um call to order at 700 p.m. can we get a roll call see um Mr Martin not here Dr Lions here Dr Edsel here miss Ferris Highland here Dr
Chambers present and Mr Holbrook not here Dr Torres Miss Leo here all right and Dr Torres um Gary hobber and Chris Martin are excused for tonight
and trusty Edo can I have you read the mission statement for tonight absolutely I should know my her uh the mission statement for the East Lancing Public Schools is nurturing each child educating all students and building World
citizens thank you move on to approval of agenda get a motion I move the board of ation approves the August 12th 2024 regular meeting agenda as presented second all right that was a motion by
trusty F Highland second by trusty etel all in favor I I is that what I'm supposed to say right I all right approve agenda approval of agenda passes uh move on to approval of
minutes can I get a motion I move the Board of Education approves the following minutes as presented the July 22nd 2024 regular meeting second motion by trusty etel second by trusty Chambers all in favor I I okay
motion passes truste Ferris Highland do we have any recognition we don't but I'm sure that we'll pick back up in a few weeks and do when do we announce our student Representatives that like begin of the school year probably they're chosen yeah
so they'll they'll bring a lot more to the table too so hopefully next time any other recognition or any that anyone else has all right we'll move on to superintendent report okay just a couple items
tonight first day of school for students is Wednesday August 28th this is a full day for middle and high school students and a half day for elementary students families will be receiving back to school information from their building and our staff returns for professional learning Monday August 26th and a little
bit on our uh School based school-based Health Clinic update the Ingam County Health Center board discussed the East Lancing Health Center at their meeting last Thursday as they evaluate measures to reduce or eliminate their $4 million deficit no decisions have been made
about the East Lancing High School clinic and the Board of Commissioners Human Services committee will be meeting on August 18th 2024 with this topic on the agenda and we hope to have an update following that meeting so the status of that health clinic right now is unknown
we did start uh programming back in January with a um Health a mental health specialist um and then construction was supposed to begin and open up by this fall um that didn't start yet and then
we recently were made of aware of their um budget wos and some proposals to um close some other health clinics so um we're watching and communicating closely and we'll provide updates as we have those
available and our next board meeting is in two weeks August 26th right here and that's again our that will be after our first day of professional learning with our staff awesome can I ask a couple questions yeah sure um whether or not
you and I would um the Ingam County Health Center board or the Ingam County Health Center funds do those come out of Ingam County total funds down to them or do they come directly from the state or do you know separately I mean there's a couple
different so part of the funding for the clinic was a grant and that was for the infrastructure pieces but it didn't cover all of the Staffing so some of the staffing needs to be um absorbed with the health department but I don't know
exactly how their funds are uh organized and distributed Ed within the health department but I do know that some of it infrastructure wise came from a grant but all of the Personnel on going does not and do you know if that's true for all of their health clinics say in
Lancing school district and such is the not POS probably already covered they're already in place right so it would mostly be a staffing issue yes in those clinics as well yeah that uh the board that met last week they uh they P they
approved some reductions in um in spending but not they they like a hiring freeze with the exception of some um Dental employees because of the high need for that so they did not so but
otherwise they put hiring freeze as well um so they've made some concessions to eliminate um or reduce their deficit but um not enough yet not even close to enough so they're still going through obviously there's lots of emotion from
lots of individuals and stakeholders and representatives for um all of the folks who utilize the existing and to come Health Centers um so I I hear it was a pretty lengthy um passionate meeting yeah
sure so disappointing we're kind of you know just waiting to see what the fate of it is um but certainly I mean at least from my perspective we absolutely want to bring this here but not at the cost of closing other clinics that are
up and running for other individuals who are already uh utilizing those clinics so hopefully I'll have Moria at the next meeting any other questions for superintendent all right thank you very much we'll move on to our consent agenda
and just a reminder we have no discussion on our consent items can I get a motion I move the board education approved the consent agenda to include the following items a new hires one the hiring of Natalie Johnson 1.0 FTE third
grade teacher at Marbell Elementary at Ma step 3 effective August 26 2024 and two the hiring of Kathleen mulc 1.0 FTE fourth grade teacher at Robert L green Elementary at ba step 8 effective August
26 2024 second motion by uh trusty Ferris Highland second by uh trusty etel all in favor all right
yay congratulations and Kathleen yes Kathleen um we would love to invite you to come up and say a few of words if you would like sons are able to come up too if they have some words prepared they look very sharp I heard they dress them
themselves they can do those ties or they my goodness these outfits are everything I'm still doing my adult children boys ties well and girls ties too I guess if they're wearing well I just wanted to thank you for this opportunity I went to East Lancing
Public Schools I went to Pine crests and made my way through all the way through East Lancing high school and I'm so excited to give back you molded me and now you're currently molding my children so I'm really EXC excited to be back with e Lancing yay all I want to say is
I'm just really excited for my mom I'm excited she got a job and I'm really happy for her that she can come closer um because she used to go far away and now she can come closer yay we're happy for that
too congratulations welcome good job good job all right uh next is public comment um there are blue forms in the back if you would like to give public comment you can grab those now and while you're doing that I will
read off this little statement this is the opportunity to address the board speakers are to confine the 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 the speaker will be allowed
additional time the superintendent or other District staff may comment to clear up or avoid significant misunderstandings so I do have one up here um Ross Gorman from Ela audience
[Music] left all right hello superintendent Leo uh Board of Education East laning family thank you for your time my name is Ross Gorman I speak to you today as the president of the ELA uh to share the thoughts of our membership on the upcoming school year
and today's agenda items regarding administrative compensation uh this will be my ninth year at East Lancing and I'm excited to return to this District uh East Lancing remains an exemplary Institution for academic cultural and athletic immersion uh it's in the best interest of us all
to enjoy the hard work of maintaining our institution's performance um and this uh year there will be plenty of hard work to go around our students are going to work hard to maintain and earn hard or high marks hard work will be done by our teachers who will stay up
late into the night to revise adapt and create new lessons um our coaches are going to stay out until 1:00 am for double overtime and and they're going to stay out to ensure that all of our athletes get home safely um our Ela officers will negotiate a new contract
uh for this community's te teachers and this hard work will be done with our Administration over many many hours uh finally our administrators will do uh tons of extra work to implement last year's bond proposal to keep our students and teachers safe all of this work is going to be done to maintain
what this institution is and much of it goes above our official hours and job descriptions today the board will consider a total package of $27,000 split between relevant administrators to compensate them for the time they will be spending to implement last year's school safety bond proposal an
additional 10,000 will be proposed to ensure our current Finance director can stay on Beyond his additional uh departure time and train his replacement our members are concerned about this spending for good reason but to be clear that reason is not that this spending is egregious it's not that this
is a deceitful practice to the public in any way uh this is fair compensation for additional work that goes beyond the already expansive scope of a professional administrator's stressful salaried job whether or not these bonuses are the best use of this money should be
considered as should the practice of deeming some extra tasks as worthy of extra pay while many more around the school go unpaid the reality of public service and education is unfortunately often one of sacrifice a teacher somewhere right now is working on their back toschool prep
they aren't getting paid for it I saw a few in the building today that was one of them the concern for our members is that extra pay for extra work should be Equitable across or an equitable concept across all levels of employment uh the practice of paying uh District employees for additional unexpected work
that they take on for this institution is laudable and it is something that our teachers are taking note of however it is up to our board members to ensure uh that the resources that we have to offer for this compensation uh not just to our upper Administration but for teachers
who pay their dues in the form of many other unpaid hours additionally with the uh expiration of numerous grant-funded safety positions at the end of this year there is concern that these funds could be better allocated as our administrative Suite has grown to the largest size of my
tenure uh quick math that I put together uh in our contract we teachers are uh officially paid for 31 hours in the building if I divide that by five days in the week that's six hours just about a day um 6 hours after the first bell rings I
still have an hour to go in my workday uh if we do the math that doesn't include uh lessons to be planned before school or grading or planning after school or sports or tutoring or clubs or concerts dances Banquets Etc right we all know the reality of the job that is
just for the six hours so as we go into contract negotiations this year and our resources are limited there have been negligible per pupil funding increases this year how will we decide whose extra work is worthy of extra pay who is not
and who will go without funds to pay for that my final question for you to consider is simply does this money need to be appropriated before the work is done at the beginning of the school year and before we get into the realities of our budgets so thank you for considering
uh our position thank you for my time all thank you any other forms I don't typically respond but I know have the ability to if I need to clear up anything and I I appreciate and took some notes Ross on your comments
and and uh on behalf of your um membership um one thing is the the money is not intended to be paid until the end of the year so do know that that that is not upfront at all I don't think it's uh clear in the motion but that is uh one piece I want to clear up and I the only
other piece um that I'd be happy to go into in more detail sometime is that this does come out of bond funds and not General funds so the use of those is allocated very differently um what what the allowable uses are so again I can go into that but it's not uh it's not
general fund money so it doesn't um like take away from some of the examples you gave okay just to clear up but happy to have more conversation too okay I want to make some comments but they're probably more appropriate under Bond discussion oh Bond discussion okay
so I don't know if you want to B discussion okay all right so yeah well we have board discussion board discussion that's what board discussion I was like Bond discussion what is that you're freaking me out over here all
right so we have board discussion um and trusty etel you have some thoughts so again I don't want to direct this directly to the LA but I do want to um something that I'm realizing in my life
something that I'm realizing in my life is we tend to create a lot of false dichotomies we tend to do a lot of it's either this or that black and white um there's a lot of it on the national level state level local level that aren't there um one explanation that
Dory just gave is that where the funds are coming from bond funds are not generally not allowed to be put into the general fund in order to then be distributed to the teachers but again because this money is going one way doesn't mean there isn't money going the other way um since I've been on this
this board for the better part of the last what 12 years um there was a dramatic shift in uh the um the way teachers are paid how much teachers are paid the the um
negotiation process there's a lot that this board has supported in favor of teachers the ELA Etc from prior to my time time and and some of the other long-term board members here so when we make that into this false dichotomy of it's either Administration or the
ELA it becomes problematic we're all working our asses off excuse my language Administration is teachers are you know and I feel that um the board works really hard to acknowledge the work that
that comes from the teachers as often as we can through compensation and through our words and act and so um I hope we can continue to look at it that way in regards there's so there's two different new approach two different issues there um I want to
address the compensation for Mr Pew during his time and leaving and I think I only have to say two words which is Ann Arbor for anyone to understand the importance of what Mr Pew has done for this District that needs to be passed on
to a new uh Financial director um the pool was very small um the person we hired is a phenomenal candidate but she doesn't come from school Finance School Finance is tricky um I've been the treasurer for most of the years that I've been on the school board um it's a
puny amount of money to have him pass on his wealth of knowledge to her and in teaching her how to do um School Finance one of the decisions that was made that's part of the the bond tonight is
the decision to then again compensate him an additional 5,000 for his work on the bond because Bond Finance is something completely different from school of finance and it is even more picky and and minuscule and expecting somebody who's just coming
into school Finance to then also Master Bond Finance um is problematic uh and I want it done right as a Treasurer who's probably the top fiduciary duty here um I want to see it all done right so that we don't end up in the same position Ann
Arbor is uh at this point in time um and then you go to you know the extra hours Billy's going to put in the extra hours the Christian's going to put in um for that it is not saying teachers will not be putting in extra hours you have your union speak to your union work with them
on what you think is fair um you know we we aren't opposed to that but again let's not create these false binaries that are unnecessary um we'll work together we're one East Lancing family thank you any other discussion on any other on
this topic or any other topics I could talk about Marcus making more pee if you want always willing to talk about that no you don't want to tell it all right we will um move on to action items get a a
motion I move the Board of Education approved bond stiens for contract year 20242 related to extra duties and responsibilities for the safety security and accessibility Bond project second all right
was move by Fair Highland second by TR etel all in favor I okay all right motion passes unanimously um action item B can I get a
motion I move the Board of Education approve the contract Amendment for the Director of Finance as presented second and then can we enter I'm sorry yeah I didn't ask if there was any discussion no it's okay um because I think they're related anyway I just want
to um I don't even know what I want to say I I appreciate superintendent l making the um important clarification that the money for these um the extra duties is coming from the bond funds and we have some restrictions
over what and I appreciate trusty edel's comments from just a moment ago as well these are not decisions that we make lightly I that's all I don't anyway um and I appreciate Mr Pew for um
I have no idea when his when he wanted to retire he's not here um but I know that we've been hit with a few really significant events over the last few years that I would surmise have delayed his decision and I appreciate him sticking through the pandemic sticking
through another Bond sticking through you know all of these things um and now ensuring that we're going to transition to a really solid future I know as a board member this topic of um Finance is one that I we all hold really highly um
we are not trained in school finance and so we really lean on um our finance director um to fulfill our D fiduciary responsibilities as board members and so um I sleep easier at night knowing that
Mr Pew is willing to stay on um and help to navigate through this transition um and I certainly speaking just for myself am happy to compensate him for that thank you trusty Chambers well said um
so it was a motioned by Dr utel second by um yep second by uh trusty Chambers um any other discussion okay all in favor I
I motion passes unanimously and action item C can I get a motion I move the bo of Education adopt the recommended revision to board policies 3115 and 3118 adopt new policies 3115a through
115h and archive current board policy 3118 for future reference and application as needed second this motion by Dr Chambers second by Dr redel any
discussion um just as the policy chair I'll say that we received quite a significant number of policy revisions um this is not all of them more will be coming we had to focus on this most um significant policy and that took most of
our meeting time it was also the most time sensitive but more are coming um and all this I don't know that there are any yeah anything else that I want to say about the policy specifically
that is up for conversation and vote but happy to answer question any other I think it this one came forward first I'm sorry I kind of drifted off there no that's the year on the because it needed to be implemented ASAP so the rest of them will be coming
you may have already said that on no I don't I don't think that I did but the for I don't know what the public sees but this um 3115 is a very lengthy and involved policy related it's called the non-discrimination anti-harassment and non- retaliation including 9 and Elliot
Larson Civil Rights Act um but it just provides some clarification over our processes and policies um when there is a title n um allegation complaint there we go there's the word um and it actually is
very positive in terms of providing clarification over who is involved at what point what the appeal processes look like um I'm also very laudatory of trun for helping put this policy together um I can imagine other
institutions in the area that might want a similar policy on books but that's all I'll say about that um but yeah happy to put this through tonight all right all right thank you so much for that explanation and we will move to a
vote um all in favor I I all right motion passes unanimously all right we'll move on to committee reports um mic and Tech uh we have not had a meeting this summer uh we will be meeting in September we don't have the date yet um but we will get
that on the books and then on the website as soon as possible facilities we've not met since our last meeting and same we will meet in September no date announced yet Finance we meet September 16th at
noon in this room intergovernmental and we have not met Personnel anyone on Personnel here have okay and policy we um met on
the eth and then added a additional meeting so we have um a meeting set for September 21st from 99: to 10:30 is August August August 20th or 21st 21st I don't know why I said whatever I said
August 21st from 9:00 to 10:30 and then our regular scheduled policy meeting is September 16th but we slid the one on on the 21st to deal with the r of these um policy revisions that we need to look at more
carefully so August 21st at what time 9 in this room the other issue is that we received the trune policy updates just a few days before our scheduled meeting that's right yes so and it was a lot so giving also the committee time to
closely review the rest of those revisions seemed necessary yeah all right well announcements our next regular uh school board meeting is August 26th at 20 uh 2024 any other announcements from anyone here we still
have weeks before the school year starts so no need to panic but I am so it's really heartwarming to come into the building after being here for the last few weeks for me meetings and things and it's pretty empty um to see the signs of school
slowly coming back picking up yeah kids next week in Middle School saw the marching van outside I reluctant Camp Friday I saw all these cars out here I'm like what's going on sport started today
yes and I already got my kid school supplies so I'm beating the crowd before MSU comes back huh yeah really no kidding all right and we will journ at 7:27 well done