to order at 7:01. Can I get a roll call, please? Trustee Lyons? >> Here. >> Trustee Ferris Island? >> Here. >> Trustee Edsel? >> Here. >> Um Trustee Martin is absent. Trustee Chambers is absent.
Trustee Torres is absent. Trustee Tekac? >> Here. >> And Superintendent Lakeo? >> Here. >> Thank you. We have a few members that are out of the country and/or sick, and so they are um excused from today's meeting.
Um can I get uh ooh, let's see. What are we doing? Oh, mission statement. Um Trustee Edsel, can you read our mission statement for us? >> I can. Our mission statement is nurturing each child, educating all students, and building world citizens.
>> Thank you. Um can I get approval of agenda? >> I move to approve the agenda of the July 13th, 2026 regular meeting as presented. >> Second. >> All right. Moved by Trustee Ferris Island, seconded by Trustee Edsel. Any
discussion? Not hearing any. All in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed? Motion is Motion passes. Can I approve of the minutes? >> I move that the Board of Education approve the June 30th, 2026 regular
meeting minutes as presented. >> Second. >> Moved by Trustee Tekac, seconded by Trustee Edsel. Any discussion? Not hearing any. All in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed? Motion approved.
Um any recognition? Trustee Martin is not here, so I don't know if we have any recognition from any other board members or our superintendent. All right. We'll move on to our superintendent's report. Superintendent Maylehm. >> Thank you. I'm going to start with a
little plug for our social media. We invite ELPS students, families, and staff to send us photos and a short description of what you've been up to this summer. Family vacations, camps, summer reading, athletic competitions, community service, special celebrations,
new hobbies, accomplishments, and everyday fun are all welcome. Throughout the summer, we'll be we will feature submissions from across our district and celebrate the many ways our students and families are learning, growing, and making memories. To submit, email your photo and a brief
description to communications@elps.us and we can't wait to see what you're all up to this summer. I also want to mention that the East Lansing Public Schools Board of Education will have four seats open at the end of 2026. The election is Tuesday, November 3rd,
and interested candidates must submit their required filing materials by 4:00 p.m. on July 21st, 2026. So, I believe that's a week from tomorrow. And then I'm including a link for more information, Ingham County candidates link, and again, this will go out to all
of our families tomorrow. Michigan students are urged to participate in the Governor's Summer Reading Program. Governor Gretchen Whitmer is encouraging Michigan children from pre-K through 12th grade to participate in a summer reading trip. The second stop on a trip began this
week and runs through July 22nd. Stop two is called explore Michigan. During this stop, encourage children in your life to learn about Michigan authors and read Michigan-based books all while enjoying nature in the state during this pure Michigan summer. Then there's a
bulleted list of challenges and a link to a website to submit your entry when you complete one of the challenges and to join over 400 readers who have already entered to win prizes that include tote bags, books, Michigan maps, and bookmarks. And once again, I'm including the
central office summer office hours, and I've added all of the dates of either days off or partial school days up until winter break so families can plan like our first three PD days, Labor Day
weekend, Thanksgiving week, etc. So, this will be sent out tomorrow. That's all I have today, but I'm happy to take questions. >> Any questions for the superintendent? >> [clears throat] >> Not hearing any, then we'll move on to our consent agenda. Can I get a motion?
>> I move that the Board of Education approve the consent agenda to include a new hire, number one, the hiring of Trisha Tepler, 1.0 FTE school social worker at Marble Elementary at MA step 13, effective August 20th, 2026.
>> Second. >> Wonderful. We have a motion by Trustee Ferris Highland, seconded by Trustee Edsel. There's no discussion on this, so all in favor? >> Aye. >> Any opposed? All right.
So, we have a new hire, Trisha. Welcome. We welcome you to if you would like to go to the podium or stand up and just introduce yourself or say anything. We We do this everyone. >> [laughter] >> Right. And I just want to say thank you. >> Um I'm really excited to join East Lansing Public Schools. Thank you.
>> Yes, welcome. Thank you very much. All right. We'll move on to our public comment. Do we have any public comment? Let's see. >> She's getting them. >> Yes, so you you're >> You're more than welcome to take take care.
>> Thank you. Welcome. >> Okay. >> All right. So, our public comment, this is an opportunity to address the board. Speakers are to confine the remarks to 5 minutes. If a speaker requires more than 5 minutes after all the persons who have requested to speak during this part of
the meeting has spoken, that speaker will be allowed additional time. The superintendent or other district staff may comment to clear up or avoid significant misunderstandings. And so, so right now we have one
public comment and Molly are seeking update on tech use technology use petition response. So, you can come on up to the podium. >> It's better height for me now. Thank you. >> [laughter] >> I'm Molly Spooner, parent of two in the
district. First, I do want to say I we've had the most incredible experience with our kids have gone into McDonald Middle School. I'll have a sixth grader this coming year and a seventh grader and the teachers, the staff, the admin have been completely just excellent.
They they love our kids and it's been a really great journey. So, I also want to thank you for the discussion and the recent focus on technology use in our schools. Um by starting to look at the data, you are being strong stewards of our school
system. My own review of the data both for the district and for my children actually kind of made me kind of sad because I just saw so many minutes being spent on screen and I think those are minutes that are not only minutes that could be classroom
time, learning, but also just being children and not being on screen. I just don't There are no studies out there that say screens are good. No one's like, "Rah, rah, let's get screens." So, that actually does make me sad. So, that stirred the conversation and we all
started looking at the data and I think it's been very eye-opening. Um the word that keeps adjective that keeps popping in my head is astonishing. Like, the number of minutes, the number of YouTube videos, um astonishing. And we need to fix it. Um YouTube is not educational.
Like that is just I think we need to all stack hands. It's not educational. Um so, as stewards of the LPS, we need to ask, what's the return on investment of these Chromebooks? We're spending a lot of money on them. I think I couldn't tell exactly, but I want to say 800,000
a year. So, what's the business case? Like, what are the community getting out of those dollars? And is it helping test scores? Is it helping student engagement? Is it helping attention span? I don't think the the test scores show value. Um so, I think the money could be better
spent elsewhere. I know we had to really adapt quickly to the screens with COVID and no one's blaming people for going down that path, but I think we'll be blamed if we don't find an off ramp. Um so, I'd love to hear an update on
where the district is with your review of the current tech use and the plan for next year. And I think, you know, there's a petition that was signed by many members of the community, I think over 300. There was a survey that a very um very intelligent parent put together
using a lot of scientific research that in the the main point she she many people in the community, the main point was that no one really understands what the coherent plan is for the tech use and no one really seems to see much of a value in it. Um so, please give our community
the and our children the dignity of in-person non-screen learning. I think it's a dignity issue. Um I don't think it's dignified to have my kids first interaction of the day be looking at a screen. I want them looking at you all. I want them looking at their
friends. I want them talking to their friends. Um I want them talking to the teachers. I think our I'd love to hear what our teachers think about it all and if they find value in the screens. I keep asking questions like what's the ROI and the >> [laughter] >> the only answer I've gotten was it helps with attendance.
I know there are other reasons for it, but I think we've become really reliant on it and I just don't see a lot of upside. I see a ton of downside. So, I'd love for ELPS to join so many academic leaders and research institutions and think tanks and
parent-based organizations that are saying stop it with the screens, please, and let's lead. Thank you. >> Thank you. Do we have any other public comments? All right. We'll move on to our board discussion.
Do we have any more discussion? I didn't hear anything. We'll move on to our action items. Um can I get a motion for contract recommendation for the assistant superintendent of finance and operations? >> I move the Board of Education approve the contract with Rich Pugh for the position of assistant superintendent of finance and operations as presented.
>> Second. >> All right. Um motion by Trustee Etzel, seconded by Trustee Saikkonen. Any uh discussion? Hearing any, move to vote. All in all in favor? Aye. Any opposed?
Motion passes. Um we'll move on to the committee reports, academic and tech. Um no one from academic and tech are here. Um so, uh we'll move on to facilities committee. >> No update, but we have a meeting
scheduled August 5th at 10:00 a.m. Here. So, I'll have an update after that. >> Thank you. Uh finance committee. >> We will welcome back Mr. Pugh on August 3rd in this room
at 1:00 p.m. I believe. Do you have that on your calendar yet? >> I thought I saw it in September. >> There is one at 1:00 on uh in August, but >> Okay. >> if you want to cancel that, you're now under contract.
>> All right, wonderful. Um intergovernmental relations um chair is not here, but we have not met. Uh personnel committee chair is not here, but we have not met. Uh policy committee. >> So, we met today at 10:30
and got a lot done. Um all the Truen updates for this year we made it through, which has never happened in the past. Now, Truen has gotten into the flow, and so most of the updates were just citation changes, legal authority, author, um
but we still did cover probably 15. Um they should get into your You got the email from me? Okay. So, they should get into items of information for our next meeting and on to the um agenda for the meeting after that. I guess the ones that um
uh there's uh couple at the very end that I would say pay attention to um our uh policy of the suicide prevention policy. We pulled the Truen pulled out the requirement for a suicide hotline on
the ID card and made that a separate policy, so we followed along with that. Didn't really make any other changes to that policy. Um and the behavioral assessment uh behavioral threat assessment policy, there's quite a bit of changes there. So, to take a look at
those, and then there's a couple um changes to uh tobacco use on campus um that now um excludes so no tobacco use except for
excluding it for um uh educational purposes indigenous uh uh uh ceremonial purposes or um harm reduction so like nicotine patches um are now exempted from the previous
policy. So those are probably the the main ones to look at when uh when you're looking at those in items of information and then uh we again discussed the land grant acknowledgement um kind of student group and teachers are on break over the summer
um Lottie Burm will continue to work with them for long-term changes around curriculum and community learning and then Dory had provided us um information uh regarding the application and rubric for renaming facilities. We've been working on that one for a
while as well. >> That's my three. >> And we'll address that last issue the last two issues at our next policy committee meeting which has not been scheduled yet so I will reach out to everyone. >> And ISLA we have not met we'll pick up
again in the fall. All right um our announcement is the next regularly scheduled meeting of the Board of Education is August 10th 2026. Any other announcements from anyone? All right this is a short meeting we will adjourn at 7:16.
>> I can share what happened here. >> Mhm.