##VIDEO ID:9Qmmjce1Eog## e e e karaoke though I cannot sing for the life of me what the fun thing about karaoke try to play M's been doing that YouTube everything you she my son taught himself to play guitar and he's a band now and there's Molly was doing piano before Co started and then her piano teacher ended up moving up to Grand Rapids so then she SS but then she's just been so into music she's like I was going Ali's guitar teacher who was at school of rock and Royal Oak played at the L game time his band and he lives here in he par oh that's cool off topic anybody know where the chair competition is this weekend is it in lamp let me look I'm just I think I can probably tell well I hope I can tell you sometimes these things don't appear on the calendars as they're supposed to I'm going to try and go it's sat it's six Bu you're going off that CL I don't have it's 6 o' on my phone is it 6 o' on your phone 601 601 Mr Wilkins is ready be okay Park board ofeducation meeting to order is called January 22nd at 6m at the Ford administration building I have a roll here beer here present here here here uh approval of the agenda I make a motion to approve the agenda as written support motion to approve the agenda by Heidi Fortress and second by Debbie Leon boy um all in favor hi any oppos okay motion carries we need public comment public comment hearing no public comment uh motion to go into close session I move the Board of Education recess close session under Section 1H to consider material exempt from discussion or Disclosure by state and federal statute attorney client privilege support okay motion made by trustee Fortress second by truste Le boys roll call please I would like discussion because oh I'm sorry I forgot that yeah I I am a little bit my concern from our last meeting um regarding the improper use of the closed session I still am concerned with um there is a motion on the table in order to go into close session for attorney client privilege um I don't know what that is there was absolutely no mention of what the agenda item for This was um again I have concerns regarding our violations of the open meetings act from the last meeting um we are going into a meeting with attorney client privilege for an attorney that I still don't know why they have been retained I don't know why they've been hired um I don't understand how they were properly retained and hired and I would like to have discussion regarding that okay any other comments I support um what April is saying so at our last meeting um it was said out loud in public that on January 2nd that this attorney was contacted we got an email from the attorney's office from January 2nd with an invoice when none of us well most of us did not have knowledge of so um so I would like discussion on what this is about it is a discussion about the finance situation not about uh individual people okay so it was miscommunication of that invoice going out I did not hire true and law I am hired of true and law I did not request that a retain res sent there was confusion between the marketing person and not sure who the other person his titles on there uh but that was not my intention I did not personally and I am the only person that contacted true in-law there's no open meetings act broken because there was nobody else involved in that conversation but me so to backwards the timeline again just to outline one whether there was a violation based on who contacted or whether or not whether or not there was a violation or whether or not we're just really skirting ethics here um the the timeline of our last meeting was that these are concerns that were all addressed during our Open Session uh our last meeting was on January 13th um trusty Fortress mentioned by name um true and law firm in her motion to pay not to hire not to consult not to reach out to but to pay an existing invoice that motion was seconded that invoice was received hours prior to the meeting and we are now aware that that invoice had a date of January 2nd uh further at that meeting again on January the 13th it was asked in Open Session during the discussion regarding the TRU and motion why were we paying a retainer to truan law firm and the answer was President hiton I checked with truan because I am not a fan of our policies I like their policies I did not know this retainer came through we voted for them last week last week's meeting would have been January 6 as one of our law firms again that invoice was dated January 2nd uh it was asked very specifically again in Open Session what are we hiring them for and the answer was I just said I like their policies I want them to take a look at our handbooks and then it was mentioned by trusty le la friend boy the president which again we're talking about an invoice that was dated January 2nd prior to our organizational meeting prior to the president being appointed the president by vote wanted to talk to them about policies so we reached out to them the board are you and trusty Hinton then says yes I reached out to them on January 2nd again four days prior to our organizational meeting before the board had authorized any one member to have the authority to reach out to to contact to request an invoice to secure counsel anything on behalf of the board um again at that meeting on the 13th after the 2 and after the six it was stated is there a follow-up question or is there a follow-up meaning is there a reason that this invoice has to be paid so quickly the answer was no uh so we have we have a confusion of our dates um I'm sorry we don't have a confusion of our dates in my again in my mind we have not only a violation with our dates but we have a serious ethical concern so this board at that meeting voted to pay an invoice that we were unaware of as to why we were getting the invoice uh we had no idea of the topics when asked about the topics we were given a very specific answer of I don't like our policies I want them to look at our policies all of our mentions were regarding the board policies we are now finding out the next week again post the second post the six and post the 13th that the conversation that we are scheduled to have with Trin Law Firm that we had concerns about hiring in the first place about a finance issue that I know I couldn't prepare for because everything that was said in Open session in that meeting was that we were hiring this Law Firm regarding our policies um again I understand if we go into close session we go into close session um I understand that there may have just been some morally questionable actions that took place prior to his voting on that um but they were clearly done with the intention in place because they were done prior to an organizational vote and prior to a vote to pay this retainer to give one single person the authority to contact this attorney and to move forward with anything other than again the Imp the impression that we were given was we were going to look at policies um that specifically concerns me because we've had months of conversations about transparency um about when we're scheduling meetings about the availability of the public public to come to them and talk for them to understand what is on our agenda um and in this case I know for sure the community didn't understand what was on our agenda or what we were coming here to discuss today because I can say at least one member of this board me also did not know what we were coming here to discuss today um it was mentioned that a staff person should not be here to record um our typical recording secretary was asked not to attend um and we've spent money on this we've spent money on this topic that again at least I know that I was unaware of because in our last community meeting in our last Open Session the last official word of the board that we put out um in our minutes in our meeting in our recordings was we are here we are hiring this Law Firm we are paying this $2,500 retainer to discuss policies so I when reasonably prepared pring for this meeting would have made again the reasonable assumption that I was coming to discuss policy handbooks because we were told that is why we were going to secure This legal council that is why we were going to move forward with the TRU and invoice uh if we are here to discuss difficulties with finances if we're here to discuss anything else um I I'm concerned with the lack of preparation at least on my own part because I certainly would not have been able to do that so I again what happens happens but there has been there has been a mistrust of our fiscal responsibility um there has been Community misrepresentation there has been board misrepresentation and in my opinion a a clear legal violation of the open meetings act if not during the last meeting coming into this one I I also have questions about the ethics and the way things went you know in the past for January 2nd and to be surprised at that meeting you know about going into close session on this um I reached out to Bev today because I didn't know what this was about right so late today I you know on my way home from work I reached out because it's pretty open-ended it's not very clear um she was able to get me in touch with Tim who's here and I don't know if there is you know there's not public comment so he can't speak I'm assuming but you know what he said made sense on one level but then what April's telling me or what April's telling all of us and we all know that there's questions about how everything went to begin with in terms of potential violations of the open meetings act you know and I I'm torn because we voted a certain way the end of the day the board hired them as our law law firm they're our Law Firm you know whether I voted one way or another you know so if if we have legal council that wants to provide information uh you know I I don't know what that information is but if they have information they'd like to share whether it's just about how our working um relationship goes I don't know I don't know I just I just asked him because I want I wanted to know how this was being presented where it wasn't a violation of the open meetings act and 81h is kind of a pretty Broad vague thing but I I do wish that we had better communication as a board and uh we had these issues resolved so maybe people had a clear understanding on why this happened the way it happened uh so this is this is tough for me because it's hard to turn down legal advice of a of you know a firm that we pay for but at the same time I understand the Optics the Optics don't look good I went to the MS masb trainings no surprises is something it's number one on our list here in meeting Norms right no surprises that's we haven't started off the best in you know in that category for the year but I don't if anybody else wants to speak on it feel free um once again it was not a violation of the mo open meetings act um as board president and the bylaws it designates me to be allowed to call legal representation before a board meeting you called legal representation on January 2 four days prior to us not only providing I didn't interrupt you okay okay and who have you been talking to not know Miss buo was asked not to be here instead of speaking to your president Nate was kind enough on Sunday or Saturday to ask me what this was about no none of the rest of you asked and at the meeting where we discussed this I asked for discussion and not one person said why are we hiring truan why is truan going on this list nobody you all just voted to put truan as one of our firms and now it's all my fault that you you put them on the list I'm telling you those dates are wrong and I'm telling you as an individual I can talk to who I want to talk to I'm not going to be dictated by six of you who I can speak to not happening the problem is is that the invoice came on the second so I understand that you said there was miscommunication but it looks to us or people who didn't have more information that talk to you on a regular basis that we had all this planned on January 2nd which we did not you weren't even board president until January 6 but then the invoice comes in as January 2nd so for transparency reasons it does look like to our community our staff our students our families that we were doing something we should not have been doing so the boy says January 2nd Dr KY called me on January 9th and said I just got this invoice I have it on my phone when she called me so if we came on the second she didn't say anything till the 9th we have email from the law firm that shows that they sent it out on January 2nd they clearly stated after they discussed with you they sent out the invoice well all I can it was also said in our discussion that the original call to truan again four days before we voted to put them on our list was made on January 2nd I don't think there's anything wrong with that because I've talked to Trin law I've talked to multiple law firms when we go to conferences all the time because you have a conversation with some somebody that doesn't really just I mean you can pick up the phone and call Legal firm right now and have a conversation with them but there was a miscommunication of some sort saying yes we want you send an invoice no I think that when you the I don't think that that happened I I don't know I was not involved in it but I did not tell them to sent anything and at some point in time somebody was aware that the conversation took place with truin because the motion was made specifically to pay a trueu and invoice I'm sorry um again it also was in our Open Session and if anybody's reaching out to ask private questions people are reaching out to ask private questions but again for the sake of both transparency and our meeting Norms in discussion of voting to pay that invoice during our last meeting it was asked no less than three times why are we hiring this law firm and we were told to look at our policies I don't like their policies to review our policies they have a great handbook so and I'll give you the reaching out but any person at that meeting or taking part in that meeting like us would have made the reasonable assumption that any conversation being had with Tru and Law Firm was regarded to board protocols board policies and our handbooks and the email from Alexander from truin says I've attached the retainer invoice and are updated w 9 as we mailed these out on the 2nd of January and it is anybody any person can certainly contact a law firm contact legal representation can ask these questions but an invoice was received so it isn't a leap to assume that one there was an attempt to secure legal representation a law firm isn't saying hey you had these questions I'm going to send you this invoice for a retainer um something specific was discussed with them in order for them to say we're coming on board again prior to two separate votes um please give us this money you're making an assumption there was nothing discussed with them absolutely nothing discussed with them I mean there had to at least have been one question that said can you send us an invoice for it was going to cost that's all I asked that was it obviously you're not going to believe me it's not that we don't it's hard when we get an email saying that we sent these out on January 2nd after their discussion I explained that truin Miss misinformation I can read the letter that the guy wrote to me I'm really sorry I'm going to run down the hall and talk to so and so it's all on my phone I asked a question what they charge and those two guys mixed it up so we can call the question we can vote and we can vote not to go and close session that's that's your privilege but I think also on the 13th we had also discussion that about Clark Hill and maybe the Board needs their own separate attorney other than Clark Hill because CL Clark Hill caters to the superintendent was the word used well I believe that that was talked about in closed session so I'm not quite sure if you no it was an open session was an open it was an open session the response was Clark hillers to the superintendent so we need our own Law Firm which honestly we all agreed with but we were led to believe that board protocols and board Norms were going to be the reason for hiring our own separate firm it is there is an unfortunate lack of transparency anybody that was attending that meeting anybody that watched that meeting anybody that has access to the minutes of that meeting would come out of it thinking something different and that again I mean we're we're going to vote we're going to have to do it we can argue about it for hours which I'm sure that we could but transparency and fiscal responsibility have just been so hammered I mean to the point of even saying you know I'm not going to to vote to spend money for something that's outside of a classroom but then it was just instantly washed away um and that is it's unfortunate because not only is there miscommunication Not only was their misrepresentation but now with a motion to go into Clos session anything that comes out of it will be even less transparent to the community and we will have even less opportunity to to move forward in a way that again in my opinion moves us forward has us looking like a United body and just un honors the ethics that we've been expounding for months which is a shame I guess also just like the last time I have a hard time understanding this the urgency of the matter where this had to come up on today a special meeting on a Wednesday when we have a schedule a meeting scheduled for Monday I don't quite understand why that couldn't happened and then maybe we could communicate in the meantime better you know we can still have this later it doesn't have to be today you know we could have a better discussion maybe people can come more to an understanding of what is at stake here and and why I just I really strive for us to be able to communicate with each other I'm glad that I called B today today cuz I'm new you know I went to the masb training the CBA 100 it's fantastic I learned so much I learned that there's a lot that I have to learn right I learned that I don't know right so these circumstances but I also learned that transparency is key communication is key working together is key you are a board you are you know one entity right you're a team so infighting isn't going to get us anywhere disagreements aren't going to get us anywhere I I again I don't see the urgency to have this settled right this instant uh you know if the attorney has good information for us you know maybe we can communicate and figure out this is pretty F what's going on here you know and I don't disagree with April when she says that it was brought up as policies again that's pretty vague too so I have concerns there uh on how this looks uh for certain so it's just a I mean this is what we all signed up for right so they're just tough decisions to make so on the side note anybody can call a there test to be two people to call a special meeting so so you can call a special meeting regarding anything you want oh that's fair I understand that so a special meeting can be called at any point by two people I understand that I get that I just don't know why it was so urgent for this matter to have to be brought up today as opposed to wait until I'm making the assumption that there was such people voted you voted no on it which you're entitled to but once that vote is made and it's all in favor you got as a board were asked to support it and whether you like it or not whether I like it or not there's a lot of things that I in the past have said voted no on and had to had to support it and and I think president Hinton maybe recognized that and said I might have them come in and talk to us about different things so I appreciate what you just said and this is uncomfortable for people and I think we should vote and if you don't want to go on close session we don't go on close session because this is going in a circle you're right it's a rush you're saying it's a rush thing again so I think that we should vote and if that makes everybody comfortable then we will postpone so roll call want to take roll call Miss buo of U going into close session Fortress yes the Fran boys yes Beaton no Becker yes Fox no r no Hinton no so moving on to new business is there any new business not on our agendas public comment any public comment no public comment board member Administration comments anybody I have something if you don't mind I got in a text message from a parent who wanted to come to our next board meeting but was scared um she's a younger girl still in elementary but wanted to say something so if you don't mind if I could read it for her um she transferred schools a couple years ago and she said coming from a student perspective I would love to say that Dr Kirby is an extraordinary lady whose dedication and compassion leaves an edible mark on many kids from the moment I met her it was clear that she generally cared about each and every kid in this District she takes the time to get to know us individually understanding our needs and wants to make our school a better place the personality's approach made coming to hael park more engaging and meaningful Dr koopy is always available for any questions or concerns Any teacher student has I love when I see her with the advantage students they know they can just come there and be in a safe place if they need a rest she support and help so much whether it staying to support our after school programs or have meetings with individuals who needed her most she just more or she is more than just a person she manages to make sure everything is in order and makes it to where we are encour enage to express ourselves and collaborate with our peers no matter what Dr Kirby is an incredible mentor and a role model for many not just girls but boys alone she has taught me having empathy for everyone is by far the best quality to have asking questions and realizing people's concerns are a big attribute that she has I watch her every day continuously shine and love everyone who comes her way her unwavering support and encouragement helps build our confidence and develop a love for wanting to come and continue to be at Hazel Park schools that's not always what it has been in my past she has nurtured our growth as individuals and instills in us a lifelong courtesy and passion for knowledge she is more than superintendent she is such an amazing and caring individual who will always be cherished by those who had the privilege of meeting her knowing her at one point and getting to know her even more as our superintendent her love and passion and wanting good for all of us kids is truly inspired it's beautiful it really was from a young child it was beautiful so I didn't want to put her on the spot either but I loved it so no it was beautiful it was long it was heartfelt it was very nice thank you for letting me share so anybody else the vote count for the oh for the Clos session yes four to three I didn't announce it thank you Mr Fox 4 to three um the fails fails because of it um under um Section 8 H there needs to be five votes it has be 23 of the board okay so anything else uh yes just real quick if you're watching Remember to come to school tomorrow in the next day we need 75% and every day is a good learning day I know it's cold but come to school president early can we um add this to the agenda on next Monday so nobody's call guard close session yes so no one's caught off c yeah all know what it's about yeah that's fine we'll add it do I need a vote does anybody object no okay anybody else thank you for coming oh do we have to second the motion