support. All right, it's 7:02. Uh, I'll call us to order. This is the regularly scheduled meeting of the of the the regularly scheduled August 25th, 2025 meeting of the East Lancing Board of Education. Uh, Miss Hokort, can we get a roll call?
Mr. Martin here. Dr. Lions here. Dr. Edel here. Miss Ferris Highland here. Dr. Chambers, present. Dr. Torres, she'll be here. She's on her way. She went to the middle school or she went to the middle school.
Yeah. Okay. So, she'll be here. Okay. Um, Miss Taki is absent. Student Representative Djaga here and student representative Mega here. Oh, and Mr. Mitchum here.
And thank you for being with us tonight, Mr. Mitchum. Uh, Miss Leo couldn't be here as you know. Glad to be here. Glad to have you. Trustee Chambers, can you read our mission statement, please? I would be happy to. The mission statement of East Lancing Public Schools
is nurturing each child, educating all students, and building world citizens. Thank you. Can I get a motion for the approval of tonight's agenda? I move that the board of education approve the August 25th, 2025 regular meeting agenda as presented.
Second. The motion was made by trustee Ferris Highland, seconded by Trustee Lions. All in favor of the motion as presented, please say I. I. Any opposition? The motion carries unanimously. Can I get a motion for the approval of the minutes from our last meeting?
[Applause] I move that the board of education approve the meeting minutes from the August 11th, 2025 regular meeting and the August 11th, 2025 closed meeting as presented. Second motion was made by Trusty Chambers,
seconded by Trusty Lions. All in favor of the motion, please say I. I. I. Any opposition? The motion carries unanimously. The next item on the agenda is recognition. Trusty Ferris, is there any recognition? Yeah, I have a couple actually. The Spring girls tennis team qualified for
the academic all-state award at the state level. Within the teams that earned academic all-state for division 2, the East Lancing tennis team had the highest GPA. Oh wow. There were 77 teams in division 2 last season. So, this shows that these girls are excellent student athletes both on and off the court. And
additionally, Anie, what's your last name? How do you pronounce your last name? Uh, Mega. Mega. Mega. Anie. Mega and Eevee Laxton earned all state honors as one of the top doubles teams in the states. Congrat. And then one more from the Justice League of Greater Lancing and
they awarded four 2025 reparations scholarships to East Lancing grads. Elena Andrews for at Louisiana State University, Talia Dunn for Oakland University, Gabrielle Puit at Grand Valley State University, and Malachi Turner for Alabama&M University. So,
congrats to these awesome scholars as they begin their college careers. And that's all I have for tonight. Awesome. Thank you. Thank you, Trusty Ferris Highland. That was good stuff. Uh, any other recognition before we move on to the next item? All right, the next item on the agenda
is our student representative report and we have a couple of new student representatives. So, uh, come on up and introduce yourselves and then, uh, let us know anything that we need to know about what's happening in our building. Okay. So, we just wanted to take a quick moment to do a reintroduction and to
share a short report about the upcoming week. Um, so I'm Maya. Um, and I'm a senior. And I'm Tanya and I'm also a senior. So most of our fall sports have been preparing for like a week or two before school started. But now it's the first
week. So a lot of the games and all the events are starting to pick up. So we're just going to do a quick rundown about the upcoming week. So Tuesday, which is tomorrow, um, boys soccer and water polo have um, games. And then Wednesday we have girls swim and dive and then JV and freshman
football. And then on Thursday there's an away football game. Um plus also another boys soccer game. Looking ahead, we're excited for our first home varsity football game next Friday. Um the marching band will be debuting their
show and we're anticipating a packed and spirited student section. And then we know this report is on the shorter side, but it's because we're going to hopefully get more detailed as more like results and more events start coming in. And that's pretty much it. Thank you
guys for listening. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Thank you both for being here. And we have a lot of exciting things coming up. Now, um I don't know if you know the custom, but you do not have to stay for the whole meeting. Yeah, you have other we know you have busy lives and if you need to
get back to work or school or homework, uh, we certainly understand. Thank you so much. Yeah, have a good day. All right, thank you both. The next item on the agenda is the superintendent report. Uh, Mr. Mitchum is in as our acting superintendent
today. So, Mr. Mitchum. Yep. I don't have a report. I uh I'm just in place of Miss Leako, who I'll tell you is doing well. Uh, she'll be back with us soon. Um, I will say we've had a great opening day for school. I was at a couple of the buildings this morning. Couple of the elementary
buildings. Kids are so cute and uh excited. You could fund you could run a city off the excitement from those kids. Uh, the high school did a kind of a cool thing they've never done before on the because it was a half day. They went to every class and then at the end of the
day finished with a pep assembly which was uh really wellreceived. Built a lot of school spirit. The staff came out. We're announced one at a time to their walk up song. Oh boy. Kids cheer for and it was it was awesome. So
Miss Schwarzbeck the principal told me it was best first day yet for her and uh just a great way to get the year started. So Oh, I love that. Yeah. So I have a couple of questions. Um, I was told during the pep assembly they talked about sports and the star speaker
in the conversation about sports was um, Marcus that he was called forward to give a speech and that then there was a breakout dance party at which they dance party. There was a dance party. There was a dance party. Okay. So, we got a 50/50 truth there. I don't know about the first part,
but I wasn't there the whole time. I I kind of got a report about it. So, okay. So, there may or may not or may not have been Yeah. I cannot affirm or deny. Okay. But why wouldn't they what Marcus say? I don't know. Because he told me today that Oh, put in
the text. Everybody was so excited to see him. Yeah, for sure. And he will tell you that. Yeah. Most popular. Well, thank you for that information, Mr. Mitchum. Are there any questions for
Mr. Mitchum before we move on? All right, let's go ahead and move on to the next item on the agenda. It is public comment. Uh I don't see anyone here to make public comment. Um so I don't think we need to um go through all
the information in this section. Uh let's move on to board discussion item six. And uh this is something that uh we discussed at a previous meeting. I think I don't remember when exactly it
was, but essentially we're in a position where our next scheduled meeting is September 8th of this year and then the meeting after that is October 27th of this year. So it's something like a six or a six five or six week period in
between those two meetings, maybe even more than that. Um and we had discussed at that time uh the Mondays during that time period are filled up with uh observances and holidays on our cultural calendar that we've uh made a decision
that it doesn't make sense to schedule meetings on those Mondays. But uh the purpose of this discussion point is just to see if we can find another date that works somewhere in that range. Maybe two days. I think we could probably do it with one, but if we want to do it with
two, we could also consider that as well, just to make sure that um we are having regular meetings, especially during the what's usually one of the busier times of the year. Um when uh hopefully things are going well, but if something's going wrong, we need to be
able to address it. Um so, uh Mr. Mitchum, did uh Superintendent Leo give you her preferred days for these meetings? Yeah, she doesn't have specific ones, but I asked her if October 6th was a possibility. She said that date would work. However,
um it's kind of ironic that I'm passing this information along. She will be ready for a recommendation to the board on Monday, September 22nd for a new assistant superintendent. Oh wow. Um however, that uh day is Rasha
Rashashana, so we can't meet then. So, she wondered if possibly would there be another day that week that you could meet that's not a Monday. Kind of breaks tradition, but but uh she threw that out as a possibility. Another day that week that's not a Monday. Yeah. Well, that would be pretty much every
other day that week. Well, I mean, the day that would work hard, they're not pulling any punches for you, but they're getting you ready for the new gig. Yes. So I believe Roshashana is Monday,
Tuesday, Wednesday if I'm not mistaken. Okay, that that's that's probably correct. Yeah. Um so we would be looking at the earliest uh Thursday the 25th if we want to do something that week. Um and then the next Monday is the 29th of
September. So those are dates that uh the 29th did not work for uh Superintendent Leo. She may be out of town that Monday. So she she was okay with October 6. However, uh if she has a recommendation for a new hire,
she would just hope that you could uh call a special meeting for that. Okay. I am fine those that Thursday and Friday. I'm not Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday are also not good for me. Even though I do not that Thursday, Thursday works for me.
I think Thursday the 25th makes sense based upon what I'm hearing at the table. Um and then so let's pencil in that. Okay. And then uh I guess the next question is do we want to
um schedule another meeting in that first half of October or do we want to uh are we okay with having the basically four-week gap between that Thursday meeting and the the next meeting
scheduled on October 27th? I would suggest scheduling it because we can always cancel it versus not scheduling it and then not having a quorum able to commit in the in the event we needed a meeting.
Okay. And I think that's that's wise. I agree with Trusty Zel on that. I'm looking at Tuesday the 14th of October. Do we know of anything that would be a conflict on that day? Um, I'll be out of town on that day, but it doesn't, you know, one person doesn't
stop the show. See what our This is October 14th. Yeah, I'm looking at Tuesday, October 14th. Do you know when you'll when you'll be back in town, Trusty Chambers? Uh, the actual day I'm gone is the 15th. So, it just depends when I'm leaving. I know
that I won't be able to Okay. Yeah, that makes sense. I understand how that works. Um, but yeah, I could conceivably do that. Then we're saying Monday is a holiday. Believe that's Indigenous People's Day.
It is. Yeah, it um Yeah, it's coming up on my calendar now. And as I recall, um, last year we had a meeting scheduled on Indigenous People's Day as well, and we made a decision collectively not to move forward with the meeting,
right? Um, just to add another complication to the conversation, I know that we received an email today from Miss Hokor about the meeting that's scheduled in November that falls during November break. Maybe that's already on your agenda, but yeah, that's the next item. Okay. We'll tackle
I was going to say cuz I don't want to not have a meeting given that we'll we also have to figure that out. So, we could do any of you know I I think that a Tuesday might make sense. Um we could do Tuesday the We could look at
Tuesday the 7th of October. Yeah. Or we could do the Monday the 6th of October that the superintendent already suggested. That would be about a 10day gap between that meeting and the meeting on the 25th. I think I'm clear on both the 6th and
the 7th. And did you What did you say about the 14th? No. Well, we Well, I was just trying to find a date that everybody was available. I think the 14th is probably a good date. I just was trying to Won't be there Chambers calendar.
I could do sixth, seventh or 14th. Likewise. Is there a preference from the group? I don't want to argue against myself, but having a little bit of time between the um yeah and the four and you know like to have it the 7th 8th seems like it might
be too close. So even though I likely won't be able to attend, I'd still suggest maybe the 14th. Okay. Uh, so I think that the consensus is that we do the 14th and as trust as trusty pointed out that's not carved in
stone. If there's nothing on the agenda um we don't have a good reason to meet, we don't have to move forward with that date. But let's get it on the calendar just so that um if we need to have a meeting, we we all have the time set aside. Great.
So we have uh one more item to discuss. And that is the regularly scheduled meeting on Monday, November 24th. Uh the the calendar for the semester has that whole week off for students and
teachers. And customarily we wouldn't meet on a on a Monday when we didn't have uh students or teachers in the building. I would suggest we often cancel the meeting before Thanksgiving. I'm I'm comfortable with taking that off the calendar for now and maybe setting a
meeting in second half of November if it's absolutely necessary. So, as it stands, we have a meeting on the 10th. That's correct. And then it would be the 24th and then the next meeting after that in December would be the 8th.
That's correct. Okay. And that should be that usually is the only meeting in December. Mhm. We have a meeting on November 10th. So, we would go from the 10th to the 10th. No, that's not We don't have a November 10th one.
It's not on the schedule. Is that a professional learning day? No. Holiday? I only see November of 24th. I have I've got November 10th board meeting. More. Do you know if we have November 10th scheduled for board meeting? November 10th.
Oh, so it's not on the website then. Yeah, I know. I don't know what happened. I think that one got left off. Somebody brought that to my attention today. I'll have it placed on there. That's why. So, there is one on the 10th. Okay. Yeah, you're right. It's not on the website. Yeah, thanks for pointing that out.
So, we have one on the 27th of October and then 10th. So, uh, my, now that we know that we have a meeting on the 10th and that'll be corrected, my recommendation would be to take the 24th, the meeting on November 24th off the calendar for right
now. Um, and if we need to reschedu for a different time, uh, we can do it sometime closer to November 10th. Is there any uh any issues with doing something like that? I support that. Okay. So, do we need a motion to update
our calendar? We do adopt the calendar in January. So, we don't we vote to adopt our calendar. So, yes, we would need a motion to amend it. So, we we put that in our action item section or we just go ahead and do that now.
Well, technically we would amend the agenda to add that motion to the action item section now. and then we would vote for it under action items. Okay. Do you want to make the the motion? Sure. I move that to amend the agenda to
include an action item B uh change to the board calendar for the 20 five U calendar. Second. All right. And so the motion to amend
the agenda was made by Trusty Edel, seconded by Trusty Chambers. Is there any discussion before we move to a vote? All in favor of the motion as presented, please say I. I. Any opposition? The motion carries unanimously. Thank
you, Trusty Edel. It's always good to have a parliamentarian in the group. And it's not by choice. We just been doing it long enough. Exactly. Uh that is and I know that was the right the right um procedure to follow. So, thanks for doing that. Um,
do we have the dates written down that we've proposed? I've got them so I can read them all. Okay, very good. All right, let's uh move to our action items. The first is amendment to the public schools contract of employment. I
move that the board of education modify the following terms in section one or section I1 earn sick time for principles, associate principles, director of athletics and activities, district mental health coordinator and behavior systems analyst for the period
of July 1, 2025 to June 30, 2026 and July 1, 2026 to June 30th, 2027. Second motion by trustee Ferris Highland, seconded by trustee Lions. Uh, is there
any discussion on this? My understanding is it's just a clerical error and something was left out that should have been included and it was um a small change. Um, Trustee Taiki uh sent me an email saying that she is
supportive of this amendment. Um, is there any other discussion? All right. All right. All in favor of the amendment as presented, please say I. I. I. Any opposition. The motion carries unanimously. Action item B, changes to the board of
education meeting calendar. I move to amend the board meeting calendar to add a board meeting on September 25th, 2025 and October 14th, 2025 and remove the November 24th, 2025
meeting. Second. The motion was made by Trustee Edel, seconded by Trustee Torres. Is that right? No. Oh, trusty Ferris Highland. Sorry, it's a long table. But Trusty Ferris Highland, uh, is there any discussion on
this topic? Just to clarify that the start time for those meetings would still be 7 p.m. At 7 p.m. I take that as a friendly amendment to the to the motion. Slightly friendly. We do want to keep the staff here a
little bit later. Try to pump it into the night. Probably getting less and less friendly as the night goes on. All right. So, that is a that's a that's an excellent question, Trusty Chambers. Uh there's a friendly amendment to clarify that the time will be the usual meeting time, 700 p.m. So, thank you for
for that information. Is there any further discussion before move to a vote? All right. All in favor of the motion as presented, please say I. I. Any opposition? The motion carries unanimously.
All right, we can move on to the next item, committee reports. Uh, the first is academic and technology committee trustee lines, do you have a report for us? Nothing to report yet. U, we'll be meeting sometime in September. It's happening. Meetings are starting
again. Uh, facilities, trusty Ferris Highland, nothing to report. Same. We'll meet in September. Very good. Thank you. Uh, finance trusty, we have not met. We will meet September 8th. Okay. Intergovernmental Trust. Trusty Torres.
Nothing to report. Sending out emails for meeting in September. Uh personnel committee. Uh nothing to report. Um uh Superintendent Leo suggested that we may need to have a meeting in the next couple weeks. I'll be in touch with the
committee members if that comes together. Policy committee. Nothing to report. We meet September 8th in the hub as well. policy is at 10:30. Excellent. Thank you. And then ISO uh Trusty Tekkaki email. There's nothing to
report, but they are resuming their regularly scheduled meetings uh in the coming weeks here. And so there probably will be something in our next meeting. All right. Uh the next item on the agenda is announcements. Our next
meeting is Monday, September 8th. So, uh, two weeks from tonight at 7 p.m. And we'll be back here for that meeting. Yes. Okay. And we'll be meeting in we'll be meeting in this location for the foreseeable future until the our new meeting room is
up and running. I drove by the new building a couple days ago. It looks really really nice. I'm so excited. Is the exterior sheathed and Yeah. We we walked it uh myself, Miss Leo.
Uh was anybody else? I think it was just the two of us with the construction manager uh last Friday and um it was uh yeah site to be seen that's going up fast. They're cool. They have all the the the roofing now is
is done and uh soon they'll be putting up studs for the drywall on the inside. On the inside. And so the exterior is the walls are done too. The outside walls not fully. No, there's still there's still some open there, but the but they are that's soon soon will be done.
Great. Yeah. Cool. Great progress. It's incredible. It's nice to see that project coming together. Yeah. Are there any other announcements before we before we adjourn?
All right. I will adjourn this at 7:26 p.m. Thank you all for being here. We'll see you in a couple minutes.