I said it's mute. I hear you >> going man. Good. Oh my god. Good afternoon everybody. I would like to call the Flint Board of Education regular board meeting to order at 6:30 p.m. Board members, I call your
name, participate. Present for the records. Trustee King, >> present. >> Treasure Luna, >> present. >> Trustee Ripple, >> present. >> Vice President McIntyre, >> present. >> Assistant Secretary Boos, >> Secretary Perkins, myself, President
Mike Neil, six present, one absent. Reporting in progress. >> I now call on Trustee King to read the district mission statement.
>> Sorry, put your page three. All right. It is the mission of the Flint School District to develop a community of learners who are prepared to live, work, and contribute in an everchanging society. proceed. Yeah. All the way to one. Oh,
sorry. In order to provide outstanding leadership and better serve the Flint Community Schools, we, the members of the Flint Board of Education, commit to the following standards of practice. We will be consistent in our dealings with each other as well as students, staff, and community.
Number two, sir, we will model trustworthy >> We will model trustworthiness and honesty in our relationships with each other, with our superintendent, and with our constituents. >> We'll focus on a common goal of providing the best education possible
for the students of the Flint Community Schools. We will respect the diverse view that each of us bring to the organization as well as the views of other that we interact with as we carried out the business board of education. >> We will be open and authentic with each
other, our staff and our community. As we work to make decisions, we will focus on issues and not personality. >> Our decisions will be student centered and based on objective facts. Last one. We will practice good
listening skills to better understand our fellow board of education members and constituents. Board member, in your package on page seven, um is the uh minutes from November the 12th and November the 19th. Please review those to see you have any correction to make.
>> Madam Chair, >> yes. >> I make a motion we approve the minutes from the 12th, 19th, and the special meeting on the 19th of November. >> Support. It has been properly moved and second. Are there any correction?
Seeing none, the motion to approve the minutes from November the 12th, 2025 board committee of the whole meeting and the November the 19th, 2025 special board meeting and regular board meeting will be conducted by roll call vote.
Secretary Perkins, Trustee Booth, >> yes. >> Vice President McIntyre, >> yes. >> Trustee Ruleford, >> yes. Trustee King. >> Yes. >> Treasure Luna. >> Yes. >> Myself, President Mike Mills. Six. Yes. One absent.
At this time, we will hear comments from the public. The blowup will not hear your comments. We ask that you state the reason for addressing the board and that you limit your remarks to three minutes on matter within the authority of the board and not address the individual by name. The presiding office of the board
should have the right to limit the number of person who may address the board on the same subject. Please state your name before beginning to speak. You might speak from over there. You can just get up and stand and speak. You have three minutes. Anybody from the public would like to speak.
>> Thank you very much. >> Good evening. My name is Andrea Coniglio. I'm a teacher at Southwestern and a longtime resident of the city of Flint. Recent discussions around virtual learning and building closure have been framed primarily as responses to the
lack of heat in Southwestern. While the heating issue is real and must be addressed, it cannot be separated from a broader concern. How disruptions are managed in a building where supervision, enforcement, and communication are already strained. On Thursday, December
11, an early dismissal exposed these gaps. When routines broke down, students were consolidated without a clearly communicated supervision plan. The result was multiple fights, threats to staff, uh, law enforcement responses, a
medical situation, numerous suspensions for fighting and inciting, and two students arrested, leaving in handcuffs. This outcome was not unpredictable. It reflected what happens when structure and oversight fail under pressure. Since
that day, staff have repeatedly asked for a formal debrief, not to assign blame, but to understand what failed and to help prevent repetition. Two subsequent meetings focused on the lack of heat lasted more than three hours combined. Yet, requests for a debrief
were again deferred. Staff were told it would happen eventually and we now appear to be entering winter break without it. That's deeply concerning. A debrief is a basic expectation after a serious safety incident. Without it, staff are left without clarity, without
closure, and without confidence that meaningful changes are being made. Staff have also asked for clear information about building temperatures, reopening thresholds, entry procedures, enforcement of existing policies, and the presence of police liaison during
school hours. These questions are practical and forward-looking. They reflect a need for predictability and preparation, not resistance. Families have expressed confusion about why students are not attending classes while extracurricular events like basketball games continue in the
building. without a transparent explanation. This inconsistency has led to public criticism. I've also been made aware that at least one family has already attempted to initiate student withdrawals due to concerns about safety and stability. Additionally, today there
was a lockdown due to a homicide suspect in the area. During that incident, staff were not notified through our established group me app. As a result, there were staff members working directly outside the building as well as staff entering the building who had no
knowledge of that situation. This further emphasizes the urgency of reliable, consistently used emergency communication protocols. At the time I'm writing this, I am not aware of any communication from administration to staff regarding this incident. Flint
staff and students deserve better. Students deserve in-person instruction in secure, supervised environments. Staff deserve clear leadership, consistent enforcement, timely communication, and a meaningful debrief after a serious incident. I urge the board to require concrete action, clear
timelines, and accountability. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Anyone else would like to speak? Good evening board members. Uh my name is Joel Arnold. I'm a Flint resident. I live about halfway between Doyle Ryder and DTM. And I've been really thrilled to see the work that this board and
administration have done to improve our district's facilities. Truly, we haven't seen uh this kind of reinvestment in our community schools in decades. And I know it's in no small part due to the work of this board and this administration in making that happen. Um but as you probably expect, I'm I'm here tonight to comment on the recent decision regarding
the building of the new high school at Flint Central. First, I want to note that the comments of myself and I know others here tonight are not meant to be Monday morning quarterbacking or or meant only to ask and not offer help. I think all of us here tonight from planners, architects to alumni, parents of FCS students are ready and excited to
support this district and a new high school at Flint Central. But I wanted to share some concerns with the design chosen by the district in this effort. Um, I know myself personally and many of us here made public comments at board meetings in 2022 and 2023 and
historic preservation and a world-class educational facility on this site is um and I think scenario one as presented at the most recent board meeting really speaks to this effort. Uh it includes significant new construction really 75% of the building while preserving a substantial portion of our historic
Clint Central. Um yet for whatever reason it was not selected uh despite the fact that when you take out the cube which I know was removed in the final choice um they cost about the same scenario 4 million versus 136 million. Um given that scenario one I think more deeply reflects the community's desire to see
these buildings preserved and are roughly the same price. I think there's some confusion as to why it was not selected. Um for board members wondering why this comment now you know I think there's two things to note. Um, first, for whatever reason, and and this is just, I think, a housekeeping thing, there haven't been any agendas um, uploaded to the district's board and
meeting section since April of this year. Um, so I think a lot of us just didn't know it was an agenda item. Um, and there also isn't a video recording of the most recent special meeting. Um, so I raised these just as points of information for the board if if folks are curious why public comment tonight. Um, but lastly, I want to be really
clear that this argument it's not about sentimentality for the past or, you know, uh, caring about a bunch of bricks. Um, one recent study noted that uh throughout the United States, uh, property values in historic districts and near historic properties rise more consistently than in areas that are not. Uh, and in addition, historic districts
and properties maintain their values during times of real estate devaluation such as, uh, the 2008 recession and recover more rapidly. And so, I know for an institution that relies on property tax revenue to support our scholars, making decisions that stabilizes home values in Flint results in more funding
for student programs and the success of our kids. Um, so historic preservation and world-class educational facilities are not mutually exclusive. Doyle Ryder uh shows this, right? A school that's even older than Central that this board and this administration uh recently renovated uh provides a world-class education. Um, and I personally implore
this board uh to proceed with scenario one and help preserve our city's uh history, stabilize property tax revenue coming into the district, and I think really reflect uh the preferences uh stated by a lot of members of our community. And again, thank you so much for all that you do. I appreciate this board so much. Um, I truly think this is
the most important institution in our city and I appreciate the care you put into it. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Anyone else from the phone would like to speak? >> Hi. Uh, my name is Kurt Nicewinder. I'm an architect and a resident of the city of Flint. I live right over on East Fork
right by Central High School. So, I have a few comments about uh the process with Central High School. So, good evening to the board and president or uh superintendent, excuse me. Um and so I'm an architect, but I'm also an educator.
I I'm an assistant professor of practice at Lawrence Technological University. uh and so I I thank you for your time, energy, and care putting uh in putting into the process of uh looking at Central High School. So, first and
foremost, I want to appreciate your commitment to the ed education of Flint students. Um, the vision that you're you're discussing with the the renovation of the building. Uh, and then, um, the,
you know, listening to the the public about the process, right, and including us in the process. Uh, you know, we care deeply about the students learning and also the spaces that they learn in. and I respect your the responsibility that you carry in trying to shape these
environments. I wanted to thank the board and staff for engaging the community. Um many of us spoke a couple months ago about the you know part of the process and so we feel heard uh that that the project is developing uh and
that that definitely builds trust within the community uh and we hope that that continues. Um so speaking as as an architect and educator educator I want to focus on uh the the design uh I don't want to focus
on any opinions about subjectivity like design or I want to focus a little bit more on the process uh with the information given right so we've what we've seen as a public uh is is predominantly some exterior renderings
along Crapo Street um you know that we can see various ious options for the the look of the building along with some high level uh cost information about each each of the the proposed schemes. Um for a project of this scale um
educationally, financially and civically uh that that information alone is not quite enough for the public to make uh an informed decision and and and understand enough about the project. So from a professional standpoint, the material presented uh to me would be
consistent what we call schematic design in an architectural design process. Uh and so that leaves me optimistic. uh you know schematic design is a moment where a lot of ideas are still tested, options are compared. Uh refinements and
revisions to the design can still still be made without interrupting you know the the the schedule or budget uh in in um any project. And so right now is the right time to continue exploring
alternatives. Um you know so with again not trying to get about opinionated about any of the design um so to well thank you. >> Thank you. >> Is there anyone else from the public?
>> Good evening everyone. My name is Ezekiel Harris. Uh I am a proud parent of two students uh eventually three uh in the Flint School District. And I'm here because I I believe deeply in the future uh and of this community. For me, it has never been a question of if
Central will be renovated, but when our kids deserve a school that reflects both opportunity and pride. I moved back home five years ago because I believe in Flint and preserving Central is part of investing in the community our children uh are to grow up in. This is our only
real chance to preserve a a historic building that defines Flint's identity. Once it's gone, we cannot get it back. So many districts build new schools that all look the same. Oh, a very dramatic pause. Let's see.
Um, Central gives Flint something unique, something that no other district can replicate. Scenario one doesn't just renovate a school. It differentiates Flint. It sets us apart in a way that no new generic building ever could. Choosing scenario one sends a clear message to our
students. Your history matters. Your city matters. And you are worth this investment. Thank you. >> Thank you. Anyone else feel free? Thank you. >> Hello. I'm Phyllis Sykes and I'm a proud alumni of Central High School as well as
a neighbor. I live across the street. So, needless to say, I have a deeply vested interest in what is happening with Central. But everyone else has spoken about um advocating that we have the historical perspective. I'd like to
question the process. I attended a Central Park neighborhood association where several of you were in attendance and my along with other neighbors were under the impression that the process would include much more engagement from
the community. The understanding was that you would get input from all three presiding neighborhoods. you would go back to your table, do the numbers, take into consideration what was suggested, and you would present us with another
final draft. And I was stunned to learn that that didn't happen. So again, I questioned the process. You were committed to getting input from the neighborhood associations, and you did. there were many questions that were asked at those meetings and you were to
you told us that you would get back with us. So to learn that none of that happened and that in fact a decision has been made is very very troubling. So I want to bring that to your attention. And I don't know if you know that board members, but we were led to believe that
this would be much more of a collaborative effort amongst yourselves and the neighbors than what has been demonstrated. >> Thank you. >> Thank you very much. Anyone else from the public would like to speak?
>> Um, hi everyone. My name is Sam Farah. Um, I am an alumni of Flint Central High School, a Flint resident. Um, and so I just want to first by start by stating thank you so much for your time, your care, and your leadership. Um, you have invested bringing this vision of a new
Flint Central High School to where it is today. Um, thank you, Superintendent Jones, and the board for shephering a really complex um, high stakes process with tenacity, creativity, and persistence. This is really a once in a-lifetime opportunity for those of you serving now, for our Flint students, and
for our broader community. So, thank you so much for all of your efforts. Um, I'm, as I mentioned, I'm an alumni of of Flint Central High School, second to last graduating class. And this is not, and you've heard me speak before, so this isn't all new, but um, it's not just a building to me. Um, it's a place that shaped who I am. It represents
generations of excellence, resilience, and possibility in this city. And so I want to specifically comment on the recent vote to move forward the second of I think what was shared four potential proposals um to to the community. Um and I recognize the vision
and urgency behind that decision. But at the same time I would love to respectfully urge you to pause at this moment and to give renewed consideration to proposal one specifically the version that preserves more of the historic structure. Um historic preservation is not at odds with innovation or student
learning. In fact, it can strengthen both. We are incredibly close to a design that truly bridges blend past and future and one that honors our educational legacy while preparing students for what's next. To do this in a way that remains cost-effective and in line with the approved design, I wanted
to talk a little bit about the um a compromise. So suggesting that so in proposal one, it's the historic preservation and then the addition of the cube. the second proposal which voted forward um did not have the cube in it. Um and so to kind of make the
numbers work I guess in in the literature that I've seen at least um kind of suggesting that moving forward with proposal one sons the cube um so one of the and I wanted to talk about that specifically because one of the greatest assets of this campus is its location its proximity to the Flint
Cultural Center and the Flint Public Library and I recognize that's not incidental it's transformational. I emphasize the cube again because it becomes redundant when we already sit beside a world-class community amenities like the library. So rather than duplicate that space, we have an opportunity to design an educational
model that's immersive, collaborative, and deeply connected to the city. When I attended Central, we used the library as our public library. Um we walked there, I learned how to navigate that institution, access broader resources, and take responsibility for my own learning. Um, so this project already
reflects that tremendous vision. And I ask that we don't undervalue the power of what already exists, but by preserving more of the historic structure, we can send a message that Flint values its history, its architecture, and its students equally, and that progress does not require eraser. So, you're so deeply close.
We're so deeply close to a plan that combines the future, and the past. And I just urge you to take that final step. But thank you so much for your service and your leadership to this point. Thank you. Any more speakers? >> Good evening. I'm Kate Surface. Uh I
live at 410 Mason Street. Um and I'm here to also speak uh about the um issue regarding um the changes at Flint Central. Um, like everyone else, want to thank you for the work that has been put into this. I'm happy to see that that some options have been considered, but
like um I want to echo what was already expressed that I'm disappointed in the um the speed and in some ways kind of the lack of um of deep extended engagement that I was expecting to um come with a a decision this large. Um especially because I've been I think
associated with uh positive conversations around what's possible with our school districts and our facilities for a long time. uh and um so was disappointed to um to not be able to be as present for some of those things just simply because um we didn't know when those conversations were occurring. But I mostly want to say that I I know
I'm kind of waffling between a couple of the things to focus on here. But I want to make sure that we are not limiting ourselves out of some type of specific sense of urgency that might not be as real as we think it is or some feeling that it's impossible to do the thing
that uh maybe we really want to do. So, I haven't heard anybody say that they if they could keep some or most or all of both central and and Whittier that they would. What I've heard them say is that it's impractical or that it's just too far gone or that it's a danger to
society or something like that. And I totally understand sort of where some of these sort of day-to-day concerns are, but we have examples in our own city and certainly that we can look to in our peer cities across the country where buildings in worse shape have been put together for worse reasons um uh to serve people who are way less cool than
the students and the staff that you guys take care of in your district. And I also know that I feel like this especially the the the wittier thing. I know I'm I'm kind of going off form here uh based on what has been decided, but the removal of something so lovely and
so important and so specific unfortunately kind of places this in the timeline and a tradition in Flint of of removing things when they got difficult and then kind of regretting it later. So this the the even the the new designs
for this building, I don't I don't think they're bad designs. In fact, I they looked nicer than the high school I went to certainly, but it's not about that. It's that any any school in the county, any school in the world can build a school like what is sort of being proposed, but nobody can build Central.
You have to get all the way to Detroit to get something that's even comparable to it. And so what a lesson to send to what a message to send to your kids right now or to to the kids in the future that when it got really difficult that you hired architects and you hired
historians and you hired engineers and all of these folks to artists, right, to like turn this into invest in this thing that was going to be harder than the other option. I think that would be beautiful. And lastly, I just want to note that this isn't the first time that you've that this body, I should say, has voted to demolish Central High School.
100 years ago, you voted to demolish Central the original Central High School to build this one and decided it would be a parking lot. It is still a parking lot and everything around it is empty. It's not an asset to the community. And I feel like it that decision was made
out of a immediate need >> and I feel like you can do better this time. >> Thank you. Any more speakers? Good evening everyone. H my name is Paul and tonight I came as a Latino who
arrived in Flynn just one year ago. I have come to understand that this city is not simply a place to live but a place deeply wrote in history identity and collective memory.
Free historic building are more than structures. They are living witnesses that to the generation who work tirelessly and built this community long before I arrived. preserving them is an act of respect,
an acknowledgment of the sacrifice and resilence that shape the friend we know today. I am also a parent in this district and I firmly believe that education must
always come first and what the very best opportunities for for children's but I have seemed and I believe deeply that excellent education and historic preservation do not have to be opposite
choice. We should not be forced to choose between our children's future or or our community memories. History buildings and high quality education can and should go hand in hand.
Flint can grow. Flynn can invest in education and Flynn can do so without sacrificing it soul. Protecting your historic spaces means honoring the past while inspiring future generations.
that benefits not only those who were born here but also those those of us who have chosen Flynn as our home. Thank you. >> Thank you. Anyone else?
>> Good evening. My name is Racine Jackson. name. >> I race. >> Okay. >> R A C I N E Jackson. I am a graduate of Central
some time ago. And I was also at a meeting where some of the individuals came and showed us the design, but I think it was the first design because it didn't have the tower.
I'm going to say to you what I said to them. There is not a brick out of place in Flint Central. Not a brick. It is solid and it has been solid for many, many, many, many, many
years. That means something. I know that you've already decided what you plan to do, but I truly believe if you destroy this building, we will regret it.
Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Good evening, Superintendent Jones and Flint Board of Education. Uh members, my name is Chad. I'm a community member and parent of three students at DTM and I'm also here to comment on the plans for the new high school. We've been a part
of the FCS community since 2019, and it's been encouraging to see progress and growth at all levels. We've seen schools renovated, the board of education begin to really work together, a long-term and capable superintendent in place, teacher contracts strengthened. Um, I know most of you all
personally and I'm grateful for your leadership and service um to the families in Flint. I'm thrilled that a new high school is being imagined and I look forward to my children attending there. Um, this is going to be a culture changing development for Flint families and our community as a whole. It will
draw positive attention to our community. It will help to grow enrollment and create opportunities for education and extracurricular activities that make life rich for young people. I've seen um the reports in the media and on on social media that the plan is to keep the tower and demolish everything else. As has been mentioned,
I estimate this means saving about 5% of the current structures. I will say I'm very glad it's not 0%. Um and I understand that 100% is probably not um viable. It's probably a non-starter due to needing parking space and rerouting busing and other factors. What I'm
asking the board to consider is a plan that would save around 15 to 20% of the current structure, which is scenario one that you all have um discussed and talked about. I think it advances that goal uh in terms of saving the north um part of the building. I know I believe
that you all have the interests of students in your hearts and you want to do what's best for them and I could not agree with that more strongly. I believe saving more of the current building um while adding on a large modern addition is what um can accomplish this goal. I want to fast forward for a moment and
imagine what it will be like in June 2029 at the first graduation ceremony for and possibly held at the new Flint High School. Mr. Jones has just given a lovely speech. The I imagine the governor of Michigan is there to join the festivities and now students are taking pictures with their families
outside um the new high school. Where do you think they'll be taking those photos at? Um, I think I know I think students will be lining up outside the historic front entrance to the tower with the large arch door, the beautiful slate surround. They'll know intuitively that
that is the spot that shows visually what their education represents, which is the determination to accomplish hard things, the overcoming of obstacles, the achievement of significant goals. I'm not trying to make the point that more space for photos is what's needed for
the primary goal, but rather that saving more of the historic building will communicate those messages more strongly to our young people. It will inspire more awe. It will facilitate more curiosity, and it will attract more families and more partners. Um, in closing, I'd just like to consider the
board to uh encourage the board to consider a capital campaign. I believe there are many people out there that would love to contribute to this project. I think it can be like truly the greatest project in Flint and there's many people that should be invited to contribute to it. I would love to hear response from the board as
to um why scenario 2 um was chosen. Thank you for your time. >> Thank you. >> Anyone else wish to speak? Good good afternoon, Superintendent Jones and the members of the board. I'm TJ Brooks and I'm here to talk about
Central. I'm with you here today to advocate in my role as the president of the Fairfield Village Neighborhood Association as well as an R4 committee member. I would like to start by saying that I appreciate the board for their tremendous effort in undertaking this enormous project as well as their great
leadership by working with the community to solicit input on the future of Flint's worldclass education. Within my role as the president for the neighborhood association, I've heard an overwhelming passion for historical preservation for neighbors and alumni of
the school that I believe was not fully utilized to a meaningful degree with the choice to solely preserve the tower. I believe that the dedication or the decision to choose any other development than the than the additional facade as highlighted in scenario one of the
previous board packet is a mistake but a correctable one at this time. I'm asking you here and now to please take this into account not only the history and the memories created in this school, but also the beautiful construction of the building's facade that is still standing
proudly looking over Flint's cultural epicenter today. There are many decisions still to be made for the new high school, and I look forward to being there and supporting them. But at this crucial moment, it is not too late to allow children to achieve an incredible
education while being able to see the history and enduring elegance of the structure that their parents and grandparents had the opportunity to appreciate. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> There's no one else from the public would like to speak.
>> I would not turn Oh. proceed. >> Hello members of the board, Mr. Superintendent. My name is Michael Don. I am the director of Brighter Futures of America Foundation here in Flint. First, I would like to uh just give thanks and
a big round of applause to the effort of this board and your leadership for moving Flint Community Schools in the right direction. Uh over these past couple months and actually longer than that, um I've been um speaking to uh just members of the community and uh
speaking about, you know, I and I please don't let this come off the wrong way. I hear a lot of great things about moving the board in the right I'm sorry, moving the district in the right direction with new schools and new facilities, but we also need to be thinking about curriculum and and what can we teach the
young kids um that's growing up in the community. Uh we have an afterchool program with uh my foundation and you know we just been mentoring and tutoring these young kids and to be honest they need to be learning about technology. Uh I had a couple people who joined me here
earlier who could not stay for the full time. Some of my partners Dr. Watkins and uh you know Mr. Watkins they are big technology experts and uh they've been really wanting to partner with Flint. Uh been in Flint for a long time. Uh they used to own Center Academy which was a
charter school and I know our feeling about charter schools but that's not where we at no more. We really just want to partner with the district to uh be heard and and you know try to offer new programs that can help our youth out here. Like I said, we having these new facilities, but we're not doing anything
different to further the education of these young people far as teaching them AI technology, teaching them things that they need to know in the real world that gets them further along with, you know, their education going into college and scholarships. I mean, it's just a whole another range out here. And I won't take
up too much of y'all time because I know it's a lot on the agenda, but I really wanted to come tonight just to speak about it. you know, with these new buildings, with these new facilities, we need to also be thinking about new curriculum, things that that's going to be beneficial to them 15, 20 years down
the line and not just right now. Uh, you know, AI is a a big part of the world. Uh, drone is a big part of the world, cyber security, uh, just skill trade in general. you know, everyone's not going to go off to college. You know, everyone's that's not for everybody, but
there's so much skill trade and different tech jobs and so much out here that need to be implemented in the daily curriculum of teaching these kids because it keeps them interested and keeps them involved and it keeps the district ahead. Uh, so that's all. Thank you.
>> Thank you very much, Madam Madam Chair. Yes. >> Can I have the floor? >> That's not how the process is. >> We just I would just say >> you don't have the floor right now. >> Okay. We're going to give it to you
shortly. I want to thank you guys for your comments. We're going to now move into I would turn the floor forward to Superintendent Jones for the update of Southwestern and Northwestern. >> Okay. Thank you. Uh board president want to ask uh Mr. Well, let's start here.
Let's start with um the heating situation. So, I'm going to ask uh Mr. BZ and those that are going to be supporting him to come forward. Um so, we can start with the pro what we're
doing to fix the issue. Um we have Mr. Paul Kirby here from Surfro. And Allan, you gonna have to introduce my friend here. I I forgot your name that fact. >> Leland. >> All right. Rob Leland. >> Rob Leland of Johnson and Wood Incorporated. Yeah. Or LLC.
>> Okay. Thank you. So, board members, I have asked them to come because I wanted a little bit more detail given to you uh so that you know what is happening and the process. I will start by saying that
um this happened uh over a week ago uh where there was uh the heat went down in certain sections of Southwestern and uh we received that call and we began at that point working with the
administration Mr. Don Prey and his team. Mr. Dumprey is here and I'll ask him soon uh to speak a little bit about the academic portion of this. Uh but um we had already been working on Northwestern that had a flood and um
thankful to Surfpro and Middle Cities, we began to work on this project. We had them there a couple of days, couldn't find the problem. Um eventually we were able to find the problem. Of course, no one wanted our scholars out of school
this long uh but or our staff, but we had to do what was necessary. Uh it's been a long uh hard road to get where we are. Uh but right now, I could say that right the the part is in and they are installing as we speak at Southwestern.
Um we still want to make sure that everything is working before we determine uh that scholars need to come back. So, we're going to have scholars out until the new year. Of course, the break starts Friday. Um, so the scholars will be out, but teachers and staff has
been really working hard, and we'll get to that in a moment, but just want uh you all to just talk a little bit. Allan, I'll let you start if there's something that you would like to say as our mainten maintenance manager. Uh, and then we'll kick it over to uh our folks that are here to support.
>> Yeah, we uh discovered the problem began Monday. Uh majority of the center of the building was cold. So I contacted Johnson and Wood to help support us in repairing this. >> Is your mic on green? >> Yeah, it's on. Okay. Not close. >> All right. Thank you.
>> So Johnson Wood was called in to assist and on day two when we still had had a solution. I did contact another contractor called Dean Boiler Company to give a second opinion. And at that time, Johnson and Wood and Dean Boiler came to the same opinion that the heat exchanger
in that zone was defective causing a huge loss of water, which was why we weren't able to heat that section of the building, which is the center of the building. The east wing that houses ALA and the west wing that houses our gym and a cafeteria, they were able to
remain warm, but the center had no actual heat. So then we enlisted Serpro to bring in the uh extra heaters to help heat the building, keep it from freezing and try to be able to maintain and a safe educational facility. But at the
end of the day, that did not work out. And so what we tried to do with that board of education and community, what we tried to do was have a temporary solution so that our scholars would not miss so many school days. Uh but we tried that and that solution did not uh
work out as well as we wanted it to. uh we had the experts come out and support that and so that's why uh we had to cancel more days of school. So I'm going to kick it over to Paul and uh allow Paul to kind of take us further of what's been going on as pertains to
equipment and um the state of the building. >> Sure. Uh thank you Mr. Jones and board for having us here today. Um so Serpro provides uh disaster recovery services. Uh in this case that disaster was the heat going out in the building when it
was uh extremely cold. Uh and you're correct. We tried to create a heating environment that was conducive to education. Um we were not able to achieve what was uh an acceptable noise level and different things like that. But we were able to keep the building
warm enough we weren't having any secondary damages from frozen pipes. That is a a very big concern in the in the district is lots of water lines running through this whole building. not only to heat but domestic water lines. So, we were able to, you know, create a heat uh situation where we were keeping
it at well above freezing for that reason. As far as the boiler repairs, I guess that would be Rob's uh perview. Yeah, we've uh we we had the two bundle delivered and uh we're
currently installing >> right now and board of education of course you know I've discussed with you all to ensure that I move forward with an emergency fix and that is on um the uh as an action uh item today and we'll
get to that. So that's Southwestern. Any questions from the board of education as it pertains to Southwestern and the actual issue? Uh we're going to get to the academic side of that. But is there any questions about the actual issue in the building?
>> As it pertains to Southwestern board members, are there any question? Uh trustee Lona. >> Yeah, this is for you. They were doing virtual learning while they were at home. >> I heard you turn. Were the students doing virtual learning when they were at
home? No, they were not. Um the the law changed uh and virtual the 15 virtual days that you could possibly use is no longer uh the law changed and we're not able to do virtual learning or distance learning any any longer. Um, the way
that you could do distance learning is if you put uh I'll say virtual learning if you put it in your course catalog at the beginning of the school year and it is an actual ongoing virtual learning course. Um, Blink Community Schools have
all scholars back in school. Um and the law changed in October uh at the law changed in October and those 15 days are no longer available for schools in in in uh Michigan. >> So at sunset that's a more of a state issue than
>> Absolutely. >> Okay. Thank you Trusty McInt. >> Um >> okay I think that works. Um, so in terms of communication, I know that we had we have a couple of teachers who
um who are very very reli like seasoned um very reliable teachers that I I trust implicitly um who are here to you know help as they said not criticize but but troubleshoot and make things better. So,
I'm concerned to hear that veteran teachers don't know what the emergency protocol is or that there seem to be like some kind of breakdown in communication. Can you tell us what happened with the communication, what
was supposed to happen and now what is changing to address those failures of communication and if there is an emergency protocol and if so what it is. So, Trusty, if if I could switch who's here, we could better have that
conversation. Uh because these young these men young men here today is really talking about the actual issue of uh the boiler. So, if we're done with this, we're not these men. I could switch
>> over to that conversation with with >> we get those questions answered. board member once again let's keep it pertaining to this important part and then we can move on if there's something else let's be respectful to that trusty reifer
>> hi first of all good evening gentlemen >> what is the problem what went wrong >> the the there's a heat exchanger down in the in the tunnel that was compromised the it uh transfers heat between the steam
system and a hot water system that goes out to the building. >> Did it break? >> It did. >> Um Allan. >> Yes, ma'am. >> You knew I was going to ask you.
So, the part that we the boiler aspect that we just approved maybe a month or so ago where I asked you, did did this have anything to do with that? >> It did not. >> Did not. >> No. So gentlemen, with this right here
taking place, is a guarantee? What are we looking at? Is is this not patchwork, but this is a complete restoration corrected or talk to me. >> This is going to solve the problem with
the heat being out right now in that section of the building. >> So will it go out? Okay. I guess my question is since we're here and we don't have any more days at all, can you have you guys checked the entire
building or you're just focused on this one part? >> This one this one part is >> the issue with the heat being out in this section of >> Okay. >> Okay. You just did with the one part. Okay, fine. So, when I hear you say a
portion of the building had heat, but one side didn't, what was that temperature? Cuz for me, anything less than 68° is too cold. So, is that what we're looking at? Cuz you said the other
side had heat. >> Yes. Two out of three zones have heat. >> What's What's the temperature >> in those other zones? >> Uh-huh. >> They're at 70. >> They're at 70. Yes. >> So when did we get to 50 and 60 where that's >> in the center zone where this heat
exchanger failed. Now mind you, this heat exchanger was only three years old, >> but the rest of the system is older than you know it's original to the building. >> Did you say three years old? >> It was three years old. >> No. Is it a guarantee on that? >> There is not. >> Is it a guarantee on this work?
>> No guarantee. >> Oh, no further question. >> Trust the um King. >> King. I got you. I got you. Um >> Paul. >> Yes. >> Paul from Serpro. >> Yes. >> Rob from Johnson and Wood.
>> Correct. >> Cool. All right. Then Allan from All right. Um so what I hear you say is Rob from Johnson and Wood. So you have solve the problem that you identified is heat exchange for the middle piece for the middle part of the building.
>> Correct. So to follow up, Alan, I think you you would help me with this as well. So once we install the heat exchange, there'll be a next process around testing the heat across the entire building, assessing the heat across the entire building. >> That is correct. >> And if we find that the heat exchange,
that was, you know, a solution, but then there's also another problem. What's the next step there? >> It's not likely to be another problem. >> Not likely, but it was not likely for heat to be out, you know? So >> the premature the premature failure was
based on a a faulty water fill device that has been replaced before we change the the heat exchanger. So this won't happen again. >> Okay. So we will install the part. We will assess the building entirely to make sure heat is running at at a sufficient um temperature and then if
there's an issue that comes up during that time frame between school is out and school is um when school begin next year, we we'll be doing the um necessary work. Right. >> Absolutely. >> All right. Awesome. Cool. Um, that that's it for me. That's it for me really.
>> Let's see. Mr. >> How much would a brand new boiler for Southwestern in which we're closing soon cost us? >> I can get that information for you. I I can put together >> estimate >> 100. >> I can I I'll get that information for
you. >> Okay. All right. >> But do we know like an estimate? Because I'm I'm about to spend about $100,000. No, no one knows an estimate of what a new boiler would cost. Uh Clark, you in the room? Can you help me out? >> Huh?
>> Just an estimate. >> Just an estimate. Just a roundabout figure. We can be off about 100,000. >> I didn't hear you. >> Okay. So, >> okay.
>> All right. Not trying to put anyone on the spot. I just I just want to un We have to think about what we're about to do in the scope. um trying to make sure that we fix what we can um and we are moving um our scholars into a better
situation, but we also have to think about what's happening with them now. And so I'm hoping that this fix is we've as as long as I've been superintendent, we've been fixing boilers in this district because everything is 60 years or 100 years old. So we get it. But at
the same time, I think it's fair for, you know, the board to ask and the community to ask questions about why won't we just get a new one, right? Um, and there's nuance around all of that. And I think that, um, if I can get some of that information back to me, I can be
able to give the community and the board more information on on the why. >> I'd appreciate that. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> May I just make one comment? >> I like to just give you one analogy. Putting a new boiler in a 60-y old boiler in a building that's 60 years old is no different than putting a new
engine in a car that's 60 years old. Your brakes are shot. Your tires are falling off the rims. I mean, it's the same. I mean, it's not going to make a, you know, it's going to be nice to have a new boiler, but you still have the 60-y old system that's part of the whole that makes the whole thing work.
>> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Um, I need to speak. If anybody hasn't spoke in the first round, I'm getting ready to speak. Um, the question that I have is the guarantee. Why are you not guaranteed? >> We we have a labor warranty. We have a
one-year labor warranty with us, >> which is like a guarantee. >> So, I I can find out from the coil manufacturer to get somebody what what or if there is a warranty with it. >> So, there is a warranty. It's not like you're going to put this in and break down the bar. We call you and say you
don't have a correct. Yes. So I just want to be clear because sometime we saying things that can come out the wrong way. Yes. >> But I really appreciate you saying that. >> Is there anyone else in round number one? >> Um round number two.
>> Yeah. We on round number two then trusty Rford. >> I was just trusty Luna. Then you >> I mean here here's the issue. We're going to build them a new school in a couple years. But while they're there, we have to take care of our
students. >> Yeah. >> And if we don't do that, that sends a signal to like our the parents, the students themselves in the community. >> But also, we have a lot of space in our district. I mean, >> I want to say we're at 55% capacity for our buildings. And I get it, we can't
put high school students in, >> right, >> certain buildings because of just like their K through 5, K through8. But we just shuttered a alternative high school program at Scott for example, right? So I'm just making the point that look, I know that could take time, but we have
space that we could put the students at in the district. I haven't been Northwestern probably in five years. I went there when Obama was there back in like 2025, 2020, I believe. But we should look at that alternative space.
>> And also there's other spots with space within Flint, too. my community college, etc. If we're going to keep putting money into Southwestern and we're going to close it or demolish it in two years, that's
wasted money in my opinion. If we could find an alternative location longterm for our students, again, ALA for example, Scott Community College where we can shutter Southwestern and save some money from that building because it's a huge building, right? It's a lot of money.
the boiler, the heating, etc. Just a thought to consider, but we have a lot of space and we have a lot of people who want to see the the students be in a good learning environment. So, that's not the the issue right now. I think we have to do the band-aid fix for the time being, but something to consider down
the road for next school year. >> Trusty. >> Okay. Um, thank you for clarifying that. My heart dropped. I almost jumped over on this table on you. What's No, I didn't. Um, what's important to me as a trustee is the students. They're
priceless to me. >> Whatever it costs, we're going to pay for it. They have every right to be in accountable environment along with staff at all times. And I don't want to say money is not an issue, but when it comes
to keeping these these young kids safe and the staff safe and warm, especially in inclement weather, that's a priority. I think I can be speak on behalf of the board. We're definitely um in agreement with getting whatever needs to be done. But, however, we would like to have the
best price and the the quality, good work the first time. I'm big on do it right the first time because this is this is not this is not 20 bucks we're spending here and because of everything
that's going on our our students and staff they're actually uncomfortable right now and you know we're dependent on you to fix it right and if something goes wrong be available to fix it you know one of the things that I'm
concerned about and I've shared it with Superintendent Joneses have days where no one's in the building to make sure that the temperature even though we probably have the parts and we fix it doesn't mean with the buildings being so old that something may be wrong. So I
would hate to get a all clear and it's not all clear. So, one of the things I would look to hear is a followup, you know, and also I believe in dates and times just logging. So, just what the temperature I believe in being uh precise, not hearing the words it's
warm. I want temperatures because that's very important because our students and their staff, they just deserve to be in a very com maybe old however, but we have the funding. we're in a good place to where we have partners that
will assist us in keeping our staff and students comfortable and safe. So to me, please um treat this as if your your children, your loved ones were there because that's important. Thank you.
>> Before I speak, >> All right. Um, I I I just want to say that that that this isn't a new issue. This is this is something that that that not just the school board but other
other organizations, nonprofits and and companies have to deal with. We have old infrastructure. We have old buildings and and these these there are some lovely elements to it. It is true. But there are so many instances where when the boiler breaks or a small part in a
boiler breaks, all of a sudden it becomes cost prohibitive to run that building and that building gets torn down. I can't tell you how many buildings in this city. Um what was it? What was that one monastery school that was in an old church? It was right in
the middle of the city. The whole building got torn down because the boiler broke down. um St. Michael's which was an old school was our old schools of choice that we sold to the arch dascese of Lancing. That boiler broke down. That whole
historic church building got torn down because of the boiler. We're talking about a system in which we've been underfunded for so many decades. We've got kids to keep warm and to educate and that's the
priority. And I I'm just sort of kind of confounded by the by just the simple facts that people don't know about architecture and boilers and just you know the laws of physics and things like that. It's we've got to it
it's it's it's too cost prohibitive. There's also asbesus uh remediation that you that you have to think about. You can't just keep a building open and to to move a building because we're at 55% capacity to we closed ALA. LA is closed.
Okay. At this point, you can't reopen it without all sorts of testing and and uh environmental, you know, coming in and and and doing it's it's a closed building. It is no longer an educational facility. and and if we have a building
that's at 55% capacity, that doesn't mean that there's 45%, you know, from another school that we can put in there. We've done building feasibility studies. It is not that simple. And the the the public needs to
join us in coming up with solutions, right? Not just saying, "Oh my god, this is wrong and this is this costs too much and where's the guarantee and the warranty?" It's like we've got kids right now who need to be in school, who need to be in a safe building. Um, and
this is this is what we need to take care of. And and to do so with an administration breathing down our necks, who are underfunding not just the building maintenance, but the but the educational quality that we have for the students. And if we don't
do it on their their um uh their budget, the there's still the risk that there the state's going to come in and take over our school system, right? And then they're going to privatize all of our resources, including Central. You're not even going
to have Central if the state comes in and just takes that land. Um I I'm just >> not true. >> I'm just I'm just confounded. So, we need to we need to pull together and, you know, have short-term, midterm, and
long-term solutions to these things. So, let's get the boiler working. Let's get our kids back in school, and then let's figure out a budget situation that, you know, and a and a plan for all of this for our community. Thank you. >> Thank you. real quick. Proceed.
>> Um I I think it's important to note that I think everyone up here on this table want our our scholars, our staff to be in a safe environment. I know we do. And I I know our staff members at Southwestern want to, you know, teach in a safe environment whether it's heat uh
whether it's physical safety. We all want a safe environ. We can level set there. We can our parents are concerned. Hey, are my kids going to school with heat? that that is a a true concern that everyone has that we've had in our conversations. I I think where uh I want to make sure it's clear that when we
talk about pricing is for understanding, not more so compromise. We're not going to compromise price uh price for I mean uh price for heat. We want to make sure our kids have heat inside of our buildings 100%. This is why we're still renovating our buildings. Um but Mr. Mr.
Allen, Mr. Vallet, sorry. Can you we we do the heat exchange. We we uh installed that piece that that uh part. Our boilers do work though, right? >> Boilers are working >> 100%. So, it's not it's not the problem of the boiler, but you're saying it's the problem of the heat exchange, right?
>> We're installing the part to make sure that the building is safe, right? And I think it's it's unfortunate that this had to happen. Our parents are concerned. We want to make sure to reassure our community that we would do everything necessary to get heat inside the building. And once it's done, our our scholar would still go back to, you
know, a safe school that has good heat inside of it in the new year and we would do all we can. I I don't want to make sure we leave on the table that when we're asking about pricing and when we, you know, talking to the experts here, it's not like we're compromising on anything. We're going to make sure our scholars and do everything we can to
hire our scholars and our staff to have heat inside of their buildings. So, I want to make sure that's clear. Um, so I know we asking a couple things. The board has finance questions all the time, but not no means no by any means. We will never compromise just by having money versus having kids in heat. We choose a heat to make sure our um school
have a safe environment for every one of our kids and our scholars. Thank you. >> Thank you. Here's where I'm at today. We are here because we've got a situation. We got a cold building and we are here to get a
motion to get this done. 2022 and 23 23 Plant Moran did an audit and assess every building. We have hundreds of thousand dollars and told us how much it would cost to fix those building and
that's why we here now. We're going to probably be back here until we get to where we can have what we need outside of academic is a safe place. We was aware in 22 and 23 how much money we
were spending and things are going to break down. But that does not give us the reason to sit here, have the people sitting here all day going through all of this. The issue is the reason we are here is that we got a motion on the floor to get this
work done. There's a lot of things that we have to do, but let's take care of the business. Let's put the children first and let's get them a warm place to stay and to have a safe place to stay. Now, don't think that this going to be the end of this because we're dealing
with old buildings. We have spent $156 renovating, making it best we can with what we have to work with only less than 3,000 kids. With 3,000 kids, we're doing the best that we can. We was able to get
a teacher 5% raise. We are working our tail steps. >> Huh? Plus steps. >> Plus steps. >> Now, here we are. They are cold. I'm cold sitting right here. Everybody's chilling. So when it come to when you guys come here and they
bringing stuff out these raggly old buildings, we are to make sure they the best that they can be. There's other issues, but that's not the issue why we're here. We are here because we have scholars and teachers and peril. I'm
understanding some teacher can be off and get paid. Peril's about an hour. So let's get this done. Right now, I pass the floor back over to Mr. Jones. >> Yes, ma'am. Thank you. Okay, so we are on Southwestern. >> Yes.
>> Um I'm going to ask the board I know we need to answer a couple of questions. Uh I know communication question needs to be answered. Yes. >> Uh we're going to answer that question. I think that's important. Um, but gentlemen, I if you could just real
quickly just quickly give the board the same type of quick update on Northwestern, we can be done with you and come back to Southwestern and the and the team from Southwestern can come. So, if you can quickly go over the Northwestern situation and what you've
been doing so we can get through that. That's all like electrical stuff. So, it's the same type of conversation and then we'll pull Southwestern's uh administration up to answer those questions. If we can do that, we're going to switch over to Northwestern
real quick. I >> think be concerned with quickly go over this. This is quite quite a bit larger uh that we're dealing with. >> We're going to have another meeting about Northwestern as well with the board. >> So, Northwestern, how much do you want to how much do I need to give the the background of it as far? >> We have an insurance claim. So, let me
help out with this. We have an insurance claim. We I want to also say board, we are in touch with the insurance company with Southwestern as well. >> So that's not lost. We're just waiting on a response back and then we're going to have that conversation about the insurance covering Southwestern. So this
$100,000 that we have on the table could possibly be covered by the insurance claim. Just want to put that out there. But we have an insurance claim here. A million dollars covers >> structure >> and then $2 million covered >> uh business interruption and added expense.
>> Okay. And so we are currently within that Paul. >> Yeah. Currently, yeah, well within it currently up to now. >> And so can you just give us a brief where are we right now today? >> I can. And >> so understanding that uh on November
27th that pipe break probably put 6 to 800,000 gallons of water into that lower level. So that's what we were dealing with in the in the facility. So currently we are going to be completing cleaning that. As you can imagine, there was a tremendous amount of mud and other
things that went in there and it went into a boiler room and a pool storage room. So lots of other things that were in that water once we got in there. So once we pumped it out and cleaned, now we're cleaning it and adding antimicrobial and other cleaning agents in there to make sure that it will be a
if it does get turned back on, there's plenums down in those tunnels that add air. So, we had to clean everything down there. That will be completed tomorrow. Um, we should be done by close of business. Our close of business is closer to 7 or 8:00 at night, but we should be done tomorrow with that
process. That process is at I don't have that note on me, but uh I do have it. We were at just around $200,000 for pumping out and cleaning. So, on that portion of that work, so and that's been
since the 27th, we've had a crew there. We didn't work weekends. We didn't work overtime. A little bit overtime each day, but not weekend time. So, that was just to get this thing done in very cold conditions. On top of that, we've been adding heat to that building as well. We
have about 2.3 bill uh 2.3 million BTU of heat on that one and associated uh um uh generators with that. The generators are to have the air movement in there to move the air into the different pockets of the uh the school. And again, this is
to ensure that we don't have pipe brakes. So, that's the reason that we have that. We also have a generator that uh Allen, Mr. had gotten uh Weinstein to come out and hook up the walk-in refrigerator and walk-in freezer, which are both 50 foot long refrigerator and
freezers full of food. A lot of it was food that was going, we have a generator running to keep that running right now. Um all of those items have uh you know a pretty significant cost daily um including fuel and the fuel is quite a bit because we've been at you know four
five six degrees overnight. So it takes a lot more to run that heat and run those generators. So right now we have been running heat to maintain the building and we have cleaned the building. That is the only work that we have done. We've done a little bit of electrical just to get that that stuff
wired in. Um we fixed the pipe break of course. Uh, Mr. VZ has got that done. Was there anything else missing that we got? Oh, the network stuff. So, the um IT room is in there. So, we have that powered up and we know what happens when our generator goes down cuz it did when it was very cold and uh we lost network
uh at several schools. So, we've found another way to kind of combat that if we have an issue. So, we have another additional eight hours on that if we need to. So, those are the things that are completed as of today. Well, be tomorrow. Now, um going forward, uh
Rob's been working on quotes for repairing, uh the boilers. Um we had quotes looking at repairing the electrical. As you can imagine, all of the all of the mechanicals and electrical are housed in those tunnels.
And that water was up to 6 and 1/2 ft deep in there. >> Uh so that electrical is extremely compromised. Um now, keep in mind, I've done this work all over the all over the country. I've done this in hurricanes and in salt water and things like that. That's terrible. This is dirty water,
but still better. It's repable. Um, but for a full repair of the electrical was beyond your insurance numbers. So, we've been looking at ways that we can terminate electrical that is not needed currently and just get the electrical
working in the areas that have to be working. So that would be the uh the air movement, the air handlers for the heating system. Uh because this is a boiler plus air handlers, a little bit different system than than what you're dealing with at Southwestern. So it has additional air handlers that push that
heat that's created from the boilers and that's more uh Mr. Velas's expertise than mine. Um and then getting heat or power to the gymnasium which is utilized on a regular basis and getting power to the food service area which is
a dry goods, a kitchen and a uh loading area with refrigerator and freezer facility. So we've been looking at different options for that. So there's there's a lot of cost with those. I I I find it might be challenging to do within the insurance numbers, but we
have a temporary solution that uh we have discussed with Mr. Jones and Mr. regarding uh getting a temporary boiler in place. So, we have a trailer mounted boiler that we can place in the parking lot and there is a lot of work to
install it. Um that work uh would be installed into the current boiler system. We would have to have temporary electrical done to get the power running to the air handlers and the IT room and uh some of the boiler equipment,
condensate pumps and things like and then there's also pumps that have to be replaced in the boiler system. So there's condensate pumps down in behind the pool and in the mechanical room. So I do have numbers on all these things uh that we have gone through and I'll run
down them very quickly here for you. Uh the electrical is a total of $156,990 and that is just for this stuff to get temporary done. That is not to get everything fixed at this point. That would be the main switch gear would be fixed. That would get the rooftop units
which is that fan room that we talked about the air handlers and that would get the boilers. Uh the boilers that's that number is a little bit bigger. I didn't get that broken out for what we need es especially for the temporary work. That would be more like the condensate pumps and stuff take a little bit of power and things like that, right?
>> Yes. >> Okay. So, it'd be it'd probably be less than that 756, but then we still have to get that IT room running. So, that might be a separate thing that we can do. Um, again, we're doing this all really quickly here just in the last week putting these numbers together.
Um, going into pump repairs. Um, and if you don't mind me talking about those right now. So, those are um pump repairs. condensate unit uh in the tunnel by the pool is a $65,562 uh repair. Uh the electric motors on
that unit are $17,000. The condensate unit that's in the back of the boiler room in the secondary room there, that is $28,500. And those electric motors on that unit are $6,137. So then we move into the temporary
boiler situation. That temporary boiler would be placed outside. that it would be tied into the steam lines. It would be tied into the gas line, tied into the water lines. It's a pretty extensive install um uh situation. The installation of that would be close to $200,000.
Um however, where we get the savings is the rental of that is $30,000 uh a a month and then it runs off of your current utilities. So, utilities wouldn't change uh I don't think much for having a temporary unit. Um, and
then the demobilization, taking it all back out and getting it ready for the other boilers to work would be another $150,000. So during all of that, we have temporary heat going in this building. And uh, Mr. Jones, I apologize. I had numbers out
that were initial and they were not taking into account a couple of different additional things. So that daily uh, heat is costing $15,500 per day. And that's including that's running about 400 I think we averaged it out
about 100 456 gallons of diesel fuel per day that has to be delivered there. So they take a tremendous amount of of diesel fuel to run these units. They're not as efficient as a boiler. That's why we put boilers into big buildings like this or used to. There's different ways to do it now. So the total for that
because I I anticipate that we would have to run that temporary heat for about another 40 days. I'm I'm accounting for the fact that we have holidays coming and installing and doing repairs of the boilers, repairs of the electrical, and installing the boiler will probably take another 40 days because of the the holiday and stuff. I
know I'm not going to get people to work uh every single day on these things. We can try, but it will be another 40 days at that heat. So our total and I counted on this boiler running through the end of April which is when we would be able
to demobilize that and then you have the whole summer to work on whatever your solutions are for this building. So the total on that is 1.334 million and some change on a temporary repair.
Okay. Now, some of that, I shouldn't say some of that, the majority of that falls under that $2 million of additional expense and business interruption policy that you do have. So, that is covered under
that. Um, it's eating up a lot of it, a tremendous amount of it. Some of that electrical is things that would have to be covered under that $1 million structural repair policy. So, you're eating up money out of that policy. that uh you know does need to be used
for other things, but it would be working towards getting things that like the switch gear has to be fixed if we're going to get power running in that building. So, it's not a waste if you're going to run that building again. So, for you, it's a choice of future use of the building. What can you do currently because that building is utilized. It's
central kitchen. It's uh it's a bunch of different afterchool programs. The it uh is in there that is not just throw it on a truck and move it. It's a very involved uh process. So, um
temporary heat, if I were just to leave the temporary heat on and not do any of that other work, that would be approximately $2.185 million, which would leave you at $185,000 in the red on your insurance policy.
So, I that's not exactly a feasible option either. So I didn't come here with good news but I came here with facts that I know at this point. So um >> I if I'm able president so um my my
recommendation uh to the board of education is that >> um we continue within policy but we need to meet in January about what the board wants to do with Northwestern. >> Thank you. >> Um and um where we want to move Central
Kitchen. >> Thank you. and and the feasibility of moving Central Kitchen and where is it going to go. Uh have some conversations about um whether Central Kitchen is going to move when Southwestern moves, how that looks
and if we can have that conversation. We haven't had that conversation. Central Kitchen is not in the new high school um conversation. Uh but I am opening up the conversation to say we probably need to have some conversations around that. um
or or putting it in another building that we already have open. Um we can do that as well. So, I'm suggesting that we continue moving so that we don't um you know have any newer issues happen. Uh
but we also at the same time have a meeting when we come back from break to determine what the board wants to do and the direction you want us to take with this building. So, uh, Superintendent Jones, due to the nature of Northwestern, um, do you think that we should extend
it all the way out to out to the first year before the board meet or you don't see any hiccups in that? >> Um, I I'm I'm open for us to have a discussion uh before um the new year. I'm totally open to that if the board is. Uh,
>> the reason I asked because it look like each day that we just keep running. You know, it's like we should be meeting tomorrow. >> We need an emergency meeting. >> Yeah, we need an emergency manager at this point as relates to Northwestern and that's up to you. I don't know what uh
>> it's up to us. >> Yeah, it's up to him because we had to help him have the meeting with Mr. Jones. >> I'm I'm all for it. >> I'm all for it. Not an issue. >> Uh but I I do know that whatever decision we make, we're it's we're still going to have to have them doing the
work that they're doing now. Um, so I'm fine with with that. Whatever the board wants to do. >> So with the consent of the board, if you send out some information that we might have to have uh upper meetings, >> yeah, >> I don't know in uh December. Um because this isn't this is urgent. We're
spending money that we don't have and we got we on a tight budget. We got two years to get out of >> money at this point. >> Yeah, at this point we got two years to get out uh get oursel together. So I thank you. are. Is there anything else that you need from it?
>> I I will continue the work. Um I will definitely get back with you once I find out what the board wants to do in the meeting time and then we'll go from there. Um so thank you for Is there anything else >> as relate to Northwest >> as it relates to Yep. any of the
mechanical work? >> Hold on one second. Let me >> recognize you >> as it pertains to the mechanical work and any of that. >> Okay. Thank you. Thank you. a question for him. I heard it will it be moving also? >> We It is already in the process of
moving all of that uh work over into another school. So, we're already moving that. >> Mr. Trusty P. >> Um so, Mr. Jones, Central Kitchen is where now? >> North Well, no. >> Where's Central Kitchen? >> Central Kitchen has been halted at
Northwestern and we're now working out of two different school buildings. It's not a It's not good. They're They're doing overtime work and it's not the best. Yeah. >> Uh to try to make that work. So, it's a temporary solution. >> It's not like having Central Kitchen, but we're making it work
>> and hats off to Chartwells for making that work. >> Okay. When we have that uh meeting in uh soon about Central Kitchen, uh could we also add about the balance of the what is it called? The fund that we have food service fund. The food service fund.
make sure that's in the conversation because I think a a goal would be uh for each school building to have their own kitchen inside of there so we don't have to have one central unit kitchen. They can be able to run from the actual school building. I know we talked about duck work and and the renovation that will have to take place in there. But
what two schools are they at now? >> Doyle Ryder and >> um I don't want to misspeak but >> Southwestern Do Ryder and Freeman. Thank you. So, we have three areas in the district where it's possible and so we just need to figure out the other ones.
I >> I think there's some I think there's some possibilities, but I think we need to talk through it. Yeah. Right. Um we we have some space at Southwestern for for something to happen there, but I think we need to talk through it. But yes, >> 100%. Just want to make sure that conversation is added when we have it in soon.
>> Thank you. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you, gentlemen. >> Okay, Mr. >> I'm going to ask I'm going to ask Mr. Dump Prey, principal, um, and Miss Porter, the assistant principal. >> I'm going to do that right after. Yes,
ma'am. Um, to come and, um, we're just going to talk a little bit and I would like to start by answering uh, Trustee McIntyre's question as it pertains to communication. Trustee, can I give it back to you so you can react
that question about communication? And there were staff members here that was concerned about communication. >> So the issue was how was communication handled to the staff?
What went wrong with that? Where was the how I can't even remember what >> Yeah. Uh there was there was communication here today that stated that uh uh there's been no communication about the actual fight that happened.
No, no, no. No. That's what So, we have >> Okay. Okay. The concerns were and we we all heard the teachers say that they didn't have adequate communication, not no communication. They didn't have adequate comm communication. And so I
want to know what communication they did have, what was left out that they needed that they didn't get, and what is being done to remedy that discrepancy between what they needed and what they actually got.
In addition, it distresses me to hear a seasoned veteran, one of our best teachers in the district say that they don't know what the emergency protocol is and how it was followed or wasn't followed um that
there just seems to be like a complete breakdown. So, if if we've got a a teacher so outstanding um as the one that I'm referring to saying that they're struggling with communication, I am beyond concerned because this isn't, you know, someone
who's new to the district. This is someone who's integral to the district and if anyone's going to know anything, it's this person. So, I want to know what the emergency protocol is and what we're going to do about it moving forward because clearly if we do have
one or if there was anything, it's not it's not adequately. And it's done in the spirit of not gotcha, not you're bad. This is wrong. This is done in the spirit like they said probably more eloquently than than
I can can say. this is done in let's what can we do to pull together to work this out so that we can have a wonderful vibrant school district. >> So I think there's two uh different incidences that were uh spoken about.
I'll talk I'll talk first about the one that happened today. Um we mentioned I think briefly that there was an incident >> get to your mic a little. >> Is that better? >> Yes. >> Okay. Sorry. So, there was an incident uh that happened in the neighborhood
around Southwestern today. Uh the police were looking for a suspect um involved in multiple shootings and homicides. And so, uh they informed us and we initiated a lockdown of the building. When we initiated the lockdown of the building,
uh we utilize the PA system and the PA, excuse me, the PA system announces internally and externally so that people who are immediately in the building can hear what's going on and then the people around the outside of the building can also hear what's going on. So, we made
that announcement and then uh Miss Porter walked around the building. We made sure uh also with uh a couple of the teachers, we made sure that all the buildings, I'm sorry, the doors were secure. Uh there was a lot of other things going on and we communicated with a lot of other folks. We had some parents coming up to get food and we
communicated with them what was going on. Um and at the same time we had uh some work that was being done outside the building. So the announcement that normally is heard outside of the building likely may not have been heard because we have four generators about
four generators running outside of the building to provide heat to the building. So, we had a crew of folks that were working outside of the building. They did not hear the announcement. Also, we had a teacher that was overseeing or kind of working with uh the crew that was outside working and she also didn't hear the
announcement. Under normal circumstances, uh we have a secretary and we have our school um school uh improvement, thank you, school improvement coordinator. And when there's an emergency, either the secretary um or the school improvement
coordinator will use an app called Remind me. Group me. Um, and that is uh another group group me. Yes. And that is another form of communication that we use in emergencies. And it's uh it's a >> a way that we communicate to let
>> let everybody know what's going on because if they don't hear something, um they have access to their phone and they can know what's going on. Well, we didn't have our secretary today. We also didn't have our school improvement coordinator today. So although we made the announcements, although we walked
around the building, the people who were on the outside of the building working in the uh the area where the vernal pool is, they were unaware what was going on. And so after the incident, um we received an email uh letting us know that they did not know what was going
on. they did not know about the emergency and they were um experiencing some difficulties adequately or being responsive to the level of the emergency that was happening. Um and we understood that concern and I think within an hour
of receiving that email, we sent a response to that email. Um and then we also had a conversation amongst ourselves and we also had a conversation with our uh our temporary building secretary who's actually a long-term secretary. So um because we hadn't
experienced a situation where the people who are responsible for getting the information on group me were not in the building. So that was the first time. So we had to make an adjustment. So, we came up with a plan uh and alternative people that would get on group me and
let everybody know in the building that there was an emergency. >> So, you're saying there was no protocol? >> No, there was a protocol, but the people responsible for that particular piece of the protocol were not in the building today. >> So, there wasn't protocol for when that protocol broke down. So, that's no protocol.
>> Okay. >> Okay. All right. Yeah. Is there >> And so how how do you know that the announcement to the outside was made? How do you know that it was you're saying that it was, but I'm
getting reports that it indeed was not like in like generator noise and everything else that that in in spite of that there still wasn't an announcement. How do you know there was an announcement? So, uh, at the time that the announcement was made, I heard it
inside the building. And the announcement that there are speakers inside and outside of the building, I heard the announcement inside. So, I wasn't outside. So, I can't confirm that yes, the speakers outside were in working order. Uh, but I have no reason to believe that they were not.
>> Well, we do now, right? So, maybe we should check that or figure out how. >> We can look into that. >> Okay. Uh the other part of the question that you're asking um the the incident that happened on the 11th um we did communicate to um to our teachers. I
believe it was the next day and we did provide them with communication >> the next day. Is that part of protocol? Um well the incident that happened uh on the day that it happened we dismissed the staff and we needed to
investigate the incident so that we could provide ad um accurate information to staff. >> Was that information provided to the staff? I mean >> yes >> in an emergency it just seems to me that some kind of update even if hey we don't
have an update would be useful. like I it's can we maybe review Superintendent Jones the emergency protocol because this doesn't sound uh reassuring at all. And like I said, this is not like hey, it's your fault.
You're you I'm I'm just saying in the world in which we live with all of these dangers and things coming at us that are unprecedented, like you said, we've got a lot of things that are unprecedented. We have no idea what to expect and and a lot of things are popping up. We just
want everybody to be safe and comfortable and maybe to review communication policies with it would be nice to get maybe some input from the teachers themselves from the people that are actually being communicated to how
best to communicate to them and how they would be most comfortable. >> So excuse me to interrupt you. So right now we're going into policy or whatever. Mr. Jones need to provide us with that information but okay uh not them because
we can't you know ask them to do a thing. Mr. Jones hear all of that and taking those in consideration as it relates to emergency protocols things that the board need to know. I think we should direct listen to the
incident. Let Mr. Jones want to speak on that. >> I I sure I sure will. I will we will do that. >> Excuse me, next trustee. >> That is happening. Um we will do that. I did speak to the staff and tell told them that we're not going to have this
conversation during the crisis of trying to figure out what was going on with our scholars this week and how are we going to educate them. Um, so that was me that spoke to the entire staff and told them that we're not going to talk about this in the Zoom that we were in because we
needed to discuss something that was more important at the time, which is how are we going to feed children uh this week who's not in school and how are we going to get them assignments? Um, there were students who even called and said, "Mr. Don Prey, how can I make up work
and how can I get some assignments done?" That was more pressing. We have we we will talk about this communication. We will continue to have the conversation about the protocol in which um we're using to communicate not only with teachers. Uh we're talking
about communicating with everyone. Uh so this is more about everyone in the building and also families. And I think that although that there are some things we need to look at, I appreciate the communication that you all gave. That was a big issue that came up. And I want
to note to everyone everyone that since there's been change in the policies that this board made, you have not seen um what we saw in videos in quite some time. >> I didn't say that something wasn't
happening. >> I said you haven't seen it. >> Well, that was a part of the reason why that the board went to the policy it went to. Um, so I want to I want to make it very clear that I appreciate what you all are doing and you're working overtime to do it, but I will definitely
sit down and make sure we're looking at communication and we will add teachers to that process, but we won't just add teachers. You're talking about pair of pros, uh, other staff as well, behavior specialists and people, all the other folks that work in the building as well.
U we won't we probably won't have uh a hundred people at that table but we will have representation from all of those folks. We will do that. >> Trusty brother. >> Thank you. Um I don't think I ever met you Mr. Dre. How are you? >> Yes ma'am. I'm fine. How are you >> doing? Good. Thank you.
>> Good. First of all I commend you all because what I saw I don't I I can't imagine getting control. Uh, I believe you all are relatively new and I'll venture out and say when new leadership take place, people that's been there a
long time, they have a problem with it. So, I can speak to that, you got to have thick skin in this. And you guys are making a major impact over at Southwestern. Now, I'll say to you, I've heard from several individuals that you
and Miss Porter are setting Southwestern up to be successful. Now, the individuals that share that with me, I trust them because they just straight shooters. Um, they did inform me that you get a lot of push back, but when you're not when you're doing what's
right, you're going to get push back. But I tell you, push through because with this incident happened, all of the gaps are now revealed. And from the board all the way down to the mouse in the building, we all are paying attention. And what we want to do is do
what's best for you, your staff, and the community. And that's to come up with how we know who's in the building at all times. If it's as simple as getting a card where we swipe, staff bop in or whatever, that's what's important is the safety of that entire
building. Everyone's not going to get the same information at the same time because during the school day, everyone is someplace. But what's important is individuals communicate with each other. You may not have heard the PA, but I'm quite sure one of your co-workers
informed you what was going on. I know you may not have heard, but individuals talk, but what I what's most important to me is to get control of a building. That was chaotic. A lot of lives someone could have lost their lives had you all
not implemented doing what needs to be done. I want to thank everyone that did not run. I want to thank everyone that got control and made sure that every student was accounted for. So, thank you for that. That's what's important is that no life was lost. Feelings may have
been hurt, but feelings like our weather, you'll get over it. But what I want you employ you to do and to know that you all have my support is to teach those kids, prepare them for the future. And whatever I can do as a trustee creating policy, I'm here to listen you
all. But I I will say to you all, communicate with Mr. Jones what you need because that's the only way change is going to happen. And I'll say this, people don't change till they get mad. So when people get upset, that's when
they'll change. And don't give in. I asked Mr. Jones that we create a culture of excellence. And I'm not backing up off that. I grew up from I came through Flint schools. Excellent. Flint Northwestern champions. Excellence. Mr. Porter to Mr. Prior told
us we are excellent. >> So with that, I expect the same thing. Excellence. Our kids, they are not dumb. They can lead. They will be somebody. And with you and Miss Porter standing in the gap, we're going to be better for it. So I thank you.
>> Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Trusty King. >> Um yes. Uh Miss Porter, Mr. Don Perry, thank you for being here. Uh welcome to the team. You know, you've all been enrolled for about getting close how long now? >> Uh about three three months. >> Three months. Yeah. Miss
>> Porter. Yeah. About three months. September. >> Three months. 18. >> Okay. Um I I probably would imagine this not how you wanted to come to the board with the situation. Um but I I want to also uh to my colleagues point is commend your leadership both in the building. I think there's also uh room
for growth. your new new district administrators coming in with uh different ideas, new ideas to uh really innovate how we do things in education and I appreciate you both for that. Uh I can't say that you can control everything at at all times. There there are going to be breaks in certain things
but one thing I'm curious to hear and learn um how my approach is what have we learned and what are we going to do differently? So which which incident are you referring to? Because every time every time something happens, the first thing that we do after we get control of the
situation is we have a conversation uh with with the people who are involved and ask that exact same question. So we identify what went well and then we identify what did not go well and what can we do different. >> So shortly after the incident on 1211, uh we met in the cafeteria and and we
started having that conversation. We had a lot of great ideas come out of that conversation. Um, but it was still in the aftermath of the event that happened. Adrenaline was still high. We still had a whole lot of other things that we needed to take care of. And so we all agreed that we'd continue that conversation at a later time um with
central administration and with building administration. We also uh decided that we needed to meet with students because this was a traumatic experience for students to witness and to be involved in. And so we knew that we needed to meet with students and we needed to hear from them as well. And we also knew that
we needed to meet with our staff and we needed to give them a voice and an opportunity to talk about what happened and express from their perspective um what their experience was, what their concerns are. In fact, one of the things we did on that day is we sent an email out um saying, "Hey, you know, cuz we
couldn't see everything. We couldn't be everywhere. So, we asked them, please share your experience about what happened today." because we needed that information to get a really great picture of all the things that took place and what led to the things that happened. So, we were in the front of the building, we were working with the
buses, we were working with the with the kids in the cafeteria, in the main entry. Um, but we had teachers in the back of the building. So, we want to hear what was going on in the back of the building, what was going in your classroom, what was going on in your classroom. So, I use that as an example to say that every time something
happens, we always debrief. A lot of times we'll have something that called an AAR, an afteraction review. And that's a form that we use um before we have any conversations, pass that form out to everybody. They write down exactly what I said, what went well and what things didn't go well, what do we
need to take into consideration the next time that something like this happens. So we do that cold so that we don't influence each other's opinion. And then after that, we go around and we talk about what went well, what could have gone better, and what are we going to do the next time. So, we're still in the process because we're dealing with
multiple um emergency situations like back to back to back. So, we're still in the process of arranging that meeting with the staff members and arranging and unfortunately students haven't been in the building. Um so, we're still in the process of um of having a conversation
with students as well. Um but like I said, we're dealing with >> emerging situations uh almost daily at this point. Yeah. Um I I do want to say uh Mr. Jones, I'm sure that you you know there'll be aftermath report about how what we're going to do differently. Good
to hear that we're already having those conversations to get to that point. I look forward to seeing what we'll be doing differently. So I can hear the learning piece that we're trying to do the review piece. It's a lot. It is a lot to happen. You have heat issues scholars out. We know some of our babies that that this is the school is the only
place where they feel loved, cared for by our wonderful staff that we have. Um, and you know that's that's tearing that's wearing on on staff members because we know this is the only safe place that we can provide u for them in the throughout their entire life right so uh I think I want to say just I
commend you for your leadership I'm all about empowering leaders to do the best of their ability um to my colleagues point we talk about accountability I'm also with empowerment hold you accountable to a standard but also empower you to grow be able to for you to make mistakes okay but what we going to learn from them how do we move forward um because I can't put let's a
fight happen on a kid's decision on an administrator, right? All I can ask is how are we going to do differently? What are we going to do? What's the what's the consequences? But also the rehabilitation and restorative practices that we can institute for our scholars because we need to be make sure we giving our scholars everything we got.
>> The world the world we know what the world is, right? But one thing that community school is to my colleagues point of spirit of excellence, not just excellence in academics, but excellence in care. That's one of the things that we lead with. And so I'm I'm full for u for you both of you and your leadership. There's no question here on my end. It's more so how are we going to um lead
forward and what are we going to do differently to make sure that this doesn't happen again if it does it' be less implication that happens afterwards but thank you >> thank you >> appreciate that >> trusty releer do you want to speak as well we just just go ahead with this
last round you and then myself we got to get to the next time proceed >> um Mr. Don Prey, Miss Porter, I have witnessed your excellence in Southwestern myself and I really appreciate the people that you are. I
appreciate your leadership skills. All I'm going to say is just continue on doing what you're doing. I did hear um one of the teachers had a concern though uh in regards to they didn't know getting back to my colleague uh Laura
McIntyre when she asked the question about uh the protocol for they wanted to know what the heat was you know the temperature that's one of the things they wanted communicated to them what should it be you know in the building
and I guess they were unsure are unaware of what it should be those kinds of questions and so maybe that's something you can you know uh delve into but overall I'm getting a lot of good
feedback from how you are on top of things in the building and I think uh just keep doing what you're doing and and as uh colleague Melody Rifford said we got your back you know we want safety
is the overriding priority for me and all things concerning scholars. So, we just need to just uh come together. We need to hear from the teachers. We need to hear from everybody because they're our first line of defense. They're the ones on the battlefield.
>> So, I I like to hear from them especially because they see the firsthand the trouble that all of you are facing that takes the weight up off of you. So, let's listen to him a little bit, you know, and we and we'll go forward like that. Thank you.
>> Thank you. Um 60 68 >> degrees. >> Um and and Mr. Mr. Veles and I were were working uh and and um I kept hearing them say 68 degrees 68 degrees. Um, and then Miss Porter and I just we got on
Google and we did a whole lot of research and and we wanted to make sure that 68 degrees, not not that we didn't trust Mr. Baz. Um, but we asked questions. That's that's the nature of who we are. Um, and we looked for multiple sources of information. And so, um, we we
researched it ourselves and we found that the national standard in schools and in work environments is 68 degrees. And that went into the conversation that we had and and we did not take it lightly because I'll be honest with you, we wanted kids back in the building. But we had to ask ourselves a lot of
questions. Is this the environment that is suitable for our kids to come back to? >> So it was more than temperature. It was all the equipment and the noise that the that the um that the equipment in involved. And then there was safety. Um,
you know, you have these big tubes blowing air into the building at over 100 degrees. >> That that creates hazards. We we have air scrubbers in the hallway. That creates hazards. So, we took a lot of things into consideration. Um, but again, yeah, 68 degrees. >> Okay.
>> Thank you. >> Okay. I get all my colleagues. Um, I am so happy to have see that we have two outstanding um pull a little closer. I'm excited to see that we have two
outstanding um staff members uh a uh superintendent and a a vice um not superintendent, I'm sorry, president and a and a >> Nothing wrong with saying superintendent. >> We have an outstanding superintendent as well. >> We have an out.
>> I just left a conference and we talked to I talked to a lot of superintendent. I'm sorry. >> I'm messing. But um principal and assistant principal Mr. Dri and Miss Porter, I really appreciate you taking uh this serious of
what happened this week because um I would I would like to know also, are you communicating with the kids while they're out? Any of the youth, do you have a way of communication like a hotline or a email that contact with the kid youth? Yeah,
>> I'm going to I'm going to not let Miss Porter talk yet because she's going to talk to about that in just a moment. But we are very excited about the communication plan uh that Miss Porter has really been working really hard on and uh we're going to talk a if if we have time, we'll talk a little bit about that. We're we're excited about the work
that our staff has been doing uh and Miss Porter has been spearheading that. So, I'll let her talk about that a little later. >> Okay. because I think communication with the parents also and the students is very important. And I'm impressed to see how many uh teachers are here from
Southwestern. I haven't had a chance to get over to Southwestern and see any of the um I I recognize some of them because I have seen them often. Um but yes, but um thank you for that. >> Yes, ma'am. Thank you.
>> Thank you, Miss Porter. you can go ahead and answer her question before I begin to speak as she did ask. >> Sure. Yes. So, we um came up with a plan to be able to reach out to our parents and students during this time. Um we we call it wellness checks. So, we did
wellness check calls. >> Okay. >> So, first off, let me let me back up a little bit a little bit. So, we had to had we had a Zoom meeting with our staff to come up with a a plan when we found out that we couldn't do the distance learning, right? So the plan was to um
have teachers come together and give some ideas during one of our Zoom meetings. Uh we had some breakout sessions so that they can come up with what we call supplemental learning experience activities that students can do within the next three days and over the break even since we're we weren't
able to do the distance learning. So when they came up with some of the ideas, we were able to put all that together um and provide information to parents to see if their students are able to um participate in these activities. Okay. So the way that we did
that, first we had to find out if our students have Chromebooks at home, if they have access to Wi-Fi, if they have access to the platforms that our teachers were going to use such as Schooly and Google um Google Meets. Um and so we were able to um get some of
our support staff and our behavioral specialists um who needed to work during this time right during the break and Christmas coming up. So we were able to um have them work to be able to come into the building and do these what we call wellness check calls for our
students where they were calling parents and finding out if they had these um materials, if they had the Chromebooks, if they had the Wi-Fi. Uh we also were asking if they needed food. Um and we also were asking if they needed um delivery of food or Chromebooks. So
today we had about I want to say 25 to 30 of our staff in the building working um to call make calls. Uh we actually were able to reach out and found out that we had 95 students um and parents that were in need of um assistance with food and also with Chromebooks. And so
we had set up a distribution system where um parents could come up to the building. We started it today because again we were on a time crunch with pivoting and pivoting with all the different changes that took place. Um but we started it today for parents to come in and we did have parents coming in picking up Chromebooks. We also had a
food distribution for 50 um packages for food to last for the week. So that was um breakfast and lunch for Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday of this week. So, it was all put together in a package for them. The pickup was at 2 o'clock. So, as we're making these calls, um we're
getting that information out, but we're also asking students how they're doing. Okay? So, while we're doing these wellness checks with our staff, reaching out, checking in with their students, checking in with families, we're asking students questions. And I have an example. Um for example, wellness check question. How are you feeling about
school as we head into the break? Um do you know do you know who you can reach out to if you need support during the break? and then providing them with any kind of resources that they may need. We were doing kind of like assessments to see how people were doing. Um, and we got some really good feedback. We had a
live spreadsheet for all of our staff to see so that we're making sure we're touching everyone. Um, and in the midst of all of that, we had the um lockdown today >> which kind of halted some of the process that we were making. Um, basically it
was right during the time of our pickup for the food. Um, however, we were able to be off lockdown within probably about 30 minutes. So, it kind of impacted it a bit. So, we were able to give out 35 packages versus 50. But, we had a plan where we can reach back out to our
parents and students. Uh, we did reach out to them today to prepare for tomorrow for them to pick up and also for us to deliver um, which would include Chromebooks and food for our families. So again, we we we we got some feedback from some of our students that
as we were making these calls that they've already started on some of the um um supplemental learning activities that teachers have already sent out to our students um as of yesterday. Um students, some of our students are looking to do these activities. Um they're going to be able to get extra
credit um to go towards their their classes um their exams. We have some incentives involved because it is optional for students, but we understand the need to continue the learning process of course during this time and also touch bases and check in with them and and with our parents. We also use it
as an opportunity to see who's not receiving our robocalls, you know, checking our phone numbers to make sure that they're up to date, checking our emergency contact numbers and so and and keeping that communication and letting them know what's going on as far as with the heat. So, um, all of that has been beneficial and I really want to, um, big
shout out to our staff who stepped up. Our behavioral specialists, pair of pros, support staff, and our teachers have, we all came together after having a couple Zoom meetings to try to pivot to figure out what are we going to do now since we can't do the distance learning. And everyone has jumped on board and and we are working um, every
day, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday to make sure that our families get what they need um, as much as we can during this time. Thank you. Thank you. >> That's it. How many how many students you have total? >> A total uh 446 students
>> and we're calling each and every single one. So she she's has she's put together a spreadsheet. Um and we've listed all of the students and we've assigned them to specific staff members after assessing who's able to come in and it's >> the the staff has been amazing. Um we're
we're off school. they could they could stay home um but they'd rather come in and and support our kids and be there for our kids and and help us with this work. Um and we're able to engage a lot of staff who um are are not contract so they don't get paid when they don't come
to work. So we were able to provide an opportunity where they could come and work um in in this effort and also help us uh give out the Chromebooks and pass out the food. And so on on a couple of different levels, it's been it's been beneficial to the community. >> Yeah. And I do want to say too, even
though we don't have heat in all of the building, we want to make sure they we do have heat in some certain parts. So, we're trying to make sure that they're in a place where they are warm and you know, we're making sure that they're not in those cold areas. >> Thank you. Okay. The question I had I'm I'm asking about your staff. Um, how are
the teachers doing and your parro I had a I had a call and are they working in the cold building all day or are they working from home? Your teachers, how are you guys got this uh got that set up? >> That's a that's a good question. Um, it's it's interesting the way that the
heat is is working or not working right now. Um, so there are some rooms that are hot actually and then there are some rooms that are totally uncomfortable. Okay. Um and then we have some common areas and we have some office areas and so we're focusing on calling and communicating with um with our kids from
those areas of the building that are comfortable to work in. >> Okay. Um you guys had a lot going on at uh center. You guys got a lot of thing in place and we have to realize that there's two element uh really missing
here. Parent accountability and student accountability. you guys are doing good work, but you need a little support in that area. And you don't go home with the kids. >> You don't go home with them. >> You don't know what kind of move they're going to come in, but they still have to
be held accountable. And I think this is something that the board can be looking at. I know a lot of you guys call me and probably get a little upset at me because I am the what superintendent is the how and a lot of thing that you share with board. Um, I will refer you
back to your principal or your superintendent. That's protocol. Not that I'm not hearing you. It's just I stay in uh stay in your lane. But as it relates to what you guys are going through, yes, it was cold. But do they
warrant your fight and that's what you call student accountability, parent accountability. And hopefully we can start looking at holding these parents accountable so we won't lose these good teachers. You guys are getting worn out. I met you from sun up or sun down. You
damage you do, you damage, you don't. And we're not recognized the good work that we're putting into the educational system. And that is something that the board can look at is redo some of these policy and have a little bit more parent accountability. But I want you guys to
rest assure, Superintendent Jones and this board and especially Superintendent Jones, we've been up almost seven days being concerned about this district. You know, I had quit my job so I can be a
little bit concerned. This has been since I've been on the board of our years, this has really been a head time. Uh, and you guys got our support, but you guys also need support from other resources. So, I don't want to let you
guys know. Yes, when you was calling me, I I had to limit my conversation because I don't want to do overreach. In this district, we do investigation. I can't jump out and start to talk and do anything. You have to go through a process. Once that process, then it gets
to the board. But I want to assure you that I don't see nothing else that we could talk about right now. What you guys need is some heat and we're going to turn this over uh to Mr. John for action item uh and getting
support uh for which one you doing past I will I want to say board president real quick. >> Sure. >> Um I want to say that uh Mr. Don Prey uh Dr. Coleman Mr. Valz 2 in the morning, 5 in the morning. I I
was I was with board last week. Um and we were on the phone 2 in the morning, 1 in the morning, 12 at night. These are the things that are not stated that I want to say that sometimes
uh people will say that is not my job and I don't have to do that. I did not get that from these folks at all. >> They worked very hard to make sure that this happened. Um, you know, they didn't throw a bunch of papers in my face and
say that that's not what I'm supposed to do. Um, they were there. When I got back, I dropped down. I went straight there. Who was there? These two individuals was there at 9:00 at night waiting on the superintendent. We made
decisions together. Uh we made decisions together. There was a lot of things that happened that some of you don't even know about. >> Yes. >> But they we band together. Um and I I'm I'm glad to hear you say in spite of things that are going on around you, Mr.
Don Prey, that your staff is amazing. That's the attitude that we must have regardless of who appreciates the work and who doesn't. >> Um that's the attitude that we keep. Um, many people disagree with how the superintendent does things.
>> Yes, >> trust me. >> All right, I'm in some battles. >> But I we have to keep our face forward like my board told me to do is stay forward, keep going, and keep working and keep listening.
>> Don't forget to listen because even an enemy I'm preaching now, but even an enemy can tell you something that is true. And I've always stated that and I live by that and I want you to remember that as well. So I commend you. I appreciate you. Now let's get to the
action item. Thank you very much. >> All right. Thank you. Thank you. >> See, Mr. Jones, >> I seek a motion and a second from the board to approve resolution 11.24, authorization to repair heating system at Southwestern. >> Support.
>> It has been promptly moved and second. Hopefully there is not any more discussion, but is there any discussion? Madam President, just a quick comment. >> Trusty Luna. >> Um, it'll take 45 seconds. Trust me. >> Plac context about this is $100,000, right?
This repair. >> Uhhuh. >> And this is old information, but when we did the assessment for Southwestern, we were looking at $47.8 million to get it to where it needs to be at. They're building a new high school right now. Are planning to, but just this is very
expensive. We're going to come back to it again. So I maybe it makes more sense in the interim to look at what we anticipate going to happen over the next couple years so it doesn't happen right in the prime of like we're almost towards winter break. It's cold out you know to be more proactive in that in
that space. >> Okay. So >> again that's further discussion but I think it's worth you know discussing looking into >> much needed. Seeing no further discussion, the motion to approve resolution 11.24,
authorization to repair to repair heating system is southwestern. Board members, I call your name. We say yes and no to approve. Secretary Perkins, >> yes. >> Trusty Booze, >> yes. >> Vice President McIntyre, >> yes. >> Trusty Rifford, >> yes. >> Trustee King, >> yes.
>> Treasury Lu, >> yes. >> And myself, yes. >> Proceed, Mr. John, >> I seek a motion and a second from the board to approve action item 21.14, approval of construction manager for the new high school. >> Yes. 1.18.
>> No, you skipped I think you did the HR is the HR. >> Oh, I skipped I'm sorry, Miss Kesha. I skipped HR. >> She said, >> I guess I just wanted to get moving on this. >> I I seek a motion and a second from the board to approve resolution 1.18, personnel recommendations. I move to
approve item 1.18. >> Support. >> Had been properly moved and seconds. There any discussions? >> Seeing no fur discussion, the motion to approve to approve resolution 1.18. Personary recommendation will be done by
conducting a roll call. Secretary Perkins, >> yes. >> Trusty Booze, >> yes. >> Vice President McIntyre, >> yes. >> Trusty Reer, >> yes. Trusty King. >> Yes. >> Treasure Looney. >> Yes. >> And myself? Yes. Seven? Yes.
>> Board member, your package on page 16 is the retirement. Doing the boardman have any questions or comments? >> Madam Chair, proceed. >> I'd like to congratulate um M Mr. Richards on 30 years of service and uh with the district. That's something we
said we would always acknowledge everyone. Yes. >> That retired. So definitely wanted to give him a shout out and tell him thank you for his service and >> hope that his retirement days are good. >> Yeah, thank you. >> That was a good That's good.
>> It's been promptly. >> No, no, you have a motion from the board to approve action item 21.14, approval of construction manager for the new high school. >> Madam Chair, >> yes. >> I move to approve item 21.14. support.
>> It's been properly moved and second. Is there any discussions? >> Proceed. >> Is that better? >> Yes. >> Could we have Mr. Jones just kind of walk us through the scoring process? I know there was about five or six different um vendors who bid for this
contract. >> Yep. Um I I'll just uh we had a as I spoke to you all before both the board committee and the full board um we had a selection committee uh that is comprised of uh Mr. Alan Valz myself Dr. Wanda
Cook Robinson uh Dr. Notoria Coleman uh Mr. Mike Minbrook um and uh Mr. Steven Gelanick and Mr. Mancini who were both from um Stant uh Stante uh which is our architects. Um in that process um we
listened to we scored based on the information that was given um from the RFP and then we came to interviews uh and we interviewed four was it four it
was four um um four companies uh CMS uh for this uh project and after discussion and after scoring uh we came back together and uh made final decisions and recommendation is coming to the board.
>> I have one more question. >> Um this might be a question for Allan. There's a lot of um like cooks in the kitchen. So there's like you, Mr. Jones, there's Plant Moran, there's Stan. Um now there's this company. Like could you
kind of explain how who's doing what just for the community's purpose? Like who's making decisions on what? how it's being coordinated. You have the board, too. So, it's a lot of things going on, but if you could just kind of summarize how that is being coordinated with this new contract, right? You got the phase
one environmental, etc. There's a lot going on. >> That probably would be a good question for me. >> All right. And not >> all right. Even better. >> Yes. >> Um, so, so going back to the last board meeting we had, >> the board voted on a board committee uh
SOPs. Based on that, the superintendent created a cadence to ensure that um he I was given on Mondays. What happened is uh Clant Moran gives me agenda items
based on um what I have asked for from academics, what I have asked from uh to keep us moving with community engagement um and also construction and also uh schematic not not schematic but Stantech
which is architects. So, in order for me to build u the information needed for my board committee, um plant Moran is getting all this information to the suit. I then uh have advisement um from
individuals that I believe that can either tell me what these agenda items are these agenda items is what we need or what am I missing. I do advisement there. Then we have our leadership meeting on Wednesday. All of this leads
us to the meeting with the board committee on every other Monday. So who how this works? Uh Planaran is our uh owner's rep who is holding all this information and supporting me as the superintendent and the board committee
to bring all of that information together. Once I get it, um, I come to the board committee, we discuss it and then I go from there to leadership, uh, those that are supporting and partners
that are supporting talk about what we're going to do with community or talk about what we need to do with scholars and staff. So what's happening is the owner's rep is helping us by working with the CM, helping us by working with
Stantech to get all of that information in one place. What happens is I'm actually over operations in the district and Mr. Alan Valz is our maintenance manager. He's actually the man and I'm sitting next to the man when it comes to that work. but we work together and to
to deal with the everyday workings of the district. When it comes to the meetings that's going to be coming up with the CM, there's going to be a weekly meeting meeting where all of those folks triangulate to talk about construction. But I also have a meeting
on Wednesdays where I have partners in there. Uh the Flint Center, um the uh Dr. Wanda Cook, my team is present. Um where we are talking about the agenda items and the things that we need to talk to the board about in the community
about. Um now there is some nuance there. Uh there are some conversations going on now about how that looks and whether uh partners that are cons uh there now is going to actually be a part of that. Uh we're talking about that now. I'm I'm talking that through. But
that is the cadence. Everything is going to be coming through this committee and then going back out to everyone else. But it needs to come to the superintendent um from our owners rep who is getting and gathering this information, not
leading our partners, but gathering this information to get it to me so that I can make those decisions to come to you all. Does that make sense? >> In the most part, yes. >> Yeah. >> But it it's good. Thank you. Yeah. >> Yeah. I I want to make sure uh for
clarification purposes. So the construction manager um the CMA >> Yeah. CMA. Sorry, construction manager. So in this document, we'll be approving a construction manager. So similar how we did Brandell Homes campus. Just want to
make sure it's clear that we're not bidding for uh demolition or um masonry work or plumbing work as of yet. this person will be able to managing those uh RP processes in and those scope of works. So this is just a management company just for community information
purposes. It's not more so we approving somebody to start the work. This is the one that's going to manage that whole project who who would do the hiring of um with the consult consultation board with the policy but the hiring of those individuals do um for the RFPs for plumbing, masonry, electric, all the good things there.
>> They're managing all of that. >> They're managing all that. So this is not of us approving someone to start demolition. This is just a management company of those people that would be doing that. Stantake is to design uh internal architectural design environmental arch company. Right. That
is for when we do asbestous and air monitoring testing in in those areas. Right. >> Correct. >> Cool. I just want to make sure that's that that's clear across the board for um for record purposes. That's what these entities are doing. >> Yep. And and also I just want to make this very clear too to add to that
there's another side to this. Uh there's portions of community engagement um um that is happening through the center and there's portions that are happening through this work um as it pertains to construction um portions and then you
have academics going on as well with Dr. Notori Coleman and Dr. Wanda Cook Robin. So there's a whole lot of pieces here that's being managed, but it has to be managed in a way that he can come to the superintendent >> and the superintendent is not in 15 meetings and managing a district. As I
heard Trusty Reford say, I need to be able to do my job, right? And so that's the reason why we have our owner's rep and our owner's rep is not going anywhere. Madam Chair, >> um in looking at the um selection
process and looking at the numbers of the top two um I I appreciate the um the selection because everything is about relationships and um to see who you all selected I
agree with even with the numbers because of the quality And we're not starting over. It's important when someone works for you that they know you and especially a project like this. Some questions a new per a new company would have they will
not have. They one major thing they know the board. So they pretty much >> they know what they're about to get. So >> Okay. But for sure, but in something of this size, as a trustee, I need that
comfortability level to be able to call someone by name and for them to be able to if a if a question come up, they can answer it. The board will have a question about that to where we wouldn't even have to have a question. So just to see the numbers, you know, and just see
the overhead costs as it relates to two separate um organiz was was close together. But it's about relationship. Everyone knowing in life everything is based on relationships. And for me, I have the confidence honestly in you all being able to do
what needs to be done. So um with Plat Moran and Mr. Jones and this selection committee, I I applaud you all's work. Um, not only did you say what you were going to do, you did what you said you were going to do. And I I applaud you. I
know I criticize. So when it's Did you say Uh-huh. but I just believe that your criticism, your uh congratulations should be just as loud as your criticism. So I just wanted to make sure that I am congratulating you all just as loud as I
criticize you. So thank you. for this item >> 214. So seeing no further discussion motion to approve it
approval construction management high school conducted by >> Yes. Yes. >> Yes. >> Yes. >> Yes. >> I seek a motion and a second from the
board to approve action item 21.15, approval of environmental consulting services for the new high school. >> So move. >> Support. Is there any discussions? >> I think I think Mr. Kane did a good job. Is there any discussion?
>> No. >> Say no. You want to speak? >> I just want clarification just >> um environmental consultant service. Who is it? Who who is the consultant? Yeah.
>> Uh Mr. Superintendent Jones. Yeah, >> you're telling somebody to come in. >> I Well, I guess I should say, hey, >> I'm gonna ask plant to come forward. >> Oh, >> I I I did do this. I shouldn't be doing that. Forgive me. I'm so sorry. That's that's that's rude.
>> It's late. We still have some present. >> Yes, we do. >> Okay, I'm looking at >> if you can quickly >> quickly cuz we got a long agenda here. >> Two two words. Oh, I see that in here. >> It's in there.
>> Yeah. >> AIA. >> ATC. >> Arch Environmental Group. >> Yes. >> Okay. Is it I'm >> MTC? I'm sorry. I apologize. Material
Testing Consultant. MTC. $160,0005. $150,540. So we go with the lowest >> Okay. >> responsible. >> Okay, we're fine with that. >> Sorry about this right here. >> All right. >> Are you satisfied?
>> Yes. I I couldn't find it. I was looking at the wrong document. So that that helps me. >> Um No, I don't you know what? I can read. So no, I'm fine. Thank you. I I just didn't know where it was. Seeing no further discussion, the motion
to approve item 21.15, approve of environmental consultant service conducted by roll call vote. Secretary Perkins, >> yes. >> Trustee Booze, >> yes. >> Vice President McIntyre, >> yes. >> Trustee Rifle, >> yes. >> Trustee King, >> yes. >> Treasure Lon, myself, President, I'm
sorry, Mr. Myself. Seven. Seven. Yes. >> Proceed. Mr. Jones. I seek a motion and a second from the board to approve resolution 25.11, approval of course catalog amendments. >> Move to approve 25.11. >> Support. >> It's been properly moved and second. Are
there any discussions? Seeing no discussion, the motion to approve to approve resolution 25.11, approval of course catalog amendment conducted by roll call vote. Secretary Perkins, >> yes. >> Trusty Booze, >> yes.
>> Vice President McIntyre, >> yes. >> Trusty Reford, >> yes. >> Trusty King, >> yes. >> Treasure Luna, >> yes. >> Myself, yes. Seven, yes. Board members, in your package on page 79 is the Vartekch monthly update for November. Do
any board member have any questions? Seeing no further question, at this time I will have a a project overview presentation from Clock Construction. Please come forward. Board me, I ask that we hold our question till the end of the presentation.
Thank you. Perfect. >> Is that good? >> Perfect. Hey, uh thank you uh President or Superintendent Jones and board. Uh just wanted to take a few minutes to just go over it's been three years. We started this uh process three years ago
with Doyle Ryder. Um, and we've moved from Doyle Ryder to Potter, the Potter renovations and Potter auditorium. Um, these are all finished photos. Uh, home STEM. So, beautiful school. Um,
Bronnell, uh, the ECDD area, the other parts of the school. Um, and culminating on this beautiful building here that we just opened up back in September. Um, just wanted to go over that. just wanted to commend the board for for the
leadership and and and trusting us to to put this thing together for you um over the course of these last um few years has been great. And of course now moving into this next um piece of um exciting transformational uh project is just
going to be fantastic. Um, so and then we had some other miscellaneous projects, parking lots, the Washington demo, PA systems in the schools, uh, random roof at DTM. The other buildings all had roofs done as well. Um, this is the one thing that my my colleague Morgan Phen back here put together. It's
kind of little fun facts for you guys, just so you know. Um, just the metal panels alone, 7,681 uh, lineal feet of that. But I think some of the interesting things uh we had 327 bids over all this work. We had 91
contracts that we managed. We had 26 uh contractors that were within a 30 mile radius of Flint. We had 60 contractors that were within 76 miles of Flint. So, and and the dollar amount really is key because what that does economically for Flint and the surrounding community is
just fantastic. Um, and then of course I would be remiss if I didn't mention the 215 pieces of candy that I've ate on my trips up to to Superintendent Jones's office that Morgan kind of calculated that one out for us.
>> So, >> what size? >> Oh, it was anything from the little from the little Snickers to >> Oh, that was my piece. >> Oh, I'm sorry. So anyway, I we just want to take a few minutes just to to go over what we what
we've done over the last um three years and we look forward to the next two years plus coming >> and the and also commend the staffs for you know dealing with us during seven moves to this process too. There were seven staff moves or buildings that were moved across this. So the staff really a lot of patience there across the three
years to get here. So I commend all your staff as well. >> Thanks. >> Any questions or Great job. >> I think I think board president and and I just think that I would be remiss to say um it's get lost in the sauce
sometimes to know what it takes to do all of this work. >> That's right. >> We spent $154 million uh invested >> uh $104 154 million. Uh we made good on those
funds. You made good on those funds. Um, and I don't want any of this stuff to get lost in the sauce of what the staff had to go through at Southwestern. Um, having to give up half of that building, what ALA went through, >> what Holmes went through, what Bronnell
went through. >> All of these folks work together to to give us what we have today. And our community is proud. Um, of course, we still need to make strides, community. We're not done trying to make you proud, but we're making strides to make our
community proud in the work. And I appreciate you. Now, you walking away with a check, so we, you know, you didn't play, but we do appreciate your work and we appreciate um all the changes that you had to go through with us as we learn this process. We just
appreciate that and thank you for this information. >> Thank you. >> Very nice. As you said, it works. >> Hold on. One second. I do want to um Yeah, I just want to thank you guys. When I first met you guys, I you were just wrapping up the library and we was
looking for somebody to spend this money and uh I walked across the street and I think that's how I ended up with Clark Construction. And I'm so happy that you guys are back and you can see the different between our board from the
time I walked across the street and where we at now. And I really appreciate I'm glad you're back and you have done a tremendous job. And it was more about relationship that we built. And boy, I can't wait till you guys finish so you can build a board this beautiful,
beautiful >> boardroom. So nice. >> I just really appreciate you guys and thank you so much. >> Amen. >> Trusty King, >> I want to echo uh what Madame President said when I when I when I look over the presentation
three years ago been on the board. I met you know I met the team u when we uh renovated Door Rider. Uh but you know I think you know to the board uh three years ago we or four years ago we had parking lots crumbling. We had potholes, buses breaking down, cars breaking down.
We had buildings in disrepair. There's still some issues. But when I think of it over time, that's a win to celebrate. And sometimes we don't often take a pause and say, "Wow, after all this work, the community deserves so much more." But there's also beauty and pride
where we just be able to say okay we are doing some progress we are making some um progress moves and thank you for being a part of that from the long hour meetings to right now 8:54 is long to us over the past year and a half we've been moving but >> from the long hour meetings that we've
had longer than this to midnight you all have been been there you've been making sure that you've been communicating you've taken feedback received you know and all that that give and take I appreciate you just want to make sure I communicate that to you publicly thank Okay. Thank you. Thank you so much. >> Thank you. Thank you.
>> Can I just >> Oh, yeah. >> Yeah. And I just wanted to be really quick because I I appreciate Yeah. Just appreciate all you've done and and what we did was unprecedented. We've never had a time in history where we've had er funds where we've had a a pandemic close
down school systems for, you know, such a lengthy period of time and then have this amount of money poured in in this particular way uh with these con, you know, restrictions. Um, you know, you you were there with us.
You cried the same tears we did and and laughed along, you know, when when we had some triumphs. So, um, that's really important. Um, all along the way, you showed that you had heart and that you cared about the district and it wasn't just a job. It wasn't just a a contract
for you and I really appreciate that and very, very nice summation. Like, like Superintendent Jones says, it makes it look all so easy like, oh yeah, we just, you know, but there was there was a lot. We really appreciate you guys and look forward to to working with you.
>> Thank you. One more presentation. Thank you so much. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> We will have our audit presentation from Stevenson and Compton. Please come forward. Board members, you're going to have question. I suggest we write them down until after the presentation.
Sorry about the lateness. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Well, good evening. I see a lot of familiar faces. I don't think I see any new ones, but I'll go ahead and introduce myself for anyone maybe in the audience who does not know. My name is Cindy Scott and I'm a partner at Stevenson & Company.
Everything we do uh firmwide that has to do with school districts that runs through me and Nathan Miller, who's actually a manager with us, but was recently promoted to partner effective January 1. So, we're excited for Nathan. >> Thank you. I appreciate that.
Um, so Nathan and I run our school department. So that's anywhere from being a business manager for districts. We have multiple districts where we are their business manager, or doing financial statement audits like we've done for you, consulting work, um, policy and procedure reviews, compliance
work for the state, you name it. But for Flint Schools, we were able to do the financial statement audit this year. And as always, it's a pleasure working with your team. We really do have a great team and it's obvious. We've we visit many of your buildings. We've been able to tour all the work that you guys have
done. This is our first time in the cube though and it is just phenomenal, just beautiful. >> So, we really appreciate the opportunity. >> It's been a long night. So, we are going to try to get through the presentation quickly and save your time, but please
don't hesitate to ask questions if we if we pass over something that maybe you really wanted to talk about. As well, both Nathan and my contact information is at the end of the presentation. So, if you always have questions after the fact that you want to just kind of talk through something, dig into it a little
bit deeper, you can always reach out to either one of us. So, first off, the whole reason why we do what we do, we come out here for several weeks. We do so much testing and talk with staff in in all different buildings within the district and board members. And I we send you all board
member letters at the beginning of the audit to make sure you know when we're going to be on site is not to say whether or not Flint is in a good financial position or a poor financial position, but is this bound report, this 100page report, is it accurate and free
of material misstatement that can be relied upon? And yes, it is. We issued an unmodified opinion as we did in the previous years, which is the highest level of assurance that we can provide. So, I'm just going to point out what
page number in your boundary report things are at so that you at a later time can reference between the presentation and the and the actual bound report. But just so you can see the management discussion and and analysis begins on page three. I do really encourage every member of the
board to read through that. We call it the MDNA. Read through that page by page. is probably about nine or 10 pages, but it's a really good recap in layman's terms of how the year went. It it walks through your capital outlay activity, discusses next year's um
forecasts and financial budgets and things like that. So, I do encourage you to read that. But then on page nine, it starts your governmentwide financial statement. So, a real quick refresher, your financial statements have two different sets of data. You have your
fund statements that we'll get to and that's going to be what you're more familiar with looking at. It takes each individual fund, the general fund, your food service fund, and so on, and it breaks down that information more on a it's a modified acrruel basis where it
excludes the long-term activity. So, if revenues aren't in your hands within 60 days of the end of the year, it does not show it as revenue or any of that long-term debt, your bonds, your net pension liability, things like that. It excludes that in your funds. But one
time a year at audit time, we have to consolidate all of your funds into one big picture financial statement and incorporate any of that long-term activity. So again, the net pension liability is the biggie. You'll see on this slide, your net pension liability
as of June 30th was $37,663,700. I know we've talked about this number in depth over the year, so I won't go through all of it, but big picture, this is an estimate. It's determined by the actuary at the state level. It's audited by the auditor general. And basically
that multi-billion dollar liability at the state gets divvied out to all the school districts to say of all of our current and past employees, how much do we think we're going to pay out from retirement to death offset by how much is already sitting in an investment at
the state plus what we expect to get in investment earnings over the years. So that difference, your portion of the pie is almost $38 million. But this can fluctuate from year to year and it will fluctuate from year to year based on the
assumptions at the state level changing. At what age do we think someone's going to retire? At what age do we think someone's going to pass away >> and so on. >> Now on the off side of that, there's the OPED, which is the other postemployment benefits. And this is your health insurance for retirees. This has always
been a liability until last year and now it's overfunded at the state side. So you have an asset showing on your books of 6,264,662. So just a couple things to keep in mind. >> You're ending that position big picture. All of your funds, all of that long-term
activity, your fixed assets, all the beautiful renovations you've done, you're ending that position at June 30 was 70,470,229. Again, this is big picture view. So, it's including a lot of things that that's not cash. It's not something you can take to the bank, but just want you
to see what that is. >> So, still talking big picture view. I just want to really quickly highlight on some of the big changes we're seeing from 2024. And one is that your cash as of June 30th 25 compared to June 3024,
your cash was almost 25 million less. But you had huge projects going on, right? You had a lot of activity. So that's going to decrease cash. You had a lot of revenues that came in that you had to previously recognized as unearned revenue because you received it before
you spent it. So you'll see that we show your unearned revenue decreased because as you were doing the building, those were going away. >> Payables decreased because of construction payables from the previous year and that unearned revenue decreased. But both of those would drop
cash. Capital assets, which is your land, your building, your equipment, net of the related depreciation, that increased almost $28 million. And then the net pension liability we were talking about, that decreased this year by over $18 million.
>> So that's a really good thing. But every time they change their assumptions, >> that's going to affect it. So the the offsetting deferrals, which for the most part are those assumption changes, was 8 million of that. >> The net the net oped asset, those those
health insurance benefits I mentioned, that increased even more by 5 million. >> And then the related deferrals, those assumptions that changed that were at 1.6 million. >> Okay. >> Revenues decreased, again, we're looking at big picture view here. revenues
decreased 26.9 million. So you had higher property taxes because taxable values increased. There was also a prior period adjustment that we had to record which is it was a good thing where more money came in to the to the district
than what was expected from previous year taxes based on the timing. Then you had um so that was the increase and that was offset by decreased interest income. As your cash goes down in the bank accounts, you're not going to earn as much interest.
>> You also had decreased state aid, your pupil counts went down which decreases your state aid. And because um in the previous year, the state had provided excess dollars for the school district to pass along to the office of retirement services to pay down that
liability quicker. they didn't pass as much through this year. So, you're going to see a decrease in the revenue and a decrease in the expenses for the same amount. >> And then also decreased grant dollars this year. You had already spent the largest portion of your SR3 dollars on
the construction in 24. So, you just finished spending it this year. So, we have a decrease of 25.3 million in grants. >> Keep in mind now it's gone. >> Yeah. >> There's no more Esser money. So we are going to see significant decreases in
our grant funding again for 26. >> On the expense side, total expenses decreased four million. Now on paper, this is a little deceiving because since that net pension liability went down and the OPEB asset went up, the offset of
that is expenses. So that makes up 1.8 million of the decrease in expenses. And then we also have salaries and related benefits went down 2.8 million. The biggest piece here, you are down full-time equivalent staffing from 24 to
25. But the biggest piece here is if you think back to 24, you had that large UTF settlement that flowed through 24. So that was inflating the expenses last year. Purchase services went down due to curriculum purchases in the previous year as well as reduced social worker
expenses. And then those were offset by increased supplies in the current year for the library refresh and textbooks. So then we get to page 11. This is your fund financial statement where these start and this is going to be what you're budgeting in accordance with,
what you're looking at on a monthly basis. So it's going to be a little bit more familiar of information. And we have to look at each individual fund to decide based on the amount of activity flowing through at dollar value. Is it a major fund or is it a non- major fund? And the only reason this really matters
is because the major funds we identify in the front of the financials individually were non- major funds are combined. So the only major funds you had this year was the general fund. >> Yeah. >> And then everything else is that non- major fund. But if you were to go to the back of the financials, we do detail
them out for you there. Mhm. >> So then the ending fund balance, I always tell everybody it's probably the only slide you care about today is where did you end up? So just looking at your general fund at June 30, you ended at
just over 46 million. >> 67,000 of that is non-spendable, meaning it's for an inventory or a prepaid item that is not actually cash sitting there. >> Now 12.6 6 million of that is assigned
to next year's budget. So when you approved the 2526 original budget, you approved to dip into your fund balance by by 12,609 to balance your budget. So that's why we show that separately because we want you
to know you've already spoken for this portion of it. So then what's left? You're left at the end of the day with 33,661,4462. Mhm. >> That's 34.69% of your current year expenditures. That percent is a good percent. That's
something that I like to see at districts. But what I do want to point out just for awareness, and I know you're aware of this, but if you look at the prior year percent, you were at 41.8%. >> Now we're down to 34.69. And now the ESSER money is gone.
>> Yeah. So this I am very confident is going to continue to decrease. And so I just encourage you to keep a close eye on it, work on trying to balance that budget so that we can get to a point where it doesn't continue to decrease because once you start getting below 20%
then then our auditor, you know, our hairs start to tingle and we start to get a little bit nervous. So I would just say keep an eye on it. you're you're in a good place, but now that ESR money's gone, you've really got to kind of tighten up tighten the purse strings
a little and keep an eye on it. >> Yep, I'm good. So, nothing here we haven't talked about, but just looking at the general fund revenue. I like to look at a three-year span to see how we're doing. I mentioned that the tax money went up because you received more money than expected from last year, plus
taxable values continued to increase. So, that's why you see local sources going up. state revenues down, loss of FTE and the reduction of some of those OS dollars, the money from the state to pay towards retirement. But then look at the drop in federal and we're going to
see that drop significantly again next year. So just want you to have that visual on the expense side. Again, salaries went down a little bit because you had that um settlement last year. Employee benefits and taxes are going to go down in accordance with that. As you pay less
salaries, you pay less in taxes in retirement, but also less money from the state that you had to flow through. Supplies jumped up to use up those esser dollars for the library refresh and textbooks purchase services dropped like we mentioned. Um, and then capital
outlay, you had a lot more of the activity going on in the previous year than you did this year. So that's why we see a drop there. And if you look at how your expenses are laid out, it's actually more even than I typically see. So typically I see a lot
more in the bene in the salaries, wages, benefits, and taxes, but you do have a lot of outsourced positions and that's what's sitting over in your purchase services. You have many many of your positions, especially at the central office that are outsourced. So that's why we're seeing it break down that way.
But as the capital outlay starts to shrink, as your p I mean you still have another really big project to happen, right? But once the high school is complete and you have less capital outlay, I think we're going to see that shift change a little bit. So then beginning on page 15 are the
notes to the financial statements. And this just gives you some more meat behind the numbers. And there's just a few of them that I want to point out to you. One, we were required to implement two new governmental accounting standards. This year, we were required
to implement Gazsby 101, which is the compensated absences rules, and Gazsby 102, which is certain risk disclosures. Now, 102, I'll talk about the easy one first. We have to evaluate the different risks that that the district is facing and determine if there are any that meet
certain requirements that have to have additional disclosure over and above what we're already disclosing. We did not find any such situations. So you're not going to see an effect in your financial statement outside of this note. But Gazsby 101 was a big one. Gazsby 101 changes how we have to
calculate and think about our acred sick vacation PTO time and all of that. Previously, we only had to look at of that acred time of our employee banks, what would get paid out when they leave the district, whether they retire, whether they're terminated, what would
we actually have to pay out? Now, they don't want it to be as easy. Now, we have to look at of that bank. >> How much is everybody going to use of their bank >> between now and when they retire? And then how much are they going to get paid out when they do leave the
district? So it really complicated the concept and the calculations. And to make it even more fun, it was required that it be retroactively restated back to June 30, 2024. So we had to do the work for 24 and 25. We worked a lot with
your finance director and your payroll department and they did a lot of work behind the scenes on this as well. So that is incorporated and because of that retroactive restatement, it did cause a prior period adjustment of 287,334.
Meaning this look back of what's going to be used increased the liabilities by 287,334 as of June 30, 2024. And I if I can uh I just want to stress also that because we're now looking at
what will be used. That's that's another thing where we can't actually know that. So it's another big pretty big estimate. We're using historical data to come up with those numbers, predict the future, but of course you can't. You don't know what people are going to use. So just be
aware that is also an estimate just like our potential liabilities. Mhm. And then just a heads up for next year, Gazsby 103 has to be incorporated next year. And this is another one that should be fun. It initially started out
where they were going to totally revamp the face of the financial statements and assets were no longer going to be assets and liabilities were no longer going to be liabilities. And luckily enough CPAs, you know, complained that they've they've changed it. They've tweaked it. So, I don't think it's going to be as
scary. But one big change that I want to point out that'll be important to keep in mind, and Nathan's done more research on this than me, so jump in if I'm incorrect. But one big change is that right now when we look at your budgets, we have to present in the financial statements your original budget that's
approved, your final budget that's approved, and then where you end up. And then the variance that has to be shown and be able to be explained in our management's discussion and analysis is based on final budget and actual. Now they want us to explain and show the
variance between the original budget and the final budget. And I anticipate that's going to be challenging for some districts because I know that many districts when they're doing that original budget, the state budget's not out. So you're just throwing a dart at a target hoping to get somewhere close. So
it is going to pose some challenges. So all I can say is document, document, document. When you have your amended budgets, make little notes somewhere in your columns of why because next year we're going to have to say, "Hey, how do you want us to explain why you changed
this revenue line by $5 million?" >> So they're going to it's going to add some challenges. So in the meantime, since this is going to be our first year having to implement it with next year's audit, document those changes. Another note that's in there, and I'm I'm not going to read all these to you,
but anytime the board approves a contract or a large purchase or something of significance prior to the end of your fiscal year that's not complete at the end of your fiscal year, that's considered to be a commitment. So, we included the commitments that had been approved by the board that were in
progress, but not complete yet at the end of the audit. So, that's disclosed in the footnotes. And then as well if the board approves something significant after June 30th but before the issuance of the audit report that's material we're also required to disclose that. So the
approval of the high school project as a whole was included as a subsequent event. I had mentioned earlier the prior period adjustments. I you can read through these. Um the one is the property taxes we mentioned. One is the compensated
absences that was mentioned. And the third one, it's a positive piece to your fund balance. So, it's nothing to be alarmed of, but if you recall last year, we had some bank statement issues that required a prior period adjustment. Unfortunately, it only hit one fund and
it should have hit two. So, this is just the other side of that from the same situation. So, this is that budget page I mentioned. We're looking at your original budget, your final budget, and where did you end up? And we look at that for revenues and expenses. And you
can see there's some pretty large variances. But what I want to point out here is that you had some huge construction projects going on. You had a lot of activity going on. So sometimes this can be a really hard thing to wrap
your arms around. But I do encourage you, the goal should be 5%. The goal should be to be able to get to the point where where you end up and where you thought you were going to end up is within 5%. So, we've got some work to do here. But the positive from here is if
you look at that very bottom line, the net variance to fund balance, it's an increase of 4 million, meaning you didn't end up in a worse position than where you budgeted to be. And that's the piece that the state's going to look at. So, that's a positive thing. It is
possible. I don't think they're doing it currently, but it's possible the state could say, "Oo, this is kind of a big variance. Talk me through your budget process." They they used to do that. But now it's getting more to the point where they only ask you to walk them through your process if it's going the
wrong way. And this went the positive way. So that's a good thing. Page 49 begins the supplementary information where it combines those non- major or I'm sorry, it separates those non- major funds that were combined up front. And we also have individual fund
schedules for your general fund where we walk you through the different types of expenses and revenues where we show prior year, current year, and your budget. It's a really good place if you're trying to dig into your budget. How much did we spend at the high school and supplies last year? How much did we
spend in the middle school um purchase services this year compared to last year? So, it gives you a little bit more detail. So, it's a good place that I like to go to for my business manager clients when I'm trying to evaluate my budget and where I want to make some changes.
Then, our single audit. A single audit is required when you expend more than $750,000 of federal revenue. You expended 36 million. So, a single audit was definitely required. I will make note that beginning in next year's audit, the
federal guidelines have increased that threshold to 1 million, but you will still far exceed that. So, you will still be in a single audit situation next year. The major programs that we tested for Flint this year were the ESSER funding, title 4, and the special education
cluster. We did have um two situations that we have to disclose and record as findings related to your federal funding. The first is a title one overdraw. And basically what happened is at the end of
a grant year, a final expenditure report of that grant has to be submitted to the Department of Education saying how you spent the money and what you spent. And then the Department of Education makes sure that you're made whole for all of those costs. Well, unfortunately, some
of the acred payroll that was already drawn down from the 2024 school year wasn't reversed. So, it was drawn down again at the time that the final expenditure report was made. So, that is a question cost that we were required to
disclose of 53,509. So, what I anticipate will happen, I'm not the state, but what I anticipate will happen is they will pull that money back, but then it will turn into your carryover that you can budget to spend this year.
>> That's what I anticipate, but we'll have to wait and see what the state does. >> The other situation that we ran into is related to time and effort reporting. Whenever you have employees who are federally funded with within more than
one cost objective, so not necessarily more than one grant, but more than one cost objective, meaning they're not spending 100% of their day meeting the same objective. Maybe they're gened for the first half of the day and then they're working with title students the second half of the day. Whenever you
have that situation, time and effort reporting documentation is required to be completed and that was not being done by all of the staff. So my understanding is that that staff have already been trained and that now the
grants director is going to be reviewing the documents on a periodic basis to ensure that they're being done consistently. Now, the good news is we were able to test for the samples that we selected. We were able to pull Outlook calendars
and class schedules, and we were able to confirm that we're comfortable that costs weren't overdrawn. So, we don't have to disclose question costs to the state where where they'll pull the money back, but it is still a finding that needs to be addressed and corrected.
In the back of your audit report is a loose letter and it's our management letter and it's made up of two appendices. The first appendix is that canned required communication. Any significant audit matters. Yes, we can't express enough how many significant
estimates that you have. The net pension liability is an estimate. The OPED asset is an estimate. The Gazsby 101 compensated absences are estimates. And your depreciation is an estimate. meaning you're estimating the useful
life of the different assets that you have. There were no difficulties encountered. There are no material uncorrected misstatements that are remaining out there. There were no disagreements with management. Management provided written representation to us at the completion of the audit that they weren't
withholding information and that everything that they provided was accurate to the best of their knowledge. We're not aware of you consulting with other auditors for a different opinion. You're not opinion shopping. We gave you an unmodified opinion and there are no other issues or matters to discuss
outside of appendix 2. And then appendix 2 is where we are required and a lot and able to express to you concerns, areas of improvement, recommendations for some um plans of action. We do have three
material weaknesses that we reported this year. And just to remind you, a material weakness is when there's a significant area in your audit, a significant financial component where it's reasonably possible something could go wrong. Doesn't mean it did, but it's reasonably possible that it could. And
if it went wrong, it could be material to the financial statements. If those three conditions are met, it's a material weakness. And the first is material proposed audit entries. I do want to say this is a very common one that is in many many reports. It means
that we had to propose audit adjustments that were material to your financials in order for the financial statements to be accurate. But we are required to disclose this just because it means if we wouldn't have caught it, maybe the district wouldn't have either. So that's
what that means. Next is with bank reconciliations. Unfortunately, there was some um sick time by an employee that was in charge of bank wrecks and during that extended time off, there was not that work being done in their place.
So, bank wrecks fell several months behind and that is a material weakness that really can't happen. So, we need to make sure that controls are in place that when someone is off who's doing it, someone else is filling in. And then we had duplicate payments. We did find during the audit some
situations of duplicate payments being made regarding the the construction project. The good news is is that there were controls in place at the construction company side of things where when a project was complete they were doing
their own audit where they could make sure that that didn't happen. And some of the things we found they had already found and corrected. Some of the ones we found they hadn't completed yet. So they hadn't gotten to their audit yet. But at the end of the day, it's the district's responsibility to have controls in place
at the district so that things can be caught before cash goes out the door, not after it's gone out the door to get it back. So, the district was made whole in all situations. Correct. >> Yep. >> So, the district was not out any funds,
but there were still timing situations of this got paid twice and then you had to get it back. So, we did consider that to be a material weakness. Other matters. I already mentioned both of these to you. These were related to the single audit and that was the duplicate title one draw of that acrewed
payroll and the improper time and effort reporting. And then for some verbal comments, first off the activity funds, I want to say I'm very very proud of the district and the work that they've done on the activity funds. I know you have a committee now that's overseeing that
that's that's really taking hold of all the internal controls around those activity funds which is why we just made it a verbal comment this year because you have done a great job and I don't want to belittle that. The areas that we still had a little bit of concern left was with gift cards. And when gift cards
are purchased with activity funds, we'd like to see better tracking and better accountability of any of those signout sheets that every single gift card is properly signed out. On the transparency reporting, this has all been resolved. This was just a reminder, a verbal reminder to say, okay, as soon as your
audit's done, make sure that transparency site is up to date. And then the excess food service fund balance. We are not required to show this as a finding anymore. when you have excess dollars in your food service fund, we just like to continue to verbally remind you to stick to your
spendown plan. And then following up on last year's comments, I know it's nice to see where are we, how are we doing. The material proposed audit entries, those were there last year, that's there this year again. The bank reconciliation, the issue we
had a year ago where items were allowed to remain, that was corrected. we it's just a new issue. So that's why you'll see another column that says the prior year issue was resolved but we have a new issue. Um the time and effort reporting last year's finding was that the time and effort
reporting documents were not always accurate. It would have an incorrect position listed for an employee. That was corrected on the ones that were completed but not everyone was completing them. So it's a new issue. The grant coding a lot of progress made.
I know that that your finance office did work really hard on making sure that everything was coded to the correct place this year and so we did not run into any coding issues which you have a lot of grants going through your district. So that really is a very good job by your finance department. Student
activity funds significant progress made there. I love the work that the committee is doing on overseeing everything. And then last year we had the issue with the prevailing wage with the ESSER funds and that was corrected this year.
A lot a lot of information >> that's it. >> Okay, great. board members. Um, any questions or comments? >> Madam Chairy, >> um, you know, the one thing that was sticking with me was that 540,000
and that's the adjustments and, um, when it happened, it sounds like here we reversed it, but it should have been reversed in two places. So when we caught that this outstanding item that never cleared was still sitting on the bank >> wreck
>> and we said that >> it's it's not real. You don't have a deposit outstanding for that long. >> Correct. >> So that was when we addressed it last year. We didn't realize that in the mix of all of the outstanding checks was an
offsetting one in another fund. So we should have noticed it last year and done that prior period adjustment all at once. >> So unfortunately half of it got fixed last year and the other half this year. >> So from for me looking at it from a financial standpoint when you if you
close your books every month you'll catch it. >> If you close your books every month you're going to catch a lot of the things that caused that material correct journal entry finding. the bank reconciliation issue that caused that 540. That's going to be more keeping up
on the bank wrecks every month, which is part of closing. >> Which is >> part of closing. Correct. >> Reconcile all accounts each month where you do month in where you shut it down to where you can I mean I just think that's something we have to do because
one, it's better for us to find an era and be able to explain it to you when you get here. But what concerned me was the books were closed and you had to reopen the book to do adjustments. So, so that's a red flag for me.
>> I agree. If we can be closing the books every month, >> that's going to be a lot easier to go backwards and find the mistakes because it's a lot easier to look in one month of activity >> than 12 months of activity. Unfortunately for the district, I there
were a lot of different moving parts this year and and I think that some absences in the finance office with people not being here made it difficult. >> Well, I guess when it comes to that you it's cross trainining. You you you you
that's your responsibility. And for us, you know, we look to hire individuals that know how to communicate, hey, I'm going to be out. But I just think that's a management thing where you just do cross trainining where someone's out. But what's important to me is I just
these adjustments are concerning to me because it, you know, it just seems like it could snowball where you actually think you have >> a half of a million dollars and you don't. And I think it started with coding. You know, we thought I think it was coded as cash and it should have been revenue or something or the other.
>> It was an outstanding item on a bank wreck that was several years old. Correct. And really the rule of thumb needs to be three days on a deposit and three months on a check. And after that, we need to follow up on it and make sure we're keeping up with it. >> Okay. we just put some things in place to
>> and we did and I know I shared it with um the president and with the superintendent. We did put together kind of a recap of what we think triggered some of these issues and the corrective action that I know the district's already put into place. So I know the district is on top of these. So um I'm
sure that that if that's not been shared that they can share that. But it was a nice recap of all of the findings we talked about >> and ways that it can be corrected. Okay, very good. Thank you. >> Uh, just want to say thank you C Cynthia
and Nathan for the work you've done, our staff for doing the work. I know we talked on the phone a couple times. Um, but I will say one thing. I want to say maybe two fiscal years before. We had some issues with our minutes and how we did that and how we can go back and check our records. That's been two years
where that's been not an issue. >> I don't believe we've had any issues with that, have we? I'm not sure on the minutes this year. >> We didn't have to watch them on YouTube if we did a couple years ago. >> I know for a fact when we talked, we went back to them and walked through them and like we had some questions answered that didn't show up in this.
So, Miss Pam over here doing that work. I really appreciate it. >> But that was helpful. So, I want to call it out because that was an issue before. >> Yeah. No, I I believe that that's been fully corrected a year or two ago. I think it was just the very first year we tried to do the audit, they weren't
available. So, poor Nathan watched hours and hours and hours of board meeting minutes on YouTube so he could recap. >> That's not fun. >> But anyways, I just thanks again and uh looking forward how we can get this better next year. Also, it's really easy to read. Um it's gotten better at least
for me. So, do appreciate that from the colors to just kind of having less text and more bullet points. So, thank you. I'm I'm good. I I did send the board information on the on the uh solutions. >> Um uh so you have that in your email,
but I sent that a while back when you gave info. >> Yeah. If I can make one last comment, just one thing. I don't know that where things stand right now, but I know that with your former finance director moving, I know that that's been something you've been looking to find
your long-term solution there. And so I'm just going to encourage you because she has that CPA knowledge. She has a lot of knowledge. She's very very good at what she does. She she's just in my opinion was stretched way way way too thin.
Whomever you find to fill those shoes, >> really make sure you look at the qualifications and make sure that they're going to be capable because it's a hard hard job. >> Yeah. and it might not be a job that one person can fill and do it well.
>> So, that's just a thought, something to think about. I know it's going to be a hard position to fill. >> Um, >> but I and I I just think she does a really good job. She does. >> I think she was just stretched thin. >> She was >> We're closer. We're close.
>> Yes. Um, I I know I want to go back to your single audit for ESSER funding. >> Yes. Uh, I want to make sure we're clear. When you audited ESER funding, I know the answer to it, but I think it's also important that our community know that Flint Community School spent our
ESSER funds appropriately. Yes. >> And the right way. So, when you can you speak to that more when you audited ESSER? >> So, just to quantify it, I'm going to actually pull that up. So there was I don't have the total dollar amount for the total ESR funding
that you received through the life of COVID because it's been several years running >> but just SR3 alone >> SR3 alone was 99,423,57 and you spent all of it without any question cost at the end of the day.
>> One more time. M >> one more time. >> $99,423,57 without any question cost at the end of the day. >> And thank you. >> Great job. And I think it's important to highlight that because Flint Community Schools is one of the if not the only districts
that receive that much money and to be able to come out of that >> spending appropriately and there's no errors being made that and with CFO transitions, finance transitions, and people moves. That's commendable to to me in my opinion. Um, but also, you
know, we have some things to tighten up with the title grant piece, uh, which, you know, which is expected and that's why we we hire for a C, you know, audit to come in and say, "Hey, where we where we need to improve upon before there's no any trouble." Um, but I also want to commend the superintendent and the team um for that hard work that that wasn't
easy to do on top of not just 99 million for ESER, but we had title funding, we had all the different funding >> and still was able to do that. >> Still commendable to me. Thank you. >> Yeah. >> Yes. Thank you very much. >> Sometimes I think that I'm I'm sorry.
>> Sometimes I think that going over the findings can can discredit how hard everyone works. That doesn't downplay how important and serious the findings are because they are and it's important that we have corrective action and that we act on
those. But I don't want to discredit how hard the district works. You have a really really good team. I think some of them are just stretched thin and and need some support and I know that's really hard. I mean, we've been trying to hire some extra staff for
us and it's it is really really hard to find right now. So, it's going to be a tough road for you guys, I think, to find the right people, but good luck. >> Yeah. And I just wanted to say thank you. another year where you've made it
relatively painless in terms of like what we've had to deal with previously and it's very nice your explanation. I think it helps the community and the board understand you know a lot of the things step by step whereas before it was just like here's the report do you have any questions kind of thing. So, I
really appreciate you taking the time to do that. And the findings, yeah, they're discouraging. Um, you know, and you can like get bogged down in them. They and they they are things to take to say take seriously, but they're not things that I think that we aren't aware of and that
we haven't been trying to address over the years. We're trying to fix a system that has been, you know, having some issues and some turnover problems. Um, and, you know, we move forward a little bit. sometimes we get back a little bit but we're still we're constantly moving
forward and trying to address those things. So really appreciate you working with us through all of it and you know coming back with those things and and having that kind of institutional memory which is really really important for for our board and sticking with us. So um
I'm sure I'll have more questions when I start digging deeper but uh but but I appreciate it. Thank you. >> Absolutely. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. Thank you, Cynthia. >> Thank you. >> I just want to make I thought there was
something about Vartek. Did we have something about >> I thought there was something on the >> It's really simple but I'll say monthly update. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. But he has something he wants to say. This is his time to speak. He's speaking on something.
>> Yep. So um I would like to um uh my comments at the end of the meeting is going to be a video of um the Senate floor. And so um I know board members you have comments at the end. >> Well, the most of them
Yep. So, I was I I got you. Um we were asked by um senators to come and speak on behalf of Flank kids as it pertains to the funding that was stripped. Um and um I wanted to allow the community and
the board to hear what we had to say uh to the Senate Appropriations Committee. And so my comments at the end of this meeting, board members, is just simply going to be the comments um from that I made in front of the Senate Appropriations Committee. If you don't
mind, >> Madame Chair and honorable members of the Senate, thank you for the opportunity to speak today. As you can see, I'm already emotional. >> Yep. Here we go.
>> Yeah. That was Hannah. >> Madame Chair >> and honorable members of the Senate, thank you for the opportunity to speak today. As you can see, I'm already emotional with the words that I just
heard. come before you not only as a superintendent of Flint Community Schools, but as a Flint kid, >> a Jennese County resident, and a steward of children whose lives were altered by a crisis they did not
create, could not avoid, and are still living. Well, I'll talk. >> Can you bring it lower? >> Okay. Do your comments and we'll come back. >> Okay. Yes. Um, on the comments, I I want
to um address the teacher that came up and um you know, we heard you. We hear you. Please don't stop talking. Um definitely continue to work together. Um being in the district as long it sounds like you
as you have, you have a lot to add. And I just think um synergy is very is is is useful in Flint schools. We need it more than ever before. No one person has all the answers, but I think if everyone collaborate, I think we'll be that much
further ahead. Um, it's easy to point fingers, but I I I would definitely applaud anyone that's willing to roll up their sleeves in spite of because we want delayed gratification so we all can come out at the end on top. So I say to every
teacher, work work with your leadership. And someone once said to me, if you wanted to be liked, sell ice cream. So if you're not selling ice cream, just know that you're working with our future.
And the goal is to get them across the line. And when you can get one student across the line, it's well worth it. Uh >> oh. and are still living with every day. >> Okay. Go ahead. >> Okay. But what's important is that we
had something major happen and now we have something we can build on. Flint is still the school, the district that everyone should want to be a part of because you're you're still here. You could have went any went anywhere else. And the fact that you remained here, I
thank you for that. And I believe that we will be better for it because you stayed here. But just hearing everyone come and talk about Central, first of all, thank you for caring enough to show up to share your comments and your concerns. But however, I think it comes
a time where we just have to go forward. But if you were disappointed and heard, thought that something you were told that something would happen, please accept my apology. I don't think it's anyone's intent to mislead anyone on this board or or the superintendent, but
sometimes that does, you know, miscommunications does happen, but I just ask you all to give us grace during this time, you know, because a lot is going on at the same time. We don't have the answers, but however, I think everyone's committed to working diligently to find the appropriate the
appropriate answer. And I would just ask that everyone step into the utilitarian type of approach. is what's for the greater good of the most individuals and I think if we do that I think we'll come out okay. Thank you. >> Anyone else have a comment before we do
video? >> Go first. >> No, go ahead. >> Um yeah, so I just wanted to to make a statement that um we've been through a a really long week. a lot of productive
stuff but a lot of stuff that we couldn't have anticipated and and I really commend the board and the community for all coming together and you know moving forward with the best interests of the community and the students. Um, I do want to to say that
it is kind of disheartening though to hear um other aspects of the city try to come in where there isn't any jurisdiction and without an understanding of how the law works and how rules and regulations across the
state, you know, apply to school districts versus municipalities and, you know, zoning codes and things like that. But rest assured that the board understands and we understand our charge and we are taking care of it. We are
very serious about anything that that happens about the safety of of not just the schools but the entire community. Um, so it's not we're we're constantly, you know, vigilant and and and monitoring the situation nationwide to
kind of see like if there's anything we can do proactively for our community specifically because we have very specific needs as FL. We are such a weird community, right? We've got very specific, we are unlike any other
community in the nation. Um, and I just wanted to say that I appreciate each and every one of you. my call, you know, to to come forward and be a community school. Um, you know, instead of just trying to take away from our assets and, you know, just and I'm not saying that
any of you are doing that any of that, but there's been so long hands out trying to people coming forward trying to take from the title money or trying to privatize some of our community resources to get something for themselves. Um, you know, I really see a
shift in that changing and that that's that's very hopeful. Um, I do want to remind you I, you know, I', I've said I would love to see Central look I would love all the facades, you know, all the historical facades all over the city
remained the same and and, you know, put something behind it. But, you know, logistically, um, we have to look at each as on a case-byase basis because of asbestous, because of zoning, because of state regulations, federal regulations. I
mean, it's just crazy how so many different institutions, nonprofits, organizations seem to not want the schools to succeed, right? They give you with one hand esser dollars, but on the other hand, you can only do this, this,
and this. And it's like, well, this isn't what we need. What we need is this. And we need to be honestly, we need funding. And to be underfunded year after year, decade after decade, it comes at a very very high cost psychologically,
uh, materially, educationally, and and we're this is where we're at at this point. Um, so historically, yeah, I mean, love Andy Highmith, Demolition Means Progress. He was right on the money with that book. um you know that that was the the charge
that was that was you know um always put forward um in talking about progress. You know this this whole progress machine of bigger, better, faster, harder, stronger um which has been disproven and and you know we need more
sustainable um and and alternative outcomes in this kind of a an economy or an community. Um, but we have 400 acres in the city we've got to be stewards of and it should belong to the community
and it should be used in service of promoting democracy and education in our community and I want it to stay that way. We sold the service center for $150,000 in 2013
uh 10 years ago or you know a little more than 10 years ago and now we're dealing with radiator I mean not radiator but um boiler boiler issues. We're dealing with the fact that we relocated our central
kitchen to a decrepit building that wasn't being used for education, which the community always said was really a bad idea. Don't do it. And look how much we are paying >> for that. Um, also the Flint Cultural
Center. I I'm glad that they're being partners right now and that that we have more partnerships going on. But remember, the Flynn Institute of Music took a whole bunch of beautiful historic housing and just decimated it and made
it into a huge big parking lot by whiting. So, you know, if there's anyone to complain about in terms of destroying history in this community, it's not this school board. We want what you want as much as maybe even more. I mean, they
took away the Sarvis Center. Um, they took away uh St. Michael's School. I mean, like there's some places in the city that are gone now. And I I get your point about that those buildings being removed. We want to keep as much as
possible, but we also need things that are safe and workable for the students. So that's the reason for the decision at least on on my part and and my my phone number is public. You know, feel free to call me. I know some of you reach out to
me. Um we're now back from uh a conference. So, you know, I'm willing to have these conversations. I'll sit down and have coffee with you. Um, you know, we can talk about the historical inequities and why we're here where we're here and the reason why our this
this board is doing what it it can with what it has now. So, ju just I don't do that to you, Joyce, and I really would appreciate it if you didn't. So, uh, because this is an important this is an important topic and
we're finally at a place where we can build a new high school and and I want to do it. I want to assure you that that we're trying to get everybody's input and everybody's, you know, we're trying you can't please everybody and so and and we're all our hands are tied as
board members because we have to make decisions as seven people and we can't really speak out of turn because of of laws and things like that. But I can speak as an individual, you know, off the record. So, >> yeah, you're next. >> Democracy sometimes is a clunky
instrument, but it's what we have to work with and and it's it's >> let's let's keep it and let's keep plugging away at it. So, thank you. Thank you. I appreciate it. >> Um, so I wanted to talk about two things I wanted to address this week at
Southwestern, but on a higher level. So, number one, I do want to be clear. We have partnerships with the city of Flint when it comes to deescalation, uh, when it comes to summer youth employment and to really engage in how we can make sure our students know how
to not resolve the violence um, when it comes to issues. Um, this board in particular, although not popular, adopted a backpack policy and also um, a cell phone policy that's, to be frank, has been adopted across different
districts and states at this moment. Um, so we're making strides to address that. Obviously, there needs to be more parental partnerships and engagement, but I will say this has become less of a common occurrence before that was done.
Um, to my colleagueu's point about uh maybe a certain council member who wants to do their own ordinance within the Flint Community Schools, we're our own government body. that would not work with us because we have our own state and local regulations. So, it' be
redundant and to be frank, a waste of time. But we do welcome feedback and I think a larger conversation merits itself with schools, both our district, charter schools, uh, parents, clergy, mentors, really everyone who lives in
the city in our schools. So, I wanted to speak on that because it's been really bothering me the last week and a half and I just wanted to say it in the clearest terms possible. Um, second piece you can guess I wanted to talk about the high school. So, I was
taking notes throughout the whole public comments. I'm not going to go through all of them, but I did count, you know, a neighborhood president, uh, several parents, several Central Park residents, sever college cultural neighborhood residents, alumni, uh, some immigrant
populations, black, brown, older, younger. So, it's been a pretty broad kind of snapshot of our city, which is beautiful. But I gotta tell you, we've been hearing this for the last couple years about look, we know for a fact that it will cost more to preserve every
last brick of that building or you know, it's a huge hundred million dollar plus undertaking. Um, but I do agree with with several points. Number one, once we do this, it's done. So it it's incumbent upon us
to be intentional with us with our partners at the CSM Foundation, the Flint Center, our paid consultants at Plant Moran, Stantech, now Clark Construction, that we do this the right way the first time and we have time to do that. Um, so a couple points, right?
So we talked about there's four four scenarios, right? >> So there's four scenarios. So every scenario does one thing and it's having the kids at the forefront. So there's no scenario where we sacrifice learning our
safety. That's every scenario guarantees that. Uh point number two. So I believe it's scenario one that had more of like the facade saved. Um but it included the cube. The cube is about $3.2 million. when you remove the cube
like in scenario two that parody is significantly lower. So essentially the cost is the same. There's about a $2.1 million difference than that. Right? We've talked about capital campaigns for about a year and a half. Kyle Cool give
a million dollars to YCA. There's a lot more money and not in just Flint Central but the Flint Community Schools. It could be five bucks here. It could be five million there. So that $2.1 million gap to me is not real. Um I I'm not in favor of this, but
there's also the potential for some support from us. I mean, we have a $33 million fund balance. I'm not saying we use Austin, but I'm saying that's also an alternative route, but if someone can give money, number one, it builds community support. Number two, it closes that funding gap. So look, this is not
an impossible financial situation. I want to be clear about that. And also to be clear, we've hired some pretty good experts. The Abustous piece, the Wi-Fi piece, the learning piece, whatever scenario that we go with will be a excellent sensor for learning students
and staff. When it comes to the hybrid model, and again, these numbers aren't real, right? I I can't say we're keeping 5% or 10%. But let's say we preserve 10 to 15% as opposed to five. That's
still mostly a new build for our students, staff, and community. We're not saying go 30% preserve. We're saying go 10 or 15%. This is not some radical thing we're trying to do or that we hear from the community. There's still space to make improvements and adjustments. And just
as an example, right, we talked about uh the uh Central Kitchen, right? Northwestern's kind of not the best place. Come to find out, that wasn't this board's choice. That was previous boards, but we're here now. We talked about putting that on the campus. That's
going to be a revision to the schematic design. As could we do with more preservation? And again, not a lot. We're talking between five and 10% additional preservation. I want to remind my colleagues too. We've been through so much more
difficult decisions. We closed three schools by your by your neighborhood and by your neighborhood and by my neighborhood. And that was a much more difficult task to do. That was a a much more difficult task to do. We fought our well, I won't say fought, we had some
issues with our unions and compensation. We resolved that conflict as well. We gave the superintendent a five-year contract, the first time in probably 10, 15 years. This right here should be easy for us to do.
When it comes to timeline, if you've ever renovated a house, worked for a construction company, there's going to be surprises, right? There'll be delays, whether it be labor, materials cost, permitting, etc. I know there's a six
months difference between the scenario one and scenario two, but it's been 16 years of waiting. So to me, the delay is negligible because whatever we choose, they're getting an excellent school. I
think it's incumbent upon us next month or if we have a special meeting this month, I know we have Christmas next week, we can really do this. This should not be that hard. I could see people was closing a school in every quadrant, but this is an easy lift. I mean, it's it's
not that hard, you all. I mean, look, I said this last meeting. We're the board of education. We don't have consultants tell us what we can and can't do. That's our decision. We'll find the money. We'll find the support. There's not been one speaker at these meetings that say,
you know what, tear it all down. Or, you know what? Uh, 10% that's too much. We can't do that. we can do that. So just those are my comments but please consider those comments as we move forward. >> Yeah. Um so um first off I want to say
thank you to everyone that came to make public comment uh whether it was for for whether it was our staff or our community members engaging for the Central High School bill. Couple things I also want to note though. Um whether I agree or not, to me the level
of engagement that we had today um is inspiring because that mean there's a level of investment inside of our community. Um to my colleagues point, the democracy that we have, we live in is still working and thriving by active engagement from our community. Uh to our staff, parents, scholars, and just
community as a whole. I think over the past couple of weeks, our district has been under pressure. But one thing we know about our city and our school district, we not unbeknouncsted the pressure. We've been under pressure from, you know, since the beginning of the city for the auto workers unions, the disinvestment from GM, the water
crisis, COVID, learning losses, and, you know, um, even the economic crisis that we currently in. Uh, but one of the things I want to just brighten up is I'm excited for where we're going. Uh, we we could be much worse. There's some improvement to be. Uh but when I tell you uh just seeing the work ahead and
seeing the collaboration amongst this board of education to be a beacon of hope u of leadership um in this community to provide our scholars with top-notch education not just the best facilities our colleagues on the board been talking about we all have in academics okay you can have a beautiful shiny building to my colleagues point
but if you're not having stellar academics in there what are we doing um but one of the things that this board has made commitment on is consulting with academic professionals was um in charge and our superintendent and team to think innovatively. Um we've been doing that and one of the things I I
just want to make sure we you know we sit back and think we're not been out of pressure. We're under a lot of pressure a lot but when I when I think about how we came out of pressure always resilient always coming at high as we do as zones and just want us to keep that at the forefront. I'm excited to see where
we're going. Happy holidays to everybody. Happy new year. >> Thank you. I want to say to everybody, the scholars and safety is our overriding priority.
This board has grown a lot. when we came I ran for the board because I didn't like what I saw before I got here and we have come together and collaborated together with the best intentions
for the whole community. So that's at the forefront of all of our thoughts and our prayers. We really want Flint to succeed in every way possible. So when we come together, we collaborate
with that thought in mind that we want the best for the entire community. I'm a product of the Flint Schools. My all my children are products of the Flint Schools. I want the parents especially
to hear me right now when I say we need your help in promoting public schools. That's how we bring Flint back. We bring the children back to the public schools.
I really believe that. That's at the heart of everything. We need to do that. You know, we talk a lot and I've got a lot of friends in a lot of high places because I mean, I've been a union rep at the highest level and a bunch of other things. So, I hear
them. They talk to me. I mean judges, lawyers and Indian chiefs that are alumni of Splint Central, Northern and I believe they would monetarily help if we put that push on and all of us
come together and promote public schools. We all need to be about training our children like what how we were trained when we came up. Maybe they wouldn't fight so much. Some of them do fight, but we have a zero
tolerance for fighting. At least I do. I'm old school. I'm probably the oldest one on this board. But I believe in some things that I was raised with and I'd like to think
that everybody feels that same way. We want Flint to come back. You know, um I remember when it was Flint was really strong. I I looked at the water tower as I drove down the expressway and I on the water tower.
Flint strong. That's where we got to get back to. But it's going to take some effort on all of our parts, not just this board. Although I do see a lot of growth in this board since I came on on this uh
board in the three years I've been here. And we all have to do better together. That's the only way this thing is going to work. And we really have to listen to I meant that when I made that statement
about listening to those teachers cuz that's our first line of defense. They are there seeing, touching and feeling on a firstline basis. So we just got to do some things a little bit differently and we got to
have a heart to do it. We got to put heart back in it. We got to put training in it. We got to put good curriculums in it. It's going to take all of that. That's just like baking a cake. putting all the right
ingredients together to make it taste good. Okay, so I want to wish everybody safe and happy holidays cuz I'm going to warmer weather and y'all pray for me. That's all I got right now. Thank you.
>> Thank you, Trusty Perkins. I'm going to have the last remark and we're going to sign off. Did you want >> I'm just going to say one thing. I'mma be brief because I'm sure you heard enough. It's It's late. >> Yes. and you've been working all week and all day like we have. I would just like to say merry Christmas, happy new
year, and I hope that in 2026 we can pull all this information and excitement together. >> And I am 100% for the the student body, >> the scholars and the teachers
um in the city here in the city of Flint. I support you 100% and we appreciate you uh serving in the Flint school system because you can be anywhere else. You can be doing you can you can go anywhere else but we
appreciate you staying with the Flint school system and also the parents. I appreciate the parents who trust entrust uh their uh students uh in our hands. >> Thank you Trusty Boo. We had heard a lot
and I heard from all the parents. But what we have not heard. This district is still in trouble. In two years, we will be broke. We will be on the red on both side of the books. We're going to lose
this district. We are talking a lot of back and forth. But nobody's talking about these the financial situation this district is in. We down to like less than 3,000 kids. We cannot run this district with 3,000 kids. In order to
get this financial stuff up, we're going to have to look at enrollment. We also looking at uh the financial side, uh looking at contract auditing, uh um different types of uh programs and stuff. It's imperative. We hear you. But
we a deadline. The reason we did this school, we are in a deadline. 2028 we trying to get a school and we can't even get 3,000 kids in it and we cannot risk any more money. Uh we voted for option
two. Um it's not a bad option. It's not the end of the world. Some people lost more than that. We got 28 buildings and we can't fulfill all of that. What we're trying to do is build a better Flint. But we offer two less than 3,000 kids.
We have given you guys races. We have cleaned up this city and not one and haven't gotten enrollment up to 3,000 people. I hear my colleagues. All of this sounds great, but in two years, you
just heard the auditor. In two years, we got to straighten up and fly right. Nobody's coming to save us but oursel. But nobody's going to save us by ourselves. If somebody got a magic swan, swing it. But right now, they don't.
We don't have it. We love all of you. But in two years as an auditor, as anybody with finance, and I'm good at it, if you don't get this together in two years working with superintendent, working with you guys, we got to get
this enrollment up because we all of this money we done spent, we got to give it away because we don't know how to run a district. And that is getting the financial part. Got to get out of debt. Still about nine or 10, maybe more now cuz they're taking from us. They're not
giving us. >> They're coming to take from us. I'm saying that we as a community, we got to put together program get this enrollment up in the next two years and let's get and that's the only way you can get it up.
We make money off of the children. Now you think everybody came in and sit and swoop them up from you. So we got to look at this finance. It's all nice to sit here and talk good. If y'all got some money to give somebody $15 million, help them tear down some of
this building. So maybe we can sell the line. Got $15 million. Let's put it towards this debt because we have the money for the renovation and building of a new school. I'm just speaking on behalf of what I know, not what I want. I appreciate you.
Don't underestimate me whatsoever. I've been here 24 years. Open up a school cost money to run a school. So on that note, Mr. Jones, if you want to
continue to play uh >> it was such a good I mean you I just really wanted them kind of to see it because you if they're begging them not to take $18 million from my kids. They're saying that they didn't get poison. They're saying they don't need
this. They need that because you're here talking about kids are out of control. He's up there fighting and begging and if he cries not crying because he weak. He's crying because he hurt him because there's nobody care nothing about us but us. Proceed Mr. Jones.
>> I am not weak. Dr. >> Come on. Let's let's do this real quick. >> Thank you for your >> Madam Chair. >> Madam Chair and honorable members of the Senate. Thank you for the opportunity to speak
today. As you can see, I'm already emotional with the words that I just heard. I come before you not only as the superintendent of Flint Community Schools, but as a Flint kid, a Jennese County resident,
and a steward of children whose lives were altered by a crisis they did not create, could not avoid, and are still living with every day. The Flint water crisis was not a moment
in time for our scholars. It was a formative experience. It continues to shape their health, their learning, their emotional well-being, and their trust, and the very systems meant to protect them.
Section 11S funding was created for one clear purpose, to address the long-term academic, health, and social emotional impact of that crisis.
Community schools honored that purpose with care. >> These dollars were not used for building for programs program or short shortterm initiatives. >> They were used for people adults placed
directly in front of children who needed consistent skill support. through this funding through this funding staff NTSS social workers and student success technicians. These are not abstract roles. These are
the professionals who intervene when attendance drops, who responds to trauma, who monitor health concerns, who stabilize behavior, and who connect families to care when life overwhelms
learning. I want to be very very clear. The reason funds remain some funds remain unspent is not because the need disappeared. The reason is the workforce disappeared.
>> Flynn is experiencing the same statewide and national shortage of licensed social workers impacting districts everywhere. Only our students carry deeper crisis related needs. When
positions become vacant midyear, they cannot be filled overnight and positionbased funding cannot be spent without people attached to it. If these funds are reclaimed, the consequences
will be immediate and measurable. That means weaker MTSS interventions, increased absenteeism, >> unmet mental health and health needs, and greater strain on systems already
stretched thin. >> And I want to emphasize this is not just a Flint Community Schools issue. These are Flint kids. When support disappears in schools, the cost does not vanish. It
shows up in emergency rooms, >> in juvenile justice systems, >> and in long-term economic harm to our state. >> These positions prevent crisis. They keep children in school. They help
stabilize families. They reduce long-term costs. Taking these funding, taking this funding back does not save money. It shifts the burden elsewhere >> at a higher price. That's right. >> Workforce shortages should not become a
penalty for communities that's already harmed. >> Recovery does not run on fiscal calendar. And trauma does not end because a hiring market is tighter. >> I ask that all will see this funding not
as leftover dollars but as unfinished work. Michigan acknowledged its responsibility to Flint kids when section 11S was created. That responsibility is not complete.
>> Flint's children did not choose this crisis. But we can choose whether we finish the recovery we promised them. Yeah, >> I urge you to protect these funds, not because they are easy to spend, because they're not, but because they are
essential to healing, to stability, and to justice for Flint's children. >> Thank you for your leadership. Thank you for what you do for Flint kids and your continued commitment to the children we
are able to serve in the Flint community. Thank you. Thank you, Superintendent Jones. And that's what we all should be doing. We got a I'm in a hard ahead of us. And um
hopefully we walk away here thinking different, wanting different, and um we just got this teacher that I just love. Uh Denanisha, we thank you for the fight that you did. And uh on that note,
Yes, trustee. >> Yeah, I make a motion we consider option one for the high school design. >> We don't make a motion. >> There's a motion on the floor. >> Okay. >> We normally don't do this but uh we
agreed that we don't do motion and comments. We agreed that. So what is the pleasure of the board >> because it would but a motion is a privileged motion. But so what we would need he made a
motion to change the option >> was supported by trust. >> It was supported by trusty reifford. >> It was supported by rele is there any discussions? >> Yeah I'll go first madam chair. >> Well excuse me I acknowledge Linda. Go
ahead. Was option one with the queue? No >> option two is what we voted for. So >> okay >> and he wants to change the option. So, uh, Trusty, um, Booth, just to >> just to kind of, >> uh, trust Dylan Linda Booth still has
the floor. I have to recognize you. I'm not trying to disrespect. >> No, I got you. No worries. >> And let's be respectful. >> Can you clarify? >> Yeah. So, >> so Trusty Booth, so I'll I'll walk you through the the two scenarios, right? So, scenario one. So, we voted for
scenario two earlier this month. Scenario one. However, >> point of information. >> Yes. >> What was your motion? I'm sorry. I you motion. >> The motion was to consider option one
for the schematic design. >> Is this a reconsideration? >> No. >> You would. >> It's a new motion. >> No, you have to. We already voted. >> No. >> You have to do a motion to reconsider. >> No, no, no. So you're thinking of so for
clarification a motion to reconsider is to overturn the previously approved motion which the 701 >> this which is option two. The motion I made was to consider option one as an
option. So there these are two different motions, but I I believe Trusty Boo had a >> I believe she had a question. Trusty Boo, what was your question? >> I'm clear. >> Yeah. So yeah, I think I have the booklet at home.
>> Yeah, >> right. I can go I can I need to review it >> because you asked about you asked about the cube. The cube was included in option one. >> It wasn't included in option two. So without that cube in option one, there's
a cost difference of $3.2 million where it brings both scenarios to be on par parody when it comes to how much they cost if that makes sense. So does that answer your question? >> Are there any more discussion? >> Yeah, >> Madam Chair,
>> I don't recall I don't I think I missed that vote. >> I don't I don't I came late. I'm almost certain I did >> because that was a that was a special meeting and I was late for that meeting. You guys were >> point of information. >> Point of information. >> I have the floor. >> I just had a point of information. Go ahead.
>> A point. Uh I would like for um our executive to pull up that vote. We Oh, I voted for option two. Could do you have that? And >> yeah, it was 70. >> I was late. It was in your minute. It
should be in your minutes. >> We're just trying to find it. She said that she didn't. It's in your should be in your minutes >> and it was 7 to zero. No, as I was stating, I came late and you all were already finished with that portion of
it. It was when we were downstairs. However, I don't with everyone is any you are okay with everyone speaking about scenario one. For some reason, I sound like I'm going out. I don't see
what it would hurt to consider it. And again, state this this is not working. I believe that when a public talk, you should listen. It's not going to hurt anything to
consider it. So, when my colleague made the motion, that's why I supported it because one, I would have liked for the the um scenarios to have been on the screen so everyone could know which
scenario everyone's talking about. And so to hear a young lady say that she was at a meeting and that the board would that that they will come back to them. I believe I was at that meeting and to tell them what what what they came up
with and to keep them engaged. So I feel if we commu if that was communicated to the community, we got to be we got to stick to our word. And if that was not communicated, then so be it. But I don't see what would be wrong with considering
scenario one. Thank you. >> Trusty McInt. >> Um, so, uh, I'm just trying to wrap my head around this, trying to, you know, think about because we did say that we wouldn't make
motions in comments. A motion's been made and I'm not sure that it's a proper motion in terms of um hear me out. It's it's a proper like it's it's been motioned and seconded.
We're in discussion. This is my discussion. My my concern is that we voted for one of the schemes. This isn't a reconsideration. This is to we've already voted by seven to zero. So
the implications for reconsidering it it's a this is this this would make a mess. This would make a quagmire and I don't think it's really appropriate like at almost 10:30 at night to
drop a bomb like this. I if I mean I I I can't vote for it for that reason because I'm not even sure of the implication. I I mean I'm at this point I don't think it's even a a correct motion to make in terms of we've already
voted. So this isn't the correct procedural Robert rules of way to address this issue. Now, I have heard the input from the the community and I did hear it and I've went to the
the meetings. There were other neighborhoods though. This isn't just a cultural neighborhood consideration. This is a communitywide >> issue. There are other neighborhoods to take into consideration and other
people. So, I mean, while it did seem like the R4 comm the committee prioritized the the three neighborhoods, they didn't have like a monopoly on the decision-making process. It was more of a,
you know, trying to get input. Now, I understand that the communication process wasn't as seamless as it should have been. It never is. And that has been my complaint about the board and the administration and the
superintendent for a long time. For not just this issue, but a lot of other issues. And my frustration is that as an individual board member, I can't act. I have to have the rest of the we have to act as a entire board. And in
order to act as an entire board, we have to convene a meeting. And in order to convene a meeting, we have to follow all these rules according to open meetings act and democracy and state regulations and blah blah blah. So to it's a very cumbersome process, right? And so it and
it's not always perfect the way that it's rolled out and executed. I'm not in charge of that. I get frustrated just like you do. I get frustrated. I'm a board member and I don't get half the information either. So, I mean, I'm sometimes I come to
these meetings and I'm surprised. I feel like I'm in an episode of Survivor and this is the tribal council meeting and we're going to get voted out. >> This is what's happening right now. Um, no, I have the I have the floor and you know, for you know, it's somebody to grab the floor at the end of as we're
about to to convene the meeting and then just to pop a motion in place is really insulting and is is a disservice to your colleagues and and you know, shame on you. This is it's really not a good public service servant thing to do at
all. We're not supposed to get surprises like this. And I'm not even against version one, right? I'm not I'm not even one of the people that that you're fighting against cuz I'm like I really
would like to see something like that happen. But here's my concern that this is going to create problems down the line, maybe even legal ones. um you know based on how we're
proceeding in these meetings right now and you guys there's stuff going on at the legislative level. We have a financial emergency manager law
that I've been screaming about since 2008. Do you not realize that 2008? Yes, that's when the emergency manager law was put into place in in all in its earliest iteration. It this has been planned for so long. We
have had a master plan in Flint that if you haven't been paying attention, this is way before I got on the board. Way before I got on the board and way before the water crisis. This is what caused the water crisis. >> So, here we are. If we don't pull it
together, we like Dr. McNeel said, "We've got less than two years, and they're going to use the financial reason because we've got 400 acres and we've got other assets, too, that all these different interests are just
waiting to get their hands on." Waiting to get their hands on. I mean, shoot, they stole our Santa Claus at city council. >> Come on. >> You don't >> No, I have the I have the floor. I have the floor.
I'm just spending your attention. >> I'm Well, I'm just I'm so If we do not >> take action now and do something, and we did, we've got to get it done. We're going to get taken over. We're going to lose our school district. We're going to have a
financial emergency manager for the school district. He's going to privatize and it's going to be a he because they have a little cohort of guys that they kind of slip in and out. And and and Mr. Weatherspoon was actually one of our superintendents in that revolving door
of superintendent that we had. He's one of the financial emergency managers, right? So, let's not do this to ourselves. Like, if there's got to be some way that we can do this so that it's legal and it's
procedural, but that making this motion is not it. So, I'm not going to be voting for it. and and let's I mean let's see what we can do. Maybe we need to convene an emergency meeting anyway because of Northwestern.
Um and it's not unrelated to Central. It's not This is all of a piece, right? This is all of a piece. And if you're not paying attention to the systems and the processes and the institutions that have put us into this predicament, we're
like scrabbling rats. like clawing at each other because we've been and this is on purpose. So, I'm going to vote no to consider one only because it's schematically problematically. It's it's just not it it I don't see how that
could work. But I'm also open to suggest, you know, moving forward to something. I don't know. I It's too late for me to like come up with a solution to this, but I'm open to it. Right. Okay. Sorry, I'm babbling. Thank you,
>> King. >> Yeah. So, um, >> we we were at the end of this meeting. Let's just call it Let's call it thinking thing, right? So, we had community members come up here. I understand what the community is saying that they want scenario one. We had
this. My colleagues know, we don't normally do motions at the end of a meeting. We we we understand what this this employee is to say, well, whoever votes no, they're not for preserving. Like, we know what this is
going to be like. I just calling it out what it is. I I just think if you just say considering scenario one, that doesn't mean we're choosing scenario one. You're just saying consider. Am I correct, Trusty Luna? >> Yeah. I mean, that's
I my comments to answer your question. >> Okay. So if honestly the motion if we already chose scenario two, we we chose scenario two, we already considered several all of the options that was there in my opinion. But but to
put this this motion on the floor is and then hearing the conver conversation the dialogue put us back to where we were years ago and and this kurfuffle where it put us all in a bad light of how we do things and we know we don't normally do things in this way and and that's
where you have colleagues expressing their disdain for it and then we get into this this middle of argument at 10:30 when we just had all these presentations all the information that was presented. We heard the community out for feedback. I would have entertained where all right let's put
this on the agenda for top of the year. But no, we decided to my colleague decided, hey, okay, let's make this motion tonight. Show the community support like we for scenario one. Call it what it is. Just please call it what it is. I I see it. I don't think that was the best way. And I don't I don't
want to make sure I'm clear that uh I'm for preservation. I was always for preservation as much as possible. I chose scenario two. believe that was the best option at the time for me in my opinion for my vote that I can speak for myself but being put in a predicament where we choosing where we gonna put be put against eyes where youth
preservation or you for you not for it at the end of the day we were elected on this board we have board of education for the betterment outcome of these kids and make sure they have high high good good quality facilities facilities whatever way we choose but to put this on at the at the ninth 10th hour of
nighttime is a ploy that we know what this ploy is to do I I would just ask my colleague, can we just do this at the top of the year, have the conversation, but not do this at the end of the meeting because we know what this going to breathe. That's my that's my thoughts. Madam Chair, >> um I'm I'm not going to support it
tonight. I'm gonna say that I'm not going to support it tonight because I'd rather I heard the comments from the community, but I'd rather go through it again with all of my colleagues and let's have an indepth conversation about it. I don't feel comfortable tonight
doing it at the end of the meeting. I don't >> Madam Chair, can I speak? >> Madam Chair, >> yeah. So, I'm gonna wrap this up. >> Yeah. So, a couple things, right? So,
>> no, I'm good. >> I just walked back in. I'm good >> for the sake of time. >> For the sake of time because it's getting late. >> Yeah, ma'am. Madam Chair, I'll keep my comments brief, but I do want to say one thing. There's a couple things, right?
So, I wanted to give this to begin to move us in a better direction, to give us somewhat of a debate that it deserves. So, there wasn't a ploy, Trusty King. But here's the here's the reality of it. We had this vote in the basement of Rabman building with no cameras,
very little notice, and we didn't engage the community as we could have. We've been hearing a lot of these comments the entire year. to my colleague uh Vice President McIntyre. So, it's not just the adjacent neighborhoods, right? Miss Perh Trusty Perkins and President
McNeel. I honestly almost every time go to FNU, uh the Flint neighborhoods meetings in the library, that's every neighborhood in the entire city from the north side, including this neighborhood right here to the south side that includes Art Winslaw. So, we we approach not just the
adjacent neighborhoods. Now, it only takes, I believe, two board members to call a special meeting to discuss this further. It sounds like from what I hear and probably the recording that we could consider the first option, but just not tonight. It's been too long. We can talk
about it, see how we can improve upon that. We talked about putting the food service there if if possible. We talked about getting the cube out of there. If we can consider it at some other time, I'm all game for it. But I want to be clear, our process was not that transparent and it wasn't. We talk about doing things in regular
order. We approved probably one of the most consequential decisions for this community in a decade, probably a generation with no camera in our basement. And we all know how important just building new high school is to our
community. We're going to do it. It's just how we can do it. Again, we know the financial piece has been mitigated. We know that we can get the money for. Matter of fact, I I'll do this in this room. Who would give money for the high
school? If you could raise your hand again again you're the highest person on here. I'm not out of order. >> But I I have the I have the floor. >> Take a vote. >> I'm not taking you know that was wrong. >> I said raise a hand. But >> what I'm saying is look, I can withdraw
the motion if we give this the robust discussion it deserves with their consultants who we pay with their taxpayer dollars from Stantech to plant Moran. Again, I can withdraw it, but again, I I I tell you what, I'll withdraw it. I'll call a special meeting, put it on the agenda. We'll
have the folks there. But again, I've heard from several colleagues that we can discuss how to improve the design, but I want it to be in public record on video that we talked about that. So, I'll withdraw it. >> Point of order. >> Uh, withdrawing the motion is you have to do a vote for that. So, just do the
roll call and just consider it done. >> Well, without objection, I I can withdraw a motion. >> Not >> after it been supported. Point of order. Point of information. Not after the motion has been supported already. >> Want to support it? >> Uh, point point of order. If a member
can draw their motion, it belongs to the floor. Without objection, it can be withdrawn. If you want to object to it, then go ahead. >> But I I I made the motion. I can withdraw it unless someone objects. I'm I'm making a commitment. If we call your point of information, are you objecting
on Trustee King? >> Again, I I want to go to >> That was my point of >> I I'll withdraw the motion without objection. That way we can do this in a better way. >> Motion's withdrawn. >> Point of information. Is anyone
objecting to withdrawing the motion? Anyone? >> Madame chair, I want to kind of object to this motion because we have to follow the Robert rules. We just can't have our way here. Once we got into discussion is moved and it went into discussion. Then
the question would be this individual we're not. >> So point of information, are you objecting? >> I'm not object I am objecting to this >> to withdrawing the motion. to withdrawing the okay and I as the president I would like to continue discussion it's not fair that you cut it
off the discussion uh for other people that wanted to speak >> and it's not fair uh that I'm the president I have a right to speak this is not an emotional thing because if we had have done it right we wouldn't be having this detention between us now
here we are and I'mma say this we have to 2028 to get this bill this thing up off the ground and we already in the red on one book we already running short don't have the enrollment and here we are we going
right back to where we started three or four years ago I can tell you where it's going to go and we're going to be right back once you make a motion we said motion uh to approve option one it was seven to zero we'll get that data for you anybody that we had we all point of
information Um, >> point of information. I wasn't there, ma'am. I came late. >> I was not point. >> You will not use your point of watch. That's what you >> see. This is what happened when you do
things out of order. Now, back to what I was saying. Why are we prolonged? We talking about we love the kid. We love the district. And we got to 2028. We're running out of time. This is going to go on and on. And the issue is that we voted for option two. It's not the end
of the world. It's not. You got one piece there. We had to service this whole city. And it's a it is a Flint Public School, not Flint Central. It's Flint Public School. And what are we getting ready to
do here? We put it out there. Went to the thing uh Saturday. spoke 70 to 7 to zero. We voted for option two. We're playing with other people's money, playing with time.
They done took how much?$ 18 million from us. 5.6 >> 5 million. We're going down the tube and we worrying about a brick that is we're going to lose everything because we're worried about my world. It's not our
world. It's not our world. We owe these children that. We done had our time. You done had your time. Enjoy that moment. And give these kids and this community a brand new school without going back and
forth, back and forth. >> If you withdraw your motion, and that is what you're saying, but not to go back and forth. Let's do something right. And I hear my colleagues, I hear the audience, but
there's other people that don't live in central in the central area. We got kids coming from all of them. Achievement is not by zip code. And we can approve it by giving these kids option two because we voted for it.
That being said, what's the pleasure of the board? >> Madam Chair, point of order. >> Go ahead. So, did you object to the withdrawal of the motion? >> Support. >> Wait, no. I'm asking did you object to the motion being withdrawn? >> I object to the motion being drawn. We
can take a roll call vote >> since we in we're done with discussion and I objected or do you want to take a vote to overrule my objection? That's the problem we have when we jump out and do things. >> I just What do we want here? >> Can I just have one last comment then?
>> Yes, please. >> Yeah. Again, I I understand your frustration. >> I'm not frustrated. I just like for us >> Wait. Yeah. Look, look, look, >> I want I want to be clear. It's my personal opinion as a trustee elected that we didn't we didn't give the
community the proper public meeting to have a discussion about it. I knew at that meeting how the date of it, the setting, the environment that we had to move forward. That's why I voted
for this scenario to keep us moving forward in the process. I've done this with Green Consulting. I've done this when we gave a contract for Superintendent Jones. I've made a lot of votes that I probably don't like the most, but it's the right thing from book
packs. >> So, what is this? >> So, again, I'll say no, it's not. I don't do that. >> Yeah, >> that's that's Hey, that is to that that is totally fine. But again, I'm doing this. It's the right thing to
do. We didn't have this debate on camera with an audience. We know for a fact that FMU, which represents all neighborhoods, the three adjacent ones, they've been giving us feedback. We also didn't go into deep level about the each
scenario. Again, we rushed through it. I I called I called most of you about this a weeks in advance of the meeting. Hey, we need to get more engaged. The R4 committee has not met since September. We told these folks at these groups we'd come back and say, "Hey, we'll bring
this back." Now, I'm not I'm not discounting what we're do. We're doing a great thing for the community and the citizens of Flint and the kids. I've been consistent. I've been consistent and the folks people talk to about it know that. I've not changed. I I've said this for three years in this entire last year.
So again, if we can call a special meeting to have a more robust discussion about a consideration, right, I'm down for that. We can add it to the next meeting agenda, but I want to give it the discussion it deserves. We've not considered how a capital campaign impacts this, how a $3.25 million
reduction affects the bottom line. We can give kids an excellent learn environment. We can do 10. I'm not asking 30% more, and I said this last meeting. I'm asking 10 15% more. We can do all those things. And again, you're
president. No, you're you're correct. I do not like calling motions at the end of individual board member comments, right? I just don't it's not it's not it's not a good practice, but we've done this before on several occasions when it comes to priorities that we've done the
last year. And again, I'd withdraw it if you have a special meeting, but I think it's the right thing to do to consider it. There's space to improve. We're not we're not so tied to a schematic design. There's no financial matter towards it. Not a big
one at least. We can do this as a board collectively. It's not just these 15 folks here who want it. A lot of folks want this. It's a compromise. And again, an 80 to 20 85 to 15% compromise.
We we've been we've been saying this. We're going to co-design. We're going to co-plan. We're going to engage. And if you think you've done a good job on that, an A+ job, then I'm sorry. I don't agree with that. I end with that. board of education. We like to wish
everyone a merry Christmas and a happy holiday. We hope to see you. >> You objected, Madam Chair, >> unless you withdraw your objection. So, >> so the motion's withdrawn. >> So, the motion's withdrawn, right?
11. I got to go to Detroit and catch a jet.