
We had trust in the district. There's a previous teacher equipped midway through the year, but it was handled in a way to increase the trust we had, not diminish it. That trust could have easily been exploited if miss Lako had ever answered Sarah's direct email to her. She had responded to any of the emails. All it would have taken was a simple, we wanna make sure Nick's IEP is being called. I'll make sure it happens. Give me a week or two to get things sorted out. We wouldn't have pursued it. We'd have just trusted it was being done even if it wasn't because we trusted. If doctor Armstrong's first email has stopped without the prior written notice refusing something she
had offered and we hadn't asked for, we'd have trusted. If we had been provided the accommodation logs and had many and been told the IEP team was too busy to amend right now, we would have believed that because we're suckers. If our emails were answered within forty eight hours instead of requiring three emails over two weeks to three different administrators to get one incomplete response, we probably would have trusted. If we have been contacted before congruently with the IT department requiring missus M'Baba's departure, if we knew why or even that there's such a high period turnover in the past several months, There's a myriad of off ramps that could have been taken.
We wouldn't be here even if we probably should have been. So in a way, I'm thankful. Thankful for the district isn't good at its attempts at covering up its mistakes because now I know not to trust you all. And I'm thankful for that I'm thankful for that says how messed up things are. There's good in the district. Hardworking, caring staff, amazing teachers. They're kinds of students that give me the hope for the future. It's too bad it doesn't extend to this building. Not calling as IUP violates state law. Lack of least restrictive environment violates federal law. Don't seem to care. And we don't care about personal ethics, common decency, or the law.
What can we trust you all with? What? I'd like to know. So we know the board I'm sure many of you have other jobs. You're very busy. Get prepared. Documents for you as far as our communications. I'm sure they are hard together and get and I know we have a whole lot going on. It was hard for us to get them all together, honestly. Mhmm. But I wanted to provide those. And could you cc us any emails? Every single email is in there. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And you do the forward. Yes. Including your timeline. Okay. Are there any other public comments at the beginning? Alright. That will cover our public comments.
We will move to, board discussion. Do we have any board discussion? I'd I'd like to address the folks that just spoke. I gotta be careful, because my I have a day job, and, my day job, involves, being a judge in cases where there are, state for the state, when districts violate these kinds of things. I I I have no position about what happened here. I need to read the materials you've given me.
But, and if you did if if you if you did take it through the whole administrative process to a judge, I would recuse myself. So I can say that. But, but thank you for standing up for your kid. It's, it is a I don't I don't fear retaliation, but I know I know it's hard sometimes. And that's all we can ask for parents. And, I when we do these cases, work their way all the way through the
system, one thing I can't I often speak with people I work with about is how evident the lack of trust is and how the bridges have been burned. And I've seen it happen in a lot of other places, and it's something that concerns me in my, you know, execution activities as a school board member that we wouldn't want that to happen in our district. That's why we're here too. And so, so, yeah, I I know I don't I don't have a specific position,
but I am grateful that you're here. And, you know, thank you for sticking up with your kids. Thank you. Thanks. Thank you for doing that job. We hear we hear a lot of different kinds of cases, and, it's it's a it's a good gig. I I like my job, actually. Any other discussion for board members? I'm not hearing any, so we will move on to action items. Can I give a motion for action item a, renewal of the food service management contract with Chartwell School Dining, 02/06/2027?
Item that the Board of Education authorize the superintendent or designate it sign the attached food services management company contract renewal rate agreement form to renew with Chartwell School Dining for the fiscal year twenty twenty six twenty seven, 07/01/2026 through 06/30/2027 as presented. Second. Moved by, Trustee Ferris Hyland, seconded by Trustee Tycocky. Any, discussion? Alright. Not hearing any. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion passes.
Can I get a a motion for Schools of Choice 2627 resolution? I move that the Board of Education adopt the Schools of Choice twenty twenty six twenty seven resolution as presented. Second. Moved by Trustee Taikage, seconded by Trustee Edsall. Any discussion? Alright. Not hearing any, so all in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion passes. And can I get a motion for ELHS, Addition Technology and Multimedia? I move that the Board of Education approve the contract with Sound Planning Communications in the amount of a $123,360.36,
and the contract with Datacom Group in the amount of $57,000 $57,665. Alright. Well, motion by trustee Edsall, seconded by trustee Torres. Any, discussion? I just wonder if, mister Plasti wants to say anything. I don't know if that's hard for me. It's my understanding that it's just just some of the final, media things and the new addition on the current baseball. Right? It's all worth the loitering and doing everything for us. Yeah. Pretty standard stuff.
Standard. Thank you for that, John. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion passes. We'll move to committee reports. Trustee, Chambers, academic and technology. Yeah. Well, we just addressed the one of the action items related to our conversation in our academic tech meeting from last week, about finishing entering the final stages of the addition and the, technology wiring and things that are happening there. So that's great.
We talked about that. I also was advised by my colleague, Trustee Taittaki, that I might have an error in my minutes about what I have noted as RefWorks, but maybe it's RefBook about, our students learning officiating. I've done probably my error in transcribing it correctly. RefWorks is, you know, data management, like, station management software, so I don't think it's that. I have a third date in my 40, so we should probably Okay. Well, it won't take two minutes.
But we got, a great update about, I'm always happy about our students having, access to new learning, and this is something that they can use to make a little bit of extra cash, which is even better. We need more officials, reps in the youth sports world, so that's super cool. Yeah. Other items we dealt with, but everything pretty standard. And let me just shout out. We have two, students who serve on that committee, which is great. And the additional benefit of that is it means that our academic tech meetings still
happen in the high school, which I love, because there are students on the committee, it makes it easier for them. But they have Mason and Kyla have been outstanding, students this year and really helping us understand the implications of the work that we're doing from a student perspective. And they have stood stepped right up to, you know, make sure we understand, the ramifications from their perspective. So that's been cool. Wonderful. I always love that we have students on that committee. Me too. Facilities. Trustee Fairchild. We had a meeting on Friday and, as discussed, there was a tour given on
the, high school addition. And, you know, updates for winter actions in spring, a lot of it had to do with that addition and the work, addition and the work, being done, and everything moving on as planned and and timed. So that's great. Additionally, the entire tech department is now in central office and open for business. So that's great as well as, you know, obviously, the Admin Building is here. In terms of spring sports, we got that awesome update from our student rep. And, athletic director Norris let us know that they'll be hosting girls lacrosse state semifinals
Wednesday, June 3. So that's pretty great for our district, and everything else is moving as planned. And our next oh, we're gonna meet summer summertime. Nothing's set, but it was a good meeting. And our finance committee, trustee Ansel? I have to delegate that to trustee Torres as I had some health issues and missed today's meeting. So, we got an update on the second semester class size overages. We have some he says here.
Okay. Yeah. So we have an agreement with all three unions. There is, items of information on the school of choice slots. We got an update on budget prep for '26, '27, and we got what is this called? Designation of Depository's, as an information item. Am I missing anything? It was just me in this meeting, so I'm trying to I wrote a lot
of notes. But I better remember if that was it. But I think that was that was really what we talked those are all what we talked about. Am I missing anything? No. Thank you for covering this for me. Well, that takes you takes us right back to you, trustee Torres for intergovernmental relations. Nothing to report. Alright. Trustee Martin, personnel committee. Nothing to report. And back to Trustee Anton, policy committee. And over to I think I took the notes. Once again, health issues. Okay. Yeah. Tally took care of it. We met last Monday, and we made a modification of policy, on our media center
materials. So that should be coming forward back to us again soon. To we submitted or did you submit to churn? Or No. I submitted during churn. Okay. Perfect. So it should was it an item under I yes. It was an items of information tonight. It should tell them about it at our next meeting. Okay. We spoke about the district renaming policy and it's kind of in the works to draft an application for anyone to complete covering all bases, regarding this policy if any of one had interest in renaming facilities, or putting something forward as a suggestion.
We had a land acknowledgment update. Our, Ms. Burton and Mr. Neal are connecting with Nokomis contacts, and the plan is for that contact to come in and speak with the LPS Social Justice team to talk with students on what they want to do and perhaps host professional development series, with our staff on what we can do at ELPS. So that's kind of still in the work the works. And we just have a couple things on future consideration, maybe, readdressing old policy around
the surrounding media communications, to update and make language a bit more clearer on this. And our next meeting is May 18 at 10:30AM. Oh, okay. And if I I did our next meeting for academic tech is May 5, at 02:00, which is a slight change in time from what was previously announced. So 02:00 instead of 01:00. I I just whispered to tell you that, that the next meeting also conflicts with, an appointment for me.
And so I will reach out to everyone and see if we can move the date or time. Okay. Let's see. We have to do. Thank you. Alright. And then ISOA, trustee Tycocky. We have not met since our last meeting and we have no meeting in April. Our next meeting is May 6 at 8AM and we'll be out at the Thorburn Education Center in person out in Basement. Thank you very much. Our announcements, the next regular scheduled meeting of the Board of Education is 04/27/2026.
Does anyone have any other further announcements? I should've just said it's ref reps. Mister doctor Dobson back there already sent me the correct term. So ref reps and I What's the first word? Ref, r e f. Yeah. The students are learning officiating. Officiating. Officiating. Yeah. Roughing. Will they take any young graduate adults? Yeah. Say what? Will they take any young adult grad recent graduates? I mean, if they they wanna come back to the high school, that's the biggest question. Yeah. Exactly. How old do they have to be to participate in this program? It's a class that they it's a it's an academic class for credit.
So freshmen could do it? I mean, it's young. Freshman. Freshman. Seniors could squeeze them between now and graduation. You want to get that one? Heavy time. Yeah. Alright. We will, adjourn at 08:11. Thank you, everyone, for attending.