Good evening. This is a regular meeting of the Ferndale Schools Board of Education held on March 16, 2026. Our meeting is being video recorded and will be posted on the Ferndale Schools YouTube channel. All meetings in the Ferndale schools are held in public in
compliance with the Open Meetings Act. Printed documents discussed in tonight's meeting are available to the public upon request with the exception of any information protected by student or employee privacy rights. Board meeting information is posted on our website at www.burn burndalechools.org.
If you do not have internet access and need information, please contact the board offices at 2485868652 by Thursday of the week prior to the meeting and district staff will do their best to work with you. >> Okay. U Miss Shepard, could we do roll call?
>> Ry >> here. >> Dookie here. >> Here. Kaiser >> here. Newman here. Turner >> here. >> President Deliver >> here. Thank you. >> Uh item 1.2, approval of the agenda. Let's take a look at the agenda. Does
anyone have any suggestions? Seeing none, uh agenda is approved. Item two, superintendent update. Miss Himler, >> good evening.
>> Good morning. So this evening I am very happy to celebrate although they are not here to receive this recognition. We do have our recording um and they will be with us uh at our next meeting. Um but
uh as you all know um thank you to the board of education for the um the approval of expanding our um athletic programming which last year included girls wrestling. And I'm very happy to share, if you
haven't heard already, that we have in our first year of ever having girls west wrestling, we have not one but two all state um young ladies that um were awarded a couple weekends ago. We have
Na Ry who was third in the state and Laney Sheay who was seventh in the state. Um, we are just so extremely proud of this historic moment. Um, and we also want to give special recognition
to coaches, coach Quinn Boyce as well as coach Danny Collins, um, for their leadership and their time. But we just cannot sing their praises enough. We are so excited and proud of our Eagles and their shine at the Allstar at the All
State Wrestling Meet. So again, congratulations to Naier as well as Laneany and we're so so very proud of it. >> Awesome. >> Can't wait to see the next one. >> Yes. >> Um item three, presentation of buildings
trienal update. >> Good good evening again. Um so um just as a reminder to the board and to the community um we have um our principles that will be coming to share um progress towards our dynamic plan goals. Um this
is the second uh trienal update. So what you will hear this evening is from Ferndale Lower as well as Ferndale upper elementaryaries um and their progress since the fall. So uh we will start with principal Keith with Fdale Lower.
>> Thank you. Good evening. >> Just left a rocking reading night with lots and lots of family. So but glad to be here with you. So here we are. That's our crew. reach and I have uh pictures at the end
uh for all of those for us to see. So we'll uh go over um the reac for uh lower first one are relevant and responsive staff development. So uh we're using the measure of success as uh when the staff
report after PD as an 85%. So the fall we had 84 uh now we have 84.4. So progress right? Um so training that we've had since the fall uh essential 2
which is uh read aloud uh AI with Kelsey. We had u math observation and lab development, data digs, curriculum, vertical alignment, listening circles about connection and uh culture. Uh
we've had some fish tanks, some science, some UDL and more. That's some PD that we've done since then. So, and then uh just recently I met with the paras because um I believe and my reflection question at the end I believe that um we
sometimes miss groups when we do a a broad PD. We want to make sure that everyone is getting what they need. So I had a meeting with the U Paris a few weeks ago and said what what is it that you need to be better at your job? And one thing that they mentioned was
American Sign Language. they they don't need to learn it all. Right? But there are certain signs that um especially our students that are uh limited language that um you know more bathroom, I want I need. So um they would like to um learn
some of those signs especially some students come to us with some sign language but if we don't know it we we can't support them. So um so I'm proud to say that there's a group in Oak Park that is going to support us with that. And so that training will start either
the end of this month or April and we'll do some of that with the paras and then see if uh teachers want to jump on board with that as well. Um and then last week we also through um a parent group that met with me about lunch. They were very interested in having the lunch monitor
CPR trained. So um we had our lunch monitors trained last week as well and we could do 10. So then a couple more teachers were trained which is uh great. So, um, I thought that that was a great idea that came from the parents. So, um, we we had that. And then on the horizon,
we have some peers, some colleagues that are going to be doing some training with, uh, behavior support, some tech conversations, um, some belonging to increase our capacity with that. But as I was doing this, my reflection question was, how do we plan and prepare uh, PD for all of
our stakeholders at our school? So the teachers, the essential teachers, um the paras, the uh special education department, how is it relevant and actionable for everyone? So um I know that the district is putting together a
PD team to talk about and to make our plans. So, I want to uh be part of that team so that I think that that reflection question, that voice can be heard because um I I know sometimes the gym teacher is sitting there and it's
like, "Oh, how do I how do I support you, you know, with this PD?" So, um just making sure that everyone is included in that and that we're lifting everyone up at our school with um PD to make it relevant and responsive for
everyone. E engaged and empowered students. So um this information the measure of success comes from the survey. So lower does the survey only fall and spring. So in the fall that I shared with you 93% of our
students reported that they belong at our school through the survey. We didn't administer it in um the mid year but um we continue to work uh videos that I do daily as reminders solid curriculum for
tier one common language and structures through uh conscious discipline soar show respect owner behavior act and excellence ready learn making sure that adults are present problem solving voice and choice caring champions for students
all of those things that we're doing. Uh a lot of attendance monitoring more so than we've done in the past to make sure that we're reaching out. They know we want them at school and they are coming to school. So, um so that picture up in
the corner just to uh tell you that's that was just cups that they were playing with inside recess. They they do hearts all the time and I I love that. I think that that's really important. Um so I wanted to put that picture in. And then um some first grade students gave
me some quotes today like my school family because there's so many kind people. They're kind and nice. They share. They are kind. Hopefully you're seeing that that theme coming through. We're kind, respectful, funny, and kind. Um people make me feel happy. So um
that's just a random first graders that I asked them about our school and how they feel about our school. So um so that's us today a align instructional vision. So annually increase the percentage of
students exceeding one year of growth on I ready. So spring is up there and then we have the data from winter and this is the median percentage of progress towards typical growth. So we'll get that that year's progress at the end of the year to do spring to spring, but
this is where we're at right now for the median percentage for that typical typical growth. So 44% for kindergarten math, 79% for first grade math, 53% for second grade math, and then 77% for
second grade reading. Our kindergarten and first grade students do not take the I Ready for reading. they have a cadience and that data is um very powerful and I I think you're sharing some of that rights.
So um update from fall continue a solid tier one instruction with our um English language arts support students that are not there yet with our student success team intervention small group. We have a new uh intervention program that just
started the past couple weeks. There was a lot of training to it. uh 95 rap and that came through a grant. So we have uh four people, five people sorry, trained in our building doing small groups, 95 reps. So it's a little bit different. Um
learning more about math with I Ready data digs and information individual student pathways which is uh really great and big this year. learning labs in uh math with Oakland schools and getting into each other's classrooms for
those observations, those conversations and um that vertical alignment at PLC. That was a really powerful time when paras all stakeholders, everyone, teachers across the grade levels all got together and had um conversations about
math curriculum and that was really good. Um and we have two teachers right now part of a research study for a new math curriculum helping them design it the kind of like the pre free pre-stage and uh K5 begins to create a committee for a new math curriculum for um that
they'll start next year and then I think it's the year after that it begins so that instructional vision cultivating collect collective pride socipation of underrepres representative families
by 20%. Uh so uh current status in the spring was 278 parents participated in the survey and 35 this time in winter. So we've got some work to do. I think it had to do with the timing that we did
the survey in the spring. It was at the concerts. I saw families. I was getting out there. um winter I I didn't see them all the time and I don't know if they read my newsletter. So, but so we're going to work on that. So, that's that's
a a grow for us, right? So, dive in, talk about how we can increase that sample size for May. So, um as a whole, we continue to work uh on family outreach and support. Some of the points of pride since November to cultivate this pride is um attendance outreach as
I mentioned working with our CIS support coordinator and family liaison weekly newsletter linking our families to our school. We uh got a grant for a little library so maybe more families are coming on to get those free books family
projects from classrooms. Class photos that are shared on Seessaw. I know that families really like that to see what's happening daytoday in the classroom. I think that's important. Uh family events, skate night, bike giveaway. I just feel like all of our events are
getting bigger and bigger, which is amazing. For the first time in I think maybe ever, we had um a Black History Night called Music in the Key of Soul and it was a blast. People had a lot of fun. There was dancing, there was food,
there was learning stations, there was a lot of families. It was really great. And our annual peacewalk. So, just trying to have um activities for all of our families. Uh we also have um a lot of community members coming in for mystery reading. Invite all of you if
you want to come in and read that'd be amazing. And then at our fall conferences, we had 94% of families attend. And then I have some more pictures at the end. H harnessing data to drive improvement. Again, um kind of missed the mark here.
I mean, we're not the measure of success is still uh a ways away to redesign it and and implement it, but um 20% of our staff completed it after provided a little bit of time, but uh Miss Jeffrey told me that maybe I didn't scroll all
the way down on it. So it's got to be more than that. So I will go back to that. Um so it's a low sample size for the open-ended uh answers need to be reviewed um for those glows and those grows. Um and uh we'll look through that with leadership and dive into that. So
just to um make sure that we're continuing growing all the time. So then some just some fun pictures. So, um I'll start at the top and go around. Um our imaginary trip to Australia,
uh drumming from, uh music, black history night, we have our uh steam lab. I'm really proud to say that for black history uh month, we had a steam lab, a uniquely designed steam lab every week that parents or that teachers could sign
up for and we've broadened that into reading month. So now this month we have a book every week in our steam lab with an activity for it. So we've um increased that because I I it was just so powerful. Peacewalk skate night uh
that we had uh Mottown singers come in and they were the I think the whole second grade class is doing the train. It was just amazing. It was great. And then um in the bottom left is our holiday sing along that the the music
teachers do in December with our kids. So lots of community. And then one more. Um so the top one is uh Aaron Moore. He came for um reading month and read. He
did a steam video for um aerospace and um the kids built some planes and he did a video for us. So then he came back and so we actually hit um black history, steam, march reading and career
readiness with his visits. So and he said he is coming back. He he loves our school. So I said you are welcome anytime. And he has a drone so he's going to teach us about that. And it's really cool. Uh bike giveaway. Uh
reading month kickoff is um was March 1st or second I think and it's Olympic theme. We are gold medal readers. We all had flags of the countries and we passed the torch. So that's what that picture is. The one on the top right uh groups
of uh kindergarten classes got together and made about 125 bags for the homeless. and they they um brought in all the supplies. Families helped. They packaged them all and they delivered them. And um some really nice packages
that they did. This is the second year doing that project. Uh bottom right, new trays. If you haven't seen those yet, they're amazing. It's working out great. We figured out the system. The kids know how to dump the food off. They have to kind of bang it a little bit to get some
of it off, but um and then parents have been coming in to help us rinse them off and it's just um it's great. So, you're up next with the trays, I hope. >> And then, uh Miss Hibler of course came in for Black History Month and read to
all of our grade levels. Uh right above that reach is uh a math lab with uh Oakland schools and literacy lab with Oakland schools MK5 which was great. And then um another picture from steam lab that was actually last week's um
project. So >> questions for uh Miss Ke. Thank you. >> Great. Uh yeah. So uh first first though question for uh administration. So on slide five and I think this is for us
but also for the public um with our online instructional vision. I think this is one of the benchmarks that we're changing. >> Uh but is the intent for uh an increase by 15% to be so it's 10% now right
>> are we getting to 25% or >> that that's our problem with the metric. I mean all of that that what you're saying because >> I read it as >> increase the amount of students that are reaching their stretch goals
every year, right? But after a while you'll only have so many students that will they'll reach them faster. So um the goal itself doesn't work right Katie. Am I saying that right?
>> She has we've had some really debate that So like if you look at Diana winter data here um those should be all so nationally the expectation would be at 50% right now right that student the median is 50%
because we're halfway through the school year you can see second grade is already 77% towards one year of progress so you know they'll be at one 25 and they will have far exceeded the 59% that they
got at the end of last in terms of meeting. >> So technically you could exceed by 15% for quite a while because you could go to 200%. >> But not if you're at more and more students have a grade level at the beginning much more difficult it is to
keep meeting those goals. You're going to max out. You'll see a lot of our fifth graders who may start at a sixth grade level. They're not getting six seventh grade content. They're going to max out. The second issue is stretch growth versus this goal is exceeding a year of
growth. So that's like 101% for a child would mean that they've gone over the year. Stretch >> is a little bit tougher and only 30% nationally tend to meet stretch growth. If we get above the 30% growth, we're
out performing national norms. But how do you assess that year after year after year? >> Last year, I think we're at 28% like at fuel. We're really close to the national expectation. How do you get that to 50? You know, it's nationally unlikely.
>> So, the the measure is >> it's wonky. And I >> but you can see second grade far out. >> So, ideally, we would want Thank you, Katie. So ideally, you know, we would want them to be we would prefer personalized, which would be technically
their stretch goals, but like Katie said, like how would we norm that in a way that we can monitor for an entire grade level or entire district, it it since it's so um everyone's stretch goal will be very very different. And I
believe that's why we landed on it written in this way because this you can measure this. You can measure it over time, but it's just not we don't believe it's measuring what we want to be measured. >> Um Jeffrey, I think you answered the
second, but the so the target for the medium percentage is 15%. >> Got it. So at this time at this time 26. Okay. >> So you don't have to answer anything. So Thank you, Miss Ke. >> Thanks, Miss.
>> All right. Next up, we have Miss Jeffrey uh with number. >> Good evening. >> Good evening. Good to >> see everybody. I don't have paper notes. >> You go back into And then let's go to go to this meeting.
Yep. And then go to view meeting. Oops. I'm sorry. Go back. I'm sorry. That was I'm so sorry. If you go to start meeting Just go back. No, no, just go back. >> Yeah, that'll do that.
>> Yet, join meeting. No, no, no. Join meeting at the top. The top. >> Yeah, meeting details. Join meeting right there. Go down to the Y and then click on that.
There it is. And then go to link to slides. Yeah. Is that >> Yes. There we go. We got there. All right. Good. Okay. Uh so this is our trienal update after our uh winter assessments and winter surveys for
Ferndale Upper and uh like Miss Mrs. Keefe uh we'll be presenting on all five of the strategic pillars. Okay. So relevant and responsive staff development. Uh to date we are at 84% in
the fall. We're now at 85.3 uh that reporting that staff is relevant and actionable. And these are uh as Mrs. Keef said both support staff and um FBA staff uh participate in the surveys.
Um so uh we continue to have a robust professional development plan. Uh the last three months specifically since our last update we have focused on really highlighting powerful teaching practices in um in the classroom. So peer classroom observations specifically we
are if you noted from our fall data and longitudinal data we are really focusing on math instruction math look fors going in like for example I have two um teachers in the first two years they're going in with seasoned teachers to watch veteran teachers teach math and then
having those opportunities to examine practice ask questions of our teachers um that are um highly effective in math instruction Uh and we've done a lot of work on building thinking classrooms. So this um started organically this summer with a
small group of teachers, seven teachers that uh wanted to read through the book um or at least a portion of the book and then they kind of dove right in just experimenting. They then brought their colleagues in to watch uh the building classrooms. You've probably seen at the high school and secondary level. It's
the vertical whiteboards where students are really thinking and talking through math together. and now it's pretty much throughout the entire building. Um they do observations of each other and then Miss uh Harris and Miss Prince are both our math um
lead teachers working with Oakland schools. So they are also leading their teams in re like action research around the use of the vertical whiteboards and and students. So, we're seeing a lot more um student discourse
about math, comfortable student discourse about math because the teachers are teaching each other what they're doing and what's working in the classroom. So, very powerful. So, distributed leadership model has basically been the focus of the last three months of PD. Um, another example of this is last week we have um some
time where we do flex pls where I we ask for teachers to volunteer or I've seen something in the classroom and okay I want this shared out more and teachers get to do a choose your own adventure for the second half of a staff meeting. So Amy Pomero our monastery teacher um Mason Fenig fourth grade teacher and uh
Roberto Lusk our fifth grade ILT um all led flex PDS in breakout rooms. Uh Miss Pomero taught about uh supporting students with ADHD uh which actually came up in our soup with the soup as a how are we looking at all different types of neurode divergence. Um so she led a great one we're going to ask her
to repeat. Mr. Fen was using Nearpod as a UDL and engagement strategy. And then Mrs. Lusk who I believe is the longest tenure teacher in the district um it led flex PD's um hers was about tips and tricks from a veter teacher. So that
when we encourage our teachers with five years or fewer years of experience to come and and talk about classrooms culture, morning meeting, uh engagement strategies for content. Um and then last at the DPPD day in February when we had
the full day, we actually let a really powerful technology and education think through um using actually the slides from the parents that presented uh back in November um with some of their concerns and public comment using um some articles uh that that group and
Kelsey Perkins has has helped to pro uh support us in and really doing some thinkroughs about technology and education. How do we have more intentional use? What does it look like here? uh what are some school proven initiatives for better supporting that in our in our schools
and then data digs. We're big on the data digs. Uh under E, engaged and empowered students annual increase the percent of students report they have an adult with their school. Uh so in the winter um in the top three categories of the pan panorama survey we had 94% report they have an adult in their
school they can go to for support or guidance which is the whole focus of our school. So it's great to see. Um additional highlights. So, we were above national average in Panorama. It is a nally norm survey. It's long. Kids struggle a little bit. So, we put some things into place to make them be more
incentivized to really take it seriously and slow down. Um, and we scored above national average in all categories on both the school climate student survey and the student survey. So, that's their um their individual, which is excellent. I think this is the first year since
we've been doing panorama that we've scored in that green uh in all of the areas. Um these are also indicative I think of our focus on student school culture. We have our one-word focus like come I invite you to please come walk our halls. You can see that messaging.
Um our black history month doors are up right now. Those are all student driven projects led by a student council. Our passion projects have been wildly successful student culture initiative on they were done to increase half-day attendance but they have ended up really
um bringing our school together because they're mixed third, fourth and fifth graders alto together and the teachers are sharing their passions and interests with the kids. Um we do our support staff has a weekly huddle on Friday to talk about um behavior concerns, how to best support students that maybe are
falling under that 94%. Um, we have our reading month celebrations, our all school morning meetings. We're in a big contest right now for reading month. So, I've got a picture of that. Those are our banana trees. We're reading the one and only Ivan as a school. This is our second year of a one book, one community. We
did um the wild robot. Last year, we got every student a book. Um, we we got that finally today. Amazon came through the last ones, but um so on each of those trees there are bananas for every 20 minutes every student read. and you can you can see the wall right now. We still
have two weeks left. So, um again, those are culture initiatives to get students interested and engaged in school. Um and then we also as always uh our K5 incredible focus on individual needs, the teachers have the efficacy to take
the curriculum and if their students specifically need um work on compassion, we use Panorama. There's activities they can go in and they're going to say, "Oh, Katie, I'm not going to do that. my class really needs this right now and it's still under the guise of that
curriculum. Also under this e uh annually increase the percentage of students report they feel like they belong. 81% of our students report they feel like they belong at school um as of winter which is um also really high. Um our winter uh
so one of the things we did in our data dig is to look at any students in those two strategic plan dynamic plan questions who did not score who scored in the reds. So they were at not at all or only a little. Um, and so who are those children? Then we individually
talked about them in our check-ins with me and then what we're doing to support them. One of the things we found, um, that while the percentage of students in that red was small, uh, we were able to identify that the majority of them were students new to the school this year.
>> Um, so that's when you're joining, you know, a new elementary school in third, fourth, or fifth grade. And many of the ones that actually started after the start of the school year. So that gave us some really good data for our mental health specialists, Miss Janelle, Mr. Holly, our elementary leazison who works specifically with our boys, our black
males. Um, and how do we now work with school improvement team to have stronger initiatives around students who come in midyear? Um, because that's a significant portion of of who was not yet feeling that they totally okay. Aligned instructional vision. Uh
so the this one is tough because we don't take MSTEP you know for another three weeks. Um so these these were we talked about both the state proficiencies and we can see in ELA we're pretty aligned to the state proficient state proficiency of our
black students. Um but that we you know we wanted needed to be higher. Um so our data dict for Aadians included analysis of race and ethnicity. So, we're not just looking at the data. We're like sorting them by race and ethnicity and gender as well. Who's who's progressing,
who is not. Um, in fifth grade, we actually saw that the uh movement of placement uh and this one was at I Ready specifically was actually the smallest. So, 42% of white students moved placement, 41% of black students move placement. So, that was nice to see. Fifth grade, we actually tend to have
our biggest gaps. we still have that in terms of proficiency, but this was nice to see that in terms of growth that there was alignment there. Um, so looking at fifth grade and and what are they doing to support that? Um, and then, you know, I tried to give you guys a little bit of data based on I Ready.
We've only been using it for two years. It gives you like potential projections of student proficiency. So, if those were accurate, I can't say that with any I can't say that it's going to work, but
we would see a small increase um if they met typical growth and a big increase from last year if we met stretch growth, which we talked about. Okay. And then math. Um again, same same explanation here. Uh different than the
other one. In third grade, we actually saw uh the big the smallest decrease in the gap and that was in terms of proficiency um with about an eight I think 8% gap. I get this board went out so I can't see. Yeah, 8% uh versus 17%
and oh no sorry just >> okay. Okay. Um and then we would actually see a bigger increase in math if the I Ready projections are accurate. Um, again, it's difficult because when you look at MSTEP scores, Mr. Maize and I talk about this a lot. When you look
at MSTEP scores, students have to be with you two count periods, so fall and spring in order to be in your percentage, right? Um, and some of those students maybe join us in October. We have about five months of instruction with them. So, as a school, like we've
had a lot of moveins this year, um, as you saw in the in the previous the the um panorama data. So, it really is looking at like how do we um I think school improvement work over the summer like how do we really dig down into who's growing, how long have they been with us in the district. Um what we see
in math is that it doesn't really matter the percentages are too low. And so that's why we're really focusing those PL initiatives around that another. Okay. Um and then this is that same ready. Um so our current status for
winter uh you can see that in reading we uh exceeded all um the 50% mark. In math we were a bit lower. Um and I and even this seems a little off because I think our reading overall percentage was actually 73%
for the building. Math was 43%. So again you see that gap between our ELA our ELA proficiency and growth in our in our math. Um, we did see our reading growth was outpacing outpacing national norms. Um, I'll show you something at the end was a celebration. Specifically, third
and fourth graders are outpacing national growth in every category. Math growth on right on ready was just below the 50%. Um, but students, this is where I I actually saw a celebration. We looked at the students the students who were two and three grade below grade
level in the fall. So those who were two or three more when they started with us in you know September when we took this they actually improved over expected growth which was which was nice to see. So they were trying to move the math data actually looks like more students
are moving out of a placement level up which is what you have to do. That's what stretch growth is supposed to is designed to do. All right. Cultivating collective pride. Um, so Panorama was really weird for me today. I actually couldn't dig down into
or the the whole weekend. Um, I actually did have 14 more responses than last spring. I only had 10. So, um, so we had 24, but unfortunately I couldn't there was no breakdown of ethnicity or representation, so I could not see that. I'm not sure why because we could see it
last winter. Um, so we continue to work on our family outreach though. Points of pride um were our outdoor education camp program and really how hard we work to get um as many parent volunteers involved but as many kids to camp as possible. Our attendance outreach uh
with CIS with Miss P, our K5 literacy night and indie bookfare. Um parentled programs. We had a mini musical afterchool program led by a parent. So really opening our doors more to our parent volunteers. Um I know PTA is working on grade level specific outreach
now as well to get more um family connectedness to the school particularly around our academics. We have great skate night attendance. We do have great parent teacher conference attendance but some of our other events are not as well attended and so really focusing how do we get more when we have these academic
events. Um and then we also have community programming. We've had a really great relationship with friends of Royal Oak Township for several years. um Bridget Hall and and Charles Jackson. I'm providing a third grade nutrition program um every year. Uh and then also
Renew Junior through our Southeast Oakland Coalition. Um and and I will say I don't know that I put this on here, but oh yeah, we were above in the PA the 24 responses um which is about 5% supposedly if you can get over 10% on a parent survey,
you're like outpacing national norms for family surveys. Uh we're at 5% right now, but um we were above national averages in all four categories for those 24 families. All right. And then our staff climate
and engagement surveys. Um so we as Miss Ke said, we didn't really realize when we first looked at it, it says staff and then if you scroll down, you see teachers. So you should have about 20 support staff and paras. And then you have your teaching staff about 20 to 25
for each of us. So um we did have I think I had over 45 respondents. So this is pretty close to 80 90% of staff. Um so we're above national percentiles again 80th to 90th 99th percentile in every category on the staff and teacher surveys which goes back to that relevant
national PD at the beginning. Uh with best strengths being school leadership, school climate and staff leadership relationships. I think this is because of a cohesive approach to staff culture. um giving them more ownership of PD and leading each other. Uh monthly staff
check-ins and data conversations. Um so I do those October through May. So that's an accountability measure, but it's also a connection opportunity every time with staff. And then we have a really robust sunshine committee. So we have culture activities, underground staff spirit week, um crocs of love
throughout the winter, birthday celebrations, things like that. So I think that helps to cohesively make our schools the place that uh teachers want to work. >> We have great retention rate as well. >> Crockpot. Crockpot. Right. >> Yeah. They all sign up for crocs of
love. Those are crockpot dishes that staff sign up for. And you can't eat if you don't provide. >> All right. And then the last page. Um, so these are just some final celebration. I'll look just at the pictures really quick, but you can see our Black History Month door
celebrations. Um, there's one of those. Down at the bottom is the new science uh that Mrs. Keefe mentioned. These are really in-depth. We're only expected to get through a couple units this year because it's the p, you know, a pilot here, but beginning year of the science. These are really hands-on, engaging
science activities. Reminds me of the 80s in Ferndale Public School. Uh, earthworms in this very building, right, Miss Dookie? I recall. Uh, and then we've got uh, Morning Circle. This was a fourth grade classroom. I got to see Morning Circle. Um, just that seal and
that connection. Um, and then the two data points I just wanted to point out. I I threw a lot at you, but I think these visuals are better. Um, the one on the right is like uh, this is the four quadrants. We want to be in those dots represent different grade levels. You can see for reading it looks different
in math although it looks better than last year's math. Still we are moving towards the top right quadrant which is high performance high growth. That's where we want all our grade levels to be. That's how we close gaps. Um and then on the left this came from our I Ready consultant that works with us. So
you can see and I want to note that fifth grade you can see is the only um grade that is currently below national domain performance in the winter. I want to also note that they were kindergarteners in 2021. This is also the point you can see where
we got letters training for the um the the statewide letters training. The majority of lower teachers are trained. Most of my third grade team are trained. We got a literacy coach. Um we really changed instructional practice and now
you can see the difference. So fourth grade is the middle column. They outscored national expectations in every area, but I think phonics doesn't count in fourth grade, so that it has a percentage, but it doesn't have a a national norm. So the dark blue is above 5% more above and then the light blue is
0 to five. And then in third grade, again, every single category outscoring um so that is a testament to the work of the K K5 programming um and to intentional changes that lead to data
changes. Jeffrey questions. >> I've got one question. Um the technology and education think through PD that you said was like in response to parents concerns about you know tech time. Um was it communicated
to families that you all did that work? >> You know I worked with that I told the work group about it. So there is a group of there is a small group of parents that are working with the CN TNL department um and with Kelsey Perkins but I want to say the board made you
know it's been brought up for a couple of years the board presentations I just used their stuff as one of the five so they were like jigsawed with five different like tech article here uh you know teched big teched parent commentary
so it was like five different pieces and then they jigsaw saw and the teachers walked around and learned about the different things because they we don't have time to read all of them. Um, so it really was a response though more so the board was like an ele the board presentation was an element of it but
the the district last year put out tech guidelines for K5 education, right? And that the for um at the upper it's 45 minutes or less a day. Some of that is our EXL pathways, right? So you have some there's non-negotiables. We're going to have to go over that sometimes,
especially at our level when we're also composing now. Um but it was really a response to like uh in January I had asked them so November really the board presentation and what this work group has been making me think about Miss Keefe and then in January I gave them a
challenge to like track your tech for track all the tech you're using for a week and then they had to bring that to our check-in and we had to talk about it and they're like oh I'm I'm pretty intentional or oh wait maybe I didn't need to use it. So, it was a good thing. And then the February the learning I
think reinforced their um you know what they saw when they were tracking their own if that makes sense. >> Yeah. Thank you. >> And then I shared those with Miss Keefe. Um and so those are and and she has actually Peter Slair is a teacher I think who's really strong in this area.
So he's going to be leading some things. So it's really about much like back to the literacy conversation. You can change practice when you inform and provide research and you learn differently because in COVID we really
were like technology shoved down, right? Like we had to do it. We didn't have a lot of other options. So how do you wean everybody back to best practices while still leveraging technology because we know it is our students, you know, we have to prepare them that this is part
of their all of their jobs too. So it's that careful balance. Thank you. >> No, it's fantastic both seeing the numbers. Also, just applaud both of you and these presentations are so much better than they were last year. Uh just
having the data and have them all be the same. Uh it's much easier to follow. >> Thank you all. >> Thank you. >> All right. Item four, public comment. Anyone here for public comments? Seeing
none, public comment is closed. Item five, consent agenda. We have four items on the consent agenda tonight. Item one, request to approve minutes of the special meeting of the whole Monday, February 2nd, 2026. Item two, request to approve minutes of
the regular meeting, Monday, February 23rd, 2026. Item three, request to approve new hires, retirements, and resignations. Item four, request to approve bills and accounts February. Would you discuss a
motion to approve the consent agenda? >> Hearded by Jessica. A second. >> Second. >> Seconded by Jackie Sher. Can we get roll call? >> Ryan, >> yes. >> Yes. >> Yes. >> Kaiser, >> yes. >> Yes. >> Yes. Yes, President Dear.
>> Yes. Now on topic six action items. Item 6.1 request to approve the contract addendum recommendation for plant man real point PMR 2020 and 2525. >> Thank you. Superintendent Right.
>> Uh good evening um board. Tonight, the school district seeks approval from the board to amend the contract between public schools representation services under the 2025 bond program to include series three of
the 2020 bond program. The amount of this partnership is 1% of the 2020 series 3 and 2025 bond program. um which equates to a value overall uh the current value of
the contract is 100 uh 14.8 million. Um 1% of that we're looking to add $300,000 to the existing contract based on $30 million um projected for series $3 of the 2020 bond.
You any questions? I just wanted to include the other numbers if you don't mind. Okay. Um, previously the board authorized 1,148,000 proposed contract increases of $300,000 $300,000 uh dollars that I mentioned
previously, bringing the total amended contract value to 1.41,448 million. 1,448,000. >> I'm so often any questions. >> Motion to contract. >> Second move by Trusty Duki, seconded by
Trusty Commer. Any discussion? Shepher roll call. >> Yes. >> Yes. >> Yes. >> Yes. Turner. >> Yes. >> Yes. >> President. >> Yes. >> Okay. Item 6.2. Request to approve the
integrated design systems contractable recommendation. So this item pertains to integrated designs uh solutions which is currently um the district's technology provider uh and designer for the bond program under
the uh 2020 bond. We're hoping to include um such services under the 2025 bond program. We like to continue working with this vendor. Um the contract amount is not to exceed $698,15 representing $6,19
hours um of services um that would be uh that would be um towards the 2025 bond technology series design work. Um so this firm has helped us with uh our current work that's in play right now
with the technology that will be infused in the auditorium. um uh auditorium uh redesign as well as in the new dressing rooms and scene shop. And then um under this new proposal, they will help with using
technology in the classrooms um that will be redesigned of the 2025. >> Thank you. Any questions? by Trusty Hart. Second by moved by Trusty Kaiser. Seconded by Trusty Hart.
Uh, any discussion. Roll >> call. Miss Shepard. >> Yes. >> Kaiser. >> Yes. Turner. >> Yes. >> Yes. >> Yes. All right. All right. Item 6.3, request to approve Ferndale Middle School
project lead the way gateway building for the future. Mr. May is leading the service. >> Good evening every night. >> So, as we discussed a couple weeks ago, here asking you to consider approving
another project. We do a class for Ferndale Middle School. This one's focused on skilled traits. Sorry, I believe I've made your corrections. I corrected the link and uh included a reference to Ferndale Middle
School for the course. >> Any questions for Mr. Mace? Entertain a motion to approve the Ferndale Middle School project lead the way gateway building for the future. I'll move >> second >> by Vice President Turner, seconded by
Trusty Newman. Any discussion? >> I'm really excited for this. Uh, you know, as a parent, I've loved the one class that my daughter has at Project Lead the Way. So, uh, it's been, you know, getting her think a little differently and bring different disciplines to this. Be really, really interesting to see how how this goes.
>> Yeah, we're excited for it. Thank you. >> Uh, Shepard, roll call. >> Yes. >> Newman, yes. Turner, >> yes. Yes. >> Yes. >> Yes. >> All right. Thank you, Mr. Everybody. >> Thank you.
>> Uh, final action item 6.1, request to approve thr policy updates March 2026. Mr. Shelton. >> Good evening everybody. >> Good evening. uh pleased to present uh uh few policies from TRUN that uh are uh
recommended to keep our board policies current. Uh really three broad categories. The there's one policy here for title N sexual harassment that provides an updated definition of the term sexual assault. Uh we also have
updated uh forms and uh checklists for Michigan sick time act. uh as well as instructional materials and opportunities for parents to opt out of certain if they object to instructional materials. These have been shared with
the uh leadership team. Uh principles have seen this and uh uh pleased to present these to you for consideration this evening. So thank you Michelle. Any questions? Seeing none, can I entertain a motion to approve the through policy updates March
2026? >> Move. >> Second. >> Moved by Vice President Turner. Seconded by test trustee Cromine. Any discussion? >> Shepard. Roll call. >> Yes. Turn. >> Yes.
>> Yes. Thank you. Item seven, board updates. Anyone from board have anything they would like to update us and the public on? Uh I will just note uh Wednesday night at University High School uh we celebrate black excellence from 5:00 pm
to 7 p.m. Um and closing weekend of Wizard of Oz. So definitely uh people have been saying very very good. So if you get a chance please please um okay item eightformational items.1
budget to actual. Good evening. >> This is the U budget to actual for February and not much report. It's everything's going
on normal. Um the revenue, the um federal revenue, we still haven't received all of the revenue yet. There's a little late on that one. And the um instructional We're spend a little more. We put um
some grants, some software in that function. And for transportation, we still haven't received in spring. Any questions? Thank you. >> All right. Item nine, consideration of any pool consent agenda items. We do not
have any. Item 10. Uh, the next committee of the whole meeting will be Monday, April 6, 2026 at 6 PM. I'll be coming fresh off spring break. I'm sure everybody be fired up Monday night. Get right back at it. Uh, item 11. Uh, next regular board meeting will be Monday,
April 20th, 2026 at 700 p.m. And now I would like to do our Eagle points of pride and comments. Who would like to go first? Oh, Jackie. Trusty. meet with the lower elementary students
on Friday. Um, it been a while since I've been with the littles and it was just nice to be in the room with all of that energy and um, hearing their honest and just, you know, truthful feedback and cander
and just knowing that, you know, the decisions that we make at the table here and the outcome of what we see when we meet with the little ones really um, reinforces was why at least for me I made the decision to be a board member.
So it was it was nice to to hear directly from the students. >> Yes. Just >> for me it was soup with the soup. Everything about it way it was run food people. I mean it just everything, you know, and I made,
you know, I made sure that the people knew at the township that the next one's on the ETH. And I got to say too, and I shouldn't be cheating with two, but you know, every time I look at the our website, ferndale.org, it looks better and better. So I don't know what it's just it's more,
>> you know, everything's there. >> Yeah. >> Everything the news, the the the things that you would want, the things that I bring up at the township all are there. It's just every time I look at it looks better. >> Kind of cheated, too. Sorry.
>> Um I'll go next. I um I want to say how refreshing it is um with our first strategic pillar um relevant responsive staff development. It's so refreshing to see our leaders uh incorporating PD that
is so responsive to what staff are asking for and and all staff, right? It's such an important point that um staff don't often get a chance to come together or they don't all like um pair of professionals especially like don't always do I hear it across all of Wayne
County, right? Like we're not getting the training that we need. And so I just love how intentional our leaders are being about giving >> staff the training they're asking for and it's also responsive to parents which is almost unheard of. And so I just really appreciate that we're living
into this pillar of being responsive to our staff and our families as well. >> I'll go. >> So as we all know, um my comment of pride, but uh March is reading month um
which is very special to me because I make sure that I read every year to the children. Um, but kind of a comment out to our full community, just a reminder that reading is very important for our children. Um, and if you have the time to make sure that you are reading with your littles when they are outside of
school as well, not just during March, but all year long. Um, it really goes a long way. And especially from our meet, I heard about how many of our children do not like reading. So, >> just want to call out the importance of reading during reading month. To be
fair, they also wanted to bring Nintendo Switches to two schools, so like it was a pretty free forming. You're allowing um I journey of my neighbor who's a champion. So we have such a breadth and depth of
amazing um athleticism um in educational achievement and it was pretty cool that I mean almost one so I'm gonna do this because I always do
this at breaks are coming up one more week um it's also spring so to the staff and to the administration just hold tight only like Seven, eight more days before you get a break. And to the kids, you got eight days. Like, hold tight.
And when that break comes, I hope everyone takes a break >> for real. >> Deputy Superintendent Ray. >> Yes. So, I I have to go back to February and I um I don't think I shared this
before. Um, one of the classrooms at FBCC while I was there said, "You must come in and hear students. You must." And I did. I was really surprised. And so there was a call and answer to the students. They were shown a picture and they were asked, "Who is this?" They
knew Maya Angelou um, they like Langston use, they knew Baldwin. I couldn't believe it. And then they said something like, "And that's me. I'm a writer like them. I see the writer in me." It was just it was fabulous. I I was so glad that I got a chance to see it and um
that's my point of pride. I love spending time with the little >> All right. Um, my point of pride is to the collective group of Clark Construction, Ferndale Schools operations,
banning Howie, um, and the community, uh, the school communities of Ferndale Middle School, Ferndale High School with the closure of the bus loop. And I know that any adjustments to
parking or anything um midyear adjustments is difficult, right? I'm sure that families have had to pack their patients and um they've also had to possibly leave a little bit earlier
than usual for pickup and drop off. Um but overall um it seems to have gotten smoother by the day. Um, one of the comments, I won't say from who, but from one of the administrators was, "This would be great to keep it like this."
I'm just saying. Um, so, um, I just want to show appreciation. We know that that is difficult, uh, pickup and drop off just in in general is very difficult. So, just appreciation to all of the the families that have had to adjust a bit
um while we make our buildings as as great as possible. So, um just thank you to the community for patience and thank you to the um architect, construction and operations team for making sure that um it went off without a hitch. We had
the biggest sign in the world for quite some time leading up to it as well as many um communications. So, I hope that it is as smooth as what it seems to be. So, but just thank you for everything that went into that. Let's get it. >> Um mine is uh March is addition to
National Reading Month, National Women's Month. Uh and just the amazing leadership that we have uh here from four amazing women that we are able to have the privilege of serving with to our two amazing women that sit up here
every week to our principles to our teachers to staff. We really have just so many great female role models for our our students to to look up to and to want behavior of. So really really lucky as a school district to have you all as part of it as well as all of our female
leaders in the school district. Um, and with that, we are adjourned at 8:04