Good evening. Welcome to the Monday, July 13th Board of Education meeting. If we can please all 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 recommended action and routine matters, approval of the proposed
agenda. We'll take a motion. I make a motion that we approve the agenda as presented. Support. Any questions? Only Linda's over there, so I'm going to do roll call. Yellen? Yes. Young? Yes. Facinelli? Yes. Lane? Yes. Nolan? Yes. Breaker? Yes. Kish? Yes. Okay, moving on. Approval of the June 22nd board meeting minutes. Madam Secretary? Yes, after reading through the June 22nd board meeting minutes, everything is in order, and I make a motion. Move. We have a motion and a second. Any questions about the minutes? Okay. Yellen? Yes. Young? Yes.
Facinelli? Yes. Lane? Yes. Nolan? Yes. Breaker? Yes. Kish? Yes. Okay, moving on to student discipline case number 18. Yes, on Tuesday, July 7th, the board's discipline subcommittee held an expulsion hearing. Based on the information obtained at the hearing, the subcommittee members unanimously make the following recommendation to the full board: regarding case number 18, the board's discipline subcommittee recommends permanent expulsion, effective for the 26-27 school year, from Grand Blanc Community Schools. So moved. I'll second it. Any questions?
Okay. Yellen? Yes. Young? Yes. Facinelli? Yes. Lane? Yes. Nolan? Yes. Breaker? Yes. Kish? Yes. Okay, readmittance case. So on Tuesday, July 7th, high school principal Mike Frey and I held a readmittance meeting for case number two from the 25-26 school year. Based on the student's actions and letters of support, the recommendation is to readmit case number two for the 26-27 school year with academic enrichment and regular check-ins with the assistant principal at the freshman campus. Is there a motion? So moved. Support. Support. Okay, we have a motion and support. Any questions about it?
Okay. Yellen? Yes. Young? Yes. Facinelli? Yes. Lane? Yes. Nolan? Yes. Breaker? Yes. Kish? Yes. Moving on to consent agreement, sanctioning request. Is there a motion to approve the sanction request? I make a motion to approve the consent request. Support. Any questions about any of the sanctions? Okay. Yellen? Yes. Young? Yes. Facinelli? Yes. Lane? Yes. Nolan? Yes. Breaker? Yes. Kish? Yes. Okay, moving on to presentation. Operation midsummer update. These are probably going to tie into each other. I know they're- Yeah ... separate on the agenda. But we have some exciting things to talk with the board about.
So turning it over to Jeff. It's been a busy week. Yeah, a lot of exciting things going on this summer. Let me see if I can get this to work. I will start off with the sinking fund, if I can. This works. Under the bucket. This is just the arrow posing that on it. Thanks, Richard. There. All right. No, just a little rundown. I'm sure most of you are aware of these, but a lot of good things happening. Right now we're doing the high school west. We're doing three sections of roof over there. We're doing west boiler. The boiler that used to power or heat the pool is now
being repurposed and is now our water supply heater. So it's the water heater now. So, that's been changed. It's smaller, more efficient, so happy there. East science rooms, 300, 301, they are from 1963, and they're needing a little love, so we are in the middle of remodeling those right now. Along with that, we're doing some parking lots. Brendsel has been completed. In High School East, the back service drive has been tore up, and they're about to repave that in the next week or so. So, a lot of good things happening.
As I go through, I'll show you some pictures. So the back east high school, we're not reconfiguring anything at this point? So right now, we're going to go to a largely ninth grade campus. That will reduce the amount of people crossing. According to Mike Frey, we're talking about 100 or less. So we're no longer going to use the upper path, which sort of baseball, softball. We'll just use the north path, the lower path. The beauty of that is we no longer have that cattle crossing every hour on the hour, we have box trucks coming behind High School East, no longer. So as far as the safety thing goes, I am thrilled.
I've seen so many times where you have 100 kids and trucks trying to, and it's like you just cringe, right? But anyway, so that's a thing of the past now, and I'm excited. So a couple pictures just to show you, give you a feel. That's the boiler at west. A little more state-of-the-art. The other one was an old steam boiler that was Very inefficient 1974 version. Just an example of the room. Rooms to the left, the 1963 room. Of course, it's all been demoed, cleared out. Oh, wow. Ceilings are back in. I sent that picture to Brian Hugo-
Yeah ... two days after school, so he was like, "Oh my gosh." So he's been teaching in there for- I know ... 25, 27 years, so. So they're doing cooks and bangers as far as the new baths? Oh, they do. Yeah, so it'll go back, new science tables, new tops. Oh yeah, they still- What are you doing with the old science tables? The old science... Well, great question, actually. If you can believe it, a lot of those were asbestos filled. Like the slate top, meaning the black top? Yeah. So in other words, I couldn't sell those or whatever, right? Oh. It's one of those things I had to eliminate.
Wow. So. Not worth it. Not worth it. Yeah, that'd be kind of cool. As soon as you start handling them, and actually, it's kind of funny because when you flip one over, it has a crusty shell on the bottom that you can actually flake off. Wow. Which has kind of made it horrifying. If it was solid in the solid surface, I wouldn't worry about it, because you're not going to sit there and lick the table, but this- ... had a crusty surface on the bottom, so. I remember it. Yeah. Do you remember that? Yeah, I remember those tables. You didn't lick it, did you? No. Well, we used to have mercury thermometers. Oh, yeah.
We had to eat some of that, too. So yeah, some of the drains. So anyway, all-new drains, all-new everything, so it's done. Awesome. Excited about that. We used to play with mercury thermometers. Uh-huh. Jason and I. Yeah. Oh, don't say that. We're not that old. I know. One of you did. You're sitting over here vacant. So I mentioned the paving. Brendle has been completed. Here's some pictures there. I took them from the top of the stadium. Looks great. There. So anyway, exciting stuff there. In addition to the project I just mentioned, we're doing ongoing controls work with Metro, so that's going
well. When do you think all of the controls, because you're talking about HVAC. It's largely done, but we still have a bunch of older units that break and need more parts, so it's an ongoing thing. The big, huge money has been spent, if you will. Remember I mentioned the $900,000. We're no longer spending big money. It's now more of a maintenance type of position. So teachers should not be dealing with very cold rooms or very hot rooms. No. Even with windows and all the other stuff we can control. We're still struggling. I tell you what, so we struggle a little bit, and I've kind of concluded over my 11
years, Grand Blanc has a lot of dirty power, meaning today we lost power. We had three fires. Mm-hmm. And when I say fire, I mean the room wasn't encased in flames. It was some of our motors and units, because we lose one leg, so half the power, it fries the motor. That's exactly what Scott was saying. Yeah. So Grand Blanc will lose a leg, we'll have half the power. The next day we'll have too much power. Most motors can have a range, but some of our ranges
are way out here. Mm-hmm. So we fry a lot of equipment. Every time we have a power outage, it's several thousand dollars of equipment we have to replace. Yeah. A lot of them are fuses and that sort of thing. Some of them are actual motors and compressors, so. Is there anything we can do? Yeah, like a battery backup, right? No, great question. So what we've done, we've added a GFI to the building. Mm-hmm. So you have a GFI in your kitchen, right? So if you trigger that, it'll turn off, you can reset it. Now we have them above our panel. So right in this kitchen, we kept tripping this kitchen all the time, so now right above the panel in this kitchen and east,
there's a box, and in there is a reset. So now when it trips, we can just simply reset it. And it protects things down the line. And it protects things down the line. So all that kitchen equipment. So I couldn't put that in quick enough, but- Right ... so we have it at East and West Middle and high school East. But overall, there's nothing we can do to fix the dirty power. It's all the infrastructure. You take this school and read, every time the wind blows, we lose power here, and there's nothing I can... We've asked, we bought our own, what do you call them, transformers out at the road. We purchased all that to try
to alleviate some of that, but it's still- When we participated in that school finance research collaborative, and that's part of the reason that we have $20 million in the bond for utility projects, because we have aging sewer lines, we have aging water lines, aging electrical. I think we need to start updating some of that, because our average age, Perry's 100 years old, but the average age of all the buildings is probably 50 or 60 years old. Right. Yeah. Are there any backup generators anywhere? Yes. This building, East and West Middle, and East and West High
School. Mm. And Perry. And Perry and the pool. If you lose power, you'll still have school? Well, Perry is zoned, so Perry, the tech offices won't lose power, and our office, we don't lose power because of the server room. We have to keep the server room at a certain temperature. Yeah. Like tomorrow when it's 100 degrees, we've got to make sure the servers don't overheat, because that's very, very bad. Jeff, can you just remind our listeners, perhaps, the sinking fund? What is that money and how did we get it, and what you're using it for? Obviously, this list, but-
Yep. So the sinking fund is our Warm, Safe and Dry Fund. So the voters passed that last year. That's a 10-year commitment, which generates just over a couple million dollars for us each year. I could easily spend that. We try not to spend all of it every year, just to save for a rainy day a little bit, but we could spend easily that every year. And again, it's all the roofing, parking lots, concrete, all our HVAC, that sort of thing. We have 20 buildings. Every year, I have to do a roof. So we're doing a roof at High School West. You've heard me say the average roof expectancy is about 20
years, the average warranty. So if you have 20 buildings, you can see where every year I'm doing a roof. Every year, we're doing at least one parking lot. Every year, I'm replacing one or two boilers. So some of the big-ticket items that you just can't pull out of general fund very easily. So it's just regular maintenance that we can do with that money that if we didn't have, we would really postpone a lot of the projects as much as possible- It could defer- ... and then it could- Oh, absolutely ... grow into a huge, huge amount. Absolutely. Exactly. Or any parking lots. Right now, next year we're slated-- Well, I'll get to
that in a minute, but Indian Hill, we're starting to get potholes in there. So we will patch those this summer, do the best we can. I had it re-striped so people can see, but they only last so long. Mm-hmm. A 20-year parking lot. So this school, East and West, Middle, along with Indian Hill, and then in a year or so, our transportation building. That's a massive parking lot with buses. So that's big-ticket items that you just can't pull out of general fund. Okay, thanks. Yep. Did I cover all that? Yeah, miscellaneous concrete, meaning sidewalks. They go bad.
We have miles of sidewalks, right? Can you talk about the district radio upgrade? Yes. That's next on my list. Oh, okay. We've teamed up with a company, and we are now in the process of going to a Motorola radio. The company's called BearCom. They're a national company, great company. Working with BearCom, and we are outfitting the district with one of the best radios. It's a Motorola. In addition to new radios, we will have, for admin, so
roughly about 50 of those radios, will have a district channel. So if there's an issue, heaven forbid, some emergency, Dr. Oller can pick up the phone, radio Myers or Anderson or whatever, and talk to that principal, or they all can talk together. So it's a district channel. Is it a phone or a walkie-talkie? It's a walkie-talkie. Okay. But it's just a little bit bigger than the phone. Okay. So it's a bit bigger, but it's not the old-fashioned walkie-talkie, but it's a little more modern. So as the district channel, everyone who has an admin phone will
hear it? Yes. Or can you control which building that you access? Yes, he can do that, too. So you can- Okay ... it can be everyone or a certain building. Yep. Cool. Yeah, we've been struggling with that for a while because we use the messenger system, the GoTeam. Then we try to push to talk, like the old Nexteles. Mm-hmm. We tried that for a while. And Herb actually got us on a new network called FirstNet, but that is not a super effective mode either. This is going to be much better. Yeah. And this is protected where people can't have scanners and be picking up
conversations? We have our own channel, yes. We had to go to the FCC, get- Okay ... two channels. So I'm going to say yes. Is there a hacker out there? Right. I don't know that. I couldn't tell you that, honestly. Okay. But it is a protected channel. We did get federal funds for that grant, and the sinking fund is the required matching component. Okay. So that's a good thing we have the sinking fund to help offset that. Busing as well. That's all new bus radios as well, so that's great to hear. Over to Filter First. We have just completed that. There's a couple little
one-offs out there that we have to deal with, but the Filter First program has been done, or has been completed. It was supposed to be completed by June 30th. I think most schools haven't even started yet. When I'm on certain web pages, if you will, they're still asking questions on- "Is this allowable? Is this?" And it's like, ugh. You can tell they- Well, the frustrating thing is the funding's not there. So the requirement's there, and we have to update them every year, and there's no funding to go along with it. There's funding to start it, but to sustain the requirement, so it's one of those-
It's an ultimate thing ... yeah, unfunded kind of mandates. It's an honor system a little bit, too. There's no Filter First police that are going to show up and check our buildings, but I really wanted to get it done before school started, just to make sure. But it's a little silly to me because it's the same city water. The kids go home and drink. Mm-hmm. That's at the school. But we also have to filter, so it It's just terribly expensive for what it really is. So if the mandate goes away, are we still stuck with buying those filters every year? Yes, we're stuck. That's the ongoing, the legacy costs are what's- It's not like we can just remove the filter and-
You can. You can trick the filter each year and make the light turn green, but then you're kind of fibbing everyone, right? That that's the filter. I'd rather just not do it, but- But we have to do it ... the filters, we had to be very careful in what units we chose, because some filters were very expensive and required to be changed every three months. So we got filters that were a yearly use. There's some drinking fountains, if you will, that get heavy use that we'll probably have to change two or three times a year, because some of those ones at the front of the school where
500 kids a day, then that'll get changed more. But some of those filters are $300 a piece, and you're talking hundreds of filters or fountains. Unfortunately, I don't know how smaller districts, bigger districts too, but let alone smaller districts, can even afford that, and I think many of them will just... Next year, just kind of a highlight here, next year parking lots, Indian Hill, East and West Middle. The year after that, we'll be doing the transportation building. Hey, 2020 bond. Because we have someone that knows how to invest, we made a couple of
bucks, and we're building tennis courts. So, we poured one court already, actually two courts rather. The two more courts are being poured tomorrow, and then the other two will be poured on Thursday. So by the middle of next week, they'll all be poured out. You're going to see fencing here pretty quickly go up. The softball field is being reinstalled, fencing going up, all the landscaping's going in, so I'm very excited. It's moving along really well. They started quickly, right after school started, or actually before that, obviously. We started spring break, but they have been nonstop.
I'm pretty happy. We had a little slowdown in the spring with some rain, but the weather's been great for construction, and they're going to town, so I'm real happy. So how many tennis courts will we have? We will have eight new courts. Is one going to be with seating and lighting and everything? Two. Yeah. Technically, it'd be two. So we'll have seating around it. We'll have lights, six lights around it. So we have the main court. Championship. That's what I would- Grandstand or a championship It's the closest one to the building, so again, they can use it, concessions, restrooms. So it's just a great--
I was just talking to somebody today, and they're back there, and they're just like, "This is absolutely amazing." They didn't grow up here, so they look out and go, "This is like a college." And when it's done, those tennis courts, that will look like a college sport complex. And you're not on the road. Tennis balls aren't going into Holly Road anymore. No, only Central Office then, right? The school. So we'll talk a little bit about that here in a few minutes. So I'm going to have to put something over Michelle's window because they're probably going to hit her window. It's okay. I have it conference'd in. Yeah. Oh, she's got it conference'd in. I actually caged it. I'll jump out her window- I can't jump out my window. There's a cage there
Working with Don, Coach Levy, on the ribbon cutting. It's probably not going to be as grand of a thing as we did as the athletic complex, but it'll be around one of our, like a cookout ribbon cutting with parents. We'll keep you posted. Right now, we're scheduled for September 4. I don't say this out loud, but I really would like to get this done so the seniors can play on it. Mm-hmm. So this fall, I'd love for the seniors to be on that new sports complex. Has there been any discussion about public use with them? Because I know that's the big thing. They're just going to be out there. Because they can use the current ones, right? Yeah. Just walk in.
Yeah. Okay. And really, there's not been a big problem. Not saying there is, but I know- The initial- ... especially with the lights and the- The first couple of weeks, I think it's going to be a flood, like our turf fields were, right? And now it's our own students, and it's not a big deal. Fair enough. But lighting will be like the Musco Lighting- Yes ... so we can control it from our phones. So there won't be a light switch for people to turn on and off. Nope. And did you say you were going to stripe some of them for pickleball? I didn't say that. Oh. She wants you to say that. But they will be striped, I'm sure. Absolutely. I'm going to leave that up to- I think you said that. I'm going to leave that up to Jared and-
They need to be striped for pickleball. They will. The community will revolt if they're not striped. Outside the community, it will be a sport. If it's not a club sport already, it'll be a club sport. Probably within five years, it'll be a- But it can't impact our high school tennis. Tennis. But it's the tennis purists don't want to see the lines on there. Yeah. And we've lived this life before with the soccer purists wanting grass field. Yes, they do. And so we just got to do what we think is best. But I know that that's going to be a desire out there, for sure.
Yeah. So here's some of the pictures at the softball field that was moved to the south. Progress moving well there This is an example of the pouring of the cement, big pump trucks, so that's exciting. Maybe not to you guys, but to me, it is . I apologize for that. But I just wanted to show you this picture. I knew it, kind of throw you, but it is- It's a flunk's test. What he said. No. The concrete that we're pouring is six inches thick, and it's called post-tensioned concrete. Throughout the concrete, it's a grid of cable
that... Imagine a chunk of concrete with a washer on the end and two big nuts, and they tighten it to 50,000 pounds of pressure to kind of hold that together, so there's no cracking or doing this in the future. You know your driveway, right? Anybody that has a concrete driveway, you just... Right? And you're trying to call a company to try to level it back out. This will not happen with this type of cement. Wow. Nice. But it's post-tensioned concrete. It's really how tennis courts are being done now. So anyway, that is just the hydraulic. Those are two big hydraulic lines that are literally just tightening those screws down.
And so they pour it one day and actually tighten it down the next day. And then is there a layer of something above the concrete that they put for the courts? So yeah, there'll be a finish. Is that- Yeah. So you'll see the, it's not paint, but it'll look like a blue paint. Okay. I think it's blue in the center, green on the edges- Okay ... white stripe. So similar to what we have now. Okay. But anyway, very exciting stuff. I think that's the end. So the old tennis courts don't have that, right? The post- No. Those were asphalt, and they're kind of- Were there issues with the cracking and all of that? It's very wavy. The ball kind of generally goes in your direction, but it could you have to be really good to play in Grand Rapids .
In one spot and then it's in the forest. So. Okay, you want to move on to capital improvement plan? Yeah. So this is pretty exciting stuff. We're still in the design phase. We actually have a meeting with our techs tomorrow, but we want to give you some general direction on where the design is going so you can give us some feedback. We want to finalize design by Labor Day, maybe late September, because we need to go to estimating and then bidding, because we want to try to break ground on this within the next year or so. They've come in, a company called, it's not
Council Zuckerman, that was the- No, no This is- Schuler Shuck Schuler Shuck, who specializes in performing arts centers. They've shown us Brainerd, Minnesota, and I can't remember where the other one was from. I know Jeff was planning on taking his fishing gear and going and doing some site visits. But we'll give you some initial ideas on where we're at with the design, and if you guys can give us your feedback here within the next couple of weeks, that'd be great. So this is our existing footprint of our performing arts center and band. If you look at the blue section off to the right, that's our current band room. That will most likely
be occupied by technology in a couple of years. So they needed roughly 6,000 square feet of space, and that footprint is 6,200. Where's that going to go? It's going in the high school, right by the managers. Oh. Where we have the steam engine. That small, that would be IT? Well, initially, we've got it on the second floor of Perry. There's not a lot of room for storage- There's light floor at Perry ... because the logistics of deliveries and all the work they do. So we started talking, where there's plans to do an addition for
paper storage, because that's at Perry right now in the old gym, over at Maintenance and Grounds. So we were going to have to build a facility at Maintenance and Grounds for an office space. But when you start running numbers, it's very expensive. That footprint fits them perfectly. And then if robotics is across the hall in the back of the auditorium, and there's a separate entrance there on the pool, that pool level where you come in for the pool, or used to going for the pool. So we can have that be a totally separate entrance to the high school, and it can be locked off from the rest of the building when we do a security
update. This, you'll see the new footprint that will be out where the tennis courts are now. You'll see the band orchestra and the choir room, along with a black box room and the theater itself. So that's just kind of an overall footprint. That footprint will go from the end of the 500 wing right out to the sidewalk on Holly Road. So 90,000 square feet, we will occupy just about that entire footprint. So the hallway, Jeff, the 500 wing hallway,
would be by where the classrooms are or no? Yeah. Is it the hallway dividing the band and the orchestra room? Yes. Okay. There's some different design elements here- Oh, this is- ... he's going to get to, because there's different configurations than what you're seeing right now. Where's the hallway? It's dividing the band and the orchestra. This is crazy. Yeah, just don't get too tied up with that though, because these are just boxes on a page and they're thinking schedule. Yeah, we're trying to show just an overall footprint. There's going to be some tweaks. We just want to bring you along.
That's a question that we want to get some feedback on from you guys. Where should those rooms be? Where should black box be? The design elements in the theater itself Okay. Why don't we show them the interior view too? So what's your first- So first impression right there, everyone ... starting to get off. Yeah. Great seat. Yeah. So we like a lot of the elements of that. This one happens to be a little bit smaller, around 650 seats. So we were hoping to go a little bigger than this, of course, but we like a lot of the elements here. Okay, so this is just the example. Yes. This is a design element. Yeah. I'm going to show you another
example that we're trying to tie the two designs together. Have we decided one way or the other to have one floor or two? We have decided that we want to have a mezzanine. A mezzanine. All right. They were proposing having two mezzanines. I don't think they're- Because I know you were talking originally, Jeff, that you only wanted- Can we turn up the lights for a second? Yeah. Is it okay? The more we go up, the more it costs. So I wasn't sure if we were still making that decision. Oh, that's good. Wow, there you go. Yeah. Sorry, Jimmy. So yeah- That's perfect ... we like a lot of the elements here. Can I walk up to this screen? Yeah. Okay. So we like a lot of the elements here. So say you're going to do a smaller presentation, or dance or
whatever, you can turn off these lights and darken this area. Right? So now you're just performing to the people in the front. One of the big things is when you have a 1,000-seat auditorium or PAC, whatever you want to call it, and you have a smaller venue, whatever, you're performing to a big, open, empty building, right? And they don't like that. So this has the ability to darken up areas, so it looks like you're performing to something smaller. Right here, these ramps ramp right up to the stage. So if you're doing any sort of honors night or anything where people are going to come up onto the stage to receive an award,
they can very easily do that. So we like that element. The other element is, see how the wings, they come down? So you could go up the stairway and up to the upper balcony, as opposed to leaving the building and going up an elevator. Yeah. You've been to a lot of other PACs where you're outside, you've got to go upstairs to access the mezzanine. This, you would be able to access it in the theater itself. So here's the reverse view of that. You can see where that ramps up on the sides. These panels right here look a little industrial, right? But in there, they have different materials that
come down and change the dynamic of the room for sound quality, whether you're going to do a choir or whether you're going to do a play, those can change, and also there's lights behind those, so that can change as well. So brings a lot of different aspects to it. But more seating. This particular one's around 1,200. We're not going that big, but just for an example. I'll go back to this first one. We like a lot of these elements. If you remember the paper we showed you a few months back, it was kind of round.
Mm-hmm. Right? This is kind of more rounded. So we're trying to incorporate those two elements together. So the experts, do they recommend more round or more of the second example that you showed? No, I asked that question, and they don't really have a recommendation. It's whatever works with you. Right. It's all personal preference. Because the round, you're facing the stage. Everyone is facing the stage, and off to the side you have to kind of angle forward. Yeah. Well, and you're going to see that design with the columns, those wings would be incorporated, where they go down to the stage
level. That's what they're going to be bringing back to us- Okay ... is the incorporation of both of these designs. So round, but have the wings. But then somehow they're going to integrate those wings that come down from the mezzanine. So the second level, that can be pushed forward. So now even though you're up in the balcony, it's like you're much closer to the stage. So that rounded does get you closer to the stage, as opposed to a rectangle that just keeps pushing you back. Right? So where you could see the back row on the upper stage, you're very close to the stage when you look at that, right?
Mm-hmm. Very close. Where when you get to these, you can see where when you're in the back row, you're a little bit further away. Oh, the back row of the bottom. Or the back row of the balcony. Of the balcony. Because this is a little more rectangular- Right ... so it puts you back a little further. Maybe like at Davidson, theirs is a little more rectangular, so they're a little further away when you're in the back row. Whereas if you are here, you're in the back row, you're almost right on the stage. It's quite an angle.
In the rectangular one, have a greater overhang or whatever to pull that mezzanine closer to the stage or not? Like you said that this one could. I think you're going to see a combination- Yeah ... of the two. It does have a little bit of a- -ness on the side. I don't know if you can tell. I think that's what they're trying to do is incorporate both of those. Yeah, this is a bit more rectangular, but it still has some curve to it, right? And again, there's a lot more to come. We're just trying to give you a feel of the direction we're headed. And he's met with
all of our drama, all of our performing arts people here. So we've gotten feedback on some of this from them as well. So these decisions haven't been made in a vacuum at all. Yeah. Matter of fact, tomorrow we meet with a band. Natalie Cooper, she ran Schwartz Creek's PAC for a while. I mean, wealth of knowledge there. So I want to bring our new choir teacher, I mean, everyone together and make sure we achieve everything. Jeff, this is a dumb question, but I'll ask it anyway. I'm assuming all ADA requirements will be- Yes
... in there for accessibility, ramps, elevators. Oh, for sure. Yeah, for sure. So, for instance, does this have the overlay? That's the Brainerd one on the left, I think. And you can see what we were initially proposing is much larger scale. The rounded creates more mass, more design elements to consider. We have the footprint to do it, but I think if you go further, isn't it charming? Yep. So yeah, each one of those rooms, band, orchestra, choir, each one of those rooms are bigger than our existing band room. And the band and orchestra use the same room, not the same time necessarily, but they use the same
room. So they are now getting their own room that's actually bigger than what they've been using. And when we ask them, they're like, "No, this is a great size room. We don't need this room to be bigger just to be bigger." It works great, so we've stuck with those pre-room sizes. So here's one of the decisions we're trying to make here. Our existing thought on the upper left, down in the bottom right corner, which would be right out on Holly Road. Mm-hmm. That's where the black box theater's going to be. So now people can come down the sidewalk and come into a side door, right where
that red dot is, if you will. They can come in right there and right into the black box theater. Can we turn the lights back on this way? Yep. Okay. Is that perfect? Thank you. Is it the drama kids? Are they going to be in their classroom in the black box room? Yeah. Yeah, that was actually the next slide. We just showed you some retractable seating. That was something that we're considering for the black box. So we can push the seating back and have tables, have it set up for class. So it's a classroom space when
we do this. And that will sit roughly 150. 150 people. Yes. So is the idea that black box can be used by the community, like an outside door type of thing? Yes. Smaller scale performances, more interpretive, where you don't have props and the stages and sets and all that. But would it just be for our students who could rent out that space too, outside of the... So you'd use it during the school day, use the classroom? That would be the classroom- Okay ... predominantly. For theater? Mm-hmm. Yep. Another example, it's hard to see in the lighting, but
the beautiful thing is that it retracts in and out. So even silly things like, the principal of the school, if he wants to have a staff meeting, because right now they don't have a real room for 100 and something bodies. You can use the whole auditorium, of course, but if you want a smaller room, you can have staff can go in there, 100 teachers, whatever, easily. Can you explain what the arrows are, the entry doors? Yes. I'm sorry? It's turned. The arrows on here, are they the entry doors? This is Holly. This would be Holly and Holly right here. I think right there at that- And Holly right here ... you can come down the sidewalk and come into there. So it stays oriented in the same spot. So this is Holly on the- The auditorium. It just turned.
Okay. And then the location of the black box theater- Yes. The red dots are the doors. This is the lobby hallway coming in. Those are doors. The red dots are the doors. I like the idea of- Or the arrows ... having the black box- The arrows are doors ... kind of backstage and this like- Yep. The arrows are doors ... it's just kind of tucked away. And this top right- It's a yes ... it just feels like that's, we're making it less important. Because a lot of things can happen with black box. You have a point in the kiva, you have more interpretive stuff in there. You have more guest lecturers and stuff who have gone into the kiva. So having it in that top right corner
image, where you have it just tucked behind the stage and tucked back by the classrooms, it just makes it feel less important to me. Mm-hmm. But they can come in through that vestibule and just come straight back to the black box, too, right? Yeah, I think that was the intention. Yes. Right. And it's a black box, so it doesn't have- Were you talking about option one that you don't like? No, option two. Option two. Oh, option two. The black box is way over here. Oh, okay. So we're hoping to occupy fall of 2019, August of 2019. We wouldn't break ground until August, September of
'27. So, I like options three and four. Yeah. Build my own auditorium. Shift it, but... You don't feel like that makes a difference when you're coming in back here? I feel like it's farther out- Mm-hmm ... than it is- Yeah ... in these. I kind of like that the parking lot is here and you're walking up to the entrance there, and the auditorium's right in front of you and how it's laid out. And if you notice on all the drawings, we're kind of looking at one right now. Let me tell you about one. So if you look at option one, bottom of the picture, you'll see that arrow, right?
That's the parking lot, the teacher parking lot that you know of, right? So there'll be a roll-up door there that'll go right through that scene shop and right on stage. So that is awesome for when you're trying to bring sets in and that sort of thing. Whereas if you turn that, it makes it much more difficult to bring sets in. You're right. So that is something your drama teacher will love, or quite anyone, anytime you have to bring in any sort of equipment. And where are the restrooms for the- Well, the vestibule's here ... visitors? That must be a second entrance. Yep, they'll be right off. This is- Because I didn't see restrooms
... very sketchy. I don't know why they're so- The way they've done it is sketchy, right? It doesn't show all the restrooms, but they're right there off the foyer. Okay. So if you look at the yellow- Because before we had them way in the back. Yeah. I don't want them way in the back. If you see the yellow area around the auditorium, we're trying to ensure that that is a nice wide hallway, so when you walk in, it's literally an art gallery. So after performances, people can gather there. So I've already met with Steve Barker to look at what we could do for finishes on the walls too, where- I think it's nice and bright ... because we want when parents come to a show,
choir, orchestra, whatever it might be, they're going to walk through an art gallery to get into the auditorium. I like option one with the black box because if people are using that space, like outside people, let's say a lot of Indian seniors, they like to, instead of doing an open house, they'll do a dance performance. And so I know a lot of Indian families are going to Flushing or going to Goodrich to use some of that space. So, they could use this, and if they're coming in through where the vestibule is, that where they would
enter, it's straight ahead, so they can enjoy that lobby space. And then the black box is a really-- And then what you said about the unloading at the scene shop and then taking it right onto the stage, I think that hits two important- Right ... things to consider. The turning of it is, the option three and four where the stage is turned, and then they're walking all the way from the vestibule. Well, for three, well, that's not too far to the black box. But it looks like for three and four, you really would just have a lot of people going into that one entrance to the
auditorium. Whereas for options one and two, when you have the stage kind of closer to the black box and the scene shop in the back of house there, and not as close to the classrooms, you can have people going into the auditorium either way, and it kind of makes you walk down that hallway more. So you do have to see the art. Whereas it looks like, yeah, for three and four, you can just easily walk in and miss everything and... So it sounds like option one. You usually mean option one because that's where you guys are leaning towards.
So option two came into existence because they're just trying to keep kids on a day-to-day basis closest to the end of the 500 wing, if you will. So if you ever taught the 500 wing- Mm-hmm ... you would know that kids want to go to the end, and if they can walk and get lost in this PAC, they will. Mm-hmm. So if we can put the black box and everything closest to the end of the 500 wing, and with doors, separate that so they can't get lost. So we're still kind of exploring that. So where's the 500 wing? It's to the left.
To the left. Still between the two rooms over here? See the arrow right where your finger is? Okay. That's the hallway of the 500 wing. Your finger's in the 500 wing there. Okay. So, yep, we saw. Where's the entrance to the auditorium? The entrance is on the-- Option one, it's the top right, that red arrow. I mean actually getting into the auditorium. I think it's the yellow boxes around here. I don't think so, because then they'd be entering into the stage area on option three. No, they're not on here. Oh, okay. They're not on here. Okay, but it would be like the end of the au- Yes. Okay. Yep. Well, are there schools in Michigan that we look to in terms of
setups they have? Yeah, we've done some site visits. Right. Yeah. What we want to replicate and what we don't want to replicate. Or maybe mistakes they see, they make. And there's some elements here that no school in Michigan's done, which is important too, because we want to uphold our standard of excellence as well, so do it our, the way that we're accustomed to doing it, but. And it's not every hour. But again, these are just boxes on a page, so I don't want to get too lost in the weeds on it. They're going to continue to refine the design, and then we can
bring that back to you. I guess we just wanted to get your feedback, our Are we on the right track with our drama, band, choir? Mm-hmm. Where we're going with the design, what people seems to resonate with them. Does that resonate with you? You know what would be easier to figure out? Because it's really difficult just looking at these sketches. You know how when you watch HGTV, they have like-- It's like video. It's like staged, yeah. It's like a computer video- Oh, yeah ... walkthrough of what the space is going to look like. We will have that for you soon. With these options, we're just trying to
narrow the big stuff down, right? Do you want the black box theater on this side of the building or that side of the building? Which way do you want the thing to turn? So we're just trying to narrow down the big options right now. How many theater classes do you have? Is it one period once a day? No. Two periods once a day? Four. Four right now. Three to four. Probably. So we'd have four classes in the black box. Because I think logically it makes sense to do option one and keep it off to the black box off to the side that comes straight through from the community. But can the high school staff manage that it's just those theater kids heading
down to the black box? Well, one hour would be probably in the scene shop, back-of-the-house area, because it's tech theater. I actually like option three the best, because I think option three allows the most movement when people are done with performances. My concern with one, because the kids are all going to be coming out of the band, choir, orchestra room, is that the lobby's not going to be big enough, and all this part over here isn't-- No one's going to be standing there, because they're all going to be waiting for their kids right here. But this way, they're coming out here, and then
there's still this whole section of lobby. So I feel like it would be more likely for people to spread out around the lobby and wait, because their kids can come out here or here. That's true. That's my biggest issue with another local performing arts center, is that we're all crowded in one space waiting for kids to come out- That's a good point ... of the classrooms. We went to two performances this year. My biggest complaint was just the lobby was just an absolute- Yeah ... traffic jam. And that's the issue, but right here- Flushing and Davidson, and they're the two newest in the county
Yeah. But here, I feel like we'd- The theater design ... be using the most- They didn't consider us ... spread out of the lobby, because you can come out of both spaces. Where are they coming out of the other space? Well, they're going to likely be- Although it was how long it took to actually get the kids out of the auditorium ... setting up in the band room, the orchestra room, or the choir room if it's a choir concert, orchestra, or band concert, right? Mm-hmm. So then they could technically come out of either of these two spaces after the performance, versus in this one, I fear because all the classrooms are right here, that they would all be trying to come out just right there, and then all the parents are hanging out, because that's also the exit of the auditorium. Right?
Yeah, that's going to be crowded. And so they're all going to come out- Yeah ... plus they're going to all be waiting right there. If you take Swartz Creek, for example, it is exactly like that. The entrance to the auditorium is there. There's one exit out of the back of the house. Mm-hmm. And it just gets swamped, and the other side, like you had mentioned, is completely empty. Yeah. Yep. So that's- That's correct. That's what happens at the other one, is that no one comes out of this door because they're all waiting around here. But I feel like because the classrooms are down here, they would be able to use both of these exits equally, and then people would be more spread out. But aren't they going to be coming off the stage
at the end of the performance? No, they would go back and put their instruments away- Well, and that's what I like ... get their coats, all that. So they would actually be coming out of the classrooms afterwards. That's what I liked about three and four was- I left my pen right there ... it's like when you're carrying a tuba, you're carrying it from the band room all the way to the stage. That's kind of a long walk to have to walk in seating formation, whereas with three and four, well, with three really, it's just right there. It's not that far of a walk with your instruments. That's true. It is right very next to the stage. All three of those classes are right there.
Yeah. They just head to the stage. But three still has the black box where it's accessible to the public. Yeah. Right there. Yeah. But that doesn't fix the problem with the scene shop and bringing stuff from the sides- Right ... right in there. Right. From the big areas. I mean, four is kind of nice, too. Yeah, it just means that their classroom and the black box are going to be on opposite sides. Well, we have a workshop on August 10th, because I know time is of the essence here. Yep. And we can think about it. Well, why don't you guys, yeah, think about this. Yep. We can share maybe some of what they bring tomorrow, and then have the architects there on the 10th,
because we've definitely got to be- Sure ... well on our way to finalizing a design by Labor Day. Does he have any-- Does Ryan have any thoughts on any safety or security potential? He's brought up the glass on the outside. Right. But they said that they- Yeah. Those are things that we're discussing. But aside from that, no. Okay. So can you ask the architects about the flow both performances in the lobby and- Yeah ... what they would consider? We can do that. Okay. So we'll August 10th- Identically ... Linda, we can try to put that out for August 10th's workshop. Yeah. And we can tell them tomorrow,
because what was our-- We don't have a hard and fast deadline, but wasn't it Labor Day time frame? Yeah. I know it's also so minor compared to like, "Oh, where's the black box going to be? Which way is the stage going to be?" But I think wherever the bathrooms are as well is a big part. You don't see those in there, do you? Exactly. That's what I'm looking at. There's support spaces that we have to have- Yeah ... as well. And if you remember, they call them REUs, right? And you remember how many REUs, those are the toilets- Yes ... for the stadium? It was like 45 toilets we had to have in the stadium. It was ridiculous. So that's going to be a big support space we have to design.
Yeah, because that's kind of what my mind was thinking as well, was okay, let's say you have two performances, and you have a break in between. People want to go use the restroom. Yeah Where's that flow going? Concessions. We had a long talk about that because we build the ticket booth. Well, they do digital tickets, so we don't need a ticket booth, but do we need a space for storage and concessions? That's another support space. Cove trench. Cove room. Yeah. Cove room. Talk to dance teams, they want a lot of restrooms in the back. Right? Yeah. They're going to want- I mean, yeah. They're going to have their hands on 500 wing and get- Yeah. We'll be able to account somewhere else.
That bathroom is too far. Hmm? That bathroom, if you're accessing the 500 wing bathroom, that's a far walk. Well, but there's a woman's one close to the end of it. Is... Yeah. Okay. By the- But I'm not a woman. Not the very end of that hallway, but the next intersection, I guess. That's what I thought. Okay. So you guys are- No, I think we're good. I think this is a good conversation, and it's hard not to get into the weeds when you start seeing these things, and I can appreciate that. I think we've just got to see it a little more refined, and then bring it back to the house. Yeah. Does anyone else think that this is a little too
ostentatious or whatever the word is? Like a little too- No. I like it compared to the other one. Do you? Well, you got to remember, when we build the wings, it's going to move a little of the columns. It's going to have the walls up there. Because that's going to have to wrap down. This reminds me of a church. Yes. Yeah. So that's why we wanted to do a combo and see where we're at. Yeah. So my very question on that was the opposite. So they approved $150 million. They want someone when they walk into that building to be in awe. If it looks like a rectangle with seats, I think we failed.
Yeah. I agree. So I'm not saying it has to look exactly like that, but just somehow they got to walk in and be like, "Oh, wow." Wow. And I think the lighting in that image too makes it seem way more gold and woodland. No, I get what you're... It looks like you're at the Forum at Caesar's Palace or- Or something. Yeah ... you're in Rome or something. And I think the columns give that, but we're going to- Okay. We'll see what they come back with. Okay. Yeah. All right. Yeah. Okay. Everyone think about it. We'll talk about it another time. Okay, next. Old business, Neola. Mr. Egan. Yes, welcome. Second reading. This is a second reading, so there has been no change to our
new revised or rescinded policy. So I will make a motion that we approve the second reading of our new Neola spring update. Support. Is that new, revised, and, you got to do one for each. Oh, I have to do one for each? I don't know. I think you can just do one altogether. Okay. Okay. So that's for all three. For all three, got it. Okay. Any questions? Okay. Yellen? Yes. Youngs? Yes. Fish-Nell? Yes. Lang? Yes. Nolan? Yes. Bricker? Yes. Kish? Yes. Okay, new business. So you'll see in your folders a brief memo that's basically on the record. The OAA wants the board to pass a resolution to accept our nomination
to the conference for the '27, '28 school year. So I'm recommending... Oh, it's in my folder. That's it. Here, I'll give it to you. What are we doing? Okay. Recommendation that the board accept the bid for Grand Blanc to join the OAA beginning in 2007. Right. 2027-2028. '27-'28. So I'm recommending that we pass a resolution to accept their bid for us to join the conference formally in the minutes. Okay. We'll take a motion. So moved. Director Deppond? Yeah. Support. Okay. Any questions? Is it just for the high school, or is it everything?
Just for the high school. Okay. Yeah. We're considering our options for the middle school. They don't technically have a middle school league. Right. But they want us to consider scheduling with them, so we're going to see where it goes. Okay. Just on the record, I'm just concerned that the Middle School League does not have softball, baseball, or swim. So if we didn't do that- Well, I'm not quite aware of that. I know Clarkston has swim, Oxford has- So then they're working around- But it's only the northern schools that we're talking. Oakland County doesn't have a Middle School League like Genesee County, where the whole entire county works collaboratively together.
They all go on their own. Okay. So we're talking about Lake Orion, Oxford, Clarkston. And could we still play some of the Genesee County schools, too? We could, yeah. Okay. So that's what we're coming from. So we're not going to get rid of those sports teams. We're going to figure out a way to have them come play. Is this to come into effect in 2027? Yep. It'll be a year from this fall. Not this- Nope. Okay. Any other questions? Yellen? Yes. Youngs? Yes. Fish-Nell? Yes. Lang? Yes. Nolan? Yes. Bricker? Yes. Kish? Yes. Okay. Superintendent feedback. Yes. So you do have a copy of my '25
evaluation feedback and review, and under the new law, I have to have a mid-year evaluation. So I know this is my fifth year of being evaluated as superintendent, going into my sixth. I've done this every year for the board. I did my entry plan, and then I've given you the feedback. Usually, I get it to you earlier than this point, but because I have to have a mid-year evaluation, we've bumped it to July the last couple of years. So the format's the same, and I can just run through each component. So there are six different components. What I try to do is codify and look at all of the
different narrative comments that you give me on top of my rating and look for trends. So I've highlighted some of those narrative comment trends in each component, and then I put my continued action for growth for this next school year, which I've already been working on. So component one was visionary leadership. I'm going to continue my work with my advisory councils. I've had requests from the boards to participate in advisory councils. So we'll make sure to send invitations and RSVP with Linda if you'd like to attend those. The steering committee retreat is something that we rebooted a few years back.
Last year, I think, was the first year, where when we have core team report, if action plans aren't being implemented, I wanted to have a mechanism for how do we keep that a living, breathing document. So we're going to continue to do that. And then continuing to include the board, illustrating student achievement, and I think our buildings have done a good job. Alice's department's done a good job, and I think, with the addition of Jenna and Alex, that's going to be a big help. So, component two, policy and governance. Continue to offer regular updates from my Bobcat Advisory Council. I try to bounce some of
those things off of those members. I also try to do regular updates at our council meetings on policy updates for our administrative team, talk about the data dashboards with our MTSS coordinator, with Alex, and then intermittently talking about our goals with the board in terms of midyear. And there is something else in here that I got feedback on, PLC. I know that the board's interested in hearing about PLC goal attainment, because I think at the end of the year you see the student achievement and their growth goals, and it's like, "I either got one, I got two, or I got zero," and you want to know maybe what they're working on.
So I was going to work with Allison on how, during that January timeframe, we can work with the administrative team on getting some information from the teaching staff on where they're at in their progress toward their PLC work. And we're starting with our administrative team this year. That's our focus for our instructional leadership PLC, is to reboot PLCs, and we're going to be spending a day and a half at our August retreat. So the new deputy, we've been going off-site, we've been doing all this ra-ra team building. She's staying in Grand Blanc, in the lecture hall, nose to the
grindstone, and we're bringing in an outside speaker. But I give her credit, it's long overdue. But yeah, we're going to be doing that starting in August. Who's the outside speaker? Vicki Wilson. She's worked with a lot of other county schools. Yeah, we have worked with her for a few years now. So Vicki's working with a lot of other county schools with the county-wide goal. So we're happy that we're going to bring her in for our leadership team. We're going to start at the top and then work back to training our staff because we've had a lot of changeover in the last 15 years since we've done PLC work. I love that you're starting with the
administration because they are building instructional leaders, not just building managers or- Yes ... and I think I'd love to see that focus district-wide as them all being instructional leaders. Yeah. Because I know we evaluate you, but then that can just build up. Yep. I agree. Instructional leadership, so continuing to focus on presentations around student achievement. I know our buildings all brought an element of that to you this year, which was intentional because we want to continue to have the conversation, not
just around our progress on M-STEP or SAT, but also our internal assessments with Northwest Evaluation Association, and then some of the changes we've done with our MTSS process because we're trying to streamline that. And that's one of the things in our district that I love, we're resource rich in Grand Blanc. Our teachers that have worked here their entire careers, sometimes they get the spoiled child syndrome because they don't want for anything. They have so many resources available. But then in the flip side, which is great,
we sometimes have fidelity issues with how things are implemented. So I know that we're working intentionally and trying to make sure that the intervention process at Reid is the same as it is at Brendle, is the same as it is at Indian Hill in creating fidelity, and that's always going to be something I think we're going to struggle with somewhat, just because we're such a large system. But it's something we're definitely aware of. In that podcast that I sent out to the group, they were talking about the third grade reading and the dyslexia law and the trainings that they're getting, and it is a
multi-group. To make it successful, there are several parts that must be implemented with fidelity, or it won't work, and that is huge. And I know it doesn't have to start until '27, '28. Mm-hmm. Okay. Is that right? Along with Vicki working with us on PLCs, she's also consulting with us. She works for the state, and she's going to come in this year and work with all of our elementary principals on a plan for implementation of our new curriculum so that it is done with fidelity in all the buildings.
And every marking period, we're going to do a different focus, but the first focus, everyone's going to have exactly the same thing. And she, along with Jenna, are going to meet quarterly with all the principals, too, individual meetings, and then we're also meeting all together as a team. So I think more than ever we've been before, that we will be more in alignment, and then we're going to take this process and do it at the middle school and high school the following year with disciplinary literacy. Artificial intelligence, that's something we're continuing to look at. We're participating in a task force at the county level.
We have Tim Stein, Zach Hamilton, Alex, Jenna. They all represent the district, and then they're bringing information back to us to do some work internally with our teaching staff. We're going slow with this. I know there's a lot of anxiety out there about artificial intelligence, but in the same respect to the last bullet, we also have an opportunity and a commitment to our kids to prepare them for jobs of the future And you've heard me talk about this before, with the potential development with this mega site in Genesee County and the
future of technician jobs in our area, we want to continue to work with the Center for Innovation at U of M Flint. Through innovative programs, we want to create pathways into career and tech ed, so that we're preparing those kids for those jobs, because those are going to be six-figure jobs. And I think we've discussed this before. They were projecting 6,000 jobs in Genesee County that our kids, they're probably in third or fourth grade right now, but we can put them on that pathway. So, and artificial intelligence is going to be a big part of that, whether we like it or not.
Because we had Nick Gasper, who is a Grand Blanc alum, and he's a professor at U of M Flint, and he's an expert in artificial intelligence. He said, "Everyone's worried about this sentient world where machines are going to like the Terminator." He said, "I don't see robots taking over jobs. What I see are people that are proficient with artificial intelligence are going to be able to do three people's jobs." So one person's going to, and I could see that we want to continue to work on that. So that'll be a topic. We have our retreat next week, and one of the things we always do at our retreat, we're going to Ligon, actually.
So I know we've talked about Ligon because we haven't been, I've never been to Ligon. Oh, it's nice. But our teachers, I think Ligon's kind of lost its luster a little bit, so we want to reboot that for our teachers. But one of the things we always do is we talk about board presentations for the year. So you're going to see artificial intelligence probably a couple times. Is there plans to talk to districts who are further along in their AI policies? I know maybe not in Genesee County, but outside. Yeah. Well, and the county is doing a committee, and I think you talked about that.
So they're trying to align all of us and to do all that work together. There are some county schools that are already farther ahead than we are. Not a lot, but a little bit, so we can also draw on what they've done. We pulled a little bit from what Goodrich has already done to help to set up the meetings that we have scheduled for this year with our internal committee, too. But Goodrich also paid for Smart Schools. Mm-hmm. Anyway, they paid a membership fee for every student and every staff member for next year. Just flat, it was $40,000. But I'm not so sure that we want to do that either if it's not vetted and
we don't have opportunities to train them. I think they were just using it as a resource. I'm hesitant about giving people resources that we're not really prepared to back up. Right. So I think that we're going to continue. How to use them. Yeah. All right. Communication and community relations. Continue with board memos, which by the way, board memo scheduled for summer. I had it this week, but because we have a meeting tonight, I'll have it for you next week. Okay. Communications coordinator with Andrea and parent advisory council, trying to promote our individual programs and the opportunities we have for our families.
We did have the job fair. That was something I put in this before we actually implemented it. We're talking about the personal branding activities with the chamber for our NIL opportunities for athletes, so that if there are local businesses that want to promote a certain individual athlete, they know how they can do that. And then we had our second year of the RAD program. That's been very popular and I think well-received. So just some other examples of things we're continuing. Organizational management in our advisories, having meetings with our underperforming buildings.
We run the numbers based on socioeconomic status, demographic status, and student performance, and we do have some of our buildings that are not measuring up based on that data compared to other buildings. And we've been having those conversations with those administrators. They've been putting plans in place to make improvements, and we've seen some of the benefits of that. Trevor, are you talking about testing? Testing. I'm just wondering, I have a question about that. The way schools, and this is a general question, not specifically about Grand Blanc. The way schools have been talking about their top 10 students or top 20 students or whatever,
I'd be real interested in knowing how the bottom 10, bottom 20 are doing. And that's, I think, the point that I'm trying to make with this, is that the growth of students is something we have to look at as well. Because you have someone that's in the bottom 10th, they might get to the 50th percentile. That's a ton of growth. And you could be a student that's in the 96th percentile and go to the 98th. But we laud over the kid that grew two points, not the kid that grew 40 points. So I think that that demographic data is important for us to consider, where the kids are in our system on their journey-
Right ... and are we growing them? I'm just wondering, in Grand Blanc, what the trend is in terms of say the bottom 10% in terms of testing, what our trends are over recent years? Yeah, we could look at that. Yeah. We definitely could look at that. Well-- Oh, sorry. Didn't mean to interrupt. Well, no, there's this term that I always find interesting, it's called beating the odds. The state will, and the county will talk about schools that are beating the odds, and they're usually schools that are Title 1, at-risk, but they're performing at a high level for kids. And I think those are the schools that we want to model. And not to say we don't want to push our AP kids and our dual enrollment kids,
but I think those are the kids that we're trying to grow at a quicker pace than maybe some of the other ones. I was just going to say, when the schools come in and present on some of their data, that's the part I love to see, is the growth that they've made, and not necessarily that they've got great numbers. That the growth is a big focus. Yeah. That'll work. Student advisory, kind of underperforming. Capital improvement plans. With the logistics of our capital improvement plans are keeping Jeff and I up at night. There are so many facets to this thing. And you can see, just like the example he showed you today about us intentionally using the band room to occupy the tech office.
It's an existing footprint. It's more effective, it's more efficient. It's going to cost less money. Right. Mm-hmm. Well, there's going to become a time where we have to move central office to create lay-down space. Early as '29, maybe even as early as '28. And we've been pulling our hair out about where do we go, because commercial rental spaces, I can't remember what it was. It was going to cost us $50,000 to $60,000 just to rent for a year. But we'd have to rent a year in advance. We'd probably have to put $250,000, $300,000 into it so it would meet our needs. And I think we've landed on, and this isn't official, so I know we have a camera
here, but I think we've landed on central office is going to go to the Myers portables for a couple of years. It's just an existing footprint. It's a large footprint. We have a separate, not totally separate, but parking area. There's drops, there's phones, there's computers. We might have to tweak some things for the welcoming of people that come up to the reception area. Do we have a boardroom there, a place for our council meeting? But I see that being a very efficient way for us to- Until ... until we, well, we'd move the students out into the new addition, and then we
would go into that space while Perry was being constructed. And we could do a boardroom here at East like we did- We could. Yeah. But those rooms are 14, 1,600. Those rooms are huge. Okay. They're not as big as this, but they're not a whole lot smaller than this room. Okay. So we could probably make that work. So that's, I think, where we're trending to, but we're going to continue to have those conversations because there's just a lot of moving pieces. Professionalism and ethics, and we have already started the Leadership Academy with some of the turnover that we have, where our hiring process has changed a little bit as far as when
we're going out to market to look for new staff, because we're trying to get classically trained teachers out of teacher prep programs, and we're having more luck with that. And then just continuing to promote our programs. And then the last page is just the student growth and assessment data. But I'd just like to give this to you, and like I said, on the record with the law you guys have, you don't have to give me a rating. I think it's just got to be part of the minutes that you did my mid-year review. And then, as always, I'll have my evidence. I update it throughout the year, just before Thanksgiving, so that you guys can collaborate on my ratings for the December board. Do we need a motion being accepted?
I don't know if they did a motion last time. I don't think so. No, okay. I think it's just part of the minutes that the mid-year review took place. Okay, perfect. Thank you. Information reports. I'm good. I've talked enough. Have a great summer. Our retreat is three weeks from tomorrow. Mm-hmm. Office is open, reopen- Oh, gosh ... three weeks from today. Oh. So it's- Summer's not over yet. No, I know, but we were talking-- They didn't want to hear that today at Cabinet, and I thought, I know. Oh, my gosh. It's here. Goes faster. Yeah. Okay. Board member reports. Who want to start anything? Nothing for me tonight, thanks. I don't have anything either.
Just that I really enjoyed the GB shout that was in the Genesee View. Andrew did an amazing job, and it looked great, and I just think that there's some amazing things that are going on, and I just want to scream it from the roofs, and I hope that everyone got a chance throughout the community to look at it. So. Thanks. Brian? Nothing for me. Ethan? I just want to say make sure that you remember to sign up for your classes for the Current Press. Sign up early. I've already signed up for mine. And since tomorrow is
Michigan's only president, President Ford's birthday, his 113th birthday, I want to read a quote of his that aligns perfectly with our new bond. He said, "Music education opens doors that help children pass from school into a world around them, a world of work, culture, intellectual activity, and human involvement. The future of our nation depends on providing our children with a complete education that includes music." So President Ford said it best with our new bond that we just passed.
We need to highlight music in our education, and I'm glad that we're able to do so. Thanks. Anything else, Ethan? No, I'm done. Brian? I can't talk today. Do you have anything from county? I don't think that- No, county's- And then just one thing, Jeff and I have been working with GB Grid. So just to give everyone an update, Joni, Liz, and Jeff applied for a grant, and so we're going to try to do this biking club at Indian Hill. And we were talking today with Joni and the fifth grade teachers.
They went to camp last year at Indian Hill and found out there was a lot of kids that don't know how to ride bikes. So they asked for donations for bikes so the kids can ride bikes around the track at recess and everything while they ride. So Joni is going to work with Tim Stein to get some bikes there, but then they're also going to be trying to create a biking club. And if you ever heard of a bike bus- Mm-hmm ... where the kids gather together and pick up people along the way and bike to school. Mm-hmm. So there's going to be a couple staff members that are going to get paid through
the grant and do that, and Indian Hill seemed like a good fit to do this because it has a neighborhood there. So we'll try it out and see where it goes. Great. That's exciting. So it's just starting this school year. Mm-hmm. So they're going to do a safety rodeo they call it, and talk about biking and rolling and pedestrian safety, and then they're going to do a couple bike buses and help the kids ride their bikes. Trying to include kids that don't live in the neighborhood, too, that have a drop-off point that they could join in. Just trying to get the kids outside and enjoying biking to school. And do we have enough bike racks?
And that's something Tim's going to look at and make sure that we have all that and- I was thinking bike helmets. Well, and the locks. Yeah. We need to make sure we have the locks. Right. And I think they talked about, I can't remember if we could, because there was talk about helmets and locks and bikes and everything. So they're working on that. I'm sure there'll be some bumps in the road, but it's kind of cool. That's neat. So I just want to make sure the board was aware. Okay. No public comments. Future meeting is the workshop on August 10th, hopefully back at the Perry Center board room at 6:30. And with that, the meeting is adjourned.