Welcome to the Grand Rapids Public Schools Board of Education meeting. Today is Monday, November 10th, 2025. We welcome and appreciate your presence at this meeting. We respectfully request individuals silence their cell phones and refrain from clapping, cheering, or
making audible comments during the meeting. If you wish to formally address the board, please fill out a public comment card which are located at the entrance and place the completed card in the provided basket. Um, tonight I am going
to ask that all public comment cards be turned in um just before our action items. So, if you could please have those in. It's number 10 on our agenda. just before action
items. Our board secretary will gather them at that time. Um, we will have three minutes for public comment unless we get um 20 cards or more. I might reduce that amount of time.
Um, and we do have a timer up here now. So, please pay attention to that as well. All right. I would like to uh have Trusty Rodriguez call the role,
please. >> Uh, Trusty Williamson, >> present. >> Trusty Davis is absent. Trusty Kilpatrick, >> present. >> Trusty Melton, >> present. >> Trusty Moreno, >> present. >> Trusty Rodriguez here. Trusty Williams >> present.
>> VP Wade, >> present. >> President Buchek, >> here. >> We have a quorum. I would like to move to or ask for a motion to amend the agenda to move just our student public comment. Um just
after our scholar representatives have a chance to provide their reports. So right after number five on the agenda, I'd like to move to just have our um students who have public comment cards speak then. >> So moved.
>> Second. So moved and second over there. Thank you. All in favor of that? >> I. >> Any opposed. Okay. Motion carries. Can I get a motion to approve the amended agenda?
>> So moved. >> Support. All in favor say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Okay. Motion carries. First up on our agenda is a presentation of the school aid budget.
>> Good evening everyone. Happy Monday. And so I'm going to invite uh Mr. Dan Beam who is with the Education Advocates of West Michigan to come forward and he is going to do a presentation related to the school aid um state budget. Welcome
Mr. Beam. Dr. Beam, >> thank you very much. It's great to be here tonight. Uh I appreciate the opportunity to come and talk about uh the budget for fiscal year 26 even though we're still in 2025.
Uh the legislature at the state and at the federal level begins the new fiscal year on October 1st. So uh this budget was a little bit delayed. Uh better late than never. And what I want to do here tonight is to unpack the state budget.
uh looking at it from the macro level at the state level. I don't have individual district by district analysis, but I can give you the features that are in this 513 page document. I brought it right here. It's uh double-sided to save some trees and it looks like about 10point
font. So, uh I'm going to try to summarize that for as best we can. Um a little bit about the education advocates of West Michigan. So we represent the constituent school districts in Kent, Moskegan, and Ottawa ISDs, about 45
school districts there, including Grand Rapids public schools, our largest district. And it's my honor to be here with you tonight. Uh we advocate in Lancing, uh a little bit in Washington DC, but mainly in Lancing for public education, all of the educators in our
schools, the families and the students. As we look at this year's budget, a few things. Um it's it was a late budget as you all know about three months late. It was an extremely closed process this year. What I mean by that there are
currently 147 elected members of the legislature, 110 in the House and 37 senators where we have one vacant Senate seat. But of those 147 legislators, it was really about six lawmakers who
assembled this state budget for this year. Uh the other 141 members really did not know what was in the state budget until a few hours before they voted on it. And they voted on it at 1:00 a.m. and 3:00 a.m. here just last month.
Uh so it was a closed process where outside people from the field that work with children every day were not able to come in and say we see you're thinking about this idea on this page or this idea on that page. Can we offer some input? None of that was provided in this
budget. Uh so the product is not the best that we could come up with. In fact, there are some errors in the budget and lawmakers have acknowledged that since now the uh budget is out there for everyone to see. And one of the things that we see is it once again
uses money from the school aid fund that under our constitution of 1963 was designed to support K12 schools. It uses money from the school aid fund to support other non-K12 things in the state budget. And that's an issue that
every citizen needs to be aware of. And another thing that happens is the state public school employees retirement system is something by law that all public schools are mandated to be a part of. But what we see in this budget is
that the costs that local districts need to pay into that have increased. And as a result, the costs that the state of Michigan pays in have decreased. That's the way those costs are shifted from the state level to the local level. And this
has been really a growing trend and it's typically hidden from most people. Most people don't understand the uh intricacies of the public school employees retirement system. But the bottom line is more and more of those costs are being picked up by the local
school districts for that as well as staff members as well on that. So, if we look at year-over-year funding increases uh from last year to to this year, obviously the foundational allowance, that's the unrestricted revenue uh coming to school districts.
It's a 4.6% increase, $442 a student. We certainly welcome that. Special education, likewise, a 4.6% increase. We still are not fully funded in special education from the federal government and their original promise. So that is still an underfunded mandate. Uh in
Michigan uh section 31A or our at risk budget, we did see a welcome 25% increase in that area. Even though those are restricted dollars, this is a a helpful increase. We still are not where we need to be for our students who are
most at risk uh to succeeding academically in our schools. We can use up to now 30% of these funds for class size reduction at the elementary level. And for our students learning English, uh we saw a 25% increase in this area.
So necessary increases in areas that we refer to as a weighted student funding model. And we definitely as a state want to move more and more to that model to represent the investments that children need that come to us with a diverse set
of needs and those needs have different costs associated with them going on federal funding. Uh this is title one and many more things comes to uh the state and I've just boiled this all together. It's about a 9.3% increase. It's not all entitled programs and a
little a little bit about the federal budget right now. Uh we're dealing with an impass at the federal level, but what they're working out on the discretionary side of federal spending and that includes all of the programs that come to us in K12 education that I'm looking
at here. What they're working on now is the fisc year 27 spending level. So education has about a one-year lag on that. So these dollars have not been restricted from flowing to us at the federal level during this shutdown because they were agreed on in the prior
year budget on that. The great start readiness program is our early childhood program in the state of Michigan that also sees a 4% 4.6% increase but we did see an elimination of one category in that early childhood program section
32P. And when you hear these sections like 31A, 32P, it's just the different chapters in this long uh document here that go in numerical order. So section 32P is a program that's been successful,
about $20 million across the state for education for families with young children. I used this program, my wife and I did when we had our oldest child uh was two years old. It's the Bright Beginnings program. uh as parents come together and uh learn all the things
that are necessary to to raise a young person. Uh CTE, we saw an increase in here and this really goes to areas of the state of Michigan that don't have active CTE programs. They call them CTE deserts. And then mental health and
school safety. This is section 31A. We did see a substantial increase here. It's about $200 million that will come to districts on a per pupil basis. There's another $17 million there that will be in
competitive grants. But as you know, this also comes with asking districts to give up rights under the Constitution. And that's something that we're working with the legislature right now and saying this doesn't quite feel right that people would and boards of
education individual employees would be asked to give up rights under the constitution in exchange for very much needed funds. So this is something that is actively uh in discussions in lancing right now as well on this particular issue.
uh going on with year-over-year changes, adult education, an important program, just took a random 20% haircut when we asked about why the cut in this area. Uh they just said they needed money for other areas of the budget. So again, when you take six people and you put them in a room to try to figure out the
education spending for the entire state, uh this is sometimes the responses that you get back. virtual education. This is for a class that meets in person, but there may be occasions that come up where that in-person class needs to meet uh temporarily on a virtual
basis to be able to count that as a day of instruction. The state superintendent said we had too many days here and recommended going to seven days, cutting this about in half. Instead, we're down to zero. This is a problem because many high schools use virtual education. This
is uh section 21F on days where students have to take like the SAT test where other students who aren't taking the exam could meet in a virtual session and do career exploration or other things on that given day. Now we've got to rework calendars because the school year has
already started. And again, this is an example of the type of legislation we see in the state school day act when there isn't connection with people working in the field. There were several items maintained in the state budget with no increase and no decrease. Uh I
point these things out. We're appreciative that these things are maintained. Uh but inflation is an issue on all of these areas. So inflation does sort of uh cannibalize some of these things to a degree as we move along uh on all these important areas. Looking at
literacy, we know how important literacy is. We know how hard our teachers work all the time to have our youngest learners master this important skill. Uh literacy coaches have been kept the same at uh same funding level as we've seen
previously. Uh added instructional time. This was eliminated. So these are areas where teachers will identify students where they're just it's not that they don't know how to read. It's just that they're behind on their milestone. They need more time on task. and this added
instruction can be helpful. That was eliminated in this budget. Letters training is a training uh for teachers that's maintained at $10 million. And literacy supports are really supports for districts to help with curriculum costs if they're looking to upgrade or
change their literacy curriculum materials. We had $87 million last year and it's uh come down just slightly in this budget. The West Michigan Teacher Collaborative is our grow your own program to bring more and more people who are connected with schools but maybe
don't have a teaching degree to help them with that. Last year this program was supported the West Michigan Teacher Collaborative with a $7 million direct appropriation. This year, uh, we and the three other grow your own programs in the state of Michigan have been invited
to apply to a competitive grant of $70 million and we're looking at $5 million for the West Michigan Teacher Collaborative. The one thing I'd point out about this one is again, here's where an error occurred. Uh, this is funding that needs to go over multiple years because people who are in these
programs need multiple years to complete their degree. And this has the funding stopping a year short of what it is that we need. And lawmakers have already said we made a mistake on that. So now we're looking to see can we get this amended
or can we sort of prepay tuition with the universities that we're working with primarily Grand Valley here for the West Michigan Teacher Collaborative. Educator supplemental compensation. We know our educators uh work extremely hard and we want to pay them more money.
They do incredible work throughout uh the state. This is new compensation that was agreed on by both the House and the Senate. These are one-time funds, so they're not ongoing dollars. Uh about $23 million, approximately $150 per
pupil would come into each district. And then the districts would bargain over how they want to distribute those funds according to the rules set out here in the state school aid act. It's a little bit strange though because the money that's coming into this pot, it's called
section 27L of the state school aid act is coming from closing out section 27K. So last year we had section 27K which was designed to help people who are teaching who have student loan debt and
it was designed to help them uh pick up some of that student loan debt burden. So 27K was a large pot of money. And here's a strange thing about that. 96% of the teachers who applied to 27K to
have reimbursement for student loans were denied. So only 4% of the applicants at the state level were granted some relief in this area. So we have a big pot of unspent money. And what this section 27L says in the school
aid act is that the state budget director needs to close out 27K. What's unclear is what happens with the due process for those individuals who have appealed their denial of their student
loan reimbursement. So that process needs to play itself out and then 27K will be closed out under this act. The state budget director needs to what they call lapse. They need to lapse to 27k funds to populate the 27 L pot of money.
So we say 203 million is what we believe will be in that pot, but we really don't know until 27K is closed out. So the Michigan Department of Education needs to uh also issue some additional details in this area. So, this is something that
I know educators are awaiting, but there's some actions in the state school aid act that the state budget director has to take first on that. We also have a new section in the state school aid act, section 164k,
which um provides penalties if districts don't do certain things. One of the things we learned in um talking to lawmakers about this section is that this originally was going to be much longer. There were several different provisions and it ended up with just
five different provisions. So, school districts must ensure that school meals meet nutritional standards. I don't think we have concerns on that. Originally, there was a requirement that all school districts needed to have
families fill out the federal free and reduced lunch form. Well, come to find out, that's against federal law. You cannot mandate that someone fill out uh a governmental form on that. So, that is really a moot point. There's another
piece here that we have to ensure that no students are paid a cash incentive to attend school on count day. I'm convinced lawmakers still don't understand how the count period works, but that's another presentation. Um, and then also a strange one here for student
surveys. The student surveys, we uh now have to uh according to 164K, announce ahead of time to families when uh an educational institution is going to be uh having a student survey, offer parents an opportunity to opt their
child out of that. and then post those results afterwards. This is an area that needs guidance from the Michigan Department of Education. The Michigan Department of Education did not come up with this. This was developed by lawmakers. In fact, one particular
lawmaker um and made it into the state school aid act. So, what we don't know are a variety of questions. Teachers all the time are asking their students questions. Great teachers do formative assessment all the time and want to know, did this make sense that I did
today? Is that a survey? Uh, I've got some feedback I'd like you to provide for me on yesterday's activity. Is that a survey? I I would say no. But the rules here on 164K are not clear. What is clear is that if we're not in compliance, we'd lose 5% of our
foundational. The Michigan Department of Education will be the entity that enforces and monitors this. So what we've asked for the MDE is to provide us with guidance in this area to answer some of these questions that aren't clear in the state
school act. And then also uh we need to show that we're using evidence-based literacy curricula at our early elementary level. Again, this conflicts or sort of creates friction with the dyslexia law that was passed last year.
And the friction there is school districts have until the 2728 school year to be using evidence-based curriculums. But this says if we're not using the evidence-based curriculum, we need to inform the public and families
now and then say what we're doing about it. So there's friction between those two pieces here, the state school aid act and that dyslexia law. And furthermore, the Michigan Department of Education still has not released their final list of evidence-based curriculum
in the literacy area. So we really can't comply with that at this moment. Retirement, as I mentioned, the Michigan public school employees retirement system is the single largest cash asset that our state has. It's over $90
billion. Uh all employees are required to pay in. All school districts as employers are required to pay in and the state of Michigan pays in. Uh this is an asset that the state tinkers with every year in the budget. Uh and typically the trend of what we see is that either
employers or employees need to pay more and the state kicks in a little bit less each year. They did eliminate a $100 million item which they call a cost offset. I'll just say this about things in the retirement act and it's section
147 of the budget. I think they make it confusing so that people can't follow the bouncing ball. I've had to try to look at this many different ways, but a miper's cost offset is essentially a Kohl's coupon for school districts to pay a little bit less money into the retirement system and have the state
pick up a little bit more of that. Well, the states eliminated that coupon. So school districts are going to pay more hundred million dollars more uh across the state and the state's going to be able to contribute less on that. Why less for the state? Because they want to use that money for other things in the
state budget. The pension normal cost, this is what school districts pay on top of the salary and wages for every school employee. Uh is they're assessed the normal cost. That has gone up 1.72
percentage points. Uh I'm not a math teacher, but that is about um you know that that's more than a a 5% increase in that cost if as you look at that going from 9.15% of all wages to 10.87%.
We also have something called OPE. OPE is an IRS term that stands for other postemployment benefits. What that basically is is people who were had the good fortune of working in Michigan public schools prior to September 5th of
2012 have the ability to have a subsidized health care, dental care, eye care program when they retire. If you uh were employed after September 5th of 2012, you're given a 401k to help pay
for your health care costs when you retire. But the people in this uh first bucket that receives a postmployment benefit, those normal costs are going up substantially. Uh they're more than
tripling on that. So it depends how many people a school district has in each one of these categories. And to make retirement a little bit more complicated, there are seven different generations of a retirement system that school employees are in. So it's really
our business office and our payroll departments that have to keep track of all these things because there's different costs for the employer and the employee depending on which generation of the retirement system you are in. So, this is one that's going up substantially. And then we have a a new
offset that's coming in under 27L. As you might remember, 27L is the same section of the budget that is providing educator one-time additional compensation, but they're also providing 147 million to help offset costs for one
time only. So, again, it gets difficult following all the bouncing balls. I have not listed all of the items in section 147, just a few of the changes here, but there are still I'll just give you a little bit of order of magnitude. Uh 20 years ago,
about 90% of the money that came to a local school district in Michigan came in the form of the foundation allowance. So, it was unrestricted revenue that the school district could use to suit the needs for their staff members and their
students. Today that's less than 70%. So where did we go? Most of that change of that 20% swing went to this area retirement. Retirement is crowding out those costs available revenues that can
come to schools. So the net impact it varies from district to district because districts have a different census of their employees that are in these different seven categories of the retirement system. So the actual amount is going to
vary for every single district. Um it's about $195 per pupil of extra cost. That's an estimate and I don't have Grand Rapids public schools specific number on that but this would be for a typical district. So if we were to look at the
budget impact and lawmakers don't want to talk about this they want to talk about that topline number of the increase in the foundation allowance of $442 that they've added um to school districts. But they don't talk about the money they're taking away from school
districts. uh that change in normal costs, those increases, that's about $120 per pupil for a typical school district. It's going to vary for every school district. And that MIP's cost offset elimination, that $100 million,
that's about $75 per pupil. So your net increase on unrestricted dollars coming to school districts in Michigan, it's around 2 and a.5%. It varies. I've had business managers argue with me in other places and say, "Hey, for our district, it's only 1.5%." They've run the numbers
on other census of their employees and the different categories, but it's it's not the 4.6% that lawmakers want to talk about because what they don't talk about is that they've increased our retirement costs in schools so that the state can put less state dollars into the
retirement system on that. So, the school aid fund, I mentioned this, this is talked about in our Michigan constitution. Our constitution was uh the modern-day one we're using now was set in 1963, and it talks about a school aid fund to support K12 schools in Michigan. And that's what we've been
doing since 1963. Uh we've adjusted the funding scheme. Every year we have a new state school aid act. But now what we see is 100% of state support for community colleges comes from the school aid fund. That was
not the case in 2009 even. Um that money 100% of it came from the state's general fund. So now the school aid fund is picking up a general fund cost. That's kind of like if you could get your neighbor to pay your mortgage payment for you or your car payment for
you. you no longer have to pay it, but now they've got the added burden. The school aid fund just paid for K12 schools until 2010. We started picking up community college costs. Now we have 100% of state support for community colleges and public universities. We've
got 13 public universities in the state. Public universities are paid for out of both funds, the general fund and the school aid fund. It used to be only the general fund and we can look at that in this graph here. This graph shows um a
little it's it's flat. In 1995 was the first fiscal year of proposal A. And proposal A was not a constitutional change to remake how we fund colleges and universities. It was a constitutional change to remake how we
fund K12 schools. And so from 1995 to 2009, we only used the school aid fund to fund K12 schools. In 2009, the fall of 2009 was the budget for fiscal year 2010. It was the last budget year of Governor
Granholm and Bob Emerson was the budget director. I remember talking to him personally and I said, "Why are we paying $200 million out of the school aid fund for community colleges that was right after the great recession had hit in 2008 and the general fund didn't have enough money." So he said, "We need to
borrow $200 million from the school aid fund. It's a very healthy fund." And you can see the next year they paid that money back and it went down to zero. Then Governor Schneider came in and he said that's an interesting idea. He not only rebased school funding $470 lower
per pupil in the foundation allowance, he took $400 million from the school aid fund to support community colleges and universities. And we've been on a roll ever since. The red line on this graph shows you the difference from last year to this year's budget. Now, we added
another $400 million of higher ed cost that's being picked up by the K12 school aid fund. The reason the budget was so late, the argument was between the Senate and the House, Republicans and Democrats, of how long that red line should be. Originally, House members
wanted to move all 1.8 billion of remaining higher ed costs into the school aid fund. instead. Uh and and this here shows that universities, our 13 universities are funded by both the general fund, uh $1.8 billion last
fiscal year and the school aid fund, $461 million went into universities. Now, as you know, universities get a lot of money from tuition. That's not included here. Universities get a lot of money from endowments uh and the like. And really, what they're looking to do
is to transfer more of that 1.8 8 billion over to the school aid fund. So that's less money for K12 schools and change this what we see in this budget about 60% of university funding is coming from the general fund and now 40%
coming from the school aid fund. As I talked to lawmakers this is not what the public voted on in 1994 for proposal A. And in total since 200 we've got the loan in there. was paid
back. But since 2011, really, over 11 billion dollar has been transferred away from K12 schools to fund community colleges and universities. That's over $7,600
a student. Had we not done that, that's the money that we'd have available. This is an issue that not enough of our citizens, I think, understand. Uh I know one of the gubanatorial candidates has raised this issue uh in their campaign. So maybe this will be
something that comes up in the gubanatorial campaign a little bit more. So the larger issues we now on an annual basis are paying $850 million a year for our universities out of the K12 school aid fund. 100% of state support for
community colleges. We've gone from $461 million last year to 493 this year. over 11 billion diverted away since 2011. Adjusted for inflation, Michigan State just issued here in September through
their uh education policy innovative collaborative EPIC uh a report on state support for K12 education. It's a great report. I've got it right here. And what it says is that on an inflationadjusted
level, the state support for K12 education in Michigan last year, fiscal year 25, was the same as what it was in 1998, 27 years. So when we hear from educators that work with kids every day, they feel called to
this work. They want to help children. But more and more educators are having a hard time making ends meet. And this report shows that inflation, we're barely able to keep up with inflation because of the lack of state support for
K12 education to schools wholly throughout the state. And so this Michigan state is saying is a huge issue. It's why we're 44th in the country for starting teacher salary. Uh, and I talked to lawmakers about this and
I did get some lawmakers to admit, yeah, we have not been keeping up with inflation and people are getting sort of ground down on their household budgets, on their school district budgets from just inflationary pressures alone. And state tax revenue, sales tax revenue,
sales tax are really important to the school aid fund. 73% of all sales tax revenue according to the constitution are mandated to go into the school aid fund. Uh and the state just eliminated sales tax on gasoline.
So we lose about $700 million of constitutionally guaranteed revenue. We were told by the lawmakers we'll make you whole. Well, now we've got the entire budget to see how they do that. And I just want to go through that a little bit. The original sales tax in Michigan from
1963 was 4%. And the constitution says 60% of all that 4% has to go to the school aid fund mandated by the constitution. Then we amended the constitution in 1994 for fiscal year 95 under proposal A. And
we added 2%. We got have a 6% sales tax now, but it's bifurcated because 100% of the 2% goes into the school aid fund. I've checked with math teachers and that's 73.3333% of all sales tax revenue goes to the school aid fund according to the
constitution. Lawmakers can't mess with that. That's in the constitution. Lawmakers just can't change the constitution willy-nilly. If you're wondering where the other 40% goes, that's a different presentation, but at least 15% goes to local revenue sharing, our cities, counties, uh, townships. So,
here's the big deal about gasoline that's important. Let's assume gas prices are a little bit higher for this example. $3.50 a gallon is what we pay at the pump. The wholesale price of that would be $2.79 a gallon. And then on top of that, there are three different forms
of taxes. There's a per gallon federal gas tax, 18.4. That's in federal statute at 18.4 cents. It's not a percentage, it's a cents per gallon. And then we've got a state gas tax of 31 cents. And
then here's where it can get a little confusing. We've got a state sales tax of 6%. The 6% provided on the whole assessed on the wholesale price, the federal gas tax and sales gas tax as well. So that yields about 21 cents a
gallon in this example, but that fluctuates depending on what the price overall is as percentage. What they did is they eliminated that 6%. And they're not going to have January 1st when this goes into effect. The consumer isn't going to know a big
difference because they're increasing the state gas tax 20 cents a gallon. It's going from 31 cents to 51 cents. And all of that state gas tax money goes to the transportation fund. The school aid fund doesn't get that. And so what
you can see here is 6% gas tax last year generated $928 million. 73% of that by the constitution has to go to the school aid fund. They're getting rid of that. Instead, they're increasing the fuel tax by 20 cents a gallon from 31 to 51
cents, generating $1.1 billion and sending that to roads. The general fund last year gave roads $600 million from income tax revenue from individuals. That's not all the income tax revenue, but that's what was dedicated from the general fund to roads. They're saying,
"Hey, we're going to make you whole schools and they're going to give us that 600 million." So, I don't know if your definition of being made whole is being shorted $80 million, but that's what's happening here. And it's not constitutionally guaranteed. They could
change that with a stroke of a pen tomorrow with simple majorities in the House and the Senate and the governor signing that into law. If there's some hiccup in the budget someplace else, they could trim that 600 million. And they did have corporations and businesses pay income taxes. They did uh
have a plan where they were paying that to the economic development fund to entice the Googles and the Amazons of the world to come to Michigan and give them tax breaks. There was a $500 million plan there. That's been eliminated. Instead, they're putting that $500 million to roads. And then
cannabis at the wholesale level was being taxed another 24%. But there's a lawsuit on that right now. That's a different presentation. uh if that'll go into effect or not, but that's a $420 million revenue stream. They're hoping to bring the roads. What's the overall
impact of this change? We lose our constitutionally guaranteed revenue and $80 million in this scheme. And I just point out the road scheme in general is a little bit shaky. So, what happens when parts of this fall through? might
they try to grab more money from the school aid fund at that point or short us the 600 million that they're trying to say is making us whole on that. We have to watch for that. The bottom line and again I'm looking at a a average school district across the state. Every
district needs to uh run their own numbers on these but it's around a 2 and a.5% net increase of unrestricted revenue. You have increases in restricted revenue like 31A at risk and and EL dollars and
the like. But inflation the last 12 months was 2.9%. We could all guess what inflation is going to be for the remaining eight months of this school year, our fiscal year as school districts. U but most of that's going to be gobbled up by that.
And then it's all supported by a weaker school aid fund. a school aid fund that more money than ever before is being diverted away from K12 schools and a loss of dedicated sales tax revenue populating that school aid fund. So
looking forward at the 2627 budget cycle, it begins in two months in January, the state will estimate how much revenue they think they have for fiscal year 27, our 26 27 school year. It's a huge election year and what we
see in election years is lawmakers like to paper over the budget. We'll just make everything look good and then right after the election, we've seen this happen before. If numbers don't come in quite right, they say, "Oop, we're going to have to claw back some of those dollars." So, we we watch for that in
election years. Um, will they use more school aid fund dollars to support more non-K12 items in the budget? I'll just let you know every month we get a revenue report from how much revenue came into state coffers because sales
tax, income tax, all that's collected all the time. I mean, if you have W2 income, your income taxes are transferred to the state treasury every two weeks. Uh so they have all those revenue uh statistics and we've got it for September. We don't yet have it for October. In September, the school aid
fund was about $19 million more than the original estimate they made for September school aid fund revenue. They made that estimate back in May. The general fund was $200 million below what they estimated. So, the general fund was
underwater for September. Now, it could be better here in October. We don't know. But our concerns are the school aid funds a healthier fund. All the lawmakers admit that and they look to use those school aid fund dollars by pushing those general fund costs into
the school aid fund. And is the state going to push more retirement costs onto school districts so the state can free up more of their money? That's something they've been doing several times over the last budget cycle. So we need everyone's voice to advocate for strong K12 public schools.
We know what a difference that makes. Grand Rapids has been a leader in our state on that. Your staff do incredible work day in and day out uh helping one of our vibrant communities in Michigan. So, we I wanted to provide this oversight so everyone had an
understanding of what's in this 513 page document. Happy to take any questions. I know that was probably a little bit longer uh but it takes a while to summarize what they did with all that. >> Very much appreciate the breakdown of that. Um, I was privileged to hear a
presentation from you a few weeks ago and I just wanted the rest of our board to hear that as well as the public because you break it down so in a way that I could understand. So, I appreciate that. Are there any questions? >> I have a question. >> Yeah.
>> Uh, thank you for being here for this presentation. Good seeing you again. Um, so >> in that $247 net increase that was average 2.5%. That didn't you didn't take into account the potential loss of 31 AAA funding. Correct.
>> That's correct. I did not. >> And and so um I just want to kind of explain to to everyone who's attending here, right? What is Can you tell us a little more about that potential, you know, um uh loss of rights that you alluded to, right? if we're going to
agree to to 31A receiving those funds. >> Right? So under the constitution of the United States under amendments six and seven uh every every citizen uh and as supreme court has interpreted organizations and
entities at times do have a right to legal counsel to be able to uh have have a professional legal advice and they have um rights to uh remain silent in an
investigation. So if um you know law enforcement were to come and to ask a group of staff members to provide testimony, staff members do all the time and those type of things, but they're not required to.
But under section 31A, you would lose the ability to even decide for yourself what to do for that. that you would have to you would lose privilege is what the uh act reads that school districts would wave privilege.
So the question is what privileges? Attorney client privilege would be one there. Um privilege to where you don't have to communicate in an investigation of something. Uh if if an employee were accused of some sort of wrongdoing, they
don't have to u uh provide testimony on that. That's their constitutional right. If Grand Rapids public schools took the funds under 31A, the way this is read, uh they would wave privilege. Now, the problem that we've got is what does that
mean? Does privilege include governmental immunity? Uh we don't have answers to that question, but we have huge needs in all of our schools in Michigan for school safety and mental health support. Uh and that's an important need. So, that's the issue
that we've got that we're trying to work with lawmakers on that uh at this point. And as you know, lawmakers aren't the ones that interpret what they've written. It's courts that have to interpret that. So, one of the things that I know some schools are looking at is to ask for the courts to
say, is this constitutional under the federal constitution? >> Does that help? >> Yeah. Yeah. Thank you for the clarification. >> Sure. Absolutely. >> Any other questions? Uh I just just one more. Sure. Uh where can I find that MSU
epic report? >> Mr. Rodriguez, you can have my copy, but it is on if you go to MSU Epic. If you just Google that, uh it is their September 2025 report. It's called Funding Michigan's Future, three decades
of school finance and the policy questions ahead. It's an excellent document. >> All right. Sounds like some light rating. >> It is. Absolutely. >> He took the question out of my mouth. >> Okay. Well, thank you so much. >> Sure. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Thanks, Dan. >> Thank you.
>> Okay. Moving on. We have scholar representatives. Do welcome back. By the way, um do either of you have comment to share tonight? Hey, go ahead. >> Hi. Uh, I just wanted to say that Union
High School is going to have a blood drive on November 20th and we partner with the company Verity. So, if you want to donate, you can go to Varsity, that's V E R Si TI, and you should be able to put in the zip code 49504 or put in the
location of Union High School and then be able to see the available appointments. So, um, it's for a good cause and we'd love to have you come donate on November 20th. Thank you. >> Do you have anything tonight, Stephanie? >> Hi, my name is Stephanie. I'm from the
Ring Rapids Public Museum High School. Um, our school is trying to have a um drive for food enclosed with the AYA for um youth who are um unhomed. So, we're welcome to have anybody who would like to drop off donations. It's at 54 Jefferson. Thank you.
>> Thank you. Okay, at this time we will move to scholar public comment. And I just saw Miss Anderson head up the stairs. I'm guessing she's checking to see if there's any other student comment. Um, we will just remain with three minutes
for our student comment u based on the number of cards I've received so far. So, I'd like to call forward Oh, wait. Do you want me to read? >> Yes, read into it, please. Sorry. >> All right. Hi, everyone. Uh just uh for for all of our understanding, each
comment period is limited to a maximum of three minutes unless otherwise directed by the board president. Individuals are kindly requested to fully complete the front of the comment card and indicate the topics they wish to address. Um this assists administration in providing appropriate follow-up responses. If you're a scholar, please fill out the golden
color card. Completed cards should be submitted in the designated bin. We ask the speakers refrain from making abusive or disrespectful statements about board members, employees, volunteers, or contractors. Should you have a complaint regarding a specific board member, employee, volunteer, or contractor, please utilize the appropriate process
outlined in board policy 9450. Speakers will be invited to address the board one at a time. Before beginning your comment, please clearly state your phone name for the official minutes. I'll monitor the time noted by this beautiful timer here. uh ensuring each speaker adheres to the allotted time limit of
three minutes today. You'll be asked to conclude your comments promptly when your time has expired. Board members, please do not respond during the com public comment period. All concerns will be forwarded to the appropriate staff. We value your input and thank you for sharing with us tonight.
Okay, I would like to call forward Victoria Kim followed by Colette Crowley and Ian Shakla. Good evening. My name is Victoria Kim, a ninth grade student who recently joined
Grand Rapids public schools. I'm here today to share how much teachers and extracurricular programs like speech and debate help students like me thrive. I am also standing here to ask for your support in funding these opportunities
across all GRPS high schools. Although my family and I just moved to Grand Rapids this August, the teachers at school really made my transition here smooth. Thanks to their warmth and encouragement, I've started to feel at home in this community, and I'm excited
to grow both academically and personally here. My favorite GRPS teacher is Miss Williams, my gym class teacher, because she gives everything she has to her students. She motivates us to push our limits while always reminding us that
effort matters more than perfection. She doesn't just make me a better athlete. She makes me a better person. I believe students need qualified teachers who encourage them to learn, to improve, and to become the best of ourselves.
This opportunity is not only given in classrooms or gym classes but also in extracurriculars where students can explore the interests and this is why we are asking GRPS to fund non-sport extracurriculars in all
GRPS high schools. As a proud member of the GRPS speech and debate team, I can assure you that we will make the most of this funding to continue learning and representing our school with pride. Please support our team with $14,000 in
funding. Thank you for your support and for taking the time to listen. Thank you, Colette Crowley, followed by Ayan Shukla. Hi, I'm Colette Crowley and I'm a sophomore in GRPS.
Smart, passionate, loud, dedicated, and eats paper to prove a point. While you may have thought I was describing myself, minus the paper eating, I was actually describing my favorite teacher,
Mr. Nick favorite former teacher that is after he left GRPS to get better pay at a suburban district. US history part two is a tough subject to teach to a bunch of disengaged screen
age freshmen. But he showed us how to love history just as much as he did. Every slideshow was a new doorway to knowledge. Every sentence spoken was a key unlocking understanding. He climbed
on chairs and tables to explain how military tactics influenced World War II and even led a murder mystery style investigation of the Cold War. Every engaging event and captivating lecture
left me a more informed student, able to connect the past with the present. and illuminate the world around me. Students like me deserve teachers like Mr. Nick in our classrooms. Teachers who
help us grow into smart, passionate, loud, and dedicated students. We need opportunities to fine-tune these traits outside of school as well in extracurriculars. I wouldn't be speaking up here without
my education from talented teachers and without my confidence from speech and debate. Our team is here and we are ready to pilot non-sport extracurricular funding in this district. Please provide
$14,000 in funding for the GRPS speech and debate team. Thank you. Ayan Shakra Ayan Shakla student at GRPS. You might remember me from July, that crazy kid who was talking about
nationals and coffee and somehow managed to place third. Yeah, I'm back. Freshman, few months older, hopefully a few months wiser. Finally, and today, I'd like to go back to the very beginning of this roller
coaster. Being a first generation American has never been easy. Different language, different food, different skin color. It made me quiet, timid, barely talking because that's the unspoken expectation of people like me. Fast
forward to seventh grade, my first year at GRPS, and my first year in speech and debate. As time progressed, along with the help of everyone on the team, I found my voice. Through this program, I was inspired by the speeches, by the debates, and the exchange of ideas from
so many people who even as competitors work together to share perspectives, beliefs, and experiences. It is this very dialogue that shapes who we are as GRPS students, the next generations of thinkers, innovators, and change makers.
Now, the skills this program gave me led to me leading my own initiative, Dream Dresses. We repurpose old used old Indian clothes here in the United States to ship to underprivileged children in India. I run the Michigan branch of this entirely high school-led organization. And in the past two months, we have
collected 70 pounds of clothes, run social media campaigns, and given back to the very culture where my story in GRPS and speech and debate began. But none of this would have been possible without the help of Miss Brienne O'Shea, an extraordinary history
teacher at Great GPS. She is the one who encouraged me and led to all of this progress, highlighting the role qualified, dignified teachers played in shaping the lives of us GRPS students. And that's what I want to emphasize tonight. None of us in this room,
debaters advocating for funding, teachers advocating for fair contracts, or other random people who had nothing better to do on a Monday night, are working in isolation. Even though we may be here with different requests and agendas, we are still an interconnected
community of people who learn together, grow together, and support one another. Our goals, our efforts, and our successes are collective. So to conclude, keep in mind that our $14,000 request for funding isn't just money,
but an opportunity to grow as parents, students, teachers, coaches, debaters, and the entirety of the GRPS community. Thank you. Okay, I have John Strauss
f followed by Enichi >> Enetchi Enetchi Okasawasi Okawasi. Sorry about that. I appreciate the pronunciation on here.
And then Caesar Mazargo Rome Ramirez, Gabriella Gomez Maldonado, and Karina Rodriguez.
Hi, my name is John Strauss and I'm a student at the West Michigan Aviation Academy High School. I'm here tonight to deliver these postcards on behalf of educators across our district. Each one shares a message about what every child deserves, written by the people who see us, teach us, and support us every
single day. As students, we feel the importance of these words. When teachers say every child deserves safety, they mean classrooms where we can focus on learning instead of worrying. When they say every child deserves an opportunity, they mean we all need certified teachers who understand how to help us grow. And
when they say every child deserves to be valued, they mean schools that listen to us, to our voices, our needs, and our dreams. These postcards are more than paper. They're reminders that behind every student, there's a teacher who cares deeply about our future. We're
asking you, as our school board, to hear that message, too. To keep making choices that reflect what every child truly deserves, equity, respect, and the chance to thrive. Thank you for hearing me, but I hope you truly listen. Please support the people who make our
education possible. [Applause] >> Um so good evening. Um my name is actually pronounced in Ketchin Okawasi and I'm a student here with salt student
association for leadership and transformation. Students like me deserve stability, care and certified educators in every classroom every day. I'm going to read some questions and I would like the audience to participate by holding up a green card for yes and a red card
for no. So the first question is, do you believe every student deserves a certified full-time teacher in their classroom all day? Thank you. The second question is, does every single student in your school currently have a certified full-time
teacher? That's not a red. Um, the third question is, are you aware that unqualified non-certified substitutes are illegally covering classroom vacancies? Um, the next question is, does having too many substitutes negatively affect
student learning? And the last question is, do students learn best when they have consistent, experienced educators who know them? Thank you.
[Applause] Hello, my name is Cis Cesar Masgo Ramirez and I am a student with salt. I believe that our educators and teachers are the backbone of our schools, but many struggle to stay because of the low
pay. I am going to read some questions and I would like the entire audience to participate by holding up green cards for yes and red cards for no. My first question. Do you believe that underpaying teachers contributes to the high number of vacancies?
Thank you. Have you or someone you know left GRPS due to low pay or burnout? Thank you. GRPS employees, are you struggling to keep up with inflation on your current salary? Thank you.
Do you think teacher salaries should keep up with inflation and the rising costs of living? Thank you. Do you think it's fair that educators may qualify for public assistance due to low wages? Thank you. If teachers cannot afford to
live in the communities they serve, is that a problem the board should address? Thank you. Do you agree that educators deserve affordable health coverage for their families? Thank you. If we value our educators,
our budgets must show it. Let's talk about funding and priorities. Uh hello, my name is Gabriela Gomez Maldonado and I'm also a student with Salt and as all you have said, budgets and moral documents, they show what you what you value as a board. If we say
students and educators are priority, our funding should reflect that. Once again, I'm going to read some questions and I would like the entire audience to participate by holding up a green card for yes and a red card for no. Should the district prioritize spending for classroom instruction and teacher pay
above non-essential expenses? Would you support the school board in directing more of a budget specifically towards hiring and retaining quality teachers? Do you think we risk losing more experienced educators if pay and conditions don't improve?
Is it the board's responsibility to ensure that spending reflects the district's stated priority of of a student success? If the board had the ability to increase investment in student to reduce vacancies, should they? And should classroom instruction be the
top spending priority in the district budget? We've seen what happens when priorities don't match promises. Now, let's talk about trust, transparency, and accountability. Thank you. >> Hello, my name is Karina Rodriguez. I'm
a proud city scholar. I first want to start with acknowledging and recognizing all of the teachers, students, staff, everyone that is here that is brave enough to come and stand up for what they believe in. That's a very strong movement and I'm also here to support
that. As students before, I'm going to read some questions and I want you guys to hold up a green card for yes and a red card for no. Starting off with question one. Would opening negotiations provide transparency and speed up the ar the
agreement? Would opening negotiations build trust in the district? Do you trust that the district has the students and staff's best interest in mind during these negotiations? Do you think recruiting and retaining
high qualified educators could help bring families back to GRPS who have recently left? GRPS employees. Have you ever considered leaving GRPS due to your salary? And finally, do you believe executives
should have received 8 to 13% raises while offering educators 1.5 raise? Finally, let's talk about urgency and the action of our student that our students need right now. Do the same thing again. Um, do you
believe that failing to act now on teacher shortages will harm our students in the long run? Do you want to see this board take bold action to fix the staffing crisis in our schools? If the board continues to delay action,
do you believe students will be the ones who pay the price? I agree. I'm paying for it right now. One final question. If you want this school board to take immediate action to invest more in students and educators,
hold your green card now. Thank you for making our voice visible. We are counting on you. Okay, that completes our student comment for the night. So, we will move forward with our GRPS foundation report.
I'd like to invite um Miss Stephanie Andrews and Mr. Larry Johnson forward, please. It's cold >> and Tom the turkey. >> Good evening, President Buchek, Dr. Roby, other trustees on the board. I
don't think uh Stephanie Andrews needs an introduction. uh the president of our uh Grand Rapids public school foundation here to talk uh hard to believe this 17 days away from uh from the turkey trot. So, we want to just talk about that a little bit and I'll turn it over to Stephanie.
>> Good evening. Thank you for having us. I'm excited to be presenting the 33rd annual turkey trot race. Um this is just the very first turkey trot race. just to share it was take took place in 1896 in Buffalo, New York and here we are today
and we are the largest 5K in West Michigan and we are excited to share our shirt reveal. The color is always the big >> uh draw to this. Um so this year our shirts are maroon. >> All right, >> those are nice. >> Yay. Yeah, I like that color.
>> We always pick a new color every year and this one has not been done before so we're excited for that. So, we have a great team that's put this together. We've doubled in size this race over the past five years and I just checked the stats and here's by the numbers. Last
year, we had 6,400 participants and we are on target to pass that. We are actually over 200 participants over what we were this time last year. Uh we have 3,200 people signed up to date. We've raised over 90 $90,000 in sponsorship
and we have actually already over $90,000 in race registrations as well. Um those dollars are much needed to be able to help uh student athletes play sports here in the district. Um that is the reason this race was created and it
has been raising funds for those ever since. Blue Cross Blue Shield returns as the leading sponsor as the 11th year and LMCU is our mini trout sponsor for the fourth year in a row. Uh want to share the route is back. Uh we're getting a lot of calls, but we are
going to be running down division. It will be up and running. The city of Grand Rapids gave us the okay and construction will be complete. Um hoping that the snow this week will uh not stop that from going forward. But this has been the fan favorite in terms of our route. So, we're excited to run down
division and we have a start and finish line right at the Vanandal Arena. I just wanted to share like everybody needs to come out and move your feet before you eat this Thanksgiving. And if you are one of our top age group
winners, you will go home with a pumpkin pie. >> Any questions about >> questions? >> I have a question. So, you said that each year the shirts are different colors. >> So, um, what's the craziest or most interesting color we've had in the 33
years? >> I think pink. >> I don't know if there's been a crazy color. I mean, they all been collector's items. I mean, people call for them all the time. Uh, we we've tried to run through the whole mid-range of colors and we're running out of colors now. So, I don't know if there's been >> 33 years, I imagine. Yeah, we might have
to do a rainbow color or something. Yeah. But and then we've done everything from the hot pinks to the neon greens. Last year was gold. So, >> you know, so I was a I was a cross country runner in high school and I did a lot of races. And my wife can tell you, my my former classmates can tell
you the one thing I'd be excited about is the shirts more than the 5K, more than a medal. I would want the shirt. And so, um, I have a ton of shirts from, you know, back in the day. So, I I appreciate a good shirt. I like these this year. It's a true testament to see the people in our community walking
around with them. And it's even more fun to travel and run into them in a different state. So >> I see those all the time. Yeah. The turkey trash shirts. >> And just as a reminder, all students run free too for this race. So, >> and each one of you will be receiving a shirt, including our scholars as well.
We'll have those to you at the next meeting as they are being printed tonight. >> Yay. >> Thank you. >> Um, just two more things to note from the foundation. Um since I have moved to kind of a quarterly schedule, we had over 100 many grant requests from teachers and principles and we will be making those decisions um in the next
week or so and awarding those grants out. We've seen a huge increase in requests for um some basic needs, some really interesting STEM projects, anything from a salmon in the class classroom, some quailes, um some really interesting building materials as well
for students just to um just have some great experiences. We're really excited to fund those as well as overnight camp experience, field trips, and civic programs. And then I wanted to share finally that our survey results that we had put out to our community as well as
our educators um donors and longtime um uh funders for the foundation just to kind of help us with strategic planning. Those results are in. We're tabulating those and working with side strategies to really help fund what we're seeing um to fund in the future. We not We will
not be deviating from our priorities because we know if we leave the funds um leave what we've been funding for the last 30 years, there are not backfill dollars to make those happen. But we also want to listen very deeply to where our community, our educators, and our funders think that they want to see
those dollars go. And so some of those things that we're seeing as a priority rising to the top are literacy, tutoring, some basic needs, SEAL, and finally steam. Um, so we're looking forward to kind of seeing how those play out as we do our um, strategic planning
for the foundation. >> Great. >> That's nice. >> And so remember to move your feet >> before >> before you eat. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Are we going to get a picture with >> Tom the turkey? >> Tom the turkey. Okay. Thank you for your report.
>> Hey turkey snuggle me and keep me warm. We have a few Yeah. A little little tighter. >> Yeah. >> You want to go first? >> First derby. >> All right. >> Awesome. Thank you.
>> Just a couple real quick. Two, three time. Smile. One, two, three. [Applause] >> I gave it to her to cut me up with >> friends. I'll share the brand with you. >> It's cool out there. I know.
>> Okay. Moving forward with the secretar's report. >> Perfect. All right. So, just a few updates. Um, so our finance committee, our next finance committee meeting is scheduled on November 24th at 4:30 p.m. at JRPS University in the cafeteria. And
then our ad hoc facilities committee meeting is scheduled for December 8th at 5:00 pm at here at Ottawa Hills High School. >> Thank you. Committee chair reports, finance committee, Miss Williams.
>> Yes. Um so we had our um our meeting on the 27th and uh at that meeting we basically had the purchasing agenda which is on your agenda for this evening. So, I won't go too much into details on that. And then we had some report updates and
discussions around our September 2025 financial statements and then the state budget updates. >> Thank you. And how about for ad hoc facilities? >> All righty. >> Which we just had, correct? >> Yes, we just had that right before this
meeting. And so today um we received um some information from uh JLL about their process that they are formalizing and with regards to um the overall process for uh how we
will uh put together what we're going to do with our buildings. Um we're starting with the first two as we had discussed previously with Stockton and Alexander along with the city um doing that work with us. Um but we got some homework. So
we'll um do some homework this weekend and we'll be sending an email to President Bek and um have her send it out um to the rest of the board members of our thoughts. they have some uh details about what they would like to send out to packets um for um RFPs and
different people letting them know what our offerings are. And so we are going to do our homework this week and look through those and look at the language and then make any type of suggestions. We'll send that to you. Then you can send that to the full board so that you all can have that before we get to their
presentation. Um so that is the work that we had looked at with regards to JLL and then we got a brief update on um our our bond um and that will be discussed later today as well. So I won't go into great detail and because
we ran out of time it was very brief but um we will be getting that update today. And then uh we discussed uh s there is the opportunity to rename the northeast new elementary school. And so the deadline submissions will be uh December
19th. And um then they'll go through that process of kind of narrowing down and get to um some names that they can bring before this board for us to consider. Then last we talked about secure entryways and that is going very well.
Um and we are moving forward now with uh getting the uh key entry uh into the educational space uh started and so that is where we are with the secure entrances.
>> Okay, any questions? >> Thank you. Superintendence report. >> Good evening. And so I'm going to invite Mr. Alex Smart forward. He is our executive director of facilities and operations and he is providing a quarterly report specifically related to
our projects that have been taking place this this year as well as what is on deck for 2026. Mr. Smart Good evening everyone. Dr. Roby, President Buchek, distinguished uh board members. It's been a while since I've
seen you. It's good to see you. Um so today um I would like to focus obviously on the projects that we're looking ahead. that some of the ones that we have going on right now um and try to give you an overall view as
to um where we are. Um as you can see here, this is just a quick little summary of some of the projects that we will be uh addressing today. We have uh uh um Caesar Chavez uh Dickinson. Both of those will be phase
two that we're moving on this summer. uh Kent Hills Elementary, uh the new Northeast Elementary uh school, uh Innovation Center Auditorium, Ottawa High School, um and uh Alger, uh
currently middle, uh and then the fuel tank replacement and the elevator upgrades. So, those are the ones uh that we'll be addressing today. Uh the first two, Chavis and Dickinson, are are fairly uh what I'm going to call
simple. Uh we're going to uh finish uh phase two. Last summer we did phase one. This is the last phase, phase two. And uh uh for for uh uh uh Chavis, we have uh HVAC controls that we're upgrading. Uh we're going to do additional
carpeting. We didn't finish all the carpet uh uh work last summer. We're going to finish that this summer. and then we'll be doing some uh playground upgrades. Um and similar for Dickinson uh HVAC
control and additional carpeting and uh will be done uh w with that building. Um uh Kent Hills um we actually received the bids for this project already and it's going to be coming to finance at
the next finance meeting. Um the uh the cost came on our favor. So, we have some some good news right there. Um, last summer we completed the parking lot resurfacing. Uh, this summer we're going to be finishing the rest of the project, which will be lighting upgrades, as you
can see. Um, uh, interior finishes, uh, toilet room renovations and, uh, playground upgrades as well. New elementary. Um, pleased to say that we started construction. Uh, dirt has
been moved. Uh we're starting to do some of the uh leg work for foundation work and and utility uh connections and um we uh uh the completion as you can see we have there is uh June 2027. So um stay
tuned on that one. We'll give you updates as we go. It's pretty exciting. Uh innovation central auditorium renovation. This one I'm I'm going to say has been probably our problem child a little bit. uh we uh we continue to
have a push back from uh suppliers uh on the delivery of some of the equipment. So it keeps uh unfortunately bringing some delays. Oh, thank you guys. We're getting some heaters. >> Oh, thank you for >> for you. So, so >> um
>> and um >> uh but uh we're moving forward with that one and we are uh targeting for the end of January to be completed and started using this space >> Ottawa. Now see how cold we are right now. >> Yes. >> I uh I was I checked with my team and uh
the problem that we're having is that we lost the controls communication. Uh so we we can't control the the the the units right now and that will be fixed next summer when we do the renovation of this uh uh this auditorium. Now Ottawa could be a little confusing with what I
wrote right there. He says 95% design complete but yet going out for bids November 12th but I was just talking with Dale and he told me that that's wrong. We're going out for bids tomorrow the 11th. Um so let me clarify that a little bit. We saw the opportunity to
bundle several projects at Ottawa uh that will give us some savings on administrative cost. Um so even though we are 100% complete for the uh south wing and the auditorium work, we still have some work to do for the pool because we would like to include the
pool renovation work that uh is on the list and uh some athletic fields work. So those are the ones that we're still working on and we'll be putting that out as a different bid package. So that's why the discrepancy with the 95% and
then going out for bids. Um so Alger um we'll be issuing that out for bids in January. Uh we are right now working through uh cost estimates and things like that. Making sure that we are reconciling um all the necessary
work to make sure that we're within budget and uh construction obviously uh June 26 through uh June 27. And please let me know if you have any questions. I know I sometimes I tend to go a little fast uh but we have so many projects. >> I do actually have a question.
>> Yes. Um, so I see we have two new playgrounds. Are those going to be adjacent to the existing playground uh from from the city playground or is it going to be in an entirely different area on >> It's going to be on the opposite side of the building. >> On the opposite side.
>> Yes. So, so the two playgrounds, one will be for preschool age students and that one we are going to be putting on the southeast side of the building. >> Okay. >> Uh, which will be adjacent to where the prek uh classrooms will be. >> Okay. And uh the other playground which
will be for 5 to 12 year olds uh will be on the uh on the west side northwest side of the building kind of like where the um I think tennis courts are. >> Okay. >> Um and and that that was a decision because we understand that there is a an
existing neighborhood playground right there. But uh we have very little control on on that one. So we wanted to do something that we can control for our students and our scholars. >> No, I think that sounds great. Yeah. I just saw that. I was like, "Oh, cool. I love that." Yes. Wanted to know a little more. Thank you,
>> Mr. Smart. I also have a question, but back to Ottawa and it's more specific to this evening. The temperature we're feeling up here. Is that an issue we're experiencing buildingwide? I just want to make sure our scholars are not this cold tomorrow. >> Fortunately, no. This building has
different zones. >> Okay. >> Uh and uh unfortunately, tonight we lost communication for this. So, we'll have a technician here tomorrow. >> Okay. to to to address it and and and get it back online. So hopefully we can get some relief for you uh before the
end of the meeting. So we're we're looking for those hearers and bringing them over. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Good question. Thank you. >> Uh Mr. Smart. >> Yes. >> We just want to clarify because you said something about next summer. Will you clarify your statements because I think what was understood
um is that the heating issue will be addressed next summer, but you're saying that somebody's coming tomorrow to address this. >> Yes, tomorrow morning we because I've been texting my my my my team trying to to to address this. Okay. >> Um and I do apologize to everybody here.
This just happened and and uh we uh uh we need a technician here. >> But it's not affecting the other areas other >> No. No. There are different zones in the building and it's not affecting those areas. Uh if it happens at any of those areas immediately we send our staff to
to to address that dur during the day. Um so no, next summer I was making reference to the renovation work uh which actually we will start uh because the the south house is pretty much isolated. We're going to start the work there uh yet this winter uh early
spring. Fuel tanks. We finally got him out of the ground. I know that this has been going on for a while. Uh it was a concern when it came to to to our insurance coverage. Um but uh we're successful at removing them. Uh we have
temporary tanks in place that been in use for several months now and and is working and uh we are actually waiting to hear from the new tank um suppliers uh when they're going to be available for us to update or schedule. Uh but we
are confident they'll be completed no later than spring of 2026. Okay, elevators upgrades. Let me just tell you this one is going to be a little bit of a logistics challenge. So we have 26 elevators uh in 19 buildings.
Um now usually we try to do all the work that we can during the summer but this is going to be absolutely impossible for us to complete during the summer. So we understand that some of this work is going to have to happen during the school year. Um so we will be working
closely with the academic team uh with the contractors uh to to make sure that we do the necessary coordination that needs to be done because we understand that we have to provide uh uh you know access to uh our staff and and students.
Um so uh we'll be creative. Uh we may have to perhaps maybe even relocate some of the functions if necessary. Um, and we'll try to do as many projects as we can in the summertime, but that's just not going to be possible to do all of them. And to clarify, this is a state
mandate. This is a state uh code compliance and we have no choice, but we have to have it done within the next I believe two years. >> Yes, sir. >> Yes. Just um for awareness, you said uh couldn't be done can't be done during the summer months when we're not in session, school session.
>> Correct. >> What's the reason for that? um the number of uh elevators that we have to do uh there will be uh uh um lead times on some of the products and and it will be just too many just for a one contractor to do. >> Okay.
>> Uh so we may actually end up having to u select multiple contractors to help us with that with that timeline. It's just too many of them. >> Okay. Thanks. >> Yes. Some of them will be easy but some of them will take probably three four months for us to complete. >> Okay. Thank you.
Okay, now these are the ones coming up. Uh this is will be the what you know design and programming. Uh we're still working on on obviously the monatory uh program. We uh looking at different options uh to uh to to present um the
Kenosha project uh we'll be issuing that for bids in January. Uh we are um finalizing the construction documents. Uh the auditorium projects we're just starting right now to to go through the programming uh and and then soon after
that we'll start the documentation. Uh the district swimming pool projects are a little bit further along than I expected. Uh our consultants have done a great job at uh looking into the existing conditions of the of the uh of the pools and reconciling that with the
state requirements that we need to meet because a lot of that was driven by that. make sure that they're all compliant and safe. Um, so they're coming along. So I will have probably more on this uh on on my future presentations. We should have more information for you. Um, and uh what I
would say using a baseball analogy on deck which will be down the road, we will start uh looking into uh Union High School and Harrison. Those uh would be uh uh significant projects too. But uh we haven't started those but we have it
on the list for to uh develop the program and issue requests for proposals. Um the last two uh just very very brief um we we received uh um proposals for the educational specifications uh and we
have uh made a recommendation to hire uh MGT consultants and we're hoping to start that work after board approval sometime in January uh to start that uh that work uh and the last that I have is the vacant properties future. That's the
work that we're doing with JLL. And uh I just wanted to say that they have been scheduled to be uh and do a presentation at the work session December 15th. Uh so they will be uh there to give more detail uh and have a dialogue with you.
>> So uh that concludes my presentation. If you have any questions, I'll do my best to answer. >> Go ahead, Mr. Williamson. >> Oh, thank you. Um two questions. This isn't really related to the bond issue, but the uh fuel tanks made me think of it. I know that we are going through the
process of installing um the electrical system for electric buses. Is there any status on that? >> Uh last I heard there was a little delay on the delivery of the of the charging stations. Okay. So the infrastructure as far as concrete work and and that has
been completed. Um we are waiting for the charging stations to arrive. And about the fuel tank, I should mention that the new fuel tanks are going to be above ground. >> Oh okay. Um it's uh it's advantageous because uh you know they're easier to service uh and we don't have to worry
that much about possible soil contamination and things like that. >> Great. Thank you. And then um I know you mentioned this, but as we're considering uh facilities for Monasuri going forward, what planning exactly would be involved in in Riverside right now? What does
that look like? >> Well, right now we're looking holistically at the whole program. Um, yeah. >> But speaking of Riverside, you said you you guys are looking at planning and development. >> We'll have Riverside because that's kind of like what we have on the list as Riverside. >> Okay. But but we're looking at the whole
program now. Yes. >> Uh not only Riverside, but we're looking at other options so that way we can uh bring forth a a a presentation for that. >> Okay. Thank you. Appreciate it. >> Trusted Rodriguez. >> Um so if you want to go just one slide
back. I know this is Aberdine. I was just wondering, so it's other projects. Oh, you passed is is the second to last one. Yeah, that's Aberdine, correct? >> I'm sorry. >> That's Aberdine. >> Uh, no. Aberdine is towards the beginning. I thought that was Oh, the
current Aberdine. I think he's saying that's the current. >> Go one word. >> Oh. Oh, you're talking about >> Yeah. I'm sorry. >> I was like I was like I swear I've been there before. The picture the next one. Next one. >> That's Frank. Okay. I'm sorry I'm
confusing you. So, okay. I'm I'm I'm just wondering. So, other projects, so EDS specs are for new Aberdine, correct? Or the new >> Well, EDS specs will be districtwide. It will be the guideline will apply to every single project. >> Okay. What What does that entail
exactly? I'm not I'm not too familiar with the term. So, if you could just give me some >> Yes, it is. It is going to be a tool that we can use for us to be able to to to uh it's a guide for us as we design buildings to to identify what uh equity
>> uh we're providing for all our scholars. You know, you know, >> let's say for example, the the flexible learning spaces, the collaboration spaces. What specifically do we need for that? Uh where should it be located? you know, you know, how many classrooms can
should be served by by that? What technology we need to have, how many linear feet do we need for storage for um say an art room or a music room, things of that nature. >> So, is this going to be a building by building or sight by sight kind of
project or is it going to be just kind of a overall? It >> It's an overall. It will be like elementary schools, middle schools, high schools. >> Okay. >> Okay. Thank you. >> You're welcome. Okay. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Smart. Thank you very much. And I just wanted to give
a shout out to uh my colleague Dale Caminga. He he he he's been great at at at at uh at driving the ship on all these projects. I know he's super busy. So, thank you for being here, Dale. Appreciate you. >> Thank you. >> Dale, where's Dale?
>> Okay. >> Happy you're back, Mr. This is the point at the in the agenda where we will um stop taking public comment cards. It looks like Miss Anderson has a couple more in her hand. Um and as she comes
up, we will move on with our action items. So, first up is our purchasing agenda. Do I have a motion to approve the purchasing agenda? >> Some move. >> Second. Any discussion?
>> All in. >> Yeah. Oh, sorry. Shouldn't discussion have come before the motion? >> Go ahead. >> Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I should have said something. But um I just had um and and I uplifted this through email. Um but just wondering um
you know if board me if my board colleagues were um you know maybe in agreement, maybe not in looking at the second step six to eight social emotional learning curriculum. It's under uh two other special funds,
subsection A uh one. Um because I know that we purchased a a former social emotional learning curriculum prior to this a few years back. Um and I know that they're both part of the castle curriculum. Um, and I'm just curious to
see kind of where we're at in terms of progress made or or you know, how we're following it to Fidelity um, before making purchases such as these in the future. Um, and I I don't know, maybe we've gotten that information and I haven't seen it. Um, I know I've been
absent a few times. Dr. Robiano, if you could provide clarity on if we've had an update on theCL curriculum. Um, with respect to the SEAL curriculum, I know that's part of our >> the calendar. I can't right >> I don't recall when the last time we have had an update, but it is part of
our overall calendar of we have presentations. >> Okay. >> Um, Mr. Atkins, I thought I saw him. Oh, okay. >> I'm going to have him come. >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you so much. >> But I want to also make sure that again because it wouldn't be at, you know, at the board table that you would have an
automatic like presentation. >> Oh, right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, that's what I was saying. Yeah, in the future, you know, just to have kind of a a update prior to this. And again, I don't remember when in the calendar too when that would have landed.
>> And I don't know. And um Mr. Atkins, as you are preparing to come forward, I don't know if this is um part of a payment of something that's already it's not something. >> Thank you. Thank you for coming up here. And >> thank you. Yes. Oh, no problem at all.
And so we actually have three different curriculums. Yeah. Elementary we use um carrying school community and we that was the first curriculum that we adopted. >> And the curriculum you're at the table in front of you is second step for middle schools. And then for high school
we use wayfinder. >> And so what we do is the the written plan is every three to five years. You kind of evaluate where you're at. And so we're close to doing it at at the elementary level, but but >> we we we purchased it two two years ago,
a year and a half ago. >> The caring school community we purchased I think three years ago. >> Three years ago. Okay. Okay. >> Right around that time. And then this is the second year using second step for middle school and wayfinder is at some of the high schools second year.
>> Okay. So what is it that we are is this we just purchase it yeartoear the curriculum is this what we're purchasing today? >> Yep. The grant funds um usually our consultants don't like the multi-year and so it did get gives you a little bit
of flexibility year to year to evaluate if it's working or not. U we will review it but the multi-year contracts are pretty much going away as you look at at least through a grant fund lens. >> Okay. So this is just the same thing we've had just >> split up for a second step.
>> Okay. >> Yeah. >> Perfect. Yeah. And I know Yeah. This has been something you've been working on for a while, right, with the curriculum and >> and of course it's absolutely important. So, >> but yeah, I and I don't know when your next presentation is on it. I, you know, I'd love to hear that and I know we have
a calendar when you're going to be coming forward. So, so yeah, thank you for providing the clarity. >> No problem. >> And I can look on tomorrow and and see. >> That would be great. Thank you. >> Okay, we have a Do you have something else? >> In here, Dr.
>> Oh. Oh, I said I I'll look tomorrow um to see. I don't off the top of my head. I And normally I keep it in here, but I don't >> Who? >> Um I I believe >> Amber made the second. >> Okay,
>> so we have a motion and a second. All in favor say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Okay, motion carries. Um, the purchasing agenda addendum. >> Any discussion on that one?
>> I do have a question and again, same same thing. I sent it through email. Have we purchased the shirts? I love the shirts. I talked them up. I love the turkey trot shirts. Have we purchased those before for um the turkey trot or is this a new cost to the district?
>> It's a good question. I don't know. We're inviting Mr. Johnson to come down. >> Thank you. >> We've always purchased them. >> Okay. >> Okay. We've always purchased them and it comes out of the proceeds we make from
the turkey trap. >> Okay. >> I'm just saying it on the microphone. >> Yeah. Yeah. All right. Thank you so much. >> Okay. Do I have a motion to approve the addendum? >> So moved. >> Support. All in favor say I. I.
>> Any opposed? >> Motion carries. >> Do I have a motion to approve the consent agenda grouping? >> So move. >> Support. >> All in favor say I. >> I. >> Any opposed?
>> Motion carries. And that moves us into board president announcements. Um I do just want to remind my colleagues to please take a look at the policy on policy
and um give me any input you have as to what you would like to see in that policy. We had previously set a deadline that has passed by a week. So, if you have not sent me anything, please take a moment to do that in the next couple days. Um, I also just want to thank
anyone who got out and voted for the Kent ISD enhancement mill. Um, >> welcome. >> Um, it was very exciting to see that it passed by quite a bit. So, much needed. We will continue to get those funds.
I also want to just uplift a couple of our resolutions that were in the consent agenda grouping because we don't name them out loud. Um, all of them are important, but I just want to uplift our support professionals for National Education Support Professionals Day. Um,
as a teacher myself, I know uh those people are very needed in our buildings and all of us who work in education greatly appreciate them. And I also want to uplift um the resolution for National Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week
as we're dealing with um everything with the SNAP benefits. And I just want to thank anybody who brought food for the food drive tonight as well. And so that will move us into public comment. We will stick with three minutes
tonight. Um, Trusty Rodriguez, can you read us into that again, please? >> Yes. All right. Again, same spiel. There's one public comment section on the agenda
tonight. Oh, that's incorrect. But, um, each comment period is limited to a maximum of three minutes tonight. Um, individuals are kindly requested to fully complete the front of the comment card and indicate the top topics they wish to address. Um, if you're a scholar enrolled, please fill out the golden color card. We ask the speakers refrain
from making abusive or disrespectful statements about board members, employees, volunteers, or contractors. Should you have a complaint regarding a specific board member, employee, volunteer, or contractor, please utilize the appropriate process outlined in board policy 9450. Speakers will be invited to address the board one at a
time. Before beginning your comment, please clearly state your full name for the official minutes. Um, I will monitor the time. Again, you may monitor the time as well with our new timer, uh, ensuring each speaker adheres to the allotted time limit. You'll be asked to conclude your comments promptly when your time is expired. Board members, do
not respond during the public comment. All concerns will be forwarded to the appropriate staff for consideration. We value your input and thank you for sharing with us tonight. >> Okay, first up is Matt Marlo, followed by Erica Van Djk. Good evening. My name is Matt Barlo,
president of Grand Rapids Education Association. Thank you, President Buchek, and distinguished members of the board um for this opportunity to speak in public. Tonight was a a good display of kind of
just what the community is is understanding, what's going on, um and kind of their priority list. It's a very difficult job what you do on the board. um you get appointed or you get elected to a position, you get, you know, immersed into the
position and then all of a sudden you have to try and help run a school district, a school district that is extremely large. There's so many nuances to your role that it's like where do you spend your time on and and how you know
where where should the priorities be? Um, and it's hard to navigate that. It probably takes years to do it. Um, this is my fourth year as GRE president and just trying to understand as a president looking at the infrastructure of GRE in the union. Then on top of that, working
with the district and understanding the infrastructure of the of the public school district and you know, you see things, you make connections and you look at different aspects of it. And um it's it's definitely a tremendous job
that is probably not very often where you get a thank you, but I do thank you for what all you do. Um it's very difficult and it's it's hard and it's nerve-wracking. Um but then what what do you do? Um some
of the things you might ask yourself like the question why um why are we deciding to make this decision and not that decision or how can we do this and then not do that and it's it's tough but
you are the board and I hope you've had a chance to settle in to feel a little more confident in your role to be able to ask for things because you are the board you are the elected officials um and that's something that you have to
find within yourself in order to do. If you want change to happen, you're going to have to make that decision to to do it. Um, if you don't want change, then you can just continue to just, you know, show up and just let business take its
place. Um, I'm looking forward to the future and working with the board. I know that, um, you know, the past 18 months has been challenging. However, working together um with the GREA, I think there's more to gain by working
together than being divided. However, sometimes with division points out some of those things that need to be pointed out that maybe aren't so obvious on the surface, but you start to understand deeper within the infrastructure of how things are working and what needs to be
changed. So, I want to thank you for your time tonight and three minutes was the perfect amount of time. Take care. Erica Van Djk followed by Julie Nettling. Hi Dr. Roby and board members. My name is Erica and I serve on the education
justice team at Urban Corp Collective. We continue to stand in solidarity with the educators who are advocating for improved pay. We know that teacher working conditions are student learning conditions. I'm here today to talk again about the invest in my kids ballot initiative. Ballot initiatives are a way
for everyday folks to say this is how we want our community to function. We don't have to wait for our elected officials to fight it out. We can get more money for our K12 public schools all across the state if we work together. Ballot initiatives require signatures from
registered Michigan voters. A lot of signatures. Um, this one requires between 600 and 700,000 signatures by midFebruary to get it on the ballot next November. And GRPS should really, really want to get it on the ballot. We can
raise more than a billion additional dollars for public schools across Michigan, including in GRPS by adding a 5% tax sarge to annual income above $500,000 for individuals or a million dollars for couples. That sir charge is going to impact less than 2% of
Michiganders. and funds will support career and technical education, reduce class sizes, and the recruitment and retention of teachers just like the ones here in GRPS. Of note, because of how the language is written, these particular funds cannot be moved from the school state aid fund for other uses
like we heard, you know, happened um in the most recent state budget. It's a constitutional amendment, so it allows for that. There's specific things that it can be used on. I want to thank those of you who are already involved, especially those of you who are who are collecting signatures, who have advocated for the petition from the deis
and who've helped arrange for us to collect signatures at GRPS schools um and events. Start looking for everyday people, everyday power t-shirts. We're going to be out there hoping to be out a lot at Turkey Try in particular coming up. There are a couple of other ways that you can help. Um please consider
passing a board resolution of support for the um for the petition. We've shared some sample language before and I just sent it to your emails again right before the start of this meeting. School boards in Aendale, Benton Harbor, East Lancing, as well as the Michigan State Board of Education have done so. And
Detroit Public Schools is actually voting on it tomorrow. It would be really significant for a district as large as GRPS to join um to join them. And finally, if you haven't already, consider stopping by my seat um at the end of this meeting to sign the petition that extends to everybody in the
audience as well. Um I really think that together we can get this done, but having your public, you know, very visible support is going to make a really big difference in our community. So really just encourage you whatever that looks like as a board, as individuals, please consider um supporting the petition. Thank you.
Thank you. >> Julie Nettling, followed by Caitlyn Homewood. >> Hello, I'm Julie Neatling. Um, according to your statistics, you lost 5% of your educators last year. And while 5% is a
lot to me, considering it's a large workforce, many are questioning um that number because they've seen so many people leave, it feels like more. So, I've reminded people that we don't only lose people to other districts, we
also move people around to fill existing holes. Like, we don't have the same art teacher, but she's still in the district just at a different school. Um, the question I have about the 5% is, is it 5% of the positions in the budget or 5%
of the positions we actually have? because Miss Krebs Crebs told me a few years ago that we don't actually budget to fill all the vacancies. Um, regardless, I want to make it clear why that number isn't high. It was behind
me, but people have gone to bed or put their kids to bed. Um, a lot of people are on the cusp of leaving this district but are holding out hope because they're starting to see their union and their families and their community and their
students and um fight for change. So, we can't leave now. This is our chance to make things better for future students and education and educators. But when the contract is
signed and the dust settles, it might be time to make some hard decisions. We aren't attending these board meetings to get rich. Most people don't go into education to get rich. Uh the issue is we want more for our kids and for this
district. I'm not here for my job security. I want to be on my toes knowing there are better teachers than me who want my job. I want that for my students. I want that for you. That's uh
that my union isn't asking for lower performance standards. They aren't asking for longer lunch breaks. They're actually trying to make their own positions more competitive. This is all about making our district better. Thank you,
>> Caitlyn Homewood, followed by Rebecca Beltran. Hello members of the board. Um my name is Caitlyn Homewood and I'm a special education teacher at Buchanan Elementary School. Um during my last public comment, I spoke to this board about issues facing our special education
department and I asked for an audit to be done and for um communications to be sent to all guardians of students with IEPs uh informing them whether or not their child has a certified special ed teacher as well as licensed service
providers as listed on their IEPs. And uh it appears an audit was done. Um, according to this audit, GRPS found itself to be, and I quote, fully staffed and found that uh, quote, again,
services are being delivered as outlined in each scholars's IEP. Talking to co-workers of mine just before, um, this board meeting, uh, and as the special ed rep for our exec board, I get reached out to a lot. I know for a fact that this is not the
case. We have evidence that that we are not fully staffed, that scholars are not getting what is outlined in their IEP. And um I understand like that must be hard facts to face, but those are the facts as we see them right now, boots on
the ground every day being in these buildings. Um there were other issues with the information reported in this audit as well. and it made me curious about the validity and transparency of this internally conducted audit. I am very
happy that it was done and I do feel like concerns were listened to. The fact that it was done at all, I am appreciative but there's just been a trend of trying to make ourselves look good. And I don't really care about how we look right now. I care about students
who I know personally, who I am personally invested in, who I see their future outcomes happening or not happening before. It's very hard to watch. And I think a lot of teachers um would agree with me on that. Um the report also found other deep-seated and
critical issues with our ability to recruit and retain special education staff. So, as I don't know if you guys are all aware, but as of next year, MDE is requiring that all substitute teachers in special ed positions must be enrolled in education degree programs.
Um, we according to the audit, 25 out of 125 special ed teachers are subs right now. That's 20%. currently. So, what will you do next year when
you're unable to find subs for the 20% of special education roles that you're unable to staff? Because I'm sure the answer isn't that we're going to hope that folks will crawl out of the woodwork for the low low price of lowest paid in the district or in the county. So, I really hope that we do something
financially that attracts people to our district. We, like Julie just said before me, we want competitive pay. We want to be kept on our toes but primarily we want our students to be >> that's time >> serviced. Thank you
>> Rebecca Beltran followed by Bitsy Howard. Rebecca is not here. Bitsy Howard, Unice Lron. Following Unice will be Heather Po. Unice is coming down.
Good evening. I'm Venice Leon. Um, good evening Dr. Ruby and board members. >> Unice. Can you pull the mic down a little more? Thank you. >> Good evening, Dr. Lobi and board members. My name is Ununice Leone, a
parent, grandparent, and a volunt proud volunteer at Burton Elementary School. We have been at these meetings, meetings after meetings. We have asked, we have begged, state our concerns, frustration, needs, pleaded, and wants to y'all. Look
at how much is going on in our community and our nation. How are the teachers and their family going to make it being underpaid? More and more teachers are leaving our district. Do you all care about that? or what's going on with our teachers? It
seems everything else is more important, but once again, what and when will the teachers get their higher pay? Nothing is being said about the teachers and their pay. Is the district even considering a higher pay? Teachers need
to know what is really going on. They have waited long enough. Pay the teachers higher pay. They deserve it. It's the right thing to do. Thank you. Heather Po, followed by Stephen Assassian.
>> Hi, Heather Paulo, MA UNISER director. I had something prepared. I'm just going to kind of wing it. So, um, you had a pretty lengthy, uh, school aid presentation, which was appreciative. Um, I also appreciate the three minutes. Want to say that. Um, but I'm seeing a
theme through the night and that that is transparency. So, um, the presentation spot on agree everything he said was great. What he also said was he didn't have individual district information. He was giving state school a budget information. We have provided and you
probably have specific information on the net gain that Grand Rapids public schools is getting from the state budget this year. It is a net gain. It considers those mysteries. It considers those offsets. It considers the uh elimination of one sub47G that's pretty
much replaced with 27 L or L4. It considers all of that. It is a net gain of almost $10 million. It's indisputable. Transparency again. Um let's talk about the um financial report that was done in
May by an outside uh firm, School and Municipal Advisory Services. Again, didn't didn't disagree with anything Mr. had to say that day in the report, but what was evident from his report was that you have a spending priority problem. If you keep spending
the way you're spending and prioritizing the things you're prioritizing, you you will be taken over by the state. You will lose your quality educators. It's it's bound to happen. You have choices to make about spending, and the choices you're making are not putting your students and educators first. And
you're a school district. That's that should be your number one priority. We heard um Caitlyn talk about transparency and special ed staffing. Last time I looked at the um vacancies, there were 67 certified staff vacancies. That was probably last week. There's probably
more. The 95% retention rate was from the end of 25 school year to the beginning. 95% came back. You you know you have resignations every every board meeting. You know that this is this is about treating your educators with respect and giving them what they
deserve. um transparency about um bargaining. So, not sure what we can do about it this time, but hopefully in the future um we can have open public bargaining so everyone is getting the same information and the same facts and that's not
getting stuck in in the middle and back and forth. We've we've been very open and honest and transparent. If you if you have things you want to know from us, please ask. If if you we have a alignment problem in our numbers, please show us. We we we've been, like I said,
we've been very transparent on our part. We would hope that um the board would do the same. So, I think transparency and priorities of uh your educators and students should be at the top of your list right now. Thank you, >> Stephen Assarian
followed by Selin Tran. Hello everyone. I'm uh Stephen Aserian. I am a uh citizen of the city of Grand Rapids. I've been a union member for uh 15 years. I'm a librarian at the public library downtown. Uh I go to Fountain Street Church. And I want to tell you
all that to start off because I have made it my business to care about the city and to care about the the people that live here. And I also have two kids that are in the Grand Rapids public schools. And hearing about the news of
the teachers bargaining has really made me concerned. Um first off, 17 months without an agreement in this kind of an environment is just unacceptable. Not only do these teachers have to do
all of the work during the day at schools and then they have to hit that second shift which we're all aware of. They also have to do the work of bargaining. I've been involved in many contracts myself and that is a lot of work that these teachers are putting in.
So that's the first thing. I think part of the reason why it's gone so long is that there are no decision makers at the table. You're dealing with particularly lawyers. I think that the call for open open bargaining is a great idea and I
think there absolutely need to be decision makers at the table because they need to be able to look each other in the face and say these are what we're this is what we're dealing with. this is what we think and this is the kinds of u the kinds of compromises that we can
make to come to an agreement and I think it's been echoed through there's not a ton more I can say but I think it's been echoed through the uh comments here and through the the student comments that you all have the power right it's it takes a very special kind of person to
make the public school system their business I know that you all are not just here because you love Robert's rule of order. I'm sure those people exist, but that's not something I see in this room tonight. Right. So, there are you you know, you get into this kind of work
to help people and you have a golden opportunity to help a hell of a lot of people in the city of Grand Rapids and it's my sincere hope that you all take it and that's all I got. So, thank you.
>> Sen Turan followed by Ryan Shoenburn. Um, Salem Tron. I teach at Grand Rapids Monastery High School. I love Grand Rapids public schools, but I need your help. Growing up, teaching was my dream. Teaching is still my dream. I always
hoped I would be lucky enough to teach in this district. And even better, I got so lucky that I teach in the only public secondary monastery school in the state of Michigan. I dreamt of this and I dreamed to continue to do this. Every day I wake
up, I give my all to this job, to these students, to my school, to my colleagues, and to this district. I love Grand Rapids public schools, but I'm exhausted. This district has taken and continues to take so much from me. Here are just a
few things. One, safety and communication. On October 15th, a magazine, ammunition for a gun was brought into my school building. While I'm very thankful that nothing came of it and no weapon was actually brought
into the school. I'm extremely disappointed in the lack of communication that was followed or that followed. Since October 15th, I as an educator in the building have received zero communication from GRPS
um on this situation. I was never informed that this even happened. On November 5th, 3 weeks later, multiple news outlets shared this story. That's how I found out. To this day, I have yet to receive anything about it.
Again, I am an educator in that building. The ammunition was found in my building. I have had parents, students, and multiple other people ask me about this situation. I have no answers for them other than to look at the news.
Two, a contract. For over 120 days, educators in GRPS, including myself, have been working without a contract. In any other public district, this would be unacceptable. GRPS has chosen to drag out these negotiations for over 18 months. Mind
you, 14 of those months were before the contract even expired. Um, three, money. GRPS chooses to continue to pay the lowest salary for in Kent County for teachers and educators. By
staying at GRPS instead of working for another district in this county, I will lose about $350,000 in my lifetime. That's a house. That is my own house that I could afford if I just switched to a different district.
An American dream. Simple as that. Yet, we choose to pay our superintendent over $300 a year without the extra benefits, while I and many other teachers in this district make less than $50,000 a year. That's about six times more. Four,
peace. Every year I'm asked to take on more and do more and be in a chaotic, more chaotic environment for nothing. No compensation. Thank you. >> Time Ryan Shoenburn
followed by Jefferson Rididgeway. Ryan, Jefferson Rididgeway followed by Justin Walcott. Good evening. Um, Dr. Roby School Board. Um, my name is Jefferson Rididgeway. I'm the cure providing site director at the
Urban League of West Michigan. Um, I'm here to thank you all for allowing us to have access to GRPS students. Um just a little while ago we completed um our flag football where 750 students aged 6
to 13 and their family members attended f five flag football events with a with us culminating with a Super Bowl their Super Bowl at Houseman Field. In addition, um GRF is granting access right here at Ottawa Hills, um to our
cure violence staff to 20 at risk um students that you have. And the great thing about that, eight of them, I'm pretty sure along with the teachers and staff, but also the things that our cure valley staff do with conflict resolution,
uh, mediation techniques, um, along with norm changing activities where eight of those 20 um, were on honor this past car card marking. With that being said, I just look forward for continue to continue to work with you all intersecting students educational needs
and positive norm changes in school and at home for them. Thank you. >> Justin Walcott. >> Okay, that concludes our public comment for tonight. Um, moving on to superintendent comments.
Good evening again. As we are entering um there's always a a time of saying thank you and and showing gratitude. And as I kind of reflect on my comments, I want to make sure that
people do understand there are people in and across our district um that are doing lots of things where they sometimes very publicly are acknowledged and sometimes they do things without acknowledgement. And so I don't want anyone to walk away and say she didn't
say this one or this group. And so really trying to reflect on some of the work of those more hidden heroes because I think that's also important of the work that um takes place in our district. And so these are some things that um we are grateful for and our our
ops team last two weeks ago we had a school who um where the boy the heat went out at around this time of evening. And so after working a full day, they came to
the school overnight to make sure they could get the boiler back up and running so that school could take place. And this is being done when some of their leadership is out due to some medical things wanting to make sure that school
was still running and things were um taking place behind the scenes. Um addressing it after hours in the middle of the night, I think is really important. As everyone is aware, we have a government shutdown and um there are families in our community that are in
crisis and our counselors and our HHM staff, which stands for homeless, highly mobile, the sensitivity and care and love that they are extending to many families to make sure that they're connecting resources or doing those
extras so that kids can stay in school. I think that's hugely important. um and to make sure that if there are gaps, they're trying to help bridge those gaps for families and they do it quietly and most importantly they do it to allow people to have their dignity because I
think that's hugely important as well. Um, the last group that I want to lift up, and this is one that really touched my heart as a parent, as an educator, we had a medical um situation a couple of
weeks ago at one of our elementary stu at one of our um schools with one of our elementary students where it was a medical crisis. And I have to lift up the Palmer Elementary staff, the nurse, the principal because what could have
been a true crisis, they went into action to ensure that this young boy was able to get the medical attention that he needed. And then afterwards, and he has a very long battle that he is going through right now, that staff, that
school community is still reaching out and connecting with that family to make sure that their their needs are getting met. And and those are some of the things that people do every day, not for accolades, they do it because it's the right work to do. And I think it's
really really important to lift that up. And for our board, I want um you all to know once our little guy is in better health, we will invite him as well as the staff at Palmer to come um to a future board meeting. But we wanted to
give him a chance to to let his body heal. And and again, just kudos and congratulations and and just many thanks to to each of them. Um, and then finally, I will say a reminder that tomorrow is Veterans Day and we have
lots of people who have served in our military and do lots of different things to keep all of us safe. And we want to als and and plenty of people who have sacrificed and have given their lives or their families have sacrificed and to
also remember our veterans and just to say thank you to them for their service because there's a lot of work and things that they do each and every day that they don't always get acknowledged for. And that concludes my comments for the evening. >> Thank you. >> Okay, moving on to board member
comments. Thank you, Trusty Williamson. >> Yes, thank you. Um, so I want to thank uh Mr. Marlo for for something he said during his comment, which is that we all really just need to work together on this. Um, and I want to um in the spirit
of thanks, I want to, you know, thank everybody who's worked towards that on the tenative agreements that have been reached. I think that represents really good progress towards getting a full contract. Um, and yeah, that's the the thing I always kind of uh come into is
the the one conflict we have because we're all on the same team and we're all working towards this, but the one conflict we really have is between what our aspirations are and what the material reality is. And I think that's often where the conf where the disagreement comes in is figuring out
how to bridge those because rarely do they match up. So, uh, you know, as we go into the end of the year and there's a lot of uncertainty with the federal government and a lot of our families in need at this time of year normally and the direction that we're we're carrying this district. Um, the thing I'll be
keeping in mind is where can we recognize what our aspiration is and what we all really are on the same page of achieving and how can we take the material reality that we have and match those things up. And I know that's not easy. Um, but I do hope folks recognize that myself and all my colleagues on the
board are really trying to work towards achieving that. Um, so thank you. >> Thank you, Trusty Kilpatrick. >> Uh, yeah, just quickly, um, thank you, Miss Van Djk, for always speaking to, um, uh, the invest in my kids ballot
initiative. I personally support that initiative. So, if you're not seeing Erica after this meeting to sign her petition, you can sign mine. Uh, or find me anywhere in the community, you can reach out to me on Facebook. Um, and I think I just want to speak out into this space that I would be very eager to see
a board resolution of support for that initiative. >> Okay, Trustee Melton. Yeah, I just want to acknowledge that this month is uh Native American Heritage Month as well. And we have a small but mighty team in GRPS that
really works across our entire city to support students who identify and are Native American. Um and I just love the work that they do. I remember seeing um one of them at a grocery store and she didn't know I was there and saw a kid across the aisle and she just ran over and hugged the student. just that kind
of real personal attention because of your identity is such a beautiful thing to see. Um I would also support our board um in a resolution around the um the invest in my kids uh um work that's going on now all the way till next November. And then one other thing I
want to encourage us to do is I does everyone have the binder? So you have the actual physical uh facilities master plan. Okay. I I thought so, but I've just been taking a lot of time recently um to dig through it. And the reason I bring it up is because uh well, not to
be cheesy, but Einstein talks about uh defining the problem. And that's actually 90% of the work is defining the problem. 10% is the solution. And when this was written, there's so many great components in it. And the problem was really defined as capacity within buildings or or how, you know, how
filled our buildings are. And I would dare to say in 2025 that our our problem might not be fully defined. That I think it might be bigger than what um was written in 2022. And I would really love to explore that work with you guys um around how this could be a part of how
we rearrange budgets and reimagine staffing and do things like collaborate around um flag football and salmon eggs that we heard about earlier. So all of those things can happen um if we've if we have a defined problem that that says
those are some solutions we want. So I would just encourage you um to read that because we'll be having some conversations coming up. There are a lot of great components to this that we can pull into our work today and hopefully uh define the problem slightly larger so that the solution also fits.
>> Trusty Moreno. Um I first want to uplift uh one of our educators and Miss Noimi Tobar who won a legacy award uh over the weekend for service of 32 years with the district.
Um and then I really always appreciate whether it's in comment uh or in celebrations when we bring in partners. Uh so it was really really great to hear from Mr. Ridgeway uh around the work uh in collaboration with our district. Uh you know, we're seeing over the past 10
months, 11 months. Um you know, our families are being affected in new and terrible ways. Uh and now more than ever, we need to continue to foster deeper relationships with other institutions, new partners, and really think differently uh than we've ever had
to. Uh, and I, you know, I'm also, uh, an endorser, a justice captain of, uh, invest in my kids and would also support, um, a resolution um, for that. You know, we saw in the presentation earlier uh, from Dan that, you know, we
lost $80 million uh, as a state and that number is going to continue to increase. We're going to keep losing. Uh, and so we need to come up with different ways to get more money into our schools, into our district. Uh, and I think that's one one way that we
can all do something really really easy. Uh, endorse, get, you know, catch some signatures. Um, and so I hope we continue having that conversation. And so I hope in our next session together, you know, we we work towards that. [Applause]
>> Trusty Rodriguez. >> Thanks for sticking with us, everyone. It's cold and my hands hurt and I'm sure y'all's hands hurt. Um but two things, one is I really do like the uh the
presentation that Dan Beam uh gave us today. I think it was very enlightening in a lot of ways and I think most of you know most of my board colleagues, right, we we are familiar with some of those things, but I think it really just brought to light a lot of the issues within educational funding. Um and you
know we just had a we just had just a a small uh online forum to talk about uh the uh enhancement millage and something that I said in that uh forum was you know cuz folks are like oh well you know what if I don't you know what if I don't
believe that folks are using the money in the right ways but I said the answer is never less money for our kids right you can have an issue with how folks um spend it you can have an issue with priorities but the answer is never taking away educational funding for our children, for our communities. And so,
let's pass it and let's figure out the the details later on, right? And so, I also am a huge um advocate and supporter of invest in my kids. I think that as we, you know, deal with all of these issues with our teacher pay and we deal with all of these issues with just, you
know, as, as Dan said with, you know, accounting for inflation, we are making or we are we are receiving money equivalent to 1998 for our educational, you know, resources and for our scholars. And that's just unacceptable, right? And so let's look
at those additional ways to provide more revenue for our schools and for public education. And I would also love to support a uh a resolution. And so I hope that that's something that this board can do. Um but I think, you know, we have to get creative with our money because there's a there's an attack on
public education, right? Plain and simple. And so we have to be the first line of defense and say that our kids matter and they deserve more. Thank you, >> Trusty Wade. VP Wade. >> Hello. Thank you everyone for sticking with us tonight. U I want to start with
um congratulating uh the University Preparatory Academy sixth grade basketball team for their first game and their first win last Wednesday. My nephew's on the team so I have to shout them out. Um I want to
uplift the invest in me uh Michigan kids. I really want to uplift um our community encou and encourage them to do their research and um learn more about it and um support I want to uplift cure violence and the work that they're doing
in our schools and also um want to uplift the staff here at Ottawa for working with community to uh impact the the students in their school. Um, I believe all of our principles and
schools have agency and how they um how they work with and partner with community. So, um, I appreciate and I'm proud to, uh, learn more about the partnerships Ottawa has here and the work that's being done. Um, I visited
the Mosaic Film Festival out at one of the celebrations and I bumped into a school bus full of Ottawa students that came out to learn more about uh film, the film industry. They got to meet some really cool guys that worked in in film, worked on the movie
Wicked. They had a guy from that worked on anime shows and they were really excited about that. So, I was happy to bump into a staff there that had so much uplifting things to say about what's going on at Ottawa. Um, and then I went to the fundraiser for the Mosaic film
and I learned that University Prep um partner with Mosaic uh after school and they came spoke to some students in their school as well. and uh principal Kenya Hill Hall. She was she spoke at the event and um she I love her anyhow,
but she she spoke so well about um being intentional about how GRPS is very intentional about how we partner with community to impact the students and how they are being intentional about um how they allow their students to not allow
but how they show up for their students in a way that affects them most in um providing opportunities for their students to see people that look like them, that do extraordinary things that may not live in their city, but they're flying people in and um exposing them to
so many different um opportunities that's out there in the world. So, it was just a great week for me bumping into GRPS out in the community. So, yeah, that's all. Thanks. Thanks for sharing.
Uh Trusty Williams. Good evening everyone. Thank you for coming out. We appreciate the public comment. I really want to just give the biggest shout out to everyone that went to vote for the enhancement millillage.
It is important work and um we need the entire community to do that. And so that millillage did not just impact Grand Rapids but all of King County. So thanks to everyone that went out um and supported that. And then lastly, thanks to everyone that brought food tonight uh
for the food bank here at Ottawa. And if you missed that opportunity, feel free to load up your baskets um in your cars and bring it right on up to the school and drop it off. Our students would greatly appreciate it as they are doing
extracurricular activities and don't always have the time or money to go out, go back home and get food or um uh buy food. Um, so if you could make those donations, they would greatly appreciate it.
>> Thank you. That concludes our board member comments. I do not have any additional comments, so this meeting is adjourned. >> Thank you.