##VIDEO ID:fNgL37_VJ_Y## public school board meeting for Monday uh November 11 2024 we welcome and appreciate your presence at this meeting we respectfully ask that you turn off cellular phones and refrain from clapping cheering or making audible comments we invite you to make formal public comment during the designated times either on the agenda or non-agenda items you can find the comment card in the entryway as well as an agenda to review um please fill out that card and give it to do you want to back it the board assistant down front has her hand raised uh comments are limited to three minutes um next we have our roll call yes Mr Ross is excused Miss shaki here miss Wade pres I thought I saw you Miss Davis here Mr eatman present Miss Lewis is here miss Melton here Mr Rodriguez here president Williams present have a form um next we need the approval of our agenda all in favor please say I any oppos same sign all right thank you Dr Roby I just want to remind the board and good evening everyone um just reminder to the board we've been asked to bring our microphones a little bit closer and tilt them closer to our Mouse so that people can hear people in the back row just wave your hand if you can hear my voice thank you thank you all right so good evening everyone and I'm sorry of course I'm not quite ready um but I want to first of all acknowledge that today is Veterans Day and if we have any active or retired um members in the audience do you mind please standing so we can acknowledge you thank you so today as we honor our veterans let us remember the sacrifices and dedication that they have um taken and even their families to protect our freedoms and values at Grand Rapids Public Schools we are deeply grateful for your Service as I said in my email this morning to our grps staff that this is an opportunity to instill in our Scholars an understanding of Duty and honor and the importance of community and so to all of our veterans the one that we have here in our off in our audience Mr barisford and then all of you who may have had family members who are serving or have served thank you so much for your service all right and so we are at celebrations our new structure has me a little thank you thank you thank you um we will have Mr Mel Atkins as well as Miss Kirsten Wade come up and speak about the Catherine Health Center partnership so if you'll come on up hard what happened [Music] good evening president Williams I'm Dr Roby members of the board again my name is Mel Atkins the executive director of community student student affairs and I'm excited to one um introduce um uh Miss Kiren Wade who is has been newly um appointed our new director of health services so I want to I want to um introduce her to the board but also um too we have a exciting partnership um that is is taking shape and we're going to be excited to um talk about our new help center um at one of our schools and so um introduce Kirsten W and she can introduce our um disting guest as well okay perfect hi I'm Kristen Wade um as Mel said the new director of Health Services um thanks for having us uh I just wanted to talk a little bit about our Child and Adolescent Health Centers and just highlight those programs this evening um as many of you know we've been partnering with cherry Health since 1999 uh for three of our school-based health centers at Ottawa Hills Union High School and Innovation Central and uh at those centers we offer um full service medical dental and Behavioral Health Services to any Child and Adolescent in the community ages 3 to 21 um this year we are excited because we are now partnering with Katherine's Health Center to open up a fourth school-based Health Center at Harrison Park Academy um so this is a new uh Health Center it will also be offering full service medical and Behavioral Health Services to any student or Community member ages 3 to 21 years of age um there will be some of the services offered are going to be uh primary care services so well child checks um mental health oh I should there we go um Mental Health Services um health education immunizations injury illness prevention and um uh response STI and HIV education counseling um and referrals to other Specialists and agencies and uh any student like I said any student scholar can be seen there if they're under the age of 18 they do need parental consent uh unless they're requesting confidential testing as or Services defined by Michigan law so we'll be following all Michigan state laws with that uh to give a little more background on on Katherine's Health Center though I'm joined today uh by Sheila jela in the crowd she's our school health manager we also have Bradmore who is our Harrison Park principal and this is Sarah Brooks our operations director for Katherine's Health Center hi thank you for having us just wanted to take some time um briefly to introduce Katherine as I know we're a little bit newer in the community as it relates to Broad understanding um of our services so we are a federally qualified Health Center our mission is to provide access to high quality affordable and compassionate Healthcare to all and our vision is a thriving Community free of Health inequities which is really where um school health comes into play because if we're not doing prevention at the school level um it's harder to catch up to prevention when you're an adult most often I'm dealing with chronic diseases at that point thank you um so we started in the basement of St alons Church in 1996 as a free clinic we were a joint venture with the Creston neighborhood association St Mary's Hospital as well as um St alphonsa's Church um and through that time we have grow or since that time we have grown by Leaps and Bounds and are now in 12 locations um with Harrison Park Academy being included in that we expect to open in January um we we have four what we like to call Brick and Mortar locations providing Primary Health Care um medical behavioral and dental health um and we're located throughout the community as you can see on the map on the slide and we're also in um Kentwood public schools and godf fre leave Public Schools as well and we those are the services we provide the house support services are really important especially in the school Community as well so some um referral navigation if there are services that we won't be offering at Harrison Park we need to connect families um or um Scholars to those services in our other sites we will absolutely be working through that as well and so just um to sum it up we provide Health Care to all and most of our patients are uninsured underinsured um and on Medicaid and there's never a balance um home to students um or their parents so thank you any question I don't have any questions but I do want to acknowledge um I'm a Early Childhood provider and a lot of times we don't uh offer health care for our teachers and um I'll say back in the early 2000s that was where a lot of our teachers got care from so thank you for all the work that you guys continue to do in our community thank you I do have a quick question um you kind of mentioned it earlier Miss Wade in regards to um speaking on the partnership that we have with cherry Health um and I'm just curious to know um or have a better understanding for us like why not continue with adding them to the next building and why bringing another party in that regards I'm just I'm curious to know what what's the plan with cherry heal as they're a part of the system already since 1990 yeah no great question um we we grps collectively um Health Services did approach Cherry Health when this opportunity came up and they were like you know what we're good we're at capacity I don't think we can open up another one right now um we then uh went and spoke with Catherine they were very excited to jump on board uh and we knew that we just didn't have a whole lot of Health Services on that north side of our community especially for youth uh and like I said Katherine was very excited to jump on board we're maintaining our partnership with cherry Health with our three school-based Health Centers um and the school linked programs with them for dental and vision services and now partnering with Katherine to to offer even more services and my followup and thank you for that my followup will be what is the plan for the integration between the two systems um often times they don't necessarily share same um medical information for Hippa and other reasons that can happen with that but if let's say there is a intersection there um between someone utilizing the services there and then let's say they transfer move and they go to Cherry or to another location that offers by Cherry Health how would that information be integrated or shared across the platform since now there are two different governing bodies Under One Roof yeah that's you want go yes um we have typical medical records release processes where we would have either that scholar or their families um how as appropriate based on if it's minor confidential confidential services or typical Primary Care um and we would release information between entities via that release form we also do there'll be annual consents uh for at Cherry health or Katherine's Health Center if students want to be seen in the health center and like I said they're under 18 they do have to fill out um their parents have to fill out a consent form so even if a student were to move to a different school you know Midway through the year or you know we could just obtain a new consent for that facility as needed thank you all righty thank you all right um Mr Atkins and Miss Wade will um stay on board to kind of talk a little bit about the Cherry Health Partnership yep so one thing um I know we started with was just a brief introduction to what happened with with cherry and so I know we can probably skip that one and so we so she um Miss way did start with um introduction to um Cherry health so so we can check that one off as well okay there any questions about Cherry Health all right they're maintaining their relationship they're just not expanded because of capacity is that correct they're not planning on shutting down okay not even a little bit thank you all right well thank you next up um our fall athletic Athletics accomplishments and I will invite Mr Larry Johnson as well as our District athletic directors to come forward to talk about our fall season [Music] good evening president president Williams uh Dr Robby other distinguished board members uh I don't think these gentlemen needs an introduction Marcus Harris and just walker uh but they will be sharing with you just some of the accomplishments that some of our athletic uh teams have achieved this uh this doing the fall Sports season good evening Dr Roby president Williams and members of the board do fall Union High School we had eight first team uh okay gold athletes along with five of uh the okay gold honorable mention uh scholar athletes this fall the union cross country team won the Red Hawk uh Hawks in invite as well as three uh top three team finishes at the sparta invite the Oak Hill Oak Ridge invite as well as the uh big hill invite along with that um the Union uh boys tennis team uh were qualified for academic All State again this year um out of 327 uh schools in division one the union Red Hawk tennis team finish in third place with a overall team GPA so um very quick notes for the fall but we had a great fall we look forward to the winter and uh we thank you for your assignment and support and M haris good evening president Williams superintendent Dr Roby and board members uh just going to share with you some of the highlights from the Ottawa Hills Bengals Athletic program from The Fall season uh for volleyball we had over 60 girls uh try out for the paa program which we had nearly 50 girls in the program uh we had over 125 students participate in our annual youth volleyball camp which featured uh grps second through fifth graders uh we also competed well in a very tough OK white conference which has currently four teams ranked in the top 10 uh so we had one honorable mention all conference in volleyball as well uh going to girls swimming our girls swim team just uh wrapped up their conference meet uh over the weekend we finished in second place in the OK conference East Division we had two individual Conference titles in the individual 200 individual Melly and the 500 freestyle uh we had six All Conference selections for girls swimming all three of our divers qualifi for dive regionals and we just recently over the weekend had seven swimmers qualify for the mhsa state finals next weekend uh cross country uh we had both boys and girls cross country teams uh win the marer Invitational at St John's in September our girls team qualified for the state finals by taking second place at their Regional in Portage our girls team finished 26 uh in the state meet and it was the 10th year in a row that the Ottawa Hills cross country team had state qualifiers uh our football team uh we won our first game in three years uh we also had uh we also was able to get players to have uh at least two levels in a sub varsity and varsity team first time in three years we had two All Conference selections and one honorable mention and currently we had 15 players who had achieved a a 3 3.0 GPA or higher after the first marking period including five with four with a 4.0 GPA uh we increased participation this year uh also got a a player who uh Michigan State football is recruiting on our team who is a Michigan State coaches at our school last week and so uh thank you for allowing this opportunities for our student athletes in the fall season just about over and uh we started winter sports season today thank you who's that lucky man who's being U recruited by Michigan State his name is ran Rogers ran Rogers yeah he's a senior that wraps up the the fall Sports and I know Mr Walker is working on some things right now with the with the young uh scholar athlete here at Union High School we hope to bring some exciting information to you about that that scholar once it's confirmed with the state on on that individual's accomplishments and we just have to confirm some things uh with the state uh on the accomplishments and the records that that individual uh had has achieved and once that done we will bring that to you as well so thank you thank you thank you next um we have a school that is a century old and so I will invite Ed Mr Chad neelsen as well as principal Brad Moore to come up and talk about Harrison Park as we celebrated 100 years president Williams Dr Robi and members of the board thank you for having us here today um we had a pretty special opportunity to recognize uh a school that has been with us for quite some time um and I'm here with um the principal Brad Moore and I'm going to let him talk a little bit about the the 100y Year celebration that they had thank you for having me president Williams Dr Roby and esteemed board members uh every fall Harrison Park invites the communities students Scholars uh families Community Partners to a family fun night uh and this year was a little different because Harrison Park was built in 1924 so we are celebrating 100 years and it was just amazing to see the community come together the school district supporting us the Communications Department on top of our typical activities where we have uh yard games in the gym we have a cakewalk where uh our guests can win prizes we have hot dog dogs and pizza and reading with Reggie who is our mascot we added some cupcakes for our birthday party we added a a time capsule where all of our classes contributed an artifact to Berry in our Courtyard and our Courtyard has also been um modified we got a couple trees one was to commemorate this 100th anniversary and to kick off the next 100 years that will uh be just as amazing because Harrison Park structurally is just a gem of a building and they don't build them like that anymore and it's an honor to to be a leader in that building and to kind of show you what that night was like before I show you the video I want to also say that we had so many community members come out these were students from the 1950s and 60s teachers that have been retired for decades they came back to um to recognize what uh what an amazing experience they had at Harrison Park so that was great to see and in preparation for the event we went to the Grand Rapids archives and we went to the Grand Rapids Public Library and gathered old materials we tried to find yearbooks and pictures and articles and now we have the those in our lobby if you come by you can see those to this day and even some old pictures those students sitting in those seats of those pictures came to the event so that was really cool to see so without further [Music] Ado Welcome to our 100th birthday party where tonight the building is the star a 100 years ago a vision was born rooted in the belief that education could transform lives and Empower individuals to change the world over the years our Scholars staff family and Community Partners have proven this to be true we've been married 60 years we were going steady here in yes 56 57 somewhere in there French Rings they were called back in the day it's wonderful that it's still here it's just absolutely great because it we have such good memories of it it helped me in the future I was a design engineer for steel case for almost 22 years and I think it was uh Mr mcak's mechanical drawing classes that helped me through it I have a Wonder lot of wonderful memories of the school cuz I I love this school so much that is our time capsule all of our classes here in Harrison made something to put in the time cap so there's photos and there's messages on the backs of those photos and some other items we're going to bury that in the courtyard today all right who's next it's not just about the school building itself it really is about our our community events like this is what makes Grand Rapids Public Schools so special coming together for Generations United in a shared sense of pride in our schools in our neighborhoods and our [Music] future thank you okay I have a quick question um I noticed that time capsule and after what we went through a kington was that adequately marked so that we can find it in a 100 years from now yeah I want to thank Mr Luke steer he he was uh prepared for that he got us a stone to put right on top of it that says clearly there is a time capsule under here thank you awesome thank you all right thank you appreciate it all right and we have another celebration Ottawa Hills Academy and Hospitality of Tourism had a grand reopening and so I would invite executive director Cheney as well as principal Dr Timothy maen to come up and talk about this Wonder wonderful event and the implications for our Scholars good evening named president Williams Dr Roby distinguished board members thank you for having us here to celebrate this phenomenal opportunity for our Scholars the partnership that we have with Grand Valley with experience gr we could not be more happy to be up here and show you this video tonight it is a pathway to success for so many of our Scholars and we were just excited to be able to host this at Ottawa Hills High School the reopening and the reason I say reopening is it's a launch right we have many more um Scholars enrolled this year than ever before we have new energy around this and we have just all sorts of beautiful things planned so thank you for allowing us to be here and Dr mabin what would you like to say sure thank you for having me here uh president Williams Dr Roby and Board of Trustees um The Academy of hospitality and tourism has just been an amazing opportunity um you know as we sort of re-envision and reestablish uh Ottawa Hills as a thriving learning environment you know the the Partnerships um you know trusty eatman experienced gr uh Dr stanby at gbsu have just been fundamental um not only with the resources that they provided our Scholars but also their thought partnership you know as we really dive in and we expose students um to Pathways that maybe they had not yet imagined for themselves that really give the possibility of a bright future so it's just been a great um uh partnership to have and I look forward to what it can do for our students moving forward so I'll say here is our video and um just watch where we go not only on the video but [Music] beyond this is truly a time of excitement and rebuilding at Ottawa Hills High School we're committed to preparing our Scholars for a life beond the classroom and the Academy of hospitality and tourism embodies that Mission 3 2 [Applause] one every day I witness firsthand how this program is transforming the lives of our young people by igniting a passion for hospitality and tourism while also teaching the importance of making a positive impact we are shaping Future Leaders who will bring lasting chain to their communities and Beyond these students are having Hands-On experiences that really connect them to the industry not just from behind the classroom but practical hands-on experience to show them just how they can see themselves in this work the store offers an experimental learning opportunity this hands-on experience Fosters essential skills in customer service inventory management marketing and financial literacy hospitality is more than just a job it's a fulfilling career that can take them around the world literally and give them skills that will last a lifetime I am excited to see the Academy of hospitality and tourism grow and make a difference in our community and here's to the future of hospitality in West Michigan thank you and we hope you enjoyed that as much as we did all righty next on our agenda we have our report from our scholar representative we have Miss Fabiola with us tonight do you have a report for us um no report for today all right wonderful we are at our first opportunity for public comment um Miss uh D Lewis if you will please read our instructions tonight why have to search isn't that a red sheet sorry I thought I had oh no I'm sorry if there are any individuals present who wish to address the board please fill out a public comment card located at either entrance of the board Chambers please also 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 agendas are located by the comment cards the second public comment opportunity is for comenting on non agenda items related to the business of the district but are not topics on the current agenda if you wish to comment during both both public comment opportunities you will need to fill out separate cards individuals must completely fill out the front of the card and indicate the specific business on which they wish to comment please submit the completed card at the entrance way and our board assistant will collect the cards we ask any speakers to refrain from making abusive statements against board members employees volunteers or contractors speakers are encouraged to present complaints about board members employees volunteers or contracts through the appropriate process established under board policy 9450 before requesting the board's consideration the board policies can be found on online at grps.org individuals will be invited one at a time to the podium to address the board before you begin your comment please State your full name at that time we'll start the timer allowing each individual 3 minutes to make the comment the one minute notice will be provided by flagging this red piece of paper red card huh 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 the appri appropriate staff we value your input and thank you for sharing our um first and only for a agenda item is Jane Neeman you can come down front for us thank you good evening president Williams um it's interesting to look up at you here uh Dr Robie a little hard to see you um distinguished members of the board good evening uh my name is Jane Neeman I'm the vice president of g a proud teacher here at Union High School um and I wanted to address today uh now that we are post election I want to First congratulate um those who were elected to the school board and also goodbye to some of those who will be leaving us um as we move forward here in this bargaining year with teachers I was looking at the Personnel report and the financial audit and I just want to reach out to this board as we move forward into another year and as we get through about the halfway point of this school year soon that I would like to request that we make sure that by the end of this year that we have a sign contract that we show that our teachers are valued there is a lot of I would like to say pessimism and depression after some of the election results that we recently saw but also at the um I would say slowness of the bargaining process I know that in the past we used to sit down uh during a complete days for about a week and hash out things that we need to negotiate and constantly having to find a night to negotiate and it dragging out over months and months is very wearing to many of our Educators who feel already undervalued and as healthc care costs increase um there are a lot of concerns that there has not been um a sufficient uh augmentation in salaries to compensate for the cost of inflation and now with the um continuing rise in healthcare um I have heard that there is going to be some effort to raise the hard cap amount and the lame duck but there is no guarantee that that will happen so I would like to request that we move to an open bargaining and perhaps consider other methods of bargaining contracts that would be more efficient and effective uh moving forward uh I see that we are uh having a few more resignations than hires and this is concerning to me as I represent my members and all of the Educators here that work with than our bargaining unit so I humbly implore you to consider maybe discussing those options with us and that we remember to continue to Value the wonderful staff and educational staff that we have here at grps that have continued to work so hard for our staff and um for their other staff and for the students that they serve thank you thank you um our secretary's report is next the ad hoc facilities committee will take place on Tuesday November 19th at Franklin campus in room 112 the city liaison board committee will take place on Thursday November 21st at Franklin campus in room 112 finance committee will take place on Tuesday November 26th at Franklin campus in the auditorium and our committee chair report of first we have our finance committee Miss shaki we had a brief finance committee meeting in October um just reviewed the purchasing agenda which is in the packet tonight so I'll take any questions at that time and that's my report all righty and then we have um our conference report out so um we had a few uh board members attend some um uh conferences for professional learning and so I will start with um Miss David is who went to our masb conference yes I attended the delegate assembly on Thursday night prior to the leadership conference starting and that was my first time attending um we had school board members from all over the state there and we were voting primarily on amended resolutions to um masb policy so I did attend the conference on Friday I attended a couple of sessions on superintendent and board relations which were beneficial and I feel like the work we've been doing in the last year especially um reminded me of some of the things that were talked about in those meetings I also attended a wonderful session on onboarding for new school board members which uh was very relative to what we are going to experience in a less than two months so um I got some wonderful information from that session that I'm excited to share with all of you um a school was presenting that just did a thorough process with this a few years ago and it's been very beneficial for their board so I know we as a board have been talking quite a bit about how we can uh better our on onboarding process so some of the things we've been talking about were a part of their plan but they also had additions that um I'm excited to share with all of you I do want to highlight just the amended policy that was voted on at the delegate assembly just so you're aware and then I believe that it would be beneficial for our policy committee to look further into if we want to amend some of our policy based on the recommendations a lot of the wording is um masb highly suggests that boards adopt a policy so they're never forcing a board unless it's um a law but lots of highly suggest suggested policy so the first one was on increasing board member Effectiveness and in they they changed the wording from promote to endorse and encourage participation in continuing education programs and conferences and strongly encourages all School boards to adopt policies regarding participation in the mb's voluntary School Board certification um the another policy was on traits of effective school boards and the change there was that masb strongly encourages School boards seeking to exemplify these traits look at formally adapting and implementing the Michigan Board of Education governance standards um inclusive literature was another policy and this is in regards to libraries in our schools including age and development appropriate literature this policy already had um wording that reflects all Races ethnicities religions abilities genders sexual orientation and gender identities but they're adding in age and developmentally appropriate and there's a policy on literacy skills change in wording was for um in it was for professional development in literacy skills and they're adding um they're changing it to professional development from in Services was the old terminology and then they are talking about quality and quality and thorough instruction in the science of reading it used to say adequate instruction um new policy equity and education I'm sorry it's not a new policy they're adding wording to that that says instead of board members will affirm and will affirm by their actions that says board members will Foster by their actions the belief that all students can and will learn instead of each student can Will and shall learn so little changes but but impactful the change of words can be quite impactful um on the policy that says eliminating barriers to learning they added assuring schools create a supportive and safe School culture safe and secure schools in the sentence that says masb encourages school officials to develop School emergency operation response plans they added the word robust lost School Emergency Operations response plans and where it says plans should include a risk assessment they changed it to risk and threat assessment for school bus safety they added that we consider alternative fuel hybrid or electric school buses and they encourage School Bus security and safety cameras to be added um under healthful nutrition they added that there should be an emphasis placed on protein and healthy fats which are needed for proper brain and body functions and carbohydrates and refined sugars should be limited just a couple more Health curriculum and policies in they added in addition school health policies should focus on they have a list but the added one is age appropriate Tech techniques to recognize child sexual abuse and and con confide in a trusted adult as outlined by Aaron's law and last one is under educational research and program evaluation they just changed the dates because that's something that should be ongoing instead of being limited by a date so that was um interesting to be a part of that uh School boards from all over the state voted on those and um just to hear the Insight gathered because things were changed on the spot based on expertise of different board members and that was that was very cool I had never never done that before and the conference the next day was wonderful because I was able to talk to board members from all over the state and gather some ideas and be um confirmed in some of the wonderful things that we already are working on so I appreciate the opportunity to attend okay wonderful and then we'll talk to um um Mr Rodriguez about his experience with our Cube conference then we'll go to miss uh wait hi everyone can y'all hear me is that good okay so uh yeah we got a chance to go to Las Vegas um and we went to the cube conference which is the Council of urban Boards of Education um and that's through the National School Board Association and so there was I say in the room where everyone gathered at least 600 700 folks um so it was a pretty big conference I I went to a lot of breakout sessions um I could sit here and talk about them all day but I'm just going to talk about three that were really um that I thought were really great the first one was strategic collaboration utilizing the school board uh Equity Council and District leadership to advance goals and so this was um a an initiative started after the Utah State Board of Education passed a resolution in 2021 denouncing racism and embracing equity in Utah schools um from then from there they created the district and Community advisory Council on equity which is the dcac I think both are mouthful but you know they use the the acronym um but from there they they started um what they call a portrait of a graduate that broke down what a student might need to be successful through graduation um and then from that portrait of a graduate they created subcommitte um to uh such as student discipline family engagement staff diversity Pathways and opportunities um and created again those subcommittees with 12 members that were staff um community members and students um all to kind of uh work together to accomplish these goals uh that that they set out to have with a portrait of a graduate um some of these things were aspiring leadership acmy where they strategically recruited employees by career goals um employees set annual goals with their supervisor um and documented career aspirations and then later on they'd have uh for PD they had um education support professionals annual conference where they would look back at those goals um and then uh staff could choose a breakout session aligned with what they aspired to become within the district so it was you know kind of grow your own um you know develop staff within within our already existing staff um to develop their careers internally and so that one um was really great um and I'm I'm going to put this all in an email because I would love to share more with you all there's a lot to share um but then the second one was reclaiming The Narrative about educational equity and why it matters for every student this one I think is particularly useful right now uh in the time that we're going to find ourselves in in the next few years um about what is equity and education um why does it matter um and how do we you know how do we discuss it um without uh letting there be um misinformation in in the mix of those conversations um so we talked about the resistance movement to Brown versus Board of Education um and it didn't apply to private schools and we talked about um all these resolutions passed by Southern legislator to evade desegregation and so I think that it was a pertinent uh conversation to have again as we start to deal with more of these issues um with school choice and voucher programs um you know throughout our country and then finally uh another breakout session was called the seat of power a districtwide approach to creating space for student voice and now seat in that title stands for student Equity advisory team um and I know that we have a superintendent advisory Council and so I was really excited to see kind of the the mirroring of this work um but one of the conversations we had was you know some folks uh that were other board members from around the country said I didn't think I had students like that in my in my you know School District that would want to have that leadership role um and so we talked about like how do you find those students how do you um find them and then build them up to be leaders in their own Community um and so this kind of brought some work that we're doing within the district but also you know things like the Student Association for leadership and transformation through uccc kind of the work that both of them were doing and it almost kind of melded it together um and we talked about how when students believe they have a voice the just the benefits that come from that 40 40% more likely to report being academically motivated um 37% more likely to report having purpose uh you know 41% more likely to report experiencing engagement in school and so all of these things really benefit our students um simply for the fact that they felt that they had a voice in the decisions that are made within their District um and then finally that that uh breakout session ended in talking about how we look at leadership within our student body um it can't just be students that you know have no tardies and no absences um it's got to be students that um you know because for for a lot of students that have good grades that have good attendance the system is already working for them and so we have to look at what students um are falling through the cracks right what students have something to say about the systems in place that maybe don't serve them in the best way and how how do we how do we improve those alongside our students um and so that was that was three of the breakout sessions that I went to I had a really great time and uh I'll send an email with more information thank you Jose he said what I was going to say um so yeah I I I went to some really cool sessions too and some of the same messages I did um pull from those um I enjoy the fire the fireside chat with um the ladies from living Singo if you know you know um Kim Co Erica Alexander and Kim Fields were there discussing their share uh they shared their Learning Journey as a student and as a parent and it was just good to hear from I would say regular people right parents and people who have had opportunities for for their children that not everybody has but they're still parents and they're still they still were students at one point some um so one of the the theme that I got from that was that we we get better outcomes when all children feel seen safe and validated and they expressed that and how they were able to navigate the educational system for their children and find places for them to learn that actually um help their child um passions help them Express their passion through school and it made me just think about a lot of our different opportunity opportunities to learn that uh grps offers uh also went to a session called policy and that uh that demands Equity ensuring that all students have the have the school they deserve right same theme um encouraging it encouraged me to continue to support mirroring our district that's some of the some of our uh Master facilities master plan is that um schools on the northeast side mirror the schools on the well schools on the Southeast side Kim the schools on the northeast side so making sure that our students all have access to the same um types of themed schools and they don't have to go across the city to get to them so I'm excited to see some of that work uh play out in our our um FMP um I also went to a session called collaboration for Student Success in educator ret ention and this was all about obviously collaborating with um stakeholders and being transparent with community and um school boards and making sure that we are working together to uh provide successful outcomes for our students and also our teachers and I think that um well I do think this but this was another theme that came out of it was that there are a lot of um positive outcomes when we come together for our students and so it's so it's basically encouraging us to continue to collaborate with our um with our I'm looking right at at you guys teacher uh our community unions yes there you go unions our school board our Community Partners um and making sure that we are we're working together for the student not for our adult wishes and our our dreams and aspirations but keeping the students centered in all the work we do and when we do that our teachers actually reap those benefits as well and I also learned that Las Vegas can get cold all righty um uh I also attended this uh conference where we um engage school board members from all over the country as well as the Caribbean um and um um the uh Gil Garrett who is the current chair chair of the uh Council um he really was kind of giving us some um some thoughts and insights about his um experience having been the leader and um what the current state is of urban School boards um followed by that I attended a a workshop um about Sparks and there was leveraging funding um and really in this um throughout the conference just Equity was woven all through the conversation but this was particular to talk about um equity in the space of uh leveraging investment uh of uh funds in our facilities and to do that through a equity lens and that we are making sure that we are trying to do that in the um a fashion that benefits um the districts not just um for today but uh for the future many of them are right sizing just like we are and and um there was Insight uh shared with us as to how we can really try to leverage the um properties that we have so that that we can gain income from those and that that is something that can um really set up Urban Schoolboard districts to be able to have more charge of the the income that we have and not just so reliant on our uh state and federal partners for the um uh uh and City we get city tax too so um uh for our funding um also we I attended a workshop that was hosted by um Dr Teresa Hill out of Illinois where she was really talking about um now that you have created this great policy how do you make sure that policy um um created becomes the the practice and so some of the things that she talked about was that policy cre can create Focus Clarity support information and engagement and it can help mitigate but she also clarified that great policy even as great as it can be it um cannot change deeply held beliefs it cannot um change or overcompensate for the lack of skills or pedagogy it cannot um uh change uh test scores it cannot change um um issues around race out comes around race and ethnic backgrounds or um again even Community Harmony so while we want to do our best work and we want to think we can do all of this stuff with policy changes and you know we have all been um a part of that work and we're um really hoping that our policy has long-term impact in ways that we want but even with that it it is clear that um it can't do everything and so we really have to be intentional to say um know what our limits are but also make make sure that the policy that we put in place can be put in practice so that is my brief summary um from the conference um Dr Roby next we have our foundation's report so I'm going to invite Miss Stephanie Andrew CEO and president of grps foundation as well as Miss Bridget Cheney to come forward to talk about the grps foundation okay do not fall good evening Dr Robby president Williams trustees I'm excited to be here and share some um fun news in three short weeks Turkey Trot will be here I don't know how many of you are registered but if you are you're one of over 3,000 that's registered so far and we do get most of the amount of registers in the LA the last 2 to 3 weeks before the event so we expect uh we're ahead of schedule for where we were last year and we've raised over $104,000 to date with 12 brand new sponsors and over 30 sponsors overall so we're very excited for that piece um of that I want to give you an update last time I was here we talked about our annual foundation for the future event that was happening the same week of this board meeting and I want to thank Fabiola for being our student voice on stage and sharing her message and bringing her father to the event she did an amazing job and um we were so proud to have her on stage so thank you again for that um those my things off the top of my head um I wanted to share that the grit Sports Hall of Fame uh sent an email today and let us know that they'll be donating $10,000 from their golf outing um to our our sports teams this year so I'm excited um to be able to write that check and and have uh even more things happen for JPS Sports and as we're talking about Partnerships uh we have uh moved forward with the updated opportunity from a new weight room at City Middle High um all the partners met last week and walked through and that will be happening uh sometime this spring I believe is the time frame for that and two last things we did our very first volunteer playground cleanup planted five trees uh we painted new Four Square games and we cleaned up the playground and grounds at Dickinson park with um some volunteers from RDV and oap um and we hope that that's just one of many that we hope to do this spring and continue to bring in volunteers alumni and corporate Partners to just work with the schools and and do some fun things to beautify the grounds and finally um my board president and I have been visiting schools just to introduce ourselves let them know that we're available uh and we have visited 17 schools to date which I think has really helped us increase our teacher and mini grants uh requests we had 49 teachers apply 21 uh principes apply and we are going to uh be looking to award those at our our board meeting tomorrow um and we believe that we'll be giving close away close to $30,000 um to uh both teachers and principals some of the requests one of them is actually to help host a musical here on this stage for Union High School we're very excited to see that um the teacher requests that we got are all over the board and really exciting Innovative um everything from starting brand new after school clubs that teachers want to um actively um manage and participate and get student involvement um to gardening new Gardens at schools um so it's really exciting to see all the different requests that we're getting from both principals and teachers um and Bridget is a part of those as well as um Rhonda to go through them with us so it's really great to have um all the different eyes on it and and just look at what opportunities there are and how to collaborate and solve problems and also bring in other Community Partners um that teachers and principles might not be aware that there's other um resources yeah all good work looking forward to the board meeting tomorrow thank you gobble gobble what does it move your feet before you eat yes exactly and thank you for the work you continuously do for the district I think that's really important to get the opportunity to uplift that you come in as a partner with the district and especially our Scholars benefit the most but the also additional pouring that you give to the administration the team and the staff is greatly appreciate it so thank you thank you thank you superintendent report all right so every quarter we have several different reports and we are going to begin with Mr Johnson with a public safety quarterly update [Applause] [Music] use the right arrow to the slide which one the right arrow okay thank you good evening again uh president uh Williams Dr Roi and remaining board members uh this is our quarterly report uh for Safety and Security uh again all of our reports and all of our work will align with the priority uh scholar outcomes as outlined by this board uh tonight we are going to be focused again on meeting the holistic uh student needs and also uh creating a culture of trust collaboration and stewardship in our work uh we try to align our work under the five phases of Emergency Management being prevention mitigation preparedness response and Recovery uh tonight uh we are focusing on uh physical security which is uh falls upon the prevention and preparation and aligning our framework uh for comprehensive school safety it's a lared approach uh which includes a multitude of things and departments uh tonight the physical Safety and Security which primarily falls upon the our leadership is where we will focus on tonight but we want to celebrate some work that uh that our team has been working on and has been doing in the community uh as the request of this board uh to date we've distributed over 500 gun locks at various uh uh District events as well as community events uh additional literature has been distributed to parents and attendees to those events uh we are increasing our presence at PTO and PTA meetings and our team officers teach and educa mentan officers are scheduling classroom presentations focused on gun safety for youth we recently posted a PowerPoint presentation on our District's website the security page uh that lists information for both parents and for students on information about safe gun storage and we will continue working with law enforcement to establish the proper uus uh that support our work and ensure that we are following all legal laws related to the release of information and uh as we support our Scholars so let's dig into into some of the security uh physical security work that we are currently involved in and this is just a snapshot of a small portion of work that we're doing in the district and we just want to focus on physical security our work uh camera projects uh we have uh been involved in an ongoing camera project in the district uh we're proud to say that currently about 60 66% of all of our buildings uh have uh now cameras uh those camera systems are coming up almost daily in the district we have 5% that are in active planning uh 11% in active design uh 5% that is in design stage and we're holding on 133% again all of our physical security work if we want and the buildings that we touch we want to touch buildings that have scholars in the buildings first so when we look at a building where we're holding on work it's holding on some buildings that are not that are vacant buildings and where we do not sure yet what are what our pathway will be for those buildings so buildings such as uh Alexander or be with uh and then some of our ancillary buildings where there's no Scholars of the buildings that we're holding on because we want to put our work where the scholars are second is asset control the access control upgrades let me say first that all of our buildings we are 100% access access controlled card access in all of our buildings however we've reached a life uh end of life on that project so about we right now in active uh planning about 94% of our buildings with no planning in about about 6% of those buildings again once again we're talking about some vacant buildings that we're not going to move forward with plans with we're going to put our work into the uh the buildings that we're occupying and the focus will be on those buildings with Scholars first uh the the current system that we utilize is called pcsc uh that system is no longer uh able to uh meet the needs of the integration that we would like to see uh as we talk to our cameras as the card access talk to our cameras and give more control of the system inhouse rather than doing that work uh exhile so so out of house so Craig and I have been working with several vendors and meeting with vendors and interviewing vendors uh trying to select what is the what is the the good match for Grand Rapids Public Schools and this is probably a 24 to 36 month project uh to get all of our buildings uh uh over to a new system once we select a new vendor with this project but I want to want to stress that currently 100% of our buildings currently have card access a working card act system this is a 35y old system that we're hoping to upgrade then I work on critical incident mapping and we really excited about the critical incident mapping program uh 67% of our uh projects have been done and again our Focus has been on scholar uh occupied buildings uh 19% of those buildings are in design and we have an active design in about 7% and then those buildings about 7even of% of the buildings are offline buildings that we will not uh touch uh again if you look uh at the um at the models or the the layouts there uh the one to my right I think your right is is currently what a map would look like the one to the left would be a critical incident mapping building which will show uh all of our fire poool stations the location of aeds we can go into this into this uh this model and look into this uh from a 3D standpoint uh it'll tie into our to our camera system as well uh so it just gives us much more information and allows uh emergency Personnel to pinpoint an emergency in the building much faster the system would would be downloaded into the police CAD system and this is something that was required by uh by the state uh and all schools that's doing this it' be loaded down into the cad system and so if the police were to have a a critical incident of school they can then pull up our buildings uh right from their CAD system and get additional information but not just the police but fire and EMS as well so it's a much more bu system uh with a ledger that allows for um uh the identification of key assets within the building and an oversight or an aerial photos of the buildings as well uh that would be attached so it's a it's a real step in the right direction then our security entry way projects uh again 81% uh have been of our buildings have been completed again the focus is always on those buildings where Scholars are located uh we have about 11% of non-s scholar sites that we are we we're not uh that we have not completed yet uh 2% and uh of our buildings are in holding pattern 2% is an active construction and 4% active design and so we have some projects some remodel projects that's coming on board uh we have just a couple buildings that we're that we're actively involved in construction right now just across the parking lot here at at Westwood uh we're working on a uh pretty significant uh secure entryway at that location as well and the our goal is to get all of our buildings um into a secured entryway pattern and those buildings that we are not focused on again are the um buildings on Franklin campus food service or the operations building again our Focus has to be the buildings where we have Scholars located and our Raptor visitor management system uh and this is a project that we started uh with uh in our elementary buildings uh we have now moved in some of our K K8 buildings and our our intent uh to move uh by the end of this school year by end of this calendar year uh into our high school 61% of our buildings have been completed 133% of the buildings we're not doing again that's uh it relates back to those buildings that we are not occupying uh 9% we're holding on and then 177% uh is an active design and we're in the active design phase for those uh programs and again we hope to have uh cardx the Raptor visitor management system uh and totally installed in all of our buildings by the end of this school year or end of this calendar year and there there's some other modules within that program that we hope to turn on as we learn more about that system as well and then our 2-way Radio Systems um we have over between 450 and 500 2-way radios in our system right now uh and we 450 of those are portable radios about 50 of those are mounted in either uh security vehicles or maintenance and operation vehicles uh but 35% are in our elementary buildings 15% in the K8 buildings about 12% in Middle Schools 18% of our high schools and other would be security operations Family Support uh the um uh I think TR well treny is Family Support so the other uh ancillary uh groups that help support uh we used to try to keep the 20 to 30 radios in stock for a breakdown but we've made a decision to put all of our resources and assets into the building to utilize them uh because there was a there was a reoccurring cost for batteries that was burning out for radios that were not being used and so they're being used we increased the number in our elementary buildings this year for um based upon request from those principls uh they wanted to have uh get the radios in the offices of our nurses uh other other staff members that are moving around the building so we made that we made that happen this year and then some of the officers commitment uh and just some of the events that our officers have covered uh uh this this between August 12th and November 9th uh this is 161 161 events covered uh 149 events at the unity University 181 athletic events have been covered for a total of 491 events now this does not include their normal work day this is all activities outside of the work day and this is pretty remarkable considering we we're short with personnel as well but they're continue to cover an events to make sure that our that our Scholars our families our stakeholders have a safe environment to participate in and and our guys just love being on site at these programs and we'll continue to cover them through the winter months as well and then how can the Boe and the staff continue to help us again uh just continue to celebrate our Scholars growth and success we want to continue to uplift our our our officers and the department success uh and join us in promoting the importance of homeschool and Community connections we'll continue to try to work with Community Partners we understand the value in that met with some important Community Partners this week uh on today uh that want to do some additional work uh it was it was exciting just a couple weeks ago to go to the City of Grand Rapides pitch night and I think they had 23 pctures and I think about 16 of those talked about doing work with Grand Rapids Public Schools and so we're excited about that and then finally uh you know we want you to continue to uh attend some of off the offer trainings and be able to uh ask more questions and look at and dig into the process and procedures this past Saturday we had uh over 50 staff members who attended uh the advanced School Safety Academy on their own time and uh just to get uh more information and uh and and so we invite you to attend this well uh we have none left this year but we will have a couple in the next calendar year and we would love to see your presence uh uh so you can dig into the process and ask a little bit more questions that's it questions colleagues um yes I have a couple questions for you um previously we had some teachers and administrators that came and spoke um in regards to some of the systems um either not working and or they're not being trained on it and so um my question for you is is twofold one um how often are those systems either routinely maintained and or checked for that and then two um is there cross training across that or what is the training that looks like for those forms of communication I'm not sure what systems we're referring to uh Mr eatman the two-way radio systems two-way radio systems are these radios are brand new I mean we're about four or five years old uh we we take them in every year to get them serviced uh so they are working multiple multiple channels I think 12 to 14 channels on each radio with a with a frequency that with a a teacher or principal can come direct to our office and then we also this year installed what we call a uh a critical incident radio in every school building every building that the district owns and that radio allows by the hit number red button they can go direct to the Grand Rapid police dispatch and dispatch right and ask for assistance right through them so we check those radios when we do our emergency drills we checking the radios to make sure they're working and and anytime we have a repair process in place and so our officers are picking up radios bringing them in we're dropping them off the shop and bringing a rotated radio back to them so thank you um and then I was just looking at the slide that you have with the number of events covered um 161 149 188 with a total of 491 from August to November which is a lot to cover um with the small team that you have so I guess my question for you is really around like what are the efforts to I guess um expand or attract so that way that weight on your team is not felt with the shortage that you have around that U we we don't have any problem uh maintaining uh folks come on and they stay uh once we find individuals that want to make the commitment uh we're getting ready to go into a hiring process right now because we hire because we train in an academy style it's difficult to just uh in some positions where they can hire daily it's very difficult for us to hire daily because the amount of training and work we put into them up front and so so we're hoping to bring on three to four individuals before that will start about January if we can start processing and interviewing right now cuz it'll take that long to get them process through thank you y just a quick question um you had mentioned that uh about 50 people came out on Saturday on their own time to get additional information so that's great where is the base of the information then coming for those that need training on the procedures I don't understand your question so if they're coming to get additional information you said Saturday yes so that's not their base training no their base training base training comes at the start of the school year we still do our Tuesday trainings every every second Tuesday of every month and we push in the buildings when ask to come in the building we'll work with a building administrator to get information uh we sent out uh blurps uh leadership blurps every week uh and so there's a variety of ways uh that we try to push out training to staff so just so I understand the the manual has been updated so the procedures and all that have been updated and everyone's been trained at this point and just got oh no that is not correct the manual we're currently working with our with our vendor we have reviewed and edited the manual and there's a long process to get to this I heard one of the board members talking about um some I think it was Mrs Davis talking about some recommendations that was coming out uh from the board from the state board members but there was also a huge recommendation that came out from the Michigan uh safe schools office that we wanted to incorporate all those changes in as well so there's a lot of work to being done and we hope to bring start bringing a draft back but once that draft comes back there's a committee that we need to pull together internally so that we can get an internal voice it's important to get our mental health folks our nurses our operational folks to get and some external voices please Fire EMS all of those voices in that book before that book is finalized So currently are we still using last year's manual for safety and for we are yes we are thanks yes uh just following up on trusty melon's question um so you mentioned the the draft coming back in front of a committee um so that's not a committee that currently exists it'll be established to just revise the the new manual there will be a committee for the revisement of the book that we will pull together yes okay um and do we I guess this is also for Dr Roby do we have a committee that that kind of revises that regularly is this a committee that will be a standing committee or or will it be like an ad hoc style committee currently our team uh we work with the police department uh there's a there's a a Kent County school security directors Coalition that meets every year well more than every year Meet every month and we update our books review our books our books are reviewed annually but this is one of the the first major updates we've had in many years and this is going across the County right now where the across the state actually where everyone's updating their books based on some recommendations from the offices of safe schools and the governor's task force okay thank you will you um because it's a new committee um and what you'll be forming where there be seats for either student teacher and or community members to sit there and also Aid in that I've seen how collectively those type of advisory boards or boards that have different seats for the different users experience and how they play into that could be lucrative and informative we we would want some uh some external voices to to look at our books some on some folks that have some uh some knowledge and that can help us guide guide guid through but we want to also be careful that it is a it is a an operational an Emergency Operations plan that you do not want your Emergency Operations plan uh posted out to the entire Community all right thank you thank you thank you next um we will ask Mr Philip green to come up and he is our director of food and nutrition services and he'll provide a quarterly update I don't need these real close okay president Williams uh Dr Roby distinguished board members thank you for this opportunity uh to be here uh tonight and update you on uh some of the exciting things that we feel we have going on with uh food and nutrition services basically we'll be focusing on the Strate strategic themes of 1 three and six which include meeting the holistic student needs ensure Equitable access and outcomes and and creating a culture of trust collaboration and stewardship we have been um honored with another uh opportunity to be a recipient of the the 10 cents a meal uh Grant um so uh that was something was different from last year where we actually had to apply it was not a card Blan type of uh situation where funds were just given out we had to apply for the for the funds and we were granted $113,000 for this program so those are matching funds to buy uh local produce um uh for our Scholars and add those items to the [Applause] menus stakeholder engag we want to definitely be involved with our stakeholders um our superintendent uh scholar Advisory board I will be meeting with them I haven't scheduled that yet to be honest with you uh but I will be scheduling that uh we have surveys planned uh we're looking for our first uh survey again to follow up in December um December because we were're waiting on a number of new items that are coming out from the manufacturers that we can uh survey and test with the the scholars prior to putting it on the on the menu Mr Grant Mr Green Advance your slide oh I'm sorry there we go thank you uh we will ALS we are also engaged in uh taste testing events uh and uh we just recently tested an item called The Three Little Birds granola we tested that at a number of different schools H with um with yogurt it went over went over very well uh one of the schools we tested was uh North Park as well as Dickinson so those are the two in the next two weeks we are planning to test that at M Brookside Harrison and uh Palmer also so our is our goal to rotate amongst the schools to make sure we can try to get to as many schools as we can to test different different items I will be attending a pal's meeting tomorrow um to uh present on uh School nutrition and our department uh we'll actually be there a meeting at 9:30 a.m. and another meeting with parents at 5:30 [Applause] p.m. we're very excited about our new menu items that we've had so far for the 2425 school year Advance thank you I'm getting too excited up here I'm sorry I apologize um our pumpkin bread uh orange chicken I won't go through all those items but we are constantly looking for new items that we can add to the menus that um we can have the manufacturers come in a lot of these items they bring into our manager meeting at the nutrition center we try it with the managers uh supervisors to get their Fe feedback and then we look to go out and test that at at some of the schools the last point there sweet cherries we just made a major purchase of um tart dark cherries from Peterson Farms which is a local uh produce uh organization in Shelby Michigan so that was almost a truckload of product that we purchased for that we'll be using that as we move forward on our shall bars smoothies we're going to find different ways to make sure we we use those cherries I got it okay these are also some upcoming new items for the 2425 school year uh that we are looking at sausage and cheese stuffed waffle a cheeseburger calzone chicken and waffle Butternut Squatch red and green Jolly Sidekicks and if you don't know what a sidekick is it's a frozen not Jello but it's like a frozen ice in a cup and we try to get those to match up with the holidays um that we're serving those items okay kids like those we let them In tha for a little while and they really like those items thank you our commissary kitchen again these are some slides from before but we constantly are adding new breakfast sandwiches uh to be honest with you one of the one of the uh areas that we have um more of an issue on with manufacturers is finding new breakfast items so we try to develop some of these different sandwiches using different biscuits croissants those type of things in our commissary kitchen to offer additional items available to to the scholars uh different salads uh we have some vegetarian items also uh many of the middle schools and high schools have actual sections where they have signs up that says vegetarian or uh the salad is actually inclusive of the the serving line or via the uh separate salad bar and we're continue to work on on different Subs also the barbecue wrap has been going over very well okay just to give you an idea where we are year to date our meal counts we are currently up a total of four% uh for the year 6% up on lunch and 2% up uh versus prior year on our breakfast upcoming projects of course you you all are aware of the sigsby kitchen remodel uh we are expanding the number of menu monitors that we're putting in some of the elementary schools and what the menu monitors are it'll have the menus up there of course but it have some fun facts for the uh for the scholars could be I don't know Teachers Day or something there's a you know sometime we put that that information up there um and sometimes we have like a like a quiz type of question to see if the scholars can answer those those questions and we will also cafeteria signage we're looking more at not just signs but something to um promote the uh the mascots the the school themes uh that we can put on either coolers or up on the wall so we're looking to enhance that experience for the for the scholars in the in the eating area and also on a a a note for our actual building we're looking at updating our service software upgrades on how we count meals and report that back to the state just a basic list of our expenditures which of course is Food Supplies equipment equipment repairs uh we're still looking uh for um funding grant funding uh we would like to get another sandwich wrapping machine uh which does a very good job of taking the sandwich and sealing it up and it really looks good for the for the scholars and we're also looking for funding again for the commercial blenders and we're looking for grants for we're trying to get hot chocolate machines in some of the schools uh which is basically just heating up the chocolate milk but it's nice so we're looking for additional grant funding to cover some of the expenses of some of the other equipment that we're looking for and that was that was it thank you I have a couple questions for you um thank you for the presentation um it's a a definitely great to see some progress in this area um I do have a few questions related to um the last time we were here um we mentioned regarding the surveys um and surveys that the students have and some of the surveys that they um spoke about were either not visible and or um they did not see where the surveys were um so one my first question is um have you addressed the locations of where you're receiving or asking for feedback for the students to give that and then the second part of that is that data like um now it's been about two years since you talked about that survey data what does that data say like I don't think we've seen those questions um come in a format to us up here where we can actually see what those students are stating and so what is that what are they stating that they want to see in that regards well that's a good question um first of all we have had meetings with individuals in the communication department and we have talked about different ideas of the the QR code where are they located how can we communicate that to uh the scholars uh we've talked about having that a scannable QR code um right in the cafeteria we've talked about having it uh distributed throughout the school on paper so different ways to make sure that we get more people with that Ur code because most of them are even have a phone or or something that where they can scan that and then give that data now to answer your question regarding the data I would have to work with um Communications we'd have to go back look at those uh those surveys we can recap that and we can provide that information if that's what um you know what you're looking for so has that data that has been collected was that used to inform you and the department in regards to the changes that you want to see um I'm thinking about that because for instance like the I'm assuming the bat-shaped Nuggets I mean not necessarily bat nuggets um were these items vetted by those students or any former students were these items selected in in comparison to what that data spoke about that we haven't been able to see like I'm I'm trying to figure out what is the relationship between what we see here versus what was stated that particular item was not we were just trying to match that up with Halloween and have that you know bat shaped nugget we know nuggets are very popular with the uh with the scholars feedback I received from the superintendent Advisory Board which I was very surprised that some of the uh older students mentioned they wanted the hash browns that were shaped like stars and I I was really surprised with that because they were older you know in high school and we did go back to uh putting that back on the menu so we are listening to the scholars that are providing this feedback and trying to make those changes uh another example is we uh last year I think we took the scholars to the Gordon Food Show uh down at van andle and they mentioned different all the vendors there of adding some different flavored juices to uh to the line so we did take that we take that advisement and we start adding those items back to uh either the menus or on the line or as uh you know add-ons to the menu so with the particular items that you listed here earlier regards to the new items those have not been necessarily vetted or taste tested by the scholars correct okay correct and before we went too much into an investment in these new things part of your presentation was that you plan on having that taste test and then we'll redo what if that doesn't come back good and we are put this investment in one of the thing we can't taste test all the items because normally what the National Data shows is that it takes two or three times for that item to be on the menu before the the scholars really make a decision of whether they like that item or not I think one of the things to lift up um Mr Green is that items also have been removed when based around if it's it's not well on on a day and I'm pick whatever the item is that a lot of kids opt out and not eat that particular item after a couple of times they've done that as well so there's some um other kind of anecdotal data of and I don't know if an I I mean you can certainly be able to better vers on saying we've removed this item or that item because it wasn't well received oh absolutely I mean if we the first time around if we get feedback from the cooks that say listen they did they did not like that item it's basically gone um so we make changes right away based upon feedback we received from the students as well as the cooks who really pay attention I mean if they're throwing half of it away we know that that's not a good item and we make adjustments to those menus so I'm happy to see that there's um new items on the the way um my concern SL ction is the aspect of we're asking them for data and feedback right we're asking the scholars to give their feedback on items and how we want to work walk alongside them and I just want to see that be something that we actually honor for taking their voices and doing that before we make large purchases towards any new items how is that being vetted if we're asking them for their opinion on that and then we purchase new things that we are pretty much in the dark not knowing if it's going to be successful when we can taste test those things ahead of time correct and to your point thank you for that we have five new items that are coming in that are slated to be tested prior to uh going on the menu we're just waiting for the samples to come in so we can schedule the taste testing that at the schools thank you can you just speak for a quick minute about um allergies I know um there are a couple families I've been working with even things like red dye has really been an issue but I'm sure the larger things like Dairy and gluten but can you speak to how you're responding to those specific family needs well first of all what we request for the for the parents is to fill out a form um uh and either present that to the uh the school office or to the nurse if there's one in the school that information is then communicated to us and I can say The dietitian has a very thick book of of allergies and things that we have to uh that we have to pay attention to so that's the first step uh a lot of times we deal with things that are a preference versus an actually item that they're I'm just speaking about allergies is there a what is the mechanism for ensuring that that is taken care of at the school level well we have that that information is put in the neutral sles which is our uh menu development um software uh we also have um menus that go out to the schools the dietician takes enormous amount of time to cross out items she sends out more than one menu could be one that uh is gluten-free one that has a protein deficiency she's making the changes on those menus and then and the um the cooks are aware of what students are coming through that line and what those um you know the special needs are okay Rob so oh I I was just going to say I don't have a question necessarily but just going off of trusty Melton's um comment is so I think as we become more aware of these dietary restrictions and and some may be preference um I myself in Laos intolerant and and gluten intolerant so I have to watch what I eat I don't always but um you know I I do know that in looking it up I actually just pulled up the stats right now is 65 65% of Latino students and 75% of black students um are are lactose intolerant and so while we may not know like you know they may affect them at different levels right some students may not even know and I just wonder you know how how could that eating those Foods right affect their mood affect their their energy levels throughout the day and not even I don't have a question but just something for all all of us to consider is you know without all of those um diagnosis happening right and as we offer um very large amounts of of of foods with lactose and and we offer milk to drink um I just wonder how that affects our students on the day today so I'm not just thinking about some stuff out loud okay Dr thank you all right thank you all right and our final um superintendent report presentation is related to bond construction updates and so I will ask Mr Alex smart to come forward to provide an update related to our projects good evening Dr Roby president Williams board members good to see you um so um we've been very very busy so I'll try to keep it concise to the projects that are very active right now um and of course if you have any questions I'll do my best to answer um uh the active construction and and and projects are out for bits right now it's just a a short list right here we we're still working on the Sibly renovation project which is uh going to be phase two um same thing applies to koid renovation uh will be phase two and we're very excited about uh kicking off 6B uh the 6B project um uh Housman field and Bricks field uh projects that are um out for bids and uh we just received bids for the m parking lot projects um under design as you can see on the slide uh we're working on the auditorium at Central uh the new Aberdine and the Riverside monory projects Sibly um we actually have uh been able to get ahead of this project a little bit and and then that's a a good thing because it's going to make the work and the summer uh a little bit lighter um ongoing um we we are working on the roof papers you can see right there we're we we're showing a little bit of the snow melt system that we have there and we're anticipating this project to be completed um yet this week uh we were able to done to to get the boilers uh completed um a week or two ago so so that that's uh off the list for now and in December uh we um are planning on actually starting and uh doing the temperature control replacement that's something that we originally were planning on doing next summer uh but uh we have a window uh and the products available for us to be able to just get ahead of that uh of course we're working with the school staff make sure that uh uh we are not interrupting any any school uh work and uh primarily the work is going to happen after school uh it's out in those few weeks uh in the spring we will be installing the new drinking pounds and um to make your aw if you haven't yet there is a new mandate in the state for us to uh improve uh the drinking uh fountains and the drinking uh points in our buildings to uh be filtered um so that's a a project that is uh is growing uh all throughout the district so as we work into projects like like like uh sibl and and KO we are taking that opportunity to replace uh the the drinking fountains and uh we'll be wrapping up the project in the summer doing with the lighting replacement and and uh completing some of the finishes in the first floor any questions on sibl not a question but a comment anytime you can be ahead of schedule for construction that's a good thing yes yes unfortunately that doesn't happen that often that's why I said it's a good thing um so uh qu uh the ongoing work that we we have uh is putting some finishing touches in the boiler replacement uh that's pretty much done and uh we're waiting for uh our holiday break uh to uh complete the uh dance floor and some of the exterior door uh doors that we're going to be replacing uh for the summer that's going to be the big one and uh we have a lot of work to get done this summer uh the hvc upgrades uh of course and and controls that that's the largest portion and uh lighting upgrad um uh we are also doing the lighting resurfacing uh I'm sorry parking lot resurfacing and uh we had recently a meeting with the city of gr Rapids uh where we were able to uh uh to reach an understanding as to what we wanted to do uh as it works with the zoning uh requirements um we have a very good relationship with the city we uh we um um we try to do everything we can to to to to meet the regulations as often as we can but they also understand that as a school entity we're also also exempt but we're good neighbors so so we work well um and uh couple of small things that we will be doing is uh the the uh um the staff and parents did ask for a uh toilet room accessible to the uh uh to the gymnasium because they use that for for events so we were able to include that in the project and renovate um and I apologize for a typo there it says office R it should be area uh renovation so missing a letter there um and that should be wrapping up uh the koi project uh this summer um 6B um as soon as um this board approves uh uh the the uh the project that we have presented uh to you uh for approval today uh our contractors are ready to start working um as soon as tomorrow uh as soon as we finish the paperwork uh some of the things that well first thing we need to do is uh abatement uh and the contractor is ready to start that abatement we've already uh provided all the paperwork to the state for us to do that and um uh the um they are ready to take possession of the building uh as soon as tomorrow um the significant work that we're doing there of course is uh new hbac and controls uh for the entire building uh we have lighting upgrades uh interior finishes and uh some interior space reconfigurations uh in fact the picture that you see there is a new area for lockers uh that we identified um that is um accessible to the students and um uh as we heard earlier uh Phil mentioned that we're doing a a new kitchen right there we're going to uh improve the the pass through and bring some new equipment and upgrade the gym uh one of the things that we found that is is new and it's going to be new to you as I tell you today is that we uh are required now the state came back with their comments and they want us to sprinkle the building so we will be providing fire suppression uh for this building um in a way it actually gives us more flexibility in the future so it's it's a it's a good investment for us to do so right now so uh originally we were not planning on that um but uh we anticipated that it could be some extra work so we uh we did have allowances uh in the project so we're we're within budget so and I I know you like to hear that um uh Housman field we're expecting um the um uh the bits uh on the 13th uh as you can see there uh for both projects uh we were able to put it out for bits for um um as a combined project uh contract s we can choose to give it to one or two separate contractors but they're we're we're beating them that way and uh as you have heard before we have the track we have the uh uh the turf uh replacement and the grass field replacement at Briggs and uh some M Mery restoration as as well as uh lighting up grades uh and uh new toilet rooms at bricks um so uh there are some other miscellaneous things like fences and things like that that uh that will take the opport opportunity to do and um uh that brings us to uh the last group of projects which is the uh multiple parking lots uh we received bids um on the six and uh they did come below what we expected so that's also good news uh we were expecting about 1.8 million for all0 six and it came about 1.4 um we still have to do some accounting because we have some other projects that we need to consider we have limited funds and uh and I don't I know Miss cribs is not going to let me spend any more money than she said I can spend so I have to have to keep it uh right within budget so we're going to do some evaluations of projects and then uh make determination as to uh uh which of these projects we can or cannot do hopefully we can do them all uh but we have a priority based obviously on the condition of the project um some of them are in pretty bad shape so we'll make sure we get those done and that is the conclusion of my my quick presentation if you have any questions question all right thank you thank you very much so much that concludes my reports all righty now we have our action items and the first we have up is our purchasing agenda colleagues are there questions with regards to the purchasing agenda if there are no questions is there a motion to approve our purchasing agenda some moved support all in favor please say I I any oppos same time all righty next we have our annual Banking and investment resolution any questions with regards to um this is there a motion to approve our annual Banking and investment resolution so moved support all in favor please say I I any post same sign and then last we have our annual summer school property tax resolution any questions with regards to this seeing none is there a motion to approve so moved support all in favor please say I I any oppos same sign next we need the approval of our consent agenda all in favor please say I I any oppos same time all right we have moved on and then next we have our um board president announcements at this time I do not have any announcements um and then we will go to our next opportunity for public comment um and we have this on our non agenda items um I think um these are kind of our normal they know the rules so in the interest of time I'm just going to um call um D Jones down he is up first you do have your three minutes [Music] sir I can't see how y'all doing I'm D Jones passionate entrepreneur and Visionary first of I just want to thank y'all for this investing into to our youth and to the future of our youth cuz I care about our education and uh the election doesn't I wasn't too proud of our election but I'm still hopeful because it's leaders like me that's going to step up and I care about our education system so I'm going to do everything that I can to be able to help out uh a couple I was one of the people who pitched at the safe pitch task force uh and I actually was one of the partners who uh won the $10,000 Grant so I'm going to be doing this in partnership with the Urban League and the school district we're going to activate one of the six Esports Labs that you guys invested into have people that work at game design they have hands- on learning opportunities for our students to engage and learn this now while they're in school have people that's going to educate them on nil um which is name image and likeliness so if they play traditional sports or into Esports they'll have those people and organizations that can actually guide them through the process of them actually being able to capitalize off their name image and likeliness and just being able to pour back into our students because I got a $10,000 Grant but I'm going to pour at least $3,000 back into our students from the Grant I got and then I'm looking to get some additional wanted to give these kids scholarships for Esports and game design and the things that they want to get into so I'm very thankful for you guys to invest because I believe I am one of those people that truly uh showing the benefit what it takes to invest into our students but seeing it pay off and being able to pour back into our school system into our community and getting our government's uh funding and backing for that because $10,000 isn't a lot I've had it before when I uh W 2018 but I wanted to do Esports and I can actually pursue that so besides the career and development opportunities that we're going to be be able to develop together we're definitely going to help our students be able to get out of poverty improve our education system and lead and Pioneer and innovate so I'm very thankful for just to be able to partner with you guys to give back to our students to pour funding back into them to actually educate them on game design because now the Olympics is now something that has the Esports Olympics so I'm one of those big people that think big but maybe one day one of our students from grps Will will develop a game that's played in the Olympics I don't think that's too farfetched because I think anything is possible so I'm just so thankful for you guys invested in the Esports invested into the education and future of our youth because I practiced that presentation hours and hours and days and days and days until I got that Pitch Perfect and then I pitched it very good and I was one of the partners to partner with our school district and one of the things that I looked at it for our city is two things that they look for in the values is innovation and equity and I know we're going to bring that together for our students for our city for our state for our County and the nation one day so thank you thank you guys for being a partner and I look forward to changing our community together thank you Matt Marlo Julia are there any other cards out there thank you good evening um my name is Matt Marlo president of grand Education Association um thank you do um president Williams Dr Roby and distinguished board members I just want to say thank you um a lot of things hearing tonight with regard to um uh about robust um risk and assessment about safety about equity and education also looking in the future with regard to um real estate and the urban setting because we do own a lot of properties so a lot of looking forward things um I really appreciate appreciate that and also the presentation on um you know safety with all the implementation of all the safety and I just want to um just want to end with this just to keep keep things in mind because I know we have we're having some new board members start in the new year um so looking on the website grps um there's some imperatives that um are listed for the board so grand upid um Board of education's imperative statements so every scholar will feel physically and emotionally safe regardless of which school they attend which is very important um every scholar will be empowered well educated and well-rounded every scholar or every scholar will have a quality teacher or teachers Scholars will experience a quality education and also scholar academic performance and discipline will not be predictable based on race class ability or any other exceptionality um so just with that in mind um I heard a lot about safety I think a lot of the kids the scholars the staff are they need to be taught safety in a sense I think we kind of take that for granted um maybe if you've ever traveled in an airplane they go over the safety things you kind of zone out because you've heard it over and over again but some people haven't and I don't think a lot of um depending on you know how much time parents spend with their kids talking about safety or how long how much time do teachers cuz some of the the teachers are new we have different safety policies we have itinerate staff that travel to you know three or four buildings so maybe incorporating that a little bit more to help the staff and the students to make sure everybody's safe and um we can Implement that in with all the other safety things we have I think that would be wonderful so thank you for your time appreciate it thank you next we have our superintendent comments I actually don't have any this evening all righty and then we have board member comments I will start with our student rep no comments all righty Miss Melton uh no comment tonight miss shaki well just a congratulation to uh the board members who were elected and will be joining the Grand Rapids Public Schools it has been one of the greatest privileges of my adult life and I will miss it dearly but I am writing my grand finale speech so no more words tonight but you will hear from me in December Mr Rodriguez um yeah so I thank you all first of all for coming uh we I I really appreciate us having these uh school board meetings as we say on the road um I just like the change of scenery I know it's a little awkward for folks but um I really do think that that intentionality matters to get to different parts of our city um but then secondly going off of you know a little bit of of the report that I gave from from our School Board conference um I just think you know now more than ever we have to be so so intentional about embedding Equity um and and and opportunity and Justice into you know into the work that we do with our Scholars um whether on the school board whether on um you know folks that are working in our buildings with our with our students um you know I I just I don't know what the future holds but I know that we have to come together as a community um work steadfast and true to our our Scholars and and um hope that we can build them into the leaders of tomorrow that we need um and that's all I'll say thank you Miss Dan LS yes I'd just like to thank uh Mr Johnson Mr Green and Mr smart for their reports and their updates and it proves to me and it should prove to a lot of people that there is so much work that is done behind the scenes that people don't see and so as far as these reports it pointed out to me and hopefully to others these people are working really hard to make sure our kids are wellfed that they're safe and they're going to go into uh new buildings uh nice new clean building so I I thank the gentleman who did that all right and Miss Davis no comment tonight and um Miss White no comment all righty um I see Mr eatman is not back with us yet so I'll go ahead and make um some comments I do want to say on behalf of the Board of Education we extend a heartfelt appreciation to all our veterans veterans demonstrate the greatness that greatness is achieved not just through personal success but through the acts of service and sacrifice that benefit the entire Community um this is a powerful lesson we want our children to understand and carry forward in their lives thank you for the Legacy you've built and the example that you have set for Generations I want to remind all of our audience members to uh register for turkey T Trot if you have not done so and plan to join us on uh Thanksgiving Day um uh there'll be plenty time for um your turkey so we'll we'll be done it's it's we're normally done pretty early so you won't miss a beat um I want to say congratulations to all the outstanding scholar athletes congratulations to all of the new um elect members of the grand rabbits public school board and a um a heartfelt um um farewell to some of our members that will be leaving we have just about one more meeting or two with you and um you will be going on to um en enjoy your Monday nights um so um thank you all for that and then we will be um going into our close session