Good evening. Welcome to the regular Board of Education meeting on Monday, October 20th. If you can please drive for the pledge allegiance. I pledge allegiance To the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with Liberty, Liberty, and justice. For We'll have a thank you. Moving on to recommended actions. Um, 2.01, approval of the proposed agenda. We'll take a motion. I make a motion to approve the agenda. Support. Any questions Ms. Anderson?
Yes. Cash? Yes. Lang? Yes. Ert? Yes. Yellen? Yes. Youngs? Yes. Kh? Yes. 2.02. Approval of the September 22nd board meeting minutes. Madam Secretary, Madam President, I've reviewed the minutes from the board meeting from September 22nd. Everything appears to be in order. Make a motion we approve as presented support, Motion, and support. Any questions on the minutes? Mr. Anderson? Yes. Ello? Yes. Lang? Yes. Reer? Yes. Yellen? Yes. Youngs? Yes. Kish? Yes.
2.03. Approval of the October 6th, um, board Workshop. Minutes. Madam Secretary, Madam Present, review the workshop. Minutes from October 6th. Everything's in order. And to make a motion, we approve as presented support. Any questions on those? Anderson? Yes. Ello? Yes. Lang? Yes. Bret? Yes. Yellen? Yes. Youngs? Yes. K. Yes. Thank you. Moving on to 2.04. Approval of the June, July, August and September. Financial reports and bill Bills. Mr. Treasure, Um, mad president. I'll
make a motion to approve the June, July, August and September. Financial reports. Um, just to note that, um, because the end of the year is end of June, July 1st, we won't have financial reports and bills until after June is closed out for the year. So that's why there's several months, uh, on the agenda tonight. But we've reviewed everything in finance committee and everything is in order. So I make a motion to approve Support. We have, um, a motion in support. Any questions about any of the bills or reports? Okay. Ms. Anderson? Yes. Han? Yes. Lang? Yes.
Riker? Yes. Yellen? Yes. Youngs? Yes. Yes. 2.05 Student discipline case number two. Yes. On uh, October 14th, the board's discipline subcommittee held an expulsion hearing. Based on the information obtained at that hearing, the subcommittee members unanimously make the following recommendation to the whole board regarding student case. Number two. The board's discipline subcommittee recommends expulsion through the end of third marking period with Bobcat Virtual Learning coursework and successful completion of core co courses along
with Vape Educate required to be considered for Readmittance. We'll take a motion. Make a motion to approve support. Any questions Ms. Anderson? Yes. Ello? Yes. Lang? Yes. Riker? Yes. Yellen? Yes. Youngs? Yes. Kish? Yes. Moving on to, um, section three consent agreement. We'll take one motion for the sanctioning request and the overnight field trips. I'll make a motion to approve the sanctioning request support. Any questions on any of the details in there?
Ms. Anderson? Yes. Cash? Yes. Lang? Yes. Ret? Yes. Yellen? Yes. Youngs? Yes. K. Yes. Moving on to presentations 4.01 Anderson Elementary, Right here. Yes. We are fortunate to have some of our Anderson staff here from kindergarten with principal Andrea Floyd. Mrs. Floyd floated an idea to our deputy superintendent last spring, and we, uh, weren't quite sure how it was gonna work out, but, um, I know that they had a very successful start to the year, so I wanted to make sure
to share that news before. So, Ms. Floyd, awesome. Is this the clicker that would take us through? Okay. Perfect. So, like Dr. All said, I'm Andrea Floyd, I'm the principal at Anderson. I don't know how many of you have experienced in education, but if you've ever tried to place kindergarten students, it presents kind of a unique challenge. You don't have as much information as you have when you have kids that are coming in from, I mean, first grade is even difficult, right? We only got kindergarten or maybe on fives to look back at where you think about a fifth grader. You've got their entire elementary career to look back at. Um, so I had the pleasure of teaching kindergarten for one year, and it was the COVID year when we were half
online, half in school. And so my team did not ever get to live and experience kindergarten camp, but I knew how much my teammates at the time really, really saw a lot of value in it. Um, so that was kind of the, the first breadcrumbs that I had heard about this thing called kindergarten camp. Um, and then the last couple of years, room six has been our room at Anderson that unfortunately for some reason has, we've kind of said it's a little bit cursed. We've had new teachers in there the last three years. Um, and we have worked really, really hard to try to make sure that our classes are balanced and we are thoughtful about all of the different things as far as parent input.
Um, the BURGAN score, the observations that we have in the 15 to 20 minutes that we're doing at Brigans test. And somehow room six kept getting stacked with kiddos that were really not great combinations for each other. Um, last year there were a couple kiddos that I even moved around in November, and while it was okay, I was up at night thinking about like, what's gonna happen if this doesn't go well when we move from room six into a new classroom. Um, 'cause we can't just spend the year moving around into, you know, four different classrooms. Um, and like I said, thankfully that worked out okay, but we figured let's try to change things up a little bit so
that we're not in the same situation next year. Um, so this year, this is what brought us kindergarten camp and we're, tonight we're gonna tell you a little bit about our process, some of the prep work that we did beforehand. We have some reflections that we're gonna go through. Um, and I hope that you can see that we, we really wanted to come up here and be very honest. Um, when I was floating this idea, I was hoping, oh my goodness, this is gonna be so revolutionary, life changing, and we're gonna do this forever. Um, and I think through our reflections, we think there are a few things that we could change to improve for next year, but I also don't think that we're walking away saying, this was life changing. And we're all a hundred percent so excited about this,
that we think the whole district should do it. Um, and so that's part of what we'll talk through tonight, is that we want another year to go ahead, try to implement it again with a whole new group of kiddos and do some of the reflections and changes that we talked about. And then at the end of next year, we'll kind of make that final decision on do we think it's, it's totally worth it? Do we wanna change a couple other things up? Are there other ideas that have come up? Um, and I hope you can also see that this is a team that works really, really well together. And so, thankfully this has been very much a collaborative experience. Um, I came up with the idea, but they very much had a ton of say in how things were gonna work.
They were able to, you know, bring up any concerns that they had. And then we went from there. So I've got Rochelle Carr here, Anisa, Kaiser Janae, how, and an Alicia Pena. So we like to keep things really, really challenging in Anderson with the most similar names that we could possibly come up with. And then I'm an Andrea, so I mean, we add in a lot of different difficult pronunciations of that starting for names. So for our planning process, we met for a couple days before the school year started. Our first day was in April of last year. Our kindergarten team met before school to make decisions on how to split up our students.
Um, we drafted our first couple of days of lesson plans, and then we created a welcome letter for kids welcoming them and parents to the kindergarten camp. Um, that was their pre-placement letter that they received. Our second day of meeting, we were in eight or on May. Um, it was the last PD of last school year. We spent the afternoon spent planning out the day as a PLC team. So we made sure that each teacher had their planning time and that students had at least one special a day. Um, and then the last day we got together was just before school started in August. Um, we created a to-do list to prepare for the first two weeks of school
and the things that we would need for those first two weeks. So we wanted to show that part of the process just because it didn't, it wasn't like we were coming in in the summer and doing tons of work. We were able to, to place the planning into some of the PD days that are already built in. And we're able to walk into this year feeling very prepared for our plan and to implement kindergarten camp for the first time. So, preparing to start, and I apologize, I know there's a lot of words here, but there was a lot that we did because we knew this was a brand new idea, so we wanted to make it as, as clear as we possibly could. Um, and apologies to my family and all of these people, because I made them all. I'm like, pretend like you know nothing about school
and you have never taken a kid to school in your life. Does this plan make sense? Um, so I made lots of people read these, but as the, on the admin side of things, I created a Google folder where I held all the documents and sample documents that I had collected from other teachers that had done this in the past. Um, I, I was helping to plan through collaboration with teachers and under other districts who had done this. So getting some insight into things that they really liked, things that they wanted to change. Um, and then we used those ideas to kind of kick off how we were gonna, uh, implement and get started. I worked on putting together some ideas for managing rotations and mixing students up,
but again, that was something that I brought to the team. And then we worked together to figure out how are we gonna make this work for us? 'cause it doesn't need to look exactly like it looked in those other districts. Um, I created a slideshow to introduce kindergarten camp information to our families, and I wanted to highlight all of these different places that we gave this information, because I think this is really what helped to make things really clear for our families. So the first place that I presented this was at kindergarten information night last February. Then at the, both the spring and August brigans testing days, I was talking to families as they were waiting for their kids doing the testing to explain and see if they had any questions. Um, at our meet the teacher evening,
we had a new family meeting where again, I went through that same slide. Um, and then, like I said, that initial placement letter we worked on like proofreading with so many different perspectives and eyes to make sure it was clear. Um, and so in August when all of the kids in Grant Blanc get their placement letter, our Anderson pre-placement kindergarten letter went out to families. Parts of it looked similar, but a lot of it was spent trying to really, really flush out and explain what we were gonna do here as far as our kindergarten team. They created that welcome back letter. They created the model schedule for the first two weeks, made sure that everything that was happening in their classrooms was exactly the same,
so no student was getting a different experience based on the room that they were in at that time. Um, we created one communal grade level supply list just because that was gonna be really confusing those first two weeks if kids were bringing in materials that, you know, Mrs. How wanted, but Mrs. Kaiser didn't want. And so we made sure those were all very uniformed. And then we mapped out timing of rotations and they helped me understand exactly how many people they were gonna need for support. And so I helped out with that. Our building liaison helped out with that. And then we've got an Eagles Nest, um, staff member that supports that classroom, and she would help with those rotations as well. So as far as our logistical planning was concerned, we met
with those staff members, made sure they understood what we needed to do. We placed students again, like we always do, to the very best of our ability. So it wasn't like kindergarten camp was in place, so, so we didn't spend as much time on placement as we have in the past. We still very much prioritized that, but knew that we had this extra couple of days at the beginning of the year where if we needed to make some changes and move some kiddos around that would be expected and welcomed because families knew exactly what we were doing. Um, we created name tags, so every kiddo had a lanyard around their neck. That's one of the things that we're like, maybe we'll simplify that next year, because those become really fun things
to swing around your neck. They get lost at the playground, lots of different things. Um, but the lanyards were color coded, so you knew whose home room cab in those kiddos came from. Um, and then that helped because we tied it to, there's, there's two tables in the cafeteria where every class sits. The, the color of the table card on the cafeteria table matched their lanyard. So just trying to help those little kindergartners that are trying to make sense of this crazy world they've never been in by, you know, color code and things and making things a little bit more clear for them. Andrea? Yes. What's Eagles Nest? Eagles Nest is our break room at Anderson.
So we've got throughout the district, my first year we got a nice sum of money from Sally Hahn to staff those rooms and stock those rooms with lots of different things. So there's, um, a lot of like sensory materials for kiddos to go to help calm down. We do have some fun things that it connect as a reward for kiddos. Um, and then we've got a system where they bring, depending on the paper that they have with them, our staff and their knows, is this like a calm down? I gotta get back to being ready to learn? Or am I here for a reward because I've been rocking it? Of course. So these are just some samples for you. Um, this was, I couldn't fit a whole entire day on a page.
Um, but an example of the lesson plan that the teachers worked together to create. And then that was the sample placement letter. So you'll see that rectangular box like that looks the same as all the other placement letters that parents get, but you can see this was a little bit more fun, colorful. We included the pictures of the teachers just so parents knew who they were looking for at meet the teacher night. So reflections and changes as we were going through this. Um, we changed the rotation. So we originally planned to rotate all of the classrooms to each, or all the classes to each teacher every day.
We realized that was a lot for the kids. So then we switched it to just one rotation a day so that the students had more time with their homeroom cabin teachers so that we could do some more observations with our own homeroom students. Um, and then after the rotations, we met as a team and discussed who we think we we could move into a different classroom, um, and they could be a leader in that classroom. So we made four changes for student placements. Um, and then we, um,
discussed that by doing this, that all teachers have shared ownership of the student's learning there. Anderson. So moving forward for next year, the first week we'll just break it down to just one rotation per day, and that's 60 minutes. And then the second week students will remain with their home cabin. But, uh, students who come in either late or new enrollees can still, um, visit additional classrooms. We did have one little guy that was sick the whole first week of school
and he didn't get a chance to see all the teachers. So he was able to go the second week and see, um, the teachers. And we found a good fit for him. Um, depending on the makeup of the students, teachers only can rotate next year or the students can continue to rotate. And then the final placement letter will be sent out at the end of the two weeks. And then after year two, we will decide if kinder camp should continue into year three. So after meeting, at the end of everything, we've came up with a list of our pros and cons of how kinder camp went. A lot of our pros is that we had the ability to meet every single kindergarten student, uh,
which allowed us all to have that feel of ownership between all of our students. Um, and then we also got to have the students gain more familiar familiarity to the building. So we were able to, as we were rotating, being able to show them different places in the building, um, things that they're gonna need to go to the bathroom, the cafeteria, the office, their specials. So they were able to learn more of the building right away. Uh, and meet the teacher night was just such a success with all of the planning that we've done, that the students and parents felt so comfortable being able
to participate in our kinder camp. Um, our cons, though, we did have a hard time establishing our routines. So being able to get all our students knowing like, Hey, we can't do this at school, but this is what we can do, was a little difficult. Um, and the rot, the rotations were a lot at first, and it overwhelmed a lot of our students. We had a lot of students that had like a couple meltdowns, but we got it together once we slowed down our, our rotations and only did it once. And then we noticed that after our end of our two weeks, some of our students like
to show their little true colors, um, and, and their honeymoon phases where they were so nice to it and, but helped us really develop our kidder camp. So we hope that you can see that we really spent a lot of time trying to plan for making this clear for our teachers, clear for our students, and clear for our families. Because we know that our kindergarten kiddos are oftentimes some of the most confused just because it is also brand new to 'em. Um, I feel the most pride, um, and value in what they said about the piece of ownership. I thought it was really cool when we sat down to reflect
as a team that we had, um, teammates as colleagues, teachers asking like, okay, what, what would help make your room feel like just you have a little bit more room to breathe. Um, but with that, they kind of already had their ideas of names of kiddos that they were thinking of. So they gave their teammate a chance to kind of share what they were thinking. And then it was cool to see how that aligned with the notes that other people had taken when they were with that homeroom group of kiddos. Um, it's really awesome to see kindergartners that can name all four of these teachers, because so often you'll hear a kindergartner in January that's like, Hey, teacher. And I'm like, oh my goodness, sweetheart, we, we have
to know her name at this point. Um, but it's pretty cool that we're in October and they can name four of the teachers on top of like their specialist teachers and their noon hours and people that they see at school. Um, so I do think that it helped to make our kindergartners more welcomed at school, feel a little bit more confident, but like we said, there were some, some difficult things that we wanna make sure we, we smooth out to make an amazing opportunity and experience for our kiddos. And also just to make sure that we are really putting our eggs in the correct basket and that what we're doing is purposeful and not just a ton of extra work to say, oh yeah, we did kindergarten camp. Um, but overall the pros outweighed the cons
and we are looking forward to doing it next year with a little bit more knowledge and experience under our belts. Um, and then we'll come back to let you know what our final decision is. Are there any questions before we like guys continue on tonight? Yeah. Um, with the honeymoon phase. Mm-hmm. Do you plan to do kinder camp a little for a little longer period next year? So I don't think we would make it any longer than those two weeks, just because we know that we do need to end up getting into, moving into curriculum. And with, as far as the, the routines,
the tricky thing was just that there are slight differences in every classroom. So they're, you know, they figured out Ms. Carr's room and now it's time to go to Mrs. How's room. And now we have a different set of things that I've gotta remember. Um, so I think for that reason, we're gonna make sure that those rotations are happening heavily during that first week, um, this year. So there are eight days total in those first two weeks of school, right? Four day weeks. Um, the first six days were spent rotating, and then the last two were kind of like our trial run. You're in your homeroom cabin, you're living a whole day. And then we were meeting as a team to kind of decide
where do we need to make changes. So I think next year, that second week, those second set of four days, that will be the, the trial run where again, we can still make changes if we need to. Um, but again, that was one of the cons that we were like trying to wait 'em out, trying to see if we could see some true colors there in that honeymoon phase. And then of course, there are just the couple that, you know, the weeks 2, 3, 4, 5, we start to kind of see, oh, there were some things that we weren't seeing those first couple weeks. But I mean, I don't wanna speak for you guys, but in the end, when you look at your classes, do you feel like we did an okay job of separating kids out? How did the parents, um, you gave them lots
of opportunities to know that this was coming. And I, I appreciate that very much. Um, still some of them might have been like, what's this in the first day? Which is always happens. Um, how did they like this new, um, Setup? So I was pleasantly surprised that there weren't tons of questions. I had a couple of families that came up at the end of the kindergarten information night and a couple families that came up at the end of the new teacher meeting or new family meeting, sorry. Um, but I didn't get tons of questions. And I do think that primarily we did most of the leg work, right? Like, parents didn't have to figure out a different supply list for each teacher.
Parents didn't have to figure out, like, 'cause that's one district would do, like Monday, you'd go to one homeroom cabin and then Tuesday you'd go to another. And we thought as a team, that's way too much. Those first couple weeks of school, they've gotta go to the exact same classroom every single day. So I think just some of the planning that we did took off a lot of that concern for parents, where the parents that had students that moved from to a different classroom, they were very aware of those changes. And had I got no pushback or, you know, issue with any of that. Um, but honestly, I think, I think we kind of carried a lot of the load. So we didn't have a ton of parents that were concerned
or upset or had tons of questions. And I, I do attribute that to just the way too much communication that I did. But I was like, we're gonna make sure that it's very clear. 'cause it's my idea. And I know if it doesn't go well, then Mrs. Floyd's to blame. So I was like, we're gonna work really hard to make sure everyone's on board Questions. I appreciate, I just have one thing. Happy birthday. Thank You so much. She Gets to do a new teacher, new teacher dinner and come to a board meeting for Her birthday. Woo. We make sure to spoil her during, I got a balloon for every single staff member today.
And they with no, no meeting as to why they just came and dropped him off. It was kind of funny. But They weren't, weren't they Bloom either. They were not sweetest day. You know, Turkey is lots of different. So I have a question. So you took, say you have a hundred kindergartners mm-hmm. And so you put 'em into groups of 25. So you kind of thought about who needs where, and then how many did you adjust from your home? So there were only four, but there was a kiddo from every single class. So there was a change to each of the homeroom cabins. There Was only one student that at each clinic in,
and they had to make an adjustment. Yep. So you did pretty good. Yeah. Which is part of why we wanted to see it in another year where we might not have as many awesome combinations of kiddos because this year we, we did say like, well, knock on wood, we got a little bit lucky here where we had just a little bit less of that oil and vinegar kiddos that just like, who do not mix. Right? And so you really lost one, lost one week of your typical mm-hmm. Classroom. Yep. And we worked with the curriculum department to make sure that they knew that Anderson was gonna be doing this. Um, two of our teachers up here are piloting HMH.
And so they were worried just at first about like, we don't wanna be behind everybody. Um, but thankfully Jenna supported this and was totally okay with them taking those first two weeks, not touching h mh until we were done, which was awesome. So it was nice to just have that, that shared value in what we were doing across the district. Sounds like a great success. Yeah. Thanks. Are stepping up and Oh, yeah. And Taking a chance on that. Thanks for letting me take the chance. What about the, the camaraderie of your team? Do you feel like as a group you've gotten to know each other better or understand or share?
Um, things? I think that's a really valuable Thing. I feel like we've worked really well the last few years. And then adding Alicia, we brought her in and we've kind of taken her in and we just, we all bounce ideas off of each other and it helped. And I, I do, I personally know about 95% of the kindergartner's names. I love that. Like, and I love, they come up on the playground and they see us and they're like, my kids come up to Kaiser and they're like, hi, miss Kaiser. Like, they're just excited to see all of us. So it's, it's been nice to see. Good Job. So classroom six is no longer, what
Do you think, Ms. Tanya, you're in there. Thank you so much. Good job guys. Thank you. Okay, next 4.02 National Merit semi. Yeah. Well, it's a great pleasure that I get to present other 4 25, 26 merit. Hold my, no, not So excited. Um, When, um, we'll introduce each of you separately. So when you're college, you'd come to the podium with your parents and introduce them to our board before I share your accomplishments. And once all four of the students have been recognized,
we're going to ask you to join Dr. Alward and our board members for a presentation of a certificate and a group photo. Okay. So let's start with a little understanding of what it takes. What's the criteria to earn this prestigious distinction? Our students had to be several high standards. First, they had to take the PSAT and score among the highest ranking students in the entire state. Semi-finalists represent less than 1% of all US high school students, seniors beyond that single test score, they had
to maintain an outstanding academic record, secure a recommendation and endorsement from Principal Fright, and submit an essay detailing their leadership and involvement in both our school and our community. Our summer finalists now await the spring announcements to see if they advance to become finalists and merit scholars, which qualifies them for scholarship money and for, for college. So let's start with our first semi-finalists, which is Connor Burton. Do you come up with your parents? Oh, sorry. Mistake. It's okay. And Connor, if you introduce your parents.
Uh, this is my dad, Brian and my mom Amy. Nice to meet you. Connor's achievements include a 4.2 GP, a National Honor Society member and a college board National recognition award winner. He plans on pursuing a career as a creative director in video game development. His activities include being the co-captain of the Grand Blanc High School debate team. Congratulations Connor. Thank you. Our second semifinalist is Vivian Lee, introduce your proud parents. Hello. Um, I'm Vivian. This is my mom Chin
and my dad Hang Vivian's accomplishments include the Pres Presidential Service Award, a hundred plus of community Service National Honor Society member AP Scholar with distinction. Vivian would like to study medicine in the area of molecular, cellular and developmental biology at the University of Michigan. Vivian's activities include member of the ha, excuse me, future health professionals co-president of the Asian Club, co-founder and co-president of Historical Event Reenactment Club,
her Hurley Hospital Volunteer and Family Business China. Jade. Congratulations Vivian. Thank you. Our third semifinalist is a but Ali, this Abbi, can you introduce your parents please? Um, hi. This is my dad van and my mom Ika Navin has accomplishments include two time varsity tennis MVP top 16 internationally at the Health Occupational Students of America First place and anatomy at the Science Oly State Tournament.
Naveen aspires to study neuroscience or public health at John Hopkins University to pursue a career as a pulmonologist or neurologist. Naveen's activities include captain of the varsity tennis team, member of the National Honor Society, and a member of the science. Congratulations. My last of my finalist is stead. This introduce. Good evening everyone. Uh, this is my dad, Pravin. This is my mom. You Right. Accomplishments include placing fourth at the 2025 International Science
and Engineering Fair publishing Breaking Biology, a book about biology from a visual perspective. Founding the Science Olympiad at GPI high school and winning first place at the 2025 Science Olympia Competition. He also initiated the Ana Mage team at Grand Blanc High School, which geared first place at the competition in both 2024 and 2025. IC aspires to be a physician scientist working at the intersection of scientific research and practicing medicine.
He hopes to eventually teach the next generation of medical students RFIC plans to attend Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. He is also interested in the University of Michigan and Duke University. Congratulations, If You please come forward with your, with the board and Dr. Ward will present their certificates and we'll get a picture. Come on. Come on. Deep breath. So how do you usually we do turn around. There's so many of us. You go that We're good. All right. Ready? Three, two, time one.
And then stay so your parents can get a picture. Yeah. Don't nobody move. You guys can go up there. Absolutely. Such a Proud, I can click. It's fine. Okay. Next up is 4.03 Student government Report. Jesse, Wait. Is after, oh, sorry, what I do now? No, it's my call. Okay, go ahead Jen. Well, Good evening everyone. Um, with the school year in fall swing, the high school has been very busy in multiple different ways. Uh, students from the music conservatory in Gras, Austria visited the high school band orchestra on Tuesday the 15th.
Chamber orchestra students acted as hosts and the visiting students shadowed them for the day to see what an American high school was like. They ate lunch together and then the visitors gave a short comment before they left. Uh, the NNHS blood drive did successfully take place on September 26th. The program surpassed their goal of, uh, 43 units. Each unit equaling one pint. They collected 47 units in total, which is roughly seven gallons of blood. The program typically gets a lower, uh, sets a lower goal in the fall than the spring because they get less donations in the fall. However, the blood drive,
who was just here said they did reach a lot more people outside of NHS was, which was also one of their goals. Um, and the second blood drive of the year will take place at in on a Friday in February. The exact date has not been decided on. Um, powder puff is in full gear with practices happening for the past week. The game will be this Wednesday the 22nd. Uh, at seven on the dawn. The theme was decided as sleeping beauty with the seniors wearing blue and juniors wearing pink. Um, and all the proceeds will go towards the class
of 2026 as prom. Girls golf had a great season this year. On the 30th of September, they placed first at the SVL Championship and Frank and Moth with six top 10 individuals. Uh, Maria Beyer placed second Sidney Hartman placed sixth Riley Chu played seventh, placed seventh. Emily Mack placed eighth and Kate Rosenberg and Emily Raul tied for 10th. Um, October 8th, they played at Dunham Hills Golf Club in Heartland. And the team placed first at the regional with three top 10 individuals.
Maria Byer, again, Sydney Hartman and Emily Mack. And this past weekend, the team went on to states at, uh, the Meadows at GVSU and they ended up placing seventh, uh, boys tennis. Also finished seventh, uh, second in the SVL with Naveen Ali and Max McCormick, making first team for the SVL and Zalen Holden and ti making second team. This year, the boys soccer team tied for the SVL with powers with multiple people making first team for the SVL. Uh, that would be Raymond Gregory Sonnel, Dane Feld,
Brody Harris, and Brody Harris. And for second team was Gabe Show. And Jackson Lloyd was an honorable mention, uh, with the card marking period ending this Friday and the football team winning SVL over Davison last Friday. Everyone is settling very nicely into this high school year. Thank you. Any questions for vie? Did she say seven for the powder puff game? What time? Yes. Seven Wednesday. And I heard that the Austrian students were able to stay for the football game the next day. Oh yeah. They, they were here Thursday and then were able to stay.
For what? A what a Oh Yeah. They picked a great weekend and they wanted grand blank swag. So we got with Hilton screeners today and they all got sweatshirts, like sweatshirts. So I, I have a picture. I'll share em with the Board. I talked to them after the game. They were a little bit overwhelmed. It was a great day. We're having a great day. You have to make sure that they know that it's not always. Awesome. Thank you. Okay, moving on to 4.04, audit presentation. Thank you. Um, before you have, um, plant Moran, our auditing firm, we have Chris Geck, who is partner
with Plant Moran and Jake Scully, who is our lead auditor, um, here to present the financial results for 24 25 finally. So I'll just kick it off to them. Alright, thank you. Uh, happy to report, uh, once again this year, a series of clean audits. So congratulations. Um, I'll walk through the results here on this slide. Um, first up is the financial statement audit. So we issued an unmodified opinion, which is the highest form of assurance an auditor Ken opine on a set of financial statements. Uh, there were no internal control deficiencies identified.
We have to look at internal controls as part of our testing as well. And everything was cleaned from that perspective, uh, and no instances of non-compliance were detected. So that's something we also have to look for in a governmental entity audit. Uh, for federal awards, we tested, uh, the programs of special education in Title one this year. Uh, those are tested on a rotational basis. Uh, clean audits, uh, for both of those programs, though, I will say one caveat. Uh, typically the compliance supplement, the federal government issues on an annual basis is published in May. Uh, that has not yet been published. And so we cannot issue the final results
yet of those audits. Um, but our testing to date, um, would identify no issues, no compliance issues, and no internal control findings for both the federal programs. Uh, we also test the bond and sinking fund, uh, expenditures from a, a compliance perspective on an annual basis. Uh, those expenditures were spent in accordance with state law and bond ballot language. So again, clean audits, appreciate the business office's help and, uh, getting through those procedures. And all the books and records were, uh, very organized and everything was, uh, provided to us on a very, very timely basis this year. Uh, moving forward, we'll get into some
of the specifics on the, the figures and the financial statements. Uh, so on this slide, uh, we're looking specifically first at the general fund, which is the primary operating fund of the school district. Uh, total revenue of just over $104.3 million. Uh, net increase in fund balance of just under $1.6 million, uh, bringing end of year fund balance to just under $33.4 million. Now, one important thing to note in the general fund that that fund balance at the end of year, um, that is broken down into a couple different categories. You don't see it on this slide, but it's on the balance sheet in the financial statements. Um, of that total amount of $33.4 million, uh,
700,000 is considered nons spendable. That's cash that went out the door in fiscal 25 to prepay for expenditures. It'll hit the budget as an expenditure in fiscal 26, uh, 6.6 million. The largest, uh, amount is assigned to fill the budget for fiscal 2026. So the board adopted a, uh, budget in June of 2025. That plan to use about 6.6 million of fund balance to balance the budget. And so that's an assignment of fund balance at June 30 to use it to fill that, uh, that plan deficit spend for fiscal 26. Uh, there's an assignment as well for $1.5 million
that's assigned for future wage increases for staff. A $700,000 assignment for future technology upgrades to be covered by the general fund. And that leaves about $23.9 million of that total fund balance unassigned. So that's the remaining amount that's not earmarked for those very specific purposes that I mentioned. Uh, the debt service fund, that's a, uh, restricted fund that collects a property tax levy that's, uh, restricted, uh, legally to be used only for those principal and interest payments on the district's outstanding bonds. And so that fund balance at the end of the year is just under $3.3 million.
Again, though those funds are legally restricted to be used for only those debt service requirements. Uh, next slide. We're we're gonna switch gears and, um, highlight the capital project funds specifically. So the first two funds on this slide are your bond funded capital project funds. Uh, the, the leftmost fund there, the, uh, 2024 Series three, uh, has $9.7 million of fund balance at June 30th, 2025. Um, again, that fund balance is legally restricted to only be spent on, uh, the capital projects that are allowed for based on the ba, the ballot language and also state law.
Again, we test those expenditures on the sample basis and had no instances of not no instances of noncompliance this year. Uh, the 2022 Series two was fully spent at June 30th, 2025. So you'll see that zero, uh, remaining fund balance at June 30th, 2025. And then the middle there is the sinking fund. So again, the revenue in that sinking fund is collected from that, uh, voter approved, uh, property tax millage, uh, for the sinking fund. Uh, increase in fund balance this year, about 851,000, uh, fund balance of just under, uh, $4 million.
Again, legally restricted fund balance as well. Those dollars can only be spent, um, in accordance with state law and the bond language for the sinking fund expenditures. Last fund on this slide is the athletic complex fund. It's a, a newer capital projects fund for the district, uh, that was created for the purpose of maintaining the athletic facilities here at the district. Uh, total fund balance that's set aside, uh, for those purposes. Uh, just under $2.3 million at June 30th, 2025. Uh, last slide that kind of covers the, the revenues, expenditures and changes in fund balance, uh, of the district's funds is the special revenue funds.
Uh, the district has three. So there's the Children's Garden Fund that, uh, covers primarily the preschool activities of the district, uh, that had revenue of just over a million dollars. Uh, overall increase this year of just over 150,000, uh, end of year fund balance, just over 1.4 million. Again, those dollars to be used just to run the preschool program here at the district. And that's what those dollars are committed for in that fund balance. The food service fund is a fund that all districts are legally required to have, both by state and federal requirements. Uh, the revenue in that fund is primarily
federal and state grand dollars. There are some, uh, cash collections that happen in the building with food sales, but a lot of that's primarily state and federal dollars. Um, the fund balance in this fund, just over $1.1 million. Um, again, legally restricted though there's, uh, requirements to only use that fund balance for the benefit of the food service program. Uh, so districts are, um, prohibited from using those funds and transferring them from other funds. That's both in accordance, again, with federal and state requirements. Last special revenue fund is the student, uh, school activities fund. This is primarily the, the student groups and clubs, uh,
and the dollars that they raise and, and spend and, and have the fund balance for those purposes. Um, total fund balance of just over $1.4 million for those, uh, groups and organizations at the end of the year. Question on that. Yeah. So revenue is 2.5, expenditures 2.5. Mm-hmm. So we are spending about what we're taking in That's correct. For this year. That's correct. And that's, that's been one of our goals as a board make. That's correct. Happening. Lovely. Thank you. Alright, I'll turn it over to Jake. We're gonna cover some of the highlights of the revenues
and expenditures specifically now for the general fund. So the slide here focuses on just revenue and other financing sources of approximately $105 million in the general fund. This slide is presented based on revenue by its source, the greatest portion at 80% being state funding. State funding includes the state contribution towards the foundation allowance, which we'll look a little bit closer at on the next slide. Other restricted categorical amounts such as retirement contributions that are passed directly from the state and then remitted right to the retirement system, um,
include 1 47 C one and C two. In those grants alone, the district received about $6 million that was recorded as revenue, but then remitted directly to the retirement system and recognized as an expenditure. So no impact on fund balance. Federal revenue in the general fund includes all federal grants. Aside from, um, grants received for the Child Nutrition program, which is recognized in the food service fund, federal revenue was 4% of the total revenue in the general fund. Now, I remember too, like this year, your, uh,
federal revenue's a lot lower than it has been in the last several years. So most districts have spent down, um, mostly at the end of fiscal 24, most of their eser dollars. Uh, some districts had a little bit, that's still trickled in through the beginning part of 2025. Um, so, you know, the federal revenues a lot lower than historically has been the last four years, and that's true for all districts in Michigan. The last bit of revenue in the general fund is local revenue. About 16% of the total. And the most significant portion of this local revenue relates to local property tax collections on non-homestead properties. Moving into another revenue slide
that focuses on general fund revenue, but presents it a little differently this time. Um, if it focuses based on, um, Largest component of general fund revenue, which is foundation allowance. So foundation allowance is the amount the school receives as revenue on a per pupil basis. This amount set by the state for 2025 was $9,608 per student. The district has two student count days, and for 2025, these were in October and February, 2024. The count is weighted 90% October and 10% February.
And this resulted in a seven, 7569.74 blended student count for 2025. The foundation allowance revenue, therefore was 71.7 million or approximately 68% of total revenue. And the foundational allowance is received from two sources. One being property tax collections of 1,718 per student and state funding of 78 90 per student. All right, the next slide here, switches, focus now to expenditures in the general fund for 2025.
In total, those were approximately $103 million. Um, this is focused on the function code level of reporting, which is a required level of reporting following state requirements. Majority of expenditures are spent in the function of instruction and instructional support. So that totaled about 71% of total expenditures for the year. And overall percentage breakdown was, was consistent with 2024 allocations. No major swings there. This slide again, looks at general fund expenditures, but this time at the object code level or how the dollars were used within the function codes.
So of the total expenditures in the general fund, 77% was used for salaries and benefits. Benefits including healthcare, mips, retirement contribution, and payroll taxes. For dis, for Michigan School District, it's not unusual to see 75% or or more of total expenditures within these object codes. Typical between 75 and 80%. Um, and again, rest of the percentages were pretty consistent with prior year. All right, the, the next slide here, we're gonna focus on the pupil enrollment, uh, specifically at Grand Blank. And, uh, as we saw on the other slide, it's a, a very important input into the amount
of revenue the general fund receives. So number of students multiplied by the foundation allowance was 68% of the revenue the general fund got for, so for, for fiscal 2025. So a pretty significant amount. Uh, you can see here, there's been, there's been a decline since 2021 of, uh, enrollment. But, you know, that is not uncommon with, uh, the drop off that we saw across the state with the start of the pandemic. So statewide, uh, the state was losing about 10,000 students a year pre pandemic. Uh, that year. In 2021, the state lost about 50,000 students that really largely never returned back to public education.
So you see that drop off and you do not see the recovery. Uh, and we continue to see at most districts, the across of state two, uh, continued declining enrollment. So that's not a, a theme that's inconsistent with what we see across the, the state and, and frankly across the country as, um, overall demographics, uh, start to change a bit, uh, throughout the country. So, um, an important metrics, something to pay attention to attention to, because again, it is a big driver of the amount of revenue the general fund receives. Uh, the next slide is the fund balance. Um, and you can see here there's been, uh, some increases specifically between 2021 and and 2025.
Um, you know, one thing to, to note with that increase again, is this is a trend that's very consistent with what you would see, uh, statewide and, and largely during those years because of those one time, uh, federal ER dollars that I mentioned. So all districts received a significant amount of money, uh, during that period, um, from a federal grants perspective that, um, had a bit of flexibility in terms of how those dollars could be spent. And so you've seen districts add to their fund balance during this time period. Um, the statewide average for all general funds fund balance back in 2020 was about
15.9%. That statewide average at June 30th, 2024 went up to 25%. So you can see that 10% increase to 10 percentage points, uh, increase in fund balance, um, consistent with the increases that Grand Blank has seen as well in its fund balance. Now, what we're starting to see as well at districts, and you can see that in your, your budgeted, uh, fund balance for 2026, that now those dollars, um, are, are no longer available from a federal program perspective. Uh, districts are starting to dip into that fund balance and use that fund balance to fill holes in the budget,
which you can see, um, the planned, the initial adopted budget for fiscal 2026, which was adopted in June of 2025. Um, it was a planned use, again, of fund balance of about $6.6 million. And at the time, um, without having the unaudited, uh, fund balance yet, then the projected use of that fund balance, uh, took your projected fund balance at June 30th, 2026 for that initial budget, uh, down to $25.7 million. So again, a trend that we're starting to see pretty consistent across districts now and starting to use that fund balance that has,
uh, built up over the years. Well, that's it for the, um, prepared slides that we had. But happy to take any questions on anything you've saw in the financial statements or questions about the audit. Any questions statement? Thank you so much Yeah. For the audit and all the work you've done. And Michelle knocked out of the park again. Thank you. I just wanna thank, um, Patran and Chris's team. Um, we did a virtual audit again this year, which is becoming the theme. Um, some things we've taken away from COVID and we're not letting go 'cause we love that. And I'm sure they love not being cooped up and locked up in our training center.
So, um, it, we go through this every year and every year. It's a, it's a huge task and it takes us this long to close out a fiscal year, but when we finally do it, we can start focusing on the year that everybody else has been in for the last few months. So, um, it's, it's time to celebrate, Like you said. I'm happy Michelle is smiling. Do we need to accept this at all? Yes. Okay. I need to take a motion to accept the audit present or the audit report. Motion to accept Support. Any questions before we vote? Ms. Anderson?
Yes. Ello? Yes. Lang? Yes. Riker Young Yellen? Yes. Young? Yes. Yes. Good job boys. Um, and then you guys are welcome to, we appreciate next 4.05 14. Okay, My pleasure. To bring recommendations to the board based on our, uh, core team, which we had three of you present for that. And I know that Allison and Alex also went through this, um, with you. Lots of this information with you at the last board workshop. So I'll go through our recommendations starting with
Strategy one, strategy one, action Plan, one, professional development. We are recommending to operationalize math recovery. We want to continue to train all of our teachers, including a sustainable plan for any new teachers. And plan two to, our recommendation is to operationalize instructional coaching, including quarterly team meetings and omit reading recovery in response to our new district wide intervention and coaching model for K five ELA. Plan four is to amend diversity, equity
and inclusion to combine with mental and physical health strategy in Strategy two. And then Plan six is to omit the plan for the new entity. Co entity code at CCSS is not a standalone program in the Pinton standalone building, so they don't need a new entity code. And then Plan eight is to omit the entire plan for, um, access to elementary art instruction. Based on the pilot that we did this year, we saw a lot of, um, scheduling constraints
and decided that it was best to make that plan. So that's for Strategy one. Do you want me to go through each one and then you'll approve the recommendations? Yes. Okay. So Strategy two, character and Culture plan. One is to amend, uh, to Bobcat time for building wide activities and events. And that was based on, um, the advisory time and the contractual constraints that we had. Action plan three is to amend, as we talked about in strategy one, to combine DEI and SEL and omit behavior coaches, um, based on reduced funding
and ways that we can utilize them in other ways that aren't cost prohibitive. Strategy three, action Plan one is to operationalize our website and app. We've had one for over 25 years and it's just part of how we do things. Action Plan four is to operationalize due to the positive connections with parents, guardian staff, community and students. And then omit our parks and recreation programming plan due to the lack of offerings that we need, but continue to still promote offerings that will align with our needs. We just won't be the, the partnership.
And then Strategy four, operations and technology. Um, the one-to-one priority, um, has been a priority for the last two strategic plans. And so we want to operationalize that. It's common practice in our education. And the same would go for operationalizing the robust, robust infrastructure. Um, that's also been ongoing for two strategic plan cycles. And it's necessary for every aspect of education, including learning and student safety. Um, operationalize our print shop. That's, that's being managed very
well at our building level. Everyone seems to be very pleased with that. And the same thing with operationalizing classroom instruction. Equipment and maintenance is, this is all addressed in our 10 year technology plan. And then finally, strategy four, again, we want to operationalize all technology systems and processes as they're used regularly across departments. And it has really been a time saving measure. And also the, um, operationalizing the endpoint detection, multiple issues have been prevented through CrowdStrike and cybersecurity strike training.
And then finally omit the development of these teams of the district technology advisory team and the district technology innovative as it's embedded in all areas of our strategic plan. Um, as well as in the a CC processes, which serves all the same purpose. So there's no need to develop these one-off teams at this time. And that would conclude our recommendations. Any questions for Jody? No questions for me. I just wanna thank the teams that presented and, um, you know, it's amazing to see how much we're accomplishing and how much, um, you know,
this strategic plan is our direction. It's the driving, um, direction of the ship of our district. And, um, it's good to have that always in place and to see us progressing on the plan and make choices very carefully as to, you know, what we're operationalizing, operationalizing and, and changing and omitting. Like these aren't just done by whim. They're, they're really thoughtful and I appreciate that. So it was a really good, um, presentation and, um, I appreciate all the work
that's been being done on it. Any electronics. I just want to point out that you noticed there are three or four amends in there. And so the next step in the process is for us to hold our retreat with certain members of the steering committee. Um, but we're actually gonna be talking about taking those amendments back to the strategy team leaders so they can work on a rewrite to present in early December to the steering committee. So that'll be the next part because we'll have to approve that in December for implementation in January. I just want to clarify back on strategy three.
Um, action plan four. We have omit parks and rec programming and it's not because we don't wanna be part of it. It's because the township is running parks and rec rec right now and they don't have a need for our facilities. And we also had, like within the plan, we had positions and things that were overseeing to make sure that we were following it. It just isn't meeting our needs. They don't have to, they don't offer that. So to try and follow that plan, that's what we said, But it, but if something changes in the future,
absolutely we can partner back with them. Yeah, We'll always partner with them as far as Right. The programming. But for example, I know the pool facility, you know, the park and rec is not running programs 'cause of lack of interest, not a lack of access. Um, but we're still pursuing opportunities for how we can provide access to the community. So we don't necessarily need that, that pathway or that, that continuum of partnership for us to be able to move forward With. So including access to our Frank Thomas track mm-hmm. Access to our indoor walking track so the community can use those facilities.
Mm-hmm. Okay. Okay. Um, I just wanna say I had the opportunity to sit in on the full core team report out, um, a couple weeks ago. And, you know, I've been to several of them and that was by far the best. Lots of good information engagement from everybody. Um, really appreciate the time and effort that you, Jody, and Barb and Allison all put in to make that happen. So, and our team, We have such a great leadership team that, you know, making sure this is all happening at all those different levels. It was exciting to see us working from, like you said,
We don't, we don't wanna make quick turns because that's where we get in, into the weeds. So we're a shift and we're gonna make the right decisions with the right data. Love it. Okay. Any other questions? No, I just wanna say as a, a new member on the board, it was great sitting in on that, uh, that committee and very, very informational. Um, a lot of information actually, uh, made me kind of contemplate, oh, should I go to class? Yeah, I'll go to class. But, uh, uh, I think that it was great to be able to sit in on
that committee and, and kinda learn what exactly is happening in our schools and what we, like all of the decisions that we make kind of comes from this. And so that was great to, to learn more about that. Anything else before we go to a vote? Okay. Ms. Take. Oh, oh, sorry. Thank you Meredith. We'll take a motion to accept. I'll make a motion to, uh, per the court team report. Thank you. Support. Okay. Any questions? Okay. Ms. Anderson? Yes. Khan? Yes. Lang? Yes. Ret? Yes.
Yellen? Yes. Youngs? Yes. K. Yes. Thank you Ms. Meredith, you the, okay, number five, information reports. Um, well first off, thank you to Michelle and her team. You know, Chris always raves over our team because we start later than the other audits that he has on his caseload, but we always finish first. So he always gets through our audits first and she is always amazed 'cause she thought we started late and, but it's because of how efficient her department's organized. So, thank you Michelle. Um, I want to thank Mr.
Turnbow for tonight's event as well. 58 new employees. I know we didn't get quite to the end of the line and get to see everybody, but, um, it's a great group. We get to hear about some of the, their backgrounds and I think we hired some, some pretty good teachers and staff members this year. Um, you know, it's been a heavy couple weeks, um, in regards to just being, being here in the community with what happened at the church. I know we had the, uh, community reflection event with all of our local law enforcement, our local leaders. I thought that was well attended and,
and a good event for healing in our community. And I know, you know, with the news over the weekend of the passing a long time teacher here, um, there's a lot of hurt going on in our district right now, specifically at West Middle School. But, you know, I, and I hate to keep saying the, the old adage that you see the best of people. Worst of time. We were at West Middle School today and you wouldn't believe the response from our buildings, from all of our teachers and all of our principals for what they were doing for the staff there. It was really, it was touching. So, um, we have a great team, so I'm, I'm thankful for that.
I'm thankful for all of you and for us all being together better together. Seems to be catching on all over the place. Um, but no, it's, there's a lot of good going on right now as well. And it, you know, and on a, on a lighter note, we kicked the snot out of Davis. That was a lot of fun. And I did, you had to watch it? I did and I did put a pawn out there to our superintendent Davison. I told him, I said, didn't you say you were gonna shave your beard? And he reminded me. He didn't say that, but, but I, I do think we might play him in the playoffs on Halloween, so we'll see
Here. We'd be, we'd be here. Yeah. So we'll see what happens. Uh, but we'll get that news this weekend. So more to come. Alright. Yep. That concludes my report. Okay. Uh, happy DW to everyone. Dws, uh, started today. Um, I wasn't able to attend a game on Friday, but we won and that's the best thing that I could have heard. After two hours of laughing nonstop. Um, I comedy show. Yeah, I at A comedy shop, Um, I am so excited to have finally finished all
of my CBA 100 courses. So I am certified Board member. Um, and then finally as a proud Wolverine, I want to say that this Saturday I will be saying Go blue. Oh boy. Well I am going to say it, I am a proud Educator in Davidson, but I was happy to see Graham blank win. But the other thing, and I wanna give a shout out to the SROs because I Have heard from several Davison people as well that they thought that was super cool.
I know there were posts made on social media. Oh yeah, You're Good husband. I also looked a little scared up there, you know, it is funny 'cause the coach, the coach came up to me, she's said, this is what we want to do. And I'm like, that's great, but I'm 205 pounds with all this gear without this gear on it. I like, I don't think this girl's gonna lift me up like we got okay, do it. And they did, did fantastic job. That was really cool to see Was fun. It was a lot of fun. The relationships, it was a lot of fun building. And I know that my husband was chat GP ting some things and sending 'em to Detective Rouse for the next time.
So not cover, I'm sure. Um, I guess the other thing, just, I am not a math person nor a budget person. Don't really know how to read all of that stuff. But I have learned a lot being on the finance committee. So congrats Michelle on that clean audit also, um, she just, she can explain things to me in language that I can understand. So, um, I can teach people how to read and I do not know a lot about math. So that's about it. Um, wanted to thank Michelle and Chris and Jake and admin for the, um, the audit.
We met as a finance committee late last week and went through a little bit of a deeper dive, very much what we saw today. Um, but it's a lot of work. They have to do a lot of work with assumptions without really knowing what's going on throughout the year. And then they have to make everything come together at the end. So it's a lot. We appreciate it. Um, I appreciate you being patient and teaching me what I've learned over the last few years. Um, the football game was great, Sue the pep rally. It's gotta be an annual thing. Absolutely. It's gotta be an annual thing. Um, I thought the, the POM team and the cheer team
and the cross country team were, were fantastic. Irene has been just a tremendous support of the community and the, and the athletics. Um, I was talking to one of our admin at the game and just asked the loaded question of how have things gone tonight? And I was pleased to hear that things were pretty quiet. Kids were behaved. He said the Davidson side was top notch. So that was good to hear. Um, I'd be lying if I didn't tell you I was a little apprehensive about anything happening, but, um, that was great to hear. So a great game in the end. Um, we have the MISB conference coming up
at the end of the week that I know. Uh, we're all going to always a great time to get together with other board members from across the state. Um, continue our knowledge, uh, things of that sort so that, that'll be fun. New hire dinner was awesome. Um, so thank you Scott for putting that together. Always nice to see new, new faces. And then a quick shout out, just like Genevieve had mentioned to our girls golf team. Uh, there's 79 golf teams in division one and Grand in, uh, Michigan. They took seventh place, which is pretty darn good. So Awesome. We got team three strokes out of fifth. Three strokes out of fifth. Oh. So pretty darn good. So, and the conditions were rough too, right?
They were rough 'cause they were over in Grand Rapids, right? So on the weekends. So it was windy and rainy. Rainy and, and all that kind of stuff. So as you know, golf's a tough game, but you throw in the elements and it, it's a challenge. So girls did proud. So it's a laugh. Um, yeah, the game was very exciting. I'm glad it went well. The, uh, event that we hosted for the community. Um, a lot of PE people afterwards were like, this really helped with our healing and so appreciate everyone who worked on that. And our student speaker who did a fantastic job.
And um, um, and we had, um, we do have the conference this week. We had a Genesee County Association of school board members meeting last week, um, where we went to the GCI for a tour and they gave us a little presentation over some of the programs they offer and how it works, how they pick students, how they try to accommodate all the districts in the, um, county and their future plans with potentially building a new wing,
uh, to then increase more students, um, able to attend and do these programs. We were able to tour the facility and see a lot of the different spaces, some of the options that I didn't even know existed. They have a 9 1 1 dispatching program they just started, which is very cool. And where they work, right with 9 1 1 dispatchers on like fake calls. But, um, how they would experience that. And um, a lot of their programs end with certain certifications that they can then go right from there to use.
Um, they have a lot of, uh, medical programmings. Um, the fire saw the firehouse, which was I hadn't seen before. That was pretty, pretty awesome. Um, the welding program is a very popular one. Some, some programs definitely that we don't offer here that our students are able to, to do. A couple questions that I had. Um, I know that they love to add or to acknowledge the, the great results that their students are making in ROTC and in some of the electrical
and some of the, a lot of their programs. But my question was, well we'd love to hear it too because these are our kids attending those programs. So I'd like us to work with, um, their public communications person a little bit more, maybe give them Andrea's number so that she can better get that information to share it out. Um, because I don't, I don't know about you guys, but I don't hear a lot of what our kids are doing there. And I, I think that's important for us to be able to be aware of and share, um, on behalf of our, our kids within our, our district.
Um, another thing, you know, just making sure that the, the CTE classes that we're doing here, um, are getting the certifications that they could potentially get. They might be, I don't know, but just making sure that we're coordinating that. Um, also those opportunities for them. And I know one of the things that they're working hard on is job, um, uh, work, what was the word? Work, um, relationships with, um, local employers and just, and I know that that is definitely one
of our goals is, is, uh, to work and better establish relationships with local employers for our kids to get that work study experience before they finish our program. So, um, but it was a good, good event and we look forward to some more throughout the year. So thank you. Um, lots of random things. Um, one of the things that she just mentioned about the, the career readiness we offer. Um, I know at least in early college, and I know they've done it with some of the other groups, they offer through, uh, teen Quest doing, uh,
you work up your resume, you practice interviewing. It was one of the most beneficial things that my daughter did in high school to prepare her, uh, for the real world and for interviewing for her first job. And then the other thing is, if you go through it, um, when they host job fairs, you are then invited to them and it's, it is a great experience. It was a great way for her to get a job and also meet a lot of really wonderful people. So I love that. Um, more about two CI, I did not get to go last Thursday, but there were things that when we toured it before that I didn't know they had, they have a flight,
a flight plan where you can go learn to be a pilot there and they have simulators. Um, but it's just great for all of the kids. I have a former student right now who's there, who's texting me almost daily of this new stuff. She's learning and sending me pictures in the veteran pre veterinary program that she's in. It's just a really great opportunity for kids who know what they wanna do possibly and wanna explore it and get hands-on experience doing that. Um, I would again like to thank Michelle when I started on the board just over 10 years ago, we were making cuts, we were borrowing money
and we have come a long way and that is in large part thanks to you. So I thank you for that. Um, I wanna thank everybody who attended Core Team brought us the report. I love going to core team. I felt like I learned a lot, I knew a lot about what was going on in the district and what was going on in the schools and uh, it was just very informational. It's one of the things I miss going to, um, and last, I'd just like to thank the community for all their support with the football games, with the sports, with bringing everybody together because we are better together. And I think our community has come out and just been very supportive.
Um, it does sometimes take something sad happening to remind everyone that we really do care about this place and these people in these kids in the community. So I thank them for that. Thank you. I just wanna, um, thank Michelle for, um, having a clean audit and I just, you're so confident and I really appreciate, you know, I feel very confident in your ability to, uh, you know, have us in good financial shape so
that we have these great audits and I really appreciate it. Um, good job football team on that victory. That's totally awesome and it, I wanna welcome again all the new, uh, staff members. It was really nice having the dinner and the food was fantastic out of this world as usual. So, um, you know, I just really glad to be here and to see our community kind of coming together and supporting one another right now is so important.
So thank you. A couple things for me. Um, if you weren't at the, um, reflection that was hosted at, um, the stadium a couple weeks ago, I just wanna call out Trevor's leadership through that process and that event. Um, you did an outstanding job. There was a lot of balancing there, trying to do what's right, be respectful. We had people from levels of government there and you did an outstanding job representing Grand Blanc and, and I really appreciate that. Um, I also know that, um, our schools
have had many students who are impacted by the tra tragedy at the um, LDS church and um, I know that they've done everything they can to help bring those kids back to school and make them feel safe. Um, and that's much appreciated to the leadership from Central Office. So thank you for all that you guys have done. Um, on a happy note, I agree Yasmine that um, these things that we do on Friday nights, um, you guys all know that's a passion of mine, but it's not just about football. Um, and I just, and now that we're towards, we've gotten
through the last home game of our regular season, now we go into playoffs, we know we're gonna be in the playoffs, so things look different because it's a playoffs. So I just wanna call out the great team effort, um, that everyone's come together. Um, the police, the fire department, they've been there. We get so excited for these games and great big crowds and Ryan and Marcus are just twitching the whole time because they wanna make us safe. Um, and we don't even know all the stuff that you guys are doing and I just gotta thank you for being there.
Appreciate that. Um, appreciate the fire department from the city being there. That's just an another element and just makes it so much fun. Um, this year we've really got cheer pom marching band jiving together. Um, Austin from the marching band has done a great job bringing that collegiate field to the stadium. Um, c with the cheer team, Olivia, with the pom team, the student section there. Um, they've just done a great job coming together and, and making it a fun experience. And people think that just happens and they work really hard to make sure everybody feels a part of it.
Um, we had middle school recognition, um, on Friday and there's a lot of heavy stuff going on at our middle schools, um, with, with Jamie and everything going on, but they were there and admin had a great time. We had some kids kicking field goals. We had the girls seventh and eighth grade basketball teams getting recognized and um, we had high school softball recognized at the Homecoming. Um, we had student government pulling together, homecoming in the court. We've got Jared and Amy Dome and Carlos are there and lots of other people every Friday night making
everything work in the security. Um, the pep rally, that was Sarah Perkins's vision and I'm so happy we're able to pull it off because it, people had a good time. It and it didn't take a, it took a lot 'cause we were trying to figure it out. But we got a good base now and it's gonna be awesome. Jimmy Johns called, you know, reached out to me on Thursday nights, said, Hey, we wanna donate a couple hundred subs to pass out to people. So we got the subs and we passed those out. So, and then, um, Jeff Cushman and your grounds team, you guys never say no.
Yep. What do you wanna do? We'll make it happen. And I know that's not easy and, and what I'm trying to say, and then Dwayne going too over at Brenda because they're so close. Hey Dwayne, we need bathrooms. Hey Dwayne, I need some place to put 200 subs. Um, push my little card around. Where am I gonna put these subs so they don't go bad? Um, and and when people sit there and say, oh, the stadium's out there, the the pretty little stadium that you have, it's more than sports. It's about community.
Those Bruell kids use it, people use that and come together. The reflection, it gives us an opportunity to be a community. So I really appreciate where Grant Lake is going and making the schools and the city, the township and everyone come together. So let's do, you're a big part of that. Friday Night's life, Friday night lights, your spreadsheets Are, uh, you know, in your binder. Um, a lot of this wouldn't happen without you. And, and that's not part of your job as as school board. This is you who love it so much. And uh, so good job with that and,
and it really was an outstanding community event and we're happy to have that space be thanks to the community. Exactly. Um, so, um, great job and, and thank you also for including the cross country team as you know, being introduced, but with their parents on the, on the field as well as the running of the football. Um, that was pretty special and that was not ever done before for, uh, recognition at a big event like that. So yeah, I talked to the coach, Reggie, and he's just like, you know, the kids don't think they want recognition, but they deserve it. And the parents kind of do too. It's special to have that opportunity to walk out there
with them and they got to speak on behalf of each of the seniors over the, the pa and that was, that was really nice. So, So we hopefully we'll do more and bigger and better and better together. So, um, I appreciate everyone at that's table in the district making this a great place for our students and our community. So what are we gonna do for Halloween if we got a game? I think Kayla's got some ideas. Trick or treat statement. Okay. Um, you did your county report. We're good. We have no public comments tonight. Uh, so our next board meeting is November 3rd, workshop
and meeting on November 17th. And with that, the meeting Ajour.