Trusty reifer, Vice President McIntyre >> Trustee Booth, Secretary Perkins >> present, >> and myself present. Five present, two absent. The board will now hear comments from the public. We ask that you come forth
and state your name and your zip code. You have three minutes on the matter within the authority of the board. Please proceed. Is the button pushed on? >> Okay, good. >> Speaking to your mic.
>> My zip code is 48504. >> Is on you. Hold on. >> All right. Hello, my name is Daniel Kieran and my zip code is 48504. Um, I'm here to talk about the Flint Public Library Board. um because I
understand that the Flint Board of Education appoints um trustees to the Flint Public Library Board. Um I'm interested in joining the board of the Flint Public Library as a longtime Flint resident um since I came to Flint in uh
2007 to attend Ketering. Um love the community and uh would like to serve in that way. U the library is a very important institution to me personally. Um, but also I know to u the Flint community it's very empowering.
Um, I think we have a really great library. Uh, but just from a a philosophical standpoint um empowering people to learn, giving them access to knowledge, bridging the digital divide, things like that. Um, and then finally,
just a little bit about me. Um, I have a business and technology background. Um, I've been an entrepreneur and I've been building technology for about 15 years. Uh, right now I'm working in software for nonprofits and small governments.
Uh, so when you have the opportunity to appoint someone to the uh, Flint Public Library Board, please please consider my name. >> Thank you. Uh, yes, I've spoken with Heather Kale, the president of the board um at the
library and uh I was just following up understanding the process. Yes, she has my resume. >> Thank you. Have a good day. session. Please say yes
or no. Secretary. >> Yes. >> President session board member. any notes that you have Yeah, you have your computer. Test, test, test.
Test test test. Oh test. Test test. See that? That sounds fine. Put it back to normal. Test Yes.
test How? Test test test. Test. Testing. One, two. Test. We can we can hear you. Can you hear me?
This is Alan. The board members aren't using the mics yet. >> I'm on the side table. >> Mr. Jones, >> Mr. Jones, can you hear me? Yes, ma'am. >> Okay. Good afternoon everyone. I would like to
call the special board meeting back to order at the time is who has the time? >> 6:35 >> 6:35 p.m. motion proceed to the next. >> Yeah, we just did.
>> We just did it to go out. >> We're in a different meeting. >> I'm going to come out of this the last meeting. >> I declare the special board meeting at >> 6:36. Thank you, McIntyre.
I would like to call the Flint Board of Education regular board meeting to order at 6:36 p.m. Board members, I call your name. Could you please say present for the record? Trusty King, >> present. >> Treasure Luna, >> present. >> Trusty Reer,
Vice President, uh, McIntyre, >> present. >> Trusty Booze, >> present. >> Secretary Perkins, >> present. myself, President McNeel. We got six present, one absent. I would now call upon Secretary Perkins
to read the district mission statement and first statement of this standards practice. >> District mission statement. It is the mission of the Flint School District to develop a community of leaders who are prepared to live, work, and contribute
in an everchanging society. the Flint Board of Education standards of practice. In order to provide outstanding leadership and better serve the Flint Community Schools, we the members of the Flint Board of Education commit to the following standards of
practice. Number one, we will be consistent in our dealings with each other as well as students, staff, and community. Number two, we will model trustworthiness and honesty in our
relationship with each other with our superintendent and with our constituents. >> Number three, we will focus on a common goal of providing the best education possible for the students in the Flint
Community Schools. Number four, we will respect the diverse views that each of us bring to the organization as well as the views of others that we interact with as we carry out the visions of the board of education.
>> We'll be open and authentic with each other, our staff, and the community. >> As we work to make decisions, we will focus on issues, not personalities. >> Our decisions will be student centered and based on objective facts. We will
practice good listening skills to better understand our fellow board of education members and constituents. Thank you very much. Board members in your package are the minutes. I seek a motion and a second to
approve. You guys finished because you're echoing through the mic. Board members, I seek a motion and a second to approve the minutes from the January 21st, 2026 annual organization meeting, January
21st, 2026 regular board meeting and the January 27 2026 special board meeting. >> Madam Chair, >> yes. >> I make a motion we approve the mentioned minutes. >> Support. >> It been properly moved and supported. Are there any correction in these
minutes? Seeing none, the motion to approve the minutes from the January 2026 board meeting will be conducted by roll call vote. Board members, as I call your name, could you say yes or no for the records. >> Secretary Perkins? >> Yes. >> Trustee Booth,
>> yes. >> Vice President McIntyre, >> yes. >> Trustee Rifford, >> yes. >> Trustee King, >> yes. >> Treasure Luna, >> yes. myself, President McNeel. Seven. Yes. Zero. No. Board members. At this time, the board
will not hear comments from the public. We ask that you state the reason for addressing the board and that you limit your remarks to three minutes on matter within authority of the board and not address individuals by name. The presiding officer of the board should have the right to limit the number of
person who may address the board on the same subject. Please come forward. extend at phone and state your name and your zip code. >> Hi there. >> And my issue is with the cell phone policy.
>> The what? >> The cell phone policy. >> Okay. >> As a single parent, I have an issue with it. I have two young children. One I'm trying to teach to be a responsible young adult who is
applying for colleges. She accidentally took her cell phone to school today. They told me that it is her second offense. I have not been at the school to sign any documents this year about picking up any devices. Then they tell
me that I cannot have it until next week. I said that I would be up there at the end of the day to pick it up. Whoever it was on the phone hung up on me. I find that disrespectful. Not only as a parent, but as an adult, we're
trying to have communication. And I'm trying to explain to you that as a young adult, I'm trying to teach my daughter that it is her responsibility to have her college information on her phone for all of her appointments, that
she needs to be responsible for where she's got to be, when she's got to be there, and just in general is have not having it out when you're not supposed to, having it put away, being a responsible adult. Then my seventh
grader, who was not allowed to have his cell phone, forgot his key today. If it wasn't for the fact that I have a safe haven for him, he would have been outside in this weather. I would have been a scared parent coming back to this
building to pick him up and him not be here. I wouldn't have known where he was. I think we need to reook at this issue. I know there is other school districts that not only in the state of Michigan
but around the country that have come up with the with situations that work. They have bags that the the children put their cell phones in that lock make it so where they can't use them. They have lockers that the children have to put
them in. It works. The when they go to the first hour, the first hour teacher holds their um cell phones all day long. They get them back at the end of the school day. My children participate in afterchool activities,
not just the afterchool program, but in sports. So, they go to different school districts. I don't know when they're always coming back. They go on late field trips with the schools. The schools tell them, "Call your parent. How are they supposed to get in contact
with us if they don't have their cell phones? How are we as an adult going to leave our cell phone at home for eight hours a day so nobody can get a hold of us? We don't do that. We need to find a way to teach our
children how to have their phones but not misuse them. So, if I know it's over my time, but thank you for listening to me and I will
try and stay to see what your response is at the end, but I still need to feed them dinner. >> Can I um trust uh we did we get the name? >> My name is Sandra. S A Henman.
>> I can I can hear you. Say it again. Sandra S A N D R A Henman. H I N M A N. >> Um we have an administrative system over here. You can go over there and give her some information. We maybe someone can contact you.
>> Thank you. >> Thank you. Is there anyone else from the public that would like to speak? I would now turn the floor over to Superintendent Jones for the presentation of shared services. >> Can you all hear before?
>> Yes, I can. >> Okay. Thank you. I would like to ask Dr. uh if he would come forward and I know that um he requested board president
to come and speak to the board um since we had the CFO service from the uh due to our current CFO moving out of town please on the
call as well. So uh thank you Dr. for being here today and I know that there is a small presentation that we wanted our HR uh to give to the board of education but I will turn the floor over to you and you can take it from there
sir. >> Okay. Well uh thank you thank you Superintendent Jones. I appreciate that introduction. Um, thank you to the board of education for your willingness to allow me to join you uh yet again. Um,
and I was just reflecting on uh the last time or the last number of times that I've been able to join with the board at one of your board meetings and what's changed from my perception since those early stages. Um, first and
foremost, the building and facility that we're in, uh, I know is an amazing, um, I think symbol of the new and upcoming opportunities for, uh, the scholars that you serve here in Flint Community Schools. I was pleased to be a part of
the grand opening. Um, and I'm looking forward to additional grand openings of new and improved spaces for scholars. Um that's obviously just a physical example. Uh but I was also thinking of other tangible examples. The fact that
this board of education is a certified board of education has taken upon yourselves to seek the training and qualifications um necessary to be recognized by the uh Michigan Association of School Boards.
Uh and that's no small feat. And I think you were one of only two school districts in in Jese County to to reach that level this last year. Um and I think probably most importantly from my perspective uh is the focus that
I see um from the leadership team meaning the board of education, the superintendent and and again from my perspective, other members of the leadership team here that are committed to refocus on what matters most uh in
terms of educating scholars uh in the the reactions or actions or the way that you communicate with one another uh with your leadership team. Um it appears to be exactly that. It appears to be a team. Um and and so I just want to
recognize that from my perspective uh to to just say um job well done in terms of in the improvements that I have at least seen or and again from my perspective and then also a recognition that this
board appears to be interested in partnering where appropriate and beneficial to the scholars and the community of Flint Community Schools And that in fact I do believe is is a change and a change for the better. That's not
to say every partnership is necessary or every partnership is perfect. It is to say that we believe that partnering where appropriate is to the betterment of everyone. And to the extent that we at the ISD can continue to partner with
you towards your benefit and the benefit of Flint Community Schools, I just want to recognize and appreciate the board for your willingness. I know there are other partnerships of course that you enter into. Um again from my perception that that make the district and the
offerings to scholars only stronger. Uh but of course that that's just my opinion. But I wanted to recognize the board first and foremost on some of those perceived changes uh from the seat that I sit in uh from just um about a
year and a half ago to two years ago uh when when we first came with an opportunity to to partner in different ways. In terms of the presentation, I'll be brief and turn it over to those that matter most >> um that that do the the core work. But I
just wanted to remind the board that we started um in this process with business services which I know the board's well aware of uh and then shortly thereafter added opportunities for human resources and supporting the work of human resources here in Flint Community
Schools and the important work of special education. And again, I'm not here to say everything is perfect. Uh, but I am here to say that I appreciate the opportunity for us to partner and to try to support Flint Community Schools.
Um, I'm not sure if you're aware, uh, but we meet with this team. We meaning myself personally, Superintendent Jones, and all members that are part of shared services, whether business service, HR services, or special education services
along with our lead administrators in special education, human resources, and business every other week. Um, I share that because I think it demonstrates the importance that I and our team places on this collaboration.
Quite literally, there's no other group that I meet with more than this team. I call it our Flint team. Um, other than my own cabinet at the CISD. Again, I share that only to give a perspective on how serious we take this work and how
often we come together to try to do our best to provide the most important and best services that we can. I also want to share that that is evidence of the fact that shared services are not individuals. Um, importantly, we have
good individuals. importantly, one of those amazing people I understand is on the call. And Miss Cleaves, I I want to thank you for the time that you've served. Um, and of course, as I always share, express my disappointment that
you're no longer uh here providing those services. Um, because I I think highly of your work. Uh, but importantly, it's not about individuals. It's about individuals and the teams that support them. Um that's what we believe at the
Jennese Intermediate School District and that's what we practice with our shared business services particularly as I mentioned before with our Flint team that gives the opportunity for uh sharing of best practices, sharing of
everything from templates uh to um ideas around grant funding all of these sorts of things that that we can bring to the table. I apparently I talked too long. Um all of those things that we can bring to the table we uh we believe are more
important than just the one individual or multiple individuals that are part or hired effectively as uh part of this shared services. Um to that end I I am proud I hope you're proud of the team
that is working in support of you. Um, I'm excited for you to and I know you get updates, but I'm excited for you to receive an overarching update from human resources in terms of just the scope of the work and I believe successful work
that's occurred um in this partnership. Uh, and obviously I I would hope that a similar report can be shared in the future around special education. And of course, I know the board will be considering an addendum to the contract
for shared business services. I'm happy to answer any questions uh at this time on that or we can wait until afterwards and when the actual action item uh comes up. So, I'll defer to the president. Okay. So, I'll be quiet and I'm excited
for you to uh meet with our human resources team and have them share an update in terms of the work that has been accomplished around human resources and for community schools. Good evening board. Um so tonight we are
going to be providing you with a staffing update. Um what we did was we actually looked at our union positions that we have the Congress administrators, the UTF teachers, and the SEIU pair of professionals. And so what we're going to be providing for you tonight is really a district-wide
overview so you can have an idea of what staffing looks like in the district. At the end of the presentation, Tyra is going to have some information that she shares out with you where you can actually see from a building level what that breakdown actually looks like.
Um, so as we look at human resources, um, our main objective tonight is really looking at how the goals align with strategic priority number four as it pertains to staffing. And it says the district will strengthen its ability to attract, recruit, and retain high
performing staff by implementing data-driven hiring practices, supporting new and developing educators, and cultivating strong leadership pipelines. Progress will be measured through real-time staffing dashboards and continuous monitoring of teachers and
staff performance to ensure a positive climate and improve scholar outcomes. If you look, we actually have a team of six individuals that make up the human resources department. And so we have myself, who is the shared time director of human resources, and Tyra Stowe,
who's our special guest, who will also be co-presenting tonight, that is the assistant director of the human resource department. Debbie Sipple, who is the human resources coordinator, Laura Wilson, administrative assistant, Jamie Persinger, who is the HR recruiter for the district, and then Ashley Smith who
is the human resource secretary. So, as you are all aware, the district offers a commitment bonus to recruit for certain positions throughout the district. All of this comes from grant funds. So, we're talking about 31A, IDA, and title funds. So, the district offers
a bonus of $10,000 to recruit general ed teachers to the district, and it's actually paid out in three separate phases. For special education teachers, they receive a commitment bonus of $12,000. And the reason why that's a little bit higher is because it is a little bit difficult to staff for
special ed positions. If a special ed teacher stays with the district for two years, they have an opportunity to earn $24,000 with a two-year commitment to the district. Um, current teachers, we wanted to incentivize them. They were once receiving a $1,000 retention bonus
and we've increased that by 2,000. So, they actually earn $3,000 for committing to the district. Administrators who are with Congress earn a one-time bonus of $5,000. And then, if you are an employee with the district, in order to help with recruitment, there's an opportunity to
earn a $350 referral bonus for each successful hire. And now, Tyra is going to talk about the candidate experience. So because we obviously want to keep people with us, um we needed to shore up and really hone
in on the onboarding experience and really that candidate experience from when they first start in the interview process to when they're staying with us as well. So some of the things that we've done so far is we've standardized the onboarding experience for any of our direct hire and contracted staff. So
where we used to have onboarding kind of whenever um now we have them consistently on Mondays for our contracted staff and on Tuesdays for our direct hire staff where we're going over any paperwork that they need, answering any questions, making sure they're getting their benefit information, their
retirement information, and giving them any of those key things that they need to be successful. Um, we also have created a policies and procedures presentation that we go over with them so that they know the importance of the policies that we have that we want them to know are important to abide by and
they sign off on that as well. Um, that goes in their personnel file. Um, we've also collaborated with the academics team especially for our teacher positions. Um, they're sitting in on those interview processes with us so that we can determine best placement for
our teachers. um make sure that they're getting put in a place where they're going to have a strong mentor teacher so that they can again um hopefully stay long term with us um and provide them with new training um on a monthly basis. They're having new teacher training and
then consistent training for any of our long-term um long-term subs and for our teachers that are there that are newer to the district so that they can have consistent um support. And then lastly, we've also implemented um building tours
and mini lesson plans for any of our teachers. So when they are being hired on before we would even offer them the position, they're coming to the schools, seeing the kiddos, seeing where they potentially could be working um and doing a mini lesson plan in front of some of our scholars so that we can make
sure that they're the best fit. Um and so now we're going to go over in the next couple of presentations the actual staffing update. We're going to look at our building administrators first through Congress and look at what the district-wide overview is for staffing positions. After that, we're
going to look at our teacher positions and then we also have provided you guys with a separate breakdown for ancillary positions. So, those would be like your um your counselors, your social workers, your occupational therapists, physical therapists, and then finally, we're going to look at what a district-wide
overview looks like for pair of professional positions. So, if we look at Congress positions, we'll actually see there's a total of 19 positions that have been allocated. Out of those 19 positions, 15 of those positions are filled and we currently
have four vacancies in the district. Um, all of the principal positions have been filled. We do have one assistant principal position at Southwestern and then we're currently recruiting for three assistant principal positions. one at Do Ryder, the other at BTM, and the
other at homes. And then uh for school improvement coordinator positions, all of those have been filled and we have one vacancy at ALA that we're recruiting for. >> So strategic focus, we want to make sure that we're targeting our recruitment strategies um and then also looking at
launching a leadership development program. What that actually looks like is building an internal talent pipeline. And what I mean by that is we have rising leaders in the district and so we want to be able to have a pipeline for our teachers that want to step up into
those leadership roles. So as administrative positions are available we want to have a pool of individuals that we're able to look at. Now with UTF teachers um if we look at that we have a total of 202 positions
that have been allocated. Out of those 202 positions, 136 are filled with direct hire teachers. 43 have long-term subs and 17 have contracted uh with the district. Uh we do have six vacancies right now that we're working on hiring
with the district. And then we gave you an additional breakdown that'll show for those ancillary positions. There's a total of 49 positions that have been allocated. 14 are filled with direct hires. 35 have um contracted with the district. We don't currently have any
vacancies for those positions. But when we look at that information and that data, there's a couple of strategic things that we have to focus on. Um one of those would be we know that we have to increase our direct uh hire staffing uh stability. we have to look at uh
strengthening strengthening the LSS capacity, but then also we want to work in partnership with the business office to really come up with a cost analysis so we can see how much is the district paying out for contracted positions compared to direct hire positions and
what does that look like? Um we also want to look at coming up with some strategies for how do we fill some of those hardto- fill positions and one way we can do that is through grow your own programs. And so what I mean by that is having a pathway program for parents who want to become certified teachers, for
general ed teachers who want to become special education teachers, um long-term subs who want to be on track to become certified teachers, and then also reimagining what that guest teacher program could look like for the district. Next, we're going to talk about our SEIU
Paris. So we have a total of 117 positions that have been allocated. out of that 55 are direct hire, 46 are contracted and then 16 vacancies uh lie with the district. We also gave you an additional breakdown so you can actually
see um out of those 46 positions 37 are with Stepping Stones Group, seven are with Blazer Works and then we do have two edge of staff positions that are title one funded. And then throughout districtwide there are two English language learner positions that uh we do
have that are split between buildings and then there's one vacancy that we're looking to hire um directly. And now uh as we look at the strategic focus, we have seen great success with that commitment bonus. And so we're going to be working with the business
office to see if we can offer something similar for our pair of professionals to recruit them to the district. Um in addition to that, again looking at targeted recruitment strategies and then again evaluating the long-term sustainability of relying on contracted
staff compared to direct hire staff. And then another thing we noticed is with the salary schedule for SEIU pair professionals, even though the district offers a competitive wage from $16 an hour to $21 an hour, it would take a
direct hire parah about five years before they would receive an increase with the district. And so we do have some recommendations that we will be providing to the superintendent about what could that look like. So that way we're able to do a better job of recruiting for pair of professional positions with the district.
And now Tyra is going to talk about direct hire staffing. >> So for direct hire staffing um we did a comparison of how many people we hired in 2024 versus 2025. Um so for building administrators in 2024 we hired two and
in 2025 we've hired five. One of those being a promotion of Miss Shay. Um for teachers and ancillary staff which again is going to be like your psychologist, school social workers, counselors and your teachers. So anyone in UTF um in 2024 we hired 17 and in 2025 so far
we've hired 31. Um for professional technical which is primarily going to be our central office support staff. Um in 2024 we hired eight and in 2025 we've hired four and then per four per pair of professionals excuse me. Um in 2024 we
hired two and so far this year we've hired five. And then for building professional network um career fairs this year. So far we've attended five. We have about four that are upcoming. We might have some additional ones as well. Um those start to dwindle down at the end of
April though, just when the semester start to end. Um and then for community partners, we have um quite a few that we work with. Um we've partnered with Michigan Works and we attend career fairs with them and we post on their job board whenever we have vacancies um that potentially their candidates could fill
for us. Um, we've also partnered with Michigan Rehab Services. So, these are for people that were maybe on disability before that are reintegrating into the um, workforce or they are still on disability and looking to get into the
workforce. Um, we also work with make your work with make your move of Flint and Jennese. So, this is for people that are moving to Flint and Jennese County that are wanting to integrate into the community or looking for work in the community. Um, and our jobs that we post
are directly filtered into their job board as well. Um, we also have the ACLU partnership with U of M Flint and we work very closely with them going to their job fairs and hopefully um we're going to be supporting some student social workers in the fall and some
student teachers as well. Um, we're also getting ready to have a student teacher from Fris State and a student teacher from Western Governor's University and hoping to continue that pipeline with them. Um, and then lastly is staffing solutions. This is a nocost um
staffing company that works with people that are in other countries that want to move to the United States. They find them placement and they present those candidates to us. They get them their J1 visa or an H1 visa. Um they find them
housing. They find them their um placement. And then they just present those candidates to us. And again, it's no cost to us to work with them. And so the district uh is going into their second year of partnership with Teach Michigan. And just as a reminder, Teach Michigan partners with districts
to help develop and retain high a high impact teachers and leaders through fellowship cohorts. And so this is the group that I was kind of telling you about. We can look at ways of partnering with the office of academics to see how do we expand their leadership skill set.
We have 10 individuals who are part of teach Michigan right now. um two are a part of early educators, one is on track to become nationally board certified. We have five aspiring uh leaders, one sitting leader and one Michigan
education policy fellow. And so we want to definitely recognize the teachers that are really wanting to expand their leadership capability within the district. And so trying to see how can we utilize that pipeline so when they are ready to advance into administrative
positions it would be easy for them to transition from a teacher to an administrator. >> And then as we've talked about our focus being obviously keeping people long term so that longevity and then providing them support and growing our own people. Um some of the things that we're going
to be focusing on next in human resources is we're developing a 30 60 90day survey for all direct hire and contracted staff. Um this should help us support the new staff with whatever areas they might need but also identifying trends across the buildings
to really see where those gaps are and hopefully bridging those. Um we're also going to develop an extensive orientation process. So even though they're coming to human resources, we're providing them that support and onboarding. We want them to go to the building and receive the same kind of
care um with better on the job training. Set them up for success. Then hopefully have at least a mentor or someone that they can go to regardless of what their role is, whether that's contracted or direct, so they have that additional support. Um as Kesha had mentioned, we really want to look at our grow your own
program. So maybe restructuring the guest teacher program that we previously had. Um creating a partoteer program. Um and then general education to special education um as an option as well. And then lastly, we're going to be partnering with Dr. Wanda Cook Robinson
to conduct the comprehensive um audit of the K8 model. >> All right. >> Well, thank you so much. Do you guys have any questions for us? >> Yeah. One thing >> my question would be is why is the ret
uh the bonus for administrators so much higher than teachers? It indicates >> the sign on bonus. >> Um >> how did we come up with that with that number? And are you talking about the
current teachers for 3,000 and the 5,000 for administrators? >> Yes. >> So really what that is is the retention bonus um for current teachers. Originally it was 1,000 and we wanted to figure out a way to incentivize them. When you look at like administrative
positions throughout the county, the salary schedule that they have is really competitive. So that's how we were able to come up with that amount to see like what could we offer to be able to attract people to the district. And so in the actual contract for uh Congress
administrators, it says that the district will offer a $5,000 bonus contingent upon grant funds being available. So that's how we were able to come up with that amount. >> So the question was why is it so much more than the teachers? I don't know if that answers.
>> It's a sign on bonus. So, >> get it. >> So, can I answer? >> Sure. Sure. >> Negotiation. >> Okay. >> That's where that took place for both.
>> I just I think it sends the wrong signal I about the importance of teachers, but that's my opinion. So, uh I think they already make enough. Uh
in my opinion, it's the bonus seems excessive, but >> I'd rather give it to the teachers. Okay. >> Uh and then and the pair of professionals. So, >> okay. >> I the assistant principal for
Southwestern, don't we have one? >> Yes, we do. That position has been filled. >> Oh, okay. And then the three vacancies, door rider, DTM, and homes. >> We need assistant principles there as well. >> Correct. >> Okay.
Question. >> Are you guys still allowing your principal to select the AP? Are you selecting the AP for the principal? >> So, what happens is there's actually three rounds of interviews. Uh so the first round they would actually meet
with HR in a representative from the office of academics which would be the director of academics. The second round the principles are part of that conversation. So it's not really one person making the decision. It's a collaborative approach and then that third round they'd actually meet with
Superintendent Jones as well as myself and then we take everybody's viewpoint into consideration and then a decision is made. >> So the principal does not accept I mean select their AP that's the bottom line it's a process so
it does not necessarily meant the principal has the final say and selecting who they can work with >> no it's not a final say >> are there any more questions >> madam chair
Um, couple things I want to highlight is uh this presentation is >> I'm glad we did this presentation because we had this conversation a couple of times um at the table. Uh giving the board a highle overview of what we have for staffing and that
something that we can you know work with uh as we you know go forward. I would like to continually have this kind of presentation to not um to really put the highlight on the work that you all are doing because HR been moving for a while
now since we decided to staff HR we've been rolling >> and when I tell you uh seeing the the progress of what it was from being stagnant to moving in the grow your own programs the innovation um to really seeing the HR team go after different uh
pots of money to become be creative. Uh seeing the um increase in direct hires from 2024 we had 17. In 2025 we had 31. That's a lot of work of orienting. And then I know the u recruitment bonus of
$10,000 was a major incentive when you brought that to us a year or so ago. Um I want to commend the HR team for the full work that you all do. uh go doesn't go unnoticed, but you know, we talk to Superintendent Jones consistently about bringing the information to us so we can
highlight the progress and the wins and then seeing where the probably where we have some gaps and understanding and we just talk about a little bit more. Um but I I would highly recommend that we continually do these consistent updates uh to keep us a breast. Uh but you know when I tell you all this work that
you're doing is amazing. definitely look forward to even how how you would top this year um what you did last year. So, thank you. >> Thank you guys. I agree. >> Anyone else? >> Madam President, I I have one question. Uh the pair of professionals
um do you have a bonus sign on bonus for them? >> No, we don't. So, that's something that we do want to implement this year. We're working with the business office to look at grant opportunities. Um but that will be the goal for the upcoming year. >> Okay. And is there a large turnover of
pair approve pair of uh pair of professionals? A large turnover. >> I would say for direct hires, no. They typically they tend to stay. >> Yeah. They're tried and true. Like they stay with us. Um good. >> For the contracted, I think it's just so
easy for them to leave that they might. >> Um >> but for direct hires, they usually stay. So to be able to incentivize them will be huge. Okay. Thank you. >> Any more comments before we wrap up?
>> Nicely laid out. >> Yeah. I want to say you guys did a fantastic job and it really feel good that >> we are making plans for growth. Uh I know people go why y'all hiring all these people, but we looking at growth
and we want to be prepared when that does happen. And I just got a such a good feeling working with you and you guys did a great job. It been a long time coming before we can see preparation for growth and because we talking about enrollment, but if you
don't have this staff, we're going to be in road trouble. So I thank our partners for what they have done and only thing I say you guys did a fantastic job. Mr. Jones, you lucked up pretty good with this one. >> Thank you board members. With that being
said, um is it okay for us to seek a motion at this time for action item 21.3? And I'll turn that over to Mr. Luna. >> Yeah, Madam President. >> Yes. >> Loud. >> I seek a motion and a second from the
board to approve action item 21.3 addendum to shared business services contract 2025 2026. >> Support. >> All right. It's been moved and supported. Wait, sorry. >> Proper. >> Did I make I should have made the
motion. >> You should have made the motion. I'm sorry. >> I'm make a motion >> to approve >> to approve item 21.3. Correct. Is there a second? >> I second. >> Okay. It's been moved by Secretary
Perkins and supported by Trustee Boo. Is there any discussion on that action item? All right. Seeing if that's okay. Go >> ahead. We currently still have on to
support until the end of March. I want just to make sure that we state that as we make this transition for our new CFO. Uh we still have that we'll be with that transition as the board had voted on
that in prior months. I wanted to just make that All right. Were there any more questions or discussion? >> Mr. Chair. >> All right. Trusty Belfford. >> Um, Mr. Jones asked this clarification for number two where I see prrated. Is that where you were referencing?
>> Mr. Jones. >> I hear you. >> Oh, okay. >> Am I referencing? >> Yeah. That's why I see that figure there. >> No, I'm only I'm only referencing what happened. >> Superintendent Turner Cliff, answer me.
Thank you. >> Proceed. Yes, sure. >> Correct. That's why I saw prorated. >> So that's why he was shaking his head. Yes. >> So do you want to proceed and explain it clear? >> I can quickly. >> Okay. Sure.
>> Yes, please do. >> So, yeah. Yes. The contract um that is brought before you as an amended contract that prorates uh the first contract that we entered into which would have assumed that Miss Cleaves
would have uh completed the entire school year. Um and of course uh she has been directly hired by Flint Community Schools. Flint Community Schools obviously has not been charged uh for the time that Miss Cleaves has worked
directly for Flint Community Schools from Genese ISD. So this amended contract would be prrated uh beginning March 1st and that's why it obviously the the cost associated is significantly smaller. Um I also would just offer as a
quick introduction uh the the individual that we and I have um selected for this uh very important role to to me and I know to you um is Miss Danielle Templeton. Uh Mrs. Templeton uh has for
the last um >> she can come up. you. Yeah, there you go. Um, she has for the last nine years served as our business director in the center for countywide programs. So, for the Genese ISD, that's about a $42 million
budget. Um, which obviously is very significant and is virtually 100% virt I shouldn't say virtually is nearly 100% grantfunded. And I think that's a perfect fit for Flint Community Schools, as you're well aware, due to the
reliance on grant funds and the complexity of grant funds, right, >> in Flint Community Schools. >> Um I I would say another important factor is prior to joining the Genesee Intermediate School District, uh Mrs. Templeton uh served um in I believe
seven years, seven years as the CFO at Mount Morris Community School District. So, um, obviously has experience as being the the the chief financial officer and business director of a local school district, obviously within our
county. Um, probably not by chance. Uh, she served uh under uh our deputy superintendent, Mrs. Trisha Hill, as uh the who is the superintendent at Mount Morris. Um, and uh Mrs. Templeton worked
directly under Mrs. Hill. Um, and as Mrs. then went to the ISD. I always think highly of when people um choose who they can bring uh and encourage them to come on with them in their new endeavors. Uh one of the most important
people is somebody who can handle their finances. And so I think that speaks highly to what Mrs. Hill and ISD think of uh the work that Mrs. Templeton has done. Um and so again, I I uh am very confident uh in the abilities that Mrs.
Templeton has I've said to this board and to Superintendent Jones multiple times, I I have no interest in recommending somebody who's who's not, in my belief, going to do the very best they can and has the background and experiences to be successful. And quite
honestly, that's that's why it took this long uh to fill this position. But I'm more comfortable with time that it took than to to put either an individual in a position that that may not be able to succeed or to recommend to this board someone who doesn't have the background
and experiences to succeed. So um again I'm happy to answer any other questions but I wanted to and of course Danielle wanted to be here so that she could be formally introduced to the board of education. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. Welcome aboard. >> Welcome.
>> Looking forward to that. Are there any more questions? >> No. >> All right. Thank you so much. Seeing no further discussion, the motion to approve action item 21.3, the addendum to shared business services contract 202025
2026 shall be conducted by a roll call vote. As I call your name, please say yes or no to approve this motion. Secretary Perkins, >> yes. >> Trusty Boo, >> yes. >> Vice President McIntyre, >> yes. >> Trusty Reford, >> no. >> Trusty King,
>> yes. President McNeel. >> Yes. >> And myself, Treasurer Luna. The motion passes 6 to one. I now turn it back to President McNeil for the rest of the agenda. >> Thank you, Superintendent Jones and the
GIS Superintendent, Dr. Tunliffe. At this time, I would turn the floor over to the chair of community relation, Secretary Perkins. >> Thank you, President McNeel. I would like to have Superintendent Jones and
Dr. Jameson from the Flint Center for Educational Excellence to come forward for a presentation on the playground initiative. >> Thank you so much. This is an exciting agenda item
and I'm going to add to Okay, I think it's coming up. There we go. Um, this is exciting. Um, as you all know, uh, we are in the midst of building a new high school. Uh,
just to put some perspective on this, you as a board of education have have approved so many great things over the last three or four years. And here's another playground initiative for all of our elementary schools. and we're excited to
work with Dr. Jameson and okay for STEM Academy and so we're going to give you a small presentation on the Trey Brown initiative uh and I'm going to
turn it over to Dr. I go through just two slides. So if you go to the next slide. All right. The Charles Foundation Centennial Parks and Playground uh the Charles Foundation will be
granting up to $20 million to play. >> Good. and the community will have input into how those dollars will be spent across multiple projects. This is one of a handful of centennial that foundation
has embarked upon for their 100 year celebration. But what I want you to see on this slide in red is community schools is the first recipient with just overion community schools to renovate elementary
for new playground. Brown renovation as you all know it is selling uh the scholars there really enjoy uh that playground that that is built there for not only but early child
next >> so hats off number one to the foundation >> white of course I want to recognize Mr. Parker. Now, I don't know if he's in the room, but
Parker, but I also want to recognize um uh Jen uh over at the foundation who's been huge in supporting this, who's been huge in supporting
this effort off the ground. Uh Jennifer, I want to acknowledge her. This is a big project that has we just board president I want to make sure that it's clear that this playground is a
part of our >> yes it is a part of schol increase focus on our partnership in the district that helps reduce the need for general
fund expenses. And again this is being found but it is also enhancing with the partnership of the Clint Center and engaging the community will need to increase. So the proposal highlights and Dr.
along with Newman uh this proposal it really highlight home and home association bringing in the center to support with the community engagement
and the child foundation uh the work that they have done to really focus on kids and giving us the funds we need to make our dreams a reality. You can see on the slide here, those are our
>> community playgrounds on that. And so that is important to know that we've already set a container to make this happen for the rest of our you can go to the next slide. And so we're focused on five
of our elementary and so you have phases and phase one will be done by the start of the next year. The first phase are the
playgrounds that do not have parks and those parks and those phen us all through that process to make sure that it was defined very well. You can
go to the next slide. And so now I'm going to turn it over to Dr. Jameson to talk a little bit about trustees for the opportunity to talk a little bit more about our code design process and what we hope we able to achieve. Oh, thank you, uh,
Superintendent, uh, Tonic Cliff. But again, thank you, Superintendent Jones, and and trustees of the board for this opportunity to talk more about, uh, our plans for the community co-design process and to also reflect on some of the work that we've done uh, up to now. I know we've used this term quite a bit
from the the cube at Brownell homes and the playground here to the high school and now reintroducing uh the concept here on playgrounds but wanting to really just emphasize that codeesign is a lot about a lot more than just engagement right it's about really partnering with our students our
residents our parents and our staff as experts and equal partners in designing the future um of the opportunities that exist for Flint kids families uh and Flint communities. And so just want to uh highlight and just emphasize how
grateful we are for the board continuing to lean into uh the importance of community perspective uh those who are closest to the issues that we're trying to solve, being closest to uh the power that it takes to be able to address those things.
>> Um on the screen here are three key phases that we see in our codeesign process. And you'll see that each of those phases begin with an advisory meeting. And so we're recommending uh that each school establishes a school-based advisory committee that's
made up of the community school director uh the principal or assistant principal depending on what is most effective for the particular school. A student in their grades four through six uh grade band. A member of their local neighborhood association or a resident
of the local neighborhood. a parent and inviting a school board member to join those local school-based advisories as well to really serve as the initial members uh who are uh lending perspective to how we engage um our neighborhood residents. In the first
phase, which will uh we we we're really defining this in three key sprints. The first one being between March 2nd and March 20th. Uh we want to start with student focus groups uh particularly with our kindergarten through third graders. um as well as stakeholder surveys including our students, our
parents, our neighborhood residents, and our staff to get perspective that we will provide to our partners at Stantech as well as our uh the administration here at the district on what things are students and parents, neighborhood residents and staff excited about uh
related to this playground project and what problems do we need to solve uh as it relates to the current playgrounds. We'll take that information by March 20th and provide that to our partners at Stantech. And by April 6, they're going to provide us back a set of conceptual
renderings for each school's playground. While we do anticipate that there will be some overlap between playgrounds. You will receive from our kiddos is that there's some things that all kids want, spiral slides and water play, those types of things. But also, we recognize that each school has its own unique set
of assets, right? as well as challenges that u residents and stakeholders will will identify. We'll develop those conceptual renderings and share those back in our second sprint between April 6th and April 17th where we're sharing those specific renderings, but also
getting into gallery walks where parents and students and residents and and staff can passively engage and what things they're really liking about where we're headed, but also what things they're wondering about that we might need to answer questions around and further refine the renderings of each school's
unique uh playground. And then finally uh in the final sprint right after spring break uh May 4th through June 30th we will present those final renderings to our stakeholder groups but we'll also begin the construction process with an anticipated completion
date uh for Do Ryder uh Durant Tur and Eisenhower uh being June 30th and then those two schools that are attached to city play uh to city parks uh Freeman and Potter uh being completed completed by uh August 7th.
>> You know, in terms of the responsibilities for our advisory uh teams, what we're uh hoping that they will all participate in three key meetings, right? That each precede these sprints that we just described uh previously, but that each of them in
their own spheres of influence. And so our principles engaging teachers and our parents engaging other parents and our student leaders engaging their peers. um as well as our neighborhood residents uh leaders engaging engaging other residents within the neighborhood all
really uh use those spheres of influence to get additional feedback and insights on the direction that we're uh headed that we're headed in. Uh we hope that they'll provide and review uh feedback um on the design proposals as we're receiving them. And so we don't want um
anyone when those final proposals come uh to this board to see those proposals for the first time. We want to ensure um that many residents and many stakeholders are informed, aware and can see themselves uh in those proposals >> and that ultimately that we that these
individuals serve as champions uh for this work, right? That it's much more than about uh being informed, but it's also about shared ownership that these aren't just Flint Community Schools parks, but these are Flint's parks and playgrounds that individuals own. And the benefits that we see for these
school-based advisory committee members is that um that they are able to influence the future of their school by helping to shape vibrant and inclusive spaces. Not just spaces for our kiddos, but spaces for grandparents and parents to play with young children and
individuals with additional uh accessibility needs to be able to easily access our playgrounds and our parks. We also hope that that there are stronger home, school, and community connections uh between these parks by really being intentional about connecting individuals
from all three of those uh areas that school spirit and community pride really become one. You know, we we look at the Brownell Holmes um example uh in developing this co-design model. I'm very excited to be joined here by uh Val Newman who just dismissed her after
school program a few a few moments ago. Um, but you know, we we look at this neighborhood as such a model for um where residents have identified the school spirit between Brownell and Homes with their community pride um as
homeowners. Um but that also that we're able to incentivize our uh our advisory team members, understanding that they bring unique expertise like any other consultant um that we might that we might incentivize for being at the table. We want to make sure that we're acknowledging the expertise that they
bring um as again experts and equal partners um in this work. There are three key phases of the co-design process that we've adapted from our work with the board of education spanning from the Brownell homes uh engagement to
the central high school co-design process and frankly each time working to get better and stronger at this process using feedback that we've received from this board but also from neighborhood residents, teachers and students about where we've hit the mark and where we've
missed the mark. >> Right. Uh, one of those areas is just related to focus groups. And we began this process with our students here at Brownell, our K3 students, where we went to every classroom for our K3 students and read this book, My Dream Playground,
and facilitated focus groups with our students where they actually drew out the components of their dream playgrounds. And you see some of those handdrawn photos or pictures from our students. Um that included things from water play um to spiral slides and even
some aspects that we had to get additional clarification from students on what exactly are we looking at here. Um but but their construct of what a great playground was very clear. Um and and just a lot of credit to our partners at Stantech who literally took stacks of
these handdrawn pictures and worked to identify what components um in terms of playground materials and structures got as close as possible to what our students were requesting. And so we're recommending continuing that process across all schools that we've identified
uh in the focus group uh framework. We also have surveys that we will uh that we're proposing distributing to our students in grades four through six. I should have put an asterisk over that. Some of our four through six students also prefer to draw their dream playgrounds. And so we won't limit uh
their feedback to solely uh surveys, but really beginning to identify what type of surfaces do we need and play structures and things that we're that we're really interested in. Um, but then also this last piece being gallery walks that we're actually putting up the schematic design of the playground in
places where people can easily see them >> that they're able to, you know, that they don't have to sit through a meeting to give feedback about the playground, but they can really passively put a sticker that says, "Hey, I really like this component, right? >> Or I'm really wondering about how this component really responds to uh the
needs that uh I've identified." And so before I get into the the timeline related to this implementation, each of these components were refined from our experience here at Brownell uh homes. And so I am very uh fortunate to be
joined here by uh my colleague Val Newman who supported the initial co-design process on the playground for uh Brownell, which we really see as a model for what we're hoping to achieve across the district. and would love to just give a little bit of time to Val to
reflect on that process and how these components came together uh for you all. >> Well, welcome. Um I just want to say that it was just a pleasure getting to know everybody, all the stakeholders, the residents, the students, um which we
know very well and their input into this. Um it is the dream playground, the playground of dreams. If you build it, they will come. They do come. They stay. They don't go home. if it was summertime, they would still be out there. And I've probably spent about 8 to 10 hours here every day in the
summertime with kusa games and things and they are here and they want and if they don't attend our schools, they want to come in and see what the building looks like. So, it is an attraction. Um but yes, everybody is important um in this in this process from the residents.
Miss Janette Edwards, she looks after it u when we're not here, you know, and if if you know sometimes there's teenagers that come out there and if I don't recognize them, I do go out and have conversations with them. Um and they have part they're part of the buyin.
They respect the space. Um even when we ask them to because you know they're teenagers or whatever, but um the young kids are out there with their families, um their parents, uh grandparents or whatever. So, it's a great place to be. So, they were all included in the process of getting surveys, just
comments about what they would like to see. Um, you know, including like we were talking earlier today about the shade on the playgrounds if they had any or seats or you know, things like that that everybody could be in because they will ask you to get on the swings with them or whatnot and it's all inclusive. So, um it it was a very important
process as far as the drawings are concerned. I know some of those drawings, too. And there's one that's missing that said a k w aquarium. They wanted an aquarium out there. So, I said, "You're doing great." Because these were young kids, you know, phonetically putting this out there. So,
um you know, and it was just a joy to see them be a part of it and they enjoyed being a part of it and the the beam signing of the cube and everything. So, they were a very important partner from very young to some of the grandparents that have ch students here. So, um, you know, we're still working at
it. Uh, they come, there was a little boy from the neighborhood out there when it was snow covered. Our students don't go out there when it's cold, when it's snow out there, but he was just making snow angels and we're like, >> is it time for you to go home or whatever. So, he finally left, but he's out there by himself. So, you know, they know that it's here for them and and
they appreciate being here. So, thank you. >> Very good. >> Absolutely. and and you know learning quite a bit through you Val and Germaine our community school directors here on this campus about um the reality that these that these playgrounds are a destination for Flint residents not just
students who are enrolled at Flint schools but also an entry point for our community school directors and our afterchool staff to begin to uh share with residents about what's happening right here in the district and the opportunity for them right proximate to their home. uh you know this iterative
process that we talk about that starts with the advisory and goes out to a broader uh subset and then comes back to the advisory. Um I can remember and I know our partners from Clark and Stantech can recall this as well but being very proud of the first schematic that we brought on the Brownell
playground and I mean we just felt like we got it right. We had these handdrawn pictures and we were feeling good about the playground >> and and one of the community residents raised their hand and they said where are the trees? And particularly, you know, she lifted a
concern about watching her children play on the playground >> and, you know, just being overcome by the heat from the sun. >> Right. >> Right. those those small details, even though the design was beautiful and we felt like we got it right, being able to
come back to a core group of leaders who are thinking about not just what does this mean for the students individually or the parents individually or the staff individually, but what does this mean for all of our community residents? um is a really valuable component of this process. And we're excited to uh not
just create this by one core group districtwide, but really engaging at each school level with their staff, their students, their teachers, and the neighborhood residents as well. quite a bit of information here uh on this on this timeline and we've shared
this timeline with our community school directors at all of the sites identified to understand that this is an assertive uh timeline but also an achievable timeline in terms of our ability to ensure uh that door rider DTM and Eisenhower have playgrounds that are
ready to open on June 30 and that in coordination with the city of Flint that the Freeman and Potter playgrounds are are prepared to open by um August 7. But you see that those three sprints are really clearly identified with immediately following this meeting, our
community school directors and uh sitebased teams beginning to identify who are those school-based advisory team members and working really closely with their school principles to identify that. We anticipate those first advisory meetings happening uh the week of March
2nd through the 6th uh where they will begin focusing on the project overview, sharing a lot of the information that we're sharing here, but also getting those surveys out to each of those individuals. We uh anticipate providing that data back or those data back to Stantech and
and and Clark and the M Foundation and Flint Community Schools to be able to understand what have we heard from our residents and even some of those pictures that our students are anticipating. Uh but then bringing back to them uh our advisories by April 6, the week of April 6 through the 10th, an
initial rendering for each of their individual playgrounds. We'll begin those gallery walks that same week, beginning to get feedback and information and prepare to provide that information back to the same audiences, Stantech, Clark, the district, and the M
Foundation by April 17. And using that information, we anticipate uh the final renderings being developed uh and shared uh with those advisories uh as early as May 4 uh but prepared for the the construction and implementation uh by
June 30 for the three schools identified and uh August 7 uh for the uh two schools that are attached to uh city parks. So, uh, this gives some some insight into the co-design process and again, uh, this process being informed
by, um, a number of the successes that we've seen from the Brownell homes and, uh, Flint High School engagement, but also some of the areas that we've heard from community that we need to continue to improve uh, to ensure that individuals are able to see themselves not just in the final product, but in
every step um, along the way. I'll pass it back to Superintendent uh Jones to to talk about the uh core design elements. >> And Superintendent Jones, you might be muted. Uh >> can you hear me now? >> Yes. >> Can you hear me now? Yes.
>> Yes. >> All right. Okay. So, I want to go back one slide and just board members that um Clark had really came on and supported us preparing what
a timeline it look like um even before you had voted to bring them on with the high school. So I I do want to give Clark kudos for that work. it was actually uh going to be there tonight uh that really helped us with the timeline
as it construction so that we were able to build uh houses design and get this work done. So kudos to you uh Dan for your support uh and the support of Star Construction as we uh try to navigate
this short window. Um they've been really working hard to get this done. So, I will go on and make this quick. I know that there's more. Thank you. Just real quick, the initiative, the core design elements, an inclusive
modern playground with equipment as you've seen at Brown Homes, dedicated early childhood play areas, >> safe and accessible surfaces, uh, walking an active play circuit. When we talk about walking paths, one of the things
that some of our playgrounds or our grounds that these schools have is areas for our community to walk. >> And so we want to make sure that those walking paths are safe. They're lit with lighting, feeding, and community friendly design.
>> And so those are just the core design elements that I wanted to kind of list. And in the proposal that you have for members uh that I sent over to the M foundation, there's way more information uh that will give you kind of the nuts
and bolts of of this work if you can go forward. And lastly, the goal is to have these playgrounds complete in the summer. >> Yeah. But this will require an timeline with staff and board support as you seen
that timeline. Um Mr. Mrook will be our our lead coordinator with this reporting back to me every week. I will be reporting to the board on this work as we're moving this forward. But it will be good for the board to be involved in
this in this opportunity as well boots on the ground. So my last question uh for you all before we get to an action item is how would you like to proceed with your involvement as the board of education? So trust trustee Perkins as I
know that you are our lead with community uh with the community engagement. How would the board like us to proceed with you all being involved on the ground? I think it would be great for you to be a part of these meetings and
Well, >> this work as well. >> We um are going to have committees. We want to be involved uh uh on one of the slides it said uh you know community
and uh directors and so on and so forth. So I think that the uh board needs to be included in that process. >> Okay. We would love we would love to have the board.
>> So we do have well we have uh I have uh put together a u format for each school. And if you want me to tell you what that
is now or you want me to wait. as you wish. >> Okay. So, as the chair of community relations, I would like to have each board member represent one of the schools and attend the community meetings for the
playgrounds at the following schools. Myself, I will be at Doyle Ryder. DTM will be trusty booze at Eisenhower. Vice President McIntyre Freeman, Trustee King and Trustee Rifer,
uh Trustee Luna and Trusty Reford and uh all school because the uh president is exeicio will be able to go to all of them. Um I'd like to thank you Superintendent Jones and Dr. Jamerson
for the presentation. I thought it was great. And so I'll turn the uh floor back over to President McNeel. >> M president, if I may, if if I could thank uh Dr. Jameson and also
Miss Newman uh for their hard work and efforts, but I I did not get a chance to say thank Dr. Tunnl uh and his team as well. So I just like to thank all those folks uh for their work and their hard uh efforts into this and thank you to my foundation for considering
community schools first and so thank you board president if I can get to that motion you will let me know where to go >> okay thank you uh trusty perkin I know this was new for you so you're setting up a committee and you asking each board member to be at those schools on those
committees right that's my understanding and my understanding I spoke with you before and it's up to the board that uh trustee rel your co-chair would be your co-chair >> yes sister Trusty reifer will be my co-chair here. Thought I was in church.
>> Well, that's okay. At least you're in the right place in the right mindset. >> So, if we all agree with that, um, and I think that was a good way that you did that. >> Yeah. >> Madam Chair, >> Trusty. >> Yeah. I want to thank you, uh, Trusty Perkins. That's a nice plan based off
what we talked about is how the board can get involved and thank you for bringing that up to get us all involved in the process. So, appreciate you for doing that. >> Quite welcome. >> Yes. And I would certainly be remiss if I really
wanted to take this moment to underscore what a historic unprecedented or this this is a historic precedent. Um since I came on the board I have been very critical of the
nonprofit industrial complex and phil philanthropies uh and rightly so. There's been a movement um that's been going on about land repar reparations and land back. And I I need to say that,
you know, I've I've always talked about how Flint School started in 1926 with the Revenue Act of 1926 and the establishment of the M Foundation. And I actually sat not at this in this location, but I sat on the
board and I charged Ridgeway White, Mr. White, with acting like a community partner and not a colonial overseer. And I want to say he has met that charge
and in a in a historic way in in a way that other philanthropies should take note of because this is how you do it. Now, it's not perfect. We're still dealing with a capitalist society, the system, and this
anarchist socialist here is not ever going to be happy with that. But I wanted to acknowledge this work because he I think he's being really modest. I think Dr. Jameson, Thomas Park Parker are being really
modest. I think Mr. White is being modest. But we have a blueprint that is that could be really something. It's it's another history for Flint, Michigan with Flint Community Schools. It's
another mark for Flint Community Schools. And I wanted to be because I need to be the one that said it because I, you know, I was really harsh and and I don't think it was without without cause. But
I think that this is how you do with in in an imperfect system, right? In in a with all things considered, this is how you do shared ownership. This is how you acknowledge the past with an understanding for
community and and move forward. This is and so this is a a challenge to other foundations. be like the M Foundation. And this is coming from me, right? The
probably the most critical person. Um, and I don't want to, you know, I don't want to say I want make an apology because I think I was right uh to make that charge, but I also think that the M Foundation and Mr. uh White specifically stepped up
and did so very humbly. So, I want to thank you. Uh, I want to acknowledge that because I think Mr. White has the the opportunity to be just as great, if not as great as his grandfather and
create his own legacy. And I'm I'm I'm just really touched. Thank you. Thank you. >> And madam chair, >> I speak. >> Yes. >> Yes. I just want to say thank you to to you know, Mr. Parker, Mr. White, Dr.
Jameson, everybody involved. I miss anybody. Um, and thanks for considering our school district to be this first part of the big investment. Um, I think I always talk about how Blake is a deterrent when it comes to our enrollment and how the community perceives us, but I think making these
investments at these five schools is a net positive to show the people that we care about, not just our kids, but the neighbors, the seniors, and other kids who live in the neighborhood. Um, I know it's a 20 million investment overall and you guys are doing this very generous 77
million with us. I would just want to say to give a shameless plug, I think as you consider other parks to make additional investments in, I would say look at Nether and Pierce. Um, one just because, you know, they're former properties that we own that we still own
actually, but two, um, they just they're in good neighborhoods um, where they're stable. They have a lot of parents who both attend our schools but then don't attend our schools. Um as I was looking on the agenda um my colleague reminded
me about how important that is to to invest in those schools. So I wanted to you know just repeat what she told me but I think you know thank you so much and looking forward to working with you on this and other projects in the future. >> Trusty King. Madam Chair
>> Wait a minute. You had your hand up. Which one y'all want? >> No, I went first. You just didn't see me. >> Trusty re. >> I know. I know. Bless your heart. Um, thank you, Dylan, for acknowledging me bringing that up. Um, guys saw me step away. I went and had a conversation with Mr. Parker. And you also, Dr. Jameson
mentioned the community. And I've always stated with all our property, with all our schools been in the community, we love families to be able to walk to a park. And I would love if there's some extra money, Mr. Jones that our high school and middle schools have a walk-in
area for the communities to walk in the morning. You know, a lot of people like to walk and then our elementary schools have a park. Like I think about Pierce, we're we're uh building a new high school just up the road. Therefore, we need a paid playground and that's a a
very good community to the city of Flint. And I think it would be a great um uh I guess gift of appreciation to uh renovate Pierce's uh playground because if you think about that area, it's within walking distance and it's
definitely a familyfriendly environment and I just think that would just be a good gesture. So I wanted to just mention that I know these funds are earmarked but I also wanted to be able to use my platform to kind of say what about this Mr. Jameson? you know how I
do, right? But I appreciate um you, Miss Newman, and um just loving on the kids, allowing them to play and grow and use their imagination and um I appreciate this um presentation tremendously. Thank you to uh my foundation and Mr. Parker and you all just having forward thought
forward thinking. I appreciate that. And also dealing with the whole child uh being able to be outside. I'm big on vision and with students not going outside, their eyes don't develop well. So if you think about when you was a child, you were always outside. You didn't see that many people wearing
glasses because when you look far, you're building up your muscles and your eyes. That's just my medical side. Okay, you guys. But it's important for our kiddos to be outside. So, thank you for that. >> So, Steve King. >> Yeah, real quick. Sorry. I just got a couple text messages from parents
applauding our efforts and saying, "Hey, we do need to do this." They're excited. They told their kids and the kid says, "Yay, finally something good." Um, now move to the lunch menu, you know. Um, so >> so that that's a fun thing. I'm so glad
we're going to do this and u I'm excited to the kid that's watching. Maybe so lunch menu next. But the swing come first I say today. >> And the aquarium. >> Yeah. >> Don't forget that. Yeah. >> Yeah. >> Are you done? I would just like to say um the schools
is a large part of our community >> and to have a nice uh brand new uh playground is exciting because I remember when I was coming up going to Steuart school, we had a large playground and we also had a ice skating ring. You know, that's something
different though. I don't know if it's humanmade or man-made or nature made. I don't know. But we had a ice skating ring. But uh the kids can also, you know, during this time when they get this new playground, they can come out during lunchtime, you know, recess time
and go to the playground and burn up some of that extra energy and they may learn a little bit better afterwards. That's all I would like to say. But thank you. Thank you. And um and the M Foundation, I really appreciate what the Mount Foundation is doing um these last
few years and in the future years. Wow. I'm just excited. I uh um it's amazing that what partnership can do and what leadership can do when you take politics
out of leadership. And that was my goal when I sitting here. if you got rid of the politics and focus on leadership because leadership is about serving and it's not politic and we couldn't have got this far if we kept using the
politics. I I am just happy that Flint is part of rebuilding and rebranding our Flint community. It's an opportunity to bring young people back to Flint and give us pride and hope. And we going to go down in
legacy as the one to do this. And I just appreciate what we're doing, leaving a better place for our children uh to grow. And we just excited. So I know we taking a long time, but uh I couldn't
see this three or four or five years ago because we were dealing with politics. And so I go around teaching how to take uh politics out of your leadership and using this model is how we got into where we at. Congratulation to the team
uh the mod foundation uh what we are doing and working together because we didn't have the resources but we knew how to use our leadership skill and bring partnership together. So thank you. And Mr. Jones, I know we ready to
take this vote and uh and so I'm turning it back over to you, I believe. >> Yes, ma'am. I seek a motion and a second from the board to approve action item 21.4 CS playground. >> Okay.
>> Who who made >> who made the motion? >> She did and she just second it. She didn't make >> she moved. She look she did and he second go to your next step. >> It's been uh >> okay it's been properly moved and
seconded. Is there any discussion? >> Hearing none. Seeing no further discussion the motion to approve action item 21.4 for CS M playground uh grant will be conducted by a roll call vote. As I call your name,
please say yes or no to approve this motion. President McNeel, >> yes. >> Trusty Booze, >> yes. >> Vice President McIntyre, >> yes. >> Trusty Reer, >> yes. >> Trustee King,
>> yes. >> Trustee Luma, >> yes. and myself. Uh, yes, that's seven yeses. The motion passes. >> Thank you, board president. Thank you, board members. Thank you, Dr.
and also M. We appreciate you and Mr. Thomas. We appreciate you as well. >> Thank you all. Thank you. Thank you, Secretary Perkins. Mhm. >> I know this was challenge for you, but the more we do this here, you're going to be pretty busy now in your chair. So,
don't feel uh you know, once you get it down, you got it. So, I would like to turn the floor to trustee relative for the human resource portion of >> Well, we going to do Clark. I think that's what we need to do here.
Yes. Will we continue our present? >> Yeah, why don't you go ahead and continue with that? >> Okay. All right. So, we we just wanted to we had conversations with the board a couple of weeks ago as it pertains to >> um the construction uh demo demolition
work. So, we're asking for um our team member uh Dan will come. Uh and I know online uh is Mr. Man from PMR and Dan if you could um really support
this trying to I want the board to be clear about what's about to happen with demo. We did discuss this but I want the board to understand the marketing and what's happening with the RFP that's about to go out but also understand what
that is going to look like. So, if we could just make sure that we talk to the board about that, go through these slides uh briefly and any questions that the board has, please uh let's make sure we're answering those questions. But
these are this RFP is supposed to be going out this week. >> Thank you. >> Thank you, Superintendent Jones. And I just got to say I want to take a minute to just congratulate you on this playground. >> It was actually pleasure working with
with Superintendent Jones and uh Thomas Parker, but also Mike Mull's been listening in. Um to put that together for you guys. It was it's exciting project. Flynn is going to be hopping this all the work. It's going to be great. >> Um so I just want to want to thank
everybody um for that. >> Thanks for your >> Oh, no. It's I I love what I do here. So working with the students in Flint Schools has been the last three years has been really great. Um, so, uh, last week we kind of went over a little bit of a schedule and our plan for community
engagement as far as, um, contractor engagement for this bid package, which is already I'm already ready to go with that. Um, I've had a couple phone calls re reaching out about this package because everybody's knowing that it's getting close. So, um, anyway, so we're
starting that process. Um what we want to do tonight talk a little bit about that and what's going what you're going to see here in the next couple weeks. Um so with that I want to just briefly talk about the bidding schedule. Just right
now we're looking at releasing the bids this week. Um and then bids will be due on March 5th which is a Thursday at 1 pm. Uh bids will be open. It's online bid opening. So, it's sealed bids, online bid opening at 1:30 on uh March
5th. Um, then we'll go through our process to validate the numbers and we'll have a recommendation prepared for Plant Moran and to bring forward to the board on March 6th, which then will our attempt is then to hit the the March
11th and the March 18th board meetings so that we can get contracts going. And right now, the plan is the week of April 6th. you would start to see people on site uh starting to put up security fence and that kind of thing as we prep
for the work to begin for the demo. So that's kind of the the plan right now. Um I want to take some time. Um and Valentino Mansini, he's uh the architect with Stantech. Um Val, if you want to step in and just kind of talk about this
our presentation of of these are the documents that are going up to bid and um I'll just flip through the screen as you're as you're going through. >> Perfect. Yeah, you all can hear me. >> Yeah. >> Yes. Thank you again for the opportunity and privilege to be here. Uh super
excited to be part of the process with all district's opportunities and projects happening. Uh here is another milestone in in the high school with demolition happening here in the next uh few months. What you see on the screen here is is our cover sheet identifying
the owner of community schools along with Clark the construction manager, ourselves, the architect and engineers for the project. We'll also have a list of of drawings there uh identifying what the biders and the contractors will be referring to in this package. uh what
this what the high school will look like on a new project and obviously the maps here that identify the high school itself. Uh next slide we go to a couple more slides. this one. >> Yeah, perfect.
>> No, that's excellent. Thank you. Uh, so here is an overall site plan showing the campus itself as existing existing buildings. Uh, the dark kind of this line right around is the property line and then to the south of the page street
and then to the right we have court and then service between the cultural center library and the high school itself. You kind of just zoom in, Dan, if you're driving there. >> Let's zoom in at the high school there
on that sheet. So, we can see the high school itself. There we go. Central building. >> So, that's perfect. Yep. Uh the central building itself, you see that really dark shaded spot there? That's the tower that we heard we plan on saving for the
project. >> So, the tower itself will be preserved. high school itself. All around it that you see this diagonal hatch are the buildings going to be removed on the property. Along with this light kind of sidewalks right around all of the sight
of be removed. One thing to note and we'll go back to the other slides in a minute here as we stay on here is we did hear from the community association meetings to save as much of the trees along street especially large ones we've
done so I can identify that on the next so you can kind of see this is the high school itself to the right at the right hand there where is that building come down in it entirey
demolished the top right there. That small building to the top right is the field area that will be demolished as well. Zoom back to the top left hand side of the page. Perfect. And then the middle building
where the gymnasium is will be demolished as well. And the powerhouse in its entirety to the top left side of the page. What you see in the middle is kind of two shapes connecting the buildings there. Those are actual
underground tunnels. Um with the support local residents that helped us during the community engagement meetings, which was fantastic. They helped us gather some information and drawings along with some of the drawings that we saw at the district. We were able to identify where those underground tunnels are located
and will be removed in its entirety. >> One one tunnel that you see there off to the left there in the parking lot. So this kind of large the parking lot where we anticipate uh through our investigations of the uh geotechnical report. So the
bore holes that we were able to do, we see that there's some undisturbed soils there that eventually we will try to determine what they are could have potentially an existing building at one point, but we will need some further investigation on. So then we zoom back all the way out so we can see the entire
plan. You can see that we're demolition we're demolishing the uh all of the all of the site amenities will be removed. So this kind of gives you a holistic vantage point of the entire site. And again the dark spot there that you see
is the tower itself. >> And then let's go back to the previous slides where you zoom in on the site. Perfect. Right there we can go back. Zoom in a little bit there on that right hand corner.
>> So you can see the three dark trees there closest to the building on there and the to the left there you can see there's lighter trees. The lighter shade trees that do not have the X's are the trees to remain. The trees
that have are to be removed. >> Uh the reason why those trees are to be removed is because of excavation and removal of the building. As you get closer to the building, it will be very very difficult to salvage. So those trees will
again heard the associations in the community. We are planning to save as much trees as we can along that uh that go to the next slide. Before we do that, I I just want to say that I had a conversation with Superintendent Jones today. And he's going to get together a
group of people just to walk the site to make sure and confirm the trees that are to go and which ones, you know, if there's something that's to go and we maybe need want to save or vice versa, we're going to go through and look at that. Um, which that's not a problem
because in the process we can issue an addendum which makes a clarification to to these trees. So, um, I just want to touch base that a little bit. >> Yeah. And and Dan, that doesn't mean we're trying to stop the the work. It
just I I I think that it's an opportunity for um any board members or myself to be able to walk that property to see, you know, what what trees are coming down. Um, and even the sign that says central um that's out front, right?
Uh trying to preserve different pieces and I know you're going to talk about something that we're preserving that is on top of the building as well. So you can go ahead and go to that. >> Okay. So go to the next slide.
Perfect. And then again the same thing here. You can see the trees that are exhausting. Go to the next slide. We'll go into the building now. Next slide. Perfect. If you zoom in there. So, this
is the area again that we intend to save is the tower. Now, we're starting to zoom intrically. So, the plan here is we open it up and we're trying to save that area of the building. Kind of gives you the context of the
high school. So, next slide. Perfect. And now the next couple of uh slides here are enlarged plans of the tower itself. So the lines that you see that are have this dash in them are the areas that we intend to remove. The
areas that have solid lines where it's a lighter kind of gray area are the areas we intend to keep. Um a lot of the Please walk into the tower itself. There's kind of a hoop there that we intend to preserve uh and restore to its
original condition. If you just zoom in on the one plan to the left. Yes. Zoom in. Perfect. Um you could point to the diagonal hatch walls that are right up against the uh Yes.
Perfect. So that you can see these series of new walls that we intend to reinforce the tower. So there is here that you know the Stantech team is engineered and designed. We went over this with Dan Clark. So Dan and I have been very intimate on how we look at the
methodology behind really enforcing this tower, reinforcing it uh and protecting it as demolition goes through. >> Zoom back out. So the same thing on the far far right hand side of this of this plan here is the second floor. So these new walls,
just imagine go all the way up the tower on the inside to help it deflected so it doesn't bow out when they go and do the demolition of this project. So next slide. So there's there are a lot of floors in this as we all know. So there's a third
floor, fourth floor, a fifth floor and a roof. So we are bringing again that interior new construction all the way up to help reinforce the tower. So again, this is showing the entire scope of work where we intend to help preserve the tower. So next slide.
And so these two images are essentially thinking about cutting through the tower from the very foundation of the tower all the way to the roof. So this is what the inside will look like. So again, all of the hidden lines that you see there are are the demolished walls and
elements that'll be removed. And a lot of the uh solid lines is Next slide. And then if you zoom in on our little 3D image there, this will help really define and explain everything. So what you see in these in the red there are
columns and beams which are new. Uh those are intended to be installed after u the bulk of the demolition of the of the existing high school is complete. What you don't see here in order to do this and Dan can help further explain
this uh as I as I try to the best of my ability to explain the methodology behind what Dan and I came up with as essentially the the the auditorium in the third level to the right. So on where the window is remain in place. So you'll see at a point during the
demolition a skeleton structure right around the tower itself. It needs to be left in place to allow Dan's team to go in and really reinforce that column of the tower. So, you see what you see in red there are the beams and columns. Those are new. And that
light kind of uh gray beam uh there's two of them there that are that are being supported by that red column. uh are to be left in place. Once the columns are in and the reinforcement of the concrete walls, the new walls inside
the tower are brought in and established. Dan's team will go back and remove the rest of the building. Can you just go ahead connect this way this area
high school here so people can't see but this area what we're talking about. We'll we'll be preserving all of this area and then we'll demo this getting that all that work in place and get cure time on the
concrete before we start >> because this gets separated. So there's kind of a stage of demo this all goes and another stage of demo when once the tower is
all secured then we remove the pipeline. Go ahead. Go to the next slide. We'll show what Superintendent Jones was mentioning earlier about preserving some elements to the high school. So, yeah, this this these are the elevations,
excuse me, of the tower around it. So, showing all the dimensions and what will be removed around the tower to help Dan's team uh through the process of demolition. So, next slide. So one one thing that we've been doing through the process as we hear through
the advisory groups and through the design early in the project is really preserving elements of the existing high school. Um there are kind of two main elements I really want to focus on tonight. So if we can zoom in on uh HS4
which is Yep. That one we can zoom in on that far left there. So you can Don't scroll down the the Gothic arch there. So that arch whole area right there. We really intend to take that
whole arch doorway out, preserve it, and then reinstall it at the new uh high school north entrance to really showcase and preserve uh the high school itself as a portal of entry uh along with the
new vest uh to the new high school. We find that amongst these ones, it's one of the most important pieces in the preservation of this high school. The next one, if you zoom out, uh, is the the Koopa there at the
bottom. Yep. Bottom right. Right there, the copper Koopa that we all see along C Street. We intend to really remove that in its entirety again, preserve it, and then reinstall it as a as a monument in one of the landscape pieces at the main
area. A lot of these smaller reliefs, architectural reliefs of limestone, we do intend above windows and doors that you kind of see off the left area, which we do have these two sheets, remove them uh again, salvage them and look to
reintroduce that into the new uh high school itself. We are still looking at they're in the process of design to see how that will be incorporated as we move through the advisory. Zoom back out now. Uh, some other important pieces here,
some metal work, too. So, not just limestone, but looking at the metal work that was part of the high school as well as taking that down and preserving it for the next year last year. Yep. And then some little bit more finer details in the ceiling. Uh, we intend to reintroduce as well at the
top there. At 1.2, We're looking at we're going to try to salvage some of these uh doors too as well. There's some really nice solid wood doors that we think that we could use and really look at as as we uh go through the demolition
process. We're going to try to the best of our ability to to reintroduce those at the bottom. And this is all dependent on the shape and Dan's team in coordination with Stantech on how we can do that. So, you
know, Dan and myself and the Stan Tech family have been really coordinating here over the last month since he's been on and uh been really looking at the drawings and the process on on how to do this work. Again, thank you all for the opportunity to present to you and be part of this group.
>> Thank you. Thank you, Val. Uh thank you and board members. So, what we wanted to make sure of is there if there was any questions uh about uh the RFP, the demo going out. Uh we wanted to make sure we came to you right before we put this
this RFP out. We also wanted to make sure that the public understood that this information will be on our website. We have already created u the folder on the website. Um there will also be it
will be in the newspaper. Um this is open to uh minorities as well. This is open to everyone. Uh but they must follow the uh rules the policy of the board of education in order to be able
to win this bid. So we want to be very clear and we wanted to come before the board and answer any last questions before this this bid. uh this bid package started. Any questions for members or thoughts? >> Madam Chair,
>> Trusty, >> first of all, thank you. Excellent um presentation. I'm I'm really thrilled about the salvaging of the material because we do know a lot of that material in that school is priceless. You'll never see it again. Um I'm just
ecstatic about that. And but my question is is it possible to remove trees and replant them somewhere else or all the trees are too are they too damaged or >> there's size usually five to six inch trees you you can spade those out. Okay.
>> I've seen it done up to 12 inches but that's pretty big spade. >> Okay. >> Um so the bigger ones you're not there's no way to save >> no way to say >> that. And that's the key to walking around. I I actually walked the site earlier this week and there's a few trees that I looked at that I think
people need to look at because I think they're in a condition that you're probably better off to get rid of them. Okay. >> And maybe put some new stuff in and let that start growing and and thriving instead of trees that don't look the greatest, but you know, I mean, it's
also winter, so you don't see the growth on the tree. But I think that's part of what uh Super Nintend was is looking at. But yeah, that's possible, but it's there's a lot of a lot of things. >> Oh, it's a lot. Trust. I I I truly
understand that. But I think that the um the residents of the city of Flint definitely applaud you all, you know, with with the mindset to know to save as much tradition and history as possible. And to just hear that several times during this presentation, it does my
heart good. So, I'm kudos for that. And um Dan, you the man. I just want to say I mean we talked about what you can see saving. What we didn't talk about is a thought process if we can get everything in line. Some of the concrete that gets demoed out instead of going to the landfill gets crushed and use it for
back fill of the site. So it's going to save some cost. Um but basically it's concrete getting crushed and being reused. So it's still being part of the site. Historically it's it's here. >> So >> thank you for that. Thank you >> Trusty Mag. Um
>> yeah, and I wanted to share that uh appreciation with the care that's going into the preservation because I I just want the community to know that we've listened and it's just, you know, heartbreaking that it's that it's come to this that
we, you know, have to demolish so much. Um, but it is not without, you know, a lot of consideration. So, thank you for the time and the care that you put into that. I can really tell that you've gone through everything and
and you will continue to to look at what could possibly be saved or repurposed or reused. Um, the the only question I had was are you like working with an arborist perhaps maybe to kind of assess
the trees. I because I know that we've got lots of expertise in this city uh you know with Michigan State University. We've got you know like a a whole bunch of people that that that do forestry services. So I mean are we getting input
from that so that we can you know really have a better understanding of what is necessary to extract and what what can be saved and preserved. I would need to defer to Stantech and Spalding Decker who is a civil engineer of what they did
to identify other than um the trees that are close to the building and the stuff that's in the areas that you know beyond that I don't know any other conversations about the trees I can speak to that so um trustee what
we we do have a landscape architect we can report back to the board on how that process was. Essentially what was uh being removed was logistically for equipment and the the effect during demolition and after demolition.
So it was like a what we did we did do a study of what we call the angle of repose for when they actually remove the foundations. So there is an offset from the from the building itself kind of this boundary how far it comes out and
where that lies. So that was a delineation of how we structured what was kept and what was not kept. >> I appreciate that and I and I figured you put a lot of care into that. I just wanted to to check because I know that it's something that we do specialize in
with master gardeners and and arborists in the city. Madam President Trusty, >> uh what was the purpose of the tower and how will it be re I mean how will it be upgraded? What was you know the purpose
of the tower? >> So the purpose of the tower uh so at the first floor in relationship to the new work is really a knowledge column uh columns So really a gathering spot for students and how that
translates above our uh >> what we call collaboration spaces on the floor above. So aesthetically on the inside of the building uh we will have thicker walls. We are anticipating on building uh reinforced concrete walls to
help support the structure itself. You can imagine like was explaining the existing structure around the tower is helping support the tower itself. So when we remove that uh steel and structure around it, you
need to support it. So how we're doing that is building within support. Um that's the technical aspect of it. But the actual spaces inside are class spaces for students to gather. Uh some support
tower and again collaboration. >> I didn't know that. >> Okay. Thank you. >> I didn't know >> mother father squ questions are I would like to thank you and the plant
team. Great job. >> Thank you. >> President just wanted all questions we have for this particular RFP. This RFP is supposed to go out, Dan, is this
going out tomorrow? >> It's going out at 12:00 tonight. >> All right. >> Okay. >> That's tomorrow. >> I I I'm actually thinking about hitting the send button now. >> That's tomorrow. So, we're good. >> Oh my goodness. Oh, okay. Yes.
>> So, we don't have to do anything. It's just Okay. With that said, I got one more statement to make about there are three. I sent you all a email about um three with transportation.
>> Oh yes. >> Um I sent you one about maint and janitorial and I sent you one about safety. Those are just our regular normal work. Those are those need to go out as well. It was
the board's decided that we would not to get these contracts to you all those out as well. But I wanted to make sure that he told you that and if there was any any questions about the we're putting
them out as we normally would. There's no no differences or anything added to it. We we have to have transportation. we need to make sure we do maintenance and um also security safety. So those
are going out as well. I just wanted to make sure we we discuss that. >> Okay. Thank you. >> All right. Seeing no further discuss discussion, I would like to turn the floor over to trusty relevant for the human resource
portion of the agenda. Thank you, President McNeel. Um, in your packet on page 38 and 39, you will see um a letter from Mrs. Rubin regarding um some past practices that she felt as though were
um she should have been grandfathered in. So, I'm bringing this come before the board so that we can have a discussion and make a decision this evening. So, give you all time to read it if you so choose.
You guys can give me a nod. When you're all set, I'll proceed. page 30 >> page 3839. It's right after the uh Clark construction information.
>> It's not numbered, but it would be 3839. >> Looks like this ladies. >> Okay. Okay. >> Okay. Everyone all set? >> All right. Everyone has read that. Um I would like to seek a motion in a second
for the board to approve action item 1.4 past employee practice. Uh, Trusty Reford, is there's a dollar n attached to this? >> Um, she sent the packet and I think it's like 13,000. I do believe. Um, Miss
Beard, you have that figure. Can you >> time It's 32 times 48. >> Say it one more time. >> It's 32 days at 48 a day. So, just multiply 32 time 408.
She had it in the package. So, >> just like 13,000 is changed. >> I'm seeking a motion so we can have a discussion. So, >> I motioned that um what is that number was? 21.
>> It is um No, 1.4. >> 1.4. >> Yes, it's 1.4. >> A motion that the board approve action item 1.4. Is there a second? Was that you, Trusty Perkins? Okay, it's been properly moved
and supported. Is there any discussion? >> Seeing no discussion, we'll have a roll call vote. Seeing there's no further discussion, the motion to approve action item 1.4, pass employees practices, will be conducted by a roll call vote. As I call your name, please say yes or no to
approve this motion. Treasurer Luna, >> no. Trusty King, >> no. >> President McNeel, >> yes. >> Vice President McIntyre, >> no. >> Trusty Boos, >> no.
>> Secretary Perkins, >> yes. >> Myself, yes. It uh motion uh fails. Four nos to three yes. Thank you, President McNeil. I turn the floor back to board president
board members. Uh we are at um 25.2. Green Education has come back before the board. We have met Green. We have reviewed the
contract before. I believe we're seeking a motion to pass the uh the tutoring. Uh, is it tutoring or literacy? The literacy part C part of the contract. >> It's not tutoring, it's literacy.
>> It's literacy. >> Trusty Booze. >> Okay. >> Would you like to comment on that? >> Oh, yes. Um, Green is not he's not a a tutor. Um, he is a professional developer. Okay. and he works with uh
educational staff and you know for the scholars and in you know on page 40 in your packet 40 all the way to page from 40 to 48 there's additional
information and they provide professional development and and instructional strategies to support scholars I would like to seek a motion and a second from the board to approve action
item 25.2 green education. >> Claudia, >> I make a motion that I make a motion that we support action item 25.2, green education support.
>> Thank you. I'm sorry. >> It has been properly It has been properly moved and second. Any discussion? >> Madam Chair? >> Yes. >> Um I'd like to remind the board that we were able to
not only read about uh green services and what they provide to a district, but the New York Times also highlighted their work in Mississippi. And um I think for me to hear the word tutoring that's an insult. >> Yes, it is.
>> And um thank you. >> I think not that I think I know that our students in our community would benefit greatly from Green um educational services. Not only because of his expertise, but the fact he cares. He
hasn't he hasn't been here long enough, but he's already invested in our community. Um, you lead by an example and to just watch him regardless of the challenges, he's shown the resilience, the stickuitiveness
to work with whomever he needs to work with for the greater good of our district. And when I read that email, I wasn't only appalled, but I was offended that as a board, we weren't considered prior
to just totally demeaning it. So, I mean, I'm for it because our students will be far better for it, just having the expertise and the caring, just the ability for someone to care and give them hope. So, thank you for this opportunity.
>> Thank you. Yes. Um Joyce, I'm sorry. >> Didn't me Laura. >> Yeah, I I agree with Trusty Reford. I think it was uh a misrepresentation
to call what Green does uh tutoring. Um and we worked too hard. We spent a lot of time and investment and and I'm not even talking about financial investment.
I'm talking about blood, sweat, and tears to go to Mississippi. We talked about the Mississippi miracle. Um we were blown away by the work that was done um uh in in that district. Um and
we had such forward momentum moving forward. And I can't believe that this is February and for whatever reason, I'm not going to point fingers or attach blame to anything, but for whatever reason, here we are in February dragging our heels
>> and I'm it's it's about time. This is about the kids. >> This they deserve it. Um this is I have nothing but respect for green educational services and and um you know
again I want to cosign what what trustee Relicer is saying so you know it's got to be a big deal if I'm agreeing with it right uh but yeah um so I will be voting for this >> terusty
terusted >> okay trustust Steve McNeel. >> You sure? >> President McNeel. Yes. >> Um the reason I'm supporting this, I was on a panelist January the 30th uh with the Flint Parents Collaborative. It was a special education and learning support
with legislative. >> Jasper Martis spoke about green education in that panelist and he's at the state level. John Cherry, they talked about green education. So I'm going to support that motion. And because we we got to get on
the ball. We got to get started and we have spent a lot of money and people need to see the result of the money we spent. So it's not money waste. Anytime we spend money on the children, we uh this is investment in we get $10,000 in
something per child and we're going to start investing in the education system special ed and supporting partners that support us. So I will be passing this. Thank you, >> Trusty King. >> Miss Perkins, go ahead. >> Trusty Perkins, >> go ahead.
>> Okay. Um, first I want to say I was disappointed um that we weren't able to um get green education services under the 31A. Um so to my colleagues, if you turn in your board packets on page 41,
if you can. >> Oh, 41. >> 41. >> 41 at the back. Mhm. >> Okay. >> Under his contract >> under section three where it says proposed services and
section 3A says high doses tutoring for math and or English arts 90 days in person. And so when I was looking at this I was like okay that's some good tutoring. It' be good. So he does not he's not limited to tutoring. it'd be more so intervention, helping our staff,
you know, talk about um academics and how do we innovate some u different ways of doing education >> and seeing uh green education work inside of Mississippi. I was looking forward to him coming to the district to provide uh some services where it says,
"Hey, high do tutoring the math." But uh to my colleagues, I would the reason why I'll be voting no is from our email uh to from the state where they underscore that that the 34 3500
>> yeah 3500 a day uh for the tutor is 140 times greater than the national average rate for tutors. And and and don't get me wrong, I understand that he's that this this organization is from another state and I I know we have to pay for travel.
We have to do all those those necessary accommodations knowing the work that they have. Um but when the state of Michigan talks about 3,500 a day per tutor um is 140 times greater than the n national average rate for tutors where the national average hourly rate for
tutors it says for general tutors for $20 to $26 an hour ELA teachers uh tutors were 28 to $33 an hour. I being fiscally responsible and from my from my perspective as a trustee, I would not be supporting this because this is I mean
the state of Michigan this could be paid under 318 if we found if we did another RFP for someone probably local. Now my colleagues might not like my my comments and I understand it because my colleagues is for this this individual um firm but as we talk about fiscal
responsibility I I can't justify um 140 times greater than the national average for tutors when the contract specifically says the purpose of service is a high doses tutors tutoring for math and English ELA students. Now, don't get me wrong. Um, I do believe that our
students need to be uh proficient. I do believe in the confidence of green education uh services, what he was able to accomplish in uh Mississippi, not discrediting the work. My only reason for voting no is due to the uh where the
state talked about say 140 times greater. And I agree. Um I wish we could talk to uh the green education service to see if we could lower the rate. >> He's on the line now. on the line. >> I'm I'm fine. Listen, listen. I can see your support at the table. I'm just
>> Well, he's on the line. >> I'm I'm not I'm understanding. >> I'll ask my question to him in just a second. Okay. >> You know, I I'm just saying my my statement here like everyone else can >> I did I looked. >> All right. >> Yeah, I paid attention.
>> So, yes, that I just want to make sure I I echo from my colleagues and then so it seemed that Mr. Green is online. Mr. drink. Do you uh can can you talk about the scope of service where it says 3A high doses tutoring? My colleague said that you don't only provide you don't provide tutoring. It's intervention.
>> Thank you for asking the question. Can you guys hear me? Okay. >> Yes, sir. >> Yes. >> Okay. Great. >> Yes. So I think there's a little bit of a misnomer concerning the concept of tutorial services >> and
there's a typical tutor that you would see uh doing primarily after school services. I think that's what you see in the email from the what you see companies like or
>> yes or even school district bring in teachers after school to pay them >> that way you see that that's not what our services do and
because the tutorial service primarily focuses on and they're not steered toward things like improving the school's overall accountability score, making sure a student moves toward proficiency.
They're more concerned about things like canvas, >> right? And the district asks for some supportirect direct support for students for many other things. And so that's where we come in support not just the
support with students but also support with teachers support with administrators not only in the building but at central office as well. And again the goal is not to make sure kids do basic math skills and basic reading
skills but to be prepared. they still really and that's how we support. >> Thank you, sir. I appreciate you being able to give that clarification for me. Uh, thank you for your comments. >> Okay, Claudia. Claudia Perkins. Trusty
Perkins. >> I was impressed when we went to Mississippi on what I saw and the children were so engaged. It was just unreal. We need to put our best foot forward for our scholars here. and I just think Green's uh educational would
help do that. So, I'm voting in favor of it. >> Any other comments? Any other discussions? It has been >> Okay. >> President. >> Yes. >> I'm not the president.
>> Okay. >> Trustee. Um I I want to make sure that uh we are clear on the funding source uh for this. I have I did I did send you
all this email uh from the state and um I have some concerns with that email as well. I do believe that we need uh services. Um and I believe that green based on what we have seen uh in Jackson
and also what we have heard I think with my own eye teachers in class working with students that um that may be on the bubble or not on the bubble that they're getting that extra support. I've seen it
with my own eyes. Um I am I am very concerned about the state that it will put us in if this is stuck in the funding source. Um that does not mean I do not support um green
education. That means that I based on the email that I received from the state I feel like due to that email is important. Uh that does not mean that the board is not going when the board votes. we're going to follow.
However, the due diligence of that email to understand what is being said to us to do or not do um has the due diligence of that is not complete. And so for me,
I am educational services. However, I'm I don't want us to put this funding out there and we're stuck in a space where will never be able to to sustain it um in a space where it may grow. It is
possible that what we're about to pay will grow and if we are looking at our operational deficit this is possibly coming from this is coming from the general fund. This may grow if we need
more and if we put it in the general fund without understand funds, then it may have to stay there a certain amount of years and it may grow.
So, as I spoke to uh Mr. Green, um I do want to do due diligence on finding a way to pay for these services outside of the general fund. If this is voted on tonight, that means for the next three
years is what I'm gathering this will have to be paid for out of the general fund and I'm not sure what implication comes from that with other things at this time because I wanted to do due diligence on that. Now the board
decides to move on what the board but I wanted I wanted to be stated that we don't know all theations of paying for this out of general fund. >> Thank you. >> Trustee Rifford. >> Yes. Um, Superintendent Jones, with all
due respect, I think my concern comes in, this came to the board, this came to the district in May. And my concern is why would we use 31A to submit it? My concern is those, it should have never been submitted under those funds. That
that threw me because we normally use 31A for security and things of that nature. So my concern is was this dead on arrival? Because what we do know is that we can submit it the correct way so that it
will fall up under title funds that will take care of it. I I I guess for me as I look at um green educational services and I look at past practice of other uh vendors,
I don't recall them going through a RFP or being put in a type of um financial category. So what I am asking this administration to do is get the money from where it needs to go. We'll do it
out of general funds, but there are title funds that will cover. If you guys don't know, please ask. I'll be more than happy to assist. But this is something this district desperately needs. It should have happened in May.
We're now looking at February. No more excuses. No, no more no more gaslighting. Please, no more. Thank you. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Okay. following uh following the discussion seeking. No, you have something to say. I'm sorry.
>> Uh um Superintendent Jones, you and I spoke in depth on this contract. Um and there when when we listen to the RFP, Trustee Booze and I, it was one RFP for uh literacy
for that amount. And then you guys went back and submitted the math part of it which doubled the amount for a new vendor and I just wasn't comfortable with that from day one. It was understood that it would be just for one
and here we are now and I have to agree with uh rele my team that uh is this going to be let uh green is coming in for that first year uh and he got to get a good start to see
how it works and then we'll look at uh the second year but keep in mind MDE uh we we on this year probationary period and we just spend a lot of money on this resource.
So I will be voting to move this forward. Uh I would like to speak with Mr. Green. Uh what is he proposing? Is it a threeyear or the first year? Uh the pilot uh however I would like to speak with them.
Mr. Green. >> Yes. Okay. Question. So, are you doing the three year? Are you doing the one year coming in? Because the way that um I'm just I have to apologize uh for this district behavior
>> uh because this is not a process that I'm used to seeing and uh you've been up here several two or three times uh and been working then to get that email was very offensive because you started out with one uh proposal and I never seen
the RFP like that. So are you are you willing to say you doing the first year as a pilot uh and because and you going to have to take time because we bring you in so late. So tell me what's your plan to make this successful for you.
>> So uh thanks again for the question. So the plan will have to be out in the district and what's currently being used or not used and exactly where the are
and what the goals are for the district. So, I can't really give you specifics now, but what I can say is the initial contract that we after we did our initial vetting and uh presented to the board and to the department what we
actually recommended it was for a contract for one year with the uh anticipation of continuing it for at least three years. >> So, I think that's actually in the I don't think I know that's in the proposal
and it was accepted. So bottom line, >> yes it was. >> We can it's an ongoing process and you guys you see that throughout the contract so that you're not satisfied with my services. You see where we're
not contract it's not as we are going to still be there. We are here to support you guys 100%. So just let me know when you're ready. >> Okay. >> You asked my question. Thank you very much.
>> Okay. >> Trustee Luna. >> Yeah, he answered my question. Mr. Green for them looking at section seven C through E. It talks about the
cancellation. So, you clarified that. And my next question is for Mr. Jones. How much time do you think you would need to have a better answer about, you know, what how this could be funded, I guess. So, I I read the email from Suzanne that came from MD
and I saw your your response that came out on January 20th. So, it's been about a month. >> No, I got an email yesterday. >> Well, no, there's like there's an email chain though. There's one from the 17th of December, then there's one from the
20th, and there's one that you sent over yesterday. But I guess my question is, how much how much more time do you think you need to more silently recommen recommend this uh service? >> Does that make sense what I'm saying? >> Yes. So, we got the email yesterday.
Um if you're asking due diligence on that team started on that work they started this morning u to try to you know figure out all of that stuff that was stated in
that email um and trying to figure out this is why we did this we did that. >> Okay. Um so those answers are being answered. Um it is it is not anything that I am doing. I I just understand
that when they're giving us this information I just want to responsible how we manage that. Uh so if I would say by the end of this week if you're asking that uh by the end of the week we should be able to
turn around on what was stated to us in that email that we received yesterday. So that that's my answer to you. >> Thank you. >> There uh seeking no further discussion the motion to approve action item 25.2
to green education will be conducted by a roll call. As I call your name, please say yes or no to approve this motion. Secretary Perkins, >> yes. >> Trustee Booth, myself, yes. >> Uh, Vice President McIntyre,
>> yes. >> Trusty Ruleford, >> yes. >> Trustee King, >> no. >> Trusty Luna, >> yes. >> So, it's been passed six. Yes.
Oh, I'm sorry. Um, Dr. McNeel. >> So, it's been approved. Six yes and and one no. >> Congratulations. >> Let's go. At this time, I would turn uh action item 21.6
to 21.9 over to vice president. Uh board, I seek a motion and a second from the board to approve action item 21.6, third party investigation of felony charges.
Um the third party being the Allen law firm through recommendation from attorney Gardner with Trinaw 46. support.
>> I made a motion to support >> 21.6 and it was second by Herkins. >> It has been properly motioned and seconded. Is there any discussion? >> I have a question.
>> Uh, Trustee Luna, you may have the floor. >> So, I I tend to read these several days in advance. I I don't I don't have context for this extra. I don't know. what this means because it's not in the packet.
>> Correct. It is uh on advice from uh from Trun Law. Um and we are moving forward um with a very sensitive delicate situation. um accusations were made by a board
member in the last meeting um that have legal uh felony implications um for the board, for the president, and also for a certain um third party
vendor. Um and we had to uh get some advice about how to to move forward. Um, so this is how we're doing it. >> But I just say some more to that.
>> Yes. >> Given that this is this just reading it, it sounds serious. He keeps saying we and we're voting on this, but we had just had attorney Gardner in this room two hours ago. I I just need details about what this is. Or
at least I could have got an email or we could have put it on the agenda we had earlier that was close session. So, >> so I'm not it's just it's frustrating that I don't know what this is about without having details. >> So, >> again, like
>> if there is an email sent and I missed it, I apologize, but I just don't know. I I don't if there's an opinion, why why didn't we ask him earlier? I just have no details in front of me and my packet are from the attorney earlier. And when you have a like felony in
there, that's that's very important to me. I want to know what that is. >> You done? >> Yeah, I'm done. >> Okay. So, in order to respond to that, um yes, it is very serious and very concerning. And so it's a very unique
situation um in that uh when when attorney Gardner was here before he was under uh we went into a closed door session and there are very specific rules about what you can and cannot uh discuss in the closed door
session. Um the reason why there is not uh more that is written down is because part of the the uh investigation will include um breaches of the open meetings act and
confidential information um uh being disclosed. Um and so the investigation uh because it was done because the charges were made in an open meeting
under public comments with the comments. I want this to be um on record. Um as the as the vice president, I had to uh take steps to ensure the the
safeguard um of the district. And there will be uh if with board approval there will be an investigation through the third party um in uh consultation
with Tim Gardner. Um we we're not getting a legal opinion uh per se. um because of the nature of the investigation itself is going to be looking at the disclosure and the
leakage of some of the the communications um of legal opinions. Um and the recommendation from Trun Law was that we use the Allen law firm to look into this situation
and it has been it is it needs to be done immediately because of the the potential uh consequences or potential consequences of of these allegations. You can't just say whatever you want in
an open meeting. Um there are laws and rules and regulations. So this is why it's being and like I said it's highly irregular but so were the comments and the situation that occurred in the meeting uh last week.
>> Trustee King. >> Yeah. Um thank you. Um so uh here I'm in agreeance with my u colleague Treasure Luna here. But so when when we put something onto the agenda agenda that says third party investigation, felony
charges, this is not only alarming um to myself, right? But when you think about it, as we represent, you know, the community when this is on the packet, it's on an agenda item, this raises alarms for the community as felony charges. So I what I would have
recommended is that we would have had a conversation about why are we doing this in in general in close session first because when when it was just referenced uh Vice President McInty you mentioned that we decided and and when I heard you say that you you as vice president
reached out >> uh to Trum. Do you have um that opinion letter that says Allen Law Firm is the one to choose? >> Oh, huh. Are you >> Yeah, I'm just asking a question. >> Uh, yes.
>> You do have an opinion letter. >> Uh, no, we do not have an opinion letter. We have an opinion from >> from True Law. >> Do we have that in writing? >> Again, for the reasons that I've already
mentioned, we it is in an email. >> Okay. So, so here's where my um challenge comes from. It it comes from My colleague mentions, okay, she has an opinion um from a from the attorney, but
this also is not a one member board. This is a seven member board where if you have information, I I think we all should be privy to the same information. We get an email like we do legal opinions like other legal opinions, we get the same information. Same way when we have close session, the attorney
gives legal opinions to every single board member, not just one board member. And I would like to know why Allen Law Firm, why is this this the law firm? Now, now mind you, I'm not opposed to any investigation, yada yada yada. But what I what I would like to have alignment with the closed session with
our board of education members and say, "Hey, here's the pathway we're choosing to go, not that decision being made by one member saying, well, in the protection of X, Y, and Z. Let's have that conversation together and come up with that together instead of, hey, this is being put out here." And then so when
I think about this, so I I want to know what's the scope of the investigation, what this includes versus putting putting a third party investigation because it doesn't give you a description of what we're going to talk about um where it's going um the cost of
this. It it it doesn't give any of that. It doesn't give a time frame. It just it's a motion on the floor. Well, yeah, motion on the floor now for action doesn't have any of that. And to my colleagues, I would ask you similar same way we do any closed session. We have information. You may disagree with it
and it's okay. It's okay, you know, but uh we any closed session that we've had any action that we talk about legal or third party investigations when we did a a third party investigation re last year or so, we still had a closed session about it and talked about our options
and then we proceeded outside of that meeting and and chose the option that we wanted to go. But in this case, I I I'm I'm curious why why first my main questions and to the public that want to make sure this is clear. Why are we choosing the Allen Law Firm? What is the
scope of this investigation will include? And then um why didn't we have a conversation as a board first before having a a opinion that's not written, but it's an opinion? I I'm I'm just concerned when we talk about that and because putting something to this
magnitude on an agenda not only sews distrust inside the community, but it kind of kind of fractured that at the board table because we usually don't do it that way. We just don't. Um and then also the comment about immediately. Why does it have to be immediately and not
have a conversation before the board? And so I mean I'm curious, did my colleagues have a conversation prior too? Because I want to know, can we get three law firm suggestions? not just choosing one. I don't know their rate. I don't know who they are. They're not here to be represented. These are my questions that raise I mean to me
reasonable um you know to talk about we talk about finances. We talk about all of these things but these basic things wasn't answered. So that's where my that's where my concerns are. I'm not invalidating the rationale for the investigation. But here's the prelude
where we all request information. In the same way when we don't have information in front of us from the administration if they do not give us information oh that's the instant no. So in this case I would think my colleagues would say the same. Let's have some more information. Let's have a dialogue and close session. Talk about what's our
game plan and then we move forward. But apparently I mean I see the head shaking. I guess we don't want to do that. But I that's where my my disagreement would be at. And I want to make sure that's clear uh to the community. I I have these same questions and same concerns as you and uh that's my comments and appreciate it.
>> I think duly noted just wanted to state that that the questions that were raised again have previously been answered. Apparently you didn't like my answer um but the answer remains the same. Um this is an unprecedented situation. We had uh
threats and accusations being made in an open meeting. this is the step step we need to go. Yeah, I don't like it either. Um but I also don't like the comments that were made uh during the meeting and and the
that have criminal implications and puts us all as a board in jeopardy. So hopefully we won't be in this situation again and I understand your concerns. I share your concerns and normally um this would not happen but normally you wouldn't have a board member behaving
the way that they're behaving in in in a meeting as such. So um uh like I said I answered I it's not a legal opinion because a legal opinion is
actually something very specific legally. Legal opinion means ABC. So, we do have an opinion. It's not a legal opinion. And yes, it is written down, but again, for the reasons that I outlined previously, we have a rupture
in the board. We have a board member who is acting in a rogue way who is uh not to be uh there's some concerns about the disclosing of information which is why there was a a tight cap on the
information that was distributed about this. >> Madam Chair, >> um trustee or president McNeel, you have the floor. >> Last Wednesday, a public accusation was made
When we voted for a certain company, the accusation was that the president, George Ellis McNeil, take kickbacks and get money from this contract. The board member requested public that it be put in the public
record and made public that I, Joyce Ellis Mike Mill, is doing some type of embezzlement with a contract with a company, probably a $300 million company. That company was on Zoom. I
requested I requested a full investigation be done to prove or not prove that these allegations is true. This is my reputation. It will be a public meeting. It's not
going to be a closed door because they requested this board member that I be charged with embezzling and taking kickbacks from a contract. It's on Facebook. people talking about it. So I cannot do
this. Trum cannot do this because they are different. You have to get a third party. Just like when the charges came against the same board member, we had to get the same third party company to come in and do this investigation.
The board is voting so we can proceed with this here accus uh accusation through this third party because that's the only person can handle it. This is the same process. A email came and I told they told her to use this company.
After that they do the investigation on records. This board member said she wanted this document that I took money from this contract and and and are
taking money and kickback and she made it a public document because she stated she wanted on the records. My name will be clear. I'm going to get the same respect that everybody else get. I'm requesting from my board because
it's put this whole district that your president allegedly by a board member a company that we only met twice and because we passed it and the vote passed that I was getting kickback. That is
what this investigation, you can go back and look at last week meeting and that's what prompts this invest investigation and I just observe the same respect as anybody else. My character just as important as anybody else. I'm
requesting my board to support this investigation to clear this company. This company did no wrong. Neither did I. But my colleague said, in other words, she must got proof
because she made it a prominent record on my name and this company name. That's the end of what I have to say. And we need to know, are you going to vote it up or down? And once we get this information, they would put it all together, give you opinion, and what's
what. the same way that we had to do before with a board members and previous board members. That gets out of order and you get that information, but you can't get that information until we select the attorney to do that. Trum
does not do this. >> Trusty Reford, do you have the floor? Um, I guess I'm confused because is was there a complaint written? Because we normally would get something to see what this is about. Um, I believe I was at
the meeting last week and I didn't hear your name. I'm confused, but if you heard it, okay, but I would just like to see the complaint. And um there's I'm all for an investigation, but I just
want us to follow the policy and send it send a complaint. Send I mean I don't know where felony charges come from. It's can we be specific? But it it sounds like somebody feelings was hurt, but feelings are not a felony. So I just
ask my colleagues just just submit the information so the entire board can make a decision and not two people in the emotions want the district to pay for something because they feelings are hurt. So facts are feelings. It's something totally different. So I just
ask my colleagues, let's deal with the facts. Let's have an investigation. Let's put it in writing. Let's dot our eyes and cross our tees so we can be good board members. Thank you. Are there any more comments?
>> Yeah, m >> trusty Luna. >> Yeah. >> Did everyone speak before I want to offend anybody? So, I want to be clear about my thoughts about this. >> There's a phrase it's like not it's not
what you say, it's how you said it. And if this was that important, which I believe it is, I just would like the common courtesy and respect to at least have some kind of discussion whether it be behind closed doors or just in an email just so because we're all public
officials, right? But I was not given that. So it puts me in a hard spot because I was given no information about this. And again, I was here last week and I would just remind my all my colleagues, I'm not perfect, but we're in the midst of doing some
really great things for the district. I mean, the high school, we just approved this. Well, we approved the request for 7 million towards some playgrounds across our city. I mean, the partnerships with teacher, I can go on and on about all the great things we're doing, the whole board being certified.
I just don't want to go back to this space where number one colleagues are just saying things to each other that don't need to be said but more importantly these small rocks are taking up space in that glass we need to fill with border boulders and not pebbles
so I just move them forward can we just please do better as a body but also as individual members because it's already 10 o'clock I'm sorry 9:23 right now I don't want to be here too long. It's just I'm not feeling respected how this
came about. Again, it's not what we're voting on right now. It's how it was just delivered without me having any information. And I can speak for myself. Again, I might have missed an email. I've been sick the last couple days. I've been on vacation on the weekend, but I just would appreciate more
information as we move forward on this and other matters. from what it sounds like like Holly wants us to have her name cleared and the other one's fine with that but just please please just let us know in advance because I've heard several colleagues
say time and time again I need more time I need more information and then we do these things or we say you know what those rules don't apply to me when I want to do it and that to me it's just not good it's not good practice or norms those are my comments
>> um vice President McIntyre. >> Um, I'm going to uh make a statement and then I will recognize you. >> Um, Trusty Trustee Luna, I can appreciate that you don't feel appreciated. Um, that is not the
intention of this action. Again, I've stated very clearly why actions were taken in the way that they they did. I find it very interesting that you've got board members who are more offended by the reaction to the misdeed than the
misdeed itself. And this isn't the first time that this has happened, but it's going to be the last and it's going to stop. We are not tolerating this type of behavior anymore, especially when it has, yes, felony implications. We had a
vendor who was listening to the the meeting. Um there's potential legal action that can be t taken not only by an individual board member but by by a third party vendor. This this is very serious and this is how again this is
unprecedented. Um it it hopefully is never going to happen again. Um and uh you know this is not how I like to uh to proceed with things and I absolutely agree um that that that I don't like the
way that this is proceeding but I don't like the the the comments that happened and the behavior and it's not uh an emotional response. It's a fact. There are certain laws and we have bylaws and there are rules
and regulations and there are consequences to these things. Here are the consequences. Um, Trusty King. >> Yeah, thank you so much. Um, uh, first thing I want to make sure I convey um,
for I don't excuse or u condone any behavior or comments made. Um, but what what I do want to make sure we clear the record on because it was said that the Allen law firm group was used the last third party investigation. That's not
accurate. Um, the last law firm we used, I think it was Sculton Fent is who we used for as a law firm. And then it was said it was stated that um just the same process that we did um for the last third party investigation. That's not fully accurate. What we had did was
originally we went into close session went into close session with our attorney. Our attorney gave us options of um of of law firms and he recommended one and then we you we use that conversation to make a decision and and
then you know later on I would I want us to think about this from a holistic perspective as well. the time we spending talking about this, the the time and effort where I didn't like a comment that a colleague said, I would say a few times a couple of my
colleagues said some things that I disagree with or was insinuated like we were it was a lot of things stated um about us, but as elected officials, you know, um it's require I mean it's a well a lot of things could be said about us
regardless and and it's incumbent upon us to be able to take take those um comments and just be able to move forward if the you know I I do want to make sure I come comment on the Oh well I didn't interrupt no one when they were speaking I didn't um but I do want to
make sure if we can reallocate time to talk about vacant properties to talk about the district accomplishments and achievements we could be making we could talk about standard operating procedures but instead we're taking time uh to to do this third party investigation that
for one don't have a scope don't have a cost doesn't have any um written opinion letter in my opinion from what I've reviewed um and hasn't been talked about amongst the board as a whole. I haven't been talked to um in a in a formal meeting to discuss the implications of
this magnitude. And so this is why I'll be voting no. Um but again, I want to make sure I I I preface that I don't excuse any comments being made, but there's a process how we do things and apparently that hasn't been done. And some folks agree, some folks don't because someone disagree with someone
said. I I don't excuse what was said. Uh but the way we operate should be a little bit better than this because we did it differently in the last time. But um thank you for it. I look forward to the vote. Uh and then we can move forward. >> Um any further comments?
>> All right. So we will be taking a vote. Um, we've been uh seeing no further discussion. The motion to approve action item 21.6, third party investigation of felony charges, uh, will be conducted by
a roll call vote. As I call your name, please say yes or no to approve this motion. Uh, Secretary Perkins, >> yes. >> Trustee Booze, >> yes. >> Vice President McIntyre, yes. Trusty Rifford, >> of course not. Trustee King,
>> no. >> Trusty Luna, >> no. >> Uh, and uh, President McNeel, >> yes. >> So, it passes with a vote of 423. >> Um,
uh, with the the board's permission, I would like to, uh, table the next three action items. Uh um so that we can get more. It's getting kind of late. It is late.
Um and these aren't as urgent as the first one. Um but I would like to um review uh close se session practices at some point. It is germanine to the
discussion. Um we do need to review uh what the rules and regulations for uh close session practices uh for disclosure of information that is received under attorney client privilege
um and um you know following the the open meetings act. So, um I know that all board members should be aware of these things, but uh recent behavior has indicated otherwise and so we're going
to need to do that uh soon. Um so I just wanted to put that out there, but I would like to to table that as well. So I'll pass the floor back over to President McNeel to conclude the meeting.
It is 9:31 >> at this point. Do any board members have any comments? >> Madam Chair, please. I want to say to my colleagues, specifically those who voted for this
um I don't even know what to call it, but the third party investigation. Um as a board, we all receive the same information. And when you have the same four who only received the information, that's a
problem because this district is going to suffer because it's four people but it's one mind. That's not good for this district. We need to keep this district first. I hear a lot of things that bother me.
I've witnessed a lot of my colleagues say stuff they have to turn around and apologize for where you have letters written and you always come back, oh, I'm tired. I'm this. I'm that. No, you said what you said. Stand on it. But
when you decide that you're going to embellish something, make sure what you're saying is factual. because I think we all were at this meeting last week and I don't think
anyone can say a name was said and if you do, I hope you go under oath. But back to what's important. We're moving this district forward. It's about this district. I am a public official. I get my feelings hurt, but it's not about
my feelings. It's about the duty I was elected to do. So I truly challenge my colleagues to do the job you were elected to do. Thank you. comments. >> Um I want to comment on
just in general as there was a quote that that was given to me when I in training says student outcomes don't change until adult behaviors change. And when I heard that quote, I had to
pause for a moment. When you think about a lot of adult outcomes, I mean, um, a lot of student outcomes and whether it's achieving or not achieving, some of that is due to adult behaviors. So when I think about um
the impact we can do at this table focusing on student outcomes and the and the standards of practice that we that we read um every you know every regular board meeting when we talk about we'll focus on issues not personalities. We'll
make decisions on objective facts. We'll be using our good listening skills. all of those things. Um I I would challenge my colleagues to let's take a reset. Let's move forward. Um but
seeing the the conversation tonight, it it just was taking me a back because I I know my colleagues don't usually approve things without a budget item attached to it, without due diligence.
Um but seeing that you know I I understand but I don't at the same time because it's not how we operate and used to operating in certain circumstances u but I would hope uh that after this we we receive information about the scope of service how much it would cost and
then the timeline I would I would you know ask when that information is shared when that information is shared that it is shared amongst all seven board members not seven board members. So, that's my comments for tonight. Um, I
appreciate every presenta presenter that presented tonight. Superintendent Jones, thank you for you and your team um for all the presentations tonight for moving the district forward. Board of Education, thank you for the approving the items. Oh, well, hold on. Wait a minute. I'm just going by three minutes
here when other folks go longer. I'm just making my comments. Thank you to those have presented tonight. I appreciate all the hard work. Uh, thank you. Wow. It's interesting that there's just so much righteous
indignation uh over responses to an offensive illegal accusation, but not the accusation itself. Um I find that this isn't the first time that this has happened, but but it's like I said, this
is hopefully this is going to be the last because we're not going to allow this to continue. Um, but on a positive note, thank you to our partners and I meant what I said. I got really uh heartfelt and I I just want to
underscore and and reiterate my thanks to our partners um and to the cooperation that we are embarking on. It is a it is a new day. It is unprecedented.
Again, thanks to Dr. Jameson and Thomas Parker and uh to everyone else, it takes a it t it does take a village. Mr. White, uh I I I meant what I said. Um,
it's been a hundred years and it's been 1926 to 2026 and I'm I'm honored to be on this board and to be a part of this process and to be a
part of this this history making moment. So, thank you. Sorry it's so late, but just had to say that on a positive note. Thank you. >> The next board meeting will be held Oh, I got to take a picture.
>> Kim gonna take She's gonna take my picture. >> Oh, for the uh >> Uhhuh.