##VIDEO ID:EVHBG5L9F8c## school board meeting for Monday December 9 2024 and we will start with our role M Davis here Mr Ren present Miss Lewis is here uh Miss Bon here Mr Rodriguez here Mr Ross here miss shaki here miss Wade she's in the parking lot she's on our way now she's on her way okay Miss Williams is here present we have a quorum all right wonderful next we need approval of our agenda items uh all in favor of the agenda please say I I I any oppose same sign I'm not sure why that happened okay so we have approved of our agenda um first up is celebrations Dr Roby all right so good evening everyone we are excited to share some celebrations um we're going to first begin with the 2024 superintendent and board holiday card so if I can have Mr van um come up to tee us up related to our holiday card get a little Tex support sounds like a very ominous arrival did you cause that did I think so [Music] on all right that [Music] works all right before you go I'm going to ask our Tech Team to kind of address this with the feedback [Music] please check all right good uh Dr Roby president Williams board uh it's great to see you I'm really excited to um introduce this year's holiday card um a little bit about the holiday card um Scholars from 23 different grps schools submitted works of art to this year's card uh Scholars uh 54 original works of art were selected out of over 80 submissions Scholars from koite creative arts Academy's Honor Choir performed and produced the song All Around the World under the direction very capable Direction of music teacher uh Miss Deborah Perry uh grps Communications Department visual content manager Evan Leonard mastered the final video production and without further Ado I'm excited to uh I I realize you guys don't have a video monitor so the the video content's behind you let me get this and I'll queue up her video [Music] all around the world they're singing happy holidays s the Bells Are Ringing all around the world today from to sou from heart to mouth music feels our ears from east to west we feel the best winter time is here all around the world there singing happy [Music] holiday the Bells Are Ringing all around the world [Music] [Applause] [Music] today from Desert R to mountains High music fills the air from fields of flowers to high Towers music everywhere all around the world they singing happy all the bells are ringing all around the world today [Applause] [Music] from country Lan to crowed trains music fills the sky from to musicl all around the world singing happy H all the bells are ring all around the world all around the world they singing happy holiday the Bells Are Ringing all around the world [Applause] today all around the to [Music] [Applause] happy holidays Wonder thank you Dr Obi and Bor for that you were able to make that last scene we appreciate that SC too um as you can tell lots of schools lots of Creative Energy I mean 54 works of art that's hours and hours and hours and hours of work up there and we couldn't be prouder of the scholars and uh the art teachers and the music the KO music team and the KO honors choir and the kids that were involved in that production um they all received invitations uh the teachers receiv received invitations and through uh the teachers Scholars and families received invitations and we um have some here and so oops hold on on there we go um I'd like to St um anyone uh involved in this if you're a scholar artist scholar musician art teacher music teacher participated the creation of this year's card please stand up and be [Applause] recognized thank you very much thank you thank you Mr vanel and to our artists and musicians and vocalists thank thank you for sharing your talent um it's just always beautiful to hear the voices and see the talents of our young people so we certainly appreciate and applaud you our next celebration I'm going to invite Mr Chad Nielson up um as well as the Kanas Club annual dictionary um team up to share their generosity uh good evening Dr Robi uh president Williams and members of the board uh it is my pleasure to introduce a longtime Community partner of ground reps Public Schools U this here is Mr Jan TR he is the Kanas Club president the golden K Kanas Club president um for the last 18 years they have done some awesome work in with with schools across West Michigan donating um dictionaries to third grade students uh they've donated over 25,000 dictionaries to date um and this year they were were able to donate uh 1115 dictionaries to our third grade students um across 63 different grade 63 different classrooms so um we want to extend a thank you and a celebration to our to our awesome Partners at Kanas and at this time I'll I'll give Mr Jan an opportunity to speak well thank you very much and we uh certainly have been blessed to be able to do this for 18 years uh I trust that all of you have received maybe this uh little pamphlet this year we are dedicating our distribution of uh dictionaries to Dr John pilman veteran of World War II we just celebrated his 100th anniversary or I shouldn't say anniversary but his birthday and uh he was uh hopefully going to be here tonight but uh it just isn't working out the way we had hoped but uh he was a navigator on a B7 bomber in World War II and uh received an honorable discharge from the military and as we approached the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II uh we thought it would be very appropriate to honor him with this distribution and and as has been said over 18 years we've distributed 25,000 of these dictionaries to the third graders of Grand Rapids and one of the things that we appreciate about these dictionaries is that other than just being a dictionary there's a gazeteer on the back which gives them information about all 50 states in our country biographical sketches of the presidents of the United States periodic table which I suspect they're not going to be using too quickly but there's a lot of information in this uh uh publication and uh we're very pleased and happy that we can do this for them on a yearly basis thank you thank you thank you thank you so much thank you thank you for your care concern and and certainly um a happy Centurion um celebration for your colleague 100 years that's that's a milestone so thank you thank you all right next we have our report from our schol representative we have um Fabiola with us tonight do you have something you'd like to report yes I do oh okay I didn't see you comeing okay um well first um related to the superintendent student advisory Council um over 500 scholars in grps have identified with issues of homelessness and the advisory wants to raise awareness and remove these barriers um at one of our meetings members from the grps office came and presented and and um which led them to updating the informational fly related to homelessness and now there's a scan code so you can be served more efficiently um on Wednesday this Wednesday we will be volunteering at Mel CHS and to say thank you to the children and the families of Grand Rapids and also to give back to the community also related to city um city just recently hosted a blood drive on December 3rd and it had a great turnout and we were able to reach our um our goal amount of blood donated also the be ni Club at city is hosting their annual pizza party and um this pizza party is to get um City students uh together so that they can meet others and it's also a way to raise awareness about mental health and also the fight the stigma that comes with mental health at Ottawa Hills uh the girls varsity basketball team they had their first two home games and they won fortunately against West Michigan Aviation and Kelloggsville and they also be competing against North viw tomorrow so make sure to tune in thank you so much and then we also have Miss Rema so so no remma if you pull the microphone a little closer please okay so Union um high school we are hosting a holiday celebration for the first graders this Thursday where we have about 300 first graders come in and each one would be sorry each one would be paired with a um a high schooler and they will have a a couple hours of fun where they do cookie decoration get to know Union High School's building a little bit and get a t-shirt that says future Red Hawks so that's really nice and then homecoming for uh Union One amazing we had it's we were told that it was the best homecoming so far so very much thank you to student council for that and then Union High School is hosting another blood drive on February 19th so if anyone all all appointments are available if anyone wants an appointment just talk to Miss nean thank you very much and we are at our first opportunity for public comment on agenda items only um Kathy um you can read us in if there are individuals present wish to address the board please fill out a public comment card located at either entrance of the auditorium please read the rules on the back of the comment card concerning policy and procedure we have two public comment sections on the agenda the first one is public comment on board agenda items the second public comment opportunity is for commenting on non agenda items related to the business of the school district individuals must completely fill out the front of the card and indicate specific business on which they wish to comment please submit the completed card in the bin on the table at in entryway of the auditorium our board assistant will collect the cards we ask that speakers refrain from making abusive statements against board members employees volunteers or contractors speakers are encouraged to present these complaints um to the uh appropriate process established under board policy 9450 individuals will be invited one at a time to the podium to address the board before beginning your comment please State your full name and at that time we will start the timer and each individual will be given 3 minutes to make their comment a one minute notice will be provided by flagging this red card and you will need to complete your comment time upon being notifed that notified that 3 minutes have passed board members do not respond to public comment concerns will be brought to the attention of the appropriate staff we value your input and thank you for sharing all righty our first person is Lucas Leverett and um oh actually that's not true um Josiah Robertson are you still here and then Mr lever you'll be next we have our scholar that's going first first okay thank you my name's my name is jiah Robertson my name is Naomi Charlton you have to speak really close to the mic please hello and good evening our names are Naomi Charlton and Josiah Robertson we are seniors at Union High School and before we start we would like to say thank you to the superintendent fellow board members and our principal Mr Russy for giving us the opportunity to express our concerns regarding the rapid busting sorry I'm going to interrupt you we can't can't hear you can you speak just a little bit louder please do you want me to start over please yes please hello and good evening our names are Naomi Charlton and Josiah Robertson we are seniors at Union High School and before we start we would like to say thank you to the superintendent fellow board members and our principal Mr Russy for giving us an opportunity to express our concerns regarding the rapid busing while the busing are convenient direct and provide transportation to and from school there are a few concerns we want to present to you today the buses are extremely overcrowded students are squished in and unable to hold on to anything for support which is very dangerous these conditions also create an uncomfortable position for students having to be squished up against each other for a long bumpy bus ride to and from school on routes to school if the bus is too full the bus drivers will skip stops leaving students behind when the bus is become too full after school students are left behind at the school having to find another way home as a result to this issue students would do whatever to take to get to the bus first whether it's leaving class early without their teachers permission or sprinting out of the building and down the hill where the buses are parked students should not have to risk their safety riding a overcrowded bus or feel the need to Sprint down a hill in snowy or icy conditions just to get a spot on the bus additionally students should not feel the need to miss out on any instructural time in the classroom just to secure a ride home if there were enough buses provided for the number of students that takes them home then none of the issues above would be would be present we would glad be join any conversations to brainstorm ideas to resolve these problems thank you thank you thank you next we have Lucas leveri and Matthew Marlo on Deck all right uh there was some great art work up there uh for that ecard it's really great stuff thank you guys for showing that to us uh good evening Lucas lever grps parent thanks to AWA Hills for hosting us this evening thinking about the uh purchasing agenda addendum tonight but first I'd like to thank board president Williams I'd like to thank you for extending an olive branch of an apology for illegally skipping my opening comment back in October which caused my opportunity to apologize for a few of my own parts and some escalated tension to get missed Miss Williams you shared with me that your agenda software created Confusion And even today I've noticed that it continues to be useless and illegible on a mobile device yet another tool from yet another overpaid vendor getting rich on our tax dollars while failing as I stated in the email when accepting your apology I hope that you and others will insist that this vendor fix things or fire them speaking of overpaid vendor ERS there is an example in tonight's purchasing agenda addendum you're about to hand over more than 300K to Power School makers of aborted lackluster tools parents and teachers already struggle with daily and this time it's apparently for a Time Clock Solution that's a lot of money I'll tell you a quick story I solved this problem once at a job in the past I kept the money inhouse while developing a career opportunity for my employee and saving my employer at the time about 30k by developing our own solution using open- Source technology also in your purchasing agenda agendum there's another indicator that it's 2024 and you're still playing catchup on basic school security Tech this is nice to see but the lateness remains concerning I believe we should see the new board next year demand an audit about the state of play for all security Tech and related programs and initiatives thank you for this opportunity tonight good evening and next we have our secretary's report no report no Matthew Marlo oh I'm sorry Mr Marlo thank you good evening president president Williams Dr Roby distinguished board members um I'm Matt Marlo G president I just would like to address the board regarding hiring and resignations yes there is a national teacher shortage however the number of vacancies in grps is higher than our surrounding districts um today is December 9th and the agenda shows um from December 3rd the Personnel transactions and I just noticed that the there are three hires for professional staff compared to nine resignations um the supply of professional staff is low nationally while the demand is very high competition is a challenging Endeavor when it comes to hiring Personnel so I'm just asking what can the board do to influence and encourage people to apply to grps what can the board do to keep education professionals at grps the need for staff that has direct contact with all of our students needs to increase each vacancy results in students that miss out on instruction and miss out on learning mental health and physical health improvements we have special education services School psychologists social workers as well as mental health services that are key to components to helping students and supporting our families just ask the board if we could take a more powerful approach to attract School Personnel to apply to work and stay at grps our students need and deserve this thank you thank you Mr Marlo to see if you double check my cards all right then we have our um committee chair update ad hoc facilities committee I thought there's no com there's no uh report tonight okay and um I'm sorry committee chair for ad hoc Miss shaki all right good evening everyone um we had an ad hoc facilities committee meeting in November and um had a presentation on EDS specs which has been a topic that we've had at this board table for a while um that presentation was by Whiteman the um AE firm working on our new um Aberdine Elementary School to be named later um and it was a great overview of what an edpc is so an edpc Bridges the gap between educational programs and facility design and it reflects the community's vision for education education specs result in improved learning environments efficient uses of resources Equity across the district and Community engagement so um we engage with Whitman a bit about the process and uh would assume that you'll hear more about this in the oncoming months um we we even talked about uh potential board policy should we go down the road of creating a districtwide edpc uh to refresh that on a frequent year basis um we also got a presentation from the district on our reimagine dashboard and the inclusion of a bond dashboard so that uh our community and our staff can uh update themselves on our construction projects including budgets Who The Architects and general contractors are uh Community meetings that have happened or are happening progress meetings during the construction process and progress photos uh those will be updated either bi-weekly or monthly as we begin that process um and lastly we discussed a policy I'm sorry a for rather uh that the district is going to create for us to begin to uh receive interest in our unoccupied buildings um that will allow us to begin to allow the board the future board uh to sort through decision-making around how we will best utilize our unoccupied buildings and that's my report all righty I believe you have the next report as well for finance I sure do do yep so we um met just a few weeks ago for finance um we had just three agenda items our purchasing agenda a donation uh report and our financial reports happy to take questions on the purchasing agendas during that point of the board meeting um I'll just note from the donation side uh just a huge thank you to xq who continues to support uh Museum high and our district uh they've granted us I think over $300,000 for professional learning for our Educators uh this summer so just a huge thanks to ex than you all it's my report thank you um next we have um a report from the grand rabbits Public School Foundation Dr Roby so I'd like to invite up Miss Stephanie Andrews good evening superintendent Williams the board haven't been on the stage since I was in high school so this is fun I just want to share uh some celebrations of uh collaboration with Turkey Trot we had 64 Runners register for our race over Thanksgiving and thank you to all of you who showed up and uh Tred before you enjoyed your Thanksgiving dinner we raised 102 $2,000 in sponsorships and we raised $182,000 in runner registrations and that all goes to grps sports so we're really thankful to our community for showing up uh largest 5K in West Michigan and it was really beautiful if you're able to see it I want to share that we approved $25,800 in uh Teresa weatherall Neil principal funds as well as teacher mini grants and that gave 37 grants out to the district um to teachers and PR principes Additionally the board has approved $425,000 in funding for sports Arts music and minig grants this year and our goal is to work to raise that money this year and home hopefully we'll be able to raise a little bit extra to be able to meet the needs and just want to invite you to mine share which is coming up on May 30th at JPS University and we're going to have a field day theme for that event and and uh we'll be working on sponsorships for the beginning of January through that date and lastly we are welcoming three new board members to the foundation board uh Dr Lisa Lowry who I believe is in the building tonight kicking off the Ottawa Hills uh Mentor program alumni Mentor program uh Jal Eddie who has children in the district and Lisa low is actually a lum of out Hills as well and reard Ross will be joining us on as our a board member starting in January as well so that is my report tonight so thank you so much job well done job well done yes um if you were at the Turkey Trot two weeks ago as I was it was cold but once you really once you start moving it's like okay you can kind of get used to it so um also a shout out to Stephanie and your team as well as our athletic department and our security team who were there I don't think people realize at like 2:00 in the morning um while the rest of us were still sleeping a little bit and so just Kudos and thank you for the level of commitment that you um have given to grps and the the residual of how it impacts our our young people and our community overall just from a spirit of gratitude we are thankful to have that partnership with you thank you it's really important for you to hear how impactful this work is not just only for our students but for the district as a whole um and also how many surrounding schools um and students that are not represented at a grps that intentionally participate in this race to help us and so when you think about a regional approach to some gaps in what we have in the district um this community shows up and shows up well continuously and so just thank you for your team to work that you all have done continuously that um allows this to shine and be a beloved event in the community so thank you if you can um send us information on how to be connected to the alumni um Mentor group not I'm not Ottawa alumni but I know many that might be interesting it's alumni and community so all are welcome okay yeah everyone everyone can be that that's amazing I really am excited about that can I say one more thing I saw fabola on the course and I want to thank her for coming out um with a group and she was handing out water as well as a shout out to the Seaford PR team cuz they give tremendously to make this happen as well and my final thanks to our board members who've been serving this year it's been lovely to work with you as you are taking off and doing other things and I know we're welcoming new board members but thank you it's been a pleasure working with many of you miss Andrews before you go I just want to say uh on that note just a few personal thanks so this evening I left the City versus MLK 8th grade middle school basketball game uh where city was leading 16 to 10 and I just want to say a personal thanks for the impact you've had on my children in this District as they've had access to sports that they may not have had without the leadership of the foundation um we also ran the Turkey Trot as a family for the first time which was such a delight for us a new tradition as my youngest is able to uh well outpace his mother on the course and my fiance who's never run before ran under an 8 minute mile which is just unfair as I walked a steady 15minute Pace um thank you thank you for that um as a fellow nonprofit leader I also just want to say thank you to you uh it's it means so much when the work is personal and as an alumni in this District I know how deeply personal this work is to you I have so valued the conversations we've had about what more how much more could the foundation do to impact Europe yes thank you for your heart in the work of taking care of us thank you again next we have our superintendent report Dr Robi I'm going to invite up um Stephanie cismas um from Meli Merchant as well as John helmhold um from Seaford they're going to talk a little bit about our legislative priorities for 2025 and to just get the boards confirmation this is the right direction as we move into the 2025 um year Dr Robi Miss Williams and the rest of the uh board thank you so much for having us I know it's been a a while since we've been in front of you for a full legislative committee update we've been working very closely with our legislative committee members which I'm glad to see so many of you tonight and new faces as well so for those that um it's been about a year I think since I've been in front of some of you so my name is Stephanie simus I'm a lobbyist with Melby Merchant Associates and it has been a joy to work with grps and Advocate on your behalf and all of our kiddos and Lanay for over a year now since since I joined the firm um recently I've been very grateful and thankful um to have John helel join in our legislative efforts John is as you know um a good friend of grps and has been on the ground for some time so when I'm in lanan it's great to have eyes and ears in gr and uh vice versa we can chat while I'm in laning so um with that we fight like brothers and sisters too he's the best big brother I've never had so um with that Johnny want to say a few words before we kick it off yeah no we just want to um we're going to go through and provide a legislative update um we're were in lame duck session as I think many of you know um the election outcome was such where the uh Democratic party lost the majority in the state house and so we are anticipating we we weren't sure if this was going to be a lame lame duck or if it's going to get a little a little zesty with some sauce and it's starting to get a little zesty with some sauce so far it's been pretty lame it's been pretty lame but as Stephanie's going to go through we're starting to see some movement some we have some concerns but we also have some opportunities in here and then um later on your agenda you have your legislative platform this is I just well I'm going to come on it now this is largely related to um the your past platforms ones that we've worked to consistently maintain that core message that core approach that you as a board have directed us to take it looks largely the same and and we'll walk through it but know that that's an action item later on in the agenda so to kick things off just a little bit of run a show here um as John had mentioned it's lame duck season in lanan just to briefly explain what that means right so he had touched on that the house had flipped we had a dumb trifacta the governorship the Senate and in the house the house flipped so when we see that we see the party that lost majority want to try to push through as many action items as they can before they return in the minority and that is through the end of the year until that new calendar cycle starts in the New Year and that new majority comes in um due to yeah a little closer Stephanie due to some attendance issues they haven't been able to run a lot of democratic priorities that we've anticipated them to be running and that includes the last couple of weeks however we have been told that they are going to be at full attendance this week and we expect a lot of those dumb priorities to really start moving in our legislative committee I'm going to call on you in a little bit too for some updates on where you think um just feedback on some of the bills that we've met on and those are starting to move so with that I am we're going to I think switch a little bit and just quick through go through our legislative agenda and John's going to take the lead on that um so later on in the meeting you can take a vote on that and we can continue you forward using this so in your packet you should have a copy of the one-page legislative agenda and I'm sorry we don't have it up to display but your your key priorities here is to really focus on student outcomes teacher pipeline development I heard Matt talking earlier today during the public comment you know this has been a priority for this board as long as I can I've been around and looking at that teacher pipeline development to retain recruit and professionally developed teachers looking at an equity based funding formula which we've had some remarkable success over the years we're going to continue to push for that uh we are also we have a few supplemental related funding items that we are hoping to be able to push through yet this lame duck but uh and then of course in looking at reasonable policy reform um you know what really needs to be done we continue to push for increasing the foundation allowance fully funding the Learners based on the true cost cost of meeting their their academic social emotional behavioral needs uh adding uh 35% in funding for atrisk youth you might remember the Michigan school Finance research collaborative did an extensive study bipartisan by coll that came back and really recognized that we as a state are are really failing to fully fund and meet the needs of our highest needs student our highest poverty um High minority um highest need English Lang language Learners and we've seen progress but we're going to continue to push for that progress we need to sustain the mental health services in School Safety and Security again we're continuing to see some of that already and then we're going to support the the full funding as the study had showed so um later on in the agenda you're going to be asked to vote on this what this does is gives Stephanie and I a really clear guidance of where we can go to bat on the key issues you have state associations that are largely they they monitoring issues we're going to monitor those issues and really look at the ones that need to be prioritized by this board which is three to five maybe core key legislative and appropriation issues which is what we've been very successful on in years past now just add with that even um having this priority platform we still are in constant communication with several board members and our legislative committee members as things do come up and check uh in between with members and where you think you all are at or feedback on certain policies and we take those to the chair so please don't think this is our one and only you know touch plan is what we'll be engaging on but it just provides a nice umbrella for all of us to proceed with our day-to-day work and Lancing are there any questions about the legislative platform John I wondering about is does something that we can really support having kids have to take or fill out the FAFSA before they can graduate tell you what Kathy let's do this because we're going to get into the the the presentation in just a second so hold that question if you don't mind um you'll see Kathy just a separate sheet in front of you it's orange and blue it's a single sheet there's a single sheet in front of you it's orange and blue that's the legislative agenda priorities and then we'll go through those individual bills here I can't hear you that's right Kathy okay okay so Kathy this is just like the legisla a platform we've done in years past we this is our first chance to be able to bring it to you for your blessing it's been before legislative committee we've been kind of Shifting some committees Focus so we're bringing it to the full board for your blessing tonight and again this is it's it's largely aligned with with every legislative platform that you've approved certainly since I was here mrman yeah so I I do have a question on regarding the additional 35% funding for at risk students kn KN that um the psychological emotional needs of our students have been increasing request and concern um is a 35% ask the base of where you think it will pass um cuz I see the the demand for this to be a little bit higher so I'm just kind of wondering how did we land on the 35% yeah that that that 35% was actually outlined in the Michigan school Finance research collaborative as the recommendation for what percent increase in 31a was needed in order for to meet the at risk needs of Youth or meet the needs of atrisk Youth excuse me and I think Mr eatman too just uh a note you know politically um the reality is as we're going into a Split Chamber and what that will really look like when it comes to the full percentage of an increase so much above what has already been recommended I think would be politically difficult this next year that's what I was wondering thank you any other questions on the legislative priority sheet before we move into the individual legislation moving I have one additional question for a followup because I remember in the last um legislation meeting that we had um we talked about um going back to having a conversation with um the state for that um I don't remember the technical terminology for this I'm I'm going to piece it together I I think you'll know what I'm referring to with the new new teachers having that support that they have to have that would cost the district but they weren't any funding going into a bucket to support that regarding the first three years I'm sorry Mr Edan um we're having a little trouble hearing you with Clarity so if we could all try to over enunciate that might be a bit helpful for us tonight yes this is much much not the um it's difficult to hear in general so thank you for calling that out um in one of our last meetings we had a conversation in regards to the newly um State mandate with supporting new teachers for that first 3 years um for um I forgot what it was technically called that we had to pour money into the first three years of new teachers um and we talked about the aspect of there was it was a mandate but no funding support to support the districts in that request has there been any movement from the state to provide any funding towards that I just want to clarify was it meeting that we discussed for teachers or um certified Librarians in individual districts I think what you're referring to is the certified librarian program yeah yeah um we're actually going to touch on that in the legislative packet so I got you got thank you good question though any other questions on the legislative agenda okay we will um dive in here to lame duck issues that are moving um some of them have already moved this last week there hasn't been a lot of movement just because of the attendance issues that I had mentioned um one of the bills that we have talked about a little bit in the legislative committee already is um HB 4928 through 4930 so our mics are giving us a hard time tonight Miss Lewis I'm trying um HB 4928 4930 now so this is surrounding Motors running School Bus red lights and it is creating a camera system for school buses to use and it will produce a fine once um the individuals that are caught in a mut motor vehicle who fail to stop for an unlawfully passed um unlawfully passed or did not stop for a school bus and these fines are able to come back into the transportation department within the individual School District so these actually received a large amount of bipartisan support in the house and in the Senate one of the few bipartisan support bills we've seen recently and it's on its way to the governor's desk this coming week to be signed into law so we should be seeing these changes um next year and then the rest of these bills are bills that have not yet been um signed into law they're either moving or on their way so we'll break those down a little bit here um so one of the bills that is actually up in the House Education committee tomorrow morning it is coming from the Senate it's already moved through the Senate successfully is a bill by senator Paul hanky and it deals with attendance requirements for kindergarten it would modify the school Academy's PSAs to provide kindergarten and to require children in the state to enroll in kindergarten at the age of five and this would begin in 2025 through 2026 however there is an exception a 5-year-old's parents or Guardian could delay kindergarten enrollment for that child for up to one school year this bill would take effect after 90 days of its enactment of the governor signing it so it could have a pretty quick and direct um effect next year if this is signed into law um it would also require each School District or PSA that offered first grade to provide kindergarten and the code does not require a child under the age of N9 to attend public school so currently the code does not require a child under the age of N9 to attend public school if that child does not reside within 2 and a half miles of the nearest traveled Road of the public school this bill um would not apply and it would delete those provisions and that is as I said up in the House Education committee tomorrow it's fully expected to go to the floor and we should see that pass both Chambers and be on its way to the governor's desk the next one is one that the Senate um has spent some time on it has moved through the Senate and committee it's on the way um to the house committee where our legislative committee I want to thank them um because members and Dr Roby have taken time um to meet with the bill sponsor as well as representative Glenville from West Michigan and a large part of our grps community um has taken Senator Cal's bill Senate 463 for revolving fasta completion and she's working on several substitutes that will create waivers and exceptions for students to really ensure that we're not holding students back for not completing the fasta while still kind of putting forward a new state motto and expectation that it should be completed because Michigan was one of the highest states that we left pel grant money on the table because students did not complete the fasta in a high percentage so the intent um by the bill sponsor was very good but there were some um opportunities to improve upon waivers to make sure that we're accommodating all of our families and all of our kids and making sure that they can still graduate um high school and with that a couple of waivers right now which several of our legislative committee members brought forward to the bill sponsor as concerned so thank you um was if a parent parent can submit a waiver for just not wanting to or being able to a student if they're 18 years of age there's also alternative waivers a big concern that our committee members brought forward if parents um felt like they did not want to complete it due to privacy concerns that's an acceptable waiver now um as well as if there just is proven to be good faith effort from the student in the school to reach out to parents and it's still not yet completed there can be no acceptable waiver for the student to still continue onto graduation with that being said um representative glena has promised me that there are going to be lots of changes brought tomorrow in front of the committee with a sub so when that happens I will make sure that gets emailed out to all of you because I do know that this is a concern of many of our legislative committee members and board members but um from where this bill started to where it stands now I feel a lot better about it and making sure that our kids are not being held back if they don't complete it but just changing The Narrative of making sure that it's an expectation this reminded me a little bit of the third grade reading Law if you might recall when that legislation was first introduced it said if you don't don't pass third grade reading you're automatically held back and it you know it hit like a lead balloon and then we engaged with with the this board and members of this board and we able to get lots of different waivers and exceptions this is very similar to what's happening here and I just I you know applaud this board your fingerprints are on making this legislation better you know I think we all want to encourage the completion of FASA we want to get those numbers as high as we can get so we can get our fair share of federal dollars that are we're entitled to as long as we have those forms being completed so this is going to increase overall awareness engagement in helping to advance the FASA but it's not going to unduly penalize any family or or student who choose not to participate any questions on that before we move forward all right seeing none um another bill that is a lame duck bill it was recently introduced and it's moving very quickly it already passed labor committee last week and it's on the way to the floor this week and anticipated it to get over to the Senate the following and um it is house bill 6058 by rep Zong and it is a bill that will amend the publicly funded health insurance contribution act to increase the amount that public employees May pay towards employees medical benefit plans there are rising concerns around that because as many of you probably will remember um PA 152 came in as a pretty good rescue in for public education a a few years ago um longer than that but um we're able to you know re reset dollars to make sure we could meet um make ends meet and I'll just go right into the concerns of this bill that are already being expressed um as many of you know grps is a part of a larger umbrella called education Advocates of West Michigan which is made up of all the superintendents of missan and Ottawa and Kent County and a lot of those voices are being brought forward by their lobbyist and with in partnership in uh Unison with Melby and Merchant and so some of those concerns are that um the current law PA 152 in 2012 caps the amount of money a public employer can provide to the cover uh the cost of employee health insurance these caps adjust annually with medical inflation these caps also provide incentives for both employees and employers to find a broad menu of health insurance plans that are cost competitive and meet the diverse needs of employees the bill being proposed that would amend this would increase the employer amounts by 7% and change them from caps to employer minimum contributions after the employee wages employee benefits are the next largest expenditure for school districts a 7% increase in these expenditures would require cost reductions in other programs and services provided by schools with these Cuts most likely impacting students and staff members a 7% increase in health insurance cost roughly equates to $85 to $95 per student for typical Michigan school district um absent ongoing new revenues to cover these cost increases schools will be forced to make painful Cuts in order to balance annual budgets and we're predicting it could cost the state up to $150 to $200 million Statewide and um we did just you know a rough calculation that it boiled down to 1.3 million for our district here so that is one that we're watching very closely and pushing back on it does have legs so um I would encourage all of you to you know reach out to our local delegation and express your concerns especially um the districts that you individually reside in and um ask them to take some of those concerns into consideration Stephanie can you speak to um with lame duck and I know that this is a question that may be more predictive are there some that have more greater legs of being passed versus some that it's just a wish yeah most of the bills um as in all of the bills that I've included today are ones that I think have good legs and are moving um one at the very end that I'll mention um doesn't but I think it will in the next two weeks but I I went through and filtered the ones that we we think will move okay thank you I have one more question if I may yes are these the same kind of legislative priorities that we were asked as Michigan Association of school board members to decide which ones were the most important to us or is this not connected to something like that no I think different Miss Lewis these are just bills that are being introduced it's not is that what you're saying no I think these are different individual members bringing their concerns forward and and bills that would affect grps uh you want to take this one uh yeah the um House Bill 5741 um is what essentially would would mandate the creation of a first aid response kit for all schools um the um it's based on the stop the bleed uh was developed by two uh um um American college for surgeons committee on trauma that and this first aid kit would contain at least all the following a tourni kit bleeding control dressings compression bandages protective gloves a marker and instructions on the use of the kit uh the bill would add the instruction now required in uh CPR for pupils enrolled in grades 7 to 12 and for students who are able to physically participate the psych psycho motor skills necessary to perform CPR through the provision of handson training so essentially the the the main concern with this is it is currently would be an funded mandate um so certainly as we approach it the the hope would that be appropriation would be tied to this we're getting there I promise we have just a couple left it's a busy uh lame duck season with lots of Bills moving so um one that we had talked about in our legislative committee very early on about a year ago was a school safety package that was in the works it was a bipartisan package it stuck through being a bipartisan package with two DS and two Republican house members it did shrink in size um excuse me three and two um it was a much larger package it filtered down into what they really thought they could get across the Finish Line um you will see in front of you we have printed off the legislative analysis as well as the House fiscal um analysis for these bills that really break them down individually I didn't want to take a lot of time because they are very detailed but you can review these because um I do think we'll go through the the quick lines here but I do think they are on their way through successfully passing the house and the Senate and these are a reality that will be coming our way um with that being said the first bill house bill of 4095 it directs School boards to implement the standard terminology plan from 4096 and 4096 requires the Michigan State Police to establish a standard terminology ology plan for school safety the following bill by rep brain requires schools to have a behavior threat assessment and management team the following bill by rep mirman establishes the school safety and Mental Health commission and statute and it provides an an appointment structure and establishes duties and the final bill by rep deor updates references to reflect the school safety and Mental Health commission so I know those are all vague and they don't go into details so please um review that packet happy to connect with any of you individually about questions but it is quite detailed of the breakdown so I did not want to take um a large amount of time there and then so this is the one um Mr eatman that you were asking about that we also had a meeting with the bill sponsor and again just to Echo John I want to thank the legislative committee and Dr Roby for stopping up and taking time to have meetings with these Bill sponsors because as you can see um you know the proof is and the putting through some of those meetings and conversations changes haven't been made and they continue to be made so thank you um with this it is also a senator calary Bill who is the Senate education chair for the Appropriations Committee along with um a bill included by Senator Bayer and it essentially requires a certified School librarium in most public School libraries and as we had shared with the bill sponsor that this um we you know appreciate and want to support our libraries in our fullest capacities and our certified Librarians however just as there is a teacher shortage there is a certified librarian shortage and we also know that that comes with a large sticker price and right now it is an unfunded mandate as well so our ask was to either ensure that it is a funded initiative ongoing and not just one time so when the the legislation legislature changes that it may not be funded the fing cycle but it's still put into law and then we're stuck with the bill so that was heard I think well um and also in addition to we don't have a good pipeline we only have two schools in the state of Michigan that even offer the ability for certified librarians and we had expressed concern and desire to maybe work on improving that pipeline before we implement this requirement um this bill is one that has not yet moved it's still sitting in the Senate education committee but as we say in lame duck anything has the chance of moving so we're keeping our eyes on it because it is a concern but the fact that it hasn't moved yet does make me feel a little bit better that they're still looking at it and taking changes into into consideration but it's one that I wanted to bring forward as we have met with the bill sponsor and our committee thank you Mr Ean did that answer thank you finally we're ending with the the biggest one on the agenda so um as John had mentioned there is a supplemental a possibility of that it is often the last thing that will run in Lancing as many members will use the supplemental to negotiate on their other bills that may or may not move um to support and vote in favor of the supplemental budget so this is something that we would see right before Christmas and they go on holiday uh recess and return in a new majority in the house um with that being said we really um were not planning on going after much in the supplemental because it is often smaller and at the end of the year it's often just kind of making sure that the budgets are um dotting their tees and their eyes and and closing their books well however um it was brought to our attention many of you will remember the Michigan meals program that was recently passed with the Dum Trifecta to provide free meals for our students um and I know the board has been up to date from Dr Roby as well as Rhonda with our Partnerships with surrounding School District and due to those Partnerships and how the bill was written it affected um r3d and 31d funding and that resulted in a deficit um that we are fighting for in the supplemental to back pay to make grps in all of our partners whole so um John and I are giving it everything we have as well as our um local legislators to make that a reality um but I also urge you as board members on this issue to contact our local Dum delegation um and our Senator uh to make sure that they know that it's a priority for us and to hear from you I would just add on this this is there's a time when the state was really encouraging school districts to collaborate to look at you could how to do shared services and grps is is a model example of how we've leveraged our size in food service and and partnering with smaller School districts like East Rapids like West Michigan Aviation Academy a number of others to help um provide their meals um in in exchange for the services that we provide should in theory provide some level of of savings for the district uh unfortunately because of the language of the law for for providing free lunch for all it is penalizing districts that are providing schools meals um for other school districts and that that this is the law of unintended consequences uh we feel cautiously optimistic that we can get a fix um if not even an executive ruling on this um but uh minimum if not an executive ruling some type of a legislative fix but that doesn't solve the $1.2 million hole that we've got to solve for now and so the hope is is that we are able to um convince our delegation to advance this supplemental year with before the end of the school year um it is Christmas time we're hoping we're making a wish uh and we just want to emphasize um our your local delegation is really going to bat on this with that are there any remaining questions seeing none thank you all so much and for our board members that are outgoing thank you it's been a joy to work with you and especially the legislative committee I so appreciate your engagement your time and we're excited to continue to work for you and GPS thank you thank you you have thank you and Dr our final report is from Dean Transportation as you know that we've done portly quarterly excuse me reports um with our partners with um Dean transportation and so I'll invite Patrick and Christopher Dean to come up and to share what is taking place over this final quarter of 2024 and for them to highlight what are some things that are on deck for um 2025 good evening president Williams and members of the board thank you for the opportunity to be back in front of you this is a great um presentation we're we're excited to share tonight it's been one year since we uh did our first presentation and we truly are excited to be here and share some of the updates that we've had over the last year um first I just want to thank the board for its vision and its leadership as we've worked through the last year as we've addressed some of the things that we've talked about in front of you over over the course of several quarters now very pleased to the progress we've made including our student transportation advisory committee which a lot of the work is taking place and discussions are taking place in and we're going to talk about throughout our presentation so joining me is Kevin harkes um who Kevin is our regional operations manager Works closely day in and day out with our leadership team Bruce Grant and Rolanda Robinson who's randa's in the audience along with Brian Thrasher and then to my left uh your right uh Christopher D my brother uh our director of innovation who's going to talk a little bit about the things we have happening in electric uh vehicles and exciting news about uh what that looks like for grps going forward um before we get going I I wanted to thank Dr Roby for attending our transportation holiday gathering on Friday we had over 150 uh Transportation Professionals in the garage at grps Union Avenue uh we cleaned up the garage and had a nice uh Olive Garden meal and uh we had some uh small entertainment we had our lighted bus that was in the parade on on Saturday on display and it was a wonderful time and we appreciate the superintendent's comments to our our transportation team um and all the board support of our transportation staff day and nothing easy about the last couple weeks as snow has come a lot sooner than we anticipated and our team is is navigating that and ready for for the winter season even this week so as we go through our presentation I'm going to turn it to Kevin for a few operational updates and engagement updates we have going on in transportation thanks Patrick um so so first of all we hit these operation updates most of these if not all of them have been discussed in the transportation advisory committee and and where I want to start is with our field trip um electronic System trip tracker it has now been implemented across the school district um not just for athletics we did a a quick test with the Middle School athletics and it went very well so it has now been implemented across the board for athletics and academic trips and that seems to be going well as of right now there there's no um glitches or anything like that so it's moving along very well if you notice the sign City shuttle sign up there that is something that we did Pro proactively for many of our buses and they'll say athletic shuttle City shuttle Zoo school you know wherever that particular bus is going and we we did that for the Hub students um we we got a lot of concerns at the beginning of the school year that Hub students weren't what bus do I get on the bus changed whatever so that's a sign that we can easily display in the front window of the bus so when the scholars come to the bus say oh hey this is the city shuttle this is the one I get done so so they know what they're doing so that is something we've proactively done the next one I'm really excited about and we we've actually given them out and I'll get there in just a second um the zpass cards we have got an online sign up form now thanks to Luke Styer and his team they were able to get it started and and that is working well but one thing we did is we've started we've always measured but we started giving out um five gift cards every month and we did it this month um McDonald's gift cards to the five Scholars that used their past the mon so I can tell you right now um we had a sou and these might not be in the exact order we had a Southwest Community campus we had two CA Frost and we had a couple um from Union High School special ed students that we transfer who won the gift cards this year or this um month and we'll continue to do that each month moving forward um as we've always done uh we've been reporting our metrics on the 15th and I'll get to that on the next page and then we have a dedicated staff member Lisa Pearson who many of you know um is one of our transportation supervisors she is dedicated to working with Lucas and his team with the reimagine project as far as rerouting number of buses you know different things that Transportation would be involved in so that's been going really well um and then we continue to have the online feedback form which goes very well we started the first couple weeks of school you know W with quite a few requests and now we're down to maybe one or two a week so it it's going very well and that form is working wonderfully moving forward to the on Time Performance I'm not going to spend a lot of time here um because you guys have all seen this but other there to tell you this November was our best month ever since we've started recording this up to 93% on time um and again you guys can look at the breakdown of this um and there's you know quadrant breakdown and so forth on the dashboard on the website but I just wanted to point out that again things continue to improve Pro each and every month and again November was the best month so far hopefully we can continue that and kind of the last thing that I need need to and would like to talk about tonight is um some engagement opportunities that are out there for for community members uh Transportation advisory committee as we've talked about you know quite a bit we have uh quite a few members of that but we're always looking for new folks if you're interested you know the QR code is there you can scan in we've met a couple of times um we're meeting here um in a couple of days again on December 13th to have our our next meeting to go over some agenda items the transportation forums we had our first one this year it was October 29th at um Southwest Middle High and I don't know if this is good or bad we had one attendee so that could be good showing that you know there's not much out there to you know really deal with CU things are going well um you know that's how I'm looking at it um and then the online feedback forms which we just talked about that is going well and then obviously our technology that we continue to use here comes the bus and z pass the user usership is up um we we continue to use them and um we've made it easier to access there's FAQs and all kinds of those things on the website for folks to use as needed so I'm going to go ahead and turn it over to Chris for an electric bus update absolutely thank you Kevin uh you'll recall at their last quarter the update I provided uh a quick update regarding electric school buses so I'm here to speak about some exciting updates as it relates to that specific project just to remind you uh very briefly so in partnership with the district uh we were able to seek grant funding to support up to 15 electric school buses Our Hope and our goal is that those 15 school buses could be split evenly between the regular education operation and the special ed operation um two the there's two primary sources one is the EPA program which was uh over $5.1 million the secondary source is a a state of Michigan grant program that is used on top of that EPA program so when you combine those two um there's just about $6.6 million of funding right now as we sit here today uh we estimate the total project cost to be just about $7 million if you recall you you may realize that that is uh less than we previously discussed at our last quarter of the update and one of the reasons for that is a strong commitment from Consumers Energy they've absolutely been uh very involved in the planning process and this project has qualified for a Consumers power my fleet program project what that means is they uh the utility consumers uh has committed funding to upgrade the infrastructure what's called before the meter so anything uh coming into the property on if you have the slides up you'll see in the little overhead view um we've identified on the lot the best place for the buses uh to be parked and and charging stations to be installed but consumers has uh dedicated funding and and provided that uh to bring the additional power into the lot set the pole and bore underground to what you could generally call the charging station Island and so we're very pleased we worked hard with the grps facilities team our operational staff um electricians and others to really identify on the lot where would be most suitable to start with these 15 electric school buses so we've really spent a great deal of time on the the infrastructure assessment design and and the placement of the Chargers so the next steps on this um very shortly we should get the final quotes from the electric school bus manufacturer which obviously is a a big part of the project when that comes together we should be able to get very close to a a total uh final project cost so our goal continues to be that uh we deploy these electric school bus is in Cal year 2025 uh that will be uh next school year so school year 25 26 so A lot's going to continue to happen here as we we plan and and work on the infrastructure and on the lot improvements so with those exciting updates as it relates to Electric school buses i' turn it back to Patrick for some additional Innovations as it relates to a couple technology proposals thank you Chris and I also want to mention as Kevin uh discussed we we'll be um looking to hold another uh Transportation Forum in March of 2025 um for an opportunity for for more families and Scholars to visit with transport ation as another venue uh for communication as we finish our our uh last slide of the presentation we're very excited to uh share with the board uh that we have proposed and work with the administration on deploying um the start of camera systems on board uh school buses um so we have uh developed a proposal uh which includes state-of-the-art camera systems that are both uh cellular based and also Wi-Fi based camera systems meaning that any one of us at our desks with access could view as administrators or School uh building administrators could view the cameras remotely at any time but also allows for efficiency in how you pull data from the cameras how it's stored um how you can remotely view it um the old technology has typically been you go to the bus and you pull a hard drive or you pull an SD card from a camera system this allows us to manage at a global level uh for the the fleet uh of gr the size of Fleet of grps size um so we're very excited about this cam camera pilot program uh we have upcoming meetings with grps uh safety department along with other administrators on protocols processes and things that need to happen to uh to implement the initial batch of cameras and future deployment of camera systems um so we'll be beginning beginning this project uh shortly after the first of the year I'm very excited about it the second piece of our Technology Innovation is something that came out of our transportation advisory committee um as transport technology has evolved uh the use of tablet systems is becoming more prominent um there's a number of regulations and how they work how the screen turns on and off how it meets Michigan State Police inspection standards a number of those pieces um so we are going to be starting to implement uh several tablet systems uh that that work together with our route planning system to give drivers turn-by-turn directions on their route along with enhanced uh student identification so working with our card systems uh to have student pictures and IDs uh to assist our drivers on the road right now drivers may be referring to a piece of paper for the route sheet uh which can be challenging and so utilizing this technology to further enhance efficiency uh communication and performance within Transportation so pretty exciting Leap Forward for the transportation department um and these are initiatives that will be ongoing uh the remainder of this school year uh with further development uh in the future so very excited about these these pieces and again as I mentioned uh in my introductory remarks we appreciate the board uh we appreciate the administration Dr Roby uh for taking time to spend uh with our transportation staff this week we are also honored to present the the district with a um a a contribution from our transportation team to support Scholars and families uh within grps and uh appreciate the partnership this holiday season uh with the entire G grps team so thank you and we'd be happy to answer any questions the board has all right I'll go to this side first any questions colleagues I do have a question all right I got to be louded too um thank you for your presentation um this is just related to the last conversation we just had about um just kind of going on what's going on with the state legislature uh so House Bill 4928 4930 talks about buses being equipped with cameras um in case a car runs p as you know they have their stop sign on do all our buses have cameras equipped already or are we in the process of doing that and you know and in light of this bill maybe passing soon good great question so we've been active with that bill uh been active discussing it with the Michigan Association of Pupil Transportation who's also weighed in on the bill um it sat A legislature for quite a long time so the future of it was not certain until we got to this uh lame duck session um so now that it is looking like the governor is going to sign it we're looking at options because um not only it increases safety um first and foremost there's opportunities to uh add external cameras to the buses for these illegal passing events um uh at a at a cheaper investment from uh infrastructure standpoint uh with some programs out there so um we are absolutely looking into it um what that looks like right now uh we don't necessarily know there's lots of vendors that are now coming to market with the passing of the legislation U but it will allow our long enforcement and our prosecutors to help support the effort to stop illegal passing it's the number one issue our our drivers sees so great question absolutely we are we are looking into how we can do that to benefit safety first and foremost I look forward to uh to another update with that yeah absolutely look forward to it I have one question in response to the young people who were up here tonight talking about the buses being overcrowded not different company different company oh I'm sorry I'm sorry I won't blame you then um no we we we appreciate that and I will say just as a supplement to the transportation advisory committee a topic of uh the committee has been high school transportation that that committee has discussed and stays on our agenda um and so uh our committee is discussing it but obviously that's a rapid uh piece not a not a deep piece so but it is in the transportation advisory committee thank you any questions on this side colleagues okay um I actually have a question with regards to the pilots that you're doing what are your um expected outcomes to determine whether or not that pilot will be something that is permanently implemented with regards to the cameras and the tablets yeah great question I think they're two separate independent uh systems um on the camera systems our goal is to develop the process and procedures by deploying the first initial batch with the district on how we share video how we share with building administrators if there's a an incident or our student piece uh because there's a lot of things when it comes to Ida and furpa and security and so those are procedures what we need to develop as we build out a fuller system uh for Transportation uh as we look to 25 26 and what that looks like for the whole Fleet so we want to work on that right now so we can be ready to go for larger scale with with the direction of the district on the tablet side um there are multiple different options in tablets the biggest piece for us is making sure it talks correctly to our student tracking our bus tracking and our route planning system and so there's a couple different uh options there so we want to make sure we have stability uh we we want to make sure the user experience the parent experience um we understand you know there's lots of different apps parent parents interact so how do we streamline that um so there's lots of goals when it comes to that so we want to First make sure the driver's reliability is good connectivity is good and then the the uh personal parent and students experience is is positive um so we're going to see how that goes and then we'll expand it further Chris anything else all thank you thank you all righty thank you thank you very much that concludes my reports for the evening next we have our action items for the evening colleagues first up is our superintendent evaluation are there any questions all righty for M Davis do you have anything on this um it says vice president k um I do have the superintendent evaluation uh with me we held the superintendent evaluation last week and we utilized the school Advance rubric um Dr Roby was able to present us with evidence for 11 different characteristics and um we took out of out of 33 characteristics thank you um and this is a process that we've been participating in throughout the year we have updates um multiple times during the course of the year um but this was the final evaluation and I'm happy to report that the board found superintendent Dr Ro to be effective with a score of 2.72 out of three so on behalf of grps Board of Education I'm proud to share that her evidence proved to show she has earned this through a consensus rating score and that's about it congratulations on that so um um colleagues we do need to vote on the on this so all in favor oh is there a motion to accept the superintendent's evaluation rating motion to AC all righty all in favor please say I I I I any oppose same sign all righty next we have our affirmative legislative platform um as that was laid out to us and we do have copies there on our desk as well are there any questions with regards to the uh legislative platform seeing none is there a motion to affirm the legislative platform so moved support all in favor please say I I I any oppos same sign and next we have our purchasing agenda is there any comments with regards or questions regarding the purchasing agenda seeing none is there a motion to approve the purchasing agenda some moved second all in favor please say I I I any oppose same sign lastly we have our purchasing agenda addendum are there any questions with regards to the [Music] addendum Miss mton is that no okay um is there a motion to approve the purchasing agenda addendum so move support all in favor please say I I any opposed same time all righty next week need the approval for our consent agenda grouping um is there a motion to approve the consent agenda grouping so moved support that was Miss Wade she said support Miss Wade yeah okay and then all in favor of the consent agenda grouping please say I I any opposed same sign all right and then we are moving to um board president announcements I do not have any announcements this evening um then we are next at our uh public comment for non-agenda items still if there are any individuals present who wish to address the board please fill out the public comment card located at either entrance of the auditorium I already did that okay if there's anybody else that needs to turn in comment card Julie is at the back there she is collecting them and bringing them for this is your last opportunity to get that if you have one please make sure you get that to her promptly okay go ahead we have two public comment sections on the agenda I'll just read the one that's appropriate for this one uh the second public comment opportunity is for commenting on non agenda items related to the business of the school district individuals must completely fill out the front of the card and indicate the specific business on which you wish to speak uh please submit the card to Julie who has brought them to us we ask that speakers refrain from making abusive statements about school board members employees volunteers or contractors uh speakers are encouraged if they have uh complaints about these folks that uh they should use uh the appropriate process established on the board policy individuals will be invited one at a time to the podium before beginning your comment please State your full name and at that time we will start the timer allowing each individual three minutes to make the comment the one minute notice will be provided by flag in a red card you'll need to complete your comment time upon being notified that 3 minutes have passed board members do not respond to public comment concerns will be brought to the attention of appropriate staff we value your input and thank you for sharing with us all righty first up we have Lucas Leverett and on Deck we have uh Tom and now sword I'm not sure if that's right it's a little funny but um handwriting I can't quite but if you're here you'll be up next anworth anorth well if you're trying to make up for last time you don't have to keep putting me first but it's okay I appreciate it uh so national election results uh look a little bit like Doom for public education facts and reality apparently don't matter as much as the price of eggs for the electorate reinforcing again how much we need to get Civics and economics back into the front and center of our curriculums we can get on that in maybe 5 years if the Republic survives for now I'm going to make an active choice to to invest my energy and hope locally since our gr elections have rendered some really great results we're getting a more straight talking mayor and the establishment was solidly whooped in the first and third ws and the Schoolboard election gave us some truly interesting potential clearly I'm not the only voter who was refusing to let the union or the Democratic party and their operatives tell me how to vote the big headline for the second second cycle in a row is that a young Community activist got the most votes this continues to tell me that this town is not the stagi establishment Haven that it once was and this new board will be a breath of fresh air as we bid a fond farewell to some of those who've chosen to stand in the way rather than lead I look forward to giving this new board a chance to do a reset and looking forward to coming to better energy together with a new board that feels the same way I congratulate the winners and I'll see them next year Tom answorth if you are here and on Deck we'll have Jamar Sterling yeah hey I want to talk to you real quickly uh I lived in East Grand Rapid most of my life moved over to Grand Rapids five years ago 20 years ago in East Grand Rapids I was the lead guy that put the turf in or got the turf in over at their middle school um fought with a lot of people and got that done it was a second Turf put in in Grand Rapid since I moved over here on r view uh I've gotten involved with your athletic program primarily with the football team and I for the life of me I don't understand why there's not a Turf put in out here yet but I saw that Turf go in in East Grand Rapids the amount of people that were playing on it neighborhood kids it was constant activity constant out here we got a field that's unsafe for the kids to play on it doesn't get watered 3 years ago it was me that put in the that brought in the fire hose and watered the field because it had gone over a month without water now in the meantime there's been a bunch of bonds passed and money available for the turf it was either two years ago or three years ago I had lunched with a superintendent uh and a bunch of others that were willing to put in money to get the turf put in and the guy's name I think was nhart construction had told the superintendent at that time because the foundation was going to put in money says don't wait for the money to come in from the outside people because the cost to put this in is going to raise higher and faster than the amount that you raise well since then I believe it's two bonds have passed for the money I see kids come over here all the time getting tours of a facility athletes or whatever and they look at that practice field and then they go out to Kentwood and look at what their facilities are what their Turf is where do you think those kids are going to go I could name you nine kids that left Grand ID schools they went to Kentwood school to play football in large part because of that Turf out there that isn't in place like I said I had lunch with a superintendent I went back home here uh and I looked up on December 12th of 2022 I gave the athletic director here at Ottawa Hills all the information from Kelvin college that they used to put in their Turf the engineering firm the architect that was used at at Hope at West Ottawa at howand high school and over at Kelvin I gave you the blueprint for all of it and then I talked to a gentleman here tonight Who's in charge of facilities who's telling me now it's a year and a half before this is even going to be looked at to be put in again because you need to go out and get bids and so forth my God the cost is going to go up 100,000 $200,000 $300,000 more waiting another year I've given you all the stuff that you need to put the proposals out to the people I don't understand how you can wait and watch these cost rise and who knows what's going to come on economically that's going to but I mean you've got that's your time sir thank you so much Ming Jamar Sterling on Deck we have Bianca bridgeforth good evening ladies and gentlemen uh Jamar Sterling Community youth activist uh youth uh Mentor assistant um we was here uh in July two months uh after jvon children was uh shot in the face by his friend at alra middle school and in that time of July we came we asked for The Temper for the suspension of Charlie love lady for the unethical handed of the situation um I'm dealing with both JV and and Monte uh uh not just prior to the shooting but after the shooting um it is unethical for a principal um to tell students uh and give them permission uh to leave the building or say it's okay I'm not going to stop you you can leave if you want to leave according to uh Charlie love lady statements himself uh it is unethical um for a principal uh not only to to to agree to feed the children after they come back to school for a second time without even contacting the parent the first time according to beon a pH record themselves uh um to escort the school uh escort the students off of the school premises because they refused to get searched um under the Pavilion um I believe students are supposed to be supervised and with within those minutes going to outside to eat lunch because they refused to be searched uh Javon was almost killed by the accidental shooting of his friend um according to the uh board policies and rules uh uh uh procedures correct me if I'm wrong if if if you refuse to be searched you are uh to call the parent or you are to call law enforcement um which which was never never uh ofone again uh we have proof that um the only call that we had was a tardy call around 10:06 p.m. a.m. uh saying that jvon was tardy again um there were alleged um um Behavior complaints uh uh that was going on we know to be true um based on Jon's um conduct in school but again based on those conducts un ethical for a principal fold under pressure just tell the kids to leave he knows these kids' behavioral issues he knows they're that risk kids you don't tell the child to go outside under Pavilion to eat lunch uh unsupervised um again it's unethical within those minutes uh jvon who sits in the back almost almost killed and suffered uh again uh blind in his right eye permanently deaf in his right ear uh permanently because of the unethical decisions that's that uh um could have been made um things could have been prevented um accountability has been held uh uh from Bianca uh accountability has been held um from both students uh accountability has been held from the grandmother who has now has guardianship um over um uh Monte we're just asking for the accountability of of Love lady um based on the handling again before the shooting um during the shooting and after the shooting uh a lack of Interest even reaching out to the mom but we do thank uh Bridget uh Cheney and Larry Johnson uh for for meeting with us but no follow through um and we just ask again follow through we will be here every Monday until Charlie love lady is suspended uh pin an investigation uh of our allegations and show the video um compare the statements on what the young men have told me both young men who I mentor about this time yes sir thank you thank you Bianca bridge for and next we have Richard trap yeah I'm Bianca I'm Jon's mother um it's a lot and it's a lot to start from my child did not walk out the school building I have proof that my child was put out the building walked out the building he fought to get in the school he didn't run away from the school there was no search there was no phone calls there was no meetings there was no even if my son have made it no one still have contacted me with the investigation or supposed to been an investigation far as Charlie love lady I have file complaints 2 hours I sat on the phone and the complaints disappear I have complaint number and it's still nothing she said that could be done but refile it so I will refile it and I will be here every Monday following the shooting of my baby May 21st um as a parent I stand here behind my baby being his voice and other kids voices actually there was two complaints fil we have the complaint numbers from grps and everything else now all a sudden miraculously we have no Mr Sterling canot thank you Mr trap and on Deck we have D Jones good evening board and superintendent I want to thank you guys for your service um when I started at Union High School they asked me what's your why and I had to think back to all those years ago because I've been a teacher for 34 years and it was ultimately you know I I love to see the light bulb of understanding you know I I wanted to make the world a better place but over time you know I realized I had to support my family I had to worry about my own needs and my own sanity and it it brings me to is grps a destination or a quick start or a quick stop for its employees and teachers you know is the pay competitive you know they were talking about the hard cap on one of the bills that's that's in our lame duck session and if that doesn't go through with the raise with the raise and insurance rates it's going to be like all of our teachers are taking a pay cut matter of fact all of our employees you know do we have the best working conditions do we support our teachers with their elll students at risk students special ed students and even the traditional students that sometimes kind of get ignored because we're dealing with all of the hard things going on with a lot of the other groups and I know that you know I'm sitting here making an appeal cuz I want grps to be a destination a place people want to end their career not a place that's a quick stop I know I've heard the we need to have an abundance of caution we need to be safe financially we need to be stewards of the money that we're in charge of and that's your job and I totally get that I really do but who wants their child to not have a teacher cuz I don't know we're 70 80 100 teachers short I'm sorry I don't know the exact number you know teachers and staff need to be our Priority One I I think we've gone a little too far with caution we're SP spir rolling in the wrong direction and we need our people to be number one cuz the school is not the buildings it's the people that are making education great for our kids and our community and making this world a better place thank you thank you D Jones and then we have Jackie Spitzer on Deck how y'all doing I'm D Jones passionate entrepreneur and Visionary first off I want to thank the school board for investing in the East Sports and uh my advocacy I've been advoca for 6 years just recently I was it's on Channel 8 news I did a live TV interview with Channel 8 and it was viral I got like 3,100 likes on the post and stuff like that so it's pretty cool to be able to organically do something uh get the safe pitch task force 2018 and then earn another $10,000 Grant and then get on the news and get people globally like people all across the globe to like the story and of big companies today I actually uh ate lunch with the frey Foundation uh the frey Foundation found out about the cool stuff as you guys know the frey is one of the people one of the families that actually helped build the city and help the devores and the vandos build their facilities that we utilize for different sporting events and conventions but I asked the the bosses and the van nandos at the CAA and the board uh eventually can we eventually host a state championships and eventually I know that uh students across our city and across our school district will potentially be able to compete there I'm really excited to do these East Force activations in partnership with you guys I have a lot of big foundations I run into a lot of powerful people and a lot of influential people and I asked Doug DeVos today because they had Theresa who was the old superintendent and some law professor but I asked him about ethics because I wanted to challenge them on ethics we sat there and we spoke about ethics but I think they can do better ethically and uh I know that a lot of people uh on the uh Republican side doesn't support public education but like I said I'm going to continuously fight the good fighter and I'm going to continuously show up and I'm going to continuously do what's best for my community and the education system and for all students so I'm very excited to be able to partner with you guys to open up the Esports lab uh do some Esports activations educating kids on nil content creation podcasting game design shoutcasting opening up the gym cuz I love basketball I love the hoop still to this day um also open up the film and video lab and the music studio because I am a director I just shot a production in Detroit uh called Gamers we sold out and we're going to be uh we're actually speaking to Netflix we have to get a distributor first and we're also going to have it on tub by uh January 1st I believe it's going to get eventually get to these other platforms as I get on these other news stations and I do these TV interviews and I get these Esports activations out there but I've been able to speak to a lot of big foundations a lot of people that have Deep Pockets and a lot of cash and they want to pour back into the school district so a lot of this funding and advocacy and people that I speak to by spring break is really going to be hard to try to pour back into the students and get them some scholarships and paid him some cash for uh playing video games in Esports so I'm very excited to partner with y'all and I know I'm one of the best Innovative leaders in the city for sure thank you lastly we have Jackie good evening board um earlier today you heard about House Bill 6058 about the insurance and how in 2011 that bill was passed what I like to ask you is if you could kindly go back and do the history of that bill because when that bill passed many people older teachers looked at younger teachers or people go thinking about being teachers and had discussions do you really want to be a teacher teacher because the insurance is not that good anymore people used to be teachers just for the insurance now when we were doing our insurance in the last month I know I had colleagues saying my insurance premiums are so expensive so I'm going to ask you guys can you really think about how JPS can help the staff so we can get better Insurance again how can we get salaries to increase so people do want to come to grps how do we make it so our students don't suffer or have overcrowded busing many of our students already have a couple strikes against them how do we make make it better for our kids of grps and Grand Rapids our kids need the mental health help the school I'm in right now we don't have a counselor and our school needs a counselor how can we get those people I have kids in fourth grade that do not know multiplication facts and it's very very sad how can we get our students to be more productive citizens of grps so I'm going to ask how do we fill the classrooms with certified teachers how do we improve the buildings that house our students what can we do for our [Music] students that's all what I'm going to ask and well one more thing Dr Roby could you kindly call Rapid and help the overcrowded like how do we do that how do we get it so our kids aren't crowded into city [Music] buses can we I mean do you do you have power and I'm being sincere but do you have power with rapid to maybe get an extra bus over there that's all what I'm going to ask thank you very much thank you as we conclude the public comment we'll go to um the superintendent's comments so good evening everyone um first of all let me say to um Mrs bridgeforth I don't know if she's still here I can't see in the the back um my heart I'm a mother so let me say that first and foremost I'm a mother my heart goes out to everyone involved in what took place um outside of eler this spring no one no one wanted that to happen um we don't we don't take that lightly um and I I need to say that our district is committed to making sure that our schools are safe there's no one this board our leaders our support staff that want to see children or and staff In Harm's Way safety is something that we do care about and so I have I have to say that um I also want to just lift up some of the things that we have done since um the incident that took place this past spring um we have enhanced some safety measures over the past year and that includes the daily use of metal detectors at that particular School the installation of alarms at all exterior doors we've increased the presence of Safety and Security staff as well as implemented a and hired a um retired Mentor teacher to work specifically with that team we've been intentional about continuing to Foster relationships with the scholars in the school community and connections around aler community over the summer we had a partnership with Grand Rapids the city of Grand Rapids as well as um some local um entities and organizations and we opened up eler middle school on Friday and Saturday evenings to give young people a safe place to be um for activities games chess and just wanting to be really intentional about that um we also have collaborated with Save a Life a day to host a back to school bash together we are still working to create a safer and and stronger program um we're committed to continuing to improve and again I want to reiterate there is nothing that we won't do to to help make our schools better and when things do happen we have to look at what has gone well and then also um how do we make improvements and so we will also follow up with the the people who spoke out this evening just to continue to make those connections CU I think that is important um just very quickly to Mrs spritzer I think it was um I so often times people do see us taking notes we're taking notes to find out what's what's going on so that we can do some follow up and so it's not that we're ever disengaged in the work we're taking notes to collect what's been stated so that we can as um our board secretary reads into um our announcements that we're taking notes so that we have the followup and can and do those secondary things um so we do take that very seriously am I doing the other announcements with or is that Mr you're about to do it do that after okay okay thank you all done I am done all right we'll start with our um student rep Rema do you have any comments um not really a lot of it was great and I really resonate with the rapid buses I really think that something should be done for that because I've wrote the rapid buses before and they've kicked off many students in which they have to find a way home and not all of them speak English either and so it's harder for them to find a way home and so the rapid buses are my biggest concern that I love that was brought up tonight everything else was great but I don't have any more comments after that thank you and fabiella um kind of pigging off that I do think the rabbit bus is another isue um just getting on that first bus is like people are leaving class early to get there and um people are running down to get to that first bus and um I did like what was said with Dean transportation and the cameras so that um we know what's going on um quicker and um I like the installation of like the tablets that sounds like a good idea too M Melton and that's it I wasn't going to speak so that I allowed everyone who's going off to say something but I I can't not at least say thank you I'm just very aware that in um the work of the board it's really hard for everyone to know what's happening behind the scenes and so those of um my colleagues that are going off um this coming month I'm just very aware that you were on most of you were on during a time of a lot of change during the 2016 election and all the changes that brought during covid um during a time of of not having a superintendent and twice you know going going through a process of finding the right person and listening to the community during that and taking on the big job of thinking about our facilities as a whole and listening to the community during that part and um just thank you for the work you've done to set um our district up for the success that it is um growing in so thank you Miss White I'll Echo um what Sarah just said and I also want to um uplift the young scholars that talked about the bus I remember our buses were packed and I would I never would have thought to come to the school board and comp you know just uplift that the conditions I just you know got on got in where I fit in so I appreciate um young people speaking up for themselves and expecting and having better expectations for themselves um I also want to thank um all community that comes out to these meetings and uplift concerns because we don't know what we don't know and so we appreciate public comment so much and um yeah thank you Mr Ross no comment all righty Miss shaki no comment Mr Ross final one that's all right I'll make up for your time uh as I have prepared some remarks so I will ask you just to indulge me for a few minutes as I reflect on my service um my time here in grps uh definitely Express gratitude and share some wishes as I depart um all right so in March of 2016 I was appointed to serve on Grand Rapids Public Schools Board of Education actually thanks to my colleague Mr Ross who made the motion uh to start the motion for my approval my daughter Brooklyn uh was just 9 years old at North Park monu and my son Jax was just five beginning his grps journey at wellerwood um my family stood alongside me as we made the decision for me to step away nearly every Monday night for nearly nine years and it really has been almost every Monday night so I want to just first thank my kids Brooklyn and Jack uh for uh giving up the most so that other children could gain I'm so grateful to my family um to my parents and my fiance Jay who's in the audience tonight thank you for showing up for my kids when I couldn't at every game every concert or every bedtime routine that I missed and Jay my love thank you for the dinners or the glasses of wine or the turn down covers to welcome me home from the especially long Monday nights that we sometimes have I love you all so much and I couldn't have done this without a village when I began my board service I truly used to daydream about the day that I would get to sit on stage and see my daughter walk across at her graduation and last spring I got to do that as she left grps and headed to Michigan State go green thank you I'm getting I'm getting used to that Grand Rapids Public Schools thank you for some of the most incredible moments of my life when I joined this board I was admittedly fairly naive knowing very very little about the privilege or the magnitude of the work um over the years I've definitely experienced some of the hardest work I've ever done some of the greatest conflicts and some of the highest impact decisions I've ever made I've celebrated extraordinary staff many of you in this room and Scholars and participated in Milestones like opening Southwest Middle High and Museum High School creating a district-wide strategic plan passing a bond and so much more I also had the life-changing experience of leading alongside our incredible superintendent as her board president during a global pandemic and what a privilege it's been to be one of the nine who lead this work has profoundly shaped me as a person I was raised in a very different place than Grand Rapids and I had a lot to learn engaging in equity work as part of this board has been one of the most transformative experiences of my life and has challenged my thinking and reshaped how I lead professionally and personally gaining that Equity lens will continue to guide me for the rest of my life Grand Rapids Public Schools thank you so our two our to our new board members some of who I think are still in the audience uh some advice if you're in the market for a little take it or leave it um this boardroom or a usual boardroom can sometimes make the micro appear as the macro not always sometimes it is the macro but sometimes the boardroom is where the un solvable problems land but remember that every day thousands of our uh issues are resolved in this system efficiently and quietly without ever reaching this room so keep a balanced perspective hold the district accountable where it's necessary and it will be necessary to hold the district accountable but please celebrate its successes whenever and wherever you go especially outside of this room you are responsible for recognizing both the challeng es and the triumphs of this district and if you have kids in this District like I do check yourself at your dinner table ask if what you're experiencing here is what they're experiencing in their schools and if you don't have children please find some Scholars to engage with because they are our North Star and should be uh in every decision that you make and please enjoy the privilege of knowing about snow days about 1 minute before everybody else your kids will will love it I read this out loud to my son and he grinned quite uh wide he is going to miss having that privilege I'm almost done facilitators at board Retreats often ask what we want our Legacy to be as board members and my response like so many of my colleagues at this table has always been I just want to leave Grand Rapids Public Schools better than I found it I struggle to claim that I've done so not because the district isn't better it is I promise you but because I alone could never make this District better the real and only power lies in this body of nine together we have the ability to move mountains for children we have the ability to leave grps better than we find it so now I'm placing my trust in you those in the audience and those who remain at this board to do just that so take the time to get to know your peers and invest in this work so now as I prepare to pass this roll on let me you with three wishes if I had a grps Genie in a Bottle first I'd wish for infinite wishes of course second I'd wish to unify our athletic programs this might be controversial but I believe combining our athletic teams into one would allow us to pull resources enhance coaching improve equipment develop feeder programs and build better facilities uh maybe even replace that Turf uh we would move into a more competitive conference which would be really challenging for a while but I know we build a unified school spirit across grps our scholar athletes Inspire incredible Community among themselves and in the stands where our families and supporters cheer them on and we know as we heard tonight that attrition happens at the middle and high school Transitions and competitive Athletics is part of that why Athletics are such a powerful motivator for academic success and I for one would absolutely support a bond or millage to fund any attempts to improve Athletics arts and all of our extracurriculars including Esports D if you're still in the room okay third I'd wish to include Career and Technical education in grps this is what I campaigned on so long ago and we have the perfect structure for it by leveling up our career focused cies like the ones here at Ottawa into state approved career and teched programs we could offer high school credit for our Scholars college credit an industry experience it would require strong leadership at the executive director level and I know that um but we have to end the misconception that CTE is only for our Scholars who are not College Bound the research says that uh Scholars who participate in career and tech ed are more likely more likely than their peers to go to college I'd love to see us evolve into career and tech aded programs and uh evolve our IB offering to include a career focused program because IB does Drive enrollment to Grand Rapids Public Schools okay my last and final wish should that Genie not give me my infinite wishes is that we would see radical support for our grps community in my nearly nine years of serving I've I've observed Seasons where holding the district accountable has sometimes shifted into a culture of critique and grps like so many of the scholars we serve exists often in scarcity we simply don't have enough for what our Scholars truly need and for every step forward it can often feel like we take two steps back but imagine what could happen if this community truly rallied around grps with bold philanthropic support families committing to our PK through 12 experience packed stands at housemen and every casual conversation ending in grps is a thriving District I know this Vision requires a lot internal culture work which is in dire need I know but I can confidently say is emotion and external Community standing alongside grps all right that's it folks to our remarkable Scholars our exceptional staff our dedicated Families Our strong leader Dr Roby and my dear dear fellow board members my friends thank you for leaving me better than you found me I'm going to miss this work and I'm really going to miss all of you thanks for a few extra minutes tonight thank you Miss Mr Rodriguez oh my gosh okay I don't have a speech I'm staying whether you like it or not I don't know um but um so um I just want to say you know thank you to everyone that comes to our board meetings um I hear of you know we need Turf on the on the football on our practice field we need to focus more on safety we need to have more for you know we have need to have more counselors we need to have more raron services for our students we need to have better insurance for our staff and I agree on all those things and I just want to say you know regardless of how I you know how my thoughts differ from our my board colleagues um we here on the board are just and and and leadership in grps um were just tasked with the impossible and you know if you paid attention to our you know uh public school funding you'd know that we didn't get a per pupil increase this year and so thinking about just the fact that we're asked to do more with essentially less um so I I hope that folks realize that regardless of of what you know may go on in public what what you may hear what you think is going on in different schools I think all of us are dedicated to this work and we all just come at it from a very you know we might come at it from very different perspectives but um I don't think um you know this is to be to be envied because it's it's tough work it's thankless work a lot of the times a lot of the times folks don't know what goes on behind the scenes and not to say that you know we don't have things that we could do better of course we do but it is some tough work work to decide what we're going to make a priority what's going to take a back seat folks are going to be you know maybe upset in some instances and that's just something that you got to deal with so I just want to say thank you to all the board colleagues that are leaving us um and and welcome to the new board colleagues that are joining us in January but um you know i' I've only been doing this for two years and I just want to say thank you to to all of you that have stuck around for so long um and I hope that we make you continue to make you proud as we lead GPS forward and uh that's all I got to say thank you all right Mr eatman well thank you for that pause cuz I too have made some remarks so Jen and I are typically always on the same page and a lot so um with a humble heart and gratitude I want to thank my fellow colleagues and especially this community um for allowing me the opportunity to serve on the grandis Public School Board of Education it has been a true privilege to be a partner in our continued journey in educational Excellence I believe deeply in the power and promise of public education a value I have upheld in every step of my serve this community has shown us the importance of diverse voices and shaping the future of our schools each voice a critical piece of the puzzle in building unique solutions to the complex issues we Face daily as a district we have urgent work ahead from addressing the teachers shortage in the wake of elevate K12 to ensuring our staff are compensated competitively these challenges are real and so are the opportunities we have to solve them I saw this seat with a commitment to serve without personal gain with a focus on effective Equitable change for every student educator and family in our district it's my hope that we continue to build a culture of unity working together towards a shared vision and inviting the community to walk alongside us each and every step of the way our work is strongest when we are united and accountable and accountability should be a tool that Fosters growth not division in two years I've had the opportunity to contribute more than 150,000 in Investments to our district through various initiatives $50,000 excuse me these efforts have supported career exploration programs in our schools much what Jen just mentioned about our CTE programs ensuring that every student has access to meaning meaningful powerful Pathways for their future I've championed educational Equity by supporting academic programming in each quadrant of this district and partner with grandis Public Schools Foundation to fund critical initiatives that developed and directly benefit our students recognizing the challenges of educational disruption due to transfers and other life circumstances I worked along surrounding districts to create solutions that support stability for our families and students regardless where they end up I've also supported students in graduation needs recognizing that every Milestone matters and collaborated with my colleagues to restructure policies that were outdated facility Master plans to really help the shape the future of our schools and the budgets that we continuously Maul over with each other at almost every meeting these contributions were driven by simple yet powerful truths when gaps emerge we all stepped up to meet them because that's what our students in this community and District deserves and moving forward I encourage each each of us to communicate with care understanding that the next generation is watching and learning how we approach both our successes and more importantly our challenges let us model the values we hold dear respect empathy and unwavering dedication to the community this this community and District we serve to the students families Educators and community members I say this the work is not over while my role May shift my commitment to this District remains steadfast I look forward to supporting our schools and Community from a new vantage point with the same passion determination and heart advocating for Equity excellence and opportunities for all thank you from the bottom of my heart for your trust your support and the incredible opportunity to serve this District I could not have done this without all of you in the community thank you Miss Davis um I'll keep it short but I do want to recognize my colleagues um Jen Kathy reard and Jordan thank you so much for your dedication to this board into this community um something that I highly value about our board is that each individual comes with um such different life experience and different expertise and perspectives and I very much value the conversations that we have um where we push each other right where we um ask questions and share our differences and come to a conclusion that we believe believe as a board is best for our kids and I did just want to highlight you know we get lost in the work because it is an unending process education is it will continue to change and grow always um but Jen did such a wonderful job of highlighting some of the things that we've experienced together and I've been on the board with three of you for six years one of you for two and um I just wanted to highlight in those six years we um we really D dove into our Equity policy and later with this board currently revised all of our board policies including new ends policy um we navigated covid together um we navigated hiring a superintendent the process with that and something that I really thought came out of that as a positive for our district was developing um just a a wonderful way of getting collaborating with community so that process still isn't perfected but I really think that when we started looking for a superintendent our collaboration with community and commitment to hearing voice throughout our community um really grew and we were able to establish what we wanted in a new superintendent with Community input and that process isn't perfect we're still learning how to make that better but I really think that was the start of a shift for grps um and the same thing happened when we moved into developing our strategic plan and then our facilities plan these are all huge Endeavors and I am so grateful to have the four of you in those processes because your individual input and expertise were very valuable throughout all of those so um I also just want to thank you for your friendship that has developed throughout these years and especially for I just look up to all of you very much so um I've grown a lot because of the people that I serve with so thank you so much I know this won't be the end of seeing all of you because you all have servant hearts and I know you will continue to support our kids and our community and good luck thank you Miss DS Lewis well this is my last school board meeting and I have been coming to these every Monday for eight years now and when I was urged to run for the school board my friends said oh you should be on the school board you spent so much time as a teacher and I thought well you know education's education but I found out when I got on this board it wasn't quite that simple and even though I'm sure that that a lot of my background in education helped me um when with our work here I also realize that one of the most important things that I have gained is not only the knowledge about how a school board has run how they do their finances and all those kinds of things but I've also been very fortunate that um the employees uh the from Julie Anderson who does everything uh to uh the people that I work with coming in and out of the building people I work with uh talking about curriculum issues and so on or attendance issues uh they've all been friendly and open and uh wanting to help us and so for that I will always be grateful I've had an opportunity to learn so much uh just because I'm here in Grand MERS public schools which are very different from my history at Kenn Hills High School but uh this has opened my eyes to a lot of new things and I'm grateful for that and I'm also grateful that I have had the opportunity my two big things I think what are my two big things number one I was a part of the committee that hired Dr Roby so that's got to be one of my high points and the other one was I was also on the facilities plan and I did not give up on something special for abine so uh we're going to have something special for Aberdine but uh I want to thank my uh colleagues here on the board I want to thank Dr Roby uh this has been an incredible experience and I appreciate your friendships and your support and uh I look forward to coming to Schoolboard meetings and talking to you complaining about something thank you Kathy um I have so many comments tonight so I'll start with thanking everybody for being with us we appreciate your um patience with us as we salute our colleagues as well well um but um we don't take it for granted that you have uh decided to come out and be with us and so we thank you for that I want to um congratulate uh ran Rogers um a student here at Ottawa Hills who has committed to play football at Michigan State oh yes I want to um thank all of the staff the artists the singers um everybody that uh made the uh holiday card special um I want to encourage uh the public to reach out to our state legislators um as they are putting forth um laws that affect public education I'm going to ask that we um push them to provide the dollars no more unfunded mandates it really does impact our schools um and the work that we are trying to do here um I want to thank everyone who brought items for the Pantry um again our students here at Ottawa Hills has a have a pantry and U we did ask that people provide donations if you weren't able to tonight we will still accept them just drop them off at the office the students will greatly appreciate that and then I want to um speak to my colleagues who will um this is their last board meeting um thank you missaki for um helping provide education around trades and construction to me thank you Mr Ross for bringing your expertise around higher education to help me be better in the work that I do here thank you Mr eatman for your knowledge with regards to policy in city we appreciate that expertise you bring and of course Miss DS Lewis your education and your um English teacher and correction on grammar and all of that stuff we greatly appreciate that I appreciate how each of you have been patient with me you've educated me you've shared with me you've challenged me and most importantly you have been champions for our Scholars thank you so much for your work and um we do have something uh special for you all so um Dr Roby so I'm going to invite up Mr John helmold as you know Mr helmhold worked with our district as our executive director of communication for um a number of years and we do have some proclamations that we would like to um share with our outgoing board members um and just again the two most powerful words um in our community is thank you it it encompasses all that you've been to this community and so I say to all four of you thank you you Mr Hol and I say thank you as well it's excuse me it's truly an honor and privilege for me to be asked to come up here and to read these resolutions uh into the minutes so we can formally acknowledge your years of service and commitment and it was my honor to serve alongside you we we we achieved a lot we lived through a lot and uh knowing we're late in the game here I'm just going to get going so Mr rard Ross whereas rard Ross was elected to the Grand rid Board of Education began a four-year term of office July 1st 2011 the length of his term was extended to December 31st 2016 to accommodate the change in Schoolboard election law Mr Ross was subsequently reelected to the board effective January 1st 2017 for a four-year term to be completed on December 31st 2020 and reelected January 1st 2021 for a 4-year term to be completed on December 31st 2024 whereas Mr Ross's service on the grit's board of education is 13.5 years upon the completion of his third term and whereas Mr Ross also served as the finance served on the finance committee in 2011 12 14 18 1924 and is finance committee chair 2019 academic achievement committee third 2013 15 16 17 21 23 and 24 and as the academic committee chair 2023 city city school liaison Committee 2013 14 19 20 21 22 and 23 and is the city board Lees on Committee co-chair in 2022 ad hoc legislative committee 2015 16 and 17 ad hoc calendaring committee 2017 policy committee 2018 and 20121 and legislative committee from 2020 2022 23 and 24 and whereas Mr Ross served in a board leadership role as secretary in 2013 and 14 as treasur 2019 as vice president 2016 17 18 and 23 and as president 2022 and whereas Mr Ross contributed the success of Grand Rapids Board of Education by providing his knowledge and expertise in a forthright manner during discussions and deliberations demonstrating his commitment to all Scholars of the Grand Rapids Public Schools now therefore be it resolved that the members of the Grand RIT Board of Education and superintendent Dr lrien Roby on behalf of the grand rits Public Schools do hereby congratulate and commend Mr rard Ross for his years of service to the school district and the scholars of Grand Rapids and wish him all the best in future endeavors be it further resolve that a copy of this resolution be presented to Mr Ross and a copy be included in the board [Applause] minutes all right Jen shaki whereas Jen shaki was appointed to the Grand Rapids Board of Education effective April 16 2016 Miss shaki was elected to the board in January 1st 2017 for a 4-year term to be completed on December 31st 2020 and reelected January 1st 2021 for a 4-year term to be completed on December 31st 2024 whereas Miss shaki's years of experience on the grand board of education is 8 years and 8 months upon the completion of her second term whereas Mish shaki served as the finance commit served on the finance committee 2016 17 18 19 20 21 excuse me not 20 21 22 where did you miss the 20 I don't uh 23 24 and as finance committee chair 2017 18 22 23 and 24 ad hoc superintendent transition Committee in 2018 legislative committee 2019 and 20 and is legislative committee chair 2019 Conference of the committee chairs 2020 City Board liazon committee 21 and 22 and City School City school le on committee co-chair 2021 ad hoc facilities committee 2022 23 24 and as ad hoc facilities committee chair 22 23 and 24 and whereas M shaki served in board leadership roles as secretary in 2017 as Treasurer in 201822 23 and 24 and is Vice President 2019 and 2020 and president in 2021 whereas Miss shaki contributed the success of Grand Rapids Board of Education by providing her knowledge and expertise in a forthright manner during discussions and deliberations demonstrating her commitment to all Scholars of the grandits public schools now therefore be it resolved that the members of the grandit Board of Education superintendent Dr lrien Roby on behalf of the grandit public schools do hereby congratulate and commend Miss jenset shaki for her years of service to the school district and the scholars of Grand Rapids and wish her all the best in her future endeavors be it f further resolve that a copy of the resolution be presented to miss shaki and a copy be included in the board minuts Kathy Lewis Miss Katherine DS Lewis whereas Katherine DS Lewis was elected to the board of education on January 1st 2017 for a 4-year term to be completed on December 31st 2020 and reelected January 1st 2021 for a 4-year term to be completed on December 31st 20124 whereas Miss DS Lewis years of service on the Grand Rapids board of education is eight years AC upon the completion of her second term whereas Miss DS Lewis served on the academic achievement Committee in 2018 19 23 and 24 policy committee 2018 19 20 21 22 and 24 and as policy committee chair 2019 or 2018 19 21 and 22 ad hoc superintendent transition Committee in 2018 finance committee in 2020 legislative Committee in 2021 22 23 and 24 and is legislative committee chair in 2023 and city school leison committee in 2023 and whereas Miss Lewis served in the board leadership role as secretary in 2020 2021 23 and 24 and Miss DS Lewis contributed the success of Grand Rapids Board of Education by providing her knowledge and expertise in a fourth right manner during discussions and deliberations demonstrating her commitment to all Scholars of the Grand Rapids Public Schools now therefore be it resolve that the members of the grandit Board of Education and superintendent Dr leer and Roby on behalf of the grandit public schools do hereby congratulate and commend Miss Katherine DS Lewis for her years of service to the school district and the scholars of Grand Rapids and wish her all the best in the future Endeavors be it further resolve that a copy of the resolution be presented to miss DS Lewis and a copy be included in the board minutes thank [Applause] you all right last but not least Jordan eatman Jordan excuse me that's a Jordan eatman sorry I'm getting gunky whereas Jordan eatman was appointed to the board of ed Grand Board of Education effective January 1st 2023 serving a 2-year term to be completed on December 31st 2024 whereas M Mr eatman's years of service on the grandits board of education two years and whereas Mr eatman served on the finance committee 2023 policy Committee in 2023 legislative committee 2024 and ad hoc facilities Committee in 23 and 24 and whereas Mr even contributed the success of the Grand Rapids Board of Education by providing his knowledge and expertise in a forthright manner during discussions and deliberations demonstrating his commitment to all Scholars of the grandit public schools now therefore be it resolved that the members of the grandits Board of Education and superintendent Dr leer and Robi on behalf of the Grits Public Schools do hereby congratulate commend Mr Jordon eatman for the years of service to the school district and the scholars of Grand Rapids and wish him all the best in his future endeavors be it further resolve that a copy of the resolution be presented to Mr eatman and a copy be included in the board minutes [Applause] conr all righty thank you so much for your service thank you thank you thank you all and this meeting is adjourned board members we want to do one