I come before you today in reference to the issue with Cook Academy. It is now it's been closed several years, and it has become an eyesore in our neighborhood. Neighbors of the school have bagged up, piled up, and organized the trash that was recently dumped there. In addition to to this, individuals unhoused individuals have began to camp there, we believe. I contacted the city of Flint, Blight, and they informed me, that the school board
was responsible for Blight on their property. And they gave me two numbers to call. I called the two numbers, left messages at those two numbers, waited a week, no one returned the call. So I went over to the Administration Building, and as requested, I left my name and contact number and was informed at that time that I could bring my concern before the board, which brings me here tonight. All we need is neighbors, in the community. We wish that the, school board would address our issues with light around the school.
I know you can't do anything about unhoused individuals that may be law enforcement. But we certainly have tried to do our part by keeping the school kinda cleaned up around there. But this is Cook School at 500 Welch Boulevard. And, we only ask that the trash that we've collected at least be picked up before more is added to it. Thank you. Thank you. Mhmm. Is there anyone else from the public who would like to speak? Let's see. Good evening, members of the board, superintendent, community partners.
My name is Keyshawn Wade. I'm an alumni of Flint Southwestern. I graduated from the class of 2019. Sorry. Speak up a little, pull the mic a little closer. Is this better? Yes. Much better. Good evening, members of the board, superintendent, community partners. My name is Keyshawn Wade. I'm an alumni of Flint Schools. I graduated in 2019 from Southwestern. I went to Cornell University after Southwestern where I studied urban and regional planning with a concentration in urban life, as well as real estate housing and urban economics. I serve now as the resident services coordinator with the Flint Housing Commission, and I
appreciate the opportunity to speak with you all tonight about a partnership, which I believe is, truly will make a lasting impact on the lives of our young people here in this community. The names of these two programs is the FHC Scholars Program and the FHC Young Adults Program. At the Housing Commission, it is our mission to not just provide homes, but, build foundations for success. We recognize that stability, opportunity, and education all work hand in hand. That's why with this potential collaboration with Flint Community Schools is so important.
Together we can literally meet students where they are, in their neighborhoods, removing barriers like transportation, access, resources, that so often limit participation in enrichment in academic programs, academic support programs. I know that for me and my time at Southwestern, if I had been able to, have something close to my home, that would have been immensely, better prepared me for college and such. The prospect of, the FHC Scholars Program would serve youth ages three to 19.
It will focus on mentorship, academic development, life skills, and cultural enrichment. It would include things like homework help, tutoring, exposure to college and career pathways, all offered on-site, in our community spaces at Flint Housing Commission. The young adult program would serve ages 14 to 26, builds on foundations that support young people as they transition into adulthood, through career coaching, trade and workforce readiness, things like financial literacy and mental health support.
Both programs will be designed to promote stability, improve academic outcomes, and foster economic mobility. Our properties already have community rooms, computer labs, dedicated staff, that would make it possible to provide and host, high quality programming without the need for transportation or additional space. And with your partnership, we could truly create a seamless connection between the school day learning and after school engagement, reinforcing the mission that you all have that every scholar in Flint deserves to thrive.
In closing, I invite the boards and leadership to view this partnership not as a separate initiative, but as an extension of the district's vision, empowering every scholar to achieve, contribute and succeed. Together we can really create a model for what it looks like when housing and education come together for the betterment of our community. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Is there anyone else from the public who would like to speak?
Good evening, everyone. My name is Denisha Stinson. I am a reading intervention teacher at Southwestern Classical Academy. I'm before you today, about a concern that I have. And my major concern right now is, the actual education that we're providing in the classroom. And right now, I'm as an English teacher and a reading intervention teacher, there is, a disconnect. There is not, the teaching that parents are expecting their students are getting is not happening. I've been in classes. I go from one English class to the next.
I take notes. I work with students who are struggling readers. And, in some classes, not one English assignment has been taught this year. And there's no real oversight. I've never been at a campus or in a school district where there are no actual academic coaches in your core subjects. Those are the ones who actually have the oversight. The principals can't be everywhere and neither than those that work at the district. Those coaches are the ones that make sure that teachers are getting the professional development that they need to have to be able to instruct our scholars. One of the things, that I saw that we were proud about was that we,
were able to get all certified teachers, and that's great. But certified teachers means that you know how to pass a test. That doesn't mean that you actually know how to instruct students, especially students that are as low performing as some of our students are. And with there not being oversight for that, it just goes unchecked. So the scores and the gains that we're hoping to get, we won't see until we fix this part. Now, in my speaking to those like mister Lynn Smith, those at the district that are working the humanities department, I'm understanding that, there's more than one curriculum that's been
approved. StudySync is one and then there's another one called, exploring our world or something like the composing our world. Now, I I was told that the teachers voted for a studySync and it is basically like, the actual textbook with all the consumable books and students get those. It's also an online curriculum that is aligned to the state standards. Now, a lot of us are not teaching those state standards because it's like the wild wild west of teaching going on over there, at least in the English department there is.
And this is one of those vital subjects that we can't afford for our students not to get. And that is exactly what I'm seeing and that is what's happening. So I've spoken to our to our principal. Like I said, they can't be everywhere and they're doing an excellent job trying to turn things around as far as security, as far as attendance. But we're the gatekeepers for actual academics, those that are in the classroom. And we're not going to ever get the games that we're supposed to get. Ms. Holmes is there also, and we've spoken. We have identified five students in school who can read one word, and three that
can read just a little bit with assistance. And we don't have teachers who have the training, as I've spoken to these teachers this past week. Some of them said, I don't know how to teach students this this low performance. So right, that you're certified. But if you have no professional development and that's what's lacking here. There's no real professional development that takes place in this school district. You're not developing teachers. And until we do, we're going to continue to get what we get, and parents are not bringing their kids to this school district just because you build a new building. I'll take a building that's not so new in order to be able to make
sure my kids get the education they need. If they're dyslexic, if there's English language learners, you don't have any of those programs here to help those students. And that's the issue that we're faced with right now. You're gonna keep getting the same thing until you address academics. I hear the floor. Thank you very much. Is there anyone else who would like to speak? Saying there is no further comment, at this time, I will have a presentation from miss Molly Lloyd and mister David. I don't want to mention your name up. It's Heibert of Concentra Education Solution. Please come forward. Board members, you have any question, please hold them till the end of the presentation.
Could you guys, introduce yourself to the public since some of us met you and some of us have not? Absolutely. Thank you. Good evening. How is everybody? My name is David Heber. I'm the founder and, chairman of the board of consent to get station solutions that I'm going to my right by the newly minted chief, CEO, chief executive officer Molly, Abel Lloyd. So we are it's our pleasure, distinct honor to be able to just talk to you about the work that we've been doing for some years and give you some
context and, start with the basic that Flint is not losing. It is not in a deficit model. It is in a opportunity, and redemption error, and we are happy to be able to, share with you with that. So we do have a presentation to kinda go through, but, Molly is always telling me to stay on, track with the PowerPoint. But, as a former high school teacher and high school principal, I don't need a
PowerPoint because I've lived it. So I'm now in my twenty sixth year in education, all in urban education. Started humbly in Baltimore, Maryland, home of the Ravens. We're struggling right now. Y'all came in, got that l, got that w on us. But, you know, Concentric started not as a business. Concentric started as a theory of change and a theory of actions. So Concentric is just a company name for concentricity. And what that simply means is how do you put students at the center of what we do? Now it sounds very easy.
It sounds very, common sense. But in education, all too frequently, students are not placed at the center that most of what's happening happens in education. It's about students, and how adults how how adults respond to students. Policies and procedures are about adults. They're about systems and structures. But they're not about students. And concentricity really means putting students at the center. So when I started concentric, it was really about something very simple. Because we talk about innovation all the time.
And what innovation really is sometimes in this stage of AI is really putting students and figure out what they need, not by what we think they need, but by listening to them. So we're gonna do something, a very simple exercise, that I'm just gonna ask you to take a journey with me. I want you to take a fifteen second journey and just simply close your eyes. I want you to think about a time that you had in school, A time that you needed a caring adult outside of your parents. And what did you need to hear from that adult as you entered into the
classroom, entered into the building, whether it was a cold, wintery day, a rainy day, a bright, sunny day, but you were going through something. As you're walking into the building, as you're walking into the classroom, I want you to think about the smiles you may not have received, the handshakes, or the good mornings that you may or may not have received. And I want you to think about what you needed to hear. Think about what that would have done for you, how that would have changed you, how that may have moved you, motivated you. How would it spark something in you? And that's what concentric is. Consentric is really about understanding what students need by listening to them.
And you listen to them by something very simple. You listen to them by being authentic and transparent yourself as an adult. Something that we need to model. Authenticity and transparency. Authenticity is unapologetically you because students do not care about titles. They don't care about degrees. They care about the relationship and the transparency and the ability to connect. And this is how we started very earnestly and honestly about how do we get students to be engaged.
So you've probably all read and seen across the, across the board that chronic absenteeism is a challenge. Think about when you were in school. Chronic absenteeism is nothing new. It's always been a challenge. It just became an issue post pandemic, to the, to the media. But it's always been there. We've always had students that did not come to school or students who did come to school and they weren't fully engaged. The question is, how do we keep them engaged? So what we're gonna go through right here, are we having some technical? Okay. Well, this will happen. Do you remember when you used to have the ditto machine back in the day
and it didn't work? It jams. And you just had to freestyle that joint. This is this is what we gotta do. But if you lived it, then you know it. So when you're talking about students becoming engaged and staying engaged, what do you think? And this is a question to the board. And for those that I've met earlier, you can't answer it. So exclude yourself from it. What do you think is the number one reason? I would even say this to the crowd. What do you think is the number one reason why students do not stay engaged in school? Oh, keep going on that. I love the second, secretary trustee, booze close. Keep going with it.
I'm gonna put my teacher hat on. Not interested. Keep going. Distracted. Not interested. And what? Distracted. Just a sec. It wasn't transportation. It wasn't detect divide. The number one reason, it goes back to my English teacher, that just spoke. There was not enough caring adults in the building that checked in on the students. Number one reason, when you peel back the layers, when you did the ethnographic study, the number one reason why students did not stay engaged in school is because they did not have enough caring adults. How do you change that? You change it by putting students at the center of what happens in schools.
So as we talk about what we do, where we wanna go with this, before you recruit students, what do you have to do? Yes. You gotta talk to the parents. But guess what you gotta do? You gotta retain the students that you have first. We have got to make it a place that students feel welcomed, feel as if students feel affirmed, and feel feel, students feel loved. That they feel connected to something bigger than themselves and are filled with possibilities about
going to the next level. That is the onus. That is the responsibility of us. So I'm just gonna walk through this a little bit, what we see. So we're putting students at the center. We're gonna talk about family and guardians, concentric, helping that, community partners, therapeutic and wellness supports, heard, about the amazing opportunity about after school, professional student advocates, which I believe is our secret start, secret sauce. So professional student advocates, let me talk a lot about that. When I started Concentrix, I sought out people who had the same lived experiences as
the students, who came from the communities in which they were gonna service, but that they had gone on to post secondary education and wanted to come back and give. So we say that we're creatures as habits that we just we recruit from where we come from. So what I recruited from, I recruited from my fraternity. My fraternity is the greatest fraternity in the world. Shout out to Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity Incorporated. Just gotta make sure that it's out there. Did I hear something about it? Oh, okay. Okay. There might be another nineteen eleven or six out there or nineteen thirteen. Right? But that's what we did because we had a common mission.
And then it comes down to teachers and staff. Teachers and staff putting making sure that we put people in front of our students that actually believe in our students. I'm gonna go to the next one. These are just some highlights. Don't look at the top right one. My eye was messed up and closed there. So just, forget that one. But what we did was we received, the largest series a funding for a black owned company in the history of Maryland, in excess of $10,000,000 to scale this work across the country. And here's why I believe in this.
This is not a theory of change. It is what's possible when you have people who care about you. And why do I know that? Because we all have stories. If it was not for caring adults with unconditional belief, I would not be here today. I'd be kicked out of five high schools. I got my GED and high school diploma in prison. But by the grace of God and the support of people who believed in me, I went on to become a teacher, a principal and a CEO. It's possible when people and young people get the support that that is needed.
What's very powerful though is it just didn't happen. Like I didn't wake up and my parents just didn't, you know, didn't care or whatever the case may be. And I just got kicked out of school. My father died four days before, Christmas my senior year. My mother got cancer and she passed away while I was incarcerated. But here's what I remember about my father passing away. And I was a track star, had all these opportunities for d one or whatever the case may be. I remember coming in the next day after, my father passed away And not one
teacher consoled me. Not one administrator checked in on me. Imagine what could have been what could have happened if I just had a hug with someone checking. This is why I started concentric. It's absolutely necessary. One of our fundamental practices is that what we do is that our approach is one do at a time. There's no silver bullet. There's no panacea to get students, engaged. It's literally one door at a time. And how do you do that? By knocking on the door. What works for one child in one home may not work for the second child
in another home. You have to ask. You have to seek. You have to understand. And you have got to build, be take yourself out of it and listen to what they tell you. Students will tell you what they need if you have the heart to listen. If you have the vulnerability to understand, if you have the authenticity to take yourself out of it. Next. Oh, I wanna play this video. I don't know how to play the video. So, Steve. Right? Yes. Yeah. We, we can stop, Steve. It's okay. What no.
What this is giving us snippet is from a student's perspective, what happens when we don't see behind the numbers for all the stuff that that's in the student's file? You've got you've gotta be able to see a student for who they really are, not just what they've done or what's been collected on them. And that's what the professional student advocates are. The professional student advocates are able to see beyond the numbers. They're able to see beyond just the story and see the possibility that students bring every single day and I think through that shared experience that allows that to happen. Yeah.
And one thing I'll add to this because it got cut off from the video here is one of the unique things Speak up. Thank you. Better. So one of the unique things about Concentric is our model for staffing our professional student advocates. We began as a community based business in Baltimore and then in Detroit and we've learned that to David's point earlier of having all the stakeholders around the table is the best way we can serve students with intention. And so we took that same model and applied it to our staff and learned that to harness the power of community based businesses, We have to staff up from
the communities that we serve and so that is our very unique model. We have a large hub in Detroit and David will share a little bit more around all of our work across Michigan and, with LEAs in Michigan but that is something that makes us very unique and impactful is the way we partner with community based organizations and communities to create our local teams to do this work. I appreciate that. Appreciate that, Miley. To you know, to expound on what Molly was, speaking about is, you know, before coming in here, I got here a little bit earlier and I was able to,
just start walking the community and understanding the community. You know, one of the questions that we get asked all the time is or I've been asked all the time, well, you're not from Detroit. And I'll repeat that, you know, I'll respond now. What up, though? I know about Faygo, right? I know about Matt Gratchet. I can keep it De Quindor. I can keep it going. Joy Rowe, we can keep talking about it. The reason that I'm able to do that is I heard what people say. Right? There is no one size fits all. And there is no one size fits all for any program when you're talking about
students. You have got to learn where the students are coming from and what they're experiencing. And that is why our approach has been and always will be ethnographic study. For those who are not familiar with what ethnographic study is, it's literally submersing yourself in the culture in which you're going to work and or study. You have got to feel it. I'm always asked across the board, like, how can you help us? Here's the answer: I don't know. No, I like that. Here's the reason you don't know. Well, I don't know. I haven't walked in their shoes. I haven't felt what they've felt.
Our approach has got to be understanding exactly what their lived experience is. That's why I wanted to walk Flint. That's why I wanted to immerse myself in it, understand it, feel it. If you all remember, I'm gonna date myself a little bit here. Do you all remember the movie Dirty Dancing? With Johnny Castle? And he was teaching Baby how to, dance. And he said, it's not the mamba, it's not the tango, it's the heartbeat. That's what students are, heartbeats. It's not a program. You don't pull it off a shelf.
It's not a curriculum that you follow. It's an understanding, an experience that you share with them, and you can speak authentically to them. And they'll understand and they'll gravitate towards it. The resurgence of Flint, the resurgence of the school district is done through the galvanizing people, exciting them, understanding and believing them. And you do that by understanding and feeling what they've gone through. This is our ethnographic model with home visits. So we do have technology, believe it or not. Right? Very good technology.
So, one of the things that we learned very early on is that when you go into someone's home, when you go into their community, you have to have vulnerability and authenticity. But you've got to be able to understand what they need because they're telling you and get those resources in real time. So we have a home visit or student re engagement app. And what that app does, it captures what students and families are telling us, and it instantaneously gets that information to the stakeholders, whether at the, at the district, building, or community level. It's very important. I can tell you a real life example that happened during the pandemic in my
home city of Baltimore, Maryland. We would we would conducting visits to find why students were not logging on with laptops. Well, when we did a visit, one of the students didn't have a laptop. And very simple fix, but we had not gotten sophisticated to that level of handing out laptops when we were doing home visits. We were probably, like, two months away from that. It took that student three weeks to get to the centralized hub to get a laptop. You've got to be able to give resources in real time. If students and families are vulnerable enough to open up about what they need, we've got to be able to do something with it.
This is a snapshot of what we've done in Michigan. So I started in my work in Detroit, branched out all across Wayne County. Now I went to, Washtenaw and the surrounding counties. We've learned a lot. We've learned a lot, about why, students were not being engaged and not staying. One of our biggest engagements was, with Wayne Risa. And that engagement, was big because it wasn't just about those surrounding districts around Detroit, down the river, or on the East Side like Harper Woods.
But the issue with students not coming to school post pandemic was in the, Livonias, was in the canyons. It was all across. It wasn't just in the, black, brown, and poor white communities. So it was a lot. 34 districts, 14,400 students reengaged. Transforming, impact through people and research. It's the ethnographic study. So I truly believe we have the greatest we have the best let me say that out we have the best researcher in the country, African American researcher right now in the country, in Doctor. Irie Tolson.
Doctor. Irie Tolson, to us, or to me, is the modern day Du Bois. So if you remember his seminal work, Du Bois seminal work, The Philadelphia Negro, it was ethnographic study. That is what partnering with, Ivory, as well as Howard University is done. It puts the research behind our community based model. This is where Ivey Ivey is like this beautiful mind where he thinks about how do we use an asset based model around stats, around data, to understand it from an asset base as opposed to a definite base.
Really looking at the stories positively. What's working for students coming from, neighborhoods that may be disadvantaged or maybe, challenged is very key. It's a new way and a new paradigm, and this book is coming out. Some of this research is in the new book, that each of you have. This is just some of our model pieces. The home visits and attendance support students to, recapture students for home visits, ethnographic research and root cause analysis, understanding why students are not staying engaged, and student, strategic student
enrollment. I would say that there's two parts equal parts to student re enrollment: retention, keeping the ones that you have, and re branding all the great things that Flint Community Schools are doing. Most people opt historically out. It has to be a change in mindset and heart posture to bring them back. It's rebranding and retelling the story about the possibilities in Flint Community Schools. And how do you do that? One door at a time. What else do we have? And this is the just the offering about the scalability through years one through, one
through three for three years about what we're trying to do, the return on the investment as far as bringing the students back and growing it and growing the enrollments. And Molly can speak more about the, specific numbers on this. And our next and our next slide is a slide for questions so we can have open dialogue around this, around what the deliverables are for the work. So we have a very intentional partnership model where we look to partner with LEAs and the school systems for two to three years so that we can achieve systemic
impact. But we ensure that the way we partner is flexible, so we don't ask for payment upfront. We we look to partner year over year to adhere to budgets and strategic planning processes and then we continually re evolve, right? We, we adhere to the continuous improvement model and we leverage the data that Ivory and his team is collecting to help drive what our partnership looks like year over year so that we can truly show up with the best, supports for the students in Flint.
So this was a breakdown of what that could look like based on data that we looked at based on understanding shared goals and shared vision, the attendance work you all are doing currently, to bring students back, but also looking towards your strategic planning and work towards your future growth into a new high school and being able to bring kids back and build a funnel of students, for that new school, which is so exciting. Madam president president, can I have asked the board for one minute indulgence?
Oh, yes. At this point, are you asking them to ask your question and get it done? I just wanted, I wanted to say this, and this is not on a slide or anything like that. So starting a company is very hard. It's extremely hard. And, I gave this exercise, and I always give this exercise, is I always say, you know, whether it be on social media now, whether it be in front of our friends, maybe our family, our colleagues, whatever the case may be, we always put our best version forward. For seventeen years, I probably wasn't my best version, not for my family.
You know, consent was my child. I birthed it. I gave it blood, sweat, tears, sleepless nights. Whatever it needed, I gave it. In doing that, I shortchanged, my children. Jossine, 25, Cheyenne, 19, sophomore at Prairie View, DJ, 18 at, at University of Houston. And I was not a good partner to my wife. I was terrible. I was never there because I gave everything I had to concentrate. So why do I say that now? I say this now because I have two young children.
Yes, my life is crazy. I have a five year old, prince who will be five tomorrow. Right? I know. You know, it gets crazier. I have an 18 old, Anaya. Yes. Right? Here's why I say that. I believe in Flint or what I would not have flown out today. I pick and choose where I go now. Unapologetically, I almost 50. Cause I'm not going to make the same mistake of raising other people's children and not raising my two. But I believe in what you're doing here and the possibility. It's there. Yes. So the question I would ask you, and you have gave a very good dialogue,
what if I I'm sitting here listening to you and and go, well, we are doing this. We are already doing some of these things because you're gonna hear that a lot. And here we are. We have close to 12,000 kids. We just did in big enrollment. And to in my opinion, we if you really analyze the data, we're not where we at. But what would you bring different than what I said we have? Because I know you hear that all the time, but then you go back and look at this the data. Yeah. You're doing it. We're doing it.
But we're not these schools are designed to hold more than 3,000 students in the district. Yes. So my question would be, how would you come back there? How would you get in and dig into that and see how can we get this enrollment? We're talking about building a new school, and we probably have 3,000. I'm not too sure because I hadn't got the count. But when you're talking about building a new school and you're talking about boots on
the ground and and other ideas, so what would you say that you'll do a little different if you talk about you have to ask the superintendent what did they do, and then you have to find out what would you do different if that's a good question. Yeah. No. Actually question. Right? And I do I get that all the time. Right? I always you're not from here. We've done this. Whatever the case may be. I I I agree. Right? There is this is such a heavy lift across the country that is not germane to Flint. Right? It's across the board. Baltimore lost 25,000 students. Right?
It's a deep problem that runs the gamut. Right? This is what I would say. I would look at what has been done already. Alright? Build upon that and add to it. And here's what I would add. And this is the question that I don't know. It's a question. You have a catchment area of all the eligible students that could go the school age school eligible age children that could go to, Flint schools. Right? I would simply say, I would knock on every single door and ask why they
stayed and why are they leaving. That would that would give me the qualitative data that I need to figure out what are what are the what's working and what's needed. It's possible to knock on I believe you have about 8,000 school aged children in this catchment area. Is that I'm ballparking it. Eight that was off the cuff. That's what that's what noobs do, by the way. I would knock on every single door. Every single door. It's no different than grassroots community organizing. That's where I took it from.
Because we think, when you give out surveys, guess who fills out the surveys? The people who are interested. When you have community forums, guess who comes out? The people who are interested. Right? When you go to the people and ask them, what is needed? Why are you coming? Why are you staying? What needs to retain you? Or what can attract you? At the same time, sharing the great things that are happening and what will happen. So I don't know if you've knocked on 8,000 doors. Is Yeah. I I Trusting Donuts. I have one question last time, and I guess so.
Yeah. I just did some quick math, so it could be off. But over three years, it would be about 1.23 to do this kind of effort. And then so that equals to about a 130 students net. So I guess my question, part a of that would be, like, how do you how do you know like, how do you track which students that you brought in via your services? And then this one's more of a statement, but it kind of ties into what you just said. So it makes sense, right, to do most recruitment within the city of Flint just
because that's our that's our district by the boundaries. But if you look at, similarly demographic areas like Mount Morris Township Mhmm. Which includes Beecher Yes. Westwood Heights, which is up it's up on there. I think I saw. Maybe it's a different Westwood, But my point is this. This was what was in Wayne County. Okay. Okay. That that makes sense. So the Wayne County cluster, but I'm getting at this. You have, like, Mount Morris towns around here. You have the city of Burden. You have a lot of, like, apartment complexes in Grand Blanc and Grand Blanc Township and surrounding, municipalities that the demographics match our our students and families.
So would you be in would you go into those similar communities and try to recoup there too? Great question. The simple way that I'm gonna answer the second question first. That's fine. I would I would say yes. Right? I absolutely, I would say that. I would start with the catchment area first in Flint. Okay. And then, I think you kind of go out. There's a district that we worked with, I believe it's up there, River Rouge. Have you heard of River Rouge? Downriver. Downriver, right? Run by an amazing superintendent, Doctor. Derek Coleman, who's been there fourteen years, fifteen years.
Great guy, other than being an alpha, but that's, let's go in another direction. But, he took a district on the verge of being taken over by the state. They only had nine eighty three students. He has 3,600 now. 3,600. He's fifteen years in. Through very aggressive, very innovative, very, visionary work about how to get students in and
around. So he went to the marginalized communities and recruited them. When he grew his enrollment I'm not telling you anything y'all don't know when you grow your enrollment, you can be very innovative with your academic approaches. You can be very innovative with your intervention approaches, your transportation. It just opens the possibility up. Like, he opened a wellness center in two of his schools with animals for SEL learning. I mean, he has created a model that really needs to be studied, of what
he's been able to do. He created an environment and you all know Rouge, right? There's no metal detectors in his buildings. There's no metal detectors in his building. And the majority of his students come from Detroit, because they don't have them in Rouge. So a lot of this, I've learned over the past eight or nine years about how to target and retain those students. And then through the data tracking system about those students that we visit and stick and stay. That is the that's the data tracking system. When you talk about how do we, determine which ones we keep.
Because we're gonna be visiting them and and bringing them back and then tracking them that they stay. Okay. That makes sense. Because, I mean, in my head, it'd be a 131 plus to, like, pay for the program, but also get the additional enrollment and revenue back into us. But that makes sense. And then like I I said earlier, like, a lot of charter schools, I just use one. It's called Channel Park Academy in Detroit's East Side. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. They recruit. You're talking about oh, yeah. Yes. Yeah. So they're recruiting East Point, Harper Woods, Detroit, and the surrounding communities even though that they're not found by geographic boards because It used to be East, East English Village.
Yeah. Yeah. Okay. And by the way, my boss is a capital too. So I don't know. Is he a capital or a noop? Ask him that later. No. No. No. Just ask him tomorrow. Ask him. Ask him. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Are there any more questions before we wrap up or comments? Proceed, trustee. No. First of all, good afternoon. How are you how are you, sir? How are you doing? Good. I went to your website, but it's down. Not down. It's being revised right now. What's the difference? I couldn't read Because we have a lot more to, update. I I couldn't read anything. Yeah. But for me, Flint is very unique. We have a plethora of resources.
Again, I think I shared with Molly in California. We do have a lot of things in place, in regards to intervention, in regards to home visits. I think we could utilize them a lot better. But if the culture of a school does not meet the expectations of a parent, anyone could go knock on the door. And I think one of the things that we have as the, educators spoke is we have to change our culture. Absolutely. So I think for me, I'm looking for something that will help us change the
culture because, Flint Schools is definitely a pillar in the community. I'm alumni of Flint Schools and you and it's just, it's just embedded but if it's not providing what you need for your, you have great grandparents raising kids but if it doesn't meet their criteria of comfort, they're not gonna come. So, as I listen to you, I'm just going through my mind on the sources that we, again, Flint is so unique. We just have, we have so many resources that we're just not utilizing.
And like I share with Molly in California, I think the mentoring portion of it, that's what I was hoping that I would hear today. I think that's something that we definitely could utilize in regards to, I'll share one thing with you. I talked to a student and I asked him how long did he expect to live. And he dropped his head and I asked him again. I I repeated the question. He told me he didn't know. So that within itself, it takes that's not something that an educator can do, honestly.
So the resources that we need in place has to deal with the entire family. Here we deal with, social determinants of health which is what, you know, you were pertaining to but then again, I I just have to keep on repaying it. We just have so many resources and we already have agencies in the district that are doing what you're saying. However, I'm quite sure yours is unique But for me, I was looking to hear something that's completely different to where, you could collaborate not so much as reinventing the wheel, but maybe changing a couple of spokes in the wheel Mhmm.
You know, to get it going. So, I was impressed. I did read some of your book and, I did go on your website while I was in California. So I did see some stuff. I will I will be transparent with that. So, no. Great point. So I can say this now as as the founder. Right? Like, so here's the model. The model initially was not for us to do home visits. Right? The the model was to train us train people how to use home do home visits. Right? Everyone does home visits. Right? I think our model and our framework is very different.
We have a five step framework for home visits. Pre visit, home visit, post visit, then progress monitoring and recycle. Right? Like, there's a five step process. But what happens is we could not get, I could not get people to do home visits with fidelity consistently throughout the year. Like, it's one thing, like, this is nice for Michigan right now, today. Right? Even though I'm cold now. Right? But it's another thing I know. Right? I'm getting soft. It's another thing when you have six inches of snow and it's zero degrees. Right? But to your point, trustee, the model was this.
We did the home business. But to your point, then you bring them back to what? And to who? So then what we did was, this is where the PSAs came in. We got professional student advocates. Why? They're professional. They're about students, and they're advocacies. Gone are the days where you can have attendance officers Agents. It doesn't work anymore. So to your point, what our PSAs did was they did the home visits, but they case managed and mentored that group of students. That is our that is a product of ours. Not only did they do that, not only did they do home visits and mentoring or advocacy.
Let me say that because it's broad definition of mentoring. What they did do is they did academic acceleration or what we know as tutoring. That is where we got our greatest results, and that's where our study from Johns Hopkins came from, where we had the results. Our professional student advocates actually did everything that an adult was supposed to do, even looking at the resources for that student. I gave this example earlier. If you all remember Gerald Levert? What killed Gerald Levert? What killed Gerald Levert? What killed Gerald Levert? Fast food. No, all those things. Guess what killed him?
He was over medicated. He took heart medicine that didn't work with his lung medicine, which didn't work with this. To your point, trustee, that is where you're talking about where there's so many competing programs and interventions that there's no one to coordinate them, particularly student by student. That's why every student needs an advocate to know a student intimately so they can discern a program. It's not a program's intent. Does it integrate with what's happening? So, that's really the model. But, now you're being, like, talented and gifted because that's what when you bring them
back, how do you keep them? And, who are you bringing them back to? That's what the PSA is supposed to do. And, they case manage a group of students like that, to your point. Yeah. Are there any more comments, please? Trustee, so I'm I'm just thinking, and I'm trying to to wrap my head around it. I I don't I don't I haven't done a lot of research, and I do ethnographic research.
So, I would disagree with some of what Trustee Rutherford said. We do have a lot of services and a lot of organizations that is true who pay lip service to doing what you're paying lip service service to do. Right now, it's just lip service. Mhmm. Right? I don't think they're underutilized. I don't think they have a lot of integrity. I think and and and I know that that I've kind of spoken to you
about this, that we'd have a nonprofit industrial complex that is very satisfied with how things are being run because it's it's basically a money funneling, laundering scheme, in my opinion. So I I I would like to cut out the middlemen, so to speak. And so I'm interested in hearing more about this direct contact you have with students and families. I don't I'm I'm stakeholders are important, but I'm tired of hearing what they have
to say because they're not talking to the students and the parents or the grandparents or the caregivers or whoever. Even though they say they are, they've got they've got spurious data. They've got data that's just that's bad data. We know what you can, you know, damn lies with statistics. Right? You can you can you can have surveys just to to back up anything that you want. And we do have that. We have data that's been co opted in a bad way by nonprofits.
And so I want to know more specifically, and I don't think this is the time or the place for you to answer this, but this is what I would be interested in. Looking more in-depth at what is actually the work. Right? Because it's it's the doors that you're opening. I want to know more details about that because I from what I'm hearing and what I would like to see more of is is you're saying a lot of
things, but then so do these other nonprofits. Mhmm. And we're tired of that. We've been there. We've done that. So, you know, you're like, we need to go we also talked about about home visits. We've got an itinerant community. Like, you are gonna go to their house one one month, and they're not gonna be there the next month. Like, in tracking them no matter where they are, where they're I mean, you know, they may have a house, but it's for a month. It's and in four months, they're someplace else.
Right? We need to go into the projects. We need to go into the, you know, the clusters of where people tend to to migrate from and to and, you know, because you're going from, you know, one eviction to another. Right? Yeah. What do you and and and to and to to to trustee relevant point that I do agree with, what are we gonna do with I mean, forget about laptops. We had a bunch of extra money, that was restricted, and we have more laptops
than we can possibly use per student. But what are you gonna do to the students or the families that are like, we're on year 11 of a water crisis. We need water we can drink. You can't fix that because of the systemic nature of inequity, inequality, and structural racism in this city that is that is funding these nonprofits and they're all too happy to just keep going business as usual. So I wanna stop there, but this is kind of what I'm what I'm thinking
about. So yeah. I'd like to just make one comment in response to that of where I think would be a good path forward for us for a conversation. So I I shared a framework of what a two to three year partnership could look like, but part of that indicates a ninety day implementation. Right? And we could look at that ninety day as our pilot together as a district while we dig in together to do the work and demonstrate and work through almost a strategic planning session with you all because the key to our success is, again, it's not a puzzle piece.
Right? We are we become very deeply ingrained with your teams and and because we build up from the communities, right, we need to have a deep understanding of those community partners that you work with, ones that you partner with with Fidelity and the work and how they can be a partner of ours. Right? I loved hearing just the idea that was shared earlier in open comments. I turned to David and I said there that could be a great community partner that we look to partner with. Right? So Mister Wade is different. Having an He's he's fresh. He's new, and he actually does have Fidelity.
And so The point of that is that our success is rooted in working with the board and working with the leadership team of school districts and LEAs to understand what community partners we can pull into this work so that we can do so with intention. Thank you for your comments. It's 06:28. We have about two more minutes. Okay. Trustee Perkin, did you want to speak? I'm just I'll wait. I can ask them Because we're gonna come back. We appreciate, your presentation. You gave some very vital information. You guys can get back with, superintendent Jones, and we can move forward.
We met we met in Los Angeles. And if you like to, we'll get back with superintendent Jones and the academic chair. Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you very much. We appreciate your Board members, may I have a motion and a second to batch
the items that was approved in our trial meeting last week, which would be resolution 1.9, 1.1, 1.11, one point twelve, one point thirteen, 11.19, 11.2, and 25.1. The reason I'm asking for this batch because we approved them last week, and these are action items that we're moving over. So I'm seeking a motion in a second to move these items, and we're leaving
item, 21. We're leaving that one for board discussion, but we would like the batch. Human resource, finance, and the academic. So I'm taking a motion in a second to move those. I'm into that. Hello? Yes. I make a motion that we batch Those items. Those items under human resources, finance, and academic, And bat and batch them.
Okay. Is there a second? Support. If the improper move is second. Are there any discussions? Yes. Trust me. Okay. We all know how I feel about batching things. Right? Yes. I don't think it's best practice. And in general, I really am loathe and hesitant to batch things. I want to give the public an opportunity to be able to go from the the cow and have some time to reflect and come back and ask, you know, more questions or think or to have this, you know, discussion. So in theory, I really don't wanna make this a practice.
But given given the presentation, given the fact that we have guests here, and we've got work that needs to be done, like, five years ago, I'm going to be voting to batch, but like I said, I I don't want it to be reflective of okay. So alright. Alright. So I'm just I'm just putting it up. Please don't do this to me again. Are there any more comments? To batch, we do a roll call vote. Secretary Perkins? Yes. Trustee Booth?
Yes. Vice president McIntyre? Yes. Trustee Rutherford? Yes. Trustee King is absent. Treasurer Looney? Yes. Myself, President Blankens, six years, one absent. Yeah. Madam Chair? Yes. I make a I make a motion we vote to approve the vast items. So moved. Or It'd been prepped. Move and second. Roll call vote. Treasurer Luna? Yes. Trustee King is absent. Trustee Relico? Yes. Vice President McIntyre? Yes. Trustee Booth? Yes. Secretary Perkin? Yes. And myself? Yes. Six years, one absent. Thank you, guys.
I now call the phone superintendent Jones to present board committee of the whole item to the board. Great. Good good evening, board members. Good evening. Good evening. Good evening to our public, and thank you to our presenters, for today. We appreciate you being here. I seek a motion in a second from the board to approve action item 21.4, approval of the MOP proposal. Madam chair. I make a motion we approve action item 21.4. Support. They've been propping moving second. Are they in the discussion? Trustee McIntyre. So I I don't want it to seem as if this is just something like,
oh, it just popped up and here it is. Know that we have been working so hard to get to this point. And I I do want to acknowledge the some of the partners who expressed concerns and came forward, last week with the desire, and the the desire to incorporate more of the historic features of the building site.
That would be lovely. It would be great. But given the structure of education, of funding, of what's happening with the federal government, and the fact that for far too long, for decades, Flint Community Schools have been devalued and disinvested in. It's way too much to ask way too late. It would have been really nice back when it would have been really nice not to have closed the the school in the first place. And definitely, it would have been nice not to leave the doors literally open with
everything inside, including the student records, all of the equipment, all of the furniture, all of the books, everything on purpose intentionally. So like I said, it's kind of like shutting the barn door once the horse is out to use a really old fashioned expression. We're doing the best we can. And if if you come to the meetings, if you come to the community engagements, if you come to the discussions, if you've been working on this, even before we're
the oldest, president and and myself, we're the oldest board members. We we've been doing this work for more than a decade before this. Keyshawn Wade as a student has been doing this work before us. It's not just a decision that we made in a week or a month or even a year. This is something we have been putting in the blood, sweat, and tears for, you know, literally years and years and years. So I'm gonna be voting for this. I I'm really sorry that that it's that there are factors that have come to
this. You know, this is not what I in an ideal world, what I would like necessarily, but it's what we have to work with. And if we want to salvage and retain any sort of public education in Flint and and autonomy and self determination. This, I think, is the right decision to make. So I just wanna let people know that we are listening. We're not just destroying the old to move forward with the new. That is not my ideology and that is not how I approach things.
So I'm open to further conversation, but I just, this had to be said. It's, it's, we're not a board that's just, you know, scorched earth. So thank you. Trustee Loma? Yeah, no, I appreciate trustee, sorry, vice president- vice president McIntyre's comments, what she just said. So a couple things, we all sit on the R4 committee. Yes. And we give feedback to the stakeholders and partners and vendors on on that committee. So I do wanna commend, miss Blocker, doctor Jamerson, mister Jones, the other committee members,
which include Michigan State, doctor Wanda Cook, folks from Fairfield, the College Cultural Neighbors Association, Central Park Neighbors Association, the Flint Neighborhoods United Neighbors Association, the CS Mott Foundation, others who I can't think of right now. I do think they take the feedback really good from us. And I do I do welcome folks to come to these board meetings and express their ideas or their frustrations because we're the elected body and they may have missed the meeting or not, but I think that's perfectly okay as long as it's respectful.
And they don't call people's names out, but I will say, you know, and we've been pretty clear on this as a board. Preservation, new builds, and building excellent schools for kids are not mutually exclusive. They often occur at once. There's examples across the state and the country. And meets personally, as elected official, I love to raise money and ask for money, and that's that's what I'm good at. One thing I'm good at least. So yeah, Yeah. So I mean, I'm happy to hop on the phone and call and ask for money, whether it be from a government official, a rich person, our philanthropy.
And I've done that for various boards in my in my professional career. So I know we can raise money. And I think to this board's credit and, having consistent leadership is that we've shown stability in the midst of, you know, chaos at the federal level. Sometimes, you know, interesting environments at the state level, and I won't talk about local level. But I think that's our it's our credit that we've done that. So I think people will trust us with their investment.
And I always say this too, and I wish we could all see this more. We always say we we spent $40,000,000 on this campus. I would really encourage us to say we invested $40,000,000 into the life of students, staff, and the neighborhood because that really shows our long term commitment and investment. So I'll just end with, I think, they'll give they'll take our feedback with how we address this because it's gonna be there for decades, if not a century. So I think we're I think we're in the right direction and I really appreciate your comments and the board's work and the work of the partners. Thank you.
Madam Chair. Trustee Gallagher? Thank you. First of all, I'd like to thank everyone that participated. I think for me, the R4 committee, I think that's fine, but I think the R4 committee needs to report back to the whole board prior to it coming out to the public. It's gonna be back. Because a lot of my questions could have been answered before getting here. And when I got this pack, this is a lot of information that you guys we we dealing with investment for the next hundred years for this community.
And to this this board, we're responsible for this. And I'm not comfortable with whomever we hire to do something, and I not know what they're doing until until it's before us. I need you to approve it. No. No. No. What is this? Because we owe this to the community what we're doing step by step. Step by step. Who's doing what? For example, last week, we had a concerned parent that came in in regards to asbestos. We need to be able to just pull that up to assure the family this
is what we're doing. But when you have communication gaps, things like that grow legs and it become a forest fire. So for me with us going into this phase of building a whole new school, I just and I shared this with superintendent Jones. It's it's more than just business as usual. You guys, everyone's eyes is on us. And it's not on us for good, but it's to critique. But if we can do what we need to do on the onset, we won't have to go backwards.
So as I look at this layout, this is my first time seeing it as elected official and and that's not good because we're we're one body. It's not one or two people that make a decision for this board, this entire board. So it would be who the R4 committee, whatever committee, please run it by the board and we don't wanna just push something through. We have a cow for a reason. The cow allow us to ask whatever questions we need to ask and also see document. Me, trustee Rutherford, if it's not in writing, it didn't happen.
And I think that's a good practice everyone should have. So I just say to the board, you all that are on that community, include the entire board so that we all can know exactly what's what because everyone has a different expertise. And I believe if we tap into everyone's expertise, we'll we'll be whole. So that's one of the first thing that I'm asking. But, I I I appreciate the foundation, actually coming to the table to match funds. I appreciate that.
And for me, I would like the verbiage to acknowledge that not as the Flint Community Schools is requesting money. You know? And I know it may seem a little tedious, but it was it was it was, said to us, we will give you matching dollars. And if I'm incorrect, someone please correct me. It's the difference when someone says, if you get this, we'll match it. So I would like the verbiage to represent that. In regards to the funding that was, sponsored to us or what what earmarked for
Flint Community Schools, we would like to draw down on it. Not necessarily that terminology, but I would definitely like for that to be reflected as a partnership and not as charity, if that if if if that's okay with you all. So, as it relates to this portion of the agenda, I'm I'm 100% for this going forward, but I definitely would with the heavy lift of this school building going forward, I definitely ask you all to make sure the entire board is informed.
Whether or not we agree, that's that doesn't matter, But just make sure the entire board is informed of what's put in place. Thank you. Are there any more comments before the president speaks? Seeing no further comment, I will speak to the public. This board had a retreat. Maybe a three day retreat leading up to this. Our board member was invited to participate in this retreat and this planning. And we started this planning from the retreat. The RFA committee is a group of partners and board members and I believe that
this has been presented, a few weeks of right here in this building. We had Doctor. Wanda Cook to even bring all of this forth. We also had meetings with the congress and different people came to the Administration Building to help Flint Community School. My understanding is the state, they gave us 36,000,000, and we had another conversation. It wasn't a matching or anything what the Mott Foundation would give. Three or four years ago, this board this board some of the board member was
not here. Two is still here. They came to us with a $100,000,000 to do the same type of work. And for some issues and stuff, what happened, that fell through. Here, the same organization coming back to help Flint, not asking match for a dollar or anything. This court has meetings. It is not when you don't come to meetings, it is not nobody's responsibility to get the data but the person that's absent. There's nothing in this package that has not been went through through every board member.
And, sometimes, we have to do different research to get to here. What I'm saying as the president of this board, we are not going back. We are moving forward. I want to thank the Mott Foundation and the resources they have provide in helping us get to this point. We cannot keep going down the same road with this beautiful building and keep talking about what we got and we don't need this. We need something. You got 12,000 some kids here. You only got 2,800 here.
When you're talking about building a new school, you're gonna have to go out and find somebody to know how to work this thing to get you another 5,000 kids in this district. So, on this behalf, as we move forward, we are keeping this board engaged, but you have a responsibility to be engaged yourself. There's nothing hidden in these proposal. None of that. We had to retreat. We bridged that ugly gap that we had between our partners, and it's not coming forward back to this state because we are moving forward.
These kids deserve better. These teachers deserve a classroom. The government just passed the budget. Smaller classroom. Teacher cannot teach with a disruptive classroom. Now what the board can do, you got all ears, you can hear me on this. We can create a classroom management policy, a zero policy, zero disrespect. We're not talking about kicking you out of school. We're gonna find a room for you to be until you learn how to behave yourself. This is part of everything is gonna be new as we talk about this here package. We've got people who spend a 100 some million dollars.
We don't wanna see teacher. We got 30 some new teachers. Of course, some teachers are coming to a district where the classroom is so misbehaved. Taught them for ten years. So it's the board responsibility for classroom management. It is the superintendent responsibility for this academic. But it is also our board responsibility to create an environment. We don't close down over 28 schools. You call property value to go down when you close them. You close three, you promise that, hey, we're gonna get them filled.
You haven't been able to fill those at. So we owe this district this proposal. It's not about me. It's for the next generation. You wanna lead these children something. You wanna lead this community something. Build something that you can't build for yourself and give it to them. So on that note, I'm pushing for this to be passed today. Are there any more comments one round if you have not spoken? Seeing there's no other comment. Can I just say one thing? Well, mom, not the president's speaker. Go ahead. Okay. And we're gonna make exception. No. I I so I do want to acknowledge, mister Parker Yes.
And and, Yeah. For all of his hard work. I am one of the biggest critics, I would say, of the Mott Foundation, and all of its connections in this city and to the to the point where I actually called them a colonial overseer. And I want to say that myself, I it it's not like I I don't
wanna say, oh, we're, like, we're we're good. We're we're good. We're we're tight. We're we're best friends now. But I want to say that I am at a place where I am confident in the Mott Foundation as a partner. We asked them to be a partner and not a colonial overseer, and they stepped up. And a a large part to some of the the hard work that that mister Parker did, but also to mister White who acknowledged, a lot of what was said,
a lot of the work that was being done, and actually, yeah, I I don't know if he had a change of heart, but I am very impressed Right. With the way that, the Mott Foundation and other community partners have seemed to have listened. It's not perfect, but just I am I am excited and looking forward to more partnership moving forward. So I did want to acknowledge that. Thank you very much. Thank you. The motion to approve action item 21.14,
approval of the mock proposal. This will be conducted by a roll call vote. Yes if you approve it, no if you don't. Trustee Reliquart? Yes. Secretary Perkins? Yes. Trustee Boos? Yes. Vice president McIntyre? Yes. Trustee King is absent. Treasurer Luna? Yes. And myself? Oh, yes. Six yes. One absent. I'm gonna keep going, board president. Yes. I'm gonna keep going. Okay. I'm gonna ask miss Blocker from Plante Moran and, mister Mike DeCosta from Stantec to to come up for these next action items just in case.
Whoever you have any questions, this is some of the work that they are leading out. And I wanna make sure that your questions get answered appropriately. I seek a motion in a second. Oh, well, before I do that, how are you all today? Thank you for being here. Nice seeing you guys. Alright. I seek a motion in a second from the board to approve resolution 21.5 approval of phase one environmental site assessment proposal. That's yes, I make a motion to be approved 21.5 support. It has been properly. Oh, is there any discussion?
Yeah. I just have a one one quick comment. So a k a k t Peerless is a really good firm. I've seen their work across the state of Michigan in the country from Henry Ford to Wayne State to the new high school in Saginaw. So, I mean, that goes for all these. I'm just gonna say that even the the one. Yeah. So So, I mean, that goes for all these. I'm just gonna say that even though the one, the Becker, they've done work at Ewell then in Wayne State too. So Mhmm. I'll be supporting all these, but, you know, I made them wanna bash things, but just wanted to say that they've done some great work. Okay. Thank you. Trustee McIntyre. And and so it says the project will be funded through general funds reimbursed by
the MDE grant. So I just wanted to make sure that this is something that we're gonna initially pay for with general funds, but it will be eventually great. Thank you for asking that. So yes. So what happens is just like ESSER. Alright. It's you you pay for it through your general fund, and then you send it to the MBE, and they reimburse you. Right. Reimburseables happen or in in within two weeks.
Mhmm. Okay. So, whatever we're spending out of that MDE grant Right. Will come right back to us. Any more discussions? Madam chair. Oh, okay. Well, trustee Booth. Oh, wait. Go ahead. She go. Well, you haven't spoke tonight. Go ahead. Okay. And then trustee Russell. Question about the environmental site assessment proposal. Who do you report to once that's completed? Good after good evening. All of these, reports will be submitted to the district and then will be used by Stantec, the architect, to inform them on the design, for the for the project.
So right now, we're at a, point where we need to find out what's going on on the site. So that means we have to do the geotech drill down, understand what the soil conditions are. We have to do the, topographic survey. You may think you own all that land, but we gotta make sure you really do make sure the city or county or someone doesn't have an easement through there. So we have to do all of this site due diligence in order to inform
the design that we showed at the last board meeting. So, we did get multiple proposals for for each one. And the small spotting the Decker is also a, part of their design team. They're doing all of the civil engineering work. So this is our professional service work that we need to, move forward as we're negotiating their contract for the rest of the work. So that's why we're asking for these to be pulled up early so that we
can stay on track to get the complete design done in time to build the school. I I think any information goes to the state. No. It comes to you. Okay. And then, we will share it with you and, then it will go to, Stantec at the same time. And and then it doesn't go to the state. We have no require only thing that we have to submit to the state is once they're done with their design drawings, next year. Those have to get submitted to the state and to the, city for approval.
Okay. Trustee Rutherford? Yes. Thank you. Where was RFPs posted? We did not do a public RFP. It was a, RFP to professionals that we know, request for proposals, and we got quotes of professional from professionals that we know who can do the work. So we got multiple proposals in. And this will ultimately get assigned to Stan Tech through their contracts so that they can manage these consultants on-site. I think for me, because we're the union town and we wanna be transparent with
everything that we do Mhmm. Proposals are I mean, RFPs are are are necessary. And if I look here on page 77, they said based on the, proposal provided by Sanitex that you a new it's on page 77. I'm not gonna read it. But I guess for me, which which that again, this is where I'm saying a lot of this could have been taken care of Right. Had the r four reported back to the board. Just gave us what you had, not to undo it. But just so that for me, I can only speak for for trustee Rutherford Mhmm.
That I can get a good understanding because I'm not comfortable not knowing that a RFP was not done. It wasn't on Flint School's website. Okay. Because at the end of the day, it's Flint Schools and we have to be transparent with our taxpayers here. Mhmm. So, they may be wonderful. I don't doubt that. But a process is a process and we wanna make sure that it's fair all the way across the board. Mhmm. So to me, that was I I didn't just surprise, you know, just do this. I did read it. I reached out to mister Jones, superintendent Jones, and he shared that he had contacted
you, but I just wanted to be able to verbally say RFPs are they are essential. Okay. You know, and I I would really say to my colleagues that we stand behind RFPs because we had a situation before where they had they had to abort it because RFP, there were some questions about that. But, for me, I see when we're looking at this, I I it's it's so many. My question is what is the cost? I think that's what I wrote. What is the total cost? I didn't see it. I'm not saying it's not here, but what is the cost for the services that
we're doing? Because it looks like it's all over. It's it's just a whole lot entailed to instead of just this is what we're paying. For for the site survey Yes. For Spalding to Decker, it's $28,400. We did negotiate them down from where they were originally. Mhmm. For the geotech, the geotechnical services, that's, g two. They're at $27,003.50. Mhmm. And then the traffic engineering by Spalding to Decker is $21,400.
Okay. Is that the one with the two meetings and stuff? Information. We're not on that line item. Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Oh, I apologize. We are we are not there yet. Okay. We're still on this well, where you are, and you continue to Yeah. We're still doing the environmental site. Okay. I'm sorry. I apologize. Thank you. So phase one environmental is the a a k peerless and that's $4,500. Okay. Alright. Thank you. Any more comments? I want the public to know I will speak. All all RFPs does not have to go through that same process.
It's been done come to the RFP. RFPs is just a committee. We have nothing to do with the RFPs. It's not my RFPs responsibility to report out to the board about a RFP. That was not if it had to be the other way, it would have came through the board. But in the future, the board member does not have to. You did the right process and that's one of the process that our RFP have
to do. Seeing no further comment. Madam chair, if you don't mind. I I believe that it's definitely good practice for the boards to see the proposals, all proposals. Thank you for your comment. The next thing you wanna You are very welcome. Did you wanna speak on anything before I No. I can do it. You do it? Oh, it is time to vote for resolution 21.5. Roll call vote. Trust Treasurer Luna? Yes. Trustee Keen, is it happening? Trustee Redifford? Yes. Vice President McIntyre? Yes. Trustee Boos? She stepped out. Secretary Perkins? Yes. And myself? Yes.
One, two, three, four. Five. Yes. K. I seek a motion and a second from the board to approve resolution 21.6 approval for surveying services new high school. Madam chair yes, I make a motion to approve the item Support. It had been properly moving second. Is there any discussion for 21.6 approval? Madam chair? Yes. I believe this is the one where, it includes, this was the same way with
the proposals, with the RFPs. Same thing with this. Okay. We received multiple quotes. Thank you. I need more question. Can I finish talking? I I know you're in a rush. But received. Thank you. So as you said with this, you received multiple ones. Can the board can you make that available to the board? Can I Yes? You can respond to it. Please do. She's not finished, so I I wanna respond to it. You're fine. So the fact that we're in the midst of working on Stantec's contract, none of this that you see before you would have ever come to you because Stan Stantec
would have worked on this, and it wouldn't have been board documents. It would have been worked on through Stantec because we, our owners rep, Plant Moran, is working to ensure with me to ensure that the contract that comes to you from, from Stantec is done appropriately. We don't wanna slow the work down, so we brought this to you so that it can be approved and move forward. Otherwise, you would have only approved Stantec's contract.
So you never would even had a question about an r f RFP or anything like that because it would have been under the scope of their work. So I I only said that to say, not to not to argue RFPs because I believe in them as well. Yes. But I said that to say, this work is to ensure that we know what's happening on the grounds of of the school. There's going to be plenty of RFPs Yes. That go out to our public. Demolition is an RFP. RFPs as it pertains to construction. All of those RFPs as we've done with the queue, as we've done with the
four schools, it will happen. We brought this forward because we wanna make sure we don't slow down. So I just wanna be clear that the work of our architects is to manage this work and it not to come to the board. Not that it's hidden because it's not. It's a part of their contract to do this work. We did not have to do the we did not have to talk about the the geotechnical stuff with the cube or with any of the other sites. Why? Because it was a part of their work. But did it happen?
Absolutely. So I I just wanna say that just as a caveat to the conversation. There will be adjustments that will will come to the board. There will be adjustments made as we go. Remember the draft we showed you was a draft. It wasn't the final. So there's gonna be adjustments, adjustment to proposals, adjustment to the work. But we wanna keep things moving forward so we don't get behind, with our schedule to start groundbreaking. Thank you. Yes, ma'am. I wanna continue. As it relates to I I don't think it's, a negative thing just to ask
for the proposal just to read them. That's I don't I don't think it's wrong at all. I I think it's real it's a good practice, to be totally honest with you. Because if something was to come up, you know, we need to be able to have a conversation for it. First of all, let me be clear. I'm a 100% support of this, but I want to be done the correct way. So I don't want anyone to think that I'm not for it. But however, I'm going to ask a question. If I have a question, I'm I'm I'm not I don't want anyone to be defensive. I'm here to work quarterly with everyone. I just want the best thing for the district.
I want everyone to feel like they're being heard at all times. And I want everyone to feel as though they're being respected at all times. So that I just wanted to make that perfectly clear. But as it relates to doing business for Flint Community Schools as a trustee, it is my expectation that I'd be able to see a RFP when we're dealing with government funds because we wanna make sure we're in compliance when we're dealing with federal dollars. Thank you. Are there any more discussion? Just saying. You know what? You can both and I I can say that the next one.
Okay. Thanks. Seeing no further discussion, a roll call vote for resolution 21.6. Secretary Perkins? Yes. Trustee Booth? Yes. Vice President McIntyre? Yes. Trustee Rutherford? Yes. Treasurer Luna? Yes. And myself? Yes. Six yes. Proceed, mister Jones. I seek a motion and a second from the board to approve resolution 21.7 approval for traffic impact study for the new high school. I make a motion that we approve 21.7. Support. Is there any discussion?
I would I would just say thank Fiona? I would just say, you know, it's very important to that neighborhood that we do this. But all these things from the phase one to the surveying piece to the geotechnical, whenever we build something, especially on a brownfield that's been there for a hundred years, like, we gotta know what's going on and how all these kids coming to the school are gonna impact the the traffic flow in the streets, how the streets can last long. If there's some, like, fat or mollusks in a river near the school that we can't build on. So it's it's frustrating, but it's just a part of how we do development. And it it's annoying, but you gotta approve all of these tonight.
So I'll be supporting 1.4 to 20.8. Okay. Any more discussion, Trustee Mack and tackle? And I would like to throw it out there once again. Can we is it Kursley Street, I think? Kursley Street is where you wanna pedestrianize the area. Yes. I think. Can we please shut that down? Can we not have that, like, the traffic at all? Is there some way to continue to, to work with all of our partners? This this is just a pipe dream kind of thing.
Mister Parker, can you move heaven and earth? I'm just sitting. Right. He's so yeah. So he could be the city whisperer, but can we, I would love to see something that that takes the community, in mind and however we need to do it in order to to get the city, the schools, the the cultural center, all in in accordance to make that one big beautiful campus that is cooperative and collaborative and
and lovely. So I just kinda just wanted to say that. Thank you. Are there any more discussion? Madam Chair. Trustee Rutherford. As I look at the, is it boring locations, the the yellow pins and the, white circles. Is the person here that could talk to this? Do you guys you could speak to this? Yeah, I can speak. I can speak to this. Okay. Can you look at that map referring to you? I just see where you have the previous boring locations and they're totally different than what's now, you know. So my question is why such a discrepancy?
A lot of them overlap, you know. Yes. So what, can you explain that to me? Yeah, absolutely. What Okay. We normally do is we identify where the plan is going to where the building is going to be built and then we identify those locations where the soils would be needed to be, investigated. I'm not looking at the same piece of paper you have to see. You want to see it? Sure. Okay. Here you go. Yeah. And what we're doing here is that this is just a map that I had if I we had information on those soils in those particular locations but we needed additional locations in the other, the new proposed locations.
Okay. So that's the script. Now one thing for me, they closed off, I'm I'm dating myself, they closed off a couple of those streets that led to 475 to kind to, I think to deal with the, overflow of traffic. Is that out of the question to reopen those streets again? Because of the flow. They, I I wanna say they closed off three streets that were running east and west over in that area to help with the flow of traffic. Just a question. Yeah. I'm not familiar with which those streets are.
I'm not sure they went through our site. Well, I think as it relates to the surveying like these streets, I guess we're dealing with the streets, right? The traffic impact. The traffic impact. Okay. I'm sorry. I I must have jumped someplace else. But they ended up blocking off, I think, two streets over that way that ran east and west. And my question is, will that also will they have to reopen those streets again? Because some of the, some of the residents there were concerned about that. No. There was no intention to reopen or investigate that as part of this Okay. There you go.
Traffic study is to know the impact of having an operating high school school for a thousand students on this site and the surrounding community. So to mitigate any negative traffic impacts. My only my only question with that is, would you have in another school on the other side that, FCC school and then you having this high school, that's a lot of traffic there. So That's if everyone's going the same direction, that was my ask for is it possible to open the streets to kinda take some of the traffic away from going
to Robert T Longway? Because it seems like you're either either going to Court Street, Robert E. Longway or, you know, Robert E. Longway or Chavez. I'm sure you can see that. That would be the result of this traffic study. Okay. That would show us what the impact of that is and then propose any mitigating solutions if there needs to be any. Okay. Very good. Thank you. And no further this discussion on resolution 21.6 will be conducted by roll call vote. That's the number point seven. 21.7 will be conducted by roll call vote. Board members, I call your name.
Could you please say yes or no? Secretary Perkins? Yes. Trustee Booth? Yes. Vice president McIntyre? Yes. Trustee Rutherford? Yes. Treasure Luna? Yes. And myself, yes. Six yes. Proceed, mister Thomas. Alright. I seek a motion and a second from the board to approve resolution 28 21.8, approval for geotechnical investigation. So moved. Support. You've been properly moved. And second, is there any discussions? Lab chair. Proceed. I understand. In reading this document, it mentions six buildings.
I would definitely love for, that to be explained what six buildings. It just has list of six building in the document. If you look at if if if you look at the site, there's there's a number of structures on the building. Each of those structures is I don't have that. Alright. Thank you. Thank you. Are they labeled on this for me? On that, no. I don't believe so. Do you have one that they're labeled on? I don't have one. Okay. But we do we do have one. We do have one. Yes, we do. Yes. Now you guys see the importance of sharing stuff with the board so we can have it. What we need. Okay. But go ahead.
So the buildings that indicated one through six are the buildings on the site that are separate buildings. So you have the powerhouse, the original high school, Whittier School, the Field House and there's a couple other two other ancillary smaller buildings. So they're all on that site? Yes. I would love for that verbiage to say on the campus. Okay. Only reason because we have a lot of buildings that need to be demolished. And once I read it, I'm like, what buildings are we talk are we, talking about? So just so that the public hears, is portions of the building, the goal is to, preserve it, portions of the high school, correct?
That is correct. It's not a complete demolition of the building. That That's our current investigation. I just wanna clarify. Okay. At the last board meeting when it was, presented, at that time, it was a complete demolition of Flint Central High School, and we were going to preserve the brick that was removed from the building and rebuild that facade. I did share the two things. I don't know if you wanna share them or not, But we were going to
rebuild that, facade in the one that you saw before. But now since we've heard strongly from the board and the community, we had to take a step back and look at not demolishing all of Flint Central, but keeping that tower and that facade. Yes. Keep that up structurally so you won't see it go down. The rest of it will, but we're gonna keep that up. And we're also investigating on how to renovate that portion of the existing Flint Central
now so you won't see a complete tear down of Flint Central. And, superintendent Jones instructed me to make sure I'm at every board meeting or CAL meeting once a month. We will give a direct update to the board on where we are with things and how we're how we're moving forward, what happened the previous month, a look ahead to the future. So he did instruct me to make sure that I'm here to present that to the board. Okay. Thank you so much. I really appreciate that.
That helps to be able to just make good decision and also it helps for me to build trust in you all that, Flint Schools is in good hands and, I I just thank you for taking the time to answer my questions. I really appreciate it. Madam chair, I yield back. Any more questions or discussion? Seeing no further discussion, a roll call vote to approve 21.8 conducted by roll call. Secretary Perkins? Yes. Trustee Boos? Yes. Vice president McIntyre? Yes. Trustee Rutherford? Yes.
Sherry Delona? Yes. And myself, six yes. Thank you. Welcome. By the way, I really wanna thank you guys for the work that you're doing. And we appreciate you. We sure appreciate you. Thank you. And your honesty. Thank you. Mhmm. Board member in your package on page 194 is the Bartek monthly update. Do any board member have any questions? Seeing no further question or comments, we're moving down to the individual board members. Do any board member have any comments or remark remarks before we adjourn? Madam chair. Trustee Relaford.
Thank you. Miss Perkins, you're next. I would definitely love to, like to I don't know if she's still here. If she's still here. The, educator, I hear you and, I'll just ask if I could for you to put that in writing. I heard what you said. I was trying to take those. I have things that I'm testing. Okay. Gotcha. Okay. Well, well, okay. Well, first of all, I'll say this. Thank you for your courage. We're not in the schools. We can only go by what's said. But some of Things you shared is a part of the culture change that we need to we
need to address so that students and families will want to return back to Flint schools. I just wanna personally just say thank you. And I'd like to say, you didn't know A a point of we can't talk back and forth. We're in board comments. We appreciate that, and that was inappropriate for her to ask any questions. I'll make myself available to you afterwards. Point of information. Point of information. Point of order. The educator, you cannot give us that document because you report to superintendent Jones, not the board, and we're requesting that you give those document to superintendent Jones because he
would have to address it. It is out of the board lane to address great communication, but we do things in decent and order. You report to superintendent Jones and then he'll take it from there. And if the board need to be concerned, we'll have a meeting. Thank you. Proceed, trustee Rutherford. I'll still be I'll make myself available. When it comes to this district, it's up to seven members that were elected individuals. Regardless of what you may hear, it takes seven. This entire board needs to vote on something. Everyone has every right to have a conversation with a elected official on this school
board. Do not let anyone intimidate you. Do not do that. You have a right to have a conversation. And so I just really wanna say that but we're doing such good work. We don't want to deviate or be distracted from it because we got a lot coming up. And I just say to you all, continue to keep your trust in this board, continue to to talk, continue to share your ideas because we're definitely gonna need it. Thank you. Any more comments from any board member? Madam Chair.
Trustee and I'm sorry. Trustee Perkin was next in you. That's alright. I, to her the educator because, I've popped in and out, you know, different schools, not just but Southwestern I have. And I had a conversation with the press where I ran into him. And, you know, I heard what the president said about, school management. Classroom management. That's what I meant to say. Classroom management. And I think addressing some of the issues that the young lady brought up will
help address a lot of things in the classroom. Comments? Trustee Lohner? Yeah. Two things. I believe last week, we had a good contingent of folks at the, Teach for America Detroit kinda celebration. So for those who don't know, I might they they changed the mountains. I did it ten years ago, but, essentially, Teach for America, is allowing FCS moving forward. This is the first semester. Right? Right? Well, this first semester going forward to be part of their program, it involves four
fellowships. I think one is for national board certification, one is for emerging educators, one is for school and district leaders, and I forget the fourth one. Policy. Yeah. Policy. So educational policy. And besides getting amazing kind of nationally accredited, professional development, they also get compensated, I believe, over the course of three years, $30,000 on top of their regular compensation. So I guess two things I wanna talk about is they're getting this national PD for four different areas. It is application. I know they run their own kind of application process.
But two, the compensation pieces, to me, it's huge. I mean, if I could do that now, that'd be nice for a new vacation. But I do wanna acknowledge that we're doing innovative things with nationally recognized organizations to really, move forward when it comes to educating kids better and, making sure our teachers have the best training that they can. And then two, on a personal note, I will say, you know, I've noticed for a while now, at least for me personally, whenever there's like a death in the family, or someone sick, or an anniversary, or birthday, All of my colleagues, plus a
lot of the administration and teachers always say, hey, I'm thinking about you or happy happy birthday, etcetera. And I've seen it not just for me, but rather board members as well. So we will appreciate that in that level of trust and love. So thank you. Thank you. Anyone else? Trustee McIntyre. Yeah. And and and on that note, I I wanted to extend my thanks and appreciation to the board, to the superintendent, to everyone on the staff. I've I've had some family, issues with both parents being in intensive care for quite a while, which is why I had to be absent from several functions and and
the board. They're they're doing, I don't wanna say well, but they're doing. So thank you for all of that support. And then on a more general note, I just wanted to keep us mindful about, talking about getting student input and and and understanding what the needs of the community specifically based on students and and families to keep that. I'm I'm inspired and I'm encouraged by by some of the presentations that I that I heard today.
It reminds me of mister Wade when he first came forward and emphasized how, teach out, for example, used to lock the doors and mock the students out in the cold and not let them come in until the till the bell rang, and how far we've come in terms of, I was speaking just of the of the 68,000
or 6,800 expulsions and suspensions that we had back in 02/2016, to the point where the the ACLU had had to come in and and supervise what was going on in our schools and where we've come in this past decade. The fact that we have really made a dent in the school to prison pipeline. And that, yes, we're talking about about discipline and classroom management, but we're not talking about policing and punitive punishments.
We're talking about restorative justice practices. And one of the things that I think that we need to highlight and to and and that I've been saying for years that that really is a success story for this school is is the fact that we are a very active anti school to prison pipeline school, and that we do we have come we've made head and shoulders strides in in addressing the needs.
I would love to see the elimination of the of the, metal detectors. I would love to see I I reluctantly, you know, listen to to getting the ban on the on the cell phones and the hoodies, not because that's what we're punishing our students with, but because, you know, we're listening to the teachers. But we're we're moving forward. We're moving forward. And and and it's a continuous, like, movement of the needle.
And and hopefully, one day, we'll eliminate those metal detectors, school resource officers, you know, you know, kids students will be able to wear whatever they want. But I do want to say that that that we are very unique. That is one of the things that, you know, trustee Rutherford talks about how the Flint Schools are unique. Well, we we are unique because we actually are paying lips or not not just paying lip service to anti school to prison pipeline, but we actually have done something.
We're doing something about it, and we're continuing to make make improvements. So, thank you to to my board, to the administration, and look where we've come, in the past couple of years. I I'm really I'm really proud of us. I'm really encouraged. It's not to say that that there's not a lot of work to be done that for sure, But we have really taken what we've had, including a lot of setbacks and and negatives and and turned it around.
So so well done. We're not gonna rest on our laurels, and we still, I'm still imploring the community to come forward and, you know, again, to be a part of the school community to what can you bring to help us to add to the resources, not just to take away. If you see blight, if you see something going on in your community, remember you're part of that community as well.
It's not up to the to necessarily the board to to clean up the mess out there. It's it's up to all of us, all hands on deck. You know, be a part of the democratic process and the schools as a public institution. Let's let's keep let's keep education open and accessible to everyone. So thank you very much. Superintendent Jones. Yes. Thank you, board president. Just want to thank all of the amazing staff who has been working very hard
over the last, couple of weeks to ensure that all scholars show up. And those who supported at Potter, for, our governor, signing the education budget. Hats off to miss Gretchen Schaefer, our youth union leader, miss Karen Christian, and our scholar, Auburn, who introduced, our, governor. But I also would like to highlight today, earlier today at 01:00, mister Dompre, had,
the junior ROTC outside, along with I might get this wrong, so I might need your help. Daniel Perberlinski. Did did I kinda get it right? Okay. Thank you. Who is who's over our, ROTC program? They raised, The United States flag, got the poll fixed Mhmm. And raised the flag. The flag has not been there since 02/2017. Good. Great. It it it's one of those things as as other things that we're fixing things,
across the district. But our junior ROTC was out there in their uniforms. And, outside was about maybe four or five classrooms, all attentive. I told the principal, I took hats off to him for that. He is making a difference. It's taken time. It's a lot of work. But I take my hat off to the new principal over at Southwestern and also Mr. Russell for the work that they're doing. I wanna remind, the Board of Education, and you've all said it did all to
miss, Laura. This work is not a, this is not a sprint. This is a marathon. There's a lot of things that we have problems with in '21 that we do not have problems with today. And there's going to be the same testimony from all of us in two years that the problems we're facing today, we won't have in two years. We will get to it. We are getting to it. And we are gonna make good use of the work and the staff that we have. So thank you, to again, I wanna say to our HR director, we've hired more
teachers this year, than we have in the last ten to twelve years. So I want to clap it up to you and your staff and team, for for that work. So thank you, board president. I just wanted to give a shout out to those ROTC scholars work today, raising the flag. Thank you, superintendent Jones. As you can see, we're doing great things in Flint. And our motto is Flint first. And I want the public understand that we, the Flint Board of Education, seven members,
we like for all seven to get on board with a lot of things. But the governor made the rule, the majority votes win. This board is very transparent. If you have any questions concerning this is to the board, documents in your package. You're to communicate those questions to your superintendent through the communication law, you know, prior to coming here. We keep reiterating that. Another important note I want to say to mister Jones, My condolence on behalf of
Flint Board of Education to the loss of your wife, grandmother. I hear the service is being Friday. You have a right, to take Friday off and be with your family. You had to follow a good fight. This has been a hard road for the city of Flint because when we fight among each other, guess who loses? These are your taxpayer dollar that you see sitting around this table, and I value them. I I appreciate it. I don't spend a lot of time spent wasting taxpayer money on foolishness.
You learn from your mistakes. To my foundation, kudos to you, your leadership, and it'd be little me not even to say that you stuck with this boy. And you grant you reached out when you saw us going down the wrong road. A lot of time, board members come on and onto a board, not even understanding that whole circle, and you make a lot of foolish mistakes. I don't mind made it we made some mistakes. But this organization have passion for us to work with us, to listen.
MDE doctor Rice, he came down. He didn't have to, but he came down and grabbed a hold to the board and said, hey. You're going the wrong way. So you never get to the point where you're too arrogant to listen. Because when we are listening, taxpayer dollars is doing their work. So, mister Jones, take off a few days if you need to with the board. You got a good person over here to fill in that gap. That's why we hired her. So I would appreciate it as the board. We let him have a few days to himself for his family because he's just
been going continues. Seeing that there's a lot more comment, this meeting is, joined. And our next meeting could somebody hold that in front of them? 07:32. November 12. Okay. And it's 07:32 Yeah. For secretary Perkin. This meeting is adjourned. Molly and, miss David.