Good evening. Welcome to the Monday, August 25th Board of Education meeting. If we can all please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge alle 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 recommended actions, approval of the proposed agenda. We'll take a motion. I will make a motion to approve the agenda. Okay. I second.
Any changes? Okay. Ms. McDougall Lang. Yes. Bret? Yes. Yellen? Yes. Youngs? Yes. Anderson? Yes. Ello? Yes. Cash? Yes. Moving on to 2.02. Approval of the July 14th meeting minutes. Madam Secretary, Madam President, I reviewed the July 14th meeting minutes. Everything appears to be in order. I make a motion. We approve as presented. I second. Is there any questions about the meeting? Minutes? Okay. Ms. McDougall Lang? Yes.
Ert? Yes. Yellen? Yes. Youngs? Yes. Anderson? Yes. Ello? Yes. Kish? Yes. 2.03. Approval of the August 11th Board Workshop minutes. Madam Secretary, Madam President, I've reviewed the August 11th workshop minutes. Everything appears to be an order. I'd also like to thank Ms. Rechart for taking those for that meeting. And to make a motion we approve as presented support. Okay. Any questions on those? Okay. Ms. McDougall Lang? Yes. Rechart? Yes. Yellen? Yes. Youngs? Yes. Anderson? Yes. Ello? Yes. Kish? Yes. Uh, next is 2.04. Readmittance recommendation.
Discip case number 17. Yes. On Tuesday, August 19th, high school principal Mike Frey and I held a READMITTANCE meeting for case 17 from the 2324, excuse me. 24 25 school year. Based on the student's actions and letters of support is recommended that the board readmit case number 17 to Bobcat Virtual Learning, along with credit recovery with special services report support student to receive transition services through potentially age 26. Is there motion? I'll make the, uh, motion to approve the recommendation as presented support.
Okay. We have a recommendation and support. Any questions for Dr. Ward? Okay. Ms. McDougall Lang? Yes. Ert? Yes. Yellen? Yes. Youngs? Yes. Anderson? Yes. Han? Yes. Yes. Next 2.05. Readmit recommendation case number 10. Yes. Again, on Wednesday, August 13th, high school principal, Mr. Frey and I held a readmittance meeting for case number 10. Based on this student's actions and letters of support is recommended that the board readmit case number 10 for the 25 26 school year with credit recovery,
credit recovery and regular check-ins with myself through first semester There. A motion. I'll make a motion to approve Support. Any questions for Dr. Ward? I just am so glad that both of these students were able to use the time, um, to seem seemingly get themselves on the right path. Um, their letters of support were really impressive and that's what we hope for in these situations. Agree? Absolutely. Okay. Anything else? Okay. Ms. McDougal Lang. Yes. Ret? Yes. Yellen? Yes. Youngs? Yes. Anderson?
Yes. Ello? Yes. Yes. Moving on to the Cass Consent Agreement. We have organization sanction, um, overnight, extended day field trips and, uh, overnight trips. So we'll take a motion for everything unless there's something that people want to remove. I make a motion that we approve everything under the consent agreement. Support. Okay. Any questions about those? Okay. Ms. McDougall Lang? Yes. Riker? Yes. Yellen? Yes. Youngs? Yes. Anderson? Yes. Ash? Yes. K? Yes. Moving on to presentations and discussions. 4.01 MTT update.
Yes. We're fortunate to have our MTSS coordinator with us this evening. Alex Elias. So Alex is gonna give us a progress update on some of the work she's been doing over this last year in conjunction with our curriculum director, Allison Walworth. And, uh, a summary of some of our results from our, my Student Voice survey of our parents, staff, and students. So, I'll turn it over to Allison and to Alex. Hi everyone. Um, so as a reminder, we aim to follow the Michigan MTSS practice profile, which contains these five essential components.
The tiered delivery system, team-based leadership, continuous database, dec, decision making, comprehensive screening and assessment, and then the selection and implementation of our tools and resources. This summer we really focused on selection and implementation, team-based leadership and continuous database decision making in partnership with leadership intentions. I'm gonna talk about each of those a little bit tonight. So, selection and implementation of instruction, intervention and supports. As we know, we have a very strong a CC process,
which helps us choose our tier one core curriculum, but we are trying to implement the Hexagon tool out of the National Implementation Research Network. It's a famous tool, lots of people are using it, but we really wanna make sure we're doing the same thing here in Grand blank. This tool will take any tier two or tier three resource that we want to implement and put it through kinda like a survey process where we're assessing does it fit the current needs of our students? Does it fit our district priorities and goals? Do we have the capacity to implement a new resource? Is it evidence based and research backed, um, usability?
Is it ready to start or do, does it take a lot once we have our hands on it to then get it going? And then do we have the supports in place once we actually implement that to keep it running successfully? So any idea that we have, we hope to take through the Hexagon tool and, um, be able to, it will give it a survey. Any new resource we wanna implement, it'll give it a survey and a score. And then we can compare all the ideas that we come up with to see which ones we actually want to use in Grand Blanc. A really cool thing about the Hexagon tools. We can actually take what we're doing currently, put it
through the Hexagon tool and maybe deselect it. Maybe it doesn't have the fit and we've been using it for 10 years and maybe we need to take it off our plates. So that's just one thing we're looking at implementing this year. Um, the two other components that we focused on were team based leadership and continuous database decision making. Really looking at the PLC process, both for educators and administrators. So no matter where you're at, what level you're at, we hope that everybody at A PLC is identifying current needs, doing some form of data analysis depending on the school year. 'cause we have lots of data depending on the time.
And then identifying from that data, what are our barriers that our students or educators are facing, and then what are the outcomes that that may come from that data as well. We really hope that if we're doing this at the teacher level and at the administrator level, maybe we have a really good monthly meeting with building leadership. They can then take what we've discussed in that PLC and do it at the teacher level or classroom level or even student level. Those teachers can report back out to the principals and then continue those conversations, um, as we go on throughout the year.
Now, if I can jump in there, I know the board has mentioned to me during my performance assessment on teacher goals and PLCs and how we get progress updates. This mechanism would, would serve that purpose. So, we'll, we will get more from Alex later this year, hopefully. And then the final thing, again, in partnership with leadership intentions, this you're looking at the table of contents of our MTSS handbook. It is in a draft form. Again, this is the table of contents. We're about 50% of the way through, we hope by the end of the year. We have all of the MTSS protocols
and framework that we're doing is in written form and available to you all by by the end of this school year. Questions regarding MTSS? Okay, I think we're good. Okay. Thank you. And then I need to get to the, my voice one. Yep, that's okay. We have been working with my student voice outta Kent County for a couple years, and this slideshow is our 24 25 results. The my Student Voice survey is actually three surveys. One goes out to students, one to educators, and one to parent and guardians. It's all anonymous. And here are some of our successes
and opportunities for growth for all three. So our student survey has three domains that are, uh, assessed Student engagement, social emotional learning and belonging. Belonging was our highest scoring domain for students. And across the three domains, student felt encouraged by their teachers highlighting strong support in the classroom. Students reported putting forth significant effort and attentiveness. In class. Students showed increased social awareness, often emphasizing the importance of caring about others' feelings. And students noted having classes with peers from diverse backgrounds
and observed that teachers treated that everyone fairly in these same three domains. Some opportunities for growth. Classroom climate remained a challenge with a need for more teacher-led discussions about how actions affect others and conflict resolution Students continue to struggle with self-awareness, often experiencing unhelpful internal dialogue and strengthening relationship skills could help more students feel seen and understood by others. And then students expressed dissatisfaction with how discipline is handed handled at school. For our parent guardian or family survey, um, this
survey assesses four domains. So what we're gonna see now are our top two domains and then our bottom two domains. So, parents, families reported having frequent conversations with students about what they're learning in school. Parents and guardians felt respected by staff, both personally and in how their children are treated and expressed comfort in communicating with school personnel. Some opportunities for growth were in belonging and student engagement and connection. Parents and guardians lack confidence that children at school can have open and honest conversations with one another about their diverse backgrounds and students.
Limited enthusiasm for attending school presents an important starting point for further analysis and dialogue. Our last survey for the educators, again, there's seven domains assessed here we're gonna see our top two and our bottom two. Top two are school satisfaction and belonging. Educators expressed satisfaction in their roles. They feel their job matters and indicate plans to return next school year. Educators reported that students from diverse backgrounds are respected, welcomed, and included with meaningful opportunities provided to support their success. And some opportunities for growth were in respect
and support and leadership effectiveness. Responses suggested there may be room to strengthen the support students receive at home by enhancing collaboration between families and educators. And educators Seek more personalized, professional, professional learning and targeted feedback from school leadership. This educator survey has seven domains, and the middle three that weren't here are educator effectiveness, instructional resources and relationships in school culture. Any questions from my voice? Um, this information is, is interesting. It's very anecdotal. There's, if we've been doing this, um,
information collection with the, the, my, whatever it's called my voice. Yep, thank you. My voice. How have we grown over the last couple years? Where are the percents whereas the data, the numbers, the quantitative stuff mm-hmm. The numbers are available. Um, and we have improved over the past two years. It's also, um, a little challenging to compare because we've extended our sample size. So we started with a specific number of grades and now we're, I believe four 12, right? Four through 12. So hard to compare, but we could look at those grades and decide it is on the Likert scale.
And our scores are pretty positive, like three and above across the board. Any question. Okay. Um, which is positive, but happy to provide those numbers. They are available. Yeah. And one of the most powerful things that we've been able to do this year, they've expanded their reporting with something called anchor reports, where we can take, we can crosswalk students, parents and staff in the same template on the same item. So we can see if there's perceptual differences between the groups. Yeah. That, and I think that's gonna be a powerful tool for us. Mm-hmm. Yeah. And Maybe the data you can give out to the board
Yep. With the percentages and Yep. We can look at that. Yeah. Other Part of the data that we Have. Oh, Jody, Your Mic. The other part of the data also shows the different, um, subgroups of, of students and families. So we can say like, maybe we're scoring, you know, across the board fours, but do we have some of our subgroups that are not feeling that or the opposite. And then start to ask why. We're also looking at expanding the, the part, the, um, feedback to also talking to our students. Like how did they understand the question as you know,
was it the question or, you know, what's their feedback about it talking to them too. Great. I just, this is probably some of the most important data that we gather. And, um, we go from the student satisfaction survey, which is quite like a lot of questions and, and interesting information. And I was excited about this, um, new source and that we've expanded it and, uh, to really look at it annually from group to, you know, to group as well as the subgroups. That's great. I'd like to see more of that. Thank you.
Any other questions? I had a couple. Um, so you said grades four through 12 participated. How did they participate? Is it during class time and everybody participated? Or how did that work? It's a computer based survey, right, Jody? Yeah, it's a computer based survey, so they take it during a class. Okay. So we know everyone had an opportunity and yeah, most did, like I can see high school students not really taking it seriously. So do we know how many just kind of breeze through it and did threes for everything? Or do we have any of that type of information?
We don't have like how long a student maybe took, but we know how many students from each building participated and how many per grade. And then for the student of like belonging for example, they express dissatisfaction with how disciplines being handled. Do we get any ideas on how they think it should change or they just don't like it? I think this may be just the starting point and then this opens up the opportunity for further dialogue. And I've taken some of these items to my student advisory group. Okay. And I know building leadership groups do the same. So it's having a discussion
and dialogue with the kids is powerful. Okay. So we're not getting the feedback from the survey, but like you said, it tells us, okay, we need to talk to the students about that. Mm-hmm. And there are some open-ended questions where they can, um, type out some of their thoughts too. Right. And then how about like, from the educator, um, collaboration between families and educated, you know, how can we enhance that? How can we make personalized professional learning better? So that's up to our, our buildings to reach back out to the staff to figure that out. Okay. And also we, this information,
the summaries we haven't shared with them yet because we got the results over the summer and we were able to put it together. We talked to the, um, representatives from Kent County to get some ideas of how to start having those dialogues. Mm-hmm. So that will be part of our professional learning as administrators over the course of the year to then be able to take back to their staffs to start to have those conversations. Um, so we know now these are our opportunities for growth. The next step is, so what are we going to do to try to make those that growth? Awesome. Thank you. Any other questions? Okay.
Thank you so much. Appreciate you being here. Okay, next. Moving on to 4.02 A CC. All right, so this says it's the 24 25 A CC update because it's actually the update from this past year. So we do a year of a CC. And then I come to you and present what was discussed, what, um, studies came through, and then have you vote to approve that curriculum for this upcoming year. So, um, you have quite a few different links in this presentation. The first one is just the curriculum approval.
So if you click on that, you'll see a list of, um, all of the members of a c, c. Let me see if I can get up there. Yeah. All the members of a CC, you can see that our entire district is represented as well as administrators. Um, our district librarian is on the committee, members of the union are on the committee. So, and, and of course some of you are on the committee. Um, and then it lists out the studies that came through for approval for stages one and two, if you remember. Stage one is our, um, kind of research process.
We're looking at best practices and we're coming up with a pilot plan. So when people present for stage one, they are presenting their pilot plan for the following school year and the resources that they would need to test out to see if it can help to improve student scores, um, and overall satisfaction with the course. And then stage two is after they have completed their pilot, then they are making decisions, um, using processes. They, we have a pretty robust process to go through and evaluate the resources that they piloted. And then they're coming to us, um, at the end of stage two
with a request for implementation. So generally with stage one, we're asking that they just come forward with requests of things that they've never tried before or that they need to test out and make sure that it will work properly. And then stage two, sometimes they're coming to us and asking, um, to purchase more of what they piloted, but sometimes they're just coming to us and saying, we already knew this, something worked, so we didn't pilot it, but we know that we need more of it moving forward. And then, um, you'll know, I, I pulled out a couple of things. Um, 19 studies went through stage one
and some things that you might notice are, we are piloting this year, the financial literacy course that we have all discussed here. That's required now by the state. Um, we're piloting in a few different courses this year. The high school bands, those are some big studies when band comes through. We always note that because we know that it's expensive to purchase instruments. And some of our students, you know, we can't expect that every family is going to be able to provide their student with an instrument. So we do keep some instruments on hand in our high school band and our middle school band. So both of those are on there. And then K five music actually came through
with a pilot this year too. So those are all just some important and notable studies. Um, and then we had 20 studies that did their implementation plans, their stage two. Some notable things are all of our K five Health came through our six eight language arts. So our language arts students are now, um, all middle school language arts students have brand new resources. They started out the school year with and then our AP African American Studies, which was a new course last year. So that's why I added it as a notable study because we did pilot it last year was very successful. Um, students actually did very, very well on the AP exam.
We're happy about that. And then now we are implementing it this year. Um, there were six studies that submitted special requests. A couple of things to note are that our K five ELA did a special request to extend their pilot for an additional year. That's a direct result of the, um, Michigan dyslexia law because we had to wait until a list of approved curriculums came out from the state before we would be able to implement anything. Um, luckily piloting resource, the resource we're piloting this year is actually on that list.
And they're still going to continue to update the list in January. So it's possible that the other resource that we piloted was also, will also be on that list. But we do know for sure that one is. Um, the other thing to note is that we applied for, and were granted a, um, a grant that will cover most of the cost of that pilot or of that implementation for next year. So the nice thing is that we won't have to pay for the majority of that as we implement it for the following school year. And then K five science is also, they submitted a special request
because we're going through so many changes right now with our curriculum. And, um, amplify, which is what we currently use for K five science, is the only thing that's out there right now that has high rankings. When you look at all of the curriculum resource, um, evaluation tools. It's the only thing that has high rankings that, um, and so we didn't feel like it was necessary right now to pilot anything else because we have the best resource. And so we just extended that for three years. And then once we're, we have our new ELA curriculum
implemented that we've done with our Science implementa or social studies, which we just did this year, this past year, then we'll feel like we're in a place to maybe look at something different for that. But we don't wanna put all that pressure on people right now. So the second link that's on there is our budget overview from this past year. It's what we took to our budget meeting. Um, and these were all the resources. And you can see that I also indicated where, um, we were, um, able to where we were maybe going to only do, uh, one thing or we, we were looking at, for example, this IXL, we were able to cover some things with a grant.
Um, but these were the things that we are implementing and piloting for this upcoming school year. So this is our glimpse of 25, 26. If you click on the link that says a CC stages, these are all of our studies across the district. The tabs across the bottom show what stage every single study is in. So you can see where different courses are at in this process. It's a seven year process. We did have 65 studies that met over the summer, which means that our educators were out there working hard on their
curriculum over the summer. They met together and they did part of this a CC process. Then, um, the 25 26 budget is in there and it's, um, it's our budget for this upcoming school year. But almost everything has been spent already because we purchased what we approved from the previous year with this current year's budget. So it's kind of hard to understand, but we come to, um, Michelle and Trevor in the spring and say, this is what we'd like to purchase.
This is what a CC approved. And then if there's money in the budget and they're able to, then they will approve that. Or they'll ask us to go back and cut some things. I can tell you that the teachers do a very good job of coming forward with just what they need. And many of you have sat on that committee and know that they're not asking for frivolous things, that they've already really cut their budget down before they even come to a CC. Um, and so we, they, we approve the budget and then we actually purchase all of that July 1st as soon as we can. We order it. So the majority of the materials are actually things that we approved last year that we'll be implementing
or piloting this year. The remainder of our costs are in our, um, paying for subs for teachers to meet during the school year, paying for, um, if some teachers decide to work on their own time paying for the stipends that they earn for doing that work. But almost all the materials have already been been spent. Um, but you'll see that we have a, a increased budget because almost everything costs more right now. So, um, we looked at, for example, um, there was about a $200,000 increase in the six eight ELA
study from when we pilot when we did it seven years ago to, to now $200,000 is a lot, you know. And so we weren't expecting that much of a price increase, but it was, um, we are using grant money for multiple different things, but a lot of it's only a one year grant. So for example, the cost of IXL for our intervention courses, we have a grant that covered it just for this year. So we'll have to figure out how to cover that moving forward. Um, the renewal of the K five science, um, the increased scope of the K five ELA study, um,
we were repeating the six eight math study because it was unsuccessful and they just didn't like the curriculum that they piloted. The nice thing is what we piloted last year was very minimal cost. Um, most of the resources were free. So the cost to re pilot is not, um, huge. And then the number of studies that we're offering, um, as we increase our course offerings, then we increase the number of studies that go through a CC. So finally, um, we, last year when we approved the budget, I let you know that Dr. Ward had requested
that we put a committee together to just look at the process of a CC to see if there were places where we might be able to, um, cut or tighten up our processes a little bit so that we were not overspending. Um, there were 12 volunteers who represented various levels and departments who served on a committee this year to look at our a CC process and our budget. Um, they made a few recommendations that we adopted. One is that we wanted to make sure that all study leaders are trained. So it's, what was the suggestion is now a requirement. They'll go through a CC training if they've never run an a
CC study before, just to make sure they understand the process and also what the different stages will cover. Um, we did make a decision to no longer fund field trips after this current, um, we currently fund just an elementary field trip and, um, after this cycle runs out for it, their concern for a CC was that we wanna make sure that there's an equitable experience for all students. So if we're funding field trips for one course that only 25 kids participate in, then not every student gets that.
So their recommendation was what we've been doing now through, um, through our strategic plan, which was coming up with common field trips that all students would be able to participate in. That's what they'd like to see moving forward. And then, um, they also made a recommendation to clarify the difference between curriculum materials and school supplies. We don't wanna be purchasing things like markers because that's something that is a school supply that we can get through the school budget, not through the a CC budget. So we defined what those, those differences were.
And then, um, also made a timeline for special requests to require that they get turned in and give a CCA month to think about them. We've operated on a lot of special requests coming in at the last meeting, so we almost have to approve them because if we don't, they don't, they haven't done their study, you know, and so they can't do anything else. A lot of times it's things like just delaying a study for a year, but we want a CC to have time to look at the financial impact that it would have to delay a study and how it would impact the following year when that study would be coming through. So they have to give a CCA month's notice to think about
before voting on those. The last thing is that, um, we did, they did look at the overall structure of the stages and the timeline and do we wanna extend to eight years? We wanna reduce to six years, how does that impact things? But we just weren't able to, um, dig into it enough to be able to make an a recommendation. So they're going to meet again this year as a committee to make some final recommendations on that. What questions do you have about a CC? Uh, what courses is the financial literacy component In? So we have a financial literacy course that they are, it's just flat out financial
literacy and it's a math credit. And then it is also in, um, a couple of our CTE courses. And I'm blanking on which ones they are right now, but they are, um, accounting. I know accounting is one of them. And then I can't remember what the second one is. But that gives kids options for how to take it so that they aren't, um, they aren't required to just take that math class if they want to go more of the CTE route, which is really recommended by the state. They encourage you to see how you can offer it in different ways. We also have an online option, so students
who are in Bobcat Virtual or who can't fit it into their schedule can take it online. And, um, we have a, a version of it in CC, uh, in CSS as well. So is that designated on the transcript that it fulfills that requirement? Yes. Yep. So there's a way that we can kind of do it through Synergy. That's how we do any of our required courses, our foreign language course requirement and everything like that. So we can mark all of those courses as fulfilling that requirement. Okay. Yep. Would you say most are taking it through the whole course or not really necessarily? It's hard to tell right now because it's not required yet
for, um, you know, a lot of the students, it's required actually a lot of them are, um, seniors who are taking the financial literacy course because they're The group. Right. That's So, no, it's actually the, the current Sophomores. Sophomores, okay. Who are required to take it. Okay. So they, um, the, it's actually, there are quite a few seniors who are taking it right now. So I think it's, you know, of interest to them and we're not discouraging anyone from taking it. You know, we want them to be able to, to do it if they want to. I have a feeling most kids will choose to fit it into their senior year if they're not taking it through the CTE process because they can use it
as their additional fourth year math. Okay. Thank you. Yep. I just wanted to, um, make a comment about how well organized Oh, thank you. This whole process was, I mean, it's really remarkable. I mean, you, you keep everybody on task. It's, you have that agenda down to the minute and everybody's sticking to it, you know, and the, um, teachers, they come, they're very well prepared with what they're going to present to the group. It's very impressive. Thank you. So thank you for all of that. Thank You. And honestly, Lori Taylor is a high school teacher
who does a lot of the organization behind the scenes too, so I could not do it without her organization. And Amy Hart, who's our secretary in the office, who helps with all that too, so, but I appreciate it. Thank you. Would you Be able to tell me the resources that are being piloted for K five and ELA? Right Now? We are piloting HMH, Holton Mifflin Hardcore. Okay. Yep. And last year we piloted Benchmark. Okay. What was the one that was on the list that you Are? HMH. Okay. Great job getting the grant too. Thank you. Very exciting. Always.
Any other question about a CC? Okay. Thanks so much, Alison. Thank you. Okay, next 4.03 public access to athletic fields. Yeah, I wanted to take a moment publicly to have a conversation with the board. I know we've received some messages and some communications from, um, people in our community, maybe people outside of our community. And it's not just in Grand Blanc. I know surrounding districts are receiving similar, um, concerns about access to public facilities, um, specifically our track and our field. Uh, and I wanted to, to give the board an update on where we stand currently.
Um, currently Jeff and I have had discussion, um, with our grounds and maintenance to keep the track facility open, at least one gate open so people can walk the track in the evenings. Of course, it'll be secured after dark, um, but it gives them access to that field. At Frank Thomas, we also have our pool facility. You, you saw that we ran Public Swim this summer. Um, we're continuing to look at ways to expand that. Um, I know Park and Rec will no longer be running programs out of our pool, so we'll be doing that on our own. Um, having open swim and we're looking for an adult lifeguard. So that's one of the big things, you know,
that the facility's accessible throughout the school day. And it's a standalone facility so we can get the public in there, but we have to do it safely and we need an adult lifeguard. 'cause fortunately, majority of our lifeguards are students and they're in class during that time. And I know that their parents probably want them to graduate and get their credits and all that sort of thing. So, um, so that's one hurdle we're trying to get over for the pool. Now we are also having some discussion about access to the turf Banfield without accessing the stadium. We do believe that keeping the stadium secured is, is kind
of a responsibility of ours, um, based on the investment from the community. And we have had some vandalism recently. Um, we had a, a breaking and entering to our press box where some items were stolen. I know we worked with, um, officer Kelly and Detective Rouse on that, but, um, I just wanted to make sure the board was, was aware of that and have a discussion if there's other things you'd like to see. But we are trying to make our facilities accessible to our community. I know that they voted for our, um, that beautiful facility out there and we wanna make sure that they can get into it. Um, but we also don't want to see any damage that,
that will cause the district of financial hardship as well. So, Jeff, did you have anything you wanted to add to that? No, thank you. What, What about the bathroom maybe by the track, would that be available for people to use? I know that's hard. I a lot over the years and when you leave that open it, And it's been hard, you know, without getting in the weeds too much, but not having access to a indoor space that's not monitored gives me a little bit of pause when we're dealing with teenagers, um, for a variety of reasons. So I'm not sure we want want to do that. Um,
Okay. But I, I just, I had a question. Was it, um, those stolen items, they were recovered, correct? They were, I think all but maybe one thing, but we had some damage to some of it too. Okay. So, not enough to do an insurance claim, but enough that, you know, we work, we're working with the police on the charges and whatnot. And We also had damage to the scoreboard, the advertisement On the Scoreboard. That was a different incident. Um, but yes, we had a, um, a gentleman from the public come in, um, that was unruly
and, um, standoffish with the police when they came and he was arrested and his car was towed before he proceeded to throw his phone through the, the scoreboard. So we've had a couple incidents out there that we wanna make sure that we're being sensitive to. I mean, it is for the kids and we wanna make sure it's safe and secure for the kids and, um, you know, but we want to give the community access as well. So we'll continue to monitor it throughout the fall. And then we can come back maybe in the winter when the weather turns and give you an update on, um, access and opportunity. Because I personally, I don't see a lot of people on the track and, you know,
when my son's graduated and he swam at Grand Blanc and we had the 5:00 AM practices with Coach O, the Silver Foxes would be up walking the track and there was only a few people. So I don't, I don't know what the demand is, but we wanna make sure it's accessible. Right. Because I know before we did the renovations to the Frank Thomas, there was a small man mangate that people, so you couldn't get a car in, but you can walk through it. But I know we've been in the process of renovating it and I know there was water around the track and you've been dealing with a lot of things. So, so this Year largely been construction, right? Right.
So I'm, you know, not open, just believe the things, right. Because we have equipment, dirt and tools, that sort of thing. So it's really only this year that we could really open it and we just let a game unlock. Right? So, Right. But it would be nice to let put it out there a little bit more, let them know that it is open and that they, it's for their use now. And, um, even the pool stuff now that we've been able to kind of take over the programming a little bit more, I'm excited that hopefully more, more of our community can use these facilities.
Right. And that's why I brought it here. 'cause I want to be on the record. I know this isn't a marketing campaign by any means, but, um, I want it to be out there that we do have some public hours and you know, we've talked about some signage and whatnot. And, um, we'll, we'll entertain, of course our visitor policy applies to everyone that's on our property. But, um, we'll, we'll talk more about that and get something up here. So just to clarify, from the pool aquatic programming perspective, we've as a district are going to offer that because the township has decided not to offer that. Correct. Based on demand. The township decided they're not going
to be in the pool aquatics business any longer based on demand. So That's, that's, and it's not because we didn't have, Not because of the access issue. Okay. Yep. And then the other thing that I know the public's used in the past is the walking track up above the tar. Mm-hmm. Do we still offer that is, That's before school, uh, in the morning from five to seven. So maybe that's something to your Point, you can share and then punch passes for that, Come right into the central office, take their passes and The same Two or three gals do it for 10 years. Right.
So, so they do morning and can, is there an evening time if we don't have any? Not because of Practice Time, because of practice that. Okay. So we need to probably communicate that as well. Yeah. We can get with Andrea and put, maybe put something together so people know. And then again, we wanna have posted signage so people understand what the hours are and when it's gonna be secure, when it's not. And Jeff and I can get on that. Right. Because I think there's some concerns too about, from a security perspective, if you've got six different parent groups wanting to be on the band turf field, all having their own pickup game at the same time, you could have some conflicts there.
Not to say that's happening, but we just need to make sure we take baby steps, I think, on how we do this to make sure it's done in A goodwill. I agree. I mean, you know, God forbid someone got on top of the press box and fell off, but that's our property, it's our liability. So I think there's certain things we have to be conscientious of as well, so. Yep. Absolutely. Yep. Okay. Thank you so much. You're welcome. Okay, next is new business 5.01 appointment of the MASB delegate and alternates. So, um, is there anyone not going to the conference this year? Let put it that way. Everyone's going
Us Awesome. Good. Are you excited? Yes. Um, I know Kelly and Ethan, you're new. So there, I think there's four delegates. Yeah. And three alternates. So who would like to be a delegate at the Assembly? Will We clarify? Isn't the delegate assembly Thursday evening? Yes, you're right. Okay. So I will not be there till Friday. Okay. So Kelly and Ethan will be al alternates. I'm sorry, not Kelly, Ethan, Kelly, and Meredith. Oh, sorry. Okay. Will everyone else be there on Thursday night? Yes. Okay, so we'll have to limit then, right? Because we can only Four. Will you be doing something
else during the delegate assembly in your role? I, I potentially could be, but I, I did clarify that I could be a voting one if I, if even so, but I'd be happy to let, let somebody else have a turn if they want. It's up to you. No, that's great. I think we should, I think We should. Okay. So we'll have Yasmine, Kelly, Meredith, the alternates, and the other four will be the delegates. Okay. That right? Yeah. Okay. Who wants to make the motion? I make the motion that Lings, sorry. Lings. Kish Ella. And who am I missing? Yell Yellen, be the delegates,
and then myself, Ry, Kurt and Youngs be the alternate There a second. I support that. Okay. Any questions? Okay. We'll make it easy. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion. Motion carried. Awesome. Thank you. Good job. Do you get all that, Linda? So excited. We're gonna get, okay. 5.02, school aid budget delay resolution. You Wanna talk about this? Yes, I know there's, um, a lot of activity or lack of activity in Lansing right now. We're waiting on a school aid fund in our k our lobbyists
from K 12 Alliance, which represents districts from McComb, Wayne Oakland, Genesee County, have given us a resolution that they're encouraging boards to adopt, to implore the legislature to adopt a budget by the mandatory deadline of October 1st. Um, and you'll notice in this resolution, there is a section that states something to the effect of not setting aside funds or appropriating funds. Miscellaneous. Miscellaneous, because there's some thought that they're carving out part of the school aid fund to fund road projects, which is not the intended purpose.
Um, we believe that's why there's such a, a standoff in Lansing right now is the school aid funds being held hostage because of the road projects. Um, so that's something that we, we put is in this resolution. And I wanted to bring to the board to approve so we can join forces and advocate for, um, getting our budget. Now on another note, I, I know that we're just starting to get the word out about school meals. Um, for a district like Grand Blanc, that's the biggest issue for us right now. Um, it's very hard to explain to families why some buildings will still con receive, uh,
free meals and some buildings won't. They'll go back to free, reduced and paid. Um, some districts this won't impact at all because it's all based on socioeconomic status. So in our district, the diversity is a great thing, but in a situation like this, if we have to revert back on October 1st, it's gonna be messy. Um, we've had some meetings internally and I had the opportunity to talk to the governor herself, um, about this. And I told, you know, told her if you get a, a budget done at 1159 on September 30th, that doesn't help me with school meals because we have to start that process probably three weeks
to four weeks before to, to start to communicate to families. So we've put some messaging out there, um, not to cause a panic, but come middle of September, we're gonna have to, we're gonna have to set a course. And, um, I just want the board to be aware of that. And we wanna make sure our, our employees and our families are aware of that, that, you know, come October we could have to make the tough choice to go back and, um, you'll actually see a resolution coming on the workshop on the eighth to approve the lunch pricing model again, which has to go before the board.
Now that's just a perfunctory type of thing that we're doing to get out ahead of it in case we have to implement. Um, we're hopeful that we'll get a carve out. We'll get something from the, from the state legislature that'll continue the school meals program. So, Okay. So let's start by taking a motion on the resolution. I make a motion to approve any discussion on from the board. Call your legislators. I called one today. Good job. Yeah. This is something I've spoken, uh, in great lengths with our lieutenant governor about, with the both the house
minority and majority leaders. It's, it's something that, I mean, I got an email, uh, from a parent and I forwarded it to Dr. Alward, but, um, I mean, the best advice that you can give to parents is call your legislators, urge them and demand that the, a budget has passed because time is running out. We don't want to go into a government shutdown. We don't want to have to face anything where the parents, uh, you know, are, are put into difficult situations.
So call your legislators and urge them to get this job done. It's their job. We voted for them. They're not doing their job. Essentially. It's that. So call them and tell them to do it. Right? Absolutely. And we have to set a budget at the end of June every year. And we're doing it blind. Yeah. Because we don't have a budget. And that's not right either. And I know Yasmine, you found a, a round table of think four different superintendents from the Detroit metro area all from different districts. And we're all saying the same message.
They're all feeling the pain that we all are. And it, it was a really good, um, round table, I thought. Okay. Any other discussion? Okay, Ms. McDougall Lang. Yes. Riker? Yes. Yellen? Yes. Youngs Yes. Anderson? Yes. S Yes. K. Yes. Now before we move on, maybe I do want Michelle to chime in here just briefly because, you know, the, the threat of a govern, uh, government shutdown is, is real. I talked to Senator Cherry at our back to school event and he seems to think we're headed to that. Um, we're hearing more and more of that.
Obviously if there's a shutdown with the government that could create some cash flow issues, um, it limits our AC access. If we ever had to borrow money for payroll because you borrow from the treasury, um, we would be all right for a period of time. But I know that we're hopeful that that wouldn't last very long and there would be a lot of districts ahead of us that would, would kind of, uh, FAL falter before we did. Um, but I'll turn, turn it over to Michelle for real quick. So here, clarify, and you can jump in too. If there's a government shutdown, are we shut down? Uh, the state funding is shut down,
meaning we receive zero funding. So right now without a budget, we don't even know what we're getting. So we've continued and our fiscal year started July 1st. Schools in session programs are running. We have 31 a staff operating. We have CTE programs after, uh, operating and we have no funding. We don't even know what we're getting to fund these programs. They may come around and reduce these programs in half. And we've started our programming and our staffing and our scheduling in all of our buildings. So we're proceeding with the highest hopes that we're going to continue to receive that funding. At this point in time, we don't even know if we're getting a
dollar of it because there are so many various versions out there from the governor, the House and the Senate, they're all completely different from each other. One completely cuts it, one just reduces it, one keeps it the same. So as we're operating and school started today, kids were coming in and we have staff operating and we have no clue what we're receiving. Now if the government does shut down and we don't have a budget received and approved by October 1st, we receive state aid on the 20th of every month. The first state aid payment for the 25 26 fiscal year comes in October.
But if, you know, we started in July, so that's July, August, September, we haven't received any funding in the current fiscal year. We've already started it. So what would happen is we'd have to make sure that we'd have enough reserves and fund balance to be able to make payroll. So I've done some preliminary, pre preliminary estimates, and I mean, our payroll's 5 million to pay. So we're, we're pretty high up there right now, but we would be able to make it through December and then we'd have some hard decisions to have to make. Now you can't borrow right now because when we borrow, when we used to borrow in the past,
you'd borrow from the state aid note, meaning you're borrowing from state aid to receive it in advance and then you pay it back through state aid payments. That wouldn't be an option. So the other option would be we'd have to go get a private loan from the bank. Do I think that we will get to that point? No. If we are shut down, do I think it would be for a cer like a small timeframe? Because there are other districts that would be, I mean, some districts wouldn't even be able to operate. So I don't, I hope that we're not going there. But these are some conversations that we are having
because this is where we're at. We don't even know what we're getting, let alone what funding we're gonna be receiving to be able to make sure we're making payroll. So To clarify, when you say some districts, not us, not us, but if this happened in October, they wouldn't be able to operate. They wouldn't, that means staff doesn't get paid. That is Correct. Well, you remember there was a time when Cal Kaska schools chained their doors and ceased to operate. And that was big news. That was probably 20 years ago. That wouldn't hit us, we don't believe. But you may see some schools, if the, if the shutdown were to last a certain period of time,
that would probably take that stand. So kids Don't go to school and staff don't Get paid. You could see that if it lasted too long, If it lasted too long. Right, right. But that's a huge bargaining chip that they have, right? So they don't want schools to shut down. Right. But they also have to come do an agreement by September 30th. So the point of calling your legislators, getting them to move is very real. Um, there's nothing that we can do right now, but sit and wait and it's, it's very scary 'cause we're sitting ducks. It might help if they called the special election 'cause we're down one Senate seat in the eighth
Congressional district and that would break the tie in the Senate. So urge Governor Whitmer to call for the special election. Okay. Okay. Moving on to section six. Um, information report, superintendent's report. Yes. So, um, it was a great first day of school, so I, I hate to be the downer about some of those other things, but, um, we went around to about eight of the 13 buildings today. Um, you know, everyone was excited about being back. We heard from several of our administrators and teachers that was the best start they've had.
So it was a really good day. We're gonna try to visit the other five buildings tomorrow. Um, and on top of that, you know, back to school week last week for our staff opening day, which thank you to our board members that could attend, we've had a few things going on. We recognized our police and fire and had a hero's breakfast for them. We had the ally challenge, of course, which was just a small little thing in, in the community. Um, we had the back to school kickoff event with Governor Whitmer, um, and I was able to bend her ear a little bit. Um, but it's been a really, really positive start. So we're, we're excited to kick off the school year.
Some important dates coming up, um, for the board is the nine, is that the 19th? 19th, Friday? The 19th is homecoming. Um, the 9th of October is our core team report. So if you're a member of Core team, we'll be getting that information from our administrators on strategic plan implementation. And then on the 20th of October, we have our annual new teacher dinner. So we'll be recognizing all our new staff. So things are, are heating up here in a hurry. And, um, we're excited. We have our first football game on Thursday. The kids travel over to Muskegon, so it's gonna be a,
a long bus ride, but hopefully they can kick off the season with the wind. So that'll conclude my report. There's no questions. Okay. Amy, you wanna start us off? I wanna welcome all the students back, um, and staff and I hope you had a very restful summer. An enjoyable summer, and you're ready to go for this school year. I'm really looking forward to, um, the fall sports and going to the football games and all the fun that's, um, you know, that we're looking forward to homecoming and all of that.
Um, I did go to the Ally Challenge that was in our community that was very nice, well attended. There was thousands of people that came into our community, so it was really nice to see that. Um, so that's about short and sweet. Uh, I just wanna welcome everybody back. It was a, it was a great day, first day of school. So that was, that was great to hear. Um, I know a lot of the kids were excited to be back, see their friends, find out who their teachers are. Um, it was always a fun time. Um, the, uh, opening day last week
for the staff was, was a great time. I thoroughly, it's like, next to graduation is my favorite day of the year just because, um, the teachers seem to act like students because they're so excited to see all their friends that they've missed all summer and get together. And Dr. Edward's like, shh, be quiet. And they're all like, ah. So it was a lot of fun. It was a great opening day. We had a wonderful time. Um, a lot of 20 year honorees that were just really nice to see. And, uh, I, I really enjoyed the Hero's Breakfast. I thought that was great to honor, um, all the people who helped support us and you're our everyday heroes, our staff members.
But it's nice to bring in the heroes from the community, um, that step up and help us so often when needed. And then last, I am gonna give a shout out to Phish. If you are in a classroom and you can do something to, um, pull the kids together to do some sort of competition, um, Phish is struggling this year. There's, there's just so many people in the community that need assistance, especially our students. So anything that you can come up with to help them out would be greatly appreciated. Thank you. I, uh, unfortunately was, um, not able to attend opening day because I was moving my daughter, uh, into her dorm room
for her first year at, at MSU. Um, but I heard Trevor, that you did a good job with the list I gave you to, uh, speak on behalf of the Grand Blanc Educational Foundation. Um, we had a successful, um, duck race back in August and we were able to raise, you know, almost $8,000 for grants for teachers and staff members this year. And it's something that we take a lot of pride in. Um, we wanna thank the community for their support and the staff that, um, purchased stock tickets for a multiple multitude of reasons in their buildings, um,
primarily to go to our cause and, uh, you know, to get the right jeans, to wear jeans, which is a good, good motivator for sure. But whatever works really, 'cause we're, we're benefiting the students. Um, we were, I, although I was able, I wasn't able to make it to opening day, um, I was able to speak to the new teachers and the Grand Blanc Educational Foundation now for the third year in a row, um, is giving each of our new teachers $50 in cash, uh, for them to just spend on the things that they need to make their classroom ready, um, for their students
to get the stuff that they might need that they can't, uh, that we don't want them to buy on their own. I know it's not an, as much as we'd love to be able to give each of them, but it's something that, uh, is just showing them a little welcome and thank you, and, um, that we appreciate them and their professionalism and, and, you know, go do what you need to do. Um, so it's just a little something for, from the GBEF. I know there's a few staff members, teachers that were hired less or sometime after our opening day last year that weren't there this year
that we do owe 50 bucks to. So if you're one of them, I'm gonna get it to you, I promise. Um, but we, it was a great duck race. Um, the, um, car, gosh, Bruce, No Derby car. Thank you. Sorry. I had a migraine today. I think my mother brain knew my daughters were away and starting class, I made them send me a picture. Um, so that I, but, um, so the Derby car was there from Anderson or from McGrath, and they, they got to demonstrate how they built it and the team was there, the students,
and that was really fun. We had a great turnout. We didn't get rained on. Uh, the water level was a little low, but the fire department, um, was able to push the ducks forward and I wanna thank them as well. Um, I wanna thank the, uh, great Harvest for providing, um, cookies for our youngest, uh, attendees at the race. And I wanna also thank, um, Al for providing some oil changes, um, and, and just the whole GBEF Foundation board, um, because without their support, we, we couldn't do it.
So that's it for me. Thank you. Thanks Ryan. Um, a few things I already hit, but, uh, welcome back. Um, first day was, was great. Um, great weather. Looking forward to, you know, the sports. Um, I can hear the band from my house, the drums and all that happening, so, you know that, that's starting up, so that's always fun. Um, I do wanna just mention the, the busing app, um, that was rolled out, so get a chance to do that. Um, so far, so, so cool. And there's some capabilities of the app that hopefully we can get rolled out,
but, um, a lot of good information on there. Communication and, and things of that sort. Um, looking forward to the, uh, annual leadership conference in October. That's always a fun event to network with other board members from across the state and get ideas of what they're doing. I know it's not necessarily your funnest time afterwards, but it's always fun for us to go and come back with ideas. Um, but it's a great time to, for us to network and just, you know, go to class and continuing, uh, our education. So, um, and I just wanna make a quick shout out to those on, uh, opening day. We did recognize nine, including my wonderful wife, um,
with the blocks, but I think there were 20 total staff members hitting 20 years this year. So congratulations to all those folks. Looking forward to, uh, a great year, Kelly. Just wanting to wish everyone a safe and successful school year. Um, I know my boys had a good day. The one was a little nervous and the other was like, what could go wrong? It's a half day. So, um, again, looking forward to the fall. Sports, I love football, so that's exciting. And also, you talked about the duck race, Yasmine, and you were a trooper with your boots. That was my first duck race, so I had no idea what to expect.
But you were in, is it Fred Creek? Yes. In that water. So, nice work. The boots don't keep the water out, they keep the leeches off. Don't stay standing there for too long. So, alright. You get some waiters next time? Yeah. Thank you. Uh, yeah, I want to wish everyone a, uh, happy first day back. Uh, it was great to witness the opening day last week. That was awesome. Uh, just the excitement in the room from all the staff being back is really reminiscent about like today,
like was my first day back in college. So same vibes from the teachers and our schools that you get on college campuses and schools everywhere. Uh, it was also great to, to help welcome the governor and Congresswoman McDonald Rivet, uh, for that back to school conversation. Um, it was also nice to meet Brett Smith, the MEA vice president, who was able to attend, uh, with Mayor Creasey. Um, and then after that I walked over to Brenda and I went classroom to classroom. And I introduced myself
to every teacher met every teacher there, every secretary, everyone who was in that building at that time. Uh, and then I went over to read and I did the exact same thing. And I told everyone, if the students get to meet you tonight on for their open house, well I wanna come meet you too. I don't get to meet all of you as much. Uh, so it was great to, to be able to meet, um, just a small amount of the, the teachers and staff, um, in these, uh, buildings and in our district. Um, I am looking forward to the fall sports.
Looking forward to homecoming. Uh, it'll be my first homecoming, uh, on the board now and not a student. Um, uh, and really looking forward to that, that homecoming football game where our bobcats will, fingers crossed, knock on wood win, uh, be very victorious. But, uh, yeah, that's really all that I have tonight. Um, I just wanna give a shout out to the, I think it's mostly the high school staff, athletic staff that runs the parking lot for a LI challenge. I know that's a lot of work
and can get very chaotic, so thank you Jeff and, and your team and everybody who worked on that. Um, very important for our community. Um, reminder to the board, we have our board picture to replace that one that's up there, um, before our workshop next week or on September 8th. So don't forget that. Um, I'm sure we'll get a reminder about time and everything. Um, there's a poster up here for the board members, um, Linda, ask if we can each sign where the markers are over there. Um, that's gonna go up, so that's good. And, um, another date is the first home football game is gonna be our annual Freedom Fest,
where we invite all the elementary kids to come in and we have a kid zone over at Brenda. I have soldier idea. Sorry, Yasmine. And the Derby car will be there as well. Yay. Good idea. So that, that'll be fun. A couple bounce houses, no helicopter this year. They're up at the Mackinaw Bridge doing some training, so sorry, but we'll see. I'm, I'm still working on the, the, the, the skydive team to come in a couple years, so we're working on that one. Okay. Um, and anything from the county? The, Uh, the first county meeting
for this year will start in September. So we, we were off for the summer and our next meeting will be in September, uh, the third Thursday, I believe it is in September. So, oh, and any board members, anyone has to help out with the, uh, kid zone. We're looking for volunteers getting some NHS volunteers. I know Amy was there in the past. And Yasmine, we have, um, we might need a couple chuck of chicken helpers along the way, so I'll be looking for People a sweat on that one. It's a good time. And then we have to get the chickens off the roof of the portable. Sorry that, that's the kid's goal is
to get the chickens on top of the portable. I don't know. I did forget one thing, Trevor. I do, I did wanna tell you I love the theme for this year, the better together. Um, I think that's exactly true. Um, we are better together. Every single person in the district, every employee we have. Um, we're here for one reason and that's for the students and to make their experience a good one. And it takes all of us and it, we are better with everyone and we're better together when we work together for that goal. So, thank you. Can I say one more thing? Sure, go ahead. I did, I wanted to thank Jeff for, um,
I kept saying I wanted to have a tour of all the construction projects and everything that was going on, and you gave us a great tour and you've handled all this, um, that a really busy summer, all this chaos. I mean, I mean, it's, it's really great what you've done. So good job. I just wanted to give you a shout out. Thank you. Okay, moving on to section seven public comments. Um, we have several people on here. Um, so I'll call you up to the podium in the order that you signed up. So just a reminder, as you come to the podium, make sure you provide your first and last name, your city
or township or residence, and your comments will be limited to three minutes. So we'll just give you a, a 32nd heads up, heads up when you get to two minutes and 30 seconds so you can make sure you have time to wrap up. Um, our first one up is Cheryl. Yep. And if you need to adjust the mic too, feel free to do that. I'm little bit Sure. I I feel it. I feel your pain. Can you hear me? Yes, we can. Okay. I'd like to say hello to the school board members and your, Your first and last name. Oh, sorry. Cheryl Bogner. I live in Millington, Michigan,
and that's Tuscola County. Okay, Thank you. Mm-hmm. Okay. Hello everyone. Um, my name is Cheryl Bogner and I am the third grade teacher at Meyers Elementary. And this morning I started year number 31, so thank you. I am here tonight on the behalf of the district's paraprofessionals. Um, green's not my color, but I was forced paraprofessionals that are not just support staff. They're an integral part of the culture of every day in our buildings.
They know the students, they build relationships and they provide academic, behavioral and social emotional support that allows all children to be successful. Their presence enables teachers to reach more students, give more individualized attention, and maintain a positive learning environment for students. Paraprofessionals are often the steady and trusted adults who listen, encourage, and help them persevere for staff, their partners working side by side to ensure that every child gets what they need, their flexibility,
their compassion and dedication. They often go unseen, but they're truly the backbone of so much of what we do. When we talk about creating a strong, supportive learning environment. Paraprofessionals are an essential part of the district's focus better together. This focus is lived out every day through their work. We are better for their contributions. They deserve our recognition, our respect, and our continued investment. Supporting them means supporting our students and our schools. Thank you. Thank you. Next we have Katie or Kathy.
Kathy Lawrence. All right. I'm gonna try to make this three minutes. Just remember first and last name and city. Yeah, yeah. Kathy Lawrence. Grand blank. Yes. Good evening. My name is Kathy Lawrence, grand blank para co-president. I stand here before you this evening on behalf of our grand blank paraprofessionals and recognition of our fight for fair and thriving wage respect for the job we do and for equality among our peers. Recently, the Grand Blanc teachers and the Grand Blanc clerical staff negotiated and ratified a great package deal, one that is worthy
of their dedication for all they do, to which they all deserve. They work hard and they have been compensated for it. However, this is not what is happening across the board. Our pairs also work just as hard. And the deal the district is proposing for grand blank paraprofessionals is quite frankly shameful. It looks it. I'm sorry. It lacks the very things talked about above fairness, respect, equality plus value, worthiness, and empathy. For those of us who struggle just to pay our bills,
no longer are the days where we should have to have a second, or even for some, a third job just to make ends meet. Some might say, why do you do this work if the pay is so low? Our answer to that is, we love working with children and it feels good to make a difference in their lives. We like our job, it's just the pay that is the problem. It doesn't meet our most basic needs. And because of the low pay, the district has seen a shortage of paraprofessionals over the years. Each year, the demand only rises for paras. As we see more and more children with physical disabilities,
social emotional needs, and low academics, even if the district is fortunate enough to find a few applicants, most do not stay long because they find a better paying job elsewhere. We are truly amazed with the lack of concern in this area. Plus, our job requires an associate degree, or we must pass the essential Skills assessment test. Just this past week, we counted 19 open parapro positions posted and school has started. We have been told by the district that the proposal they are making is competitive
with other school districts in Genesee County, which quite 30 seconds, frankly, I'm sorry. Okay. Speaks for Genesee County Schools as a whole most pay poorly, and they should also be ashamed as well. GreenLake School District is focusing on the model better together. Believe me, when we say we are better together, when we strive to work as a team. However, if it feels, it does feel and looks as though the paraprofessionals are being left out of this equation. So it's no secret that Grand Blanc's prided themselves in the district to be one of the number one schools and exhibit your
leadership Grand Blanc. Show us that you value our service and that the paraprofessionals are worthy of a fair and thriving wage. That we are, that we are respected and equal to our peers. Thank you very much. Now is the time to be better together. Thank you. Okay, next we have Spencer. I come very unprepared. Apparently I needed to write something. First name, last name, and city and township or residence. Spencer Howell, um, grand Blanc Township. Um, I just wanna offer a parent's perspective and support of the parapros.
Uh, so I happen to have five children. Uh, four out of five are in Grand Blanc schools. Um, one has Down Syndrome and in particular, um, his growth and development has only been achieved, uh, in my personal opinion and my wife's opinion through his interactions with his paraprofessionals. Um, of course we have high hopes for him, but you know, at 13 years old, he's entering the sixth grade and, um, he's, uh, got a lot of the same challenges
that most children that have Down Syndrome have. Uh, but, um, we kind of joke that he's inadvertently become the mayor of Grand Blank because we went to, I mean, we, we don't really know how many people he knows until we go to Kroger's. And, you know, we were, we were at the Homecoming parade and entire floats full of children were like, hero, hey, hero. And, and he was like, hello. And I'm like, what, what, what are you doing? And so, um, you know, as as precocious, he as he is, um,
my other three children all have a special need in one way or another. Two out of the three have, uh, IEPs and another is probably gonna end up having an IEP. So I'm very familiar. Um, and I just got, it just slapped me in the face this week that five out of my five children all have special needs in one way or another. Um, and so, uh, you know, it, it was very disheartening to learn that one of the most important paras in my son's life, uh, was not able to continue
as a para this year because she just can't afford to be a para any longer. And so, Ethan and, and the other folks on the board, um, we understand, I, I'm, I'm glad we were able to go through all of the challenges that you guys have budgetarily, uh, especially this year with all of the chaos that you've been thrown into. But, um, this team and the team of paras that, uh, my children have come in contact with, have been, you know, completely, um, uh,
I mean we owe our children's development to them in many, many ways, 30 Seconds. Um, so I just wanted to offer a parent's perspective. It was disheartening to find out that they're even challenged in this manner, um, by our school district. I know that we're a great school district. We're considered one of the top ones in, uh, in the, in, uh, in Michigan. And, um, so we need, I'd like to see us do better in this regard. Thank you. Thank You. Uh, next we have Tanya, Tanya Everson, grand Blanc. Some of these men and women in this audience that go
to Grand Blanc schools get hired, um, through their century, which are totally different rules, by the way. And some personnel need to get that maybe re reconfirmed, um, and have more capabilities of who backs 'em and whom doesn't. And then some of them get hired by Grambling schools. I have worked with a handful of the people here today in this audience. My children have had a few of the teachers, amazing teachers. May I add, if I could put, keep them in elementary school, I would all the way through high school. I would like to say though, I sure hope that any one
of them today does not face repercussion for coming to this board. All staff should be able to bring any concerns they may have. Now, I have brought this up before in, in meetings that most of the staff knows that they're supposed to feel if they can come to the board with any concerns. But the staff also knows that they better not because if they do, at some point they will face some sort of repercussion, even wrongfully termination. And when I say wrongfully termination, I mean, it wasn't,
not at all based on job performance, only based on bringing up concerns like anyone would, for example. Also, it was just asking about a question about, Hey, why aren't you, why aren't, why aren't you being included in PD days? And when asked and told by an actual school board member, which was the vice president at the time, to actually email certain people for help and did such that, and then was told, Hey, you're gonna have a meeting that day at the school, you're thinking you're gonna get help. Instead, you were met with two men, one, the head of personnel. Um, instead you walked in there, got belittled, bullied,
put down and mocked that's messed up and treated like a criminal and was walked out. But at the same time, the principal tells you, and at no means ever is this based on your job performance performance. You do a wonderful job. We can't replace you. So tell me this, it's just from it speaking up. And we thought that would stop, huh? So please listen to the audience concern and follow up with them, please. This is the staff that keeps other students and staff safe from helping guide and redirect some of the students, some of the students
that may need a little more extra help and guidance. These are the, these are the people that get hit kicked spit on. They are, some of them are trained to in restraint where teachers won't throw their hands up and not even touch a child. I understand why you do need to have the training, but they are going through everything, but yet getting paid So little. Look at them, please hear their voices and don't let it fall on deaf ears where most things do. Please just help 'em. I mean, and then you let people go that actually do their jobs. And you have, I don't see any of the bad ones here.
The bad ones that do leave bad talk you all online on what's going on and the ones that really, truly care and have the heart for the kids and know what they're doing. Thank you. You're beum little. Thank you. You're welcome. Next we have Holly. Yep. Hi, I am Holly Miller and I live in Grand Blanc Township. Um, I've been a proud para for, this is my 27th year. I've worked in all, all levels of the schools from preschool now at the high school. Um, love it. But I, I think that it's important for y'all
to know exactly what we do. We reinforce the learning. We run reading groups and math groups for our students. We read tests, we escort students and sometimes we escort dangerous students. We help with pickups and drop offs. We support our students at lunches and recesses. We wipe noses, bottoms and we dry tears. We listen to them, we walk with them, we hug them and we support them. And we do have all of that and so much more. With a smile every day. Please pay us what we're worth.
1281 to start, guys. 1281 to start. Thank you. Thank you. Um, and next last is Renee. I'm Renee Wright, a grand blank. I'm co-president of the para union. Um, I just want to address that the 19 postings that we have open, and this could be why we have this, because of the comments that were posted for the East Middle School job posting that was posted on Facebook.
I'm going to read some of the comments from our community. This is how they are viewing granting schools right now. 1281 is a slap in the face. A lot of requirements for crap pay. This pay is insane. I have an associates and make more than double that typical. I am praying. This is a typo. Pairs are so important. They often do thankless very hard jobs. This pay is insulting. I could barely live off that 15 years ago. Pay the people that work with our children what they are worth.
McDonald's pays 16 bucks an hour. Poverty level pay WTF, you can figure that one out. Cut an administratives typed position and pay these vital professionals better. Wait, is this salary real? You've got to be kidding me. If you're better together, you should be better. Grand blank. I would honestly take this post down because it is embarrassing. So they want a college degree for 1281 an hour. This is sad. What a joke I get. I get paid more at Speedway.
This is how our community is viewing us, you guys posting these jobs for these type of, for these requirements for these jobs. This is embarrassing. The offers are embarrassing. We shouldn't have to have more than one job to help support our families. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Is it possible that I speak? I didn't know I was gonna be here. I just, I'm sorry. You gotta sign in. That's board po That's our policy. I'm sorry, but you can come up and talk afterwards. No, I mean, it's okay. Yeah. Or send an email. Okay.
Thank you Pat. Okay. Um, next future business upcoming board workshop on September 8th and board meeting on September 22nd. And with this, the meeting is adjourned.