Good evening. Welcome to the Monday. Am I on? Okay. Welcome to the Monday, May 18th Board of Education meeting. If we can all please rise for the pledge of 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 and justice for all. And we'll have a moment of silence, please. Thank you. Moving on to section two, recommended actions. 2.01, approval of the proposed agenda. We'll take a motion. So moved. Support.
Any changes? Okay. Ms. McDougall. Nolan? Yes. Reichert? Yes. Yellen? Yes. Youngs? Yes. Fascianello? Yes. Lang? Yes. Kish? Yes. 2.02, approval of the April 20th board meeting minutes. Madam Secretary. Yes, I have read through the April 20th board meeting minutes, and I make a motion to approve as presented. Support. Any questions, clarifications? Okay, Ms. McDougall. Nolan. Nolan? Yes. Reichert? Yes. Yellen? Yes. Youngs? Yes. Fascianello? Yes. Lang? Yes. Kish? Yes. 2.03, approval of the May 11th board workshop minutes.
Madam Secretary. I have also reviewed the May 11th board workshop minutes, and I make a motion to approve as presented. Support. Any changes? Okay. Ms. McDougall. Nolan? Reichert? Yes. Yellen? Yes. Youngs? Yes. Fascianello? Yes. Lang? Yes. Kish? Yes. Moving on to section three, consent agreement. We have two items there, sanctioning request and the rental agreement. So we'll take a motion for that section. I'll make a motion to approve. A motion and support. Any questions about the consent agreement? Okay. Ms. McDougall. Nolan? Yes. Reichert? Yes. Yellen? Yes. Youngs? Yes. Fascianello? Yes.
Lang? Yes. Kish? Yes. Okay, moving on to presentations. We have the McGrath Elementary. Katie, you are up. Hello, everyone. I'm Katie Whitenack. I am the principal at McGrath Elementary. I'm pretty excited to share some very cute poems with you here in a minute. But I did want to give you a little bit of an update. As most of you know, we're ending our state testing, and so we've gotten some of our preliminary scores. So we are trending in a very nice direction, particularly with math, which ended up being one of our goals this year. Every grade level through fifth at least made 6% growth, which was pretty exciting.
And then our reading, we got to pilot our new HMH curriculum building-wide this year, which was pretty exciting for us to hold some consistency. You'll get to see the results of that in a minute, but we have fairly good test scores in that direction as well. Our third grade made about 20% growth, so that was pretty great, and then the other grade levels were hovering around 8 to 10%. So that's been pretty fun, seeing the growth from that new reading curriculum. And I know that across the district, other grade levels are seeing something very similar to that. So that's been pretty cool. So most of you know this, but I was a teacher at McGrath Elementary
for, between Anderson and McGrath, for about 10 years. And then I went on a little tour to get some training before becoming the principal there, and I met some pretty neat people along the way. When I was working at McGrath, Michelle Hanson, who is going to come and present here with her students in just a moment, always did something called color poems every spring. And she would invite families in, and they would read those. When I went to Mason Elementary, and I was teaching with Tammy Snitko, she also did color poems. So I was able to connect them this year together, and they used the fifth grade color poems from Mason
along with the HMH curriculum to be able as mentor texts, so they could see other things throughout the district, which was pretty fun. And I wouldn't have been able to make that connection, right, had I not been along on that journey. So I'll have Mrs. Hanson come on up. She can speak to the color poem process, and then we'll have some kids come and read to you guys. Hi, good evening. My color poems started probably back my third year of teaching through a really good mentor, and I've just continued it, which has been nice. This last year, the poetry is already embedded in the
HMH, and it's throughout the unit. It's not just one unit and done. We just did some more poetry with animal habitats that the kids went over. So really all this rhythm and rhyme and using this rich vocabulary, which I really love with the HMH. And the kids are learning so much, and they're wanting to share their writing more and write more. So I'm going to let them speak to it. And I've had wonderful parent support, so thank you, parents, for coming. So I'm just going to call them one at a time to come up, if that's okay, for them to read. Should they come up here?
Move this down. Take it off. Okay. Maybe, maybe not. There we go. Got it. Yep. Okay. All right, Ms. Emily, come on up. Yeah. Oh. She can go right here. Right here? Yeah. Do you want her to face you? No. No, okay. Got it. Great. You just read from the beginning. Okay. What is purple? Purple is a hat or a purse in the world. Some people like the color purple, and some people do not. Purple is the color of being fair. I have a matching purple outfit. When I wear it, I feel cool. Purple is the color of purple flowers. Purple gives me special powers. Purple makes me happy
inside. Oh, and my backpack is purple, too. Purple is the color of being fair. Good job. Here it is. Ben. Just scooch up a little bit more. There you go. As you can see, they're all wearing their color, too. There you go. Got it? All right, bud. What is purple? I love purple because it is the color of my water bottle, of flowers, too. Purple is the color of a butterfly in the sunlight. I like the color purple because it is a color of joy,
and I love it because it is the color of a purple pen. And guess what? My name is Ben. Purple is a basketball. Purple is a soccer ball, too. Purple is strong, but it is not bright. But it has a bunch of light. Purple is a color of glasses. Purple is the color of the rainbow. Did you know? Purple is the color of my joy. All right. Jackson. You're going to do great. Happy birthday, Jackson. You all right? Come on. Let's put it down. You want me to stand here with you? You got it.
Blue, blue, it is cool. Like a wave soaring its way to shore. It's like a sky with some clouds. I like the good sizzling sounds. Blue is the color of sad. I love blue because it is cool. All right. Landon. I'm going to start crying. It's so good. Come here, closer. Oh, buddy. You need to hold it like that. Got it? What is brown? Brown is the color of Mars, and sometimes the
stars, and maybe some fancy cars. Brown is the color of the Earth and a swamp. I love when I slip into my cozy brown flip-flops. Brown is an energetic color to me. If you try, you will see. Brown is the color of Mars and sometimes the stars. All right. You did it. Kamira. Where is she hiding? Where is she? Here we go. You want to take a breath? You good? Okay. What is purple? My
sunglasses are purple. Purple is like a butterfly. Purple is like my purple XL click snap. Purple is like my sweater. My sweater glows in the night. I see a purple bird, too. I have a purple crayon. My teacher wears purple sweater like me, too. Some people have purple cups. Be careful it may erupt or fall. I can see purple flowers. Some people have
purple eyes. My sunglasses are purple, too. Annalyn. Scooch over this way a little bit more. Keep going. Keep going. Got it. What is pink? My cheeks get pink when I walk very fast. I like to walk when I'm having a blast. My favorite ring is shaped like a rose. I like to wear it again and again and again. Pink is a color of love and happiness. I love pink. All right. Good job. Blaine. Turn right here, honey. Just wait there. I got your mic right there. Right here.
Turn around. What is blue? Blue is like swimming in a pool. It feels so cool. My blanket is blue, and it makes me feel happy. When I look up in the sky, it's so blue. Oh, I'm going to walk you there. Blue is the best color. Blue makes me happy. Blue is the color of water. Blue is a cool, cold color. Blue is the color of the sky.
Blue is the color of tears and sometimes fears. Blue is the color of a T-shirt. Blue is the color of the ocean. Blue is the color of a backpack. All right. That's it for our poetry and our- Very good job. Wow, excellent. As you can see, I think it's pretty neat that we can use our current new program coming up, but we can still keep some of those old traditions alive, which was pretty neat to see this year. Thank you. I'm giving this guy up. We might have comments or questions from the board. Oh. I personally would love the kids to come back up and just tell us their names and
what grade they're in. They're all in the same grade, right? They're all in the same class. Okay, same class even. Perfect. All second grade. All second grade, and then we can even take a picture- Yep ... and ask them any other questions we've got. Okay. All right. Figured it out. Sorry. Congratulations, by the way. Thank you. Thank you. All right. They can come up together. Just bring them up in a line right there. That'd be great. That'd be a great way. Yep, right there. That's good. That'd be perfect. I don't need those, by the way. No. I don't know if they want to be here or there. Yeah. You want to move closer? Go ahead. You mind making a line, and then we'll have them spin around when they get done. I'm sorry, what? Just have them make a line this way. Okay. There you go.
There we go. So we can see all their faces. There we go. There we go. Hi, everybody. Hi, my name is Journey. Hello, my name is Jackson. Jackson. Hi, my name is Analin. Hi, my name is Emily. Hi, my name is Blaine. My name is Camara. Hi, my name is Landon. Hi, my name is Ben. Awesome. Good to see you. Good job. Did some of you tell your parents to wear the same color that you're wearing today, too, so that they can match? That was smart thinking. I like the coordination. That was excellent. Any other questions? No. I am very proud of you, though, for coming up and speaking in front of a room
full of adults. That's brave. Yeah. I love your poems. Excellent job. And your pictures, too. Can you turn them around, actually? We weren't able to see the pictures on there, too. Wow. Very good job. Really great. So we have pink, brown, purple, and blue. Purple seems to be the winner. Oh, blue? Yeah. Blue is a good popular one. Purple's the winner this year. Blue's my color. They look like they might be ready for third grade almost. Yes. They are definitely. Okay. You want to do a picture? You can turn around, look at your parents and- Okay. You're going to get me. There. You'll
be right there. Thank you. So at this time, if our McGrath families would like to head out, it's not pouring out there, so you won't get drenched like some of us did earlier this evening. And so, we'll take a little pause, and then we'll get back started with the meeting. I just have to point out a feat of engineering that I expected the engineerd's to take over this whole room, but you managed to get them all back in that corner
to accommodate the McGrath. That is a feat in itself. Great job. Okay, moving on to 4.02, our varsity robotics team. Who wants to kick us off? Like, shh. Talk in the podium. Hi. Hello. Thank you for having us. My name is Brandy Bollinger. Clinton Bollinger. And we are the two lead mentors for the Grand Blanc High School Varsity and Junior Varsity robotics team. With us, we have a lot of our mentors and our students here tonight. So we have a short presentation prepared that I'll have some of our students, our two team captains, Eric and Aiden, present for you tonight. But a quick overview. This is our team's 19th
season. We have been with the team since the team started in the fall of 2007. So some of you in this room may have been here. I know Marty is one that has been here since our very first robotics demonstration ever was out in the parking lot here at the Perry Center. So this was our winningest season that we have ever had in the history of our program. And we are just here today to let our students celebrate their accomplishments in front of all of you for Grand Blanc Community Schools who have made this possible for us. Okay. Sorry. I didn't
understand. There we are. I'm Aiden Murdock. And I'm Eric Moffitt. And as Brandy said, we are the two team captains for the Engineerdz. Someone else has to do it. Yeah. Isn't there a... It's the- Oh, it's right there. Thank you. So every year, there's a new game for every season, and in typically the first Saturday of January, all of the first teams learn what it is. This year, for the first time, we actually hosted our own kickoff event at one of the Grand Lake schools.
So we met in the lecture hall of West Middle School, so we were able to then spend the day learning what the game entails, finding strategies, discussing design priorities, and then we worked together to further understand the game manual. All right. The next thing we would like to talk about is the Michigan Advocacy Conference that we attend for the past two years. It is held in October by a group called the Student Association for STEM Advocacy. And a group of us this year, seven students, along with our mentor, Brandy over there, attended this to talk and find out more
about Section 99H, which is a funding bill that goes through the school aid fund to help competitive robotics programs. Brandy was even the keynote speaker at this event for the past two years, teaching all the students as well as all the other mentors there exactly what goes into this funding, how to apply, what the inner workings are, and trying to make sure that everyone is on a footing where they can make the most out of this funding. We know that for us, this funding is deeply important, and we know that that is true for teams all over the state. Oh, me again. So another thing we'd like to talk about is our program with IRHS, which is the
International Robotics Honor Society. This is our second year having a chapter, and this year we will have three graduating students with these honors. It has definitely been a challenge. Creating this, we were the second team in the state to create a chapter, and we joined many other teams across the globe that have a recognized chapter of it. Through this program, we ensure that students are not only coming to robotics and not only having fun there, but also celebrating their academics as well as their community service. We require that students have a minimum of a 3.5
GPA to be in line with the NHS standards, as well as a requirement for a 16 service hours to be completed over the course of a June to May season across two different STEM-based community service projects that our team is involved with. This includes the community cleanups that we have attended throughout town, making sure that we clean up the trash on the side of the road, or events like hosting
a VEX event at the high school, ensuring that other students from other teams can come here and not only have fun, but see the efforts that they have put in throughout the season with their VEX robots. Another program that we have with the team and with Grand Blanc is that all of our students, after one full season of the varsity program, they receive a varsity letter. This helps our students receive more recognition for the hard work that they have put in and allows them to feel more rewarded for what they have
done. We give each student a varsity letter during our annual NFC Houston Banquet and Awards Ceremony. And so overall, this year, our robot was Momentum. Each year, you get a game at the beginning of January, like Aiden had said, and you spend six weeks between developing, programming, prototyping, all of it. You have six weeks to create a fully functioning robot. And so this year, throughout our strategic design process, our prototyping progress, and just all of the different efforts that we do throughout the year, we are able to not only make a
robot that we were proud of, but a robot that ended up showing off our efforts on the field with wins and banners and all of that. Just want you to tap on it. If you want to. So You can start. So at our first event, Mount Pleasant, we had some struggles in matches with our robot. This was our first competition with the new robot, and because of that, there were a lot of things that we needed to work through. Despite that, we were still able to win the event, and then we also received the Excellence in Engineering award, which is
the second highest award you can receive, second or third, and it's the highest robot award you can receive. So our second event was the week three of competitions at Kearsley High School, and we were fortunate enough to end up ranking number one at the end of qualifying matches, and we were able to, with that, get the first pick of who we wanted to be on our alliance. That then led us to being able to play really well in the playoffs and end up winning the event. And one other thing that we did at this event was we presented for the Impact Award, which is the
highest award that you can get in FIRST. You have to create a whole presentation, you have to give it to the judges in under seven minutes, and provide documentation of a sustained impact on your community that lasts longer than just one season. This event was the first time that we have won this award since it has been an official award under that name, and it definitely meant a lot to everyone on our team to not just get an award, but to see the efforts that we have done in our community be reflected in the robotics program and have everyone in that
event be able to see a video that we put together that showcases not only Grand Blanc Schools, but also the efforts that we do with the school and in our community. After the Kearsley event, we then went during, I believe, week seven is the district championship. At the state championship, there is rather than the typical 40 teams, there is, I believe, 160 teams that attend the state championship split into four different fields. There, we were able to win our field, which is
effectively its own event, and then make our way partially through the elimination bracket of the full championship. You want the cricket? Oh, yeah. And so that set us up to head to Houston, Texas for the world championship. At the world championship, similar to states, there are more than one field. At worlds, it is eight fields with almost 80 teams per field, so you're competing against almost double the teams that you were every single other event, and you're all fighting to be in that top eight qualifying and then to play through playoffs if you get chosen.
We were lucky enough to be a part of the third-ranked alliance, and we managed to get through playoffs, never losing a match. We only lost two matches during our qualifications, and then like I said, we went undefeated in playoffs, which meant that we were then able to win our division for the first time in team history at the world championship this year. Which is 18 years. Correct. So yeah, for the first time in 19 years. We are also winners of the Gracious Professionalism Award, which is an award that celebrates one of the core principles of FIRST, which is gracious professionalism. Basically being always professional while also helping other
teams. You're not just competing against them, you're also working with them. Even if you're against somebody in a match, you still would help them with a robot if they needed it because you want to play people at their best, and you want to make sure that everyone has an equal opportunity. After we won our division, we went on to the playoffs that they have, where the winners of the eight fields play each other in a field called Einstein's. We were able to win one of the matches that we did play, which was in the lower bracket, which meant that we did rank sixth overall out of eight teams. That's it. So there's roughly 3,700 teams globally, and you were
the next sixth grader. So, wow. Thank you all so much. Yes. Do you have any questions? Go ahead, Kelly. Well, I just wanted to say congratulations, and that we are very proud of you. I think you had some big wins, but what I love the most is that grace and professionalism. It just speaks to your character, and that is amazing. So thank you. We have a group chat, and we were chatting about your competition. A lot. We were like, "They're up next." And that says a lot. I think you've brought excitement to
this field, to STEM in general. You are amazing leaders in the buildings and representatives, and we're so proud of all of you and your commitment because it is a huge commitment, and we know that. And you're doing this with all the other stuff that you do as well. So we're just so proud of you, and I hope you're proud of yourselves. Thank you for representing Grand Blanc High School, Grand Blanc Community Schools, your community of Grand Blanc globally in such a positive, good way. We just can't
say how proud we are of you guys, of all of you. So thank you. Thank you so much. That really means a lot. One of the things with our team is we're always trying to get recognition within our community, within our schools, and so being able to hear you say that definitely means a lot. Ryan. A couple things from me. I appreciate the hospitality in Kearsley. I know some of us came to Kearsley to watch Honestly, it was my first event, but I learned a lot on how scoring happens, because I was sitting there in past events and going, "Okay, who wins and how does this whole thing work?" But what struck me is just how engaged and how kind that you guys were.
Helping other schools whose robots came disassembled, putting them together, was just, again, the professionalism award, the accolades. But I know that doesn't go unnoticed without the help of the mentors and the community partners at Premier. What is it? Premier Engineering or Premier- Premier Tooling ... Tooling. You guys have that space. You have that partnership that allows you to do what you do and be as successful as you are. So congratulations to all of you. Well-deserved, but congratulations to you and the community partners that make it
happen as well. So I know we want to get you some more recognition. We'll work on that, but keep doing what you're doing. It'll come. Thank you very much. Just to echo everyone else, I want to say congratulations. I know myself, Mrs. Reichert, Mrs. Youngs, and I think Mr. Yellen as well, were at your presentation of Momentum. And to be able to see that machine, that all that hard work that you put into it in motion for its unveiling, it was truly wonderful, and I'd love it if we could have a board meeting where we can have
Momentum come and shoot some balls or something and... Is it here? Wait, there's more. Oh. Okay, perfect. You said you have three graduating students from your IRHS program. Are they here? Can we congratulate them? Yes. So, the three students are Gavin Corkins, Lily Lu, and myself. Well, congratulations, you three, on making it, and for coming even though your last day was last week. So, thank you guys for coming and congratulations again. Thank you so much. And with what you said, I would like to invite everyone here to, after your guys' meeting is over,
we have our robot as well as things like our documentation and all our awards that we have earned over the season over in the gym, and we would love to put on a demonstration for you all. Awesome. Brian, did you have something? Yeah. I really was impressed by your work, and what I would love to see is a video of those six weeks that you spent making that robot. I don't know if that's proprietary-type confidential stuff, or is it- It's in the works. It's a big undertaking to take- Yeah ... six weeks and turn it into a couple of minutes. Sure, yeah. So Lily, who you just met, is our photography section leader.
She's been working on that for us. Okay. We usually don't-- Because the proprietary, usually during that build season, we're kind of private about what we do. Not that we don't let other teams come into our facility. If you need me to talk in the mic, I don't know if you need me for recording purposes. We don't try to hold that back from people. If other teams need help and assistance during the season, they can come in and see our robot. It's not like we cover it up. But we do try to save the robot for the reveal for all of our partners that provided funding and support to build the robot. They're the ones that get to see it first.
So we try to hold that true so that they get the first reveal of it. It's kind of like an automotive company, they show it once it's completely done. But we do try to create these through the season videos to try to be a sum of the whole season. So we'll work on trying to do that and make sure you guys get a link to that. Awesome. Well, I just got to say, Marty started me on this robotics journey when I joined the board, and Marty kept us up to date very well. So I knew a little bit more going into this season, but what I love about the robotics team is it takes so many different
sections. Well, you call them sections? And so when I'm talking to people, they see the drivers, "Oh, they got to put together the robots." No, you're doing scouting to see who you want to be on your team. You're doing the marketing, you're doing the photography, and all these things that go into it. And the team, the collaboration, that's what you need in the real world. When you go out to a job, you need all those people. You just don't need the drivers or the people turning the wrench. So I love that this gives you all the opportunity to see that when you're still here in high school, because you're getting real-world experience
that you're going to take to the next level, and it's amazing. And I was glued to my TV when and I kept texting Marty, "Marty, what's going on?" The selection for your teams, your alliances, that was nerve-wracking for me. Was it for you guys? No. Okay. I'm like, do they just know they're going to get selected? So that was kind of crazy, but can't be more proud of you guys. I really appreciate it, and we're looking forward to seeing the demo later. Do you have anything? Well, yeah, we have a couple things. So, first off, I'm not a statistician, but when you start talking 3,000 plus teams and you guys are sixth, I think that's not
even the 99th percentile. I think it's like the 99.5 percentile. So there's not much room for improvement, but I know you guys are always looking to improve. But we're definitely proud of you all, and I know we were fortunate to get the support of the recent bond proposal, and we're going to have some capital improvements across campus, and we know that we're looking to earmark some space for a robotics competition field for you all to have a proper place in-district to work on the robot. I don't know if we can replicate
the access of some of the tools and things you have at Premier Tooling, but I know we've talked a little bit about career and tech ed programming, some of the opportunities we have during the school day with CNC manufacturing, and it's exciting part of our future, and you guys are a big part of that. We appreciate you all being here in the gym. I know the board's kind of surprised. That's one of the surprises for you tonight. And it loses a little bit of context when you don't have their robot to compare to another robot. So if you were at Kearsley, the game this year was shooting
balls. And there were some robots at Kearsley, and I'm sure some other competitions, where they shot balls. That is not our robot. You're talking 50 to 100 all in five seconds. So it's pretty impressive. But we are deeming Friday as Cool to be a Nerd Day at the high school. I know that Mr. Frey and his team are working on that, ways to promote the program. And then I also want to announce publicly tonight that the Enginerds are going to be the grand marshals in the upcoming homecoming parade. So that means you seniors have to come back. Yeah. Because it's your homecoming.
So the kids, you guys might not get to ride in the car. That might be more for the adults. We might want you to supervise the robot on the road while you go along. And I'm not sure about throwing balls at the little kids on the side. We got to work through some logistics. But we're really excited to have you out in front of the homecoming parade for the community to celebrate your accomplishments. So congratulations. Thank you. And I just want to say thank you mentors, lead mentors, but there's a lot behind the scenes. And you guys have been with them through a lot and really appreciate your support because we know our kids are successful when adults
and parents are behind them and making them successful as well. So thank you so much for all your time and effort. To add to that real quick, actually. Sorry if we're taking up more time. Every year with FIRST, a team has an option to nominate what they call a Woody Flowers nominee. This award I heard the sigh. This award is meant to celebrate a leader and a mentor that does not only show up, but they provide unique experiences to kids, and they are the ones who embody the ethos of one of the founding members of FIRST, Woody Flowers, who was just very much
a, how would you- Just a leader among- Yeah ... an educator of robot labs, yeah. Educator of kids and mentors alike. And this year, we actually nominated Brandi Bollinger to be our Woody Flower nominee just to celebrate all the work that she does, both in and out of robotics, and has done for the last 19 years of our team. What? Oh, go ahead, Amy. My question, I just wanted the graduating seniors just to introduce themselves. And my question is, you've been involved in all of this, and I was just curious,
has this lit a spark for your future plans? Are you planning on doing anything with robotics or engineering after you graduate? So I guess I will start. I've been involved in the program for three years now. Going into it, I had no clue what I wanted to do on the team at all. However, I would say that over the last three years, I have gotten to experience every single aspect of the team, from doing community outreach to working with other students on building things that actually score the game piece, to every single other
aspect. It led me to a point where I was deciding between colleges, and I applied for aerospace engineering as well as colleges for aviation. And so it was one that helped me find my interest in both of those. Even though I'm not now going into a field in engineering, I've still found a great appreciation for it. I have learned lessons that will carry on throughout my life. And overall, I would say that I've learned more than that, though. I've learned aspects from the community outreach, how to talk to people, how to celebrate with others, and just share my knowledge with others.
My name is Gavin. I was our lead programmer this year. And how this team has really impacted me is giving me a platform. Before I joined the team, I did not have a great way to express my abilities with programming and software engineering. But by joining the team, I was able to be who I am and really give myself a hobby to work on and improve my skills and my technical abilities. And through also working with the early college, next year I am attending University of Michigan-Flint for a year, then I would like to go to Michigan Technological University and continue a degree in software engineering. And I am so thankful for my three years on the team, for everything I've learned,
for all the techniques, and all the experience I've gained that will help me in the future. Hi, I'm Michael Coleman. I've been doing FIRST Robotics for eight years, and I've been on this team for four years. On my probably seventh year, I decided completely that I was going to go to college for either civil or mechanical engineering after almost fully integrating myself into the CAD side of this robotics. In all of these years, I've been grateful to learn a lot of the techniques that we've used, especially innovation and other more
things about life that the Enginerds have provided me. Especially one that's hit me a little bit more as everything is scrap, it's just a matter of when, which can be applied to more than just robots. Hi, I'm Weston. I was the shooter section leader on the team. This is actually my first year overall in robotics. I knew I wanted to do engineering for a while, and I've been backed up with a bunch of other stuff before this year. And finally, this one got me to join. Great year to join. But I learned so much more than I thought I knew.
I did the engineering class with Mr. Padgett for the first three years of high school, and so finally I got out of it and I was like, "I'm going to do more." And so I joined the robotics team. It helped me fine-tune skills, it helped me learn a lot with working with peers and teamwork and helping other students learn, and it was a great experience. I'm very appreciative of it. Hi, my name is Lily Lu, and this is my fourth year on the team. I'm the photography and social media section leader, so I was able to use my
skills in art because my passion is being creative and stuff. But for this team, I don't think I will ever find myself speaking to every one of you because I was pretty nervous and really shy when I first started. But with the team, I was able to go through leadership. So it made me more confident to able to talk to every one of you, and then for our design reviews and stuff. I'm going to go to the University of Michigan for either chemical or environmental engineering, and I don't think
without this team I was able to figure out what I want to do. So yeah. So they want us down in the front. I think we go ahead down to the gym. Okay. And we'll meet you down there. Join you shortly. All right. Thank you all so much. Thank you so much. Thanks for the job. Talk of the world of cameras. Already. Oh no, make them jingle bells. All the jingle, right? Yeah. Okay, moving on to 4.03, district nurse update. Yes. This is our annual update from our district lead nurse, Rachel O'Mara. So I'll turn it over to her. She has a special introduction as well. I don't believe the board's met our new associate nurse, Salma, so I'll let
Rachel, turn it over to you. Thank you. I'm just wrapping up, almost, our ninth school year as a school nurse, and this is Salma's second, going into her third month. So we're happy to have her join us, as our previous assistant district nurse wanted to take a lead position in another district. So we were lucky enough to get Salma, who also, similar to me, just comes with hospital experience and some pediatric home care. So it was a great fit, and she's been amazing so far. So we're looking forward to growing together.
Yeah. Well, thank you for letting us come and talk to you today about our school health annual report. We've been putting together some data every year just to capture what we do in the district every day. I think most of the time I'm asked by staff, by students, by community members, "What exactly do you do?" They think that because I'm a school nurse, that I'm dealing with tummy aches and boo-boos and Band-Aids and lice. That is not always just the case. So the first page of the report, I did share a synopsis from the National Association of School
Nurses that really just highlights that we're not just taking care of those simple injuries and those episodic events. We are really working to bridge community and public health with the school system, and we're connecting resources across that gap. And we focus on the entire population. So as we look at the second page of the report, we're starting with just some demographics. So we are staffed with 1.6 registered nurses. As you know, we have 7,267 students,
1,860 staff members across 13 buildings, and we also have early childhood and Latchkey programs, which have a very large population. So of course, that comes with its challenges, but it also comes with unique opportunities and resources that we wouldn't have elsewhere. We have listed on here 6,354 care center visits. The care center is the space in the office where a student who is ill or injured comes in and checks in with the secretary. We're checking temperatures, and we're documenting what those
complaints are or those injuries are, and we're connecting with parents that way. So we do see a lot of those students. Now, that may include some repeat customers. So we do also report that we had 36 MERT calls so far, and MERT is our Medical Emergency Response Team. So those are more urgent and emergent situations happening in the district in which our trained teams of people in every building respond and help navigate the situation based on a set list of responsibilities that they're trained on from the beginning of the year. And this data is just through May 8th, and then I'll go ahead and update those
stats at the end of the year. Looking at just a picture of health in our school district, students with health conditions include asthma, 573. That's definitely our largest. However, those food allergies have really grown as well, with 485 across the district. We are looking a little closer at dog allergies as we're bringing in dogs for different therapies and things like that. So we do have 37. Bees, as we often have EpiPens for those numbers, 23. We have 28 students with type one diabetes, and that means constant everyday
care of highs and lows with their blood sugars and carb counting with meals.We have 53 students with a seizure disorder, and often that includes a seizure action plan with an emergency medication. We have 41 students with cardiac conditions or cardiac history. Three of our students right now have to receive urinary catheterization throughout the school day, and we have two students that receive tube feeding, a tube through their stomach that we're instilling a formula-based substance. So we do care for a lot more of the conditions, and we're
training staff for all of those conditions and procedures. So on the right side of the page, it talks to you about nursing services and the training provided, and that really goes hand-in-hand with our health conditions, obviously. So allergy, anaphylaxis, and EpiPens, we make sure that every staff member has their hands on EpiPens every year. We do that through staff meetings, through our MERT teams, and visiting with the bus drivers and the noon hour staff as well. Asthma management and connecting resources for medications. Our care center procedures, trying to standardize that across the board so
all of the students are receiving standard care. Diabetes, of course, is daily. Epilepsy and seizures, as far as their emergency action plans. We train on medication administration for our secretaries in the building. We train our medical emergency response teams, as well as for those procedures that we discussed already. We teach our staff how to care for an injury or an illness that presents in the office. They're not medically trained, and we don't expect them to be. We want them to be able to navigate those preliminary situations.
We do focus a lot on health promotion and prevention. We feel that's very important to act almost as a liaison with the health department, so we watch what's happening not just in our community, but within our county, within our state, within the country, and try to get that information out to our staff and our families. We also help with policy and procedure reviews, and a large part of our job is case management and really connecting services for families. Looking at chronic illness symptom management when it's impacting their attendance. We're working with them with a doctor so we can be one team
in what's going to best meet the needs of our student and our family. We're doing medication reviews where a lot of times, maybe a student was prescribed a medication and sent on their way, and they show up at school, and they're not sure what to do with it. So we're able to be hands-on with the student and the family and really work through a lot of those education pieces. We also are available for homebound schooling consultations and trying to make sure that we're using those services appropriately. Looking at our accomplishments, just a few things. We were able to redefine our district nurse model with a staffing reduction.
We went from two full-time to 1.6, so able to make some adjustments in that. We were able to work with some student groups, which was really fun. We did the lead class at the high school and worked with them to do a hygiene drive where they collected all of the soaps and deodorants and things that our students really are in need of. And then we just finished delivering today. So they had boxes assembled for every single building of all kinds of hygiene supplies, and deodorant was the biggest request. And toothbrushes, you name it, we
had it. So we were able to stock buildings with that, and then the leftover was all stocked at the high school clothes closet. So if other buildings are running out, we can check there to see if we have anything left. We've also partnered with work experience students. We do fourth-grade girls' period packs, so a little starter kit when they receive that talk in health. And our work experience students set up an assembly line, and they pack all of our little donated packs, and that's been really rewarding to work with them as well. We do try to do vaping education every year.
As you know, it is just out of hand, and it's a huge problem, not just in Grand Blanc, but in our country. So we try to be hands-on as much as possible. We're available for individual consultation. We are also sending education to parents when new things come out about how to talk with your kid, what to look for, things to say. They're changing all the time, so many times, parents don't even know what to look for, so we try to do that. We also received a grant from the ISD that we had
lungs that are coated in the black. So you probably remember this from when we were in school. Looks like the tobacco lung and then a healthy lung. So we're able to visit lunchrooms in the middle school and the high school level, and the kids were like, "Oh my gosh, what is this?" And this is what your lung looks like coated in tobacco from smoking, from vaping. Those are harmful chemicals, and kids were shocked. So I was surprised that we-- I remember it as a kid, so I think we've gone away from some of those as smoking really fell off as far as popularity, but now we're seeing that tenfold with
vaping. So that's our lifelong journey with vaping is just pushing that education as much as possible. We did start a new standardized MERT form, so we are collecting data in a different way, which then gives me the ability to sort and analyze it a little bit further. So that's been super helpful, as well as care center documentation we've tightened up as well. We also have continued our diabetes peer mentoring program. So we connect a new diagnosis of type 1 diabetes in elementary. We connect with a high school student who
then comes and talks to the kid at the school. They answer all the questions, they show their technology, and all of that fun stuff. So that's been really nice to see the kids connecting on that level.Yeah. Mm-hmm. A high school student with type one then goes and visits an elementary or middle school with type one. And I have two students who are amazing with the kids and are more than willing to go whenever. So we try to do it when their school is done. We then catch the middle school or high school student, or the elementary at the end of the day. And actually, Elena Trotter is one of the
mentors who first started, and we nominated her for the Children's Champion Award, so she was able to go there today. She's been phenomenal, so we're really grateful for that program. I think it's helpful for parents, too, to be able to see, "This is what this looks like at this age. It's going to be okay, and these are the ways we can help you along the way." And then we've been really focusing on mentoring new nurses across the county. When I first started in Genesee County nine years ago in school nursing, I think we had five nurses, and now almost every district has a district nurse. And in Flint, there's a nurse in every school.
So we've really grown into a network, and we've done a lot of collaboration, so that's pretty exciting as well. And we do have some goals listed. Of course, our main goal is to maintain a healthy and safe environment for both students and staff. And we're going to be looking into options to do some electronic documentation of our nursing notes and medication, and we're meeting with IT on that just to see what's already available to us with Synergy. So we'll be able to report back on that. And we will continue to build the nursing community of practice. Do you have any questions for us?
I'll let you go. All right. Any questions? Go ahead. Yep. Thanks very much, Marie. I just have a question about-- First of all, how many nurses do you have in Grand Blanc Schools? Okay. And what would you consider the top one or two issues as far as health from your perspective in the school? Vaping absolutely is the number one. Almost every kid we talk to at the high school level has tried it or knows all of the other people that do it every day. Kids want to stop. They're so addicted because the nicotine is so strong, so that's been our biggest battle. And with that, it goes hand in hand with learning difficulties in the
classroom, attention issues. They're leaving class or getting caught for skipping class, all of the things that go hand in hand with that. So that would for sure be our number one. And number two, I would say food allergies is growing exponentially. And that could be for various reasons. However, we are then working with them. We're trying to get them safe meals at school. So while we're good about nut-free or dairy-free, we're now looking at, well, what can we do for this student with type
one diabetes who is gluten-free and soy-free and egg-free? And they don't have resources for snacks. So we're scrounging food pantries, trying to find options for things like that. So I would say the food allergies and vaping by far. Yeah. So- Oh, sorry. Oh, go ahead. So for vaping, one thing I noted, because we see the other side when- Yes ... expulsion hearings. Mm-hmm. And vaping is a high number of our students. If you had a magic wand, what do you think we need to
do as a district to get in front of this vaping crisis? Is there anything that we can do? I've come across a program recently called InDepth from the American Lung Society, and the program is really set at having the resource room coordinator or a staff member dedicated to working on education. So there's a module that is self-directed that the kids would go through with, then, a mediator or a representative who's trained helping them through an education model.
I don't know if that would work or not. It's the only thing I've come across lately, as we have in the past as a district tried the Vape Educate program. They're not using that any longer, and I don't know that we saw any change. However, this program being touted by the American Lung Association is so far the best thing I've seen out there. I don't know if that's our answer. We're fighting against many other things that are beyond our control, unfortunately. Are you finding parents want to be part of the
solution, or are they looking to schools to try to fix this, or what do you see? I think a majority of parents want to be a part of the solution, and a majority of parents, when their student's caught, don't know that they're doing it. So we catch them at school, and now parents are beside themselves and, "Well, what do I do now?" And there's really not a great answer. We don't have like, "Oh, just give them this and this, and the problem will stop." It's not an infection that can be treated. So I do think that we can't
stop educating and pushing out resources. So we do a little email/newsletter at the end of the school year. We include information on vaping for that and the resources that are available and different programs that exist to stop vaping. One that we talk to kids about often is where you just text "quit" to this number, and it texts you daily, almost hourly when you first start, just to say, "Hey, today's going to be hard. Pack some mints. Do what you need to do to get rid of that oral fixation." So it kind of
coaches you through text messages. When it first came out eight years ago, I signed up so that I could see what it was like before I sent it to a child. So I was pretty impressed with it, the number of messages I got and the education it was sending me. So I think all we can do as a district is continue to promote the education and awareness. That was my question, actually, because at the county level, the board members, this is a very hot topic as well. Mm-hmm. Everywhere is having an issue, like you said, and we're all trying to just find things we can do or try to bring
back to our districts. So I'll definitely share what you just said. But do you know that number that you text Quit to? I have it on my vaping flyer. I can email it to you later. Okay, great. Thank you. Okay. That would be great. Well, we recently celebrated staff appreciation for our teaching staff, and in alignment with that, it was also nurse appreciation, School Nurse Appreciation Day. So we have a couple special gifts on behalf of the district for both Salma and Rachel, but I think she did skip over a certain item on her bullets. Jodi, Barb, and I were fortunate to attend the Michigan School Nurses
Association luncheon. Rachel was there for a couple of days for their conference, and she was awarded the Michigan School Nurse of the Year award for this school year. So we actually have a special... You already got a trophy or a plaque, so we didn't want to recreate that. But we actually got the book of all the letters that were written on your behalf for your nomination. Oh my gosh. Thank you so much. So I think that you're going to find that, I know the trophy on the wall is going to be something, but what people said about you is all in here, and it's well-deserved. And I spoke at the conference for a couple of
minutes and got a little choked up and embarrassed because I've told her this before, but there were several of us that were at this table when Charlie passed away. And I struggle with if Rachel would've been here at that time, and if we were where we are now, I'm not sure he would've made it, but I know he would've had a better chance. And I think all the work she's put in place, we measure statistics and numbers all the time, but the proactive response that she's put in place for our medical emergency response teams, those are numbers we can't quantify.
But I think they've had a huge impact, and I know they've had a huge impact, but they're numbers that don't show up on a stat sheet. But she deserves all the credit in the world for that, so we want to thank her. So thank you, Rachel. Thank you so much. I appreciate that. Thank you. So I think you guys want to get another picture? Sure. Okay. Jodi, you guys are up here too. You were a big part of that. All in all together. All in on the one. That's for you. Thank you so much. Okay, so you have to get yours. Okay, I'm going to No, you guys... No, you want them on the outside? I think so. Okay. I know we had them earlier, so.
I can do it quicker. If that works for you. Actually, Maybe just like this. Start heading that way. Yep, you're good. Put it there. Hold the mic. Where's your microphone? Do you want one? All right. That's the new model. We need them on the side, and then you guys. We just do them with cell phones. Okay, next. Oh. Well, I just was going to, if we're good with Rachel and Salma, are we good with Marcus too? Yeah. Taking it up. Yeah. I don't know if you're missing a lacrosse game or what's going on right now, but I know he's got a senior too this year.
Oh, he does. He's totally hypnotized by the camera. Oh. And Heather. Switch it. See you. Okay, 4.04, Grand Blanc Youth Arts. Steve? Good evening, everybody. My name is Steve Simmons. I'm the music teacher over at Cook Elementary, if we haven't had the chance to meet yet. I am also the executive director of a new nonprofit in Grand Blanc called Grand Blanc Youth Arts. Hi, I'm Amy Johnson. I'm an art and PE teacher over
at High School West. I'm also a parent of four baby Bobcats. So Juliana is a sixth grader at East, and Evie is my fourth grader at Mason, and Maggie is in first grade at Cook, and then I have a two-year-old that'll be here in a few years. So, and I am the secretary for Grand Blanc Youth Arts. So we just wanted to share with you a few things arts related coming up, or that we've accomplished this year. And one of them that's coming up, which is our Summer Arts Academy program. So this is a two-week camp at the end of June,
so right after school's out, that we host two weeks worth of arts fun experiences for kids. So we have art, we have choir, we have theater, we have an instrument exploration class, and marimba, and throughout the day, the kids will just rotate between all these classes. So this is our fifth year hosting this program, and it's a huge success. Every single year we go to a wait list, so we are currently on a wait list right now. We have 160 kids signed up, and that's kind of our maximum capacity. We literally cannot fit any more kids on the stage at Mason Elementary. And so I think this would be a great, ties in
perfectly to the new performing arts center bond that passed. So, I do envision this being a program, at least for the final performance, being a program that we host at the performing arts center. So that's pretty cool to kind of see all that happen. So, Grand Blanc Youth Arts is a nonprofit organization that kind of was tied into the Summer Arts Academy program. We had parents asking, "Why aren't these programs offered year-round? Why is it just two weeks out of the school year that we have these programs?" And some schools would do these programsFor example, Mason Elementary, we did have
marimba band specific for Mason Elementary, though. It wasn't offered to all of the kids in the district, and so we had some families like, "Well, why don't we get the chance to participate?" And same thing with Reid Elementary. Andrea Wilkerson always puts on a great, fantastic show every year for Reid Elementary kids, but none of the other elementary kids got to participate in theater. So, the whole idea of this nonprofit organization was to kind of branch all of that together so we could have a more community-wide organization where we host all these programs. In addition to that, it also provided us
ways to get funding that otherwise wouldn't be available to us. It's funding earmarked specifically for nonprofit arts nonprofit organizations. So that's been really helpful as well. So, Amy's going to talk a little bit about our programs that we offered this year. All right. So our theater program put together two fantastic shows. The first one was "Finding Nemo," and that was available for students third through fifth grade. We had "Seussical Jr." that was in the spring. That was available for fourth through eighth graders, and one of the coolest things that they got to do was
they went on tour to perform at Indian Hill, Cook, and Mason. And, my middle daughter, Evie, described that as the greatest day of her life. So, she was a monkey in the "Seussical." We have marimba band and drumline. This is offered in the fall semester, and we offered this for fourth through eighth graders within the district, and they put together a performance at the Flint Farmer's Market and also performed. We had a showcase concert that featured
musical numbers from the "Finding Nemo" performances and our violin groups and our marimba and drumline. They also performed at the showcase concert that was held in the fall. Right? Yeah. Fall. Yeah. We started offering introductory violin lessons at fall and spring semesters for fourth and fifth graders. This was a great way to kickstart our orchestra program that students are able to participate starting in sixth grade. And they also performed with the high school orchestra in
December, and also in the Youth Arts Showcase concert. And then finally, we were able to offer some great visual art programs this year. Steve's going to talk about the data in a minute, but you can take a look and see that that program has grown tremendously, which we're really proud of, and that's been offered from second through fifth grade students, both in the fall and the spring. So diving into the data a little bit more of these programs. All of our programs are hosted as courses, so when a parent signs up for them, it's more than just one class. It'll be a course.
Art, the reason why it's so much higher is because art was a commitment of four classes, and so some parents wanted more than just four classes, so they would sign up for another course. However, like the theater show, once you sign up for the theater show, you're committed for three months. So that's why some of the other programs are a lot less than the art programs. But, offering the arts in only four-week sessions made it more flexible for parents to pick and choose which works with their schedule. Overall, if you take all the courses, we met 165 different times. Each program met 165 different times,
for rehearsals, practices, art classes, what so. Our enrollment, we served 282 different students this year. So the total course enrollment, some kids did more than one art class, some kids did marimba band and drumline, so total course enrollments is 370 but we served 282 students, across 12 schools. Anderson is not included because it's K one and we didn't offer any programs that young. We've talked about it. I don't know if we're ready to do that yet. I'm sure it would be a big hit, quite honestly, but I don't know if we're ready to
do that yet, so. We do have 23 staff members that we continually paid throughout the different programs that we offered. One of the cool things, I actually taught a class at U of M Flint this year, teaching elementary methods course to teach future teachers how to teach elementary music. So that's cool. But I have a good tie into U of M Flint. I graduated from there. I, every summer, teach a camp there as well. We do the marimbas over there. So I'm very well connected with the students there.
And one of the things that stuck with me when I was in college, there was a mariachi program in Flint, Ballet Folklorico Su Yanto. They're still going today, and some of the people that I went to school with in college 12 years ago are still involved with that program today. So if I can get these college students in our programs a little bit, maybe in 12 years, they'll still be involved in our programs, which is just great for our community and great for our kids. So, specifically, I'm really trying to aim towards marimba right now because I'm the only one that does marimba, and I actually didn't offer it at Mason Elementary this year just because I've got a thousand other things going on.
I had a kid in tears because I didn't offer it, and I was really bummed because I want it. The marimbas are just there, so they need to be used. So, I've got two, three U of M Flint students this summer working with our marimba band program with the Summer Arts Academy, trying to get them trained up a little bit to offer it with these kids as well. So it's a cool connection I've got with U of M Flint that we're trying to do that. Our financial summary, we have a balanced budget. Our total budget was $71,000 this year, Most of these programs--
Sorry. Let me kind of backtrack here.Most of the funding came from our programs, 68%... Sorry, I'm looking at the wrong one. Here we go. I can't see it very well. It's okay. 59% of funding came from our programs, and then we had 36% coming from grant funding. We also received some grant fundings that will take us, thank you, that will take us into next year as well. So that's pretty cool. Our two-year combined revenue. So I'm not just applying for grant fundings for Grand Blanc Youth Arts, I'm also
continually applying for grant funding for Grand Blanc Community Schools as well. So, this is the past two years' combined revenue, and I just want to present this information because I think it shows the real impact. Over the past years between both GBYA and GBCS, we've pulled in $292,000 in revenue for arts program, which is, I think, a big number, as compared to a few years ago, it was nowhere near that. Some of the grants that I've applied for the school district have gone to the Summer Arts Academy program every year. We are currently getting new stage lights over at Mason
Elementary. The stage lights are hot. And actually over at Reid this year, we actually had a kid overheat because it was just so hot with their costume on and everything. Those stage lights are hot. So we're transitioning to new LED bulbs. It's a very expensive project. I've been working with Jeff, making sure that happens. But we're using some of the grant funds to do that as well. And then a very small portion of those grant funds went to supporting arts field trips as well. But I think this is a large number. Community Foundation of Greater Flint met last week, I think. Or I'm sorry, the Grand Blanc Community Fund of the Community Foundation of Greater
Flint met last week. And I'm being optimistic that we'll get another 14 grand here in the next week or so to push us over that 300,000 mark. So one of the big things I wanted to show you is our funding partners who's actually given us grants and donations for this. The biggest one being the Michigan Arts and Cultural Council. Obviously you can see it's very much more heavy funded through that. The Arts and Cultural Council is a state program. It's state legislators that have funds from the National Endowment of the Arts, and they also find different funding sources throughout the state
that we can apply for, and it's tied to the state budget. And as you guys know, the state budget was very delayed this year, so our grant funding was very delayed. And I worried because, again, a large portion of our funds come from this grant. So if that funding doesn't go through or if we don't get that grant, we're out of luck. So one of our things that we're trying to focus on next year for one of our goals is to diversify our revenue streams, to make sure that these programs are sustainable and they still continue on, even if we don't get that Michigan Arts and Cultural Council
grant for a certain year. So moving into 2026-27, I'm going to jump really quick. One of the things to combat that is, this is just an idea and we can talk later totally on this, but to possibly utilize Schedule B funds to offset some of the costs it costs to host a theater show. So for example, let me go to choir, for example. Amy Hall, a music teacher at Mason, offered choir this year. She's not offering choir next year. She got paid to do choir through Schedule B funds through the school district. But she's not offering it next year. So those funds are going to probably go unspent.
And I know things have changed with Schedule B, so I'm not exactly sure how that is. But if we could hire one of the choir people that will be doing the choir class for the nonprofit or for the school district, but make it a community-wide choir, if we could still pay that person through Schedule B funds, and then we could utilize our funds from Grand Blanc Youth Arts to supply the sheet music or anything else that we need to do. Same thing with the theater program. If we could possibly pay some of the staff through Schedule B funds,
the Grand Blanc Youth Arts could possibly supply the scripts and the costumes and the scenery. The scripts alone cost $1,000 to purchase for a theater show. So that's $2,000 right there. And I do believe in Schedule B, the theater allocation is $1,300. So $1,000 is already used up in scripts. So that was just one of the ideas. Again, we can talk later more about that. It's one of the ideas I had. Sonia at Mason Elementary has also offered an after-school program with her 31a funds. And she asked me last year, she's like, "Oh, it would be so cool if we could do
marimba band with this." But again, I'm trying to do more things. I can't take on marimba band as well. And this was after the fact, it had already started. But I think it would be cool if maybe some of our staff could get employed by the school district and do the marimba band program, using the 31a funds. She's also utilizing the 31a funds to do tutoring. So the kids will sign up one day they'll do tutoring after school, and if they do that tutoring, then the next day they get to stay after for a fun elective that they get to choose.
Guitar class is going to be something that we're going to try to offer next year as well. That might be a good incentive. "Hey, I get to learn guitar, so I'm going to stay after and do some tutoring." So I really like that model. I do believe the 31a funds is left up to the principal to decide how they want to use it. So obviously not every school might decide to utilize those funds that way, but just an idea.Two of the things, though, that I encountered this year that I really need are staff badges, computer access, and room keys. So some of our staff that would come in to teach our classes didn't have
a badge. So they would rely on somebody else that did have a badge, or they would rely on the custodians to unlock the doors, which didn't always happen when it should have. And then our drumline class, for example, I have two teachers at all my classes, just for accountability's sake. But one teacher had a badge, one teacher had a key to the band room, and there was one time one didn't make it. And so one couldn't get in, and then the other couldn't get into the room, and it was just a fiasco. Computer access as well. Our art teachers always use the Google Slides as a- Document camera ... yeah, or a document camera. So it would be
really nice for them to have computer access as well. Again, they're not necessarily Grand Blanc staff. I don't know if they would just need to go through the background check, and then we can get them computer access, but something we can talk about later as well. And then last but not least, centralized space, and I know my proposal right here isn't really a centralized space, but it would be so nice if all of our programs were in one location. Last year, I was driving all around trying to manage it at West Middle School. We had drumline. Mason, we had a few programs. Brendle, we had a program. Reid, we had a program. So they were scattered all over, and it was hard to manage from
my end. I guess I'm proposing the same thing this year, but just housing more of the programs at Mason Elementary, just because that's right where I'm at. I know the custodial staff there as well. So it would be really cool if we could just have one space that had all of the programs. But I think this will be fine for now. The one in question that our art teachers are wondering about is Brendle. We hosted the art classes at the Brendle art portable. I'm not sure what the timeline is for the possible demolition of those portables and whatnot, but that was
an ideal space for them. Although it was so close to the football stadium that there was a few times where traffic was an issue. So I don't know if there's a better place to host those. We just need two rooms with tables and chairs and where we can store some of the supply closets. And access to water. And access to water. Yes, that's very important in art. So that's my summary of what we've accomplished this year and where we would like to go, some of the issues that we had, and I believe that this program is-- this is only our second year of operation. I think we've done some amazing work in two years, so I'm excited to see this grow
into what it can be. Is there anything you want to add before we go to questions? Well, no. I know that Steve and I have had multiple conversations about collective bargaining agreements and 1099 from vendors and hiring through contracted services, and there's just some things we have to consider when we're talking about paying staff out of Schedule B in the contract. Access to the building, obviously, verifying background checks, to your point, those are things. We're actually having conversations about letting non-Grand Blanc
employees in that are renting the facility as long as they've gone through that and done their due diligence. I know Jeff's worked with that before. The centralizing of spaces, that's all about facility usage, and can we identify times that work? Because we have the tiers of rentals and who has priority to the building first. And then 31a funds. Again, is it a nonprofit? Is it vendor? Is it someone through contracted services? I know we've talked about Park and Rec before. So there's a lot of facets to this.
Mm-hmm. But the district's not interested in taking community ed back on. We've been down that road, and the fact that the Youth Arts Foundation is providing programs for kids, we would all agree is a good thing. But it's just making sure that we're not stepping on any landmines with some of those other items, and we can sit down and schedule a meeting about that. Oh, yeah. For sure. Yep. And being consistent with our- Yep ... following our policies. Yep. And I think we're, what is it, second year that we're the community for music or an educate-- And this is part
of that, I think, as to why that we've been recognized. And is it all Grand Blanc students? Like, or is it- It is all Grand Blanc students. So whether they live here or attend, they might live here but attend school elsewhere, they would still qualify to be in our programs. I will say that I don't have an actual stat, but I think there's six kids out of the 282 that were actually outside of our school district. Outside, okay. And you said just all but the theater program is four weeks in the fall, four weeks in the spring, or is it more? That's just the art. Art is just a four-week commitment.
So all of the other sessions, like marimba band, that's a three-month commitment. Oh, okay. So they're all different a little bit. Yes. Yep. Art is the only one that's a shorter time span. All the other programs are actual they meet frequently over three months. Like three months twice a year? Yeah. So we have a fall semester, and we have a spring semester. I don't believe I said that earlier. Yes. Yeah. We heard that. Oh, okay. I just didn't know how long the semesters were. I got you. Yep. About three months is kind of what I plan for. Any other questions by the board? No. Oh, can I? Yep. I'm new to the board. I just want to clarify the relationship between Grand Blanc Youth
Arts and the schools. Yes. Are you contracted by the school? No. We are completely two separate identities, and I think that's where we got to make sure our lines don't cross at all financially speaking, too, as well. We are two completely separate identities. Now, I just also happen to be an employee for Grand Blanc Community Schools as well. So that's kind of where it gets sticky. Yeah. Well, that goes to the point, that Summer Arts Academy that we've ran for the last five years, that was in strategic plan, and that's funded through strategic plan. So that's something that we're funding,
and I know it's springboarding into- Strategic plan funds, I think, cover about $2,000 or $3,000 of the $40,000 budget. So it's a very small portion of it. But yeah, it does cover it. Still run through our payroll. Yes. Yeah. Granholm Youth Arts is definitely... Or I'm sorry, the Summer Arts Academy is definitely a school district- Yeah, it's a school program- Program ... it's not through our payroll. So it does get a little muddy sometimes. But I definitely think there's room for growth, and we want to work collaboratively with the team. I think we maybe need to have some strategic visioning with maybe you and your board, because we know there's other players.
For sure. Our business office and- Yes ... maybe even a representative of our board to talk about this partnership. Because, when we've discussed Park and Rec, and we know Park and Rec has been at a very different place than where it was 10 years ago, but there was a commission that worked with the school on that. And, I think the board would be open to having a conversation about that- Absolutely ... moving forward. Absolutely. If we created a commission between the school and your board to talk about what that structure could look like. Absolutely. And I think it works really well to actually have two separate
identities, because I can apply for grant funding on behalf of the school district, but I can also apply for grant funding on behalf of the nonprofit. And so it's kind of a win-win situation as far as the collective. My end goal is just to make sure these programs happen. And I know there can be a lot of hashing out of where do the funds come from and how is that... But my end goal is that these programs happen. So whatever we need to do, let's do it. I agree. And that's why I think that commission concept, it protects you- Yes ... it protects this board, and it doesn't look like there are separate entities being created to-
Double-dip or... ... double-dip or do any... That's the thing that we want to avoid. So I- Absolutely ... I'm open to that, and I know the board is as well. Okay. We appreciate your passion. We know you- Yes ... you love it and the- Yes ... kids love it. They get experiences they wouldn't have otherwise gotten. So thank you. Absolutely. Yep. Thank you so much for being here. Thank you. Okay. Moving on to new business, 5.01, GISD budget resolution. Does Ethan have that? Ryan. Ryan. That was me. Oh, that's right. Do you want me to go through the details or do you want me to just- Just give a summary. Summary? Okay. That'd be great. Two weeks ago, I attended the annual GISD
budget resolution hearing. Microphone. Oh, my bad. Thank you. No problem. A couple weeks ago, I think it was two weeks ago, I attended the GISD annual budget hearing, where they go through just the different programs within the GISD. They give you a breakdown within-district of the programs offered, how much money our students and our district, I don't want to say uses, but utilizes from the GISD. And then they obviously go through and they approve the budget for the '26, '27 school year. So, just in a recap, as most of you know, but it's nice to talk about it again. They're always looking for ways to expand the GISD and the programs. So some of the programs our students utilize,
some of the programs they don't because they're offered within our district. So we're a little bit unique in that. But, they're looking to expand their healthcare offerings. They offer a pilot program through Bishop Airport. The culinary program is a big one over there. They offer firemen and fire department programs. And so our students for the '24, '25 school year utilized just over $4.6 million worth of services from the GISD. So I would imagine we have to be one of the highest. But then they go through the different budgets, and then we approve the GISD budget.
So just like a normal school district, they have their budget grant-funded through federal, through state, so a lot of that, and so then we take a vote on approving the GISD budget. Okay. I'll make a motion. I'll make a motion to approve the '26, '27 GISD budget resolution as presented. Support. Okay. Any other questions for Ryan? Okay. Ms. McDougall. Nolan? Yes. Reichert? Yes. Yellen? Yes. Youngs? Yes. Eschenello? Yes. Lang? Yes. Yes. Thank you. 5.02, approval of the 2026, '27
MHSAA membership. Yep. This is your annual request the board has to formally pass in their minutes. Our membership is part of the MHSAA. This has to be on the record prior to, I believe, July 1 for eligibility to participate in state tournaments. So there's been no changes, so I recommend that we approve. Move to approve. Support. Any questions? Okay. Ms. McDougall. Nolan? Yes. Reichert? Yes. Yellen? Yes. Youngs? Yes. Eschenello? Yes. Lang? Yes. Yes. Yes. Thank you. Moving on to 5.030, increased bond
authorizing resolution. Ms. Mann. Yes. This resolution before you is to authorize the process of selling our bonds for our latest bond series that was just voted by members of the community at the beginning of May. This allows us to start the process. We already have meetings scheduled. It's go time, basically at this point. So the resolution authorizes the full sale of the $149 million that was approved by our voters. This bond will be sold in three separate
seriesIn 2026 will be the first series, 2028 the second, and then 2030 will be the final series. And it's all proportioned out with a whole schedule to get us going. Okay. We'll take a motion. So moved. Support. Any questions from... Okay. Ms. McDougall? Nolan? Yes. Riechert? Yellen? Yes. Youngs? Yes. Cescianello? Yes. Lang? Yes. Fish? Yes. And then Kelly, you'll need to sign. Yep. You got it. Okay. Moving on to information reports. Yeah. It's this time of year. Commencement's right around the corner, a week from Thursday, 7:00 in the
stadium. I looked at the weather, but I don't think I'm going to look at it again for a little bit longer, till we get a little closer. I want to thank Scott for organizing the retirement dinner tonight. I know we had a smaller group, and it's funny, I think people are getting less and less likely for the pomp and circumstance. They don't want necessarily the fanfare. They just want to slide out into their next chapter, which is fine. But tonight was a reminder to me of how many great things we have going on in the district between State Nurse of the Year, to
the things that our McGrath students presented, to the Engine-erds, to the programs that we're putting on for our youth arts. It's a great place to be, and it's just a reminder of all the good that goes on. Yeah, we have our portion of bad, but I always say it, the good outweighs the bad. The ratio's to the right side, so that's a good thing. With that, I want to publicly thank, on the record, and I know we're going to be putting some things out to the community, but their support of the recent bond election. It was a little tighter than we had kind of imagined.
I don't know if anyone will remember that in a couple of years when they see the construction and the growth around central campus and the district. But their trust and confidence in us as a team with the board and with our administration is definitely appreciated, and we're looking forward to the transformation that's going to come in the next few years. It is field trip season, so we got lots going on between Mackinac, Copanoquec, all over the place. Cedar Point. Cedar Point. Reminder, I will be at Mackinac Island. It's going to be 47 degrees. It's 90 here. Allison will have the reins for a few days, Dr.
Walrath. So make sure if you need anything, you can get ahold of her or Linda. But I will be in the office in the morning till we take off, and then I'll be back about 4:00 on Thursday. So wish me luck. Have fun. June 22nd, it's hard to believe one last meeting for this fiscal year. It's our annual budget hearing, final budget amendment. We still have a lot of bogeys out there for Michelle to plan for, trying to stay conservative. Scott's finishing all the support staff and manual updates. We finished our collective bargaining agreements and
contracts last year. So those personnel costs, we kind of have an understanding of what they're going to be going into next year. We had a meeting about ACC and that budget today, so we kind of have a general idea of where that's going to land. We're going to be forecasting another deficit, which we knew that that was an intentional spend down of the fund balance. But I just think we all have to be aware that 12 months from now, this deficit can't go on forever. So, there are going to be some things that we're going to have to start looking at.
I don't want to say the dreaded word of layoffs or program cuts, but I do think that we're going to have to look at the efficiencies and try to trim that spending down so that we can move into whether it's '27-'28, '28-'29 with a balanced budget going forward. Advocacy Day is in Lansing on June 9th, so I'll be heading over there with other state superintendents to talk about the budget. Right now, it's further along than where it was last year. Last year, we didn't have any idea where things are. We do have a proposal from the governor.
We do have a proposal from the House. We do have a proposal from the Senate. The Senate's version of the budget is the one that seems to be the one that has the most legs. They've amended the 31aa language. They've offered money on the foundation. The weighted formula is something they're not necessarily considering, and they're not creating an omnibus budget, which is what the House did. And the House took all of the education money, not just the school aid fund, which is designated for K12, they took all the money for pre-K programs,
preschool, higher ed programs, and lumped them all together. And what's happened over the last several years, there's been diversion from K12 school aid fund to higher ed. So they're taking money and supplanting it and giving it to the colleges. That is not what it's intended for. So anything out there that you hear about that, we want to try to stand against that. So we'll keep you posted. I'm not holding my breath, but maybe we'll get some more clarity in the next few weeks. But we'll see you on June 22nd.
Okay. All right. Yep. Brian, do you have any-- And we're on board member reports now. So what do we got with you, Brian? Well, I was at the AP research presentations, and I went to three of them. And they were very good. But what I wanted to mention was one particular student who was extremely nervous because this presentation is videotaped and it's scoredAnd she was really nervous. And I was so impressed by the teacher, because what the teacher did was, she went up there and held her by the hand and had her take some deep breaths and relax.
And it was so impressive to me the way the teacher handled this. Now, maybe this happens a lot, I don't know. But it was so impressive to me. And then the student was great. And these students put a lot of work into these presentations, and they're kind of a big deal. And the content of the research was also very impressive, quite original. They come up with an idea, and they research it, and they give their data, their conclusions, et cetera. And for people going into college, I think it's a really good experience. So I was quite impressed. Yeah.
Thank you. I also went to one of the AP research presentations. I think both Mrs. Bleichert and Mrs. Finkbeiner, I believe it was, did a wonderful job. The students did amazing. It was truly great to hear them being able to present on something that they were passionate about and something that they've done throughout the entire year, to see that work come to fruition. I also went to the Grand Blanc High School jazz band performance on Friday,
where we have, I believe it's now three. It previously was two groups, so the Grand Blanc White Jazz Band, the Grand Blanc Red Jazz Band, and the Grand Blanc Black Jazz Band. Each did separate performances and then a combined performance. It was a great concert, a great time. I'd like to thank Austin Tripp for giving us a shout-out by saying, "We have had this concert here on the West Middle School stage for the past couple of years, but in a couple of years," you can see how crowded it is up here,
"in a couple of years, we'll have it in a new, beautiful performing arts center." So I'd like to thank him for that and for putting together such a wonderful performance. With jazz, you can never go wrong with jazz. Even if you make a mistake, it still sounds great. I also won a basket in their raffle, so that was really cool. I get five free pizzas from Guido's, so it's not rigged, I can tell you that. But the senior all-night party went wonderful. Thank you, Yasmine and Meredith, and everyone who put it on.
I know Detective Rouse was playing some Texas Hold 'em. He said he was helping advise the students at first, and then he took over and he ended up winning the game. And then I know Marcus and Ryan were both at your table, weren't they, playing? So it was a great time. I know all the students had a blast. Seeing the students being hypnotized and boy, that was really funny. Rudy Lopez, his daughter, and then Marcus Kelly, his son, were both up there on
that stage. That was so funny to watch their answers and watch them make a fool of themselves. But that's the fun of it. I want to thank the community for approving our bond. It was, like Dr. Albert said, a really close one, but it shows that the community still has faith in us and our district, and they know that we will deliver. We over-delivered with our last bond. With this bond, we'll be able to deliver and, knock on wood, potentially over-deliver, or at least reach that, Jeff.
Set the bar high. I'm looking forward to seeing you all on Wednesday for Senior Honors Night. And then next week, we have graduation. As far as the County Association report goes, there really isn't much to report on. That meeting is this Thursday. I'm not able to attend, but Yasmine is. This Wednesday is Behind the Capitol in Lanting. It's a great way to go be able to talk to your state reps. So for us, Reps Mueller and Martin, and hear about that legislative process.
Last month, we had the awards dinner. Great time. Four of us, including Meredith, won awards. Trevor walked back to his car, got soaked by the rain. So but no, it was a great dinner and great way to celebrate our seniors, and especially since we had a senior who won the scholarship, Brayden Landry. So, he's done now and better on to do great things in the world. So that's it. Brandon? Like mentioned before, I just wanted to thank the community for their support with the bond. It speaks volumes that folks would still go out there
and want to help us grow our district and provide the best opportunities for the students. We ask a lot of our community, and I think it speaks volumes when they send back that support. So I want to thank them. Senior all-night party was fun. I am no Texas Hold 'em dealer. Just askRouse and Marcus. But it was great to see the kids. I think they were having a great time. I know it's a massive undertaking, so thank you for that, and Meredith, and all of the volunteers who spent hours and hours
setting it up, tearing it down, getting vendor-- The amount of support, vendor prizes, was phenomenal. So, thank you for that. Like I mentioned before, I attended the budget hearing last month, and I just want to touch on that in saying we offer a tremendous amount here at the district, and I think it's phenomenal that we do that. But just the support we have at the GISD for other programs that we don't have the ability to offer, we don't have the interest to offer, but our students have so much opportunity here at the district and at the county level, that if you can't find a spot, we need
to talk. So, it's always nice to see that. It's nice to talk to the other board members from other districts and their offerings, and it just makes you feel really good about what we offer and what we strive to offer here in the district. Brian and I got to attend the Science Olympiad banquet, which was really cool. They're in the second year of the high school program, first year of the middle school program, and what was really neat is to see the high school students sort of take the middle school students under their wing and teach them everything about Science Olympiad. I still don't know some of that stuff, thermodynamics and verbiage and all
that. It's kind of like the robotics. It's like, I take your word for it. But it was really cool. So, Mrs. Titsworth from East invited us over. We went, got to talk to some of the students, and Mrs. Harley, Mr. Frank, Rithvik, all those guys and gals just do a tremendous job. So, again, moving that bar down from the varsity level, high school level, down to the middle school level to help not only impact the younger kids but build that program up for the future was really cool. I went to a lot of track meets over the last few weeks, softball games, and one thing that just keeps
coming up is just the amount of sportsmanship that the kids have. They're cheering on other kids from other districts. There are fist bumps, there are high fives. They want to win, they compete, but it's just really cool to see them, just like the robotics with the sportsmanship. We're doing a good job raising good human beings here who love to compete, don't get me wrong, but they're just good, wholesome kids. With that, as you go across campus, I think Brian had mentioned it or maybe it was Ethan, you just see coaches. You see staff members, community members out working with the kids in groups or individually. It just makes you feel real good
about the facilities that we have, the staff that we have, the coaches that we have. They're putting their heart and soul into these kids, and it's really cool to see the basketball gym full of kids and coaches, and they're working on their game, or at the baseball fields or the turf fields. So, when you see things happening on campus, it just makes you really appreciate everything that we have. I will be attending the NHS breakfast tomorrow, as my oldest gets inducted, which is really cool. And the last thing I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that man behind the camera, leading our beloved golf team to conference finals on Wednesday,
going for our third straight, and regionals next Tuesday. He's been leading the team this year. I think we're still honorable mention, maybe top 10 in the state, but he's done a phenomenal job with the kids, so I want to wish the golf team good luck. That's all I got. What wasn't mentioned, I was able to attend the art show at East Middle School, and those kids have the most amazing abilities I have ever seen. I was so impressed. I can't draw a straight line, and these kids had some beautiful artwork. They should be so proud, and thank you to the teachers that lead that
there. I do have duck tickets here if anybody wants some. It's that time of year . The senior all-night party's done, now I can focus on the next thing, the Gran Blanc Educational Foundation's only fundraiser. And the robotics team, I think, is going to be at the race with their robot. They expressed willingness to do that. So, it's August 2nd, 4:00 p.m. at Russ Park. We'll be selling tickets throughout the summer and at the art fair weekend, and I've got them here if you guys would like them. We just had a meeting this past week, and we did a
grant for a Parents as Teachers program that they're working on over the summer. So, we really do service. And then we've got our Gran Blanc Accomplishment Award winner on Wednesday. So, the whole gambit of all the kids in the district. Thank you to those of you who were able to help. I know life is busy, and everybody could be there, but the senior all-night party, it is a unique time for the kids to have memories in their building and before they leave us. And
I think that they had a great time. Speaking of sportsmanship, the hypnotist said that there are certain schools that he just really loves and looks forward to going to, and ours is one of them. The kids are always very respectful to him and throughout the night to the volunteers. They're thanking them for being there, and they're polite. They don't clean up after themselves the best- ... but they are polite, and really, I think we're pleasantly surprised. I think each year they come thinking, "Oh, I guess I'll do this," but I think they leave saying, "Holy crap, that was really fun,"
and that's the whole thing. So, because I did spend a lot of time in the high school ... setting up and all that this weekend. It just reminded me, especially with this bond that has just passed, our renovating of the Perry Center, our building of the Performing Art Center. We're here to educate these kids, and we've done it for 100 years. And to recognize the academics and the opportunities and to have those high expectations for their
academic experiences within the buildings, like looking at all the signs and awards that have been given out over the 100 years, as well as the athletic. To have the Science Olympiad, to encourage that STEM and those classes, those programs, gifted and talented, things that we could potentially do for them, I think is absolutely an important priority. Raising those test scores, that math and science throughout the board, that's a great focus, and I'm really
proud that we've really focused on that this year, and focused on the data and growth, and I hope that continues. And that's it. Thank you. I'll be short and sweet, but I also had the opportunity to go to East Middle School for the art show, and wow, so much talent. And I also can't draw a straight line, so the whole time I kept thinking, "How do they do this?" And then I went to their orchestra concert, and that was really good, too. So, middle schoolers, and again, I think, I don't know if Ryan mentioned it, but just those opportunities for them so that when they get into
high school, they've had a lot of those chances already. Just congrats to the retirees. I look forward to honors night and graduation. And then just something that stuck out with the Engine-erds, and I think almost everyone that has already spoken have said this, the character of the students, which even as a parent, my number one thing is I need to raise nice kids. And I think as an overall, if there's anything I do, I teach my kids, be the nice kid. And I think that as a district, we are hitting it. So, that's good. I wanted to thank the voters
for passing the bond. A lot of the community, they were focused on the performing arts. And that is going to be a great facility. But it's all those other things, the parking lots, the roofs, the new science labs. All of those things that make the environment conducive to learning, which provides us a tradition of excellence. It's all of those things. So I want to thank the voters for passing
that bond. I want to thank the retirees for all of their years of dedication and service to the district, and I wish you all the best on your future endeavors. And the seniors, the graduating seniors, congratulations, and I look forward to spending Wednesday night celebrating your achievements of your academics and next week with your graduation. And I think we got a whole group of robotics team over here waiting for us, so we
should probably get going. Okay. And I got to say thank you, too. I didn't realize how excited I was until I saw that we passed the bond, and I got giddy, and my husband told me I was crazy. But he already knew that. But I just want to point out, I think, Mr. Cushman, our average building age is like 62 years old, something like that. And so when people's like, "Why do you need more?" Because we take care of things. Our buildings are built like a brick house. They are good, but they still need to be updated.
We have to keep up the technology, the HVAC, all that, roofs, everything. And there's not a lot of property in Grand Blanc to keep building new. So we need to maintain, and I feel really good that our community is going to be set up for the next 50 years to have solid buildings and infrastructures. And we don't know what the future's going to hold with the next 10 years and what's going to be out in front of us, but I'm really happy that we're going to have solid buildings and infrastructures and IT, the non-sexy part like you were talking
about, Amy. Having kids coming out of the portables and into buildings, brick and mortar. Having the IT infrastructure in place so we have the technology and we're prepared for things like what happened with COVID. So thank you very much, the community, for passing this and trusting us with your money. We'll do well. Okay. We have no public comments today. Oh, go ahead, Ethan. I do want to tell our board members, don't forget that the Summer Institute for MASB is August 7th through August 9th. So if you plan on attending that, it will be in Kalamazoo this year.
Email Linda, let her know. And then let's all go ask the Engine-erds to hear that scientific term of "Zip, zip, zip" when it comes to fixing their machines. Okay, and with that, future business is upcoming board meeting on June 22nd. And with that, this meeting is adjourned.