Good evening and welcome to the board of education meeting for Tuesday, February 24th, 2026. Uh, this meeting is now called to order. Um, Madam Secretary, can we have a roll call, please? >> Yes. Mr. Hall, >> here. >> Mr. Walker
>> present. >> Miss >> here. >> Mr. >> Here. >> Miss Smith >> here. I myself am here. President Williams. >> I am here. >> We will now stand for the pledge of allegiance. Pledge algiance to the flag of the
United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Thank you very much. We will now uh call
for a motion to approve the agenda. >> Motion to approve the agenda as presented. >> Support. Um, can we pause for a second? I wonder if we should do junior optimist first before public comment.
>> Can we amend the agenda to do junior optimist report to >> six 681? Okay. So, was that motion? >> Yes. Yes.
>> Since it was supported. Yes. Uh, Mr. Walker rescends his motion and we'll make another motion. Okay. >> Motion to amend our agenda, moving item 6A1, the Optimus Club update to the
beginning of our agenda and the remainder of the agenda as presented. >> Support motion made by Mr. Walker to amend the agenda to move the district update for the Optimus Club update uh to item three just above public comment. Uh
is there any discussion? Uh seconded by was it you Mrs. Smith? >> Yes. >> Um is there any discussion? >> Seeing none that action will be taken and the agenda is approved. All in favor? >> I uh any opposed? Any abstensions? That motion is approved and that action will
be taken. We will have the junior optimist update uh just before public comment. All right, with that said, we will now move to announcements. I just wanted to comment on a few things. First, uh the board recognizes that we've had a a significant number of
emails from staff regarding the custodial contract currently under consideration. The concerns raised have primarily centered on some very important issues. One, the impact of current custodial staff and questions about cleanliness and
quality. Should contracted services be utilized? I know that there have been lots of questions by board members. Some of them have been answered. There are some questions still outstanding. So, I'm looking forward to a healthy discussion today, likely given the amount of questions that have yet to be
answered. Unless they can be answered during this meeting, we may extend the conversation into our next meeting. I want to be very clear, excuse me, that the board deeply appreciates the feedback. I personally read, as have my
colleagues, all of the emails. Uh, it is our practice that the board president responds on behalf of the entire board. Sometimes board members will individually respond, but we've all read the emails, and it is generally our practice to have one person respond on
behalf of the entire board. um these uh issues affect real people and real conditions and we don't take them lightly. We understand that this is a difficult uh decision and we understand the anxiety that these discussions uh can create and so we're
going to have some really good discussion here. We're not going to rush the discussion. Uh we want to make sure that we're making the right decision. It's also uh important to provide a little context. Uh the district was required to put this contract out for bid. This is not something that the
district is just doing randomly. We're required to do this because the current contract is ending. Uh so this is not being done arbitrarily or without purpose. Um as part of that process, the district learn that there could be savings should the district decide to go
a different route. That level of of savings needs to be weighed very carefully against the concerns that have been raised. Uh again, the board has some additional questions and we remain concerned about the welfare and well-being of our current staff. So, I look forward to a thoughtful and
respectful discussion later on in this meeting. Next, uh I wanted to just announce that there's been a considerable discussion regarding recent federal actions related to DEI initiatives. I wanted to clarify that the federal DEI ban that was raised
uh concerns earlier this year has since been dropped and is deemed uninforceable. In that ruling, a judge affirmed that educators must be free to teach uh and other uh especially where there are subjects related to race, gender, and values related to diversity,
equity, and inclusion. Uh those things naturally arise and those uh that teaching must be done without fear of arbitrary or discriminatory enforcement. educators rather than politics belong at the center of conversations around teaching and learning. Uh that said,
broader debates around DEI at the national and state level will likely continue and the board of education remains committed to ensuring that all of our students needs are met equitably and that our schools remain places where every child can be seen, supported, and able to learn.
Uh, I also wanted to acknowledge that there continues to be public debate and concern related to sex education. To reiterate what I've previously stated, uh, while the Michigan uh, the state of Michigan updated its standards in 2025,
Farmington Public Schools did not change its education curriculum. Uh, if we were to change our curriculum, we would do that and approve it as a board. That has not happened. We have not made any changes. We are not teaching kindergarteners or young elementary
students any inappropriate content despite repeated claims made during uh meetings. Here at the elementary school level, particularly in the younger grades, instruction focuses on age appropriate topics, including keeping hands to oneself, understanding personal
boundaries, and recognizing that private parts are private. Um, as a reminder, the district's sex education curriculum is available for parent review. Parents always have the option to opt their child out of sex education instruction.
If there are ongoing concerns about what is required at the state level, those conversations are most appropriately directed to state policymakers. Families also retain the right to make educational choices that align with their values.
Um, I also wanted to make mention that uh, student achievement remains at the top of the board of education's priorities. We look forward to a review of the district's latest data and a robust conversation and celebration, frankly, related to improvements we're seeing along with what the data tells us
about where we need to make uh, continuous improvements. I want to thank the Junior Optimist Club for and the Optimist Club for uh, joining us earlier today for some coffee. uh not co well we did have coffee and cookies and conversation. It was the first this year
of uh what we intend to be more regular touch points with members of our community uh to engage. I want to remind everyone that we have also a community uh conversation scheduled for this Saturday at 9:00 a.m. uh at Blue Hat uh
for community members to come out and connect with the board and have some conversations. Uh we also continue our um parent ambassador network. Um I'm really excited about meetings being scheduled there and those are all uh helping to further our board goals
around community engagement. I think that was our fourth board goal. So with that said, uh that ends my announcements. I'd like to ask the junior optimist to come up. And just for the public's sake, I wanted to make sure that our young people can get home and get their homework done. I noticed that
we have a large number of people in the room for public comment. So, if you could bear with us for a brief uh update from the junior junior optimist club, we'll then move to our uh normal agenda item, which is public comment. Thank you. >> Thank you, Terry. Do push the button here.
>> Yes, you may. >> Help me out. Help me with the button. >> Oh, thank you. >> Sorry. See, right here. >> Oh, that that button. >> Yeah. Any Let's see. >> We'll get this thing working yet.
All right, Joe, where are you? >> Let me just >> Okay, while we're working on the slides, >> they'll they'll bring them up for you. >> Let me introduce myself. I'm Tom Neil with the Farmington Farm Hills Optimus Club. >> Yes. >> And if you can speak into the microphone, too, so that the folks can
at home can hear you. >> Thank you. >> All right. I'm I'm actually It's an international. We're going to talk a little bit about all this, but in we have the largest uh public school operation in the state of Michigan and also one of the largest as far as I know
in the country. We have 348 kids in the program in elementary, middle school, and high school. So, it's one of the greatest programs going and we're going to go through the slides and I'm going to let now by the way these are the some of the people that are now
they're not only in our clubs but they also are the ones that represent the Michigan because all the officers from Michigan came from us and so I'm going to ask the officers to go ahead and do it. Vibbove is the governor of the state. She's a lieutenant governor and
she's a secretary treasure. So, we've got the board people there, right? Okay, Marula, go ahead. >> Uh, good evening everyone. We'll be briefly talking about our our leadership roles and other events that have happened throughout this year and future
events that we will hold in this near future. >> Okay. So, how do we get people to to do this? Uh, first of all, we want to get them into the program. So what we've found is we need somebody in
particularly teachers to be leaders to help get them started. So we start them in the elementary schools but they they don't really do much leadership there. They start learning about it. In the middle schools they start getting some little experience but in the high schools by that time they've learned to
run the program and focused on community service projects and they're going to talk about some of those. What's the button we're pushing here? Oh. Cool. Uh you can see this is a Vibbove here. We got Mardulla here and we got Vela here.
And and so we started off with a canoe kayak thing and that kind of builds togetherness. It worked. All right. So uh here's the bottom line. Leadership development through social interaction doing community service. That's how that
works. And so the more they do that, the more they learn and they interact and it works. And that's really the core of what we do. Uh this was created by some students about oh five t years ago. It's
a good piece that talks about how you recruit, how you retain, how you do these things. So that's one of our teaching things. If you look at the school system, we're in all of them. And so the graduation flows goes that way, but the leadership development continues as they go. And then of course the
mentorship, they they mentor uh those and help get others into it. So that's kind of how that works. Uh then this is how it's set up. The the district is Michigan and then the international president. Now we had last
year we had a guy uh two years ago running for president from North Farmington High School. Didn't quite make it, but his other guy that was running did get into the vice president at the national level. One of these international vice presidents. uh we run
a sample agenda and this is just kind of showing you kind of what we're teaching and how to get some of that in interplay and working with people with the elect officers and all that sort of thing. So we kind of that's part of the training program. These are some of the past projects uh and and we'll let you want
to start talking about some of this or just go ahead. >> So some of the um >> got talk into the microphone. So, one of our um most uh highlighted um events that we've done was the warm clothing drive which was held at
Farmington High School and North Farmington. We took all collection I'm so sorry. We took over a 100 plus donated items and donated them donated them all to Oakland Foster Closet. >> Can you Yeah. So, we've had other past
events as well at FHS. were very recently ended, I'm pretty sure, the shoe drive, which they also donated. We have cards for first responders, which is a very common activity within our community at the libraries and whatnot. And then we hold state JOI meetings. One of the most recent ones was a couple
weeks ago where we talked with the people from other districts and we just shared our ideas, what our individual school clubs have done. I believe we met with Southfield and we met with a new um supervisor from another school district
and we're just getting involved with how other school districts are working and what kind of improvements they need from us and what we can do for them essentially. And we have future events which we we will talk about in a short while. Milkweed for monarchs, the kidney
foundation zoo walk which is in May, the Memorial Day parade which is coming up very soon. and we have a new announcement for a weekly newsletter that we will incorporate into the school newsletters that the parents receive every week. So, Milkweed for Monarchs is a new kind
of project that we've decided to take on this year and it's come from our desire to highlight some of the environmental um disparities occurring here in Michigan. So, as you know, I'm sure many of you guys are familiar with the monarchs. Um they're actually native
here in Michigan as they every year they have to do a migration from northern America all the way to the uh southern North America of Mexico. And we wanted to highlight um how community service doesn't only isn't only just
going to soup kitchens and helping out at schools. You can also do it by helping the environment itself because it highlights that sort of unity that comes from working together like through planning and things like that. So milkweed is actually a native plant here
in Michigan and it's actually there's been a a lowering population in the monarchs recently since the 1990s and we wanted to address that by gathering our community here and going out in areas here in Farmington and planting milkweed plants to sort of help promote that.
>> Okay. I remember being at Longacre in fourth grade and we released a couple butterflies into our playground and that was my one of my earliest memories with working with the environment and things like that. So, it was one of the projects that is very close to our hearts and how we want to benefit with
like road cleanings and things like that. So, we're going to get the high schools especially involved with it and possibly the elementary and middle schoolers to come work at the FHS courtyard and things like that. So, stay tuned for updates. And we have the Kidney Foundation Zoo Walk at the
Detroit Zoo, which is in May the 16th and the 17th. The 16th is the setup and the 17th is the actual event at 8:45 a.m. And there is zoo access. And it is a full fundraiser for, I believe, $485,000 in total. And that is like the
goal for this year. It is the Kidney Foundation's um biggest fundraiser of the entire year. It was one of the main contributors to their overall monetary goal. And I ask that if you are available then please come join us at the Detroit Zoo on May 17th.
>> Well, this you want to talk to them? >> We try to partner with groups and that's how we get a lot done. You know, if you work with these people, you also find out ways to help the community. And of course, these people are in the community. Did you want to take a slide or two?
>> Uh yeah. So, you know, a lot of these Let's move along. Now, uh we talked about community. Some people may say that the community is just Farmington Hills, but you know, the purpose of the state board is to try and grow that community and make it encompass all of
Michigan. And to do that, we need communication. And this is just a couple of the communication methods we have used. So, we have a state board email. uh you know we have we have a group me for uh the Michigan Jun Junior Optimist District. We have an Instagram run by
Bella actually and then we also have a website set up and on top of that we are going to start a newsletter which will talk about all of our events and uh Medulla is going to expand on that a little. >> Yeah. So the news newsletter we already
are giving out a weekly one that Mr. O'Neal is sending out to the entire state and people who are signed up for it. But one of the problems that we found in the system is that a lot of the we're not actually having supervisors as teachers. A lot of them are parents and we're not getting their contact
information. Recently I went back to steam which is a middle school that I went to and I was trying to look for the supervisor at the junior optimist club at steam and my counselor told me that she doesn't know who this supervisor is. She's never met her before. So that was one of the problems that I found like if
we want to build a community-based club then I need to have this communication with the school and get them directly involved and I don't want to have to you know talk through multiple people to get to them. So one of the um solutions that I have is bringing our events to the
school newsletters that the parents receive every Friday at Farmington and North Farmington. There is a weekly counseling letter as we call it and in that there are scholarships, school events, upcoming community events as well. So I thought that it would be beneficial to put our events in there as
well as it would give people volunteer hours and just bring our club to a better light for parents as well because a lot of parents are not actually uh like very knowledgeable about our club. So I feel like if they were to know it then they would also get involved and our club would expand and therefore a
community would also thrive. Thanks. >> Well, we also do some other things as optimists. We have a essay contest and an ortorial contest. This is not through the junior optimist. This is just through any school system, anybody in the city. Tomorrow morning, we're going
to actually award these essay contest winners $500, $150, and $50 for three for middle school and three for high school. So, we do those other things. Uh if you wanted to join, there's a way to join and we do that. Uh and I don't have
time for questions because you got a short time frame here, but uh just trying to show you how we've divvied up the the state by these these lieutenant governors and such. So that's kind of helpful. Uh we have a lot of other events we do throughout the year. Uh
kind of hard to read that one, but uh anyway, we're always active and of course we always end with the Optimus Creed. And this creed is what has attracted a lot of people to join our club. But before we end, I do want to make a presentation. And this is this is
our t-shirt. This t-shirt was we design t-shirts. We have a design contest. And every year I ask the kids to to design the t-shirt and then we'll print it up. And then of course they got to pay $20 to get it, but that's all right. Uh but the bottom line is uh this was a fifth
grader that did this t-shirt and and it's amazing that they come up with the things and my gosh, it works. On the back is our logo and everything. So Kelly, this is for you. >> Thank you. Thank you so much for that presentation.
Uh I I would ask the board members if they have questions, but we had a a great opportunity to meet with you an hour about a half an hour, hour beforehand and uh got a lot of our questions answered. Thank for Thank you for all of the work that you do. Thank you for being the largest club in our
area and the largest Junior Optimist Club in the state and maybe even the nation with 348 of our young people doing really great things. And thank you young people for coming in and talking with us. We really appreciate it. >> Appreciate the opportunity. >> Thank you.
>> Okay, we're now going to move to public comment. There are two opportunities to make public comment, but you may only make public comment one time. We put public comment on the agenda twice so that people can either come at the beginning of the meeting or the end of the meeting uh or towards the end of the
meeting. So, you have one opportunity, excuse me. During the public comment portion of the meeting, members are welcome to address the board. Please address the board and not the uh the audience. Uh each person will be given two minutes
to speak given that we have a larger number of people here today. Uh a timer on the screen will display the countdown for you. Um we ask that you again address your comments into the microphone so that you can be heard. If
your comment is related to a student or a staff member, please use caution in stating names of individuals where protection of their privacy might be more appropriate. The board will respectfully listen to comments, but generally the board does not respond.
Uh, in some cases it might be uh appropriate for someone to respond or to follow up with you separately to address a concern. If you want to make public comment, we have public comment cards in the back. We just ask that you put your name on the on the card and then you can put it in the ceramic bowl in front of
Miss Culling Scriptures um u podium or desk there. The first uh public comment I have is from Charlie Guerrellnik. Thank you so much for that um spelling. I appreciate it.
>> That's fantastic cuz I butchered it before. I appreciate you. Thank you. >> Hello everyone. My name is Charlie Guerellnik and I'm a representative of the local high school robotics team here in Farmington, the Hackbots. Here tonight with some more updates from the
team. Good news. This week we are almost completely done with the mechanical and electrical aspects of our robot. Meaning we have all of our design, fabrication, and wiring completely done. Which means in the coming weeks leading towards our competitions at the end of March and the
beginning of April, we are putting an extremely large emphasis on programming and strategy to in order to make our robot much more competitively viable. I'm also here tonight once again to share the entire team's gratitude and
excitement towards the STEM edition outside of Farmington High. Especially now as ground is being broken and real progress is being made, the entire team is getting much more excited and much more thankful for your decision to build this. Thank you.
>> Thank you. Next we have Allison Gay, followed by Jenny Krager. Good evening. Thank you for the opportunity to address the board tonight. My name is Allison Gay. As a district parent for the past 12 years
and an employee of the district for six years, I have observed numerous transitions. I firmly believe that investing in our Farmington Public School staff is a direct investment in our students. The proposed outsourcing of employees who are on the front lines
of our buildings daily is not in the best interest of the FPS community. Our current employees demonstrate loyalty to the students, staff, and community, a commitment that contracted personnel who lack a vested interest in being part of
our team may not share. I do not believe a contracted service provider will offer the same quality of service as staff members who are aligned with our vision and goals. Offering current employees the opportunity to reapply for their positions while incurring a loss of
benefits and support is contradictory to our stated model of attract, recruit, and keep quality personnel. Though a contracted company may offer the same pay rate, and I appreciate that we were able to get them to agree to that,
the comprehensive benefits package, including health coverage costs and vacation and sick time acrals, will inevitably differ. To ensure the best outcomes for our students and staff, we must maintain the highest standards. If the projected annual savings from
outsourcing are $1 million, I request further clarification on the intended allocation of these funds and how it will directly benefit students. As a proud member of Farmington Public Schools, I feel disappointment that we are considering the loss of our dedicated employees in favor of
contractual services. I maintain a strong belief in our staff, students, and community, and this proposed option suggests a diversion from divergence from that shared commitment. Thank you. Thank you. If we if we could reduce I'm
sorry, if we could reduce the applause in the audience. I don't I don't mean to be rude, but we do want to make sure that we get to hear everyone. We have um Jenny Kger next and then Eugene Greenstein. Hi, my name is um Jenny Prager. I'm the secretary of Longer Elementary School.
Thank you for letting me come up today. I'm um speaking on behalf of our custodial staff who are amazing in this district. We um do not have the schools that we do if it weren't for our custodians. They're staying late. They
um work hard. They shovel snow. They clean up throw up. They clean up poop, feces, toilets. They replenish toilet paper, um, anything. Sorry, turn the mic off. Okay, there you go. Oh, okay. Um, what they do, they go above and beyond
every day to be able to make sure that our schools are sparkling. I was a part of the district when we went through um, a part-time custodian group from before. It was about four or five years ago and we noticed a huge difference within 3 months of the
schools. The conditions of the tables, the conditions of the um in our kindergarten classes were filthy. There were layers of dirt that were just accumulating and it was just downright gross. Like you'd go into a restroom and you look around and you're like, where is the pride in our um our district? Why
are we pretending that these people aren't important? And I just want to bring that to your attention that we are concerned from a building level that you might be looking at our custodians who are working hard and Elsie Hall, our Longacre, is one of the best custodians
that we've ever seen. Our school has never been cleaner because of her. And when she came on as a a full-time FPS employee, she was excited. She was part she was glad to be part of our community, glad to be part of the the way that we look at school. We wouldn't
be able to do it without her. or without any of these people that are here tonight, please just reconsider about the ramifications of moving forward to something that's part-time, people who aren't invested, people who are just going to give up and say, "Well, it's just a job. I don't really care." I feel
like Farmington employees care, and we need to make sure that we remember that when you're making this decision. Thanks. Thank you. Next, we have Eugene Greenstein, followed by Ian Gibbons. Well, I practiced and it was 2 minutes
and 59 seconds. So, I have a hand and I think you can read it. First of all, I want to thank you for the upcoming meeting where we'll have an in-depth discussion on academic excellence and testing and all that. That sort of gets at some of the things I've I mentioned. So, I'm not going to try to be
redundant. There were three main topics I wanted to talk about. one and it all has to do with academic excellence. One is about benchmarking. There are opportunities to go understand from a process point of view what are people
doing that that makes them successful not necessarily the curriculum but how they teach how they organize etc. And those are golden nuggets. So that's one point. Um, we've mentioned in the past and I still believe we need an academic
excellence subcommittee and there should be some community members on it. 3 minutes isn't enough and certainly two minutes isn't. Um, and then I think there was a lot of good detail that uh, Dr. coffin provided
and that just if you ask an if you show detail to an engineer you're going to get a lot of questions and I think it showed that uh we're understanding the problems uh we're making changes on the fly maybe fly is the wrong word but that's part of the question what are we
do why are we do making some of these changes what's the basis for it that we're using good practices in doing that um clearly uh there's a lot of of understanding needed in the testing. What's the
testing mean? What does it mean to have growth versus a more absolute number like MSTEP? When I look at the data, it's still bouncing around a lot. We need to stabilize it. We need to get it moving in the in the right direction and we're doing, I think, a lot of good
things. And uh so I'll just end by saying uh I'm glad to see the progress being made and I've been dongked out. Thank you, Mr. Greenstein. Um Ian Gibbons is next, followed by Carrie
Kelly. Hello, I'm also at the Hackbots. I have another update for us that uh some of us recently got to see another robotics team out in Detroit. Um team 8280 K9 Robotics who we were on a team with last
year at one of our first competitions and they let us come out and use some of their resources to do powder coating on a couple of our pieces. Um so this is one of our new battery trays. Our robot batteries will get to go in this and it's part of our ongoing project to
create a better battery cart that we can take to our competitions to carry over 100 pounds of batteries with us. Um, and the powder coating was an incredibly fun process. Um, let alone just it was informational for us. We learned and we
got to network with other teams. So, it was extremely beneficial to be able to connect with those other teams. Um, and to create lasting success throughout robotics between multiple teams and between students like that. Um, us and
K9 have a long history of getting along. We're all friends between our teams. So, it was great to get to go out and see them again and try something new and learn just how powder coating works. Yeah. Thank you. >> Thank you. Uh, next we have uh Carrie
Kelly followed by uh Debbie Kuna. >> Um, good evening. I'm just going to read my letter to you which I wrote with the help of AI so that it could be received as compelling rather than complaining. Uh, so dear members of the school board,
I'm writing to respectfully request that we keep our custodial services inhouse. Um, I also believe like one of the other speakers that we've already learned from a shared experience that contracting key personnel such as custodians has a negative impact on our facilities. Um, and much more. I go on to explain that
we've already experienced what happens when that occurs. And I want to highlight that our in-house custodians take ownership of our buildings. They notice when something's out of place. They respond immediately whether it's a child that's sick or some of the other things also before mentioned. Um, they
stay late for events. They show up early when there's a storm. They know the rhythms of the school day and they can anticipate that. That doesn't happen when you don't have a consistent um vested person. But there's also a serious human cost to outsourcing, one that cannot be ignored. For one, uh many
of our custodians are long- serving employees that have given decades to the district. Outsourcing would disproportionately impact those workers. Um it's just another version of age discrimination. So, I hope that we will not engage in that. um especially to those that are nearing
health retirement that are working through health challenges and things that are dependent um that their work is dependent on their livelihood. Uh in our own building, I just wanted to mention that the value of keeping custodians is not really theoretical. It's personal and it's
visible every day. Um and just to highlight, one of our students previously struggled with emotional dysregulation because he could not stay in a classroom. Traditional interventions were not working. But what made a difference? Guess it was a relationship with our custodian.
Trust was built with the student and instead of running away, he uses a break cart. He takes it to the custodian and challenges her for a race. When he feels the need to run, she drops what she's doing and races with him and he then has access for the rest of the day.
>> Thank you for your comments. U we now uh will move to Debbie Kuna and then Mark Forchi. Hello. I've been in this district since 1981. Don't I look great for like 70? As a former student now, a current staff
member and a current parent, I'm coming to you to express my deep concerns for the possibility of 100% privatization of our current FPS custodial staff. This decision carries consequences that extend far beyond budget spreadsheets and projected cost savings. It affects
real people, dedicated individuals who have faithfully served our schools and communities for years. During the proposal presented at the last board meeting, it was stated that our current custodians would have the opportunity to interview at the prospective private company. It was also noted that the district currently employs 22 custodians
and that only 10 would be retained under the privatized agreement arrangement. Does that mean that there would result in 12 custodians losing their positions and leaves six buildings without a dedicated custodian? I would appreciate clarification regarding the plan to ensure adequate coverage and support for those six schools. It was stated at the
board meeting that the privatized companies would pay our FPS custodians the same rate of pay. However, that is misleading. I have learned that they will no longer have benefits, PTO, paid holidays, or retirement. Furthermore, I'm concerned that if a third party was required to pay our FPS custodian staff more than new hires, that would
incentivize them to hire a new person for less money. Our custodial staff members are not just employees performing a task. They are a vital part of our school environment. They're often the first to arrive and the last to leave, ensuring the classrooms are clean, safe, and ready for students and teachers each day. They take pride in
their work and in the relationships they have built with students, staff, and families. Their present contribute their presence contributes to the stability and sense of community within our schools. Privatizing these positions may appear to offer short-term financial relief, but it risks long-term costs that are not easily measured. Loss of
institutional knowledge, reduced accountability, and diminished morals along among staff and students alike. At a time when we emphasize the importance of community respect and care for one another, I respectfully ask that you would reconsider this proposal and explore alternative solutions that
protect both fiscal responsibility and the well-being of the people who serve our school so faithfully. One of the things that makes Farmington unique is that we are a community, not just a dollar sign. >> Thank you. Thank you so much. Uh Mark Fory and then uh Amy Small.
Penrook Academy Charter School in Detroit is right across the street from Bo Elementary School, a public school in Detroit. They're so close yet miles and miles apart in results. There are a number of reasons because we don't have the time I could give what they say they
why they get these good results. One is moral focus. Pemrook Academy Charter has a moral focus program where students learn and practice virtues like respect, gratitude, and courage. These lessons are woven into daily learning so
students know how to apply them in real life both in and out of the classroom. By pairing strong academics with character education, we they we help children grow into confident, kind, and responsible individuals who lead with
integrity. Four out of five parents agree that NHA's moral focus program has a positive impact on their children. Another point is parent partnership. They say, "We believe students thrive when schools and families work together.
NHA schools build strong connections between home and school through open communication and meaningful opportunities for involvement. Parents say informed parents stay informed through regular progress updates and easytouse tools like parent portal and
NHA school content. Finally, uh it's time for public schools to adopt, budget, and report on values that define our cultural expectations and our constitution. Thank you.
>> Thank you. We'll now move to Amy Small, followed by Henriettto Fory. >> Good evening, Amy Small. I am a young fives teacher over at Beach Elementary and always need a good solid custodian
obviously in the type of classroom that I teach. Um, going on with my email, I recently became aware that at the February 10th meeting the board discussed the options for custodial service in the district as our contract with ABM is ending at the end of the school year. I hear that there are some
proposals on the table which I feel present an unacceptable issue for our current custodial staff employed by FPS. One proposal I've become aware of is to outsource the staff both day and evening in order to potentially save money. I wish to remind you that the last time
the district eliminated our full-time custodians in favor of outsourcing it was a disaster. The work was never done correctly, completely or efficiently with the continuous element of not showing up to work. We are being told if they outsource then the current FPS
custodians will have the option to apply with the new company. My question to the board is at what salary, what benefits. Last time most custodians left because it was too big of a pay cut and the individuals who took the jobs were terrible at the job. Our district promotes, attract, retain, keep. But
shouldn't that apply to all employees, not just teachers and administrative staff. I respect and respect and value the custodial staff we currently have at Beachview and all the FPS system. Our day custodian, Derek Dan, is someone I trust to text or call when I arrive at
the school and find something wrong. I have experienced situations where my fob was not working due to power outage, and I knew I could contact him to assist. Neither I or any teacher staff would feel as safe as an employee who is from an outsourced company who has no relationship or loyalty to the school.
Vote no on any proposal that outsources the custodial positions and is as detrimental to the well-being of the school, the teachers, the staff, and the students. Thank you. >> Thank you, Henrietta Forsy. Uh followed by Skyler, and I'm going to butcher
that. >> It's okay. >> Okay. Thank you. Wow, you sound like you have a great custodial service. Whoa. Um, good evening members of the Farmington Hills board. Uh, Michigan's K12 education now ranks 44th out of 50 states. The reason
most often cited is poverty. Michigan is one of the 10 poorest states in America. 17.6% of children under 18 live below the poverty line. And three of the four districts studied here have even higher
rates. Yet, poverty is not destiny. Look at Mississippi, the nation's poorest state. 10 years ago, Mississippi ranked 49th in fourth grade reading. Today, it ranks ninth overall and first among lowincome students. They did it with one
simple, proven change. They taught every child to read using the science of reading statewide for over a decade. Here in Michigan, we keep repeating the same failed pattern and calling it equity. Let me share a three generational story that stay that plays
out in our schools every day. Alice went to a big Michigan public school and never learned to read at grade level. She was stuck in lowwage jobs. So, she sent her son Barry to the better suburban public school. Barry also never learned to read at grade level. Teachers told Alice it was her fault she didn't
read at home or come to conferences. Barry stayed in poverty. So, he sent his daughter Connie to an even better suburban school. Same result. Teachers blame Barry. Connie now faces the same dead-end future. Proven road maps maps
that work for poor children. Penrook Charter and Bow Elementary right here in Detroit. Reading proficiency jump from 12% to 62%. Farmington, we can choose to be the district that finally breaks the cycle of perpetuating it. Let's adopt the
science of reading, support real school choice and competition, and explicitly teach our students the success sequence that 97% of Americans have proven works. Our children deserve more than another generation of excuses. They deserve
results. Thank you. >> Thank you, Skyler. Very nice to put a face to a name. >> Followed by Charerelle Dixon. I'm also interested to put that face to a name. Excuse me.
I practiced my speech for three minutes, so I'm going to try and go speak through it. >> I'm sorry. >> It's okay. Okay. >> Good evening, members of the board. My name is Skyler Sispanic and I serve as a head custodian for Farm Farm Farm Farm Farmington Public Schools. I'm here tonight to respectfully ask you to keep
custodial services inhouse. Over the years, our district has worked with multiple third party custodial companies. While vendors have changed, the challenges have remained consistent. Accountability gaps, inconsistent standards, and delayed corrective action. These patterns have repeated over time. Under outsourced models, when
deficiencies are identified, directions from district leadership does not always result in timely correction. Resolution often requires escalation beyond on-site on-site staff. In practice, FPS custodians frequently step in ourselves to correct issues before they reach administration because classrooms must
be ready every day. Once a contract is signed, corrective leverage becomes more limited than when staff are directly employed by the district. That structural difference matters when consistency is the goal. To monitor performance, I have personally tracked recurring concerns. I've observed grime on restroom fixtures, persistent dust on
ledges and behind doors, and areas left untouched for extended periods. In one documented entrance, a teacher uh with the teacher's knowledge, I left a visible date marked left in the dust, and it remained in place from January through April, even after spring break cleaning. We also used a sanit
sanitation indicator product to verify disinfection. When applied to fixtures reported as clean, it indicated in incomplete sanitation. Even after that was demonstrated, consistency did not materially improve. Outsource models have also historically resulted in high turnover and reassignment between buildings. That instability limits
familiarity, weakens relationship with staff, and makes consistent enforcement of district standards more difficult. Even small inconsistencies and standards can erode treat teacher trust and create additional administrative workload. In contrast, in-house custodians are directly accountable to this district. We know the buildings, the expectations,
and the people we serve. When something is wrong, we correct it immediately. Before making a structural change, I respectfully ask that you fully consider the operational patterns we have already experienced. Our students deserve consistency, our teachers deserve reliability, and our district deserves direct accountability.
Thank you for your time. >> Thank you very much. Um, next we have Charerelle Dixon, followed by um, Bill Loveway, William Loveway.
>> Very nice to see you. >> You too. Good evening, members of the board. There's a verse that says, "Where there is no vision, the people perish." Vision is not just about members, I mean just about numbers. It is about people.
We stand here tonight because we care deeply about this district. Not just as employees, but as members of the Farmington Public Schools community. We're asking you clearly and respectfully. We want to remain Farmington Public School employees
across Michigan. Districts that move to privatized custodial services expecting savings often experience high turnover, staffing shortages, and service concerns. Some have since returned to in-house or hybrid models after facing
transition costs and operational challenges that were not fully visible at the start. Savings on paper do not always translate into stability. In practice, this decision is not about this decision is about more than
cleaning. It affects maintenance, response times, building knowledge, safety, and daily operations. We are often the first to to notice when something is wrong. We're we know our buildings and we know our staff. We know
our students. I have worked for a third party company before. There is a real difference. When you work for a vendor, your accountability ultimately runs to that company. When you work directly with the district, your accountability runs to the board, the administration,
and importantly the students. I also want to pause for a moment to reference something you have already seen throughout your buildings. The ark talent model attract, recruit, and keep. It says, "This is how we build students futures, one employee at a time. Right
now, we we are asking you to truly lean into that model. You already attracted us. You already recruited us. And tonight, we're asking you to keep us. When a teacher needs help, we step in. When there is an event, we stay late.
When there is a crisis, we respond. Thank you. >> Thank you very much, Bill Love. And then we have um Haley Bell, who I'm also interested in seeing in person. Um this is the last public comment card that I have. If anyone else is interested in
making public comment at this public comment time, please fill out a card. Otherwise, there is the public comment opportunity uh just after our Okay, just after our um uh before action items. Thank you. And
uh after discussion items. >> Thank you. >> Okay. I'm going to speak about home rule. Uh our communities own this school district. The board represents us and is accountable to us. Uh this places a
premium on excellent open dialogue which means we discuss academic achievement with our public not in private. Uh and that's fairly significant because in this district 56% of the students read
at grade level 44% don't. Uh that means that we have a letter grade of F. F, not an A, B, C, or D, but an F. Uh,
school district, uh, taxpayers and parents must pay attention to the quality of their district and its schools and act to fix their own schools. It's about time this board stepped up to the plate and increased
our academic achievement. and uh with 55 seconds. At the last meeting, you said only eight or nine people raised questions versus 9,000 students. That's wrong.
Uh, nine people might raise questions about the operations of the district, but 2500 people voted with their feet over the last 12 or 13 years and went to homeschool other districts uh to get
better education. And speaking of the Mississippi miracle, there's a speaker in Lancing on April 15th. It probably would behoove you to get somebody over there to listen to that. Thank you. Uh, now we will move to Haley
Bell and then to Hillary Abram. >> Good evening, members of the board. My name is Haley Bell. I am the head custodian at Lanigan Elementary. If you didn't know that name before, I understand that may have changed in the
past few days. Um, my school has spoken out a lot on behalf of the custodians in general and I wanted to share with you guys a message from the heart. There is a reason. Let's bring that over here. There is a reason that the third party companies have failed consistently
in the past. ABM custodians represent a company that doesn't care about them. All of us, your Farmington Public School head custodians, feel the loyalty to us that comes with the benefits provided by the district. We return that loyalty to you by believing in our future. The
pride we feel as Farmington Public School staff is an investment that you can't readily quantif that readily can't be quantified by numbers. It would be extremely difficult to concisely demonstrate the value we implement in your schools. But I urge you to remember how things felt with the third party in
the past and consider how that affected your teachers, students, and parents perception of our district. Please consider the loss of morale schoolwide when these teachers face the reality of feeling unheard and uncared for again. We repay our school's loyalty to us as
SPS employees with our pride. When we feel cared for by the district, everyone involved can feel a difference. Thank you. >> Thank you. Next is Hillary Abraham. And this is now the last public comment card that I have. No, we we appreciate
hearing from our public. So if anyone wants to speak, feel free to do so. Otherwise, again, there is another uh opportunity after discussion items. >> Hi, I'm Hillilary Abraham. I'm a teacher here in Farmington Public Schools. I have worked closely with several of the custodians that are in here. Anytime I
turn around and I need something as a teacher for any of my students, they're there to help out. Being in other districts and other schools that have outsourced that, it's not there. They're not as committed. They're not as passionate. So, keeping
to the Ark model, avoiding burnout, keeping people that are important is critical to this district and to this area. I love Farmington Schools. I think it's a great community. I really believe in it, but honestly, the custodians that have worked with me have been
mindblowing for not just me, but the students most importantly. So, please consider keeping them. >> Thank you. Uh, is there any further public comment at this time? Is there any further public comment at this time?
Seeing none, uh we're going to close public comment for this period. Again, there is a public comment. If you haven't had public comment already, you have an opportunity to speak at the second one. Uh I want to just um make a a few quick comments and let everyone know that we appreciate hearing from our
public. Uh we we take this process very seriously and uh earnestly. I do appreciate that uh some of you may have feel rushed uh in uh having your public comments here in public. Um obviously
the the purpose of public comment is to hear from you, but the the meetings are uh for the purpose of conducting business. So they're intentionally short. We have lots of other opportunities or ways to communicate with us. The biggest one is email. And let me tell you, I've heard from you
guys loud and clear. uh all of us have read those emails. Uh there's no character limit on an email and generally you will receive a response. Uh I have read personally every email that has been sent up until probably today. I haven't read any anything after
uh during the work hours, but I will be up until 1:00 2:00 tonight uh responding to your emails. And so you will get an email from me at 1 or 2 o'clock in the morning when I finished reading all of the emails because they are important to us. we read them thoroughly and we
understand uh the the concerns. As a result, we've asked lots more questions and so we we may not get to an answer today uh because we still have questions and this is really really important. So again, thank you for your feedback. We
do hear you. We are listening. uh and feedback is especially important to us and it is important. It is very good to see people in person. This you know also helps us understand how important this issue is. Um and even if you're not here to speak, we see you. We see your
presence and we hear you uh uh through your comments both in wr in writing and in person. So again, thank you. We appreciate hearing from you genuinely. Uh it matters. Thank you. We'll now move to our next agenda item
which is items from the secretary. M madam secretary. >> Uh yes. The board has received communications regarding the office of head start notifications, parking and traffic concerns at Gil Elementary School and Power Middle School, Oakland School's tax increase vote, and emails
regarding concerns over the outsourcing of custodial services. The board acknowledges all communications and responds as appropriate. A list of correspondents is included in the board packet which is available on the Farmington public schools website. >> Thank you. We'll now move to the legislative updates.
>> Yeah. Uh quickly um uh in Michigan the governor will present a proposed budget um at her state of the state tomorrow. Uh a lot of that includes some funding for education uh 250 uh per pupil foundation increase. um 125 million for
declining enrollment stabilization. Uh 125 million onetime transportation funding. All this will come out tonight. I'll keep it brief because I know we have a lot on our plate. Um but overall um it's something to keep an eye on. Uh after tomorrow, tonight is uh on the
federal state of the union. The president will be giving that tonight. Uh state of the county is March 5th and I believe state of the cities for Farmington and Farmington Hills is March 7th. So, uh, a lot of things coming out in the next couple weeks and just keep an eye out. Thank you so much. >> I believe it's the March 6th, Friday,
the state of the city. >> Oh, >> okay. Sorry. I apologize. Friday, this the 6th. My bad. >> Thank you. Um, we'll now move to district updates. Uh, the district improvement update. Dr. Cal, uh, Dr. Coffin. >> So, first I have a little bit for my superintendent update and then
>> Oh, thank you. Yes. So, uh, it has been Thank you, President Williams. It has been a really productive few weeks across the district. Uh we are thrilled to welcome back our students and staff uh from their mid- winter break this week. Um and really energized by the momentum we continue to build through
our throughout our buildings and with our staff and our students. Uh of course, huge congratulations to Farmington Hills own Megan Keller on her uh her team's spectacular gold medal victory and delivering the clutch gamewinning goal. Uh this incredible
milestone is a proud moment for the entire Kell Keller family of course, but especially for her mother, Lynn Keller, who is continues to inspire our students each and every day as a PE and health teacher at Power Middle School. Uh just so happy for Megan and the whole Keller
family. Earlier this month, I had the opportunity to attend the AASA National Conference of Education. uh spending time learning aside learning aside colleagues from across the country just reinforced the challenges we face and
that they are shared. Uh but it also highlighted how uniquely positioned our district is as a leader in the student centered uh transformation of learning. Want to give a shout out to our East Middle School principal Drew Lacroy and assistant superintendent Rhonda Henry
who presented our team-based staffing models and flex flexible scheduling models at the middle school for the middle school level at the future of learning council meeting that happened last week. Um the feedback was overwhelmingly positive with other
leaders looking to us as a blueprint for how do we create more sustainable and collaborative environments for our educators. I recently had the opportunity to join Rebecca Middles for a conversation on her getting smart podcast. We discussed
the shifts happening in our buildings, how we are shaping the culture through an FPS to support more personalized learner centered systems. Closer to home, I along with a few FPS team members had the opportunity to connect with staff members from the Hawk to get
an update on our partnership work. And boy, have we come a long way in the last few years. I truly appreciate the the work of the staff at the Hawk, the city of Farmington Hills, for Aaron Hill, and Allison Robinson, and their continued
collaboration to increase opportunities for our middle school students. The Hawk shared ways that they've expanded these opportunities, including additional sports uh and after afterchool events and is now looking at tutoring opportunities in partnership with the
local university for our students to do that as a part of an afternoon program there as well. I also spent time this week connecting with our state and US legislators to discuss our district priorities, specifically focusing on the
need for sustained flexible funding uh to support the very innovations mentioned above. Advocacy remains a cornerstone of the role that I serve to ensure our district has the resources to keep evolving. I'm also had a great uh
time today. Lunch and learn was joined by Miss Smith at visions. Actually, it was cookies and conversation probably more or brownies. Yep. >> Um and it was great to talk with them and then looking forward to meeting with our Kenbrook students uh later on this
week. And again, I'm really excited. Uh I will I have been asked to attend the state of the state address tomorrow evening in Lancing uh specifically to hear more about the administration, the governor's budget and her priorities for K12 education. So, I'm really looking
forward to that. So that is all I have for that update. Now I would like to welcome uh Miss Rhonda Henry, assistant superintendent for innovation and strategic initiatives and Miss Margaret Hendrickson, director of curriculum instruction and assessment to the podium
to present a district improvement update. Good evening, President Williams, members of the board, and Dr. Coffin. Our instructional service department has been uh deeply involved in analyzing our winter NWA data, specifically focusing
on the fall to winter growth and and achievement in the fall to winter window of for our students. and we are eager to share with you areas of progress um areas that we have demonstrated resiliency and then a refined plan
moving forward in literacy and mathematics. For this update, we'll be focusing intentionally on curriculum instruction and assessment and how um it contributes to the goal of continuous learning and
improvement. So, we're making a a deliberate choice to invest in our greatest assets, our our teachers and our students by utilizing high quality instructional materials and ensuring that our teachers
have meaningful professional learning experiences. Our intentional work is focused on four foundational pillars that are critical to ensuring all truly means all. Beginning with high expectations for our
students, providing highquality, rigorous grade level content, ensuring that our teachers are utilizing inclusive teaching methods and strategies that encourage all students to participate. Aligning our resources
and ensuring that they are evidence-based and then also providing that sustained support for teachers to remain student centered and adaptive to our student needs. We monitor both the early indicators of
success um and also look for the long-term growth of our students. As you know, um NWA officially released its new 2025 map growth norms in July of
2025 and those replaced the 2020 norms. The NWA reorming resets the national benchmark to account for the pandemic related learning trends. Farmington Public Schools story is truly one of
resilience. Despite the lowering of the average performance, our students have outperformed the majority of our peers with high average to high results. This data validates that our instruction mitigate
successfully mitigates the impact of the pandemic better than most schools. And our high ranking proves that we are accelerating as uh student learning is currently higher than the national average. As we look and reflect on our
intentional movement to foundational skills based on the science of reading and knowledge building literacy over the last five years. We started this work well before our county. We've been engaged in this
work for five years on the science of reading. The investment has included highquality instructional uh resources such as EL skills block and wit and wisdom. And this work is similar to the efforts that
have driven significant achievement gains in Mississippi which has been which has been noted uh in previous meetings. In October, I had the opportunity to visit Mississippi. I was invited um to represent Farmington um
based on our mitten work that we're doing um with ensuring that we have high quality instructional materials in our classrooms and also what we're doing with team-based staffing. Um I that was part of what's called itel in uh inspired teaching exceptional learning
convening and um the convening provided me the opportunity to see firsthand what's happening in the classroom. So I was able to visit elementary schools and what I observed strongly validates the work that we're doing. They um have
implemented explicit systematic foundational skill instruction. EL skills block wit and wisdom. We have been doing that for 5 years. Um and that was really great to see that um that we had that stick to itness that I've
spoken about. um and that and that we have maintained an intentional um intentionality around the high quality instructional materials. Our data remains stable despite a significant increase in the rigor and
the task that we are um asking students to complete with our new um our new instructional resources. And this indicates that the floor has been raised across the district. And our current work, as we talk about a lot, is not a
quick fix. Uh it's built in a deep root system of background knowledge that we know will yield long-term results. So as we think about that complex change we've engaged in um just coming out of
the pandemic because we knew before the pandemic that we needed to do something different in addition to response to the pandemic. Um amidst this complex change we have high average to high achievement and growth with stability over time. Stability is important when you think
about complex change because sometimes complex change can live lead to dips but instead it has led to resiliency. And so when you look at each of our grade bands lower, upper, and middle school, you'll notice here on the NWA percentile rank
bands, um our achievement and growth sit in the high, average to high areas. So you will see those green brackets indicate the performance band in which that grade level is performing. So our K2 high achievement and growth, that's
where that foundational skill EL skills block instruction is occurring. Grades three through five, they're starting to benefit from that while also engaging in our wit and wisdom work uh with the science of reading as well as grades six through eight who is also doing language development and science of reading
reading based instruction. And this shows high resilience um and performance compared to the national average which would be the 50 percentile rank. And this is achievement and growth. As we look more deeply at this data and we
look at grade bands um one of the things um when we look at achievement percentile ranks for each grade level, our grades K through two are over 80 percentile rank, which means they're outperforming 80% of our peers. And so
at the grade levels between K2 and 68, we're outperforming over 70% of our peers. And our percent met growth, when it's estimated that most about 50% of students meet their expected growth, we are exceeding that um across all of
those three grade bands. Trend is really important. Um as Ron, Miss Henry spoke about, we look for early impact, but also lasting trend and and lasting impact. And so I just pulled out a few grade levels, lower L, upper
L, and middle school um to show you our trend compared to the national norm and that relative stability. And remember those percentile ranks there you see for achievement are high average to high achievement. And so we've noticed some
strong stability post pandemic amongst this um ch um this complex change with our students showing high achievement. We look at this data at the district and building level as we dig further because there's a lot of different metrics with NWA. One of
the things we look at is how big the achievement gain was from fall to winter. And you'll notice here that each grade level had an increase in the percentile rank from fall to winter in achievement. It is pretty normal to see
higher gains at the lower L than upper L and then middle school because that's where kids develop a lot of the foundational skill that they need to apply and transfer knowledge at the upper L and middle school. So you tend to see those accelerated growths, but
we're very excited to see this. Whoops. Another thing that's important to understand is some of the data we get are called median data. And a median means it's a cut point where 50% of students are performing above or below
that. What we've noticed from last year to this year is the median achievement was higher this year than last year going from fall to winter. So our median in winter this year was a 10 percentile
rank higher than the fall. The median last year was only two percentile ranks compared to fall. As we look at cohorts, the board often asks us for cohort information. So this is falling our lower L cohorts. So we're very excited
around the increased gains this year. Another thing we look at is each grade level has a growth ex projection just like each student has a growth projection. Looking back over multi-year data, we are showing consistent performance above the expected projected
growth for each of our grade bands. These are just three examples of how we're performing significantly above the expected growth for the grade level. 100 to 200 to 300% above the expected.
That shows how we are outperforming the norm. The board has very specifically engaged in conversation about ensuring we don't just look at all students, but we also look at our valuable student groups. We do recognize as we look across our
student groups, achievement gaps still exist and we have not um reduced that complete predictability. But what we are excited to share is that fall to winter this year, for example, since lower L has been a significant focus for us. You can see in blue there
the improvement in the achievements from fall to winter for our black African-American students. And you can see there in pink, their conditional growth, the size of their growth is high, high average, outperforming 78 to
83% of their peers, not their African-American peers, their national all student peers, as well as significantly above that 50% of students that generally meet their growth expectation. As you look deeper in the data, again,
you will see achievement gaps. you will see um uh some lack of consistency in the data. So, there's definitely more work to do, but we are excited by these early impacts. One of the um pieces I'm going to get a little bit into the weeds just to make a
little bit of a point that NWA doesn't just give us those metrics that I shared, but also gives us information around specific domains or areas of learning that kids are focusing on. So, for example, in lower L, there's what's
called foundational skills or vocabulary use and function or vocabulary. Don't worry about what each of those means, but they're highly correlated to reading and comprehension. So, fluency, reading, and comprehension. When we look specifically at those domains and how
our students are performing, this is what we see. As we look across buildings, we notice that over 59% of students are high high average in most buildings in that performance of foundational skills tied specifically to
our foundational skill instruction EL skills block. 58% or high high average for vocabulary use and function and similar numbers for vocabulary. I bring this up because it's important for us to understand where students are in
specific learning, not just those vague numbers. This is good data. We have over close to 60% of students high eye average. But that also means we have 40% of students who are not at high high average. So we're digging into our next steps to identify how do we maintain and continue
to move those high average students, but also ensure we accelerate learner learning for those that are not there yet. and you'll see in a little bit how it's shifted the work that we're doing uh this semester in the coming year. One of the pieces again as the board
consistently asks how are our student groups doing? Monitoring our title one buildings is really important in really understanding where our student groups are. And so for those same domains or strands I shared about which are early foundational skill work, you can kind of
see where three out of five buildings or all title one buildings or two out of five title one buildings are showing that they grew this year compared to last year in those domains. Just to give you a little insight into the depth of what we look at the plan.
When we met together this summer at the retreat, we had a plan outlined here for you for the school year. In light of that foundational skill data I just talked about, um we are making very specific um plans to focus on certain
components of our new resources, EL skills block and wit and wisdom so that we are better hitting those targets around foundational skills. So we have professional development being planned and underway at the secondary level. Very excited to see that our secondary students are
starting to connect uh perform similarly as the elementary students. But we're making those same observations in the data that our middle school and high school students here specifically middle school needs much more of those foundational skills connected to the science of reading at the middle school.
So we've added a new element of that to our plan. with mathematics to what Miss Henry talked about with literacy. We've made very significant investments in our work in literacy in um mathematics. Very excited again about high average to high
achievement and average to high growth. And here we're actually seeing gains and not stability. We're starting to see upward trends. To remind our community and board, we've been investing in our current resources K5, adding new resources, grades six
through eight for mathematics, as well as doing strategic professional development and use of supplemental tools. And all of this investment has created meaningful gains for us. So similarly what you saw for literacy,
our a our achievement and growth is sitting in that high average to high range for K2 and 35 and the average to high average range for growth and achievement for grades 6 through 8. Again outperforming the national norm.
Similarly to literacy, we're very excited that our achievement we're outperforming over 60% of more of our peers depending on the grade level. um between K2 and 68. And again, we're above the national norm 4% net growth.
Just like for literacy, it's important that we start looking at our trends in different grades. So, I chose different grades than what we chose for literacy. So, you see grade 2, four, and eight here for achievement. And you'll notice that we see uh some stability at K2, but
the grades where we've been putting in a lot of significant work, we're actually seeing achievement gains over the last three years aligned with the work that we've been doing. This is even more compelling. Not only has the achievement increased over
trend, but our growth, our conditional growth has increased over time, and you'll see some pretty significant gains there. It's important to recognize and I didn't mention for literacy is that we have reormed all the data. So this isn't the last data point was this 2025 norm
and the other data points were 2020. All of this data has been reormed. And notice how we are now above the national norm at all of these grade levels. I also when I talked about literacy talked about that change from w from
fall to winter in middle school where we've done the significant change in mathematics this year in 2425 the change in achievement actually dropped from fall to winter.
This year we saw gains compared to the prior year which I feel are pretty significant to go up from minus2 achie uh minus two change in achievement to plus4 and so we are seeing just one
semester into the year we're seeing gains. We also see this back historical um for the last couple years not just from 24 25 26. What's very interesting is each grade level as I mentioned for literacy has an
expected growth projection and we've actually followed that growth projection and how where we were relative to that for mathematics at all the grade levels. And if you notice here in middle school, we have gained we have exceeded our growth projection by much
more than we have in the prior years. Upwards of 25% gain in our performances relative to the expected growth. So we're very excited to see this in response to the work we've done. Again, ensuring that we're looking at
our student groups. What I like here on the right hand side is as we looked at fall to winter this year versus fall to winter last year, the fall to winter gains were 100% higher compared to the gains last year at grade two. And then you'll see what's happening at grade
three and grade four there. So we also noticed in um our African-American students um at grades one through four, 9 to 10% more students met their projected growth than in the prior year. Again, a a gap gap still exists.
Learning opportunities are still varied and we're building collective practice for collective impact to ensure this data no longer is predictable. Again, with mathematics, um we are sticking with our current implementation plan around elementary math as it is
making gains at that grades three through five. It will get expanded to K2 in the coming school year. in middle school. One of the things we've noticed um and it kind of connects to the literacy work as well is there are a lot of routines in our new math
resource at the middle school level that emphasizes language routines and studentto student discourse and we have found in our classroom observations that that's an area of growth for us as we continue to implement illustrative mathematics. So just showing that we're
continue to refine our plan based on data that we collect as we think about in closing. Yep. So in closing our NWA data um in both literacy and math con confirms a clear connection that when we set high expectations for
all students we ensure that we use high quality resources and provide that meaningful professional learning for for our teachers that we're seeing gains. And this is a a slide that summarizes our entire presentation um over literacy
and our math growth and and the areas um specific to the growth and achievement. >> Uh thank you for this presentation. I'm I'm sure lots of us have some questions. Mrs. Smith, >> thank you. Um thank you for your
presentation. Um you stated earlier on that you went to Mississippi. Um, when you went there, did you just go to an urban school or did you go to a suburban school? Not only if you because
we all know suburban districts teach different urban districts. And if you did go to both, were there any comparisons? Did you find anything where people were changing things or working
differently? What did they do? because I keep hearing how we talk about our our minority students and as you know I'm biracial African-American and Latino our students struggle
and it's just like having you know you find out that you got an illness you know you got the illness you know that the illness is not getting better are you talking to the parents and talking to the teachers
to figure out what we are doing wrong that our minority students are not getting it. What are we doing wrong? I mean, because I've gone to the buildings, you know, with lunch and learn and I walk the community. That's
what I do when I campaign. I've gotten input from the minority groups and I've gotten it from our Caucasian groups. what people think is going on. Um, and I can share those conversations with you all
privately. Um, yes, we can have private conversation with you, but I want to let you know I I I agree with what you all are doing, but I went to Chicago a few years back and I
tried to share with the superintendent at the time about the urban dialogue what they did to rebuild and help the African-American community and the Latino community and those school
districts are thriving. There has been a change. I want to know what we can do to help the two of you get this together. Thank you. Thank you. So, to answer the the first question, when I went to Mississippi, I was there for a convening
and um really to share what we're doing in Farmington in terms of high quality instructional materials and also team-based staffing. And so the school, the one elementary school that I was able to visit was an urban school and we met with uh the principal and the
teachers. We were able to do instructional rounds. Um and that's what I said earlier. You know, I was very um happy to see the same resources that we're using for highquality instructional uh materials is is what they're what they're doing. And there's
an intentionality around it. ensuring that there's consistency um consistent use of the materials and that the teachers are having meaningful professional development and they're and they're collaborating. I had spoken u the last sta um last board meeting about
our team-based staffing model and they're implementing team-based staffing models as well and building structures for for teachers to collaborate and learn from each other. So that's that's what I saw in terms of speaking, you know, with our community. That's very important that we hear from them. You
know, we have a parent ambassador group that was started this year by Dr. Coffin and President Williams um attends those meetings and we're hearing, you know, directly from the parents on what the needs are of our community and that's very important that we continue doing that. >> Yeah. Thank you.
>> Um seeing number uh Mrs. Hinrich, >> I always have questions. Um, no, thank you. Thank you for this information and I just made a couple notes. I mean, because this is looking at um percentiles and it's looking at growth
and and just to clarify percentiles versus percents. Like when we say that 80% of our students met expected growth, um that doesn't mean that 20% are
not achieving at grade level. That it meeting growth isn't equated with performing at grade level. Or if we say 80% of our students met expected growth because a percentile
that doesn't mean that 20% of our students can't read. Is that I mean can you can you just kind of clarify that because sometimes >> we latch on to numbers and we just want to work them in our minds. And just to
to clarify that this is this is showing different information than what the um the spring test as far as the Michigan merit test and the um >> ACTs or SATs. I don't remember which ones we're doing. >> SATs.
>> State assessments. >> So different different information. >> State assessments are about measuring very specific achievement and and grade level achievement. Okay. As are defined by our standards. Okay. What NWA provides us is where letting us know where each and every kid is in their
learning regardless of whether they're below at or above grade level. When we see high percentile ranks like 80 percentile rank that does start to indicate that our achievement is outperforming the norm and we are having
high achievement and NWA does have some correlation to what our performance will be on the MSTEP. So some of the achievement data in NWA does help us make some predictions about state assessment. When kids are over 65 percentile rank, they have a 50% chance
of being proficient on the state assessment. So we we watch that. One of the things that's really important to move each and every learner is to know where each and every learner starting place is. And we need to make sure we're setting growth plans that allow them to get a year or over a year's worth of
growth. So the reason why 65% of students meeting their or exceeding their growth expectations means we're making sure we're all those 65% of kids started we got them beyond or to their expected growth. That means there are kids that did not meet their expected
growth. But that doesn't mean they didn't grow. And meeting um expected growth doesn't mean whether you're at grade level or not. >> Okay. and percentile ranks are just telling our relative achievement to the norm.
>> Okay. And how they do and and so how does that translate for because we're really focusing on acceleration opportunities for our students. So can you just kind of address how the the teachers are using that to make sure that our talented students are getting
accelerated that they need >> because each student gets their own expected growth projection. The stu the teacher can see each student's starting place in the fall, see them in winter and spring and see whether they've increased in their achievement, whether
they've increased in their um growth, so they can monitor that each student is getting what they need in order to grow. One of the things that um Miss Henry has spoken to our buildings about is looking at students that are 80 percentile rank or higher and identifying what are those
specific moves we're making in our instruction to make sure they are growing and getting new instruction. Dr. Coffan always talked about if kids are learning new things, they will grow and they will achieve. What NWA tells us about where everyone's starting place and it lets us know whether they're
responding to instruction. That's what NWA will say. If they are making their growth, they are responding to instruction. And that's one of the things we need to look at is whether kids are responding to instruction and whether they're getting closer and closer to where their next steps can be.
>> Yeah. and and I I really want to thank you for your work on this because the teachers have so much on the plate and to have experts in the district to analyze this and help teachers understand and um provide the resources and the coaching and the support so they can be more effective at their jobs.
That's a important piece. Just one quick question. You said you're piloting a new resource for math delta math. Can you just tell what that is? >> So it's it's not in pilot. So in literacy we have our core resource EEL skills block and wit wisdom and we use
UFly as a resource for um found uh intervention around foundational skills. And so maybe yes at the beginning of this year Delta was new as an intervention resource for students that are need some additional support outside of their use of everyday math
experience. And so what's really nice KI is we have a quality intervention tool that teachers are trained in to use to support kids in their readiness for grade level. So they'd have a better chance at responding to grade level content.
>> So what is Delta Math? Is it a computer program or >> No, it's both UFI and Delta Math um give actual lessons that the teacher does with small groups on a targeted foundational skill. So if I need blends
or I need singledigit addition, it specifically gives them lessons to do for that over a period of time. >> And so how do you support the teachers having the time and the opportunity to work with small groups with these? >> So what we're finding as we think about
restructuring is that grade levels and buildings are building time into their day where no new tier one instruction occurs. It's time for all students, no matter where you are on the continuum of your performance, have access to small groupoup or extended learning
opportunities. And then they also with team-based staffing, we're noticing the way they're dividing up kids and not every kid does the same thing every day, they are able to weave in due the flexibility time to meet with kids. It is one of the biggest challenges that schools face, but our staff are being
creative in making sure they have time for small groupoup instruction for each and every it is a practice as you notice in our plan that we're growing on and doing specific support around to ensure small groupoup instruction is going well. >> Okay. All right. Thank you for for
expanding on that. Um I know that we will have more time to discuss um data um in our deep dive and I also appreciate that the superintendent provided more detail for
us in our board packets um particularly uh with some of the prior year comparisons which I'm most interested in and understanding you know in addition to this point in time. I appreciate uh Trusty Hinrich pointing out the
difference between the achievement results that the MSTEP and the SAT provide us and how this gives us some uh assessment information as well as growth information and how we can have really high growth but a student still be below
proficiency and we can have really low growth and have a student who is exceeding proficiency. So >> I think that this board is growing in our understanding and appreciation of data. I think for me I would still like that level set during our meeting about
what data we're looking at, what do RIT scores mean, like all of that. We need refreshers and I am personally interested in um trend data. >> Okay. >> Uh I want to make sure that we're all rooted in uh the grade levels that we're
looking at. Sometimes we look at third grade, sometimes we're looking at fourth grade. I want to be sure that we're consistent there. Um, and then I also want us to grow in our um, understanding of how to leverage both this NWEA data
and the MSTEP and uh, SAT together so that we can actually understand and appreciate how this growth relates to proficiency both together. I'm really encouraged by this. Um, this is really uh great news that we're moving in the
right direction and more substantially in the right direction. Uh, more than a couple digits here and there. This is uh really promising. So, thank you for your work. Uh, with that, we will pick this back up um during our deep dive. Thank you. >> Thank you. Thank you.
>> Uh, now we'll move to reports from board committees. The first one is the finance and facilities committee. Trusty Heinrich. >> Yes. Everybody was on vacation. The finance and facilities committee meeting had a
meeting last week, Tuesday, February 17th. Um, Trustee Huller and myself were present. Um, we talked about the um, marching band uniform purchase and I think that was one of the reasons we had
this meeting. Um, so that the the that's a it's a discussion item, but just the the synopsis is um the uniforms have a 20-year life lifespan. And in order to have time for discussion and time for
action, and if the board approves it to have the uniforms delivered in time for the next school year, we need to we needed to have that meeting. um Wes Prescott.
>> Yeah. Um shared um structured cabling recommendation and that's going to be on a discussion item and um he shared information on a network's electronics recommendation. Um and that's a discussion item also and
this is stemming from the 2020 bond budget. um work that's been ongoing. And we ask to have um further discussion on the custodial um and ask that um the
district go out and gather some more information for us based on the feedback that we've been getting from our members in our community. And so we asked them to actually reach out to um different school districts that um the ABM
contractors have been working with and actually check the references and um so we'll have more information to share on the findings that we had on that and um there was an additional questions that
anyways I'm that was the the big one we asked them to clarify um the fact that you know they had um so many vendors and we they were bringing different proposals from different companies and so to clarify what exactly the district
is asking the board to consider and to improve and so we will have further discussion on that later on that's what we talked about at the finance and facilities committee meeting. >> Thank you very much. We'll move on to the policy uh committee vice president.
So, the policy committee uh meeting um committee, excuse me, met on uh the 19th, and we had a good discussion around House Bill 4141, as Trusty Rento has mentioned at a number of different meetings about the
pending bill for the 2627 school year, where they're going to prohibit where the bill is going to prohibit the use of um student wireless communication devices during instructional time. Uh we dissected the bill and found a number of
areas where the language was more than ambiguous as well as compared what that bill currently reads to our current policy around wireless communications and basically determined that thankfully we're very much ahead of the curve in this discussion and that we will wait on
um some more specific language as it comes through our attorney as that as is their normal practice. they'll bring forth these kinds of things, but at least we're giving thought to, okay, should the bill come in in as exactly as it is written, what does that mean for
the enforcement of said bill as it relates to student behaviors and such uh within the school district. So, we're having some preliminary conversation around that. That was uh that was it. >> Thank you. Uh we are now ready to move
into discussion items. The first one is the review of the marching band uniform purchase. >> Yes. So, I'd like to invite uh Miss Margaret Hendrickson back up to the podium to present on the marching band uniform purchase. >> So, I'd like to invite um Peggy Babcock
>> and friends. >> Yeah, I I always have friends. Um so, Zulni Floresca and Peggy Babcock are our directors for marching band between North and Farmington High School. I will ask them to come by me just in ca come
on up because because I want to say that they actually did all of this work. Um a marching band proposal is about a year in the making to get to this place and so if you have some more technical questions around the beautiful uniforms we're about to show you I'm sure they'd
be happy to answer the questions. Um so um we're always talk about the student experience and so when we think about supporting the ideal learning experience um marching band is really a highlight of an experience that we offer for our students. It really is a point of pride
for both the district and the community. It's a real world application. We talk about that authenticity. It's a real world a application of the classroom music experience kids have had since they joined Farmington Public Schools in kindergarten. It's like going from the desk, although I know you guys don't
teach at the desk, but that idea of going to the desk to the field, um, is really valuable when I hear more and more about our marching band program. And here you see our Falcons, uh, Farmington High School, uh, here in these pictures. These are our current
uniforms that you see. A marching band uniform is really more than just apparel. It really is a vital piece of the performance equipment for our marching band students. Um, so it ensures that our visual excellence
really matches our ensemble and performance. And so here you'll see our North Farmington High School students and you'll see their current uniforms. These current uniforms are 15 to 20 years old and are ready for refresh as
well as ready for something that might last a little bit longer than where we can go with their current state. And so what they have engaged in is really a year experience in developing this proposal for the board to uh purchase
new marching band uniforms for both comprehensive high schools. As I stated rationale-wise, we've really needed to replace because we're exceeding the functional lifespan. It's also important to bring our uniforms up to date with the attire uh ex expectations for
competition. Demulin has been a vendor we have brought to the board before um around some of our music purchases over the last few years. It is a consortium vendor. um understand that the design of a marching band uniform includes design.
It's not taking an offtheshelf item like a choir dress and ordering it. So, it really took a long time and Demulan has worked um with them on this process and your patrons have been included in this process and students and so each each
building will get their own unique design that's specific to their identity and spirit. Um but both have high performing materials and manufacturing. Now to see um here you see the renderings of the concept designs and
Demulan um after approval of concept actually um developed uh samples and sent that to us and our team looked at them um looked at all the specs in your board packet. You got the outlined of the original specs. You'll notice it's
like five pages. is it looks like a I don't know. I I it's some kind of manual to something. I don't I don't know what it's supposed to look like, but I don't understand it, but they do. Um and there's been some subtle changes in a couple of the specifications. So, you'll see in your board packet those
adjustments made to the specs. Um as they are custom um oh, this was the sample spec documents. Um and again, things that we don't always understand, but we don't need to understand those pieces. What's more important for the board is to understand the cost associated with this investment in the
student learning experience. Farmington High and North have differentiz programs and slightly different designs in that results in a difference in uh cost all in with shipping and handling with a total cost of just north of $258,000.
It's important for the board to understand that we bringing this to discussion today with action at the next board meeting. Once we if we get your approval, we're able to submit a PO to Demulan. And right now, we're looking at if we submitted it today about 180
working days till delivery. It is possible in March that that might get extended out. It all depends on where we fall in line of production because each piece is made to order. Um our intention is if we can move forward with a um
approval and action from the board that we would have these in time for the new season. Um so just wanted to give you that. It's a little bit different than our normal timelines for delivery of materials. Um, so that is our recommendation to the board for you to
consider today for action at the next meeting. And if you have any questions for me or something specific for our directors, we'd be happy to answer your questions. Miss Smith. So over the years, our band has been up and down. When my oldest one
was there, it was, you know, like a Michigan State band. By the time my youngest one got there, it was depleting. What are you going to do if you have a a spike? Will you have
uniforms for those students as well? >> So, we built in some cushion into the number of uniforms. Um, and at any time if we needed to order more, we would order more. um they are it's a little bit of a science making prediction based
on current and future en enrollment. They do look back at our middle school programs etc that feed in to kind of see where those numbers will be with the expectation that a uniform might last 10 to 15 years. Um but that is always something we would look at and I will tell you our music teachers are great
advocates. when enrollment goes up, they say, "Please, can we have more?" And so, we respect that communication and that intentionality to make sure our students have what they need. >> Okay, good. Thank you. >> Thank you for that question. >> I have a few questions. Um, so in line
with Mrs. Smith's question, I get the sense from what I attend that our music program is growing, which is fantastic. And so I had a similar question and wanted to um understand if that was being thought through. I also appreciate
you're probably experts at figuring out what sizes are appropriate and so you've given all that thought. A couple of I don't know cosmetic sort of questions. Um, one, I am conscious of the fact that
I mean, from what I know, um, Farmington's colors are navy and white, and North Farmington is a horrible Sorry. >> Uhuh. Don't do that. >> I I'm sorry. I >> don't do that. I It's I I love I'm a
North Farmington through and through, but I am not a blank blank brown and gold person. Um, so what I'm noticing though is that these colors, I'm fine
not showing brown and and gold, but these colors don't feel like they represent that. I I'm okay with that. They look great. How much student voice was um came into these designs? I'm curious about I want to make sure that
there is an opportunity for the students to have some sort of voice in what their uniforms look like. >> Uh hello, I'm Zi Flores. I am the new band director at Farmington High School as of June July this year. I'm very excited to be here. um when it came to
these uniforms when I got here it was already the process had already started and so I used the um design that the students they had a uniform committee at least at FHS who came up with one design and then I was told but you can change
anything you want and that kind of thing. So um the biggest thing with the first design that I got was that they only had our primary and secondary colors of navy and white. Um while I and um some other students I talked to really liked how the current uniforms
have a tertiary color in there that's like a lighter blue to uh balance it out. The primary design was also mostly white where um right for the general marchers and right now um it is our drum major uniforms that are the mostly white
color and I wanted to keep that um to honor the old uniforms. So, um, for the general marching uniforms, instead of having an all navy uniform, I decided to, we decided, well, we decided to add in the, um, the third color. >> When you say we, who is, who is we?
>> We is, um, the marching band staff. And then the kids we had when they brought this sample in, um, they the kids tried it on and gave me their feedback. And our, uh, patrons, some of them are in the audience right now. Um, I was sending these designs to everybody. I
think we had about 10 designs that we were sending around. Um, and yeah, you can see in the photo there's way more light blue than on the design because we added some more. But I chose that specific shade because it matched the
gradient on the sleeve that was there before that was on the um design. So if I wanted a tertiary color figure, that would be the most reasonable one since it was already somewhere else on the uniform. Um, yeah, that was my reasoning for it.
>> North Farmington, if I were to just look, I I would have I would have assumed that their colors were black and silver um instead of brown and gold. >> Again, I they look great. I'm no fan of the brown and gold. I'm just asking.
>> So, um, my name's Peggy Babcock. I'm the band director at North Farmington. I'm happy to talk about that. It's a little hard to tell from the picture, but if you look in the like the triangle design that's running up the side, um that's actually there's bronze and metallic
gold in there. And so the bronze is the metallic brown, if you will. It's hard to see in the rendering, but it is there um as an accent color, which is actually how brown was used on the current uniforms. If you look at our current
uniforms, the jacket is white and it has a brown and gold accent trim. Um, it just wasn't metallic in the current ones and we went to more of a metallic look because it catches the light um when you're when you're um marching at night and you're in the stadium and it catches
the light. So, um it it really pops when you're in a situation like that. Um but it's there. Um we like Farmington had a committee um and the initial committee that was uh looking at the original designs and having input included staff,
included parents, included our uh our um uniform committee and also students um uh but some of whom have graduated, some of whom are still there uh to get their input on the design. And in fact, when we when we first started this, there
wasn't any white on the current jacket. Some of that is because I it it's it can be difficult to clean. Um it it can be a problem when you sit in the stands that are made out of aluminum and then you get aluminum oxide on them. It's a
little hard to clean, but the students thought that was really important to have that. And uh with the current uh print technology that you can get in some of these designs, you can now do a gradient. So ours, the jackets you see go from black to white. Um and that's uh
kind of an, you know, a nod to our current uniforms. And then the accent colors are the gold and the bronze, which is like I said, the metallic brown, which uh is how the uh school colors were used in the current uniforms as well. How many students are included
on the committee? >> Um on the official committee initial initially there were two then we had you know one graduate out and was replaced. So two students on the committee. Now students who had input um same thing
when we had the samples come in. I had probably had 15 students try them on u who were you know current marching band members. I had students try them on with drum harnesses uh to see how they fit. I had souafhone players try them on, you know, I had, you know, tall, short, I
had all kinds of students try it on. And then I had them complete a survey. What did they like about the different samples? What did they not like? Uh, both from a design and from a fit um standpoint so that they could say like we um they liked certain hats better
than others, the shakos that they're wearing uh based on the shape, how stable they were, they like certain design elements um better than others. And then they were also functionality, you know, which ones were easier to move and were there ones that caused problems, you know, from a mechanical
standpoint because of what they have to do in them. And so I had student input on all of that as well. >> Um, how many students do we have in the in the program >> and the marching band? Currently, um, >> we are in the 70 to 80 range in any
given year in the last five years. Um so projected to get a little bit bigger with a larger uh group coming up from the middle schools and when we order uniforms we went for um 15 to 20% over >> um so that you know to fit sizing.
>> So I think with us it was 150. I I would feel good about if if it's possible before we vote on this to get a little bit more student voice if it were possible just to um make sure that the you know especially at the nth and tth grade there we're going to have these
uniforms for the next you know maybe two decades and I want to make sure that you know our young people um are get excited about it. I'm sure they'll be excited about new uniforms, but specifically around the design, uh, this is a pretty big investment and I want to make sure
that they're they would be happy with it. >> Um, did you have a comment? >> It was a u you already hit on it about the 15 to 20 year. Are we doing is there like a regulation
or or is this or is it style? because I would hate to have like a something that's like you know kind of in 15 20 years you look like you know my parents. >> So the the challenges with each design cycle is coming into today but also
planning for the future and the identity of the group in addition to the music selection and performance. And so the expectation of wear on an item like this is 10 to 12. We took ours a little bit
longer uh this time round. Um and so our goal would be to try to um to financially plan out when the next renewal are. It's normal for bands to hold on to uniforms for this period of time. So what I always feel like is
there's a really nice balance of future but connection to tradition that happens in these. Um just as a as a side note um the uh we've gone from concept to sample
uh Demulan has come in and comes up and comes in person does varieties of fitting to ensure all sizes uh making sure that it fits and does everything that it needs to do. um makes those adjustments and then he's and good news
is there's no um alterations because there are snaps. So we can adjust the height of the length of the legs is that if we went back to design, we would certainly not have these available for next season. Um
because any change would have to potentially be if it was significant be a new sample, a new fitting and we would certainly not have them for the new season. That doesn't mean you don't I don't want you to make the choice that's comfortable for you, but just to
understand getting it in for the season. Even if we delayed um into April, we would most likely not get them till September and once the season starts, you don't change out your uniform. So, we would have them for the following year certainly. But just to understand
those constraints as you guys have your discussion. >> Yeah. I'm not asking us to go back to the design phase. I'm just asking to ensure that the young people who are going to be wearing them are excited about them and are not okay, you know, like I would not be caught dead in this
uniform kind of thing. And you right that that's that's what I'm just trying to just test for. Um not necessarily go back to the design. Now, if they do say I wouldn't be caught dead in this uniform, then perhaps we we we should >> some information between now and the next um meeting >> that that for that's just me. That's
just, you know, one person speaking. This is >> I have one comment and two questions. Anyways, I I was excited to hear about the snaps for the hems because my daughter was in the marching band and I just remember especially it was a freshman boys from the beginning of the season to the end of the season. They're
they just all their pants are like um pedal pushers in the spring. So yeah, um they're like too short for those that don't know what petal pushers are. Um, the question I'm looking at those hats.
So, what is like the stuff on the top of the hats? Like the white stuff? Are those like feathers or fluff or >> the plumes? >> It matters. >> So, they're What are they made of? And are they like attached or do they like
stick on? >> They're in the current ones. >> They're in the current ones, too. because I'm just I mean I lived with teenagers and are teenagers going to take care of those? >> Our marching band students do a make a lot. They have such an investment in
their musical pieces. Um their performance and their attire. These are coveted items that are taken care of and our patrons also help with ensuring things are maintained in terms of of cleanness, etc.
>> Okay. All right. So they're known to be durable and lasting >> and they are going to last for 20 years or can we get replacement 10 to 20 if we can stay within the general lifespan but we always see if it's still working for
us or not? Yeah. As for the um the plumes on the top of the hats, they are kept in um like uh paper towel tubes and they're kept in those and they're only ever used for when we perform and then they go right back into the tubes and they're not touched until the next
performance. That is the one part of the uniform where pretty much the kids don't touch them except for right when they're about to go on the field. So thankfully um that system helps uh their longevity with um the plumes that we have. Just to
clear up how those work. >> Yeah. Because I I I know we already bought rain jackets, but I'm like those little plumes aren't going to fit underneath the hood. >> Okay. So you don't wear the plumes in the rain. Correct. >> Okay. So the other question is because my daughter was in color guard. So and
I'm sorry I didn't ask this earlier but I just thought about So what about color guard? So color guard doesn't necessarily go through the same level of design process. So that was not included in this proposal. We are having conversations around the color guard update. The color guard uniforms are
where costumes >> are much less expensive. Would not come up to a range of this high. You're looking under probably between both schools under 10 12,000. >> Okay. So those are conversations we're having but are a separate discussion
than the this particular design just because of the uh work going into this. >> So will they be updated along with the uniforms? >> Yes, we will be updating those but it's a separate purchase. Okay. >> Um and it doesn't come within the bid limit and pieces where you really have
to take a look um like you are today. >> Okay. All right. So that's helpful. So thank you >> Mr. Rinto. I just had a um quick comment. I like how you incorporated the the lighting and the reflection as we have um also approved new lights at the
stadiums. I think that'll work out well. Um I think the uh the designs are very cool and sleek and I I'm sure that's updated material from 101 15 years ago. And and uh I know we also did update the orchestra and band uniforms recently.
And I would also remind folks if we were to ask our football teams to wear uniforms from 10 years ago, they would be going crazy. So I fully support this activity. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Well, thank you for the spirit conversation. Uh you know, obviously
this is I think this is really important to young people, so makes it really important to me, too. So thank you for the presentation and the work done to make sure that we get to a good outcome. These look really, really nice. >> Great. Thank you. Thank you for all of your work. >> Thank you. All right. Next, we're going
to move to a review of structured cabling recommendation. Oh, this is a >> not as probably not as flashy as the last one. Uh >> but I'd like to uh welcome up uh actually for the next two the review of the structural cabling as well as the
network electronics. Uh Mr. uh Wes Prescott who's our technology director along with uh Amy Cena. Good evening. Uh we have Amy Cena, Dan Quack, and Drew Youngstrom um from Plant Moran here tonight. Uh so they they're going to
explain kind of the process and how we came to our recommendation. Um we had a a whole team that that kind of worked on this from Patrick Gregory who was our senior technology coordinator, Matt Lerman, our network administrator, and Eric Marinelli, who's one of our senior network engineers. Um, I'll help pull
the information together that we needed for this proposal or or for both of these recommendations, I should say. Um, they're also utilizing uh -ate funding, which I was asked to give a a brief overview of uh this evening. I could we could talk for hours on all of the
intricacies, but the -ate program is essentially uh a federally funded program. Uh it's funded by the FCC and it's run through the Universal Service Administration Company or commonly known as USAC. Um and it operates on a 5-year
cycle. So every 5 years districts are given a certain aotment of money to use on uh -ate eligible projects. So an -ate project is any project that's getting internet to a device. Um so it can't it doesn't pay for devices. It doesn't pay
for um computers, excuse me. It pays to get the internet into the building and to the device. So to a wireless access point or a wireless access point is eligible. All the cabling and the switches behind it are eligible. Um so
every five years districts get I think this this fiveyear cycle which this is the first year um districts got just north of $200 per student to use over that fiveyear cycle. Um and what the rate program does
is it allows uh districts to get a rebate up to uh the rebates calculated based loosely based on the student free and reduced count for the district. Um it it's not correlated one to one. Farmington's discount is 50%. So if we
have a pot of over five years, let's say $1.8 million, and we do $1.8 million of projects, they all get approved, we would get back $900,000 um from those projects. So we're essentially getting a 50% discount. Um so that's how that
program works. Um, and both of these projects are -ate eligible and we will utilize that um that money to to hopefully get back the full amount uh or 50% of the the project. Um, so I'll let Amy come up and kind of give you a
synopsis on how we got here. >> All right. Thank you everybody for letting us uh present to you today. So we have uh two projects that we're bringing for your review. uh one is the structured cabling and you might remember about a year ago we brought one for the uh elementary buildings and uh
this is a very similar process. So what we did is we worked with the uh district technology department with Wes with Patrick and with Oakland schools as well. Um we walked all the buildings all the secondary buildings to identify every location that had a cabling drop.
And so if you're looking around it's where you would plug your phone or your computer into. Um it's basically the whatever gets the data to you. Um every wireless access point has one. Every uh video surveillance camera has one. So it's all the cabling. So the cabling
here is probably 20 25 years old. Needs to be updated to the newer standards and that's what this process did. So we worked with uh with the district. We marked up prints. We developed uh requirements and we sent it out to vendors to bid. Um we did follow a
specific rate process. through - you have to have everything out for a month. Um there's certain posting rules, a variety of different requirements that we follow to make sure that you do get the uh the funding back for that. And uh we got four bids for structured cabling back. Uh we are recommending going with
the low bids uh complete interactive technology. They uh are also the same vendor that did the elementary buildings. So it will be a nice continuity. Um there'll be a lot of uh similarities among the buildings. And just another note, while this is all the
cabling, it does also um refresh all of the network closets. So, you've probably all seen the pictures of, you know, on commercials where you see a closet that has all kinds of cabling spaghetti like. This is the districts are nowhere near that, but it is going to really improve
them and make things a lot easier um just for the day-to-day. And so, it will improve that. It also improves connectivity between those closets. Uh so again, this is we're recommending going with the low bid. It is uh the vendor that we've worked with uh all
summer had really knock on wood zero problems working with them. Um everything was done on time. They did great work. They were very responsive. Um and so that's the the first recommendation for structured cabling. The other one is for network electronics and that is the uh the equipment that
powers that cabling so to speak and that is found in every wiring closet. Um it is there to it really is what the intermediary that connects the district together and connects to the internet um and delivers all the data through the
cabling. So that uh typically we replace network electronics every seven years. So we are on that sevenyear cycle. Um the equipment it just kind of ages out. Newer technology start um you know they also start breaking after a little while. Uh everything's, you know, fine
right now, but it's at the seven-year point. Um so we worked with the district and with it to go through and uh define all the requirements. Um we did allow for a little bit of growth uh so that if there are additional cables that are put in, we can uh we can still utilize that
equipment. And uh we got two bids back. We are recommending going with the low vendor low bid vendor Delta and uh the district has worked with them in the past and has been pleased with their work as well. Yes. >> Uh to what extent does this project
touch uh it's for secondary buildings. So to what extent does this project touch areas such as auditoriums, gyms, right out to perhaps even the press box for football fields because they received to to the to the extent that they receive data as well.
>> Yep. And so I apologize. The the network electronics is districtwide. So that is K12. um the cabling. So, we are replacing the cabling everywhere. Um it would touch all the auditoriums, um all the gyms, all throughout the buildings. Um we are not touching the fiber going
to the press box. Um but we are replacing the electronics in the press box and the electronics all throughout all the K12 locations. >> The the fiber for the press box was put in about >> I remember four years ago. >> I remember that project. I wasn't sure if there was any connection or
correlation between those two. Okay. Thank you, >> Miss Smith. >> Will this project be done all in one day or are you splitting? >> Good question. >> So, the uh the cabling is going to be done through the summer. Uh it'll start
uh through. We cannot start until April 1st and so we will kick off with April on April 1st. We'll get the uh vendors to do some work after school hours uh that is completely non-disruptive but to get them kind of prepped for the summer. uh all the work will occur through the
summer and uh be completed and then the network electronics is primarily going to occur during the summer. So uh the plan is to have 99% of it complete by the end of the summer with some cleanup after school starts. >> Okay. Thank you.
>> Uh sorry I'm I'm an accountant and I just have some questions. Um, first I noticed that in the bids there were some pretty large differences in cost >> there. Okay. >> I'm sorry. Go ahead.
>> Well, I certainly don't appreciate the I don't know uh differences in cable. Uh so can you help me understand why there would be such a difference in cost? So we noticed that as well. um that
particular vendor has been high in other districts that we've been working with. Um there's really not a good explanation. We I mean we looked, we dug into it to make sure that there is, you know, they didn't miscalculate the number of drops.
They didn't miscalculate anything else. I think that they anticipated a high amount of labor. Um probably throwing a lot of bodies at it, so to speak. uh cabling is pretty labor intensive and so I think they probably you know have a uh
more uh I I think they were anticipating more complications whereas uh the current vendor knows the environment knows what is occurring and if you notice the three of the vendors were all in line with each other. um it was just the one that was the outlier and we have
see them seen them be an outlier at other districts as well >> which for me begs the question why why would this not be a lowcost bid like why why wouldn't we just pick the lowest we are going with the lowest >> um maybe I'm looking at something
different you said delta right uh so there are two bids so the cabling that you're talking about is going with complete interactive technologies uh which is the low bid Uh and then with Delta they are the low bid as well >> for the network
>> for the network electronics. So there's two different projects. >> Two different I see. >> Okay. Okay. Thank you for that. That's helpful. Um next question is uh do we need to replace every seven
years? Like what happens if we don't? >> Uh if you don't the updates stop coming. Um the equipment starts failing. the network becomes unstable. So when you're, you know, doing state testing, all of a sudden a whole wing of a
building can't connect to the internet, cannot. >> And so it's just like boop, after seven years, you can't use the stuff anymore. >> There are certain licensing um and again I'm just ignorant. So like a car, you know, you have an average life of a
car. I'm stretching mine till >> So Terry, you drive yours to 100,000 200,000 miles on right now and Olivia will keep on riding till the wheels fall off. I'm ju I'm not I'm being facitious
here, but you know, not also not being facitious. >> Yeah, I would say um it's a matter of accepting a certain level of risk because once you get to a certain age, again, there's the potential for equipment to fail. Uh there's also the
question of when is the end of the life going to be announced from the manufacturer at which point they don't support it anymore. They don't give updates anymore. Uh so typically after seven years it's it's kind of like having that car that's like I mean you're really pushing it. You got 350,000 miles on it. It's like do I want
to wait until I'm stuck on the side of the road or maybe it's time >> it's the it's it's for me I'm trying to understand the difference between 170,000 miles and 220. that that's what I'm trying to get a sense for like anything over 150 is probably like
pushing it but I'm I I didn't know and that I'm just asking the question. So, and there are certain things that will will run until we like security cameras, for example. You know, if one breaks, we can replace them. We don't replace those years. Um, document cameras, you know,
the the life cycle. Okay. Yeah. Five five to six years. >> If they're still working, we're not going to replace them. The the network is one thing that we we don't want to do gamble with too much. >> Yeah. and and anything safety related or I mean clearly you know you can't wear a
band uniform for more than 20 years or you shouldn't. I'm just trying to get a sense for that. So thank thank you for entertaining the question. >> Kind of like the the critical point, right? So if that fails >> Mhm. >> everything else relies on it. >> Okay. Gotcha. Gotcha. Because it's you know pretty expensive.
>> It is. >> Okay. All right. >> But if you look at I mean the number of network closets and switches that we have throughout the district is >> Right. Yeah, I remember when you did it for what was it? Elementary that this has already been done. Which one? >> The structured cabling we did for
elementary over the summer. The network the switches were replacing all of them at home. >> Okay, gotcha. >> And keep in mind too that you will get 50% of that back rate. So the number that you see there is the full price, but really Farmington's only paying for half of that. And if you don't use that
money, >> it doesn't get used. It doesn't you don't get it for not doing it. >> Okay. >> Thank you uh you know for answering the questions. Anybody else? >> Yeah, >> I think you answered one of the questions but the the company you're recommending for structured cabling is
the one that did the elementary buildings and then for the um network electronics proposals, there's only two bids as opposed to four. Okay. And then um I think you just said that they're doing all the buildings, not just the
secondary. We haven't done the it in the elementary. >> So for the the cabling, we are just doing the secondary because the elementary was done last summer. >> Okay. >> Uh for the network electronics, we are doing the entire district because we have not done that yet. That's typically one where you would do the entire
district at once so that you're not maintaining two different networks. So is that can't be done until the cabling is completed? >> No, it can be done at the same time. Um, >> so we the timing the switches um the
switches are going to take a building down for the day as they go through and do that. They're but they're much quicker replacing switches than they are doing cabling. So the cabling they can start we're going to have them start running in April um or after April 1st and they'll run the cables in the
evening leaving the old ones in place and then once school's out they'll reconnect they'll connect the new ones and then rip out the old ones so that we're not interrupting instruction and that's not something that you could really do in the evening is connect all those. So we really need um there to be
a break in in the school year for us to be able to do the cable >> so to do that over the summer. Yeah. Thanks for explaining the I just that was very detailed. So um yeah um just one other thing on the on the um pricing that you give. You have the optional
pricing for the finalist and it's like voluntary option number two remove THC support contract seven years and it's taking off 80,000. What what is that >> voluntary? >> It's on the bottom of the >> the rate.
>> Oh that's the tax because you already have it. Yeah. Yeah. That's that's an item that was included that the district already has access to, >> so they don't need to buy it again. >> But I I don't understand what you're trying to explain to me. >> Yeah. So, we we typically don't do the
vendor that we work with. We typically don't do tax support. We've got a full team that is outside of our network administrator that's here full-time. We have another 20 to 25 network administrators that are on our team that can that help with with those issues as
they arise. And then if they can't solve it, then we would reach they would reach out to the vendor. But >> so we don't need that. >> Correct. Correct. >> Okay. So we already have it. Okay. >> All right. Thank you. That makes sense. >> Mr. Rinto, did you have a question? >> Uh just a quick comment. um coming out
of the government relations committee uh meeting um as we experienced with 3D1A how they um uh sometimes they're trying to tie funds to policy. It did come up from the National Education Conference that the administration and the FCC are
looking to uh look into screen time in general. So they want, you know, there's, you know, that I guess they are u there's some chatter that teachers are using too much screen time and again they may tie e rate funding to screen
time policy. So just FYI, just something to flag. We speak about rates. So it's yet another way to tie. >> Yeah. And one of the reasons we're, you know, we need to do these projects now. It's the first, you know, year of the rate cycle. So we know at this point
this year is going to be funded. um there could be some questions moving forward uh depending on the direction the administration takes. So we want to make sure that you know we need to do these now anyway but it worked out to be to be great timing. >> Thank you.
>> That that was one of the things we were advocating for in Washington >> to um keep the E rate and that's why I was like I was advocating for it but didn't really know what it was and didn't want to ask at that point. So that's why >> we can have a day.
>> Yeah, that's why that's why I wanted the lesson from you. So thank you. >> Um, any further questions, comments? All right, this will come up for a vote at our next meeting. Thank you very much. >> Thank you.
>> All right. Um, next, do we have public comment again? Uh, so next we have our second round of public comment. If you did not speak at the first uh time for public comment, we
invite you if you have anything you wish to say to the board, you may do it at this time. Uh anyone for public comment going once, going twice. Uh okay, we will close the second public
comment period and we will move into action items. The first action item is with respect to uh the enhancement millillage. We uh talked about this at our last meeting. This is not whether the board
is in uh approval um or or in support of a millillage at all. It is just with respect to whether the board agrees that this matter should be put to a vote and that the voters should decide. Um so
that is what um an approval of a regional enhancement millillage resolution would mean. It would not mean that the board is in uh support of or not in support of a millillage. It is
whether the board is in support of this being in the uh hands of the voters uh to decide. So uh with that said, is there a motion? Mrs. Hinrich. >> I move that the Farmington Public Schools Board of Education approve the
resolution to place the Oakland Schools Regional Enhancement Village proposal on the August 4th, 2026 ballot as presented. >> Support. >> There's been a motion made to approve the resolution to place the Oakland
Schools regional enhancement mill proposal on the August 4th, 2026 ballot as presented. Made by Vice President Walker and supported by I'm sorry made by Trustee Heinrich and supported by uh Vice President Walker. Is there any
discussion? Mrs. Smith? Um I do think that the voters have a right to decide if this should go on the ballot. I myself um just after running for city council
and talking to members in the community, this community does not want this. But I feel that everybody, this is not a dictatorship. People should have a right to vote whether they vote yes or no. I would be voting no. Um as a homeowner
and a taxpayer myself, yes, I do own my home. I know a couple of you think I'm renting. I've owned three homes in the past 28 years here in this community and our taxes are going up and our money goes towards the schools. Right now, our
schools are not doing well. Um, with the leadership of Dr. coffin and others in the in under her leadership. We're getting there, but as you know, we have not been doing our due diligence and getting this this
school district where we need to go. And um we were a premier district, but under Dr. Coffin and her leadership, we are growing. But um you know, we're being taxed out of our homes.
Um, I personally pay two homeowners association fees. One every month and then in January and then in March we pay another. And that is what the community is complaining about. We're going to be taxed out of these homes. And who's
going to buy them? Our young people that have children. My 38-year-old will not move back here. My 28-year-old and my 34 year old refused to move back here. So, at the end of the day, younger people are not going to move here, especially
if we're not doing what we're supposed to do as far as our schools go. So, at the end of the day, I would not be voting for this. >> Thank you. Any further discussion? >> Yes. for for clarity for the uh the way
that this milit is set up the so just kind of clarify with me that everybody's going to put money in the pot pretty much is for like Oakland County and then everybody's going to
just divide up the funds equally on every single student that's in Oakland County or is it by school district? I I can't tell you how the money will be distributed. I have heard that it's about on a $200,000 home, I believe it's about $100 a year.
>> $150 a annually would be what the millillage would cost. I don't know how that gets distributed to school districts, but I understood that each school district would see about an increase in the their per pupil of what? >> About a $728
>> about $728. Oh, let's say the school districts that are smaller. >> I think it's just $728 per student. >> It It's determined by the state. All of in the state of Michigan, all of the tax dollars that are collected in each city,
in each county go to the state and are distributed according to that per pupil amount that the state sets. And every school district in the state of Michigan gets that same per pupil. This is the county. This is just >> this is county. This is county. It is still
>> this is county. >> This is just se this is a separate mill for the county. >> So this is I think as we talked before that the only way that we would be able to access this is through a millillage an enhancement a regional enhancement mill through Oakland schools. It is this
is not something Farmington could go out on their own to get. Right. >> Yes. >> Just a point of order. The motion is just whether or not to put the proposal on the ballot >> and it doesn't it's not about whether or not we support the >> correct right >> the millillage. So that'll be a
discussion at a later date. >> It it will but I I think people want to understand you know more about what is it that we're asking or or um approving to get voted on. So I'm yeah I'm happy to answer those questions if we know the
answers. But yes, you're right. This is not about whether we support it or not. It's about whether it gets on the ballot. >> You're absolutely right. >> That's that's what that's what we're voting on right now. And once once it's decided whether or not it goes on the ballot, then it would be more
appropriate to have those discussions about what it's going to bring. >> And I think people want to, you know, want to know what they're approving though to be on the ballot. So they need a little bit more information that that may be weighing into their decision. >> Yeah. What I'm trying to say is, and I
agree, and I'm totally listening to Trustee Heinrich, I am not saying I don't want the community to make >> it just where it's not on there. >> Um because this is not a dictatorship. I don't want it to be where nope, we're
not doing this. Um, I want the people to be able to vote if they want their taxes higher or not, but I don't want that language to read one way. What I'm basically saying is, and excuse
me, I don't need anybody pissing in these people's ear and telling them it's raining. I want it to be clear, that your taxes on your home will be going up. So I want it to be where we know we
cannot make the language be where people are not educated and that's what we have been doing and these taxes are going up. So that's where I'm at. I have no problem with it going on the ballot, but
if you've talked to your city council members, you've talked to your legislators, which I talk to them every day and people are against this, but if we want to put it on here, let's make sure this language is where the people know what they're
getting and then they pass it and not realize they've rung the bail and you can't stop it. So with that said, is there any further discussion before we put it to and I would suggest a roll call vote, please?
>> Seeing no further discussion, can we have a roll call, Miss Secretary? >> Mr. Hall? >> Um, yes. >> Mr. Walker, >> yes. >> Miss Hinrich, >> yes. >> Mr. Rinto, >> yes. >> Miss Smith, >> yes. >> I myself am a yes. President,
>> I'm a yes. So that motion passes. Um, thank you very much. The next matter that we have was originally intended to be an action item. And to the extent that any member feels comfortable proposing an action today, they most certainly could, but based off of um
some of the questions that I've seen, I'm not sure that we're there yet. I would suggest that I read off to you what our options are and then let's have a discussion. >> Do you have to have a motion before you have a discussion? >> Nope.
We can just have a discussion. Um, so the pardon, >> what's that? >> I just said we're not going to necessarily act, >> right? We don't have to act. >> Send the discussion.
>> We can have a discussion without having a motion, >> right? Yeah. >> There's no motion right now. >> There's no motion right now. Anyone can make a motion if you like, but we don't have to have um a uh we don't have to mo move something in order to have a discussion. We can have a discussion
just like we did in in item eight. So, um one option is to continue with the services that we have. Um by extending that contract, we would continue on with FPS employees for the
morning who support our buildings during the day and uh we have a contract with a provider in the evening uh which do primarily most of the cleaning for the next day. So the our afternoon evening
custodians clean the buildings for our staff in the in the morning. That's the model that we have right now. that uh current model would be essentially at the same cost. It saves $45,000 over three years. So, we're
talking about $15,000 a year, which I I don't I'm not going to um spit at. That's, you know, a a lot of money, but not on an $180 million budget. So, we're basically saying we're going to stay with what we are doing. Um, we've gotten a lot of feedback on this one, uh, about
the value of our our people and concerns around, um, uh, first of all, our people and, uh, you know, pay rates and benefits and that sort of thing. And so, I think there's still some questions that out that are outstanding related to
that. And then also with respect to uh service, we we've been in a situation before where we had um completely outsourced and noticed that there were some quality issues. Second option is to maintain our
staff and allow the current service provider to take over the equipment and supplies which is something that the uh Farmington Public Schools is is covering right now. That would be at a savings of
about a million dollars, 1.2 million I think it is, over three years. So $400,000 a year in savings. Option three would be to outsource the whole thing uh staffing and supplies and
equipment. Um and that would be at a model that we had previously. Um and that would be at a savings of I think it's 3.2 million approximately $1 million a year. Those were the options when the school district went out to bid
as they were required to do because our current contract is ending. And so the district needs to do something. Either keep it or do something else. And when they went out to um consider what the next step was, these were the proposals
that came back. It wasn't as if the district was saying, "We want to outsource." That's not what happened. We're required to go out for bid. Um, so with that said, uh, I know that there were a lot of questions that were being asked and I think that there's been some inconsistency in I don't want to say
inconsistency in information. I I think that there are some facts and some um, uh, assumptions that are being made. So, if you wouldn't mind, I don't want to put the Finance and Facilities Committee
on the spot, but I know you guys to start with got a lot of questions answered. Would you mind Mrs. Heinrich kind of going over what you guys talked about at the finance committee? >> Well, at the finance committee, one thing we asked was that Luke Kadau or
somebody from the district reach out and check the references. Okay. It's like, you know, he gave us a list of um school districts that ABM is working with. Okay. So, he came back with
information from Ann Arbor public schools. They have 158 custodians through ABM across 36 buildings. They partnered with ABM since 2014 and they're currently signing another two-year extension. They expressed
satisfaction with the services provided and emphasized that success depends on holding management accountable, maintaining strong working relationships. They feel that ABM staff have built solid relationships within the district and feel like part of the organization.
Um, another reference was Lancing Public Schools. They partner with ABM since 2024. They hired existing custodians who were in good standing and they operate under a full ABM contract. When asked to rate the quality of work, they indicated as
four out of five with five being the highest possible rating. They shared that while there is always room for improvement, ABM works collaboratively with the district to continually improve services and ensure schools look their best. Regarding pride and culture, they
emphasize that instilling pride is a shared priority between ABM and the district. While not every individual does demonstrates the same level of engagement, they feel the majority of staff take pride in being part of the Lancing school district community.
Plymouth Canton Community Schools have partnered with ABM since 2021. ABM provides all custodian services except for one in-house lead at each building. They are currently working on renewing their contract with
noted areas for improvement, including translation services and stronger communication from upper management. They have three zone managers and account managers assigned. Overall communication is good. Morale is positive, turnover is low, and when the
district requests removal of an employee, AVM honors it. Overall, they have been satisfied with the service. He said overall feedback was positive with consistent themes around communication, accountability, and partnership being the key factors in success.
Um there was also conversation about staff questions. Um point of clarification um was that the district anticipated 10 custodians who currently work on the day shift and that was interpreted that all the custodians are
going to be fired and only 10. And they said that based on um surveys or whatever they had for planning purposes, they had um 12 custodians that they shared an intent
to retire. And so that's where those numbers came from. It didn't come from um getting rid of all of the um custo. >> Can I pause you on that point? So that that is something that I heard a lot. So there are 22
uh people currently employed by the district. The messaging was that the um the contractor would um interview and potentially take on 10 which led to the
assumption that 12 would be out of a job. But that's um because the assumption was based off of some uh modeling or surveying the district did 12 individuals indicated that they would be retiring but that the
new company or current company would need to replace all 22. Is that correct? >> So so that information was um yes so it wasn't communicated great that part of it. So the company will take will
interview and accept all that want to stay. So um they wrote that in their contract. So it's in there. Uh again they do anticipate attrition. So they will they in their contract L correct me if I'm wrong but 17 they they have
planned for 17 of our staff. Uh just taking in the the the information on people who plan to leave or retire. Um, but if all 22 wanted to stay, all 22 would stay. >> Okay. Thank you. >> So, that was a >> Sorry to interrupt you. I just wanted that that was definitely something that
I kept hearing. So, I wanted to make sure that I understood. >> And there was a there was a question from the committee and Luke was just sharing that, but there wasn't the other context board. >> Yeah, th those were those were things that we asked that the district do. We asked that the district provide a
summary of the options because there was the initial proposal had two companies. I mean, they went out with the um RFP um you know, and they had 17 proposals and four companies that they interviewed
and then two companies. And so we asked the district to clarify what do you what do you want the board to consider? Do you want us to consider two companies, one company? And so the the proposals were narrowed down to um three choices.
>> Okay. Number one, staying with the current model. Number two, going with um outsourcing the employees and continuing to purchase um supplies and equipment. And number three, outsourcing um
employees and outsourcing supplies and equipment. So those are the three choices. So that's what we asked the district to clarify at the meeting. >> I have a question about that. May I President Le? >> Yes. Um, so on page 146 of our board
packet, there were four proposed options. One was stay with a hybrid model, Farmington pays for all equipment and consumables, or stay with a hybrid model and the outsource company pays for all the equipment and consumables. I noticed
that that second option is no longer an option. >> Correct. So we wouldn't save any money on that option. >> Oh, okay. So that's not an option. Oh, okay. Thanks. >> I'd like to request some of that information that you guys uh developed
at the committee, the references. I'd like to be able to read that information as well. >> Yeah. >> Is that possible? >> Yeah, it was included. >> Yeah. And it was included in the weekly update. >> Okay. Sorry. >> No, that's fine. >> What? >> Copies.
>> Go ahead. Go ahead. No, I'm >> I just wanted to see if there were copies that he could Yeah, >> okay. >> Okay. Thank you. >> There I I had a concern about employee or we had a lot of emails concerns about
benefits and so I went out to the ABM website and I actually put up a application for Farmington and listed the benefits. And so I mean these benefits um ABM is a national company. Um it says on their benefits page um
they offer health care plans. They offer a variety of medical, dental, and vision plans, routine preventative care, telealth, virtual um coverage while you're traveling under most options. Okay. They offer life insurance with long-term care. They have
a 401k. They have an employee stock purchase plan, which public school district doesn't. Just an FYI, back when my husband worked for a company that had stock purchase and it actually when we
were in our lean years and we kept us his ability to have stocks and whatever kept us from going underwater one time. So I see that as a a benefit. They offer an employee assistance program. Um and
you know they had um organ donor leave time off depending on they had voluntary plans depending on work status and so those things I mean I don't know what's going to transfer over but it's a company that is offering health health
care plans and I know like in a school district when I work for a public school district um our health care plans changed when I was an employee there and you know over the course of time in our school district. It's healthcare plans
are contract negotiations and they're subject to change also. So um the health the health care plan that we have for our employees today I know in my working experience wasn't guaranteed >> you know to to to stay the same. So
that's that's something in any work environment or any place you work with that there's um changes and um you know concerns about health care plans but the the employees would would have access to health care so they would not be losing
their health care plans. >> Yes, Miss Smith. >> Um I just don't understand why we have to even change anything. We have um custodians
um that are reliable. They know our staff. They know these students. Um they don't just clean toilets. They don't they have relationships.
Um, many of you know I used to work for this district and I remember when we did outsource. Allison Robinson had guests in her building at power. She had custodians that would walk up and I didn't get paid to do this, but
you did. She had guests in her building and had to clean toilets. You don't have that now. I was the hall monitor at Farmington Central.
And the former person before John Bar took that position, came over with a brown paper bag and gave it to the principal and to me said, "Could you clean these bathrooms and clean this building?" I don't do bathrooms.
I don't only at my house. We talk about health insurance. Everybody is not capable and able to have the luxury of having
Blue Cross, Etna, Medicare. You've got a staff that is not stealing from this district. Now, it was said earlier, I know where all the dead bodies are. I do. I watched
staff that fed children over the weekend or kids that couldn't afford lunch to go into a cabinet that we never locked to go back for that cabinet to be empty.
And it was the custodians that did it. It ain't these out here. It's not the ones that we have in our schools. Some of these custodians actually help the kids open their you got lunch ladies that may be off
somewhere talking or with another student or another incident, but these custodians will go over and open up yogurt or have conversations with kids. If you go and you listen to some of these students, they have relationships
with these these custodians. Your principles have relationships with these with these custodians. Everybody cannot be Angie Smith, the real housewife of Oakland County.
I'm just going to keep it real with you. Everybody can't live like me. But we owe these people in this audience that are here fighting for their jobs. This is a foundation. Where it begins is with these people out
here. They shovel snow. They cut grass. Actually, they ear hustle when they hear things going on and they can go back and tell your principal.
I don't want to see any of them lose their jobs. Not one. So, we got a company that said, "We'll take 10, but we won't take the others." As I stated at the last meeting, I've
been going to a hospital. I won't say the name because I'm going to have to go back since December 2nd. Last week, I went to the hospital and I had to spend the night in the emergency room. Those bathrooms
were horrific. You could go in that bathroom before you could even go in. You could smell it. We don't have this here. Not with this staff.
Not with this group. So, I won't be voting to get rid of them. Yes, I have written emails. They all know I don't speak on the behalf of this board, but I do speak on the behalf
of Angie Smith. I was voted singlehanded, not on a slate. The people want to hear from each and every one of us, not just from one. They want to know what we all think.
I'm sorry, T uh Skyler, that I called you, Miz, cuz I got a cousin named Skyler. So, >> okay, it's fine. Okay. As long as me and you, we good. Okay. All right. But at the end of the day, the bottom line is I don't want to hold up anything so that these people don't know, well, do I have
a job or what am I going to do? Cuz I was at that point at one particular point in time. Let's do the right thing by these people. It's a foundation. It starts with them, then your bus drivers, your lunch lady.
This a family. We are known as Farmington finest, not Farmington. Forget about them and let them go. >> I spelled my piece. If you could just respond to to Miss M's first question of
why do we have to change and um we had to go out to bid I think as as President William shared and I you know as an as the district we have an obligation to make sure the board can make informed decisions and so we uh the right now as we know our our afternoon and evening
have been have been with ABM and um again we have amazing people who work in our schools each and every Okay. Um, we felt an obligation to bring to the board. Uh, if we took those 22 positions, um, we made a decision. We
had somebody who's been here for nearly 30 years that is going to stay. Um, and I think, you know, in looking at the the information, we got these amazing people from GRBS and DMER. They transitioned over to us and so we are thrilled about
that. Um and so again, it's the obligation I feel to bring to the board um the the keeping the same people and being able to do um to also have some additional funding to do support some of the the board's initiatives. So that's
that's what it is to make an informed decision. So I I appreciate you bringing that up about just to clarify that for everyone. >> Um thank you Mr. Walker. >> Yeah. I just wanted to um I just wanted to echo Miss Smith's
comments in that uh I'm while I definitely still want to have some time to review the information to be as informed as possible. I I really have a mindset if it ain't broke, why am I trying to fix it to some degree? Um, I had the pleasure of working with that
gentleman right there. And I believe it was this young lady over here who was bossing us around the day we were in here moving the tables around for the student roundt. Uh, she got us busy and made me work up a sweat. Not that that's all that difficult these days, but what
really impressed me was it sounded like they called in a couple of other guys from another building to help get this place together quickly enough for the student roundt to take place. And I just I really appreciated that level of teamwork and camaraderie and quite frankly the jokes that they were
cracking with one another that particular day. It just it's just the kind of thing you want to see in a district like this. Um and knowing that if that's what they do for this facility, I can only imagine what they do when they have the young people that they're around on a daily basis. So I I
want to um state publicly that I want to support anything and everything that would definitely keep these people with us. um in the best possible way and I understand cost savings. I do. But there's also opportunity costs that come
with people and I want to make sure that that is considered heavily as well. >> Yeah. And and just to reiterate that they would have the option to stay here, stay in their building. So I I just want to make sure that there's no intent at all from the district that they would
not have the current role that they have that's what they want. So, I just want to make that very clear >> and I I just want to make sure that that is clear for for them, >> right? Because I think that was a piece that wasn't communicated clearly on our end. >> Um Um
>> Yes, the secretary. Yes. >> Uh I too appreciate having additional time to reflect on this. Um, a million dollars is a million dollars.
I I I get that. But there's a lot to be said and I and again, I understand that the 22 people who are currently employed with us would stay if they if they so chose. Uh
but there's a piece around trust and that sense of family and that sense of camaraderie uh that I'm I'm very
we as a district and as a community value highly Several several times it's been mentioned our policy of attract retain and keep and um
there's just something really special and valuable and important about the kinds of relationships that our custodians develop and have with our teachers, with our students, with our our
administrators. And I have I have great concern around going to a model that is fully ABM. Uh again I understand the cost savings
but the stability, the consistency, the reliability, the trust, the the ownership and even even if we keep these all 22 now what about going forward?
We've had, you know, some uh some less than ideal experiences in the past with contracting out these services. And I want our students and our teachers
to be able to um continue to have this kind of these kinds of relationships with our with our custodians and this level of commitment
and institutional knowledge. and I feel that they've been loyal to us and that it's important that we demonstrate loyalty to them as well.
Um, so I I just I I I I value the role that our custodians play beyond the cleaning of our buildings, although that's very important as well, but it's it's bigger than that. It's more than
that. And we've already attracted them. If we want to retain them and keep them, then I feel that we deserve to be loyal to them in the same ways that they've been loyal to us.
>> Yes. >> So, what I understand is that we have 22 employees um custodian employees and >> during the day >> during the day >> during the day. Yeah. and
uh 12 of them are going to retire or >> we don't know that >> the the committee just asked for a preliminary number. >> Gotcha. >> Um we have over 50 just so you know we already have we have over 50 custodians in the afternoon and evening that are part of ABN. >> Okay.
>> So just to give you a context of that. >> Gotcha. Okay. So, so my my uh So, I was just wondering if if it was like the 12 that left. I just want to make sure we have some consistency with the with the ones that
are staying and that they're going to be they're not going to be, you know, replaced or or they're going to be shuffled around or, you know, that's >> absolutely >> absolutely not because I I truly believe that they're the unsung heroes, the invisible
hand that actually runs the school. Think about it. We give it it's funny how we have the the people that we that we always assume I don't want to say take for granted but a lot of us do because if stuff is not done
and that we don't really think about but we hand them they have they have the keys to everybody's office they have they have the keys to the whole building you know and we need to treat them with respect and with the responsibility that
they they actually have and I believe that I deal I I've I deal with multiple I I come in contact I build relationships with the custodian workers. Custodian workers are the heartbeat to make sure that our schools are running well and therefore we always
need to respect them. We always need to to to recognize them and we need to treat them that they are they are they're not just like a stepchild or anything like that. They're they're part of our our community and
we we we need to we need to make sure that they're if they're happy, we're happy, you know, take off takeick one of them off and find out your stuff is not uh could be dumped or whatnot. So >> yeah, and and I don't disagree that we
have amazing custodians. Many of them worked for a a outsourced company and then stayed with us. So, um, they were amazing when they worked for the other companies as well. I I I just don't want it to We have over 50 fantastic people
that serve this community in the afternoons and evenings. >> And so, I I I want to make sure that that the that the board and the community understands that and that and the people that are here are absolutely amazing and were when they came to us
from a company that was here working with us. So while the overall experience might not have been it wasn't what we wanted, there were individuals who are here who were part of that. So I I just
I I want to make sure that everybody realizes there this isn't about good or bad or or that we don't absolutely respect everything that they're doing. That was one of the first things I'll say that the committee wanted is to ensure that the wages stay the same. And
that was something we negotiated to ensure that was there and they did they did do that. So um that shows the value uh you know Mr. Hall you were there. Dr. Blau and and Miss Hinrich were there and that was very clear of what so to show
to make sure they knew that we were they were appreciated. So I just wanted to make that statement. >> Yeah. Yeah. When when Dr. off and brought up the proposal and we said, "So, you want our employees to do the same job for a lower wage? >> Not going to happen.
>> So, don't even bring don't even bring it to us." So, when they when they So, um, we value our employees. We really do, you know, I mean, I'm I'm the dinosaur on this on this board, you know, and change is difficult sort of thing. And so, you have to look at at things from a
a perspective. And so we're not asking we're not this proposal isn't asking our custodians to leave their building. It's not asking >> that they be reassigned or anything else. It's we're we're saying that these
relationships are important and you will continue in your job. I I think back when um we went from you know I've been around long enough where I remember when um the substitutes worked for the district. every state had their own substitutes and then the I think the
state came in with this model and said you're going with EDG staff and we didn't have a choice um and so our substitutes had to go through and so we contract our substitutes through edge of staff we still have amazing substitutes we still have people that have
relationships um we still have things that are valued um their paycheck is coming from EDG staff rather than Farmington public schools Um, and so, you know, that was a change that was forced on the districts, but it's
something that we adjusted to. Um, I just, um, just listening to some of the things, I I just, um, I I feel like we're getting into a battle of us against them and, um, Farmington
employees um, versus um, contract company employees. And I don't and I and I have a problem with that because I don't think that is the issue here. Um and I I have a problem when we characterize um you know these this
company their their core business our core business is education. Their core business is cleaning and providing services. And so to say that somebody that works for a company that's core business is providing cleaning services
is a less than employee than somebody that works for a school district who is doing cleaning services. So this raised some concerns that I asked the district um you know they they talked about turnover. I asked is is there is there
any data on a turnover rate from the ABM employees and the district said that they don't have any data showing unusually high turnover rate beyond what is typical in the custodial industry staffing levels have remained stable.
Um, I was concerned about complaints of the day custodians having to come in and clean up after the afternoon's custodians. And so, you know, what's with that? Um, have there been complaints on because we actually put in Farmington employees that are
supervisors to make sure that these um evening employees are doing their jobs. Um, it's said that there have been occasional concerns with district with any district. No widespread or systemic complaints indicating a district-wide
decline in cleanliness. So, I I haven't heard complaints coming through until we talked about a change. And so, my question was, is there a chain of command? I mean, do principles or do teachers know? Um, as school district,
as board of education, we always talk about when community members come with a complaint to us, then what is our chain of command? What is our response to them? So, you know, this has bringing up so maybe there needs some some
redirection here um as far as how to address the problem if there is a concern. if if the if the night custodians are not doing their job, then why are we just hearing about it now? And so, um, you know, is is there a need
for um for training for our staff to to know how to address these issues? Because I think that I think we're all on the same team. We want our buildings clean. We want people um in front of our students are interacting. And that was
one of the concerns I had. initially um is when you're bringing people from the outside in that are interacting with students. You know, we don't have control over who's interacting with students. And so I asked about background checks and things like that. And so, um it's as in EDGES staff, they
do their background checks. And so the the company ABM does their background checks. And then Farmington Public Schools also does a background check. So anybody that's going to be in the building during the day will have double background checks. Um, have there and
then there were uh allegations of thefts involving the night crew and I asked have there been any thefts reported involving the night crew and the response was there have been no substantiated theft cases involving the
night crew um have been reported. So, I I really think that we have to be careful in respecting our contract employees that are on the night because I think that because they're working for a company that supplies cleaning
services, their employment is not less than um the the custodians that work on the day staff and our and our um employees of the Farmington Public School District. So I think that we really need to lift up and and respect
everybody that we have and they were part of the team as well as our day employees. Um the reason that we went to the hybrid model is because when we contracted this out and this was before I was on the board. Um but there were complaints and there were problems and
the district reacted and corrected it. So this is not the same company. Um, and we have been with AVM for three years, four years, and we have not had complaints over the quality of the services as we did when this came
through. So, I I really think it's a good idea um to have some time to, you know, digest this and to listen to um our employees because we really we really value them.
Um but um I I've set it up for now. >> Yep. Mr. Walker. >> Um, respectfully and and hearing 100% apologize for having to step away for a moment, but hearing 100% of what I I
heard when I walked back in. This is not by supporting the Farmington employed uh custodians. is not a disrespect of our night um custodians in any way, shape, or form, but I think what we're doing in
this moment is we're respecting the nuance difference of having a group of individuals who actually work for you and some of the different things that you bring to the table when you work for an entity. And so we're just trying to
have a responded respect, understanding, and acknowledgment of that nuanced difference. When you work for an institution, especially,
excuse me, when you work for an institution, especially one that has the familial situations that we have here in our district in the manner that we do, background checks being background checks, they've been background checked through their experiences and the lack
of issues that have come about as well. These are things that have to be taken into consideration when something like this has been brought to us in the manner that it has. We had to do it as stated. No getting around that. But since we have to do it, we have to look
at these nuanced differences because as I like to say with people who don't get it when it we talk about educational institutions, we're not dealing with widgets. We're dealing with human beings and all of the nuances that they bring to the table. And so this is not a
disrespect to the night staff. If we were discussing something about that with respect to the night staff, I would imagine we could be saying the same things about the night staff. But what we are talking about are the FPS employed staff. And I think that's I
just want to keep it I want to make sure that that distinction is made but acknowledgement of all of what was said a moment ago too. Um, >> and for clarification, sorry, just quickly. So, we did have a handful of our staff move from FPS employees to AVM
to be in the in the afternoon and evening. So, just I I agree with you. This isn't >> there choices and and then that's and that's fine. But for those who have remained, I just want to continue that lifted up. I'm sorry. >> That's okay. I I appreciate your
comments. I actually um I'm offended that people would just automatically assume that there was theft. We have to hold people accountable. Now, if they thought somebody was stealing, that's the principal's responsibility to find out
opposed to coming and then we got to talk about this at the board table. Who said it was the custodian? It could have been anybody in that building. We had a gentleman stand before us and tell us last week, Luke, tell us that well, you know, we will, you know, there's one
group that will probably that we were looking into that could bring in an interpreter. So, are we paying the interpreter, too? You know, because those were people that, you know, I understand that group that he was talking about, but you don't need nobody to interpret that
toilet is nasty. And at the end of the day, I speak three languages, English, Spanish, and Ebonics. So, I don't think nobody doesn't know how to clean a toilet or to
clean up 15 days of debris. We had a custodian a few years ago before many of you were put on here that left a cleaning solution and a teacher was her eye was damaged. Damaged and it was brushed under the rug.
So instead of asking, well was why did theft come up when picking oh well has anybody stole anything? Who said they did it? They're not the only ones in that building. And and at the end of the day,
I've been at events in the evening and I've seen how these custodians have done their job and you still got parents that want to linger and stick around and hang around and they got work to do.
They might not get out of a building till 11:00 because you got somebody that don't have nothing else better to do but just stand around and talk and knowing that they got to clean the building. and they being respectful because they
are parents in this district and they got to wait for that parent or a couple of parents to finish their gossiping or whatever they talking about that they can do on the phone, in the car, anywhere else, but they stay here
and they do the work. They do it. We have even done it here and when we've had events here and God bless Deb, we've had parents that want to stick around and talk and talk and talk and Deb and and and and
real in the back back there just like mhm thank you. Uhhuh. And then they still got to pick up these chairs when you will have somebody that's just going to talk and take up our time like we don't have lives and families. But then what
they do, they stand in the back and they wait and they wait. So to talk about theft, let's talk about what they have done, not what people think they have done.
It's not one time that I've gone in that bathroom around there that I didn't feel comfortable. I can't say that everywhere else. I can say it about our schools. Again, this is our foundation. These are our family members. When we have that
cookout every year, annual cookout with the staff, you see all of these people sitting amongst us all. As a woman, and I want to say young, yeah,
>> seasoned, I was raised never to look down on anybody. I'm not looking down on these people. These people got a whole lot more going on than I do right now. And for all I know, we can put a company
in here. Oh, we we going to put your people in. We got you. We got you. And then you look up and you won't see these faces anymore. I don't want that. I want all of these people to maintain
their jobs. So that's where I'm at. >> So I think we have um Mr. >> Ed one quick thanks since I haven't um >> what I'm hearing and I think from all the emails and um and the public comment
um culture, community, consistency. Uh these are all very very important things. I know as a a parent of kids in the district, I've been at places where tables had have appeared for color runs when they, you know, when a quick call. Um I know even at the first um back to
school, it was moved from an outside venue to an inside venue and it was done like miraculously and seamlessly, you know. Um, I have worked with Cub Scout troops that have trashed um, you know, Forest Elementary and in the morning
come back for a uh, Donuts with Daddy and it was perfectly clean and presentable. So, uh, you know, that it is the work that is amazing and um, definitely want to make sure that all 22, you know, are retained and I know
that I guess it goes, you know, beyond all that um, that stuff. Um but I also I'm under just make sure you know that that right now nobody is losing their job you know so I want to make sure that we we measure that and
and you know ensure that we uh you know we retain everybody as as mentioned um and I guess it'll just have to look for me it's sort of on the softer things um like what you had mentioned um you know I've been at a place where there have
been contractors alongside uh um employees, you know, and um you know, it's it was that culture piece I think you mentioned in the events and there were times where some of our badges were blue and other ones were yellow, you know, because they were contractors and
that was a little bit of a rub people the wrong way, holidays were different, you know, bonus structures were different, and even though we were working side by side, um sometimes, you know, it felt a little off, you know, but I also want to make sure that, you know, again, with an open mind, this
could be a possibility that this there are better benefits that are better opportunities that you know that right now I'm hearing that no one's using a job and no one's losing any pay and so and no one's using their building and uh so I'm just sort of making sure I love that we have the extra time. Um, uh, you
know, definitely respect the I mean, if they work as hard as they've worked to get in front of this board, we we all know they're amazing cuz they had a great uh consistent message and a very passionate message. So, if if they were put that effort into the work, which I
know they do, um, we definitely all need to be retained. >> So, if I might just maybe summarize here, um, the district provided us with some options because they were required to, right? And now we have to do some
due diligence here in determining uh which path uh to move forward on. I am grateful and very thankful to uh the superintendent and her staff for answering some of the questions that we had initially. Uh most of the board
members, if not all, were very concerned about uh our staff, which is why we asked the questions and got clarification on one, ensuring that um all staff would be retained. Uh two, that all staff would be paid at the same
rate, which required the district to go back and require that of the subcontractor. um to um understand whether there were guarantees associated with placement and maintaining in the same building. Those
are all of the things that were important to us. And so I feel like as a board we've, you know, started to do all of those things in response to what initially was a concern for us. I think we still have some questions inclusive
of for me and from what I've heard from our board members um a helpful distinction between who's responsible for what what does a daytime custodian do, what does a nighttime custodian do. Um it it sounds like our night custodians we thought were doing a
really good job. Um they they clean the buildings for the next day. If that's not happening, I kind of want to understand that better. I think the board wants to understand that a little bit better. Um I think we also want to understand um what is the what what is
the impact to staff. Um so we've got the wages to be the same, but now I'm hearing that there's some difference in benefits. Uh we know that there are some benefits that are provided by the um contractor, but like what what is our what would happen to our employees
financially if there were a move? But I'm also hearing based off of the feedback that we've gotten uh uh both in writing and uh uh in person that there is an element of even if everything were the same, there's still something
different about not being an FPS employee. And I can't put my finger on it and nobody can put their finger on those kinds of things. It's not really tangible, but it's a feeling. And so I get the sense that there could be a
difference in that familiar um environment that um um family sort of environment that um you know that that our folks wouldn't feel that as much and so I don't know if
that would translate into different service despite the fact that I know that we were lucky enough to um obtain some of our folks from a previous contractor. Um, so I don't know what the service would look like if if you know
we moved back to that example. Um, I can't say, but that's definitely a risk. It's something that I'm I'm certainly hearing people have some concerns about. Um, and it's something that we can't ignore. Um, I don't think any one of us want that disconnect from people who
have become a family to us. Certainly in the buildings that I'm in, I feel that. Um, I think for me and and and someone said it during a public comment period, I I'm wrestling what I'm still wrestling
with, I don't know about you, is um obviously there's something that big that we're giving up here. And it's not just about money, but what are we forgoing? what what what um what are our options
here with respect to those potential savings? So I think on the surface we all believe that an investment in our people is something that we would do right but the re there is a reality that this may be um preventing us from
investing in something else. what what would that something else be is is something I haven't heard answered here yet and I' I'd like that answer myself. Um so I'm I'm not really comfortable I don't think any of us are
with losing relationships with our people. We value our people. Um I think when it comes down to it, we're willing to invest in our people. We've done that. We we've demonstrated that we will invest in our people before. uh we'll continue to do that. But I think an
important piece of uh information that I don't have right now is uh what would those savings be on? If it's to buy more stuff, I'm not really interested in buying more stuff. Valuing our people would be more
important to me than buying stuff. I think I feel like that's personally what I need is like what what um what would that be reinvested in and then that would help me make a better informed decision. Um I would suggest that board members submit any additional questions
that you have um and then we'll get those answered and then we'll have a a better discussion. I feel like we're moving in the right direction here though in in airing out you know what's important to us. Anything else on that Mr. Walker, >> the table that was in the original board
book, >> I I if that could be tweaked a little bit better because when I went back to look at it again, I became a little confused because the lines did not match up. And it may sound like something very simple, but it it it it created a layer of
confusion for me because, okay, this is broken out here, but this is not broken out here. here. And so I'm trying to figure out where is this the so-called savings based on whatever we're doing. So if there can be a more identical lineto- line comparison
between the tables that could be recreated from the current tables, that would just be helpful in me translating what we're actually doing in terms of the um the the cost situation. >> Yeah. Yeah. And I can I'm sorry, I can resend that that we did create that. So
for that exact reason. So, um, the the last thing I want to say and then I'll turn it over to you, Mr. Rinto, is, uh, I cannot underestimate or what's the right word? Um, I I want the public to know that we receive so many comments
uh, from our primarily our staff about how happy they are with our people. Um that is extremely um it it fills my heart up with great feelings that you know we have that and
I don't want to lose it. I want to I don't want to lose it with you know Miss Haley, Miss Elise, Mr. Skyler, Mr. Derek, Mr. Adam, um Mr. Wayne, um Mr. Dixon, uh a lot of you. And I
don't want to get start rambling off the list, but I I your um your colleagues, your uh friends in your buildings had the most beautiful things to say about your work, about who you are as people,
about how you interact with our young people. Um and and that is that is something that resonates with everybody here on the board, which makes this a very difficult decision. We're not there yet. I I don't know where we're going to land, but please know that this is this
is um a really heavy decision and and every piece of feedback that we're getting is helping us arrive at at a conclusion and I hope you appreciate the difficult position that we're in right to in an environment where you know education is being challenged on all
sides about you know um our our achievement our growth and all of these things around students. This is very complicated and I wish we could just wave a magic wand and have all of the funding that we needed to do all of our jobs, but we don't. But that not that
said, it we value you and that's definitely coming across and the I I want to say hundreds of emails that we've uh received and read and are reading. So um thank you for that. Um so with that I'm Oh, Mr. Rinto, go ahead.
>> I just had a point um of clarification. So um we'll take this time to look at the three options as outlined that you mentioned the uh keep it as it is the outsourcing of equipment or full outsourcing with people and equipment.
>> Yes. >> Um and then after that we would have the two companies that were provided ADM and >> so uh what the district has decided was that um they would recommend that we're only considering the options with the
one. So we we have um a good understanding appreciation. I agree with that decision. I agree with that with the one proven company. We're going with a completely different company. >> 100% agree. That's what I was confused about. I didn't want to we're not interested in I didn't want to do a twofold decision. >> Yeah. We we I think I I' feel like we've
got good experience. Me too. Me too. >> With where we are right now. >> I totally agree. >> Um and so yeah, I don't want to clarify >> and and I appreciate where we are right now with the service that we have right now. Mr. uh home. >> I think we from my from what I'm
gathering I think we have enough information um from from what we have been showed on the presentation and what we have in the board to you know this is coming from me to make
a decision. I mean, you know, I mean, what else information we we need to to to to for a motion? I don't I don't stand unless we just going to I don't know how far we can kick this can down the road, you know, before our, you
know, because we need to have at least our employees to have some kind of resolutions or settlement either one way the other and we keep on, you know, beluring the the point or whatnot. And I'm, you know, I think we have enough information unless there's something that I'm not aware of.
>> I I personally heard from a few board members at the table that they could use a little bit more time and that they had some more questions. Uh but if someone wants to make a motion, what would happen is um a motion might fail just because people are not comfortable yet
making a decision. So, I'm I'm trying to wait until people feel comfortable enough to be able to weigh in on a decision. We could we could have a motion, which which could um again, like I say, fail. And just technically, you don't want to keep bringing the same
motion back multiple times. So, I I'm hearing from folks that we wanted to wait, but we could entertain a motion. Mrs. Hinrich. >> Yeah. No, no. I'm I'm just kind of reading the room and thinking that based on feedback from our employees and thing
the the concern I have is, you know, this change is going to happen and I felt like there was a lot of misinformation. Um, you know, the board doesn't value the employees. um you know, our employees are important in our buildings
and our employees are going to lose their jobs and our night staff is inferior because they work for a contract company and you know that that's that's the vibes that I was getting and I just
think that having some extra time just for some of the board members that need to think this over a little bit um to make more of an informed decision and and um I'm sure that we'll hear much more from our community based on our our
conversations tonight. Um, but I just I want to walk away with with the with the fact that I think everybody on this board is in agreement that we really value our employees and we really respect our employees and our job as
board members is to look at the whole picture and look at, you know, the resources um that we have to work with as a school district and um fiscal responsibility and, you know, is is there some way that
it can be a win-win for everyone? Um because I don't think there should be winners and losers here. I think we should feel like on whatever decision we we um come to, our employees are going to walk away with feeling that yes, you
know, we're going to have a job and we're going to continue the work we have. Our teachers are going to feel like yes, you know, we value these people and they're not going to be yanked out of our building. Um, and so I, you know, sometimes decisions are
better when you sleep on them and sometimes they're not sort of thing. So I would just be of the um, and I'm very I'm kind of analytical. So it's like, okay, A or B, you know, what's the thing? But I I'm just I'm I
kind of feel like based on the discussion and the feedback and stuff um just to respect the the time for more space to you know sleep on it. >> Mrs. Smith um I agree with Trustee Hall.
Um I don't need any more time. Um we say well it's been stated that we need to talk to the employees. What was those emails? That was them talking to us. They told us what they felt. They told
us what they wanted. So, what more do we need to hear? Um, what are we looking for? You know, I'm not going to talk talk out of both sides of my neck. I'm just not. At the end of the day, these
people spoke. They are here. They said what they had to say. What more do we need to hear? I mean, they have expressed. We can't keep saying our employees, but then turn
around and say, "Well, they're not our employees. It's the district's employees." Make it make sense. They're here. They're not here because they want to watch a board meeting. >> I I I hear you, Mrs. Smith. They're not.
>> I And I respect that you're ready, and maybe some folks are ready, but not everyone is not ready. President Williams, hold on one second. I retain my time. What I'm saying is you cannot say that
everyone wants more time. I'm speaking for me. I don't need any more time. I read all those emails till late last night. I didn't read them today because we had this board meeting and they're here.
I've already heard. So, I'm saying I know you speak on the behalf of the board, but you are not speaking on the behalf of me. I I can vote tonight. That's what I'm saying. I I appreciate
that. We we we will have an action item at our next meeting and uh we'll have an opportunity for all of the board members who still have questions to get those questions answered. Um is there any further discussion?
All right, seeing none, thank you for the discussion. I know that um you know this is not a difficult this is a difficult uh decision and I appreciate uh everybody's um willingness to ask the questions and to have the discussion.
With that said we will move on to our next item which is items from the treasurer. Mrs. Hinrich >> I move that the board of education approve the expenditures as outlined in the expenditure printout dated February 24th 2026 as follows. General fund
13,728,524 general fund athletics $136,582. Debt fund $500. Capital projects 2023 bond fund $518,94. Nutrition services fund $541,331. Benefit stabilization fund 1,624,470.
Total 16,549,51 >> support. Motion made by Mrs. Hinrich, supported by Mrs. Smith to approve the expenditures. Is there any discussion? >> Seeing none, all in favor? >> Any opposed? Any abstensions? That motion passes. Is there a motion for the consent agenda? Mr. Walker?
>> I move that the board of education approve the February 24th, 2026 consent agenda as follows. Item uh what is that? N uh 12A I think it is if I'm reading that correctly. Approval of minutes. Number one, February 10th, 2026 regular
meeting. Number two, February 17th, 2026 finance facility committee meeting. Number three, February 19th, 2026 policy board governance committee meeting as well as item B, personnel items. >> Support motion made by Mr. Walker,
supported by Mrs. Heinrich to approve the consent agenda. Is there any discussion? Seeing none, all in favor? >> Any opposed? Any abstensions? That motion passes. Are there any uh reports from board representatives? Seeing none, we will now move to the
next item on our agenda, which is going to last about an hour and a half. No. Okay. We'll move to ajournment. Thank you. Thanks very much.