The Board of Education workshop to order at 05:30PM on this wow. 12/01/2025. Roll call, please. Here. Becker? Here. Fortress? President No. He's absent with notice. Sorry. Here. Pratini? Here. Vincent. Here. Need, well, I need approval of the agenda. I need a motion to remove C, date of presentation. I make a motion to approve the agenda with the removal of item C, date
of presentation. Support. Okay. Motion by Heidi. Support by, April. Is there any discussion? Could I just let you know that, doctor Galmadge couldn't be here with us this evening, so we're moving it to next week. She worked very hard in that presentation. I'd like her to be able to give it to you. That's right. K. Thank you. Pearl Palm? Portrait? Yes. Dean? Yes. Becker? Yes. No problem. Yes. Gratik? Yes. Yes. Public comment. So one public comment. Ian Lloyd. State your name and address, please. Ian Lloyd. 992 East Main Managee Park, Michigan 48030.
Greetings. I, just coming off Thanksgiving, I'm very grateful for the city, for elected officials. Very thankful to be here. Just wanted to kinda follow-up. I've been kinda in a ongoing communication related to creating transparency for our our public. So part of the time I'm up here, I'm trying to tell a narrative, the
story of how you guys got into debt, how you guys are still in debt. And part of that narrative is is why why did we sign an agreement with Oakland Schools, to have oversight back closer to 2015? It was all buttoned up. Everything was all sealed up. Then one year into the new administration, we decided to exit from Oakland Schools. Unclear why. I mean, we if you compare that to Pontiac, we have $18,000,000 that they expunged.
Had we continued oversight, it's pretty clear they were gonna you know, willing to expunge a substantial amount of debt. So that one year cost us so much money that we can't recover right now. And who gave you the orders? Who gave you the green light? Not Oakland Schools. It was our newly adopted, newly hired superintendent that came from Niles, Illinois with a history that was can only be considered a, you know, repeat offender at this point.
Offending etiquette, offending school board members, not spending money in the right direction. And you just wanna pass. You don't want the public to come up and communicate. So I started to wonder why was it so hard and what was what what about my message? The content was was so difficult for the board and the to hear and why was it interrupted. Because I want you guys to know that it was a civil rights infraction against
my civil liberties that occurred at the meeting when I was here with speaking, and I'm not clear if that was lawful. Was it lawful to interfere with my civil liberties? I don't think it was. So let me tell you what constitutes a civil rights violation. Well, we have first amendment retaliation. It's pretty clear. Three elements of first amount amendment retaliation. I had to be as a speaker engaged in a constitutionally protected speech, which I
am. The second element of a first amendment retaliation to me speaking by the administration towards this individual was adverse act was the adverse action likely to chill a person of normal firmness from continuing to engage in protected speech? Why was the content of my speech so challenging? And do you guys have any follow ups that you may need to do?
Like, if I ask you guys about fraud, we have fraud, waste, and abuse. Do you have any investigations to do? It's unclear. And there's a substantial emotive the third element of a of retail being retaliated for my speak free speech is the substantial motivating factor in the decision to take this adverse action, which may include, one of the board members yelling at me, chilling me
from coming up here. And and did you guys receive the content of of my ethics, questions related to having the fraternizations and act on it? Did you investigate? Is there a formal write up against the the individuals that are fraternizing? Unclear. We cannot continue to lose money on the, you know, the taxpayers' money doing unlawful things. So if you've made a demand that's unlawful, I think doctor Kirby should pay for
it. Reimburse the district. Any questions? Please follow-up with me. I I think you guys have an obligation to investigate the fraud, waste, and waste. Thanks. Thanks, Ian. Alright. Next, we have financial presentation. Mister Shelby? Actually, Monica is gonna start first for us. I apologize. Monica is starting with an introduction and mister Sobe is gonna take over. The yep. Grant? This is beautiful. It's okay. Okay. So, before mister Sobe gets into, what he's been working on, without getting an update of what Crystal and I have been working on and, some budget components.
Maybe? Okay. So, to give you an idea of what we've been working on since June, not listed would be that little thing called an audit. But outside of that, we've been working on incredibly, time and labor intensive work of recoding accounts, recoding accounts and creating cost centers, taking which will probably take about the rest of the year to finish.
With this work, next year, we'll be able to report to you by cost center, instead of just by function, which is how we currently report. We will be able to determine building and department cost per pupil, which will allow us to do a lot of, analytical work and, tell us if our dollars are being spent in the right place, or in the right way. Evaluate spending levels at buildings by the building level to ensure equitable funding.
And, really an an important piece is determine the return on investment by building your program, and using that to look at what we can do differently and where or how our money should be spent. Now I mentioned cost center reporting. Currently, we we report by functions. We see instructional basic needs, like that. Beginning in 2627, we will have the ability to report by cost centers. This will better display the budget needs and variances by building level or department or
by funding sources. So currently, the cost centers we've identified are early childhood and pre k, elementary, junior high, high school, alternative programs, which includes invest, MCA, and advantage, athletics, teaching and learning, student services, grants, transportation, technology, buildings and grounds, communication, community schools, business and human resources
will be reported together, and as well superintendent and board of education. So that's a lot of the budget work that we've been working on, since June. A couple other things that I think we've had some misinformation presented at the podium, so that kind of helped decide a few things that we wanted to explain a little further. So vendor schools, we have NCA and Invest. There are schools that are outside of our traditional k 12 programs where we have oversight on the programs. The students are all Hazel Park graduates, but they're ran by an outside organization with
their day to day operations. While we not only have the privilege of supporting more kids, this is also a great benefit to the district. So with our vendor schools, the state aid money comes to us. We keep a percentage, and then we turn the rest of the money over to the school to run the programs. Invest, we keep 22% of their state aid. So their unaudited fall pupil count was 322. That times the people allowance means we would be getting almost $712,000 back to the
district for running that program. MCA, we retained 20% of their funding. They also had 322, for their unaudited pupil count. So that would, be 647,000 back to the district for that program. And then we have NVCA, which is a charter school. So they're not Hazel Park graduates, but for us, authorizing and allowing the the charter school to, function, we keep 3% of their state aid, which would be about 854,000.
So the total from these three programs for the 2526 school year is estimated to be around $2,200,000. I have a quick question for you on the next. Will you explain to me why you mean by unaudited who like, there's official state count? Yes. So, the numbers have been submitted, but they have not been audited by the state yet. Gotcha. Okay. Thank you. And I don't know the exact breakout, but I will say that, you know, at some point, Invest was almost entirely school of choice students.
I think at one point, we had two Hazel Park students there. So this really is, this really is a boost to our bottom line by having, open enrollment. And another piece we thought would be helpful to see summarized or or really the the value, that we receive in general fund would be our center programs. Similar to the vendor schools, center programs are bio programs that provide great assistance to the general fund. They generate funds through the assessment of indirect costs, rent, and transfer of excess fund
balance. The center programs have to have a 7% fund balance. So if we make more than that within a year, we can transfer that to the general fund. So you see year over year what we have received in general fund from center programs for indirect, for the rent, and then their excess fund balance transfer. In fiscal year twenty six, we are projecting $1,980,000 will come to the general fund from the center programs. And just a little bit about our approach or kind of, our outlook as we're
going through and working on the budgets. And really, I think somebody said this last week and and this really resonated with me that this is about the kids. Finances don't matter without learning. So we're really looking back. How can we bring it all back to learning? So collaboration is one of the important tactic to us to involve all of the stakeholders, to get a better understanding of the program needs, and how they function. I'm not in the schools, so I'm not the expert on those programs. So, we're really reaching out to to the schools and and seeing what they have
to say about it. The other area where collaboration is really necessary, is to maintain the mutually respected relationship we have with our vendor schools. Staffing is a priority because, you know, that is the back boarding backbone of our learning environment. And without staffing, learning doesn't happen. And return on investment, we're looking to evaluate programs, looking to see what can be done differently to yield greater, more impactful results. Basically, where and how our dollars are best spent.
That's just my brief update. Did anybody have any questions? I just wanna add real quick. This is the shared spreadsheet that between teaching, learning, and special education, the business office, and my office, We utilize to keep our grants organized. I believe we've shared this with you before. This is what we have for the 2026 school year just so you're all aware. Actually, miss Hinton suggested maybe it would be easier to get it to you on one page versus us going all the way through it today and so that's why this is here in front of you. Can you please email these two things or upload them in the board books?
Sure. We can, do whichever you prefer. Do you want them uploaded in board books or emailed to you? Or both? It doesn't matter to me. You just don't wanna lose this. Just do both. You can't. We'll do both. Very nice report. Thank you. Thank you. Mister Soli? Good evening, everyone. You had a great day in Hazel Park today. Lots of good discussion on budget and moving forward. One thing we we started with dis discussing, you know, what is what is the process that is is underway? And based on research, they're saying you need to do planning.
So really today, in the last few weeks was the planning part of getting ready to train the district on zero based budgeting. It's that planning that many districts fall short and you're off to a good start today. The planning will continue until January 15 when the documents are released from the business office to begin the next step of getting input from buildings. The next piece is the preparation of the budget which takes two to three months
and will take you into May when there'll be a joint meeting with the board and the administrators. So there's good understanding on a budget proposal at that point. That will be after a lot of discussion, working with the budget to get it into into balance when it's initially out of balance. Once you adopt the budget by June 30, the monitoring process starts right away. Monitoring that budget is critical month by month.
I mean, the board understand and administrators understand what the budgets are and where they're coming in. And we know that, life is not perfect in the the state of Michigan in in budgeting land, in finding, the state budget adopted so late. It's getting very difficult to work with the federal government on their commitments to school districts as well. So the budget amendment is gonna be critical going forward once those additional facts come in. So when you adopt your budget by the June, there's gonna be a lot that
isn't known, but there's still a lot that is known at that point. So then in talking with, the staff, we had good turnout. We had three sessions before this one. This is a session where we're gonna gather your input and record it up here if you have anything to add to what has been developed under the goals and decision making considerations. But if you have to explain why why do this, here are the big points. It's a conversation about your needs. We're talking about the needs of every employee and the community.
It helps fund your strategic plan. I know you're gonna be starting a new strategic plan this year and that that's great. But your strategic plan from the past is still in still in place. Your influence counts. So everybody that attended one of the meetings today had a had a chance to to say something, and and a lot of it ended up in the document you're gonna gonna look at. Every budget line has a job. It'd be critical that administrators understand the budget lines, not just big totals, but the budget lines and what is in there.
We've learned that you need to look at that every single year. It's gonna help minimize budget to actual, the variances that we've talked about. When you get to the end of a a year and your audit comes in, you want that actual figure to be close to what the budget was that that you adopted. So you've had some swings in the past. I expect this is gonna be reduced because of this process. It's gonna help shore up district sustainability. Every one of these that we have worked with over the years, because they're looking
at line by line in all of the reasons for why we should be expending money, it shores up those expenditures that have been carried over year after year after year. So no longer will the the rollover budget be something that you will expect to see. It would be a line by line justification through the zero base process. It's gonna help shore up that sustainability of the district so that you're not worrying about where you are in con in conjunction with a fund balance policy that is
gonna help you. It's gonna help develop leaders. This is what the superintendents that I've worked with have said more than anything for our people, our principals that are gonna be central office folks, maybe superintendents. It helps develop them because they're going to understand that budget very well after this process. It provides transparency. You'll be able to see more about your budget and the details that is behind the budget than you ever have, and you'll hear about those updates as it develops. It's gonna provide the input for the final budget recommendation that goes to the board
from the superintendent. It's the superintendent's job to recommend. However, the business office and all the administrators are her support to help bring a budget that is gonna be the best recommendation for the district. It includes GFOA research. I've talked with you with you about that before. And when you combine that with zero based budgeting, it's the strongest budget process that's out there and that's available. So that's the backup. That's that's the discussion we had with, why do it with the administrators and the
employees today. Their input was was excellent, as good as I have seen anywhere. We're gonna go through this is a draft version of what what was prepared. It's gonna go through some modifications. But we we start by talking about the vision, your mission, your beliefs that are already in place. This becomes a part of the the document that your new budget should be based upon. When you have your new strategic plan completed, that will be a new chapter, and it'll have a whole new look for the succeeding year.
It includes a part defining the difference between rollover budgeting and zero based budgeting. And off on the right, it's mainly talking about starting with a clean slate. We're gonna examine cost and benefits, new approaches. Just because you've done something one way year after year after year doesn't mean that's the way you should continue. And look for different levels of service. So what are those levels of service? And I've talked to you about that that before. What is absolutely critical? What is gonna be necessary to continue on with what you're doing?
And what are those wishes that might be out there in a year or two? The cost centers We had good input from, Monica in the business office. They prepared these. I think these are great. It makes sense. And we can see that business and human resources are together in the same line. We want those two departments to talk together very well, and they do already. The superintendent board of education are on the same line. Those two stakeholders have to be critical in in working together.
It's very, very important. And then the other cost centers. The the the last one, we just heard the report on. As a person coming in, we really didn't understand that. As of today, with Monica's help and everybody else's, those alternative programs, it has been said they have really helped the finances in the district. And you saw the dollars today, so that was the first time we've seen it. But that all needs to be a part of the discussion and everything here part of the discussion going forward. Next, we ask, what do you believe the budget development goals ought to be?
I'm not gonna read all of these going forward, but I'm I'm gonna hit some of these these bigger picture ones. The cost centers with a strong focus on monthly review and understanding of all district budgets. So it's important that the cost center leaders, the principals, the other individuals involved, and their secretaries understand the cost centers. They're actually gonna propose what's in their their budget in their cost center, and they're gonna understand it. And the desire is that they'll be able to monitor it.
You don't have a system up yet that is gonna allow them to monitor, but we'll need to have that in place. Develop a budget through a zero based process. One of the main points that came out early on was the daily activity accounts, and I heard this for ever since I started here. They're they're just a difficult area to get a handle on. So we're suggesting your people are suggesting through this process, let's have a real look
at that accounting so it doesn't to consume us, and you know what those dollars are as it goes through the year. Understand each school's budget including the details, and that's what I I mentioned a little while ago. We need all the cost center leaders working and looking at monitoring these these these budgets that they will develop some ownership for. Don, are you saying that this was our principals today who are seeing this? I didn't hear your question. Saying that this was from our principals today saying all this?
I'm sorry. Are you saying that all of this stuff up here is from what you met with our principals today? Yep. Today. It is. Everything in this document is what we heard from the principals. So we've not quote everything here. And again, this is a draft. This is a draft, and it's really good input from your people, though, on moving forward. We heard also there's good three to four year planning for capital outlay and other areas. There was a request that title one and title four have some additional review and
discussion as a part of the process. So those are the top goals plus what I just mentioned a minute ago. Then the next piece is decision making considerations. You know, how do you look at each piece and make decisions on the areas such as personnel, supplies, capital outlay, etcetera. But before we go to that, let's go back to the budget development goals and see if you have some input that you would like to have considered as a
part of this process. So our principals are saying that they want to deal with the budget and everything themselves. I just see how hard they work. I just like, I feel like our finance department does that for them because our principal should not be doing that. This whole process is based on principal involvement and cost center involvement and proposing their budgets and monitoring their budgets. So if that's not something that the board is endorsing, then then this process isn't for you. I believe they should know. I just don't believe that they should be having to do all this extra work
on top of everything they already do when we have a finance department that's supposed to be doing this. Well, once once they're involved in this process, what I've learned from Bay City and many others, they would never wanna go back because they feel like they can control their their own destiny and make recommendations that will be heard and included in budgets. So is there any other feedback on anything else that you'd like to add? I I have a quick question to follow-up on hers. They're not doing the whole budget. They're just doing their portion of the budget. Correct?
They're just doing their own cost center. So it's it's like a bank. If if you had branches at a bank, each branch would would want to submit a budget proposal. This is this is what my branch would like to accomplish. So if if you view it in that fashion, and the budget is so hard to understand, your many, many lines that total up to 50 or $60,000,000 It's hard for one person to really understand that. That's why breaking it up into cost centers, we have 15 or 16 cost centers,
starts to make it manageable and understandable for everybody involved. When you're referring to somebody as a cost center leader, who is that? That would be a principal. It would be, if it's HR, it'd be the HR director and your your business official. And in some of the other ones, whoever is the supervisor in charge of whatever those areas were that we listed. Whoever's the leader, those are the leaders. So are you asking them, say, say it's an elementary.
Say it's something that maintenance needs. You're saying that they need to know that and not our buildings and grounds? No. Buildings and grounds is gonna be a department of its own. It's a cost center of its own. So So they only have to worry about so, like, I'm I'm trying to say they need new lawnmower. Our principals aren't gonna have to deal with telling you they need a new law more. No. No. They're they're pretty clear delineation on, you know, who who does what. So you're you're building a grounds leader. We'll propose and monitor his own budgets, but there'll still be need to be good
conversation with the principals. Otherwise, how would he know what is is needed within a building? So I've been involved for years, and this is how it used to be. The Mhmm. The the principals had a budget, and they knew exactly what they were operating. So if they had student over the month, they would have a line item that said student over the month, and so they could buy me breakfast. They weren't constantly having their nose in the budget, because you kind of learn it, like, I have 200 left under Student of the Month, or I have 500 left
under Supplies. And so, they did it all the time. So it became it was a system. It became a habit. And then they knew this way, to me, it's not organized. It's like, well, I need this in my school, but I don't know if there's money in that category. So, to me, it isn't anything new. I think it's just more organized. It's just how business is done, so that the leaders, you know, have their fingers fingertips on what the budget is and and they can monitor it.
And and if we go back to that daily activities, that activities account, the problem is nobody knows what that is or where it stands unless they make a telephone call. So being able to monitor that, were you know, was suggested. These are not my suggestions, but it was suggested that, you know, let's get that understood so people can move on and not have to deal with that level of detail. So I think where some of our hesitancy comes in is and we weren't part of the meeting today, so we certainly aren't privy to any of the, you know,
conversations that took place or what the level of buy in was. But over the past, probably, four to six weeks, the overwhelming feedback from our building administrators has been this is they're not asking for this. They don't want this. They don't want to take on the work of a daily budget. They don't you know what? A student of the month is one thing. Monitoring their their staff and, you know, like, the the meat and potatoes of what is happening in their building is something that they have just, like, they're tearing their hair out and saying, we don't have time for this. This is why we have a business office.
We depend on them to handle this for us. So there's you know, I I think having these as budget development goals is one thing, but, you know, we're getting we're getting some really significant pushback from people that are saying, this is a lot. And and I think that at least acknowledging that this is very difficult for them and that they are taking on a huge, huge task that they have not typically had to deal with on top of everything else that they have going on in their buildings. It you know, we're hearing today, this was their feedback.
But out in the community, when we're seeing them, or when we're in their schools, or when we're in in conversations with them, they are saying, this is not our feedback. We don't we did not say this. So, you know, if this is what we're doing, this is what we're doing. I mean, we've it's we've been told it's happening. They've been told it's happening. But where for for their sake, where is the the support or the conversations about their buy in or them understanding who they can turn to when this becomes overwhelming
and they don't have the ability on any given day to go through this? Who like, what what are we putting in place for them that is going to make this manageable? Because we're demanding it, and they're telling us, please don't do this. Well, first and foremost, the board and superintendent need to support this process. If it's I'm not asking about supporting the process. I'm asking where in here is there something put in place to support them. Well, I'm I'm gonna tell you that. I'd like to respond. This is something that I'm hearing now.
I've not heard this from, principals at all. This is first time hearing this, and I think you met with them today, and you gathered their input. This was their input. And if they didn't like it, they should have told you. There there was, all of our principals were not here today. I I believe it's a workshop, and I believe that it's okay for me to respond, and your hand should not go up to ask me to stop. Excuse me, but this is the board's meeting? I do remember MASB eight. It's a committee of eight. And it is a board of seven that was elected by people.
It's leadership of eight, but it's an elected board. Can we have people that were in the meeting today that are able to give us feedback about it. I think we owe it to them to give it to us. I have Can I I would like to hear his answer though though? Yeah. I'm I haven't been able to answer. I know. That's what I'm saying. I'd like to hear your answer. So in working through this with every district, at first, there's always some wondering what what is this all gonna be about. It's the business office that is gonna be the liaison with all of the personnel when there are questions on this.
I'm also gonna be available by telephone or email to anyone once the process starts rolling. And how do you how do you deal with this? It's actually kind of a fun process because you get to sit down and decide, you know, what do we really want to do? How do we want to be successful cost center so that we can move forward? There are those supports that will be in in place once it rolls out on January 15. For those that weren't able to make it today, the high school principal was gone
and a few others. I plan to schedule a Zoom meeting next week that'll go over what we have collected here from your employees and ask if they have any additional points. So this is not a done document. It's it's in process yet for a couple weeks until the process starts. By January 15, I would expect the document to be completed and move forward. There's gonna be some tweaking, some language improvements that were put together today that needed
a little more additional thought. What is your pricing for phone calls or Zooms still the same? I didn't hear that. Your pricing for phone calls and Zooms if we need support. It's all covered in the agreement. You know what the agreement is. Now we can have a productive, conversation here or we can stop. And I think you wanted to improve your budget process and your financial outlook. This is what is going to help make that happen. Every district we have done this in has been successful, have moved forward, and they state we would never go back to another process that we've done before.
So I'm gonna move forward. If you have input, you can send it to me, on those goals. But let's let's hit the decision making considerations. So on programming, can you all see that? Are you able to read that so I don't have to read it? K. So this was a point about analytics. Analyzing student academics. You have this in place. It's continuing that. A good recommendation, inventory curricular materials before ordering additional items, and be intentional.
So this is pretty true in every school district. Sometimes we have materials and inventory, and we keep continuing it and continuing, and it maybe needs to have a look. And to that point, academic return on investment is a part of this that can be employed by certain members of of your organization to help look at what is effective and what is not. And that that isn't effective ought to be sunset.
So a specific example on on this one. If you you're gonna be buying a brand new text offering and you can do some research that says one is 10% more effective than the other one and the cost is fairly close. You know which one to buy. So it's that academic return on investment that we're gonna be able to get back or not get back. Programming. Here's the sunset options. Strategic abandonment is my my term. We can provide them with the tools if that's an area that, needs to be
explored. Transparency reporting and metrics. Then the personnel section, is is critical. It's 80% of what you do, but it's really important. We wanna handle it right. We want you to handle it right. These were the considerations that were brought forward today. This would all be part of the discussion as the meetings unfold after budget presentation by the cost centers to become part of your general fund budget. These are all You mentioned those online analyzing online tools. Is that something that you help put in place?
Or is that something that exists that will decide? No. That's something that exists Okay. That that you would continue. So it's good work. A lot of this is good work. It's continuing reemphasizing. Thank you. Very good update. Didn't have any numbers, but now we now we can understand that that is a significant piece of how you're going to balance your budget going forward, whether you continue it or not. Understand employee compensation and benefits. Everybody here ought to understand it as you're entering into negotiations. It it's everything in your budget balancing process.
We surely want to make sure that your conversation is treating employees fairly. But understanding what the cost is now, with retirement cost in there and the health insurance, it's significant now. It has to be managed. It's it it's it's significant now. It has to be managed. Professional development. Discuss the MSBO participation. It it's a highly quality, respected program, and it's needed by your business people. And more than more than only business office, building and grounds, IT, payroll, etcetera, on
and on. Lots of certifications that can really help your district in the long run. Good information on supplies, purchase services, and how does how to allocate, bidding. There's that take inventory before you budget. There might be something on the shelf where you don't have to spend the money. Capital outlay was a really good good discussion, kinda getting a handle on what is out there. You know, what do you already know? What don't you know? What needs to be gathered?
And you've got a lot of good three year plans that are in place that have had good progress, but it needs to be a part of this discussion. Because what will happen is your general fund can take very little capital outlay. You have to look at other sources. So you have another source, which is your sinking fund, But you also need to be looking at what are other options out there, such as a bond issue that is gonna meet all of these unmet needs. So understanding all of that, looking at some past work you did, you had unmet
needs of a $180,000,000, facility assessments, look at the set seg insurance company reviews, consider the roofs. There's a state assessment that's been done that looks at just the infrastructure, so we have some new data on that. Furniture always tends to be a lower priority item, but it it needs to be scheduled so that furniture replacement is current and safe. And then some other categories that were mentioned, this this isn't all of them by any means, but, you know, having those good lists of turnover over years, how you're
gonna phase in purchases. Grant, I explained that the revenue discussion is important as the expenditure. I have always spent as much time on revenue and looking at how can we increase revenue as I have on monitoring expenditures. There are lots of things you can do, but it has to be intentional. Your people came up with some good ones. Once we get it cleaned up with new language after next week's, yeah, you'll get this. And and, it's probably something the board should adopt in January once a final document
is put together. Last one is a good, good question. You know, do some analysis on why students are coming to the district and why they're leaving. Financial integrity is always my, my strong one. I always want to see a strong district that is going to be sustainable. So these are some some points that are included in there. This is what we're doing transparent, user friendly, budget process, long term planning.
After this is completed in a year from now, we would be scheduled to do a long range financial projection for the district. There are very few districts that have this. It would be a minority. But with where your trajectory is right now, it's it's highly recommended for you. Help people understand school finance. A lot of people don't understand it. And one of the points that came out today is people don't know that there are different sources of funding such as sinking fund, bond issues.
Many people that don't look into this would think everything comes out of one pot, but it doesn't. And there are things in the general fund that you can't do and that you're not ever gonna be able to pay for a $180,000,000, improvement of building. So, you know, this financial revenue side is very important. Getting people to understand, getting the public to understand school finances, all part of, working with the community. I I like the last one here. Monitor and watch pennies.
There's the sinking fund, understand, explain the benefits of being sustainable to the community. One thing that's gone all the way through this is every dollar has a job. So if you have a a budget that has 2,500 or 5,000 lines in it, every single line needs to have a reason to be there. If it's just rolled over from year to year to year, that thinking may have been determined twenty, thirty years ago, and it may not even make sense to have
a line that is rolled over, rolled over, rolled over. So looking at every line through this process, you get to a point in in April and it's not balancing, that's the time to look at every single line in your budget. Timelines. Here we are today, December 1. Had some great conversations, and Monica kicked off some of the items that need to be brought to the board. We've got a few more that are listed here. We now have the state aid that has has started, and we can look at
that and understand the costs that are there and the the MPSERS. I'm not gonna go through this line by line, but then going through the next couple months, January 15 is starting of the the actual process, then the cost centers in January, February start working together We'll have some periodic Zoom meetings and anybody that is a call center leader can can certainly, join that, would be encouraged to join
it to see if they have any questions. By, by the February meeting, they pretty feel pretty comfortable, because they know exactly what's what to expect. And these dates are not set yet, but these would be the presentations, to the financial leadership team of the cost centers. This has not been resolved, but that's a sketch of what it might look like. And then going through March, April, and May, our meetings to help resolve any budget
variance, any budget imbalance rather. And then the meeting that I talked about, the board of education and administrators worked together in a joint budget workshop right here. Preliminary budget presentation and and amendment of the current year and then adoption. Anything that you think ought to be considered, ought to be added to this at this time. And I'll I'll write down if anybody has any more input. Otherwise, we'll take this and continue to refine it. We'll get some more input next week from people that were not able to attend,
and then we'll start to finalize that document by the December. Anything that isn't in here that that you'd like to see? Anyone? Well, I just have a question. You know, there's all these cost centers, and I I understand that, you know, this has not been done as a my hand. This has not done been done in eight years. It has in the past with zero waste budgeting and being responsible for your buildings, expenses. And I understand that process can be scary, but the principal should know what they're
spending. They should know what's going on in their building. It is their responsibility to do so. Can they get assistance from the business office? Absolutely, they can. They probably get help from the HR department, giving them the insurance rates, giving them the wages of the teachers, and all of those. Having a budget is not a bad thing. And I think some people on this board think that it is, and I think that we're moving in the right direction. Just like superintendents and the board were under one budget.
So that budget is gonna consist of the superintendent's wages, the compensation Of $40 a month that we get. We can discuss as a board how much we wanna allocate per board member on training and all of that. This is a good thing. This is not something we've done in the past. We've just said, okay. We're just spending this money with no accountability of it. The t staff and teachers don't know what they're allowed to spend on class supplies.
Most of our teachers are buying their own class supplies. That's just absurd. We should give them a budget saying, okay. You have x amount of dollars to spend for your classroom. You you over that, that's all your personal expenses. But we don't do that. So there's no accountability. So I really appreciate everything you've done, Don. I'm gonna clarify something too, and I'm glad you brought that up. The if you're a principal, you're not gonna have to look at the actual dollars that are spent for benefits and and and salaries.
Not at this point. That's a business office function. So it's not as complex as you might think. The way we're dealing with compensation is it's FTEs. So we're looking at the full time equivalent, let's say, in an elementary building. Let's say it's it's 20 FTEs, and we're saying, what is the recommended FTE for the succeeding year, for the new year? So it it's not like you have to get mired in in all of those doctor dollars. That that is a business office function that will be handled later.
So this process is gonna talk about FTEs, but it's gonna talk about some of the things that that you mentioned, specific items that need to be budgeted. Banned supplies, athletic equipment. Anything that runs the general fund that's of a significant amount, we'd want a proposal saying this is what we need for saying this is what what we need for this exceeding year. And the proposals will will be will be required. It's it's just part of the process. Is there anything else that anyone would add to what what we have seen here
as far as the parameters or the big picture goal? I agree with most all of that up there that they actually had questions that I have that that they brought forward. And I I think it's unfortunate. I I understand the scary part that it's brand new. However, it should make this better for children that they're they know how much money they have, how to spend it, to be more organized instead of guessing in the dark or trying to get an answer back that might take a couple days that
they need to purchase. I just think it's better all the way around, and the kids benefit. It's sad to hear that they would be so against it. And maybe as we move along, you know, there's more buy in. But I was wondering also how many people came today? I don't I don't need to know the school. I mean, just a note. The last the last session was very well attended. We're probably 25. The prior session was secondary, and that was a really good discussion. That was And then the elementary was quite large too.
So we have a really good sample of your Already. Of your individuals. And those administrators that weren't able to attend, you know, we'll have a Zoom talk with them sometime next week, and still keep the door open. The door the door is open on this. This is just a planning step moving into the actual budgeting. This is not the budgeting, but it's planning. Did you give out a survey? No. No. This was the discussion and the This was the discussion. Yep. This is Okay. We generally start with a discussion and develop a document.
You know, there are hardly any districts that you will see developing that planning document. So this is what has really made this process strong because you get the input. What do you think you want to see in your budget? And, what are the parameters in making decisions? There's there's a book that I sent to to Amy that discusses better budgeting. It's all about involving people in your organization. It would probably be a good book for the entire board to look at. And, I can I can send you the contact information for that if you're interested?
But it really it's written by a superintendent. It was very positive in involving the people. And it helped develop them as leaders going down the road. What was the name of it again? Better Budgeting. Better Budgeting. I can send you the exact exact name and and title and where to find it. It's available on on Amazon. I know you said you were gonna send us this when you clean it up, but is there any way you can send this one too? Because you kinda went through it super fast, and I tried to write down as much as I could, but I would still like to go through this.
And if I have questions, I'd be able to email them to you. I mean, it was fast, but if I have suggestions, I would like to. Or the board probably would like to as well. Intended to be a workshop. I understand, but we are paying you to do this, and I would like that information as well to go through it. Yeah. I'll I'll send it to the district, and you can do what what you want. Thank you. And put a word wrapped on it because it's still in the process. Any other last minute comments on this process as it moves ahead? Thank you very much. I was like, I don't need anything.
Okay. Thank you so much. Alright. Now you have the MTSS presentation. I think it's, doctor Papazian. It is. I'm actually gonna start and it's actually the student system of support. And, what's pretty exciting about this is that this has been a vision that we've been working on for ten years, really going back about talking about student care. And that, we have to wrap all these services around so what you're gonna hear today is how we really started to present how we bring not only the academics
but the mental health, the safety, threat assessments, and all of that together in one piece, to gather data about what's happening in the schools. And so I'm really excited. I'll probably jump in a few times here, but I'm really proud of the work that, is happening out of our community schools office and our special ed office and teacher learning to bring all of this together. So Doctor. Paz. Alright. So I think in the last presentation, there was a lot mentioned about involvement and collaboration. And this is really, you know, a project that comes from the heart in the
culture of this whole community because so many people have put their hands into this and and given input and put, you know, their blood, sweat, and tears into these projects that we're gonna talk about tonight, that have become part of our culture and have become what's our reality here for students? So I'm really excited. This is a very, bird's eye view, high overview of our student system of support. It can be very, very detailed when you get into the weeds of it.
But the most important part here that we're gonna look at today is that that overview of what we are offering students and how we are supporting them, in in several facets of their education. So today, we're gonna take a look at, really what is the student system of support and what our community demographics are at this time, our work in Portrait of a Learner and community schools, the work we've done in school safety, health and wellness,
our ac our academic support, and then finally, a round up if you have any questions. So this is really small. I'm gonna give you a a printed copy of this because for your reading pleasure at home. But our student system of support is really a conglomeration of many, many things. And each one of these topics has large groups, large teams of people collaborating and working on putting this together. So, we have community schools and miss Grace Lee does our community schools work along
with many others. School safety, mental health, work on out of school time for our students, teaching and learning, special education, preschool services, and alternative ed. And as you've heard tonight, it really integrates into that budget component where it all intertwines and is very rooted together on how we can best serve students. And not one single area or pillar takes precedence. It's it's the conglomeration.
It's the group of these things working together hand in hand to really make what we do unique and special. So for our community demographics, Carla, do you have it up? I have it on my computer. Yeah. Would you mind kind of going through the screen? Because I can't see that far. That's okay. Our, city count census was 14 almost 15,000. 14,983 people. Household income was 59,576.
Employment rate was at 63.7%. Percent without insurance was 9%. Median age was 37.2. The English or the language, it's ninety percent point seven 90.7% English, 3.3 Spanish, 2.3 Indo European. Asian is 1.3, and other is 2.4. Education level, we have 36.1% at high school, 29.3%
with some college, 17.8% with a bachelor degree, and advanced degrees are 4.7%. Population 18 is 16.7%. Family makeup is married household families, 30%. Male household families are 29.9, and female household families are 29.6. Ethnicity is Native American, 76. It's not percentage. I was a little thrown off by that.
76. I was like, 76%. Asian, two forty five. Black African American, eighteen fifty one. Hispanics, six fifty four. White, 11,335. Other multiple races, 1,315. And violent crimes, was 248, and that was for 2,023. So in our community demographics are important as we watch this, we're able to really take a step back and think about what our students need and what what the
basic outlay of this community really is. Interestingly enough, we have to take into perspective many of our, school of choice students, are do not fit in this box of what is Hazel Park right now, and it does change from year to year. I can share with you just from our own, information that we are pulling in. A lot of our students that we're seeing now, we have a much higher level of special ed education students than we've had in many years.
That isn't just Hazel Park. That's Oakland County. That's the state of Michigan. That's nationwide. And we're seeing a different group of eligibilities also. So, our students with autism spectrum disorder is increased. Our students with cognitive impairment has increased. And we are seeing a bit of a decline in the major eligibility of speech and language, probably because more students are coming in with autism, and so that's their secondary eligibility. So we do watch these things very closely, and we monitor them so that we're
are ensuring that we have the appropriate supports available for our families. Can we stop here for a second? Of course. Where is this data coming from? Is this, data that is done by a survey? Is this Census data? Census data? Perfect. So, weire going to start today a little bit, and Doctor. Wilcox, you might want to step in on this one, because I know this is your your passion project, the portrait of a learner. And our portrait of our learner here in Hazel Park is there's been a lot
of work on it so thus far. And really, it's those six pillars or six components that we look at: attendance, economics, mental health, safety, out of school time, and the community. And what can we do to build our learners and create a portrait of what we want our students to walk away from Hazel Park Schools with. This is our our new graphic and Doctor. Wilcox will let you. And as you know, you approved this graphic. And really the next step is to say, how do we carry this out and
our plans about who we are and what we do? And so, what do we need to do in order to help our students be adaptable, have good conflict resolution, empathy, critical thinking, and communication. And our hope would be that the work that the community did on this would then carry over into our strategic planning process with MASB that will start in January. It really is the census of when we think about we have a graduate, what do we want them to look at in order to be successful? So a lot of hard work was on this.
I'm really proud of, what we've done, and I really look forward to that strategic plan that'll bring it through. But in order to get there, we know that the student system support has to happen. I can't tell you how many students we see, meet with, hear about on a daily basis that have so much, needs greater than just academics. We can't get to the academics until we can help facilitate these needs. And it's not just those kids, it's their families as well. And so this, system of support, will continue to evolve and even be more powerful.
So, I'm excited as we carry this forward. Okay. I got it. Yes. So, the Community School Model is a nation national model, with the four pillars. And basically, this is where we, are looking at not only the child, but the family to make sure that there are no barriers to a child coming to school, maybe mental health, make getting resources for children for mental health or, helping with, food
insecurity or all those things that might prevent a child from learning or coming to school. We try to step in in community schools to take on those kinds of things. The four pillars, we do extended day learning and, or extended learning because it's not just the day. So after school tutoring, we're involved with clubs and, also summer programming. And in some schools, and I think it'll increase, is opening up our schools on the weekend, especially during the winter when kids are shut up and, in their houses
and need to, kind of, get out and run. We have beautiful gyms. We have beautiful places for them to use. So, extended learning not only happens after school, but during the summer and on the weekends. Community engagement is, another pillar that we, do in community schools. And that is where the resource fair comes. We took on the, Hometown Huddle, build up the park, all those parent university nights that we do.
We've increased those this year. We got the information from parents. We said, what do what do you all wanna know? You know, what can we bring to you? And so once we got that information, we built our, parent nights, which gives them a night out. They get dinner. They get their children fed. They get childcare. And then, they also get to spend adult time learning something. Doing home visits and, like math and reading nights and science nights and all of those things all kind of fall under, the community engagement.
We also, in one school, and United Oaks has been doing a family, a family field trip. That's when we've gone to Hazel Camp Hazel Woods. Also, we've gone to the Cranbrook Science Center and taken families there. And they ride the bus and we, you know, pay for tickets to get in. And it's kind of fun for the families to do that. Again, something we'd like to extend to the entire district. Our wrap around services, are about housing and food and transportation and clothes and hygiene
products. And, you know, United Way is a big part of that. Also, the Ballmer grant that we have is a big part of that. We are now part of Transition to Success, so we're actually gonna have some Oakland County community health workers starting on the December 3. And, they've already helped us. I've called in for some families in need where, you know, fire has been, a big issue this year. And, we were able to, between them and us, be able to provide food, a
place to stay, clothing. We we put out information and said, hey. You know, we need we need cribs or we need this and the community has come together. So we're kind of the hub, for all of that and I organize that, but it's the people out there, the resources that really help us with these families. Another thing that is a pillar is collaborative leadership. So we have a group of people that get together and talk about, you know, building up the park and, the HB Coalition, Youth Assistance, Promise Zone, also PTAs and
our Community Engagement Team. When we get together, we talk about, you know, what what kinds of things should we do and how can we support our families? I do wanna say, I'm gonna put in a plug, we're doing the ribbon cutting on Longfellow Community Center, tomorrow evening at six. So that's my plug for that. And I'm very excited. Does anyone have any questions? I just wanna mention, I think it's important for everyone to know that this is all done with grants, with grant dollars. Ballmer has given us $1,200,000 to carry this on as well as United Way did
through Ballmer before that and our summer learning program is supported by Ballmer. And so the, things that are above and beyond instruction in the classroom are are provided by outside philanthropic opportunities that believe in these processes and programs, to be put in place. Oakland County are bringing these health workers in with grants from Ballmer as well into Oakland County and, this is being mirrored also in Southfield. We are the two, districts that have been picked to pilot this in Oakland County.
I know I came in late, but I do wanna say thank you to Carla and your team because I have watched, especially the past week, my house filled with diapers and cribs and so much support and formula and food and, like, it was unreal what you guys came up with in, like, a day. So you're here at Brooks, so thank you. Thank you. Thank you to your other navigators. It is amazing what you're doing. Thank you. Anyone else? Okay. Thank you. Okay. It's a great report. So oh, there's more. Oh, you're good. Where's the horn? So we have a portrait of a learner, and we have school community schools.
And and kind of, another pillar of this is school safety that we work very diligently on, take very seriously in Hazel Park Schools. And we have a a nice size a sizable team, that represents not only our schools, but our nurses and our, some other folks from grounds and maintenance and technology that really have a part in the school safety component. So there's basically four areas that we focus on: the secu security component, the safety,
nursing services, and our training and prevention. I'd like to link this back even to Mr. Sobeys' presentation, where he talked a lot about professional development, and we have worked really hard to attend those state conferences with the state police and, those agencies so that we're aware of all of the up and coming things. And as a parent, now my children have moved out, but as a parent, I hear some of these things that they're teaching us in professional development, and it's just
it invokes fear in me as a teacher, as a parent, that there's a big digital world out there that we have to really be sure we protect our students, support our students, and provide safety for them. So in for security, we have our school resource officers. You know that we have two. We have our security team. We have the Centeget system, which I know doctor Wilcox will go through a little bit in the next presentation. We have and I put an asterisk, the temperatures.
We still have those, and they are functioning when you walk into the building if someone has a temperature. I when I worked with Kevin last year, he ran very warm, so every time he walked into the building, the alarms were to point off. We also have, visitor management and, our metal detectors. I should probably bring my glasses next time. I apologize. But I have seen those things in action. The metal detectors, I will tell you, at the high school, it is pretty seamless.
Those students are amazing. They know the system. The security guards are there, and it is a seamless system of them moving through nice and quick. For safety, we have the district safety team. Avert. Yeah. I'll read them for you. You can explain them. Thanks. Avert. The EOPs, the GoBags, and the KIPP teams. Okay. So just to touch on that a little bit, because I know doctor Wilcox will go into detail on some of those things, but I can speak specifically to the KIPP teams, and that's key identified personnel.
So, if there's a student that's dysregulated or in crisis, we actually have teams in the building that are able to go in. They have a mental health professional, a building leader, and always, we're trying to get someone who is familiar with the student so that we can really work proactively to get that student regulated and back to learning. I am honored this year to be working closely with the nurses, and I have to tell you I I really, really enjoy working with them. It's it's a nice another braided, integrated kind of thing to work with special ed
and nurses, five zero four plans, and safety. But in our nursing services, we have our health care plans. And I will say that PowerSchool has been amazing just with the tracking of that and the accessibility at the school level so that teachers and administrators can easily access a student's health care plan, to ensure their safety. We are heart safe schools, and we're working on that as we speak. There's gonna be a team in each building. We use the team's initiative, and that is working with local pediatricians, working with the
health department to identify any illnesses that are local and on the rise. There's also a component of anxiety and depression in that campaign that not only helps our our teachers and our students, but that also informs our public, which you'll start seeing things coming out for that. First aid and CPR training and the AED training, which our staff get, and our nurses work very diligently to ensure that they're all there and ready to go.
We are still using Navigate three sixty for our threat assessments and suicide assessments. I will tell you we are a 100% trained on our mental health professionals' side. They are all trained and ready to roll this year. We have implemented the Cares Room again, and I am always amazed at your support of the Cares Room, where that's the Center for Academic and Restorative Education, where we're not suspending students for long periods of time. Instead, we're taking them into that room and utilizing restorative practices and academics.
We have a fantastic facilitator this year that's built some really strong relationships with kids. And you know what happens when that happens. They all wanna keep going to the care team because they love it there, but they have to get moved out into their classes. CPI training, that's our crisis prevention and UKRU, which you approved, I believe, two years ago. And that is for our very intense students in our center programs mostly, or our self contained rooms, where it's trauma training as well as some preventative training that they
use different blocking methods and blocking pads. And I will tell you, since we've implemented that, the staff has become so good at the trauma component of it that they don't use those pads as much as we thought they would initially. And restorative practices, where our administrators are all trained, and our teachers are initiating those circles in the classrooms and really taking on that component, of education. Our mental health continuum this is my my little baby here, and listen, I could
talk all day about mental health in schools and how to keep kids safe, but the big picture is we start with Savers. And Savers tells us who's at risk and what students we really need to target in that red and yellow zone. And for our over our overview of the schools, in every school, there's a PBIS team. That's positive behavior, systems that are implemented in the school, really rewarding the good stuff that's happening. And I will tell you, there are many schools that are so creative.
They come up with rewards, and one of my favorite ones is when they run around in the hallway, they get to do, like, a lap and a jog in the hallway. That happened at Webb when I was a principal at Jardine. And the kids, the students loved it. It was one of the laughing and the smiling, and that reward to them cost nothing, but it meant so much to them. So we have PBIS. Our social emotional learning is trails, which is out of the University of Michigan.
We're still implementing that. All of our social workers are trained in TRAILS, so they're able to do the cognitive behavioral therapy and the suicide assessments, which are kind of the tier two and three. But TRAILS itself is 25 lessons for mental health and wellness, that all of our students get in all of our schools. So it is really gauged to whatever age or grade that they're in, and teachers are trained to utilize that and teach that in their classrooms.
We have, I have to say, because miss Hunter is here in the audience today, she's done a great job as a social worker at the junior high in starting groups and having, like, a a nice room that's welcoming for students to come and and have these group conversations, social work groups. So our social workers are a key component key component in this mental health continuum. They're doing skills groups. They're all trauma specialists. They've been trained, so you might see their little certification on the bottom of their
emails. They're all trained in cognitive behavioral therapy, and they're they are working one to one with students. One thing we're excited about that is grant funded is in the elementary level, we have an additional social worker who travels through the elementaries. Mister Reynolds is his name, and the kids really adore him. But he focuses on just doing those groups at the elementary level. So he'll host a friendship class. He'll host, a working through your anger class, and that's at the elementary.
You're trying to really be proactive and teach them those skills early, so that they're ready to move into their older years and transition nicely. We are still working with Easterseals too, and that's that school community, collaboration where Easterseals comes in and offers therapy for our students. They have come in and done small group work. And as I said, I could go on and on and on. Can I interrupt you, professor? I have to I just have to say, if you have not seen missus Hunter's room though, you need to go see it.
She worked extremely hard to get tons of furniture donated. It's it's like a sense space. It's gorgeous, and I just thanks. So it's really nice there for those kids. It's amazing. Okay. Carly, you want to go over the teaching and learning one? This is, Doctor. Dalmidge's slide. I will take it for you. And I know that she's going to talk more next week when, she gets back about the graphs and learning and where that's happening and, she's worked very hard, but clearly right, our focus of teaching and learning, there's a beautiful three year plan.
We're really talking about having high quality core academics. We know that a majority of our kids are sitting in tier two and three, which means then we're still not getting tier one where we need it to be. So the continued work on tier one, we've seen we've seen in cohorts, I think you'll be able to see that how the reading is really and writing is starting to take a hold and the social studies took hold. This year, we're working on MASA. Hopefully, we'll start seeing some higher cohort movement on that as well. We're also looking at those high quality electives, world languages, STEM, PE, visual performing and
applied arts. You know, we've been, really well, those are where we're in the CTE, but the instruction also, we have instructional frameworks. We utilize equity inclusion frameworks to look at the materials that we're buying when we come to resources, and we really have been working on universal design for learning. And so we've had teams of teachers trained on that. We've had some workshops on that as well, and we hope to bring this through the whole school district. Our assessments, we, when we came ten years ago, we did not have universal screeners. So those have taken place now in benchmarking so that teachers are able to see
inside their classrooms or MTSS teachers, which is what we fund with our title one, are able to, utilize universal screeners and service kits. And then, of course, we do have the state and college board assessments AP as well. Our college and career readiness, you're gonna see that this week on Wednesday night. We hope that you guys will come. We have a we think we have about a 100 people that are gonna be there, where we're really gonna talk about our advanced placement courses and encouraging more people to take those courses, not just because you think that, you know, you want that
result, but to experience everybody should experience one AP course in their career, our dual enrollment, and you'll also see us roll out our early middle college next year, which I hear kids are super excited for. CT and school to work programs, our welding, our wood tech, our business dynamics and technology, and our Chrysler school to work. These are really great, and there's a task force that's happening in Oakland County around CTE and School to Work programs and bringing those into the early middle college realm over the next several years. So I'm gonna be excited to be a part of that committee as well. Our teaching and learning is really formulated well, and, you'll get to see some of
the analytics and datas that have been pulled together next week to show the growth that's happening in our schools. Are we still doing the fire academy? We sure are. The fire academy is there. I don't know. Is anyone attending this year? I don't think so. I don't think they are, but we still have one student that's still in it, but we brought it in last year, I believe, to present it to them, and just no one signed up this time. Oh. They'll go in cycles. Yeah. But we have one student that's actually in academy out, has finished ours, and moving on still. And I thought he would be really great to bring in for a presentation Yeah. About what's happening for him.
So I'll be excited for that. Okay. And this is our last slide. MTSS, this is all MTSS, right? This tiered system of support, and it's mental health, and it's safety, and it's the expectations set by a Portrait of a Learner, where our communities really have their voice. It's community schools where we're reaching out and wrapping our arms around those folks who who need assistance and support, and it's our academics. The MTSS specifically of academics is the component where we're almost to a place where
our students might need some higher level supports, but it takes your general ed student. I'm not sure who that is. I'm sorry. It takes our gen ed student, and it offers them tiered support along the way to really backfill any holes that they might have. Someone was talking It was the baby's medication provider. I'm so sorry. So all of our schools have MTSS support in them. Special Ed really integrates in the MTSS as we're watching those kids, those students to
ensure that they're reaching their goals, we're setting attainable goals, and we're really filling in holes where we should and can, with with different kinds of support. That's where we're using those screenings and those assessments and progress monitoring our students from elementary, from preschool, all the way through high school. We're giving them a tiered delivery system. So if they need more assistance, if they need more support, there's lots of rungs
on the ladder before we get to special ed, and we wanna make sure that they get those supports and those strategies. We are using research and evidence based intervention. Our board in Gillingham training just came out today, where we're having a lot of our elementary teachers step in and take that Orton Gillingham, which is a a really, really, foundational historically foundational practice and intervention used for students.
We're also using that data, meeting as building teams, coming together, determining what needs to be done, looking at each unique student, and making a path that's very unique for them, and the digital systems to support the coordination. That's that power school that oh, and I have to tell you, we now have a new little side part we can click on to identify at risk students daily,
and that's based on attendance and grades. And, I look at those top 10 every day just to make sure, that we're offering everything that we can do. And so when we look at all of these things together, and it's portrait of a learner and community schools, safety, mental health, academics, MTSS. There's so many parts, and it takes so many people to be on the team and involved in making all of these great things happen. That I'm this is something we are really proud of, and I think it's just
gonna grow as we become better at it and have more experience, have more people trained. It's just gonna grow and grow, and our system of support for students is really going to be unique to Hazel of support for students is really going to be unique to Hazel Park in its ability to offer really something outstanding that's far beyond just sitting in a desk. It's it's integrating academics with mental health and being safe and supporting your family. And it's it's really a very, very special project, way of life, culture that we've
been working on. I'm happy I got to share this with you tonight. I would also say it helps us not duplicate services. Mhmm. Because That's a good point. Yes. Because we're all we the, you know, child in the middle, and then we figure out where we're going to go with that. So we're no longer duplicating services, and, because we're all kind of working in the same in the same space. When we pull up PowerSchool Analytics and I have a student in my office and I don't know if you know, I've been going back and meeting with them thirty
days later in their building with those pieces. You can even dig down to see what interventions they've been given. You can see their back scores. I can see how long if they've been absent. You can see if they're on that at risk piece. And oftentimes, one of my partners are getting an email from me if something else is happening. And so it's the picture that we're able to get. I hope that we're gonna be able to start catching these students before they get to my office. That's the whole point. The whole point is that when we address, what's causing them not to learn, those behaviors and items go away around them, when we can get them to school.
There's some kids that are on that list right now that I was like, wow. I personally wanna reach out to these students that I know because they're seniors, and I'm concerned of what I see happening in that at risk scale that how do we just help them get over the over the hump. So it's it's a beautiful system, and, it's continually been evolving, since we got here and, it's a lot to be proud of. And I'd like to flip into the safety report if we could, which is super important. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you. It's a great report. Yeah. Right. We we I should thank Carla, Megan, and Stephanie who all have a piece of
this. We meet on a weekly basis to talk about our MTSS and how to continue to improve it. This this presentation, I hope Darren's watching us. Maybe he'll text and say, yes. He is because he wanted to kinda know about some of the safety items that we have in place. And so I I'm gonna dig in a little bit more into those safety items, for you. Many of you already know these, but I wanna make sure that you're well aware. So, you're really gonna let me do this? So first of all, our safety school safety EOPs. Meghan, myself, and Jimmy were able to go to the advanced school safety training by
the state police and, the state police has been office of school safety that I encourage you to take a look at, but each school district must have a safety EOP. We review our EOPs yearly even though it has to be every other year. We invite the Ferndale police, the Ferndale fire, to come in for our safety team to sit down as well so that we can look at the the EOPs. There's nothing secret about our EOPs, and so I will send this off to you, but it'll also be up there. There's building plans and classroom plans, and those are right on the school safety website
under the state police that you can actually see the format that's being recommended by the state police. Now the governor does have a school safety task force, and they will be officially designating and announcing what it is. But the state police have already come out with this website as well as, have sent it out as their, suggested format of way to do things. So our EOP plans are right there, but they're not filled out. So, you can just see that basic right out there on the school safety website. So those are for you to pull up, take a look at.
Every classroom has a plan. The principals do those, and every building has a specific plan that talks about who in their building, is CPR training. Maybe somebody speaks a language. Somebody's good at, running, so that they can go get somebody's designated to make sure they know where all the valves can get turned off in the building. I mean, it is that specific down, in the EOP plan. Yeah. Yeah. So You trust me? I trust you. So oh, I thought I trust her. So office, we adopted the standard response response protocol, several years ago through I love
you guys. The Michigan State Police and the state of Michigan have adopted the I love you guys. They actually, so you see all those posters that are around there. Really, all this is a standard operations. Their hope is that police, stations, communities, everybody adapts this so that you know exactly what it is. There's information online for our parents. I sent it out at the beginning of the school year to let them know, but it is scripted comments and statements about what we do and how we go about it. There is is even training to say, okay. We're gonna do a secure lockdown.
What does that mean? Get inside, lock all your doors, but I also want you out of sight and with the wind the lights off. So all of this is prescripted. We send it out to our teachers with videos. There's there to do it in the classrooms with the students. They don't like to hear this every year, but it's muscle memory. Muscle memory reminds us about safety in schools. This isn't only for some crisis. This is also for holding your rooms because we have several students that have, continued medical emergencies that they deserve the dignity to be in the halls by themselves if
an ambulance has to take them or somebody's having to work on them instead of having kids walk through the halls. And that's just a simply, we're gonna hold in our classroom, which means we're gonna be in there. You're gonna continue. Everything is normal. You're gonna teach, but you're not gonna come out, during that time period. And so these are all wonderful statements to go through here. The state police did a beautiful book that I gave to doctor Papazian because as we move through the next couple years, I'm transitioning all safety up and underneath her to lead and to grow that safety team. So this is fantastic. We also have okay to say, and we know that last year we had about
25 of them while I was gone. We've had about three this year. Two of them came in, when I was in meeting with, president Hinton and Darren, came in at the same time. But our students are knowing because they've been a part of this for the last about seven years of getting this training or conversation. They also have things on their badges. You cannot overuse okay to say for the appropriate reasons. This is for kids to report concerns. Kids to report concerns. When you say they have them on their badges, what do you mean by that? The students have it on their Badges.
IDs? Yes. On their IDs. As well as, suicide hotline, which is required as well. And you can see, as teachers, we have the protocol up and underneath so that if somebody announces that, I can look at my badge and go, oh, what did the lockdown mean? Oh, I know what I need to do now. So really keeping that safety protocol in place. I love that our kids know to do this. Sometimes our kids will reach out directly to myself or someone else. At the same time, someone's putting in a school safety call, and we had that recently happen when we had somebody making threats to the school.
Kids were texting, me on, on Facebook or whatever on up and underneath, whatever that is. And at the same time, that okay to say was calling my phone and giving information. That's a beautiful thing. That's what we wanted to work, and we never wanna discourage our kids from being a part of that. Then I usually call a principal about, who it is. Sometimes at night, I might call a parent. We call the police station or encourage people to go to the police station. This is a joint effort.
It was great to be at that conference with a couple other SROs, at the table and hear how other school districts are doing it, and, I think we've done a fantastic job with this. So we encourage our kids to to continue with okay to say. Syntegix. And I wanna play a video for you because I want parents to be able to see this as well. So we were one of the first adopters of Syntegix. You know, Rochester has come along with this as well. I think some others have it well. So this is much more productive than a radio because you don't have time to fiddle through a radio. This immediately brings people to you.
And I want you to be able to hear it because I want people to know what we're hearing when this happens. This goes to our computers. It goes to our phones. The first badge, you can hit this badge to say help is needed. That happens all the time. It could be a child is running outside. It could be that, we have a medical issue that's occurring, then we hit this badge. When you hit it eight times, it's a lockdown. We have had some lockdowns occur because they were in somebody's pocket and they were carrying things upstairs, or other things. But this is such a huge safety. It reaches out into our sports facilities as well.
So if we were at a football game and we needed assistance, we can hit this as well, and it would go to our SRO's phones as well as other administrators' phones. So it is really proven, to be wonderful. I wanna play this video because I want you to hear what happens even though some of you already have. I don't think we've presented this in the meantime. Okay. Let's see. And I'm leaving it up to her to get that video. Or let's see. Let's see what I can do here. Oh, nope. Nope. Go back. Brad, can you hit the video? It's on you. Maybe. Maybe not. You're doing something. I don't feel so bad.
It's we can't see it though. Alright. Hello. Franklin Middle School. Attention. This is a lockdown. Cover your door window. Lock works to your glass door doors that turn off the lights. Change your silence. Be prepared to move to them. Four four nine en route Franklin Middle School. I I I hope you were able to see a couple of things there. One, that beeping is what you hear oftentimes. It comes across on our phones and on our computers. We take a look I take a look down and I say, oftentimes, I know the normal offenders. Right? We know that it's it's not the eight times locking down.
We can see who it is. Then I can kinda say to doctor Papazian, hey. Did you notice this? Yes. And we will know kinda who that student is based on the school. The map comes up and we're able to see the map on our computers. The SROs have all of this as well. And so it's it's just a fantastic piece for us to know what's happening in our buildings and how often. You know, oftentimes when it happens at the junior high or high school, you can see based upon what they're moving if it's a fight or if it's a medical emergency. You can see how it's moving. It's easy for us to pull up our other cameras and kinda see actually what's
happening at that time. So it is pretty fantastic, but I did think you need to hear that beep beep because if you've been in my office or you're in a meeting, oftentimes you hear that go off and that's somebody that's crossing it. So do we have those alarms in the schools? Yep. They're right up here. That's No. No. No. It's No. It's all there. Right here. Yes. Right here. Okay. In there. Will the start blinking? Yes. It'll start blinking. Yes. And they turn different colors. Yes. And so the students know to look at those? Does it go over the PA system? Well, we're really gonna know that the teacher's gonna know what to do at that
point in time. And we practice things in the buildings, for lockdown and such or holds, but they they know based upon their teacher's directions about what they're thinking. I'm just I'm, like, those students were in hall passing Yes. At that time. So what happens if it's at a hall passing? Are they notified? Are the students notified? They're gonna hear it through the school, and teachers are gonna come out and pull them into the rooms, which is why it's important in each room. We have bags. In those bags have, counts of whose student are where, when, and why, and you
go to reunification To make sure during those reunification sites that you have all that information to make sure you're checking everybody through. That's also part of the I love you guys reunification piece that they have in place. And so all of these things work together to make it safe in our schools. That's also why those locks were so very important, right, to lock on the inside because our teachers go on the outside. And if there's two of the most important things, and they said it again at this training, and, Jimmy, I'm sure you can confer with me on that, is that's number one, locked doors on the outside of school and in classrooms.
Not putting little clips. I'll go off and times people got those wood things underneath and I walk by and I take their wood thing away because they like to leave their doors open. Keeping your doors closed, keeping them locked. The doors between rooms need to be closed and locked as well. And, also, having your badges on, having students have your badges on. The junior high and high school, any of us that come in should have our badges on at all times. I feel horrible when I forget mine at home, so I have to go back and get it because I feel like if I'm wearing it, you know, then it also sets the examples for everyone else.
But also using those check ins at the schools and the kiosks and making sure that when you answer the door, you say, hello. Welcome to Hazel Park Schools. Who are you here to see, and what kind of you know, what's the topic so that you're addressing that as well. So, go ahead and switch to the next thing. The other piece is is that the National Center for School Safety, we are a part of this, and just it's something that we joined through connections, and they came out and did an assessment of our safety practices that we have. So we had a a safety evaluation by Alliance, that was done through a grant,
and they came out for free. They were supposed to come out last winter, but we got them out this fall, and she gave us some helpful suggestions on things that we can do to continue to improve. And, we are continuing to focus in on those as well for safety. Go ahead. So just, a lot of these things Megan talked about, but the doors and the locks at the high school are enhancements you've done. Window blinds, you are supposed to keep windows up, blinds up at all times. That's a fire, safety issue. So if people need to walk around, they can see. You take those blinds down, when, a lockdown occurs.
Our metal detectors, I'm sure you're gonna hear from us, thinking about how we can move that on to the junior high as well. Safety assessments, which we've done, our visitor management, keeping doors closed, our heart safe certified schools, safety backpacks, stop the bleed kits in every single classroom, our AEDs that you've expanded on, our avert training, which is really kinda how to, you know, run hide fight kind of piece, threat assessment, suicide assessment, school resource officers. There's nothing more. Then the Yonder pouches as well, which we will be coming to you, I believe,
with a request to move the Yonder pouches to the junior high and high school. They are meeting on Thursday with the vendor, to to put those cell phones away as well, which is a huge safety and actually reduces a lot of discipline as well. So we'll be bringing that forward to you, in the month of December or January depending on how quickly we pull that together. How is that working at Advantage? Great. It's working well. It is working. Now we do have some that try to break it open and, utilize that. The consequence is pretty heavy plus $35. We had a little heav heavier hand at first, but now we move them to
the in school suspension room until they can pay the fee or depending on what difficulty they did, with that case. And, and that's that's worked much better, I think. So we'll have to work collaboratively with the middle school and the high school principals to talk about that. One of the things that the kids say is I can concentrate. And then teachers also aren't fighting on I see your phone. There will be kids that'll sneak them in still. We've had kids that have had second phones or burner phones as well. So they put one phone in and they've got a second phone.
But they do backpack checks and that comes out as part of their, know, coming through the metal detectors as well. So it has been proven all over that making people put those cell phones away stops a lot of issues. I've been down there at the end of the day when they get their cell phones back, and this is what they're doing. Like, they died and finally gotten their cell phone back. Right? Like, it's so exciting on my cell phone. So I just wanna make sure that you know there's a lot of great safety things happening. We're continuing to expand that as doctor Papazian talked about.
I believe that I will be recommending that we go to the safety training on there's also they believe that when you're doing threat assessments, that was one of the presenters, that we also should be doing, assessment on the Internet, cyber assessments. And that is really, they give us a lot of information about what to see and different, hashtags that people are using, which kind of they follow some pretty deep and dark groups as well as mental health groups that can tell you that. There's a way to which I thought was pretty, like, wow.
There's a way for some of the online, social media. You can plug in the directions of where we are and then push out, in the in the around us, the two miles, three miles, five miles, whatever you want to do. Type in words like gun, and it'll pull up anybody that's on that social media platform in this area talking about guns. It is it is pretty fantastic to kinda be able to see that. I think that is a huge and this SRO talked about and this gentleman talked about, you go in every day, you pull that up and see if some of
those key terms that are happening in your school are happening in the vicinity around you. You could do that right now here in this room and pull that up. So we wanna get into that deeper side, and they've talked about this company. You can train the trainers, which is what I always like to do instead of paying somebody to continue to do that, but train the trainers and bring in and train our social workers, our principals on this. It's very helpful, I think, to understand that side of it as well because along with that mental health comes that piece that's happening on the Internet, which we know has, even roadblocks.
Even they talked about how dangerous that is as well. So I did wanna say with the cell phone thing, and I know if Aaron was here, he would agree with me. We've had students that come to our meetings, and they say, oh my goodness. Like, we're not getting texts during the day that so and so wants to beat me up or so and so said this. So, like, they've come back to me with us, and they're, like, getting a's and b's, and they're not getting in trouble anymore. And it's been, like, huge advantage. So I'm curious to see how it'll be elsewhere, but I if it works like that, I'm all for it. Yeah. Any questions about safety?
Thank you. Those last two reports were fabulous, and I see there's a lot of time and organization and thought put into those. So thank you for all that hard work. Let's take your motion for the closed session. I motion we go into we motion to recess into closed session for eight k for a school board to consider security planning to address existing threats or prevent potential threats to the safety of the students and staff. Support. Motion by April and support by Monica to go in to closed session. Roll them.
Yes. Ortiz? Yes. Becker? Yes. Portrait? Yes. McFarland? Yes. And then Yes. Need a motion to, come back to general meeting. Motion to reopen the meeting? Support. Motion by April and second by Monica to reopen the meeting. And roll call, please. Aiden? Yes. Ruthie? Yes. Benjamin? Yes. Fortress? Yes. LeBron Woods? Yes. Benjamin? Yes. Were the public comments seeing no one? I don't know. Did you wanna speak? No? I have never spoken at anything, so I don't know how that works.
Do I just you come up to the pit again. There's there's directions also. You have to fill out a sheet, over there. But he was gonna practice, missus Hinton, and show you some Teagics going on on this one. So she can fill out a thing right you can fill out a sheet while he's gonna let the semantics go out for you. Yeah. Go ahead, hon. Go ahead. She needs your bread. He's looking at me. No. Alarmas. Alarmas. Are you talking to Brett? Yeah. Yeah. He's in there. Oh, it does light up. Yeah. Oh, there we go. Mhmm.
Nice. Oops. Oh, nice. And the pinpoints represent. Right. And we get Does it say what kind of alarm it is? Does it tell you Well, right here, it's red, blinking. So it's a lockdown. Oh, okay. See, on the right hand side, it tells you there. Are the police getting this too? I mean I was gonna hit it. It's a drill. Okay. I'm closing it. I don't want them to come for me. It'll be okay. Thank you, Brad. Yeah. That was good. Thank you. It's not a horrible, a fire drill noise is deafening.
This one's not quite the point. Is that why you run-in the office like this? Already? Yeah. They're waiting for you. I'm nervous. Don't get nervous. There's nobody here. And we're on we're all friends. We're somebody's. So Well You bring your go pay for our care. Thank you. And then you need to state your name. Okay. My name is Bianca Hunter, and I am a social worker over at the junior high. So I guess in looking or, listening to all the things that we do have coming into play, which are gonna be super helpful, but just wondering, I guess, how
we could go about having more supports in place currently in comparison to that being something that's going on next year because, yes, mental health is super significant, and a lot of what we are trying to do over at the junior high, even academically, can't be obtained because the needs of the kids are so significant. But it is overwhelming. Everybody is working tirelessly, everyone.
And so I guess I don't know. Am I allowed to ask a question? How do I do it? How do I do this? Answer, but you can ask. Yeah. I guess just how to go about getting more supports in place as far as supports with para, supports, with extra help with social work, even teachers and room availability for the significant needs of our students, if that makes sense.
That makes sense. Yes. Because it is. It's it is very overwhelming. And if anybody knows me, if I could make three of me, I would. And I would work endlessly, but it's not sustainable. And we just need help. We just need help. Good. Good. I really do care. The kids are my heart. They are. I just wanna be able to be there to support as most of the people in the junior high do. And but it not being fires all day long.
You can't really get a lot accomplished when you're just putting out fire. So that that is it. Okay. Thank you. You did good. Alright. Thank you. Thanks. Thank you. Alright. You guys have a good time. You too. Thank you for staying. Now we have board member comments and administration comments. I know that Carla talked about Longfield tomorrow, but we hope to see everyone there. Also, I know it was mentioned about the college readiness night on Wednesday, and I'm super excited. There's over a 100 people that are wanting to come.
Also, I know it's only one school, but it's new. And so if any of you are around on Thursday around 01:30, we are doing a jingle jog at Webb. It's our first ever run. We have not done one before, and these kids are super excited. They when they earn more money, they earn more incentives. They're getting, like, t shirts and medals and hats and gloves so they can run this little path. And I just wanted to say, sometimes being up here is rough. And when I hear a mumble that I'm rude because I asked a question of something that we are paying for to get a presentation, we get people who send
us presentations all the time. I just don't find that, very appropriate from another board member. Okay. Next. Anybody else? Sure. I'll I'll go next. I'm the one who made the comment, and I've been called through multiple times Never by me. At this table. And sometimes it makes you stop and think about what you're saying and saying, oh, yeah. Maybe I am a little bit out of line. We have these norms here. And your comment to mister Sobey was a little bit rude. It was a little bit harsh. When you say, that's what we're paying you for.
That's not what I said. You you you made that you implied that comment. Yes. And you would not say that to an employee that works here. So that to me, it was a little bit rude. So we have these norms, but you can call me rude out loud in front of everybody. I didn't say it Out loud. Okay. We'll begin. Anybody else? Yep. I wanted to, thank John Sobeef for that quick turnaround. He got the input today, and he presented it this evening. It was a lot of good information. I wanted to see the, people who put together that MTSS presentation.
It was a lot of information, and it is mental health month. So what a good time to have it. I had thrown that on the news this morning. And the safety presentation was also very good. Again, a lot of information, a lot of things, great things that we're doing to, to keep our kids safe. And thank the speakers. The pre speaker and the post speaker. Takes a lot of courage to get up there. I've done it a few times, and I shake every time. I'm sorry. I forgot one thing. There is also a home dance competition this Saturday. It is literally all day long to the high school. So if you are free Saturday, please stop in.
What time do you know what time it starts? I think it's eight. Probably eight. Yeah. I just wanna mention that the senior concert was this, Sunday as well at the junior high. I believe it's from two to four, but I just have to double check that time period. If you haven't seen that out there, please come and join. I believe that there's a musical group coming from Ferndale. That again is also done by our community engagement community schools that has taken that over. So I do hope that I get to see you. That was a long day. I wanna say, I was appreciative of those that were able to leave their building.
There's some that are not able to leave their building nor their secretaries when we pull our elementaries out. That's really difficult to do, which is, why it's very rare that that we do that now and we often are online, given, the mental health and the other items that are happening within our school. I am fortunate to have some very talented administrators, and I can tell when I'm in the group about the longevity of them that are in there because they really know what we've done and and how we've gotten there. And I couldn't be more pleased with the central office staff that put together those
items, but that's really been through strategic planning, the my kit pieces that we've done, and it's just a fantastic team. So kudos to that. And I couldn't be more proud. The union tonight brought, their, their leadership group. Everyone from their leadership group came tonight and spoke, and so they were it was very well done. They had great questions, and, we were able to give them some some answers to those as well. I think some we still need to work on, but kudos for our union for
being so involved in all their blue shirts. I'm thinking I need one. I can. I think just a a message to our staff, especially because I brought up something earlier today. It I'm never good at writing stuff down. Right? I think it's really difficult. We recognize that our students are not our students from, like, eight to three. They have, you know, whole lives where it's really hard to be a kid. They're in crisis more often than they're not. Even over the holiday weekend, we had, community school staff that were putting together things for families. You know, there are principals that are checking daily on kids to make sure that
they're getting to school. They they they know to have their breakfast set aside because they're hungry. And, you know, they they're just, like, so in tune with what these kids need. And, because of that, our staff are not eight to three staff either or whatever their contract hours are. And it it's hard for me. I was able to reach out to some staff over, like, the past month or so just because this is a really small community. And, you know, you hear things, you see things, you worry about people. You worry about people as people, in in addition to just, like, worrying about them
as their staff. And I just wanna be really careful. You know, I know that we have a board workshop coming up, and I hope that it really, like, works through some of the things that we have going on. That when you have these staff that are so dedicated to our kids, and that they're working so hard, they're here late at night, you know, they're they're listening to people talk about them while they're sitting here with their face on TV. They're emailing kids' parents and, you know, wondering how they're gonna be tomorrow of it, eight, nine, ten, twelve midnight. I brought up some of the feedback that I got, and I I think it's
really important that when we're getting that, we're advocating for staff, and I hope that that's okay. You know, that some of the feedback that they gave was was used, but then to hear and I don't wanna get into a back and forth, so I wanna be so careful about how I say it. To hear things like staff are just really reckless in what they're doing, that they lack accountability, that they don't have support from from other offices and something like that. It's just like, that's hurtful. And I hate that that came out of something that I said.
And I I hope that as a group, we can work more to at least even if it can't be implemented, that we are validating the feedback of our staff, that we're thinking about their feelings, that, you know, we're at least taking the time to understand what they're going through on a day by day basis. And even if something is going to change for them to understand that change is hard, and pushback is okay. But implementation can still happen, and not to view that as a negative. So I I hope that there's still the trust there of the staff. I I hope that they understand that things are are moving in a direction, that
we hope is to better them. And that that it's not a fault mechanism, and that that they don't have to feel badly for sharing their concerns, because those concerns are not a negative. They're they're just a question and sort of a cry for support. Thank you. Nope. Nope. I'm done too. Anybody, make a motion? Motion to adjourn? All in favor? Aye.