All these, committee of the whole workshop to order at on December 8 at 05:30PM. Roll call, please. Here. Becker? Here. Fortress? Present. Enter? Here. The bottom voice? Here. Routine? Here. Fox is absent with notice. Approval of the agenda. I make a motion to approve the agenda as written. Support. Motion by Heidi. Support by Monica to approve the agenda. Any discussion? Okay. Roll call? Cortez? Yes. Ritchie? Yes. Beating? Yes. Barbour? Yes.
McFarland? Yes. Yes. Motion carries. So we're up to public comment. And I have miss Corey Nastasi. Oh. I'm not gonna read this community public meeting comment. I think you know. Oh, okay. Alright. I heard that. I wanted to come to tonight because I feel the views of the building administrators may not have been may have been misrepresented by Don Sovey. In the late summer, I was one of a few building administrators who met with mister Sovey as he gathered some information. Most of his questions revolved around relationships between HR and the business office.
I found him to be very abrasive and condescending as it relates or throughout our conversation. He seemed irritated when I brought up most of our budgeting as it relates to internal accounts. It was brought to my attention that earlier this fall, he said the building administrators he spoke with were very welcoming of managing their own budget, which is not the case for me at all. I watched the meeting from last week and again, I was a bit confused as to how he was representing our input and feedback. This most recent session with him last week did not include any information about how the system works or why it's necessary. He was simply asking us questions about if we were making a budget, what are
some things we would want to know? This is a process we go through every year with doctor Wilcox and our central office team as we do planning for the next school year. That's how we had the ideas that we had. This work is already being done and being carried out at the central office level. Our input is always asked for and welcomed. There's a lot of evidence of consideration of our ideas being given and how the budget plays out. Every idea he had is already being done at the district level, and I'm having a hard time understanding why we would need to have this information at the building level. In the last meeting, president Hinton said that she thinks it would be important for us to be aware of the money we have in our accounts that we are
spending. And she gave an example of student of the month cost student of the month cost. And I agree with this. Most of the spending I do is from those internal accounts, and I'm aware of the balances in those accounts. The money in those accounts is replenished with fundraisers like bagel sales and a spring candy sale. I will say for a while there after Matt Miller left, there was some frustration about not having updated balances. That's since been resolved, and we're back on track with that. The only other change I can see being necessary would possibly be supply budgets, but even that seems somewhat unnecessary. There are years when some teachers need more than others given class sizes or amount
of parent support with supplies or new versus old teachers, and it all seems to balance out in the end. I believe this is true for schools as well. Some years, some elementary schools may see a spike in enrollment or may have some excessive needs due to certain populations. Making these decisions at the district level allows for us to benefit from economies of scale and absorb some of those ups and downs. I really don't see a need to be involved in managing anything beyond our internal accounts. I don't see why I would need to be involved in the purchase of a new vacuum cleaner or floor machine or even an evaluation on the roof. This is all done at the district level and should be done there so money
for these things can be allocated appropriately. I don't know why I would need to be involved in negotiating pay with teachers or anything like that. This would lead to issues with the union and result in a lot of unnecessary extra work that would still ultimately involve central office. This seems like it would be a waste of everyone's time to bring more people into these conversations, especially in single administrator buildings, which most of our buildings are. We already have so much on our plates with behaviors and the excessive paperwork that goes along with all of that, monitoring academics, teacher evaluation, parent communication, truancy, heading up
committees. We can barely make it to ag council meetings as it is because we're bogged down with managing our own schools and the daily needs that arise. On average, I'm probably spending about twenty to thirty hours per week beyond the regular work hours catching up on schoolwork, which translates to many work weeks of sixty to seventy hours. Adding more to our plates feels excessive for no reason. I don't see how this will change anything. The majority of building administrators feel this way. What he was saying to you last week, does not accurately represent our thoughts, feelings, and needs.
I wanted to come tonight to make sure you are aware that this is not welcomed by most building administrators. There may be some value in using his methods at the central office level where purchasing is done for our district, but it seems to me that Doctor. Wilcox has done a great job of pulling us out of deficit in the past and despite what was forecasted, we still have a fund balance. She has the pulse on the needs of the district, regularly works on assessing needs, and prioritizes how those needs are met based on the district funds. I don't shy away from hard work. And if I thought that adding this to our plates would somehow make a positive difference for what we can provide for our students, I'd be happy to do that.
However, I don't see the value in this outpouring of time, and I feel that this move to budgeting at the building level cost centers is excessive and unnecessary. I'd be happy to give honest and open feedback to any of you at any anytime if you'd like to speak about it further, but I thought you should hear that from us. Thank you. Thank you, missus Musashi. On to new business and that's doctor Doncic. Good evening, everyone. So, tonight's presentation is a little bit behind. You know, typically, we look at this information in early fall, but we had some other things that we were doing, so we are going to bring it to you
anyways. We had the presentation earlier about a month, month and a half ago by ECRA. We definitely are transitioning to that within the data. I want you to take you kind of back to what we were doing last year because that's what this is going to reflect. And goals that were written last year were written only on I Ready data. So it's gonna look a little bit different than what you saw with PEPRA. It's not an apples to apples comparison. I wanted to make sure that was clear because if you go back to that presentation and connect it to this one, it might look different, and that's because they're two different sources of information.
So I wanted to start out here with, reminder of our end of the year targets. And essentially, last year, our goals for K five were to increase the percentage of students scoring mid and above grade level by 4% with a minimum of 50% at tier one. And just as a reminder for the board and the audience, in I Ready, there's five different levels, mid and above, early on. Those two levels combine to make a tier one.
Tier one is where we want our students. Then there's a middle level that would be one grade level below. And then there is a tier three that represents students two or more grade levels below. So I wanted to make sure that was clear when we went into this. So we always want to make sure that our students we have increasing percentages of students that are mid or above grade level because that's where they need to be at the end of the school year to be on target. If they're early on in the school year, it doesn't mean that they're not doing grade level work, it just means there could be a few skills or standards that
they're not understanding. So that was our goal for k five and for six eight in reading, our goal was to increase the percentage of students scoring mid or above by 4% with a minimum of 25 at tier one. In addition to that, we also were focusing on reducing the percentage of students at tier three. That's the percentage or group of students that are scoring two or more grade levels below. So those are the goals that were written last year. And again, the way we wrote them this year is very focused on accurate data.
So, this represents, the outcome of last spring's data. This is 2024, 2025 spring data. Later on in the presentation, I am going to show you the progress that we made or where we landed in the fall, so this is more coherent since it's so many months away from that. So, essentially, when we look at our students in, grades K through five, Students in grades kindergarten, first, second, third, and fifth grade actually met the increase, which was supposed
to end up to be 29%, and that was 4% more than we were the previous spring. The previous spring, 25% of the students were there and our estimate was to increase that by 4%. In terms of our students at tier one, you can see students in kindergarten, first, second, third, and fifth grade far exceeded the percentage of students hitting that 50% at tier one. One of the grades that we're still focusing on is fourth grade. Fourth grade, I will tell you, those are the kiddos that were in kindergarten during
that COVID year. And whether it's Hazel Park or West Bloomfield or Novi or Oak Park or across the country, we're still seeing the impacts of that COVID because they miss some of the really foundational years. Doesn't mean kids aren't reading, doesn't mean that they're not writing. It just means there's students that have some skills that still need to improve. When we look at our students, all of our students, not students that have been in our district for multiple years, we did not meet the target of reducing the
percentage of students in tier three by 5%. So we are moving on up now into grades six through eight. And once again, you can see we had some grades do really strong work. And the last year, which makes sense based on our historical improvements, our sixth grade really was cruising along. And if you think about what we've done the last couple of years, we have this strong three year literacy focus. Every year, we start to see first year it was kindergarten, first grade, the first
year started to grow. Then the next year, it was K one two. Then the year after that, we saw that big spike in third grade. While our fourth grade didn't perform as well, they're still moving along. Then last year, we saw a huge increase in our sixth grade. You can see that the percentage of students set in sixth grade who met that mid, above grade level percentage, they met that as well as they exceeded the percentage of students that we would expect at tier one. I have a quick question Sure. Because it's I can't see it.
Can you tell me what the the light gray, the dark gray, and the red are Yes. In the graph? Yes. So the light gray is spring two thousand twenty four. Thank you for asking that. That is spring two thousand twenty four, just so you have a comparison of where we landed the year before. And the darker gray is spring two thousand twenty five. The red is just sixth grade. Because what I like to sometimes do is, you know, when you look at large groups of students, you don't always get the full story. And when we looked at our sixth grade, they had really exceeded those targets that
we expected. Thank you for asking that clarifying question. No. Thank you. So, as we always do, we know that there's value in an HP education. We've seen that year after year after year after year. So, what this graph represents is looking at all of our students and where they scored, which is pretty much what we just did. And then I looked at new students versus students that have been in our school district for at least three years. I always say this to you. I'm gonna say this again. Just because they're new students and just because they're not where we need to be,
it doesn't mean that's a negative about students who are coming in or even students who come in from outside the school district. This does not mean that we're really just looking at students that come in that may not be residents. But it is important to look at the value of an HP education. We have a highly trained staff. We've got strong support in our building administrators and we have excellent work going on in our schools. And you can see the difference. So last year, among the students who came in new, twenty three percent hit tier
one. And remember, tier one is where we want them. As opposed to students who have been in our district for at least three years, that's why it's grades two through five. We had forty percent of those students hit tier one. That is really important information because always, no matter what we're doing, whether it's Doctor. Wilcox, Doctor. Papazian, myself, every time we're looking, we're always asking the question, what is the impact of the instruction and the assessment and the processes or procedures we're putting in place?
When students engage with us over the long term, we see positive change. When we get up into six eight, we had less of a difference, but I want to draw your attention to tier three on this graph. Tier three is the light gray on this graph. And notice that when we compare the percentage of students in tier three, new students versus the students who've been in our district for three or more years, there's 10% fewer students. So while we don't see as much of an impact at six eight, which it's
going to happen. We know those COVID years significantly impacted. And remember, those were our students that might have missed first, second, third foundational times in their reading, reading development. Oops. I think I actually skipped one. Nope. I didn't. Okay. So I'd like to bring this forward because I know it's very important for us also to look at what we would call cohort data. I want to be very clear that this is not data that's only focused on students that have been in those grades for three years.
This is all students. We just talked about the fact that we've got kids moving in, kids moving out. So while it is cohort data and it does tell us something, it's not only the same kids like in kindergarten, first or second or second, third or fourth. But what I'm going to have you do is kind of look at that light gray where it starts with kindergarten. You can see the percentage of students that were at the median progress toward their typical growth goal was one hundred and twelve percent.
What that means is it doesn't mean one hundred and twelve percent of students. What it means is that in I Ready, each student has a typical growth goal. What it means is that among all the students in that grade level, the median progress toward their growth goal was a little bit more than 100%, which means a little bit more than one year. And what that really means is there were probably kids that made a year and a half, two years of growth and may have had some kids that were a
little bit less than growth to come to that median progress. And so, you notice in spring twenty three, twenty four, as first graders, there was a little bit dip, but then they popped back up when they got up to second grade. When you look at our literacy scores, while that does not happen in every grade level, several several grade levels we've continued to see that growth. Even if you look over to the right, now going across, you're going to see that many grade levels increasingly were meeting more students from meeting their typical growth goal.
Like if you look at kindergarten, we went from one twelve, we had that little spike in '22, '23, 96, and then 100%. In first grade, increasingly higher percentages of students are getting toward their median or a little bit above their growth goal. Same thing for second grade. While it's not as much of a change in or not as much in third grade, we've kind of leveled off there. Fourth grade, we just talked about fourth grade. Fourth grade is that year where we're really still trying to build some of those,
skills that they may have missed as they were in some of the very challenging learning environments. Sixth grade, we talked a little bit earlier, sixth grade, that's probably one of the highest median percentiles that I have noted as we've looked at I Ready data over the years. Which means that a good majority of our sixth graders were meeting their typical growth goal. So this, I'm just going to do a little bit of a summary here. So I think it's important for us to step back when we look at this data and really talk about the impact. You know, we've had a pretty significant journey supported by the board many, many years
ago when the board, chose to allow us to purchase Art Core. That also included a significant amount of professional development and coaching for our teachers. And we can see that over those three years, we're increasingly starting to see more students hitting those growth goals for the students that have been with us. There is a significant value to the HP education and I think that's the messaging that we need to always be talking and always be, highlighting as we support and
develop and really advocate for our school district. In terms of return on investment, I'm not sure I love that term when you talk about kids because it sounds kind of far removed. But what that really means is, in short, is what we're doing making a difference. And we can see that what we're doing as we really live into this literacy journey is starting to make a difference and will continue to make a difference in strengthening the knowledge and skills of our students. One of the things that I think is really important here is to really focus
on the enabling conditions for staining, because it is really important that when we see change in movement like this, we also consider what was it that we did and what is it that we need to continue to do. One, we need to have positive, consistent messaging at all levels. That is critical to the forward movement. We need to have empowered instructional leaders. When I think of instructional leaders, that means teachers, that might mean a paraprofessional, that means an MTSS teacher, it's a building principal, it is central office, all the way
up to the superintendent. Having empowered instructional leaders is the key to focusing on sustainability. We also need the ability to stay focused on instruction. There are many things that can pull us away from instruction. As an educator and all the educators in this room and in the buildings, our one purpose is to make sure we are doing everything that we can to support curriculum and instruction and supporting students and families in our district. Continued ongoing professional learning, we know there's been a big impact on that and we've
modeled some of that same type of work with math and, we look forward to seeing those same results. I'm gonna say at the end of this year but really cruising in the next couple of years. We have to make data driven decisions which is really, based on the work and the encouragement and the expectations of doctor Wilcox is how we function. We make decisions based on data and based on information about students, families, teachers, whatever it needs to be to support our work. We need to have systemic professionalism and expectations of equity and strategic resource allocations.
This is one other little snippet into our reading data. We look at this every year, but I do think it's very important because it does tell us a little bit of a different lens. So once again, this information is about median progress toward their typical growth. Every student comes into the fall, they take the I Ready, there is a growth expectation for that particular student. When students, this graph essentially says, thank you. Thank you. I need my fan in here.
So essentially what this graph is showing is that for students that started at these levels, if you recall, I mentioned there's five performance levels in I Ready. Mid above, early on, one grade level below, two grade levels below, and three or more grade levels below. What you're seeing here is the median progress by those those levels. Again, it's showing what they started out as in the fall. One, we see most of those where every, you know, the at the different levels,
it's about where they need to be in terms of their median progress. But one of the things that I want to point out is the numbers for one for two grade levels below. Two students who are two grade levels below, we want to see them with things beyond a 100 because that means they're making more than a year's worth of growth. That's a real positive trend that we want to see. Of course, we want to see all of our students making a year or more growth but the expectation is a year. If we have our students that are below that making that much growth, that is
significant. If you look over there too, of those students that started two grade levels below, fifty seven percent of them, nearly 60%, met their typical growth goal. Now, you're going to see over on the right. I do want to explain this. We don't really spend a lot of time talking about this, but iReady has both typical and stretch growth goals. Stretch growth goals is more than a year's worth of growth. You can see that we had about half the students meeting those. While it's not where we want it to be, it's still showing good progress.
So I think, before I go into math, I just wanted to kind of reflect and summarize on this data story. So last year's data demonstrates what happens when students learn and grow in Hazel Park. And that's an important message that we need to keep coming back to. If kids are here, they're having positive experiences, they're being, supported by our teachers and our building principals and everybody in the system, we know that there's growth. As students spend more time learning with HP, they experience accelerated growth supported by consistent
instruction. These gains reflect consistent research based instruction. We're proud of our students and, grateful for our staff and excited to continue creating a district where every learner, whether they've been with us for three months or three years, and I'm gonna keep going back to that, students new to our district, it's really a promise that we have an opportunity and the privilege of supporting them in their journey in education, and that we really need to celebrate all of our newly enrolled learners as well. So, I always feel like I have to say that because I never want to,
in any way, shed a negative light on students who may be new to our school district. It doesn't mean it's the rule. It's just a trend that we see. And this is actually this year. So I wanted to make sure I nested this conversation back into the ACRA data since our work this year is really going to be moving forward looking at the accurate data. So what I did was I pulled the fall, this is reflective of our fall I Ready data. And so essentially when we wrote our goals for this year, what we said was
we wanted our students to hit the proficiency benchmark of 17%. And remember, this accurate data is not one type of data. It includes M STEP data, it includes I Ready data, it includes all of the students' historical data and based on all of that, they make a projection. Again, those numbers are going to look a little bit different than what we may have done in the past. And you can see green is good. Essentially, green is showing that we're making the growth that we expected to make. That's a real positive piece that we were able to carry that over into the
fall because, again, we want to see some of that growth that we had in the spring sustained. And essentially, we said we wanted, to meet the proficiency benchmark of 17%. And if you look down at the bottom of the screen, the average percent met benchmark right now is 17.13%. That's a real positive as we move forward and really start to look at this accurate data. One of the things that I think is important, because I know when we switch from I Ready to accurate data, it's a little bit different. But one of the positives that I know this board has always wanted to know
and is, wanting to understand is, what does it look, cohort data, how does our historical data, does this really encompass the entirety of a student and accurate data does. When you're looking at I Ready data, it's a single source. It's not the entirety of what that student has done in our system historically as well as on different data sources. So that's a really positive strong piece and what that is is it's I Ready data but an M STEP equated score.
Before I go into math, what questions might you have for me? My question is, why are we using the median and not the average or the minimum? So The median, so that's actually just a measure that I Ready uses. That's a quick dip into how students are performing. I've asked that question before. And for I Ready, basically, their statisticians feel that's a better, more accurate number to look at, taking large groups of students to look at the median growth.
Because remember, and and you're probably thinking the way I do. Looking at one single data point when you're talking about large numbers of students really doesn't tell you the whole story. When you think about a student, you really have to look down into the individual. But in terms of I Ready, what we get from I Ready is we get proficiency, and that's what we saw in those first few screens, that was proficiency. We get a growth goal, progress toward their growth, And that's just the measure that
I already uses to take 200 kids in a grade level or in a district to give us a data point to measure, are we making a difference year over year? The median is the one they choose? Pardon me? The median is used as one data point. In I Ready, there's proficiency data. That's what we looked at on the first couple of screens. Those percentages were the percent of students who are proficient at that grade level. So I already use this proficiency, I already has a growth score, so every student gets a growth score.
And that median percentile is basically just the, basically if you had a 150 kids, median is that middle number of kids where kids are falling on that continuum. That's just a tool that I already uses as a quick dip into is your progress toward typical growth year over year improving. And so that's what that graph represented. Okay. I'll have to think that through I have to think of that one for a while. It's okay. I get it. Absolutely. And I'm happy, if you need follow-up information to send that to Doctor.
Wilcox so she can share it with you. I would love to have a copy of this. It's very hard to see. Absolutely. You put so much work into it. I would and it's beautiful, but it's hard to see. So we're going to go on the map and look at what we did for goals. Again, back to what we did last year, we're gonna nest ourselves back in last year, that we were looking to increase the percentage of students at mid or above grade level. This is just straight I Ready scores by 3%. And our goal was to increase, or meet, having a minimum of 36% of our
students in tier one in terms of math. In grades six through eight, again, we would wanted to see an increase by 3% of the students who are tier at, mid or above grade level and a minimum at 20%. So we're gonna go master ourselves back in this graph, and I will, go back over what those show. So, essentially, the gray bar is spring two thousand twenty four, so you can ground yourself in what we had the year before. The dark gray bar is spring two thousand twenty five, just this last spring, and
then the red bar is students in k two and grade five. Basically, what I did was I looked at the math scores and said, so when I take all of k five, we may not have met what we needed to, but we can't deny the fact that there were grade levels that really did meet those. And that was kindergarten through second grade and fifth grade. We're gonna talk a little bit about the statistics, but I want to, again, bring this piece back up about math. Study after study after study has shown that across the country, math is not recovering
after COVID. And it doesn't matter whether it's where it is in the country, math is a struggle. Even when you look at the M STEP scores and you look at some of the messaging out of the MDE, I think they had, you know, again, 14 out of the 28 grade levels had an increase. In most cases in math, it might have gone from 30.2 to 30.4% proficient. So, while there was an increase at the state level, when you're talking about point four, yes, it's across the state, so it's the number of students, it's still not
increasing significantly. So, you're not going to see quite as much growth in math as we saw in reading, but I do think it's important to nest us back on what's going on across the country. That's another reason why the Oakland County has been really hyper focusing on math the last two or three years, providing additional training, making sure we've got math specialist trained in districts. Mostly, really focusing on four, five, six, and seven because that seems to be where the real struggle is. A lot of students miss those foundational skills and we need to build those back
up in those upper elementary and early secondary so we have positive impacts later on. So, this is K five. So, when you look at our target, our target was twenty percent based on what we had from the year before for mid and above grade level. If we look at our students in K two and five, we hit twenty percent. We hit nineteen percent. No, we hit twenty percent. There's something off on that graph, I think. So, but they met what they needed to.
I'm pretty sure it was at maybe it was just at 19%. Let me check that. So, we do see that in terms of our tier one, that that group of students did hit the target of 30%, 36% at tier one. Grades three and four students across the district, did show that we need some really, specific focus on improving math instruction at those grade levels. So when we flip into grades six through eight, once again, our sixth graders were the stars. When we look at the percentage of students that mid and above grade level, based
on our historical information, we wanted an increase of 3%. We did hit that goal and, exceeded it, by 8%. Ignore that 7%. I think that's just an error in the information that actually, that's the goal. That's why it's showing there. My apologies for that. So we were supposed to hit 7%, we hit eight. That's just showing in a very odd place. I will fix that so it makes sense. And while we did not meet our target, we wanted a minimum of 20%, we did see a nice increase. In the 2024, we had 11% at tier one.
In the '25, as an aggregate, grades six through 14% were hitting that tier one. And then when we looked at our sixth grade only, 16% of those students were hitting tier one. We are very well aware that math is a significant focus and we've really fully embraced what we need to do with that and really dug in this past year, rewrote all the curriculum, rewrote all the assessments. We're providing ongoing, strongly supported data driven professional learning and instructional coaching to ensure that
the new curriculum is implemented with fidelity. So, I think it's important for the board and the audience to know that we really, we owned where our math data is. We nest it in what's going on across the country as trends in math, but we're digging in as we've really approached this in a comprehensive systemic manner of how we're going to improve and continue to grow math skills. This right here is once again, an enrollment comparison.
So, these graphs represent all students, that's the light light gray, or all students is the first set. The second set is new students, and the third set is three or more years. And you can see for our students that have been in the district for three or more years, even though we've had some struggles with math, 28% as opposed to students who come to our district that are new to our district. Doesn't mean everyone that comes to our district is not where they need to be, but that's the trend.
And we also see that same thing in tier three. Tier three on this graph is the light gray bar. So once again, we see the value of being in our district for a long term. We did not see as much of a change, like we did in literacy with math, but we did see a little bit of a difference between our students that are coming into the district at that level versus our students that have been with us long term. And this is the the this is the graph again, where we're talking about the median progress toward the typical growth goal.
We've got some grades that have have popped up, grade one, grade two, grade three, we're all showing and even grade four, we're showing some nice increases. One of the things I wanted to draw you to is grade eight. This clearly shows that over time, while math is an area of focus, that we've had continued increases. In 2223, the average progress toward their typical growth goal was zero. Essentially meaning that there were very few students who met their typical growth goal.
Does not mean they didn't learn anything. They just didn't meet their typical growth goal. In 2324, we had the median progress toward their typical growth goal was 42%. And look at what it was in 2425. Once again, positive impact while slowly building. We're changing what's going on in math. Does that show what the typical growth goal should be on the side? Should be a 100. So are you talking about on the right? Yeah. Is it That's '24, '25. So the first set is spring twenty two, twenty three.
So, none none of our students, based on that, were reaching the medium progress? Is that what that's telling me? No. What that means is, I know, and this is a tricky one. So, what it means is when you take all of our students, let's say, again, we have a hundred and fifty eighth graders, and you line them all up, you know, some kids maybe met their made 70% toward their typical growth goal. Some kids might have been in the eighties, but then we had some kids that might have been 110 or 120 toward the typical growth goal.
And so a median, for what it's not exactly average, but think about it as the middle point of what our kids were making progress towards. I guess what I'm I like to clarify my question Mhmm. What is the growth goal from seventh grade to eighth grade? Is there a certain percent that you want them at? We want all of them to hit at a it had a 100% Because a 100% is a year's growth in I Ready. So, basically, if you have a growth goal to go from, you know, let's say,
there's usually a score, like, 250 up to 300 in one year. We want them to make 100% toward their growth goal. So this is saying that in the fall, they're all at zero and then they have to reach to a 100. Is that what you're doing? Yes. They had to they have to achieve a 100% of their growth goal. And so what it's saying is is this and, again, this is just one data point among, many students. So it's not one student. Right. So, what it would show is, for example, we have more look at if you
compare grade five to grade eight, so grade the median progress toward the typical growth goal was a 113% in grade five. So, that signals that we had more students meeting their growth goal because if you get to 100%, that means you've achieved your personal growth goal as compared to seventh grade where we only had a median growth goal of 77%. So, that means we had fewer kids meeting that. But all the kids start off at zero at the end of the year, and
then the goal is to get them to 100 for that particular grade level? For that grade level for that student, yes. Okay. So, this is that graph that we saw before too and what this really shows is our different levels and it shows the median progress of all the students at that those levels toward their typical growth goal. We would have liked that mid or above number a little bit higher. That is something that we have really dug into to make sure that we're giving opportunities for our students that are mid or above to continue to grow and excel. But look at our grade our students that were one grade level below, two grade
levels below, three grade levels below. They were the median progress toward their growth goal was where we wanted to be. So once again, we always want, we want our kids always to be meeting their growth goal at any grade level, but we always want it to be higher or more for those students at, one, two, or three grade levels below, because that means they're exceeding a year's worth of growth. I think we've pretty much talked about this, but, again, we've got a strong systemic
approach, evidence based, plan that we have in place for math data. We believe that the work that's being done is definitely going to impact what, we see from our students. We've got great work going on in our buildings. We have teachers looking at math data on a regular basis. We have teachers and grade levels developing problem solving drivers to derive the work that they're doing and monitor all the growth of the students. And then, once again, I wanted to nest it back in accurate data.
So this is based on the fall iReady scores again and based on the prediction from last year, because that's what we made the prediction on for our school improvement goals this year, it was estimated or projected, usually, ECRA is doing projections, that our proficiency benchmark would be 11% of students. And if you notice our average benchmark, and I checked these data points because they
were so close to the actual number, I checked them over and over and over, and that is exactly what it was. That based on our fall iRating scores, we are already at an average of 11.13%, which is really what our target was. So what this data really shows is that we are on track. This is a nice way for us to transition into looking at accurate data because it's not likely that I'll come and pull up all the the the raw irate
scores again because it's not gonna make sense. We look at those on a regular basis in our schools, of course, because that data drives the work that I do, it drives the work that Doctor. Papazian does, it drives the work that our building principals and teachers do on a daily basis, but when we're measuring at a large scale aggregate level, the accurate data is giving us a better look. It's also nesting us in our own personal historical data that we need to be looking at. And then I wanted to talk a little bit about grades five through 11 and
really what the data that I'm going to talk about is nine and eleven because it's a little bit easier to look at grades nine and eleven in terms of how the state reports it. So, our goal was to increase the percentage of students on the PSAT or the SAT. In grade nine, they take the PSAT, in grade 11, they take the SAT. We wanted to increase by 5% the percentage of students that were proficient on evidence based reading and writing, that acronym is EBRW, and on math.
And so, this is our data, for evidence based reading and writing and math from spring twenty twenty five. So, our goal for, students in eighth grade was forty one percent. We had a strong, very strong scores last in the spring twenty twenty four, so our goal was pretty high. We still had thirty five percent of our students on a college level course meet the benchmarks in grade eight.
In grade nine, we met our benchmark. We met our goal of increasing by five or grade 11, I'm sorry. Increasing by 5% in reading. Math, I we we talk about this. We know that we've got some work to do and we're doing it, as we're building the system up. We did not meet those projected percentages in grades nine or 11. That is consistent with what we're seeing across the state and the country. Not we want where we want it to be, but it's definitely consistent. This is the piece that I do think, really tells us a story and it
really talks about impact again. So, I think all of you heard when, our rep came to present with ECRA what happened in social studies and science, but it is for social studies. I do think it's really important for us to continue to think about why that happened. In twenty three-twenty four, there was a comprehensive rewrite of the Social Studies curriculum with an eye on making sure that it was comprehensive, it was deep, it was systemic, it was scaffolded from K-twelve and it was rigorous. During that school year, or during the twenty four-twenty five school year, we had coaching
related to that. In classroom embedded reflection on looking at the curriculum, understanding the curriculum, and making sure that we were coaching. And we see the outcomes of that. So, on this graph, I chose to look at it in a little bit different way. The bars represent 22, 23, that's the light gray bar. The next bar is 23, 24. And the bar after that is 24, 25. That first section is grade five and so you notice in twenty two-twenty three, seven
percent of our students were proficient in social studies. In twenty three-twenty four, 05/2006. In one year of really digging in on curriculum, our fifth graders grew to 13.6% proficient. That is a significant increase in one year in the area. So go ahead. So are these the same kids like the fifth grade is the gray, the sixth grade, and then the then the same kids in seventh grade? No. Or just fifth grade? It's just fifth grade. Yes. The first group is our fifth graders over the years.
Okay. So, the next set is our eighth graders. So, in 2223, five point five percent of our eighth graders were proficient in social studies. In '23, '24, nine point one percent. When we hit last year, it hit twenty point three percent proficiency. That's a significant increase on a state level of assessment that you very rarely see. You know, your state level assessment data might go up by 1%, 2%, 3% the next year, not more than doubling.
The next or last set of, graphs, bar graphs is for eleventh grade. What a nice steady increase for our eleventh graders. And the reason why it's only five, eight, and 11 is that's the only year that we test social studies in fifth, eighth, and eleventh. So once again, we see in '22 '23 only eleven percent of our eleventh graders proficient. We popped up to five point eight percent and then last year we hit twenty point seven percent. What this really represents is high quality curriculum, embedded professional learning, and giving kids an
opportunity to engage deeply with the content. I wanted to make sure also we nested this in our ECRA data because this is important that we understand how to think about this. This is the ECRA data from last spring. It's taking those social studies scores and putting them in the lens of M STEP equated ECRA data, which pulls in all the historical data and all those students that are in that group, as well as what we've done as a district. This, the change in fifth and eighth grade, and in particular, look at our eighth
graders. Their score was 1.3. That's almost the highest upper limit that you can get in Accra on being above your expected growth. That's a huge celebration that we need to kinda shout from the rooftops because that's growth. That was significant growth in just one year of that change. We didn't see as much growth. It wasn't higher than expected in eleventh grade. But, again, we were really on the edge of popping up into that higher than
expected growth. So I did want to make sure I highlighted that. I know we typically look at reading and math, but it is important for us to look at social studies as well. And so, kind of in summary, and I and of course you will have access to this. I think, our data store highlights the impact of high quality instruction and long term student engagement. If kids are here and they're engaged in all the wonderful things and the opportunities we have and they interact with our amazing teachers and our building principals and our paraprofessionals and everybody else in the system that supports them, it makes a difference for
them. We have a strong foundation of support. I know that you had an opportunity for doctor Papazian and Miss Gresley to share the student system support last week. That is all part of what we're doing here. We benefit from high quality staff at all levels of this organization. And, I know all of you know my history, thirty years in another school district. I've been in this district for ten years. The quality of the people in Hazel Park is the same as quality, if not even harder than some of the work that was going on in West Bloomfield because
of the heart and soul and dedication of everybody in this system. I think it's important always to make sure that we look at these numbers and we understand that there's a story behind every one of these numbers. There's a story behind every one of those individual numbers that make up those aggregate numbers of the students that we represent. And every one of those students has an individualized need. It doesn't matter who they are. While examining student outcome data is valuable, it's equally important to focus on the story
behind the numbers to understand the context, the challenges, and opportunities for each learner. So I wanted to make sure I've summarized that because I think it is always important to nest when we look at a data point, what is the context of what we're nesting that in, and how does that help us move forward, how does that help us grow, and how does that help us change? Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Comments? Anybody have questions? That was fabulous. Thank you. And of course, you will have a copy of this. Thank you. And I'd be happy to, include some additional data on the median growth score to
make sure that that's clear. Okay, next up is the district console. And, I would just like to propose that we not entertain this conversation or moving forward as this was written ten months ago when we had a zero fund balance and the reason given is money. I do not have a $1,200,000, fund balance, so I believe it's outdated. I don't think you should have waited ten months to get here.
So that's my point of view on this. I believe that, unfortunately, we have plenty of council anyways. We have plenty of people that are hired to do things. And as much as I respect our district council, I believe that this needs to move forward as we are trying to grow that fund balance as well, and this is going to help that. I'm I'm gonna just do a point of order. You're discussing something before something's moved. You don't move. This is coming to a goal.
We don't move. Oh, you're right. You're absolutely right. We do have a lot of counsel, so I would be interested to see what each of them like, a a job description even though they don't technically work here. But what do we generally use them for? Like, so we're using Miller John Miller Johnson for policy. What does Clerk Hill For us? What does churn do for us? What does anybody else on that list do for us? And what does our in house counsel do for us? Just to make comparisons. Because I believe when he was hired, it was to give him so we use
the outside counsel a little less, I believe. Yeah. I would like to see that too. That would be a good analysis to see how much our counsel was when he was hired versus what it is currently, and see if that was a cost benefit. Because I know at that, three years ago when he was hired, that board, which I believe mister Etz was a part of, was a 100% in favor of, this position. So we didn't have all of the other attorneys we currently have and all the
money we were spending on that That's exactly why I said I would like an analysis. To present the conversation if I could, please. And that is, last year, when cuts were being discussed, my understanding is this proposal was brought forward, and, doctor Kost was a part of this. I've not spoken to her directly, but I've spoken to my team that it was a recommendation in the cuts of the team. Since I've returned, I've had this conversation several times as the cost benefit is not
one that we believe is full time. If the board wished to, have that person hired, have that counsel at the table here like it was in the past or, something along those lines, but the position did not do what we had hoped it would do. And I've had that conversation as well in your weekly updates. And so as we look at we cut positions in central office and people are doing multiple jobs, I cannot not bring this forward as we have an individual that is not able to do those items in the same manner.
So that is a recommendation from the cabinet. It's a recommendation from the superintendent, and it gives you a ninety day winner winter window. Sorry. This was done at this time, and and multiple conversations were had, in the, in the cabinet level. So that is our suggestion and recommendation to the board. And so when you ask us about cutting, that 250,000, which is all in, equates to several teachers, paraprofessionals, or just the positions that we feel we need.
And so, we are that is the recommendation from us, and and, if the board wishes to have counsel, we're suggesting that perhaps you, look at that balance, and we can give you that true balance in what it does, but perhaps have that just at the table. I don't know where the $250,000 Benefits. Cost. Salary and benefits. So I would like this not to move forward and to not further discuss this in public. We don't discuss anybody else's job in public. I think we should not be doing that. We we do discuss positions when we're cutting out.
We should not be doing that. Wait. I would like this to be removed from the agenda. And we do not move it forward. Again, we do discuss when we cut the position under Stephanie, when we cut Chuck to be, both parties, when we move the position over here, we absolutely discuss FTE, and then it's our recommendation who goes into those positions. Again, we have money. We had zero balance back in March. Maybe doctor Cox did not bring this forward, but the HR wrote it.
It's her name is at the top of it. So for two months, March, April, and May, HR could've brought it forward. I I was told I'm not going to argue this and take it off the agenda. That's not your decision to hold off the agenda. And, Beth, you stopped it for coming forward with missus Cost when you met with them. So it it is our job to bring it forward. And we're we have to look at positions no matter how much we like people, about This isn't a matter of liking people. This is a matter of board governance. You are an employee being told to take it off the agenda.
I don't believe the board has directed me to do so. This isn't a voting. This is the president that sets the agenda with the superintendent. Nobody sets the agenda with the superintendent but the president, and I'm asking you to take it off. So then can I ask for it to be put back on? Mhmm. Two people can ask for it to be put back on. So my question is, this is saying and part of this and I know there's a clause in this contract that that states, that we can terminate based on financial standings, but our financial standings is being told to the public that we're not in
deficit, we're strong, we're fine, there's no need to be cutting cost, and now all of a sudden, you're cutting cost. So I think it's I feel that it's misrepresenting. It it's not because you're still under your 5% fund balance. And just at the last two meetings, you asked what additional cuts would be made. And we have to talk about the cuts that aren't pertinent. And unfortunately, it is not a cost benefit for a district at this size to have an attorney. February, he $50,000 for other managers. Go ahead, Heidi.
Why was he placed in service three years ago? We actually thought that it would be a benefit. And when we realized it was not, we moved the position to the assistant, to the athletic director in order to make that cost last fall, and we shared that with you as well. We did not feel that it was necessary for our district to have an attorney and did not find a benefit cost benefit for that. And we did it as a cost savings. And when I was gone, you moved that position back into a district board attorney. I believe I watched that. So I would be remiss to our community and to our teachers to not bring
this up to the board of education. And then I would expect that we would you know, your expectation is a 5% to 10% fund balance. You cannot have a position at this cost when we're not looking at teacher salaries, when we're not having conversations, about that, to continue that. That is not the recommendation of the, of the administration, and and the board is supposed to accept the recommendation of that administration. And if the board would like their own attorney, then you should do that as such and do it in an hourly rate the way you did before.
Monica? My problem is and I I get everyone's ceilings. Trust me. I do. But we are spending, again, 50,000 plus for Don Sobe. And sure, we have money in a fund balance. But again, we do want to be at that 5%. And we don't even know what Don Toby's gonna cost me in. He his contract says eighteen months, and we are, what, three months in with over $60,000 to him already.
So having a cost saving like this is going to benefit us in the long run because we are just gonna be spending and spending and spending and spending on Don Sobe along with other things that come up. Anyone else? Yeah. I think it's, you know, it's our responsibility as a board to do our due diligence. We just talked about all these other law firms that we've hired, and we're unclear on what, roles they play. Right? And this is a a considerable amount of money. I don't know, you know, I I don't know that it would be responsible of
us to just table it and not talk about it. I think we can find out what the other roles of these law firms that we're paying to do and see if it makes sense, you know, because we do have under our 5% fund balance. We have a plan of action for dairy cost. We have all of this stuff that we need to do. So are we in a better state financially than we were where we had the perceived the perception that we were? Sure. But are we is everything hunky dory?
I can't say that we are, and I think it it you know, it's just our our responsibility to have these conversations as difficult as they may be. That's why I asked for the analysis so that we could see what where the expectations for all these different attorneys are. I would like to see the cost comparison to how much we had, we're spending maybe, like, four years ago before this position was in play versus what we're spending now in outside legal and and how that factors in.
I think that's fair. K. So we'll bring that to you, next week at, the regular meeting along with the with the recommendations. Is that enough time for your staff to get that together? No. But we need to move on this because you have ninety days, and it that yet you have to this should have been done before. I've been bringing it up since June when I came back, and the board brought to this in the meeting, and I've shared it in my weekly updates. And you have ninety days that go out past that. And so, we believe it's pertinent to move forward in that manner, especially as we're entering into negotiations.
You have to think about that salary, pays for the raises for your custodians, your teachers, and or not your teachers, your paras and your secretaries. And at a at a rate that we've been receiving before, and you need to listen to the cabinet on the recommendations of positions. We do not have to accept our recommendations. That's the point of the meeting. The Committee of the Whole is to discuss, and we never have to accept the recommendations. Of course, it's smart and it's cooperative, but it is not mandated to accept the
recommendations. I I I look forward to sharing with that report and sharing what we have mister Patterson currently doing versus the others. What whose capabilities and her skills are what and why this is a recommendation for the board. Okay. His contract also says that he has a right when it's terminated to meet have a meeting with the board. So we're eliminating the meeting with the board? I don't think we're telling him he can't have a meeting with the board. No. But but I believe that it's different because he's not an administrator. And then and that's that's why a notice can be given, and the witness given.
It's in the contract. This is his contract to provide him or her with the opportunity for a meeting to discuss said reasons before the Board of Education. If the if the district is considering termination of this contract as provided above, the district shall inform the administrator of the specific reasons for said consideration of dismissal and shall provide him or her with the opportunity for a meeting to discuss said reasons before the board of education. Yes. That's what is in the administrative law for administrators. That's that's And I believe that That's his contract.
Missus Kale's got a different direction. Well, if that's in his contract, then we provide him with that opportunity. I nobody's telling him he can't have a meeting. The information is, is the law related to certified administrators, not related to other central office staff that don't carry a teaching certification or administrative cert certification. Okay. I'm I'm not gonna debate this further. I I don't know if he is a simple employee or what you just called him. These papers say he's an administrator. So He's he's not. And I I believe that was explained last year too because I listened to it
from home. If you could find me the video of the board meeting explaining that, that would be great. I think I'm the only person that voted against him when he got the job. I said it wasn't personal, but I didn't think it was a position we needed. And now I think that we do need it. I think it's being unfair, of what's happening. People left. We're saving money because we're not replacing those people. They retired or they resigned. They're this is a person that has another year contract. So Do you have say does he have another year or is it a two
year? It was two years in June? He has one more year. These come up again in March to add the other year to keep it at two years. Okay. And if I think to if we're eliminating positions like this and if we're in a cost saving measures, then I think this board needs to really take a hard look and maybe do a pay freeze this year And no no raises if we're at that point. Well, the board has to, discuss negotiations in closed session because you're negotiating every single
one of your contracts. But you're absolutely correct. You asked us if there were positions that were not needed as we do every year as part of zero based back that we've done staffing every single year. And this recommendation was done last year. There were two board members that were in a meeting with missus Cost and Jamie, and there's been individuals with me that have also been in meetings as well. And this is a this is a difficult situation. I've been honest and upfront with this position. I've been speaking with them since June about this. And so it's well aware. It's nothing that's been under the carpet.
But it is a recommendation. We need to put our money towards our kids and the staff that are doing the hard work every single day. And right now, this position is doing foyas and this position it did do safety meetings as well and is coming to board meetings. And I believe you could have a cost savings by doing it hourly as such, not paying benefits, retirement, and the 100 plus thousand dollars a year. Okay. Superintendent Evaluation Timeline? Mhmm. Okay. So, I think we are at a point where the Board, I spoke with Bob
briefly about this. My contract has a June. It was recommended by Brad. This would be a great time to transition from January to December. And so I wanted an opportunity to have a conversation with the board about what, your pleasure was, regarding, the evaluation. And just to kind of put it all in one, if you want to change the evaluation timeline, then we also have to tweak the the contract because we're out of compliance right now with not doing my goals in the August time period. So, that's that's the first step is what timeline would the board like to see,
for evaluation? I thought when we had the meeting on evaluations earlier this year, I can't remember the gal that was out here. But she said you weren't entitled to an evaluation until November. So No. It's not November. It's, January to it's a January to December time period or it's a July to June time period with the recommendations. And given the fact that we missed my evaluation, which by contract, it sits in
there that establish goals and do the process, You you have to either decide what amend my contract to change it to December, January till December, which would make goal establishment needing to be done this month and or you go to we wait until July 2026 and start my evaluation to go back to the process that's in my contract to have goals done in August before school starts. I just wanted the way I read Brad Banasic's answer is that we had to
do something this December in order to do it next December because we are out of compliance by we skipped a year per your contract, and now we're out of compliance. So we're gonna be out of compliance either way. We're gonna be out of compliance. We're not doing it, or we're out of compliance for not doing your goals. So, that was my understanding of what he wrote. And it and it's not. And so, his simple suggestion was, we've he can't do my contract. My contract would be John Garrett. Right? That that's where my contract has sat in the past. And so when I asked John about this per Bev Bev requested it, he said,
I think you should talk to Brad about the efficacy and the scientific based research centered around that. So I emailed Debbie Stair, who then Brad emailed back. Really, I wouldn't have an evaluation because I didn't have a midyear. You have to establish goals, then establish a midyear. So his he's told you that this would if you chose, this is a really good time to start the January to December. Then if not, then we wait all the way until July to start my evaluation for the next school year. And that that is I could read it if you would like, but that is
the wording that he had as well. He said this December. If she's evaluating this December, it'd be perfect timing. Right. Which would be we would establish goals in December. It would be goal establishment, December. Do you have it to read? Yes. I will. Hold on. Because the last paragraph said, if you do that evaluate this December, this is a good time to switch to January. He doesn't say skip evaluation. That's how I read. But you wouldn't have a choice because you would you would violate my contract. So you've missed the first part of this. And so our rectification or we've discussed rectifying this by having it hold on.
I'm trying to get his email while we're looking. I shared with you that Rad Green, when I took the workshops, said we could not go eighteen months without an evaluation, that we needed to do one now. And and then, I forget how I explained it. It's But Brad's the attorney for MASV, which is why we did that. Okay. Just read it. He said this December. Hold on. Oh, I think I'm smiling. That's why. Why is it coming up this way? While you're looking, am I understanding correctly that if we stick with the currently approved timeline, there is no amendment?
And if we move to the alternative timeline, then there is an amendment? Yes. Okay. There are too many dates that were filed. Says Debbie forwarded your evaluation question to me, and my evaluation is dear Penny and Debbie, on August 4, we were fortunate to have you come and train our board on superintendent evaluation. I was asked to reach out to our attorney firm to find the legal guidance for the following information. My formal evaluations were highly effective. Last year, I was not evaluated as it was a skip year due to the three HEs. My former, which is highly effective for the community. My former evaluation cycle was from July to June.
All of the board was trained in August. We have not met with the board to develop goals. It is November. We had discussion regarding moving to January to December evaluation time period. President Hinton returned from MASV with the understanding that we need to set goals now for the next few months and do a midyear. Given that school advance was developed by MASV, can you please advise us as to the research based guidance on what the next steps are? I've contacted our attorney for the request of president Hinton, and the response was is that they do not see that this is in the law and are requesting that
I reach out to MASV given the rubric. This does not include language in my contract, just guidance on the process. Thank you. If it's easier, please call me. Hi, Amy. Debbie forwarded my evaluation question to me. The amended MCL 30.12949 b requires that school district's performance evaluation systems to include a midyear prep report for the superintendent. A midyear progress report must only be completed in the years when a superintendent is evaluated. Thus, a midyear progress report is not required in a non evaluation year when the
superintendent is being evaluated biannually. For the purpose of the midyear progress report is to gauge the superintendent's improvement from the preceding evaluation and to assist the superintendent to improve if needed. If a superintendent is on the July to June evaluation cycle, the midyear process would occur in November or December. In your case, because you were not evaluated for the last school year in June, you are not required to have a midyear progress report this November or December. In my opinion, this would be an ideal time for your evaluation to transition to
a January to December cycle. If your evaluation is concluded this December, then your first midyear progress report would be due in June, which makes more sense for specifically performance goals that cover the remainder of the calendar year, which is the timeline for your goals associated with the superintendent's midyear report. I hope my perspective on this issue is helpful. Please let me know if you have any following questions. So, therefore, I do not need a midyear, and his suggestion is if we wanted to change to January to December. Otherwise, you would not be able to evaluate me this year as my contract allows
for the goals to be set up ahead of time and it would be a value a violation of my contract. I've prepared goals for you to consider for this December and to change it from June January to June, but you would have to amend the contract inside of the areas that I shared with you that states that those goals are done before the school year starts. He's he's proposed the note the January to December time frame. It it said, if you were to be evaluated this December. And that so that's how I But I mean, if I was to be evaluated
with December, it does not says Okay. I'm just saying that's how I had done it before. Okay. And so, why bother opening the contract if we're doing it? We'll just wait. That's my opinion. So then we push off goal establishment until June 2026. Yes. We got locked one out right now anyways. K. I feel like, Brad's recommending it and he is counsel. I feel like we should probably look into it. I I wanna be real clear. I'm not looking for a contract extension if that's what your concerns are. I was just clarifying that the language would no longer be and put you at
a risk as well for not following my contract. Listen. You don't wanna evaluate me till next year? Hi biggity dog. I'm just I'm just saying we got a lot going on right now. If if he says that we can do it, then we might as well just skip it and wait and not open your contract. His recommendation is not to do that. His recommendation is to do January to December. That's how I heard it too. I thought I heard if that we choose to do that route. Let me read it again to you. If the superintendent is on a January to June evaluation cycle, which is what I'm on, the midyear progress report would call come in November, December.
In your case, because you were not evaluated in the last school year, you're not required to have a made to your progress report. What he's not reading is my contract, which requires you and, again, this is should be something that's handled, before we come to here. But in the evaluation, the superintendent's performance shall be evaluated by the board in accordance with one twelve forty nine b of the revised school code. If the school superintendent's been right laid it highly effective for the years prior, 07/01/2024, or effective on or after 07/20/2024, on three consecutive annual evaluations, which I was, the
board may conduct the following evaluation biannually instead of annually. However, if the superintendent is not rated highly effective or effective on one of the by, by, annual evaluations, they shall be provided with annual evaluations, such as in compliance with one twenty nine forty nine revised school code, which includes the assessment of the progress towards the goals, whatever. The board will request by the superintendent to meet with her to discuss a written evaluation in a manner that's consisted of the, requirements of the Michigan opens meeting act. The board of education and the superintendent shall shall meet annually prior to the beginning
of the school year to discuss and perform discuss and determine performance standards for the said year. So that is what would need to be changed. If you want to go to January to December, and I have goals that are already goals that you have shared with us as a team that we need to complete, just try to write them out in a way that makes sense. If the board wishes not to evaluate me, I think what John said is he doesn't see it anywhere in the law that says, you know, there's some person that's coming out after superintendent evaluation, I'd be rated highly effective for an additional effective because
there's no highly effective in the system. I'd be rated effective for an additional year, which is the highest rating. You would give the $3,000 and we would move on. So under the new law, you have to be, evaluated every year. Right? No. No. You do not. When you have it's the same pretty much the same laws it was before. Really, superintendent evaluations have not changed. So once you have three effective or highly effective, because some of them will be caught in the last two years. The key here is is that my contract states it needs to be done in
August. And so you really just have a choice. If you don't want to evaluate me, listen, we have goals that we're going to hit whether you do it or not because that's who we are. We're going to stand up and do the programs and things we need to do. The contract says it's a choice of the board. Even if she's effective, if we wanna do it every year, we can do it every year. However, the superintendent That's not what my contract says. Is that? One way annual evaluation superintendent. Just read it yesterday.
I mean, I should have highlighted on that screen. It says may conduct the following evaluation biannually instead of annually. So I don't think that's what we're disclosing. I I think what we're saying is that we didn't do my goals. So we either do it January to December and do an evaluation. You can give me constructive feedback, which is what this is supposed to be, or we can wait. Okay. So we wanna move this off forward per vote next week. Is there any other part that needs discussing? People have questions about any of the resume? Oh, well, I'd like feedback.
So if we need to make some changes because then you would need to change the contract in order to move it from January to December. You cannot do you gotta do it simultaneously, so I think you gotta have a sense of what the board would like to do. I feel like, in my opinion, we should listen to Brad. His recommendation is to move it January to December. And the and the reason why you do January to December, which is the reason original reason we went to that, is that you'll have potentially new board members in January and you wanna complete the eval of the superintendent with the current board, giving
them feedback and guidance on what you would like to see differently and give the new board members an opportunity to already have recommended goals in and to establish that further. I'm not objecting to January to December at all. I don't think Debbie is either. But there's no evaluation done on you from June until December year. So there's six months going unevaluated. And then we're just starting in January and skipping the last six months. That's the issue. I don't care if it's January or December. You just can't go back and give an evaluation on items that you that would
be violating the process and violating the the the document and the process you've been taught, and you can't go back and say, Oh, by the way, now I'm going to evaluate you, but I've not set goals with you. So, is there any anybody else have any comments here? I just have a quick question. So are we when you when you bring it when it comes to the board next week, are we voting for January, December, or are we voting for or are we voting to pick one? Well, we're gonna vote to open the contract. Well, well, I'm I'm asking, your guidance on which way, which is why I wrote
both of them in here for discussion at this meeting because you really wouldn't discuss that at the next one. Right? It's you need to give guidance on which way you'd like to see it. One is status quo. The other moving from January to December requires an amendment. The other is remaining with the status quo and punt goal establishment until June 2026. And I wanna remind you, the other thing that I asked in the next item is that you put the salary schedule in there. There's an issue with ORS, and not having it in there risks my retirement and
the increases that I've had for me. Seeing how I'm, in the retirement pipeline, I could retire now. I would prefer to finish out my contract. I was suggesting that we go ahead and put that in there. It's recommended by MASA, and you'll see us talk about that later on the agenda as well. What else can we change in the contract? Anything we want? Can we have things? We have to negotiate it. Yes. And if that's the plan, then this board should probably, before next week, have a, session with me, and or talk now about the kind of things you'd like added into the contract, and we'd have to negotiate.
My suggestion was simply to change what I knew needed to do for protection of you guys to follow the contract. Okay. Nothing. Alright. You know, I remember when we had the the board workshop, and she talked about the benefits of doing it from January to December, and I think those make sense. You know? Look, it seems like a lot of the schedules and with the school don't line up with reality. Right? You know, elections take place. A new a newly elected board member would come in in January, midway through the
process. So if they could be part of that process all along, that makes sense. I think either way, we're safe. I mean, I don't wanna proceed where we put ourselves in jeopardy by not doing the right thing or not following the law or following the contract. We're behind the eight ball, right, because we missed a lot of time. So we're kind of behind. I just wanna make sure that we don't do anything that, you know, jeopardizes, our
position as a board. So it sounds to me like we're all in favor of doing the December to December got For January and December with goals approved. In December. Yeah. Is is that the case? Is everybody in agreements with that? I think so. Okay. So what I might recommend is having doctor Wilcox work with Clark Hill and redo
her contract with the correct terminology, send it to the board to review, and have us look at it and see if there's anything else that we wanna add, delete to it, or discuss that we may need a closed session for. I'm I'm not willing to go into closed session for it. I want it done in the open, please. Okay. You can't do your contract in closed session. Okay. Yes. You can. You can have discussions with your superintendent about the contract. You have to prove it can in session.
Okay. So maybe we'll make We cannot do her contract behind closed doors discussion. Okay. Then maybe then see the changes that, she wants to happen before next Monday's meeting. So we're all in alignment or we table this until we see a copy of it and see if there's anything else we want to add, change, or keep it as is. Are you suggesting January, we just do the whole thing and it will not be
No. It needs to be done before according to what doctor Volkont is saying, it needs to be done before we vote on changing changing because we need to vote on the goals. Yes. Next week. Yeah. It's next week or it's June because we have to in order to amend the contract to change the timeline, we would immediately put ourselves out of compliance if we didn't have goals in December. So it sounds like it's a hurried thing that needs to happen. And all I'm saying is maybe we can see the contract changes before that. And I guess, I would need to know if there's items that you would want
changed to that contract. If there's if there's areas that you would like me to address, with John Gehrig, I think now is the time to share some of those concerns that you have with the contract. Well, I'd like to see the updated contract before The only update is gonna be January to December and this possible is salary. Well, obviously, he's probably gonna change your name. He was probably changing my name. He probably will change I think there's been another change in the law about the evaluation, that, how you can I'm not using the right words right now.
I'm looking at you, Jimmy. About, your ability to appeal an evaluation is what the change in administrative law is. And then I think that all this highly effective stuff is gonna come out. Yeah. There's a section already in there that closes that out, and so we would take that language out. Yes. Yep. And I'd like to see how that is formatted in here. Would the administrative law supersede the contract anyway? Yes. Okay. The administration what? Administrative law would supersede the contract anyway because we can't clean up that language. That's it. Yeah. That's what I wanna see before we I'm not looking for any major changes in
length and time or whatever. I shared that with president Hinton as well. It is at this point in time, it's my intent to retire, in June 2029 unless I suddenly have an incredible burst of energy to go forward with that. I'll be 62 years old and my grandchild will be getting older. So is that it? Yeah. So I just I think we just need to Please reach out if you have something, but we should kinda run it past some conversations, because it kinda has to go together. Then the next piece is, if that is alright, are the goals that I tried
to talk about the things that we have going on, which is, very, huge. I think we are already feeling it. Strategic planning, which I sent out, all that information, to all of you you guys with the meetings coming up. You're not needing to attend all of them, but, but the strategic plan goal is completed by June 30, which would be my midyear evaluation, and then the strategic components, which will be done by cabinet by August 1, and then conduct quarterly reviews in September or December, which would put us back on the track of how we used
to do it when I first came. And then cybersecurity planning, this is pretty much the process that, the work we'll be doing is complete an assessment of current practices, which actually is happening this week, so we may have that sooner. Participate in monthly meetings, support the development and implementation of a disaster recovery plan by December 2026, and support the creation of a district wide patch management process by December 2026, which is, it may be done sooner, just depends on, those monthly meetings. And then the policy transition, right, we are currently doing the board, first reading next
week. Then the administrative procedures will be done by June by our cabinet, maybe sooner. And then we have to align all the student code of conducts. Then we have to go back and correct all the handbooks that we have in the district. So the student handbook by August 2026 and the employee by December 2026. And then the financial strategies and improvement that, the district audit completed by 10/30/2026, support the procedures and, collaborate with ISD and board appointed consultants, providing quarterly reports March, June,
September, December, and the support, the completion of negotiations for groups beginning in February 2026 and provide quarterly negotiation updates to the board. And I didn't know if you have other areas that you would like to see. I have a couple. I really want an enrollment committee. I've been asking for one for three years. It was a couple different things I I saw, Why students are leaving, why they're coming, what can we do to help keep our enrollment or improve it. Also, see if we can increase the number of students that live in district and
attend our schools. None of these are directly, student. There's no, like, we have that beautiful presentation today. No improvement goals. No behavior improvement goals. I I just would like to see something student related. So, normally, mine is big picture pieces for that. And then a part of that, that's the strategic plan will have the student related goals. So four is pretty heavy. Would you like to take any of these out as part of your assessment? Because you would like me to add the enrollment, which I believe some of those conversations are coming with our, work with the ISD.
We're working right now to try to break that up for enrollment and, inside PowerSchool. So I actually have been working on some of that, Debbie, but it's, on top of all of this, we're gonna have to wait for us to get it going. So we could try to say, have an enrollment committee, by June 2026 once some of these other things get completed. And then that can be part of that strategic planning and potential bond conversation as well, like, all of that go together. Okay. I can I can put it under there? Put it under there. And I'll put this other and I'm gonna rewrite I'm not gonna call it enrollment.
I'm gonna call something underneath enrollment, and then I will add your request about, doing, some kind of study or survey. I need to get the right words for it to assess those why they're coming, why they're going, and why people in the community. And we can do that. It just depends on if we wanna take on that cost. I think mister Sobey mentioned some organizations that do those community surveys, and you may also wanna do that with a bond if you choose to do that when you finish your strategic plan. So it's a survey that could go all as one in the summertime as you're addressing that for the fall.
And my only other comment is, I think, board appointed consultantsfacilitators. Okay. Anything else, guys? The only thing that I see that's, is the finance ensuring a timely completion of the audit by October 30. That's by law. We have to have it into the state by the first. I would like to see that October 1. So we're voting at it voting at it in the October meeting instead of all just waiting and I don't know that I can control the auditors' time periods.
We're gonna have to go out and so I think as much as I'd like to have it that early as well, that's really gonna depend on our auditors and their workload and who you determine to go with because you have to RFP it out again. Okay. Because when I had my conversation with the auditors, they were still saying they were waiting on a lot of stuff. And because I know that our finance department has been working very hard to get things in on a timely basis, I feel that October 1, they should be able to have everything to them if it's closing in.
July 1 is your first day into the new year. Right? So June 30? I don't know. I have to I have to look at them because I all I can do is ensure that it comes on a timely basis. That would be then me pushing them to get their items done and talk to the auditor. This year, UHY was available to come out for the first two weeks in September, so there's no way we could've had the audit done by October 1. And and we don't pick that time frame. It's really based on their availability. So not knowing who we're gonna have next year. Are they doing pre audit work beforehand?
Just for one day. One day of pre audit work. Okay. So they don't come in in December and say, you know, let's do a quick quick audit of the first six months of the year. And you'd have to pay for that? I mean, that to me is a cost benefit because you're doing a lot the first half of the year instead of everything all at once. Well, we have to RFP the audit. We can put something like that in there, but without I I would have to I would wanna seek the the additional guidance from our attorneys centered around doing that and speak with our auditors as well because I feel like I'm not an auditor,
and so I would wanna understand that. But we certainly can take that to them, Heidi, and ask that question. But, again, I think that August 30 date is it wasn't on time the year that I was here, that when, the business office left, and that's all we can promise. We can put October 1, but I can say right now loud and proud, I I don't control that the audit firm is going to based upon, when they come in. And, yes, there were some things that were done, but we hope that those things will be different this year given the fact that they'll have a year under their
belt, but I can't guarantee that some other thing's gonna happen. But, again, goals and evaluation is about improvement. So So maybe if we can just put by by the October board meeting. Sure. Let's do that. Now don't try to change the October board meeting to October 1. Mhmm. No. It's mid month. Just being funny. Is there other things that you would like to see for for organizational goals from the superintendent? What does it count? Then the other piece is a request to pay the $3,000 that is done for,
the evaluation. It has to come to the board, and so my request is you're gonna have to pay it. So I'm requesting that we pay that $3,000 Wasn't this supposed to be paid in June? Nope. There's no time frame for it. I thought it said it had to be done by June. It has to be done by June. Yes. So it should have been done in June? I got one in June. This is for this school year. So after your evaluation is done, then if you get an effective but we will not be evaluating me for the 2425 2526 school year. So the $3,000 will have to be given for this year. Then the next one would be next year in December time period.
So that's also going to change in your contract? No. It'll be the same. It it just won't say by June. It still could be at the closing of school year, if that's what you choose to do. So, you got it in June year, which is For last year. And then, you're getting it in December this year. And then, December year. Okay. So, that should change that writing Sure. Should change in your contract. You can see that. Currently says June. Okay. Alright. Are we good? Yeah. I'm gonna go to, Teamsters contract approval. So we need not to Well, they gotta move it because we are asking for
you to approve this tonight. Yeah. So Oh, approve to what? Sorry. It does say approval. To approve it. A motion to approve the contract. Teamsters. I motion to approve the twenty twenty five twenty six Teamsters contract as presented. Support. Okay. So we did meet with Teamsters, and we were able to come up with the tentative agreement. That's why we're asking you guys to approve this. This would be a 3% pay raise for the staff on their salary schedule. And then reclassing a a secretary of the one that serves at the preschool. She does have additional responsibilities than the other building secretaries, and she's a twelve month
employee. The only building secretary is not a twelve month employee or that is a twelve month employee. I'm sorry. So we would request her to a one a from a class two. Right? Yeah. But I wanna clarify. Our high school administrators, her secretaries are also twelve months, so I don't know how this is. Is not the only building one, but she's a she's another she's a twelve month employee that would be reclassed into a class one a. She does have additional responsibilities that she does throughout the year. All of their enrollment for pre k, GSRP, all those duties, is completely handled by
our friends over at Webster. So those are just the two changes that they asked for. And they will be paid if you approve this tonight, they will be paid on Wednesday or Thursday, whichever, when they're This pay will, so that would would, encompass all of the back pay for that from July 1 until now. So they've been waiting patiently for this. Is that from June forward? Yes. July July 4. July. So what are because doctor Wilcox made a comment that our high school secretary is also twelve months. What is their class?
They our principal secretary is a class one a. The council secretary no. I don't think the council secretary the principal secretary The principal yeah. The principal secretary is class one a at the high school, and the council secretary is a class two. So the principal secretaries that are in class two on the chart you gave us all those would be all the other ones. Other buildings. Yes. The 10 master. Here it is. Building secretary. Who is the receptionist? Who is how many We don't currently I mean, the position exists, but we don't It's one of the positions we actually eliminated in our cost savings. Okay. That's out here. Yes. Yes. Yes. And that position, is currently filled when individuals might have a workman's comp and can't
be in front of kids or something. We haven't come over here, and, right now, we've had somebody for a little while that isn't able to go to the office. Only receptionist position is that one? Yes. Yeah. It's the only receptionist in the future. K. So we wouldn't really account for that because it's not really? It's not accounted in the cost that we gave you. Employee. Right. Okay. It would be a full time employee, but it's not needed. It's easy to see on the salary schedule in case. And hopefully, someday, we can have that position back. But while we're still under the 5%, that's not our recommendation at this point. Though we love having somebody up there.
Can I pick a winner of the security grant? Because she's the first person in that you see when you walk in the building. I don't think so that would be supplanting. The only reason I think we could put the SROs in that grant is because they've been in another grant, and so I think we can bring that over to security. But there it could be a consideration, Heidi, because they haven't given like, the according to this that, those positions or the security grant, that was not under the legislature to, do the supplanting or what have you. And so we'll see how that comes out here in the next month or two.
Okay. Okay. Roll call. Yes. Reiki? Yes. Becker? Yes. Fortress? Yes. The carboys? Yes. Anton? Yes. Motion carries six zero. If I could just put a little piece in there real quick, I believe we'll have something on GSRP next week. So, that is my hope. We're in talks at the moment. K. What's up is, nonunion salary schedules? So this is the, central office salary schedule. There is this is recommended recommended by MASA that all districts, adopt a defined salary schedule for the central office personnel.
This just really is a protection for the central office personnel in their time of retirement. Currently, MSA has filed against the ORF for challenging the use of what they're calling the normal salary increase formula, which is just an arbitrary arbitrary formula that ORS invented, sort of. It's in the it's in the background. So that they determine how much of the administrative salary can be counted towards their final average compensation recommendation by MASA.
And I'm gonna bring a little bit into that. Each district has their own salary that they do based upon your salary increases. I want to say I believe that that would not harm anyone in this district because we've always had the same amount as our teachers have had, and you guys have been really good about being equitable across the board, but we need to not take a chance. The encouragement is is that the board would project out, like, a salary schedule the next several years. I didn't think you would do that, so that's why we wrote in a 0% increase for next year and that when those come up, we would redo the salary
schedule again and have board approval. I think the key is board approval. It's recommended for superintendents for it to be in their contract. And so, that's why the suggestion was to do the superintendent's contract. But for here, this will help those of us that if somebody decides to retire, we would make sure that they are quote unquote safe along the way. So, of course, I have questions. Our schedule doesn't have annuity, longevity, and merit like the example. Do we not have those things here? No. The only person that gets merit is myself. Okay. So that was one question.
So according to this examples, they get an automatic 3%. We're not saying that. No. But I it was recommended that that's how you do it across the board. And then each year, you approve the actual salary increase. That makes it a little more appropriate for our staff. But I didn't think that I would get you to that point to agree to put the 3% in there for the next couple years, but that's really what should happen for them. And then when it comes time to do their contracts and approval, then you would
approve if it's actually gonna be 3% or not. So but if it's written in there, wouldn't we have to pay the 3%? I think we could certainly have in the motion next week that this will be, addressed, before July 1 of each school year so that, hopefully, we'll have negotiations done or what have you. That way so if you put the 3%, you're probably a little better off for our for our people, but that's why I put no percent increase and then we would just, do it. I think we could put wording. We could come up with wording to make sure that it realizes that you have
to approve it every year. Just like we don't necessarily give steps to our teachers every year, but we redid our salary schedule in order to do so. Right? Sometimes there were freezes that would be the same concept. Okay. Let me see if I have wrote anything else now. So this then regardless of actual increase would just provide the protection of ORS assigning this random Yeah. Take the superintendent increase in Yeah. In general two. Most people are protected and require the bargaining agreement. And in this case, there isn't, you know, there there wouldn't be ones to protect
Okay. The staff. And these are all the individuals that are not in a collective bargaining agreement to protect anyone that wishes to retire. Would we so they would take that as an actual formula instead of the arbitrary percentage? They can look at what our actual salary schedule is. Okay. And accept that rather than them saying, oh, no. We we don't like that percentage. So would we have to open all of the contracts to do this? Because we're getting a salary schedule. There's no salary schedule for this is the individuals that don't have one. So it's just for, like, our bookkeepers, account payable, their positions.
This just sets this up as a salary schedule, and you would wanna improve it to actually what it is each year. I put the 0% increase on because I what we could do is when you determine what salary increases would be for the 2627 school year, you could, then just reassign a new one for next year. But I'm saying this doesn't this salary schedule does not go in their contracts? They don't have no. This is they don't have contracts in the same way. No. So it doesn't go into theirs. No. It just provides a formula for retirement calculation according to the lawsuit background here.
The important piece is your superintendent contracts, which is really what they were going after, and then they ended up grabbing other people in this lawsuit. Because oftentimes, superintendents get large raises. And so, actually, what this law does is encourage superintendents to leave to make more money somewhere else because you plateau out. So if you wanted to give somebody $50,000 raise, right, then that $55,000 raise would not be what they would get towards their retirement. And this was in Illinois as well where people would get 20% bumps at the end of their careers, teachers and everybody, and then it would inflate what the community
is paying on retirement to individuals. So, this is their way to protect that for the taxpayers, which I'm not saying is wrong. It just we just need to settle that in. And and this group, we're awaiting their Merck conversation because they've requested to form a union as well. No more questions? Nobody? Okay. That's his policy. I think that needs to be a special meeting with mister Secker. I didn't bring any I have a lot of things I have questions on. It could be it just could be lengthy, so that's my He said he doesn't.
Really come that, he'd like me to bring back the first reading questions to him, which is why we brought it here. He will, but he normally asked the superintendent to bring it back because I did inquire about that. And that is why we had a policy group. So I don't know when we could do a unless you're gonna push policies out until June January for first reading, which then pushes all those other dates out for completing items as well. What's our, what is our special meeting in January?
I know we have, I don't think we don't have special meetings in January. We don't handle workshop? Mhmm. Just the We don't have a special meeting in January. The issue was January right as break and then Martin Luther King died. I think that I've seen him at other board meetings, discuss policy with entire boards. I also think we're paying $17,000 for this. And I think that we should have a special meeting with mister Sutton. There's nothing in there about drones. There's nothing in there about flags because it's a big controversy over the rainbow flags.
There's nothing in there about concussions. Those are all in administrative policy. And nothing in there under Lachki? Well, I would like him to come and I would like to ask him, and I think we should do it in January. So, I would suggest February time February special meeting, if you approve that, because January, there are many meetings that are occurring, and, I think that would be pretty difficult, to fit in another meeting. Do we our workshop in January is a retreat. Right? Yes. Oh, well, you could utilize some of that retreat time on the and have a
conversation there. I think that sounds like a good plan. If he's available. Right. Yeah. To get him to come out on that's a Saturday. Right? Yes. We can ask him. We haven't talked about, the topics for the retreat, so we certainly can do that. Could could we, in the meantime, whatever questions we have, Bob clearly has questions about things that are included or not included, Could we could compile this stuff and give it to doctor Wilcox and maybe communicate it to Kevin because maybe there's something around it. Maybe there's answers to these questions that we can get moving on this because I
think the policy is important, and I I don't I'd rather not slow it up, you know, even in the superintendent goals. It's a policy transition. You know, I mean, we had, the committee to do this, and we, you know, we put in work. So just a thought that maybe we can find a way to move forward with what we have. And then if there are things that we find that are lacking that need to be amended, you know, maybe that's a a possibility. I would be happy to take everybody's questions and combine that and then get that
to him and get those answers back to you. And in the meantime, speak with him also about being able to come on the tenth that would keep him better prepared and evaluate. Oftentimes during our committee, as you know, you had questions. And he's like, oh, that's a good idea, and he would circle back around. So I certainly could take those to you if you'd get them to me, sooner than later. Because I would imagine that if you will go on vacation, so maybe by Friday. If you could get questions to me, would that work? How about Saturday? Saturday? Not Sunday at noon. But I'm here around that Sunday. So you can do Sunday at noon if you would like, and I'll get them
to it. And in the meantime, find out a lot to to combine. That's fine. And if you wanna copy them or come in and have them copied so you don't have to rewrite them, we can pull them off your stuff. Well, nobody could probably read my writers. But I was I was a teacher. I certainly can. But if that would work for you, I'm happy to do it that way as well because we're gonna have to combine them over anyway. We there's not so if we're getting these by Saturday, there's no expectation that he's answering these by Monday's meeting. Is there? No. Okay. We would show this off and Okay. Put it on January and ask him to come January 10 to have the conversation.
Okay. Well, at least give us a week to to compile our questions. Then I think Friday, our week's already full. I'm just worried. I say Saturday or Sunday. I'm just worried then the next week's the last week before a break, and he's a parent, and my guess is is he's doing something for the holidays with his family. And so then you might not get it ready by the tenth. So I was just hoping that I could get it out Monday. Maybe if you get it to me by Saturday or Sunday, I could have it to him on Monday and give him a little time so he can put this behind him and not worry about break as well. And me too.
I've been working with him. He seemed very receptive. And a lot of times when questions did arise in the in the committee meetings, he had an answer right then. The master meeting. Yeah. So he knew, you know, a lot of this stuff has has come up in the past. So, hopefully, it's not, you know, too sticky of a process and that we can move it along. But I I'm confident that that we can get the answers we need to to move forward. Okay. Sounds like a plan on it. Building some grounds. Campaigns the woods.
So what I did bring was the ability for us to go ahead and, bid out. We don't have to do a formal bidding process. I spent a little time on the phone today with the attorney about bidding processes and what we have to do, what we don't have to do, and what we have to put up and what we don't. So these would not because they don't reach the 31,000. We think it's about 20,000 for each project. So we would go out and get a couple of quotes here in the wintertime so that as soon as it falls, we could work on that roof replacement and repair and the window replacement of the house with the hopes that we would interview. And in the spring, we would get somebody in there or for the summertime so
that we can get the grounds cleaned up and go back to the things that we were doing before, but we've got to get that house cleaned up. Wasn't there an issue with the deck back deck or the deck? Yes. I don't think we would have to bid that out, but, we were looking at they sent me pictures. There's two different thoughts. One individual thinks that the guys could just put some stuff on it to fix it, that maybe we didn't need a total replacement, and so we might be able to do that in house. Okay. I'd like to see that first and the front stoop. Yes. And we would paint the house too, and that would be done by our guys
as well. So is this coming out of Sinking fun. Then how was it just on fun. What'd you say? So it's general fund. We just didn't fix that then. What was that? Supposed to be sinking fund? Yes. So you gave us, at our last meeting a three year plan for the sinking fund, and this wasn't included in it. No. I think it is. But it's There's a Hazelwood component of the three years later. It's not it doesn't have an individual page, but there's because I got because you brought that up to me. Yeah. It doesn't have its own page like the schools, but it does have a, there's
like a at the end, there's a list of It doesn't have as many items that's needed, so it is on the sinking fund plan. Yes. And it said $45,000 for Camp Hazel Wind. And was that for this year? Yes. Yes. Okay. And that's something I think we can get done before June 30. Yep. Absolutely. Some of these other projects, not so much. Okay. Moving on to invest soccer field. Yes. So when we think soccer field, we wanna think a little different than soccer field. It's not gonna be a true soccer field, but it will be a size to where the park district and such could look at it.
So this is just to develop an RFP to get what the actual cost would be. This is probably a project that could be done by June 30 in this school year, because it really is clearing some of the trees, you know, putting in the grass and and making it level. I'm not using the right word with that either. Making it level, out there. And so we did have our architects take a look, and we're just waiting, for approval to to develop an RFP for for that software field. Would they need to remove the playground equipment that's already there?
They want the playground equipment removed. They've been asking forever about it. Yes. So is that part of this? Yes. K. I have a really quick question. New fire rated doors were also on the agenda for this year? They moved they moved from there? No. I think we moved them over. For the for their school, we did not get the, COPS grant for fire rated doors for the district for the half million dollars. So we're not doing that because we didn't Right. That's not one of our top ones. That's gonna be a little bit more than that. Okay. So this is just for RFP?
This is just for RFP. I I think with one of the things in the last, week, I spent some time, and Greg spent some time walking with our architectural firm and looking at things. I think we're gonna see that some things can be done by June 30, some things cannot so it'll roll into next year. But what we will have is costs, and it's gonna take them several months to write RFPs because it's like the, welding. It's gonna take a little more time to write it, so we won't see that till March or April. That's probably not gonna be in the summertime. Right? So And so I'm just saying, under the bond, they needed the HVAC for a
million dollars, windows and a roof. We have an obligation to keep our buildings up. The citizens own those buildings. So I just wanna make sure it's RFP. We're not saying that we're doing this. No. It's just it actually, it's just to go for an RFP to have it done. So I'm doing way more steps than are required by law. Right? Normally, you bring an RFP to you guys and we send it out and do it. We're going through a request to be able to go to get an RFP, then we'll bring you the RFPs, then you have to approve the RFP, and then we
send out the RFP, and then you have to approve the bid on the RFP. So along this way, we're gonna get a sense of where some of these projects are, and then we can look at it there. The problem with the roof and the doors and the boiler, it's very expensive. And so when their their preference actually, that boiler probably works better, just not as energy efficient than any boilers because it's those old time boilers that last forever, is that the they the soccer field really gives an opportunity for their students to be able to, enjoy the outside, and right now, it's very limited for them.
It's their request of their number one item. Okay. Next, high school doors. So this one also was, a little curve ball for us is that, our the state fire marshal came out as well as our architect was walking through the building and said, listen, you cannot have those gates up. I had always heard, from others in the role that those were grandfathered in, they absolutely are not. And so you have to have a certain like, it's 20 feet of distance of each side for, fire safety.
And so the way to go about this is to put doors just like they are going into the cafeteria. So this, it too, will take time to get done because they have to do the drawings. Once they do the drawings, it has to go to the state, which will take six to eight weeks, and then we would be ready to go to RFP for this. And so this probably is something that would happen, you know, maybe winter break next year. Maybe it'll be faster than that and the state approves it and we can get in. Maybe we could do one or two this summer and move forward. I think the most important pieces is when you walk in the athletic, when you
walk in the athletic door there where you're gonna have somebody stand to the right, we would lock down right after the pool so they can't go down into that area. So if they're there to swim, they could walk up there or they could walk into the basketball game, but we could we wouldn't have people trailing down into the aux gym unless we opened it. The other one would be to the left when you walk in, which is that larger hallway. And it, again, would put a locked door there so that they can't go in. This isn't as expensive as the project as it sounds, but you have to go through the state to do it.
How how is it safer than the gates? Well, the gates They're gonna be because you could push in. Because you lock this way. So when I walk in, they open so if you're caught in the hall running down, they have to open that direction for fire code. But going this they don't have to go in those halls down there. So they they have a fire exit going out the back door. And the gates lock you in, and you can't get out. So that's the issue is that if you were locked in those halls, you can't get through, and that's the fire code violation.
Trust me. I've had it over and over again, locked the buildings again to have the conversation with our architects, and the fire marshal has mentioned it several times, is my understanding that I'm finding out. So we had to take the gates down. So the lock would be on the near the door? Nope. On the other side of the door. So So I'm not I'm standing right here. Open. If I'm standing at at the crossroads where there's a guard, I can push the door open? Opposite. You can push the door open from the hall. Like, if you're standing at the art room and you had to leave, you ran
to push out to go out the back door. Right. Okay. That's what I I was just saying. If they can push it open, then there's no room there. And then you would protect that piece that people can't be wandering in your halls during that time period. There's also an additional place that we're talking about, which is where it was right by the media center, and right before the media center, right after the showcases, right in that area. And, what and that would not be a fire bolt door. That would be one that could be pushed open, but it closes that and their fire escape is out the front door.
The conversation I had is so we originally talked about potential plans down the line of making that media center the main office. And I said, how would that impact? And he said nothing at all. That's like a perfect piece for it to be right there as well. So it gives some extra layers of protection for people not running in the halls, when you have events going on in that section. And so, and maybe also when kids are at lunch and they're not supposed to be going that direction yet, and they may find their ways down the halls when they're not supposed to, but you open it up right before the lunch period is
over. So is that part of this too? And Yes. All three of those. So those three areas. All fourth is the one going down by the pool or, pool lockers that that could be shut off as well. Oh, so we're gonna put one there too? Mhmm. There was a gate there. Yeah. Yes. So I don't know that we would do all four at one time. We might pick the most important ones for time periods and then do the other ones in the following year, but I think it will alleviate some of the strife that the administrators are having with those gates down Mhmm. Because we've grown accustomed to them. But remember, I took the gates down for fire safety here when we first came,
but I was told that that was not an issue there, but it most certainly is. Okay. So, my question is we were holding a a a grant. We're waiting for a grant for 41 doors for the high schools. Can you put that in there? We did not get it. We were hoping we did not get the COPS grant this year. So I think we got it, you know, the two years before, and so we did not they announced it in November, and we did not get it, unfortunately. And we'll write again. We'll write it down. You said for for invest. I thought maybe we got some of it in the Yeah.
We didn't get any of it. Okay. So that's that will include well, they're gonna have to build a wall type thing for the doors to fit into, like the cafeteria. They're not gonna build the hard piece around it. Though I asked him to develop one that's going to be not there's oh, you can go plywood or some of that's more solid things like you have in the cafeteria. And I said, we want it solid because we want it to last. We don't want a half of a job done that's something that could be broken down. We want solid so that it lasts a long time. Our high school is in great shape for some for the structure.
It's the roof and the air conditionings that are. Okay. The emergency purchase of the mobility controller. And I thought we wanted to motion to Yes. I'm sorry that you're gonna yes. We're asking for approval. Okay. We need a motion for this one. I move that the board of education approve to submit a four oh, yeah. Is that the Yes. A four seventy to go offer bids for the networking equipment needed? Support. Okay. So we're having some Internet issues, and some of it has to do with our end of life issues, with this controller. And so there's three items that I think Brad mentioned to me that need to
be replaced. And, so this would go out and go out for bid and, then hopefully, we could purchase it in April and or if we're allowed, then we would seek legal guidance from the attorney I was with now as could we could we get it and then pay for it after April? I think we have to kinda see what the legalities are around that. So we need to get it out there and use our e rate funding for this. So it's gonna be we can't get it earlier. We're gonna have a long haul until April. So he's asking for three separate items, not just a control arm or mobility controller.
Correct. Oh, there you are. Thank you. Yeah. That's why I changed it for the subject to be emergency purchase of networking equipment and not just controller because it's a controller, the firewall, and Aruba Central, which, would allow us for easier access to, manage the networking. So what is an Aruba Central? Aruba Central would be for us like, right now, if we change the Wi Fi password, we literally have to go and touch every single device and update the password on the device. Aruba Central would basically be a centralized location or a centralized platform that then we
can allow people to log in with their Google Google credentials or some other form of, credentials instead of having to go and touch every single device. Okay. Do you know how old the one is that we have? The mobility control we have is around seven years old. And then in technology world, that's when they start reaching end of life and end of support. Is worth? Yes. Mhmm. Well, an E rate makes a difference. That's what we're trying to capture here is not have to spend the dollars outright, but to get us to the e rate amount, and, they'll pay a a larger
percentage of it. So if we buy this before April 1, they don't pay it? That's right. So this is this is to do the e rate bids that are already going out. We're not purchasing you're not approving any purchase. This is to go for bid. Hope the bid takes a long time. Well, look, There's time plan. As I said earlier, right, that there's time periods that we would go through, and we would share all of that information with you if we could do it earlier. Okay. I have another quick question. Mhmm. You said our firewall is not I should have had it.
Yes. We need to increase our firewall size? Yes. So the firewall that we currently have is not suitable for the size of our district. When we got it, it was my first year here in the district. And, yes, we were one to one on devices, but we weren't so heavily utilizing one to one in the classrooms that much and where everything now is based on, everything's online now from all most of the software and the curriculum that's used in the classrooms and stuff. So we're undersized on the firewall right now.
Because I would like to see our district I'm just just putting it out there for the universe to hear. Less one on one devices because tons of studies are coming out right now that, test scores plummet. Because I I don't know if the kids don't learn as well on one one devices, but, I'm looking to to see what to see maybe look down the road. We certainly could have a conversation to make a recommendation to the board, but at this point in time, it's not been a conversation that we've had. And I've seen some of those same studies coming out, and so we'll be interested
to follow and watch them. Because I'm just putting out there in the universe. But I'd like to see us go the other direction. Okay. And, Debbie, it's elementary. Right. Elementary. Less devices at elementary. It's the studies. Would you do roll call? Yes. Rudin? Yes. Becker? Yes. Portra? Yes. McBride West? Yes. Yes. Motion carries six zero. High school CTE classroom. I think I've already given you that update. We're not gonna have, this the RFP by next week. I think I had high hopes, and John's like, no Amy, it doesn't work that
way. So it's gonna be a little while before we see that our So that won't be on? That will not be on the agenda. Okay. I wanted to give you an update, though, and I think we did already. Okay. The next is the high school abatement approval. So So we need a motion. Please. I make a motion to approve the abatement removal, abatement removal at the high school as presented. So I think, actually, the memo is missing for this, and you just see the carpet. It's not that. Actually, what happens is NOVA already has the RFP out, because it needs to be
done over break, And so this would be approving of this. We don't know the cost yet to abate, but we need to get it done. It's two classrooms, and then this is the cost only of the tile. And I I apologize for missing that memo. We did it. We did do the memo. It's just not up there, but we do need it approved so that we can get this done over the holidays. So it's asbestos? It's asbestos. Are we putting tile back down or we have Yes. Because we're not pulling up all the tile. We're only pulling up the area that the, no. We are putting tile back down. Okay. Yes. So, in the classroom, we're putting the tile back down, and then in the trainer's
room, there'll be tile put down. And so it's all being put up. It'll be encapsulated. That's really the big cost. Right? And I did check with our attorney. Really, just NOVA just needs to put it out there as a representative. We really didn't need preapproval from the board. So, because Greg told me it's already out there. And I was like, oh. But it it needs to be done over the holidays. So we so this cost to us when and you'll bring to us later the cost of new payment? After it's done. Yes. Because it's an emergency. Right. No. No. I'm just Yeah. Of course. We'll let you know. Okay. Or you'll you'll find it in the bill of study. I probably don't.
Okay. And, roll call. I'm sorry. I didn't hear who's supported. I do. Thank you. Fortress? Yes. Repeat? Yes. Deaton? Yes. Becker? Yes. McCrawlers? Yes. Hinton? Yes. Motion carries six zero. Next is the facility assessment. Yes. So, we don't have the cost yet on this, but we will have it for next week, to go ahead and get that, assessment and conversations. We need to move on this sooner than later if we think we're gonna get a facility assessment done by June. So, we do not have to go out to bed.
We have our architect, and so there'll be be a proposal that'll come to us to bring it in line with King Scott, which is the architect that we have been using for our items. And so I'm I'm looking forward to seeing what that cost is. It's cost by building, and then depending on the size of the building. So we have two other architects. We have the TMP and the Partners in Architecture. How come we're not getting RFPs from those people or using them instead of King Scott that's used for everything? That's because they are used for everything, and so then you would move them into
helping you do your bond. They would move you into helping you make that assessment. One of the firms we don't use and have not used due to the timeliness. And, then the other firm, we certainly could get that, but, King Scott has been our, you know, our he's approved, and they have been our provider that we've been using more because they're locally and very responsive. They just did that beautiful building of Longfellow. I'm just not fond of King of Scots since they promoted a $150,000,000 bond. I think you should surely know our buildings if it's the same gentleman.
But No. You have to that you have to go back in and redo an assessment. And I wanna remind you that the the state did an assessment only of heating and items, and it was 119,000,000 without talking about programs and items that we had. So I love that it's a he's a Hazel Park graduate, though he's not gonna be around in the near future. He's already retired part time and moving on, but I found them to be very supportive across the state and, very active in being innovative with schools.
So how much this cost last time when we had it done? You know, I asked for that to be pulled the other day, and I don't think in the midst of everything I got it. Yeah. I did it. So I'll have it for you on Monday. Yeah. Because I would kinda like to see how much it was last time and see if it's something that maybe we can get a proposal on. If it's a high dollar amount to see what TMP has to offer. And I I have a quick question. Not TMP, but partners and architect. Okay. I would I would just ask let us bring that, and if I can reach out to them to see what a proposal would be.
But, you know, our preferred one is, Kingstuck. So this was in our, this is a five year facility assessment 2025? No. That's just the name of the file of where it was pulled, and, that wasn't taken off. That's not the facility assessment was done in 2021. Okay. Okay. So this says three year facility assessment. That's our projection of the things we would do over the next three years. That's ours, not theirs. So architects. And architect did not make this. We didn't. No.
We didn't. Okay. Off of the items that your 2021 schedule had and items that were done and then input from the buildings, about what they felt was the most important thing for them as well. And then prioritize what we think we can do. Okay. We're up to finance budget amendment number. President Hinton, before we go off building its and grounds, I do have one more question about the gates. When we were doing the walk through at last week, there were gates there also. Is that the same? Does that apply to the fire code? That one does not because it's within 20 feet of two exits.
One is the exit where they come in, and the other one is the exit around the corner there. So we walked through, and got that approval as well. So it's really about having exits within the 20 feet, and they measured it and reviewed it with us. Within the 20 feet. Yes. But isn't the back where the high school back doors, isn't that within 20 feet? No. Because you have to have two exits. Okay. So we had our architects go through. I actually had them put it in writing so that I knew and learned. And then, they also came out and helped us measure where that gate could go
so that we keep that part of the building separate from the other. Okay. And then also they, measured the halls, to determine it is not okay to have things out in the halls either because those are too small. So I wanna make sure it was a very no. I wanna make sure it was a very clear, like, tell me tell me the skinny on what we can and can't do. Okay. That's what they did. Thank you. Yep. Okay. Finance. Do you ladies have something? Budget amendment number two, and I don't think there was anything in our packet. No. I think we shared that we were not gonna bring it, I think, in my
weekly letter. It'll be here next week. Okay. Yep. Mhmm. And PowerSchool Dreaming, that is doctor Dominche? Yes. So, as you know, we've been moving along with the implementation of PowerSchool solutions. One of the things that we have found is that there are two projects that we need to lean into a little bit more. One is PowerSchool scheduling. And, for the past two years, we've tried to make sure we're being very fiscally responsible and really just lean on our internal to do that support. We found that to make sure that we're doing everything to the best of our
ability, to make sure it's efficient and communicated properly to our families and parents who've done well and on time, we needed a little bit of additional support. As a matter of fact, when I spoke to Ed at DDOT, who is the regional I actually think he's the state level PowerSchool, professional development and service manager in Michigan. He indicated that most school districts do PowerSchool scheduling training because it's not just training.
It's training and helping to build the schedule and get all the kids scheduled. Some districts do it every year. So based on our past experience and really trying to make sure we support it internally, we do believe it's time to get some additional support. Positive news is that we do have the ear of someone at a state level for PowerSchool. And, initially, they came back with a quote of $15,000 for PowerSchool training, and I told them that that wouldn't work for us, that we had to, really rethink that.
So they came back with a 25% reduction. So they're willing to do eight days of training and it's not like I said, it's not just training. It's training and helping our administrators and counselors actually build up the schedules for, I think, $11,550. I think they were willing to do that for us because, our powerful implementation has had a few ups and downs as we've grown through it. And when we were at the Mesa conference, because there's always a lot of good learning, but there's always good connections, doctor Wilcox, connected with this individual, talked about the
needs that we really had in our district to further support our implementation. And ever since then, he is meeting with us every week and willing to support us with that reduction. In addition to that, one of the things that we found is that we really need to be transitioning to something called incident management, and I'll explain that in a minute, and observations. Incident management is where we are required to track any sort of discipline types of things that happen in our schools. Currently, we use something called log entries.
While that's helping us make sure we meet state requirements, incident management is a much more robust comprehensive system. In addition to that, there's a piece that goes along with that called observations. And observations allows our teachers to log directly into PowerSchool, log any incidents or situations they have in their classroom in one streamlined system. Last year, we tried to utilize something called behavior support in PowerSchool, and it was a little bit of a bumpy implementation.
So we would like to move to observations and incident management because it's more efficient, it's clear, it's going to give us more robust data, and it's going to make sure our systems are streamlined. To do that, we have to have some more support hours. They just got back with, postal in the amount of Let's see. They just got back to me. $5,765 He is unsure that it's gonna take that many hours. But if you look at the two proposals, power school scheduling, which would be 11,580,
and then then another additional 5,765, that would be a total of 17,345. One of the things that I need to make sure I let you know is that, we have been advocating for a refund on the amount that we spent on something called behavior support. We believe that refund is gonna more than offset the cost of transitioning to incident management, and that refund should be coming to us soon. So while it says 17,000, the total will be around 17,000, a little bit more,
it really won't be that much of a cost to the district because we're getting that refund for a tool and solution that we did not utilize this year. They don't they do not have the updated memo? Because I don't so we can maybe send it to them afterwards so they can see it before thirteen. We were we were we were moving quickly as of last week to try to get these costs, and they were trying to turn it around as quickly as possible. And as a matter of fact, I literally just got the second email about thirty minutes ago during our meeting. So it'd be about $17,000, while I know that's, a cost to the district.
The return and the efficiency and the streamlining for our staff and our students and our families is going to be significant. When will we know if we're approving the refund? Pardon me? When will we know if the refund is approved? It's approved. Oh, okay. I thought you just advocates that. Well, yeah, it's it's an interesting process that we've been going through. It is approved. They have not given me the exact amount. Okay. But we know we're going to be refunded. Certainly, I will I tried to push on that today, and they still didn't give me the exact amount. I I have to tell you, how wonderful our PowerSchool product is Mhmm.
And the things that it's doing. And we've been able to see the areas that we might not be so excited about as well that there was a lot of promise that didn't do it. So I think the positives far outweigh the negatives, but there are a couple of things that we've had to go a different direction because the implementation wasn't quite what we expected. Okay. You anticipated one of my questions. It was about the refund. So and you answered that. Thank you. And this is kind of a question for Brad even though he's not standing there anymore. What if we approved a couple months ago? We approved hours of training for something else. Does anyone remember what it was?
That doctor Damodj can speak to that as well. There were some hours that were put aside. I think as well. I think that those were hours for supporting our implementation of analytics and insights. We haven't really been able to show you much of it, but some of the graphs and some of the information that doctor Wilcox shares with you comes out of that. And I believe there might have been some additional hours for Josh to clean again to, creating some reports and that are are, prebuilt and streamlined for our staff.
I believe those are the two areas. I thought it was for something because it he said it's common practice to pre and I know it's common practice. To pre authorize so many hours a year, and we were running out. Was that PowerSchool as well? It wasn't that the this was this five hours for this. No. I know what you're talking about. It had nothing to do with PowerSchool. It was, Tell us the network. Yeah. Thank you. Stereo. I I just wanted I didn't think it was PowerSchool, but I couldn't remember. And I couldn't find it. I right after about six months wrote the notes and couldn't find it. Okay. That's it for me.
Alright. Then we're moving to check registry. Credit card statements. Sorry. Board financials. So I just have one question. On page 22 of the Allen Law Group, there's another investigation we came for that was not approved by the board, and I'm just curious why that was. I need more detail than that because there was only two investigations. We just got an invoice that you approved for an investigation in our email. So what page? 22. Page 22. And I'm just wondering if that was it was, like, $3,100 on that one.
This one says 7,004 and 25, but I didn't know if this was combined with the other one that was in our email. There was a couple belated payments that got lost in the mix a few months ago. No. There was there was Does that say new investigation? What does it say? It says investigation. It says investigation, April 2025. I have to see it. But there was just an investigation a week ago. That was to Truin, not Allen Law Group. Was it? Yeah. Thank you.
That was about $4,000 to Truin for an investigation into public comment. Oh, okay. But that does that not have to be approved by us, investigations? You can just do it? Yes. As board president, I'm authorized to be allowed to talk to an attorney, and it was requested by our employee that, I look into or the board looks into, the comments that are say senate, public speaking. And as board president, I did that. I have the answer letter for everybody tonight.
But we don't have to improve the investigation? You can just do it? It wasn't a bit it was an inquiry. It it wasn't in it shouldn't be called an investigation. It was a request. Let me look, because I wrote something I was gonna read and I decided I would read it, but now I think I better read it. Or can we finish with check register and credit card so that we don't complete issues? Maybe before we read that, though. Yep. Go ahead. I didn't see that. Is your buddy? Well, I didn't see that. When I finished everything out, I didn't see that on there. Oh. Was it added later? No. No. It's on there. I promise you.
I'm gonna do I'll find it and download it and send you questions because I didn't see it. I knew I I'm not aware of it. Questions this week either. That's why. Because I didn't see that. Yeah. Probably not as little. That was my joke earlier. Yeah. Because I didn't see it. But I will download it this week from I did wanna say too, I know it's not huge, but we did get those fee reversals back for those $25. Just because I know we've questioned it before when people are being charged 25. So we have at least three of them back. I also wanna point out that, we have the payments to Jeff Harris.
Those were from $20.23 for him, and he gave me $20.24 the other night, dropped them off at my house. And so those are being processed, and you'll find those on next month. So we should be clean, and we just need to make sure that we talk about going through the proper process with the athletic director for that. So in the future. Are we set with that? Okay. So, let's see. First amendment right, freedom of speech. Following the meeting on October 30, our employee, doctor Wilcox, wrote to the board of
education regarding comments made made by a citizen when they were addressing the board in public at that meeting. She requested a review by our legal counsel regarding these comments and then a letter of warning be sent as it was a breach of peace. I contacted the attorney and from what I told him, he didn't think it was a breach of peace. However, person's first amendment rights, freedom of speech is very sensitive. He said the person was entitled to due process because the accusation was very serious. This board of education is a government body representing the citizens.
We cannot censor or punish speech because we disagree with it. Court rulings consistently held that government bodies cannot prohibit speech simply because it offends, antagonizes, or harshly criticizes the official in charge. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall said the government has no power to restrict expression because of its message, ideas, its subject matter or content. There was no violation. There was not a breach of peace as defined by the Michigan law. The comments fell within the scope of speech protected by the First Amendment.
And I have the letter, for everybody unless you want me to read it. So but I, did did he also address the my request is to see if a warning was able to be sent? But I also had a request due to threats that were shared with me, in the spring that I wasn't privy to that I sent as well and resent the email that was sent to the Board of Education last year requesting, that as well, which was brought to my cabinet. No. This was a freedom of speech inquiry.
It's very sensitive. This board is not going to send any warning unless that person is disorderly, swearing, throwing an absolute fit. This is a government body elected by the people. Now, if individuals here feel worried or threatened, they can do it personally on their own. But this board is not going to restrict somebody's freedom of speech and that's what this was about. It wasn't about anything more than that. And as president, I am allowed in the bylaws to contact an attorney.
I'm not gonna call six people to say, here's a story. Our our employee asked me to do this. What do you think? And then two people say no and some person says yes. That it's not how it works as the president. I don't have authority to, hire people and go out and make promises and spend money and say, oh, yes. We'll do that for you. The bylaws. The president may consult with the superintendent or legal counsel prior to bringing the issue before the board. So I consulted with them before bringing that here.
And I followed the directions of our employee asking for a request. So that's what it was. I think you can just pass it back. You don't necessarily What's that? I said that I don't know that you necessarily need to read this. I have it for everybody. I don't wanna read it unless they want me to read it. No. I'm good. Do you wanna give us just your copy? I have copies for everybody. Yes. Thank you. Okay. Under grant? Yeah. I'm sorry. This is embarrassing. Other. We're up to grants. Okay. We were just, sharing the MDE Invest tutoring and, transportation grant that's there.
We have several schools that are under regional assistance, that would be Invest Advantage and MCA, and so you'll see MCA and, Advantage coming through. I believe MCA, I guess, signed the other day, so that one will come next month. I I do need to know whether this is helpful to have all these grants here or simply having them in a folder is, better. We've been doing it for about a year now. Just checking in to see if this is helpful to the board. Did we get this grant already? Yes. That's all we're presenting to you is what we received.
So then I have a question on it. The the 33,000, we're not getting that. No. That is directly to supporting practices that invest. So these regional assistant money is, in, districts that are cited by the state or buildings that are cited by the state. Get direct get to write a direct plan to try to improve. I believe, before I was here, that happened to the junior high and you guys got some direct money set for Hazel Park Junior High, I think in 2013, 2012
before I was here, you did the same thing. You added those extra classes, the times of the day changed. That's what that is. But okay. So this really has nothing to do this whether it says we got it or we didn't get it, really has nothing to do with us? We just tell Well, no. We are oversight to the to them. It comes into the district, and we're obligated to spend it appropriately towards the items in the reg assistant grant. And so we will send the receipts up to, the state and get that money back as we expected. So, yes, Invest is one of our schools.
We are, it's not a, a charter school. It is one of our schools. Those are our kids. So so then the question is they had questions about the tutoring stipends, not the transportation part, the the stipend part. And and it didn't can you give us an update on where that stands? It Well, they approved this. This is they approved the grant that transportation. They approved the transportation portion. So this, is tutoring and transportation, and they're given, 12,823 for, if you look down
here, transportation for Fridays for tutoring. And then, that takes the bus driver and all those individuals as well. And then, I don't know. I have to look back down here further. This doesn't look like the contract we have. I thought they approved some tutoring as well. They did. It said it's your afternoon time. That better. That's what I was I think the other part of the, the you have to look at the other one and take a look, the tutoring and transport again, and you can see no. We just uploaded the same one twice, which is lighter than the one with us.
We need to correct that. So the tutoring stipends are 33,900 and the tutoring transportation is 12,825. Yes. We'll correct that for for and send it out to you over the weekend because we're not gonna bring it for regular meeting. Okay. That that's what that was my question. Yep. I see why it's confusing. Thank you. Okay. Next is the Oakland County Board Association resolutions. And so they were in the packet, and I think next week we will just vote on these, read them over, and we have till January 9.
So, I then checked the calendar to see whether January if we would beat that date. So I figured we should do it next week. Yeah. They requested we did as well. They sent it off to us. The school choice resolution. So just a reminder, this is the time that we have to do school of choice in the December time frame to make sure that we have this for, next year, and so this will be brought forth to you, next week. Okay. What's next? Organizational.com. Yes. So January is the organizational time frame, and so we will not have a committee
of the whole. And it was recommended, I was able to meet with April, and it was recommended actually in that meeting that you do it several months ahead of time. So you're talking and having conversations around, what you're doing. And so in order for us to make sure that we have things on here, we just printed last year's and put the information on here with any changes that you anticipate having so that you've had that conversation ahead of time as a board as a whole, and, and that we have it ready for you in the January meeting.
Okay. Our bylaws say, the board shall conduct an organizational meeting annually during the month of January. During the annual organization organizational meeting, the board shall elect its officers for the coming year, establish the scheduled regular meetings for the coming year, and may conduct any other business if elects. So we can have discussion next week, whatever, but changes can be made January. Yes. So the and April, maybe you might wanna speak about the fact of talking about
it ahead of time before it comes to the meetings with Freddie Or Heidi. I was there also in, they did recommend that we follow our policies and bylaws based on what they said first. He said it's it's sometimes common, not all boards do it, But you should follow your policies and your bylaws. So, there wouldn't be a point of bringing this up at the next meeting because we're not voting on it we're not voting on it there. So, we wouldn't. It was the the recommendation was that it be presented ahead of time just for
purpose of review and discussion. So that if there were changes that we wanted to make or things that we wanted to review prior to the organizational meeting, there was plenty of time to do so. Okay. So this is Not the calendar. This is this is the organization. Okay. Then I'll stop. Just the just the attorneys and if you foresaw that, you know, you wanted to change, anything, then we have it prepared. We also then, have any information that we need about there. The auditors, obviously, we're gonna go to bid this year. I think we have to go to bid, so we'll have to take that out.
Go to bids. Let's let's go to bids. For new auditors. If you want New auditors, we're gonna have to Yes. We do one in the early same order, but we have to get bids. Yeah. You need to bid it out. And when would we do that? January time frame, we'll start looking at that. We wanted to for them to complete the single audit first, which is, hopefully, will be completed before we go on holiday break. I think that's what they were shooting for. So that's what we have to do there. So we'll have that single audit in when? The single audit, hopefully, will be done next week.
So will we get that immediately, or do we have to You don't have to approve it. I know we don't have to approve it, but we'll When they when they print it. Yeah. K. I would imagine sometime in January, you'll get that information. Okay. Thank you. Alright. School safety training. So, this is just, getting ready to have a conversation around, doctor Pazian and myself, going to, digital threat assessment training. It is remote. It's, the original one and the advanced one. I think I shared that when I went to the school safety concert, a conference
or a concert, that these were the areas that are up and coming around when you're doing a threat assessment to really taking a look at what's happening digitally. I think I shared some information about of of what we learned, and so I think this is an area that, as we lead the group, we would probably wanna get to be trainers of trainers, but at first, get this information first. Anybody have questions kind of conversation? So There's no memo. Or is this just a There's a memo. There's a board threat assessment and training advanced digital assessment training.
It was $1,100 for the two of us to have those trainings. I think it's best to have two people, as we're learning to go through the digital threat assessment. Okay. Next is the bowling jerseys. Yes. Unfortunately, the individuals that bought bowling jerseys for them the last couple years is no longer going to be present in Hazel Park as I know of. And so, though we normally do things in the fall, they just found this out. And so, we wanted to make sure that we got this on. You know, we would even support you maybe passing this right now so they could
purchase them, as we are in bowling season, and he gets us through. But, it's 17 jerseys at $50 each, totaling $850. I just wanted to kind of point out that in here, it said that these, would not have names on them so that they'd be collected every year. We wouldn't be repurchasing full New Jerseys except for Yeah. They they I think they've gotten them every single year in New Jerseys. So they would just see if I can send them back. Right. So as Yeah. Before they had names on them. We as long as they didn't get roughed up, we would not have to replace them for next year.
Correct. Can I make a motion to just approve this now so we can get them going for them? Sure. Yeah. Okay. Then I move that the Board of Education, a approve the bowling jerseys, at $850 as presented. Second. Motion by Amanda and second by Heidi. We skipped. We had discussions. So We did. I know. That's okay. Okay. Roll call, please. Yes. Excuse me. Yes. Wordpress? Yes. Speaking? Yes. Yes. The problem. Yes. Yes. Motion carries six zero. And next is how do we schedule extension?
Oops. But can we go back to, board meeting dates item five? Yes. We brought this for your input so that we can be planning differently if we need to do so. Since there's no board changeover, we're just looking for direction. I was just gonna comment that, for January, it says five and 05:30 and not 05:30 and six. Oh, thank you. And then September 7 is Labor Day. But we won't be having a meeting then, so we'll make an adjustment there. Thank you. We can It's just a worship.
We can do some stringing. Something, honey? I thought you had something. No? No. We're not meeting on the fifth. I got a email from, Jamie a week ago. That was, the organizational meeting. We're just gonna combine it in Committee of the Whole. Right. We we haven't changed that yet. And I wonder because of one paper, this paper says the sixth and this paper says the fifth. So I wasn't sure which one it is. So we're meeting on the tenth and then the twelfth. Oh, that's a big one. Yeah. Where do you see the tenth? The tenth is your retreat.
The retreat. Oh. And then the twelfth be your committee of the whole. Yes. Is the other retreat on here? Actually, your retreat will probably be with Don Sobey because it's in April, and he's got two different meetings. I sent you that invitation, and there'll be a retreat with administration and with you as well to talk about the finances. And so I sent two dates. I had a denial of the later April date, I think, from somebody, but, those are the two dates that he's proposing. Isn't that strategic planning? No. That I think it was two for April.
Eleventh and the twenty first, maybe? It might be. It might be strategic planning. They're all kind of learned together, but I have all these dates from Don Sobeys as well. So, you might be right then. Change them all back down. That's why I didn't get them some. But I remember the I'm gonna go through now that Don's confirmed and clean all that up and invite you only to the ones you need to come to. You don't have to come to all the strategic planning, but I wanted you to know that they're being scheduled. So we're gonna get a list of all the strategic planning meetings and a list of Dan Solby's meetings? Yes. And I'm gonna invite you on your calendar too.
Okay. How will they schedule, Sandra? So, the holidays follow, fall on Wednesday and Thursday this year, and so there was some discussion about perhaps giving Friday off, both those times, to the staff that's here over break. We've done that before when they fall the way they do, and so we've brought it here for discussion to with the board. I think it's great so they can be with their families. I have a question. This is what vacation and PTO is used for. So my question is why is aren't they using that time? That's what normal businesses do is their employees have to use their PTO time or
for days like this. And then my next question is, why are we waiting so long? This should have been addressed in January when we were doing the scheduling. And per their contract, they're only off so many days. Well, unfortunately, there was a lot on everybody's plate in the January time frame. And we don't normally do it right there. We do it, you know, as we start in June for the next school year. A lot of things didn't happen the way it was because everybody was doing dual roles. This is brought through your discussion. They certainly have vacation days, but they also this this administration as well as secretaries
are putting a lot of extra time for the evening meetings and things that we're having to do. And so that's that's just a suggestion. This board can totally say no, but we brought it to you. It was brought to me, and, we've done it in the past. So I didn't think it's unreasonable. A lot of school districts closed down even their central office that two weeks. We lost, a good candidate the other day because of that, because they said why why would I give up those extra days so they get twenty days and then they also get closed for central office doesn't work the winter holidays nor do they work spring break. Okay. So central office doesn't work the winter holidays, nor do they work spring break. So, my questions are, how much will this cost the district?
Nothing. Because they're not it's just another day off. So it doesn't cost you anything. Okay. So because that was who who is included in that? Well, the individuals that are here are custodians and maintenance, the twelve month secretaries, and, those that are in this building. So, the accounts the enrollment secretaries up front, SIS, technology, you know, the business office, our community reps, all of those individuals. All of these individuals have been putting countless hours in in the work that they're
doing and so, you know, it's our our suggestion. We've done that before. If the board does not wish to take that forward, it's up to you. Right. I just wondered who who is included in that. So do we have do we have to open contracts to give them extra days off? No. We do not have to open contracts to give them extra days off. They will gladly be happy about that. If we don't give them a day off when it's in their contract, that's when you have a grievance. So I don't have anybody's contract with me. But in their contract, do they get paid out vacation time, unused vacation time, and sick time? No. Paras get unpaid sick time, but they're already off this time period.
They're the only ones that get paid? Mhmm. If they don't so if they don't use their holiday or if they don't use their PTO time, they lose it? Well, we have sick days. No. They carry over. Sick days carry over in education. So our days, except for Paris, they carry over. And so if you have a long time illness or what have you, then that carries over for you to be able to do it. Vacation, the only people that have vacation are custodian and maintenance. Our twelve month secretaries have vacation time. Our central employees here have some vacation time. So it really is just the board deciding whether or not they'd like to give
an extra day to the people because Wednesday and Thursday are, the days off, and then it would bring them back in for Friday, and then they're back off again. So if they have vacation time, do they get paid out at the end of their contract? The only person that gets paid out is myself, and parents get sick days paid out. I'm the only one that gets paid out. Okay. Thank you. Would you like us to remove this as a board or would you like us to put this on? No. I would definitely keep it. We've already done enough to insult our staff the past few months.
The least we could do is offer them a little bit of time with their families. I'm kinda worth public comments, and there isn't. And it doesn't have board member comments on here. I have something, but anybody wanna speak? I do too, if you don't mind. I just wanted to mention that I know that there is a couple of holiday concerts coming up for our entries. I know Webb's is Wednesday. Uber's is on Thursday. I didn't see United Oaks, but I could've missed it. But I'm sure they probably have one. I want to say congratulations to all the dancers on Saturday with dance comp, and
they did absolutely amazing. Today, we had our jingle jog at Webb, and it turned out awesome. We didn't do our whole outside run because of the cold, but, the kids had a blast. They had fun. They got candy canes afterwards. Everyone was laughing, singing, dancing. It was great. I do wanna say well, they're actually playing right now, but good luck to our boys' basketball. They're at today. And then just a couple of things from last week. The opening of Longfellow was awesome. There were tons of people there seeing, how the community school reps did the rooms, like, especially the party room.
It was all, like, happy birthday themed, and I thought that was a great idea. I love what's happening over there, and our college readiness night actually was very successful. What do we probably had? 80, at least, to a 100 people probably there. So that turned out great. Anybody else? Okay. I'll read what I have. But I also I the pictures of the jingle jog was awesome. Those kids were having a blast and they were freezing and their coats were wide open and their faces were all red and that they were having a great time
and told does not affect kids. And we have to trust that's for sure. But it was evident what a great time they were having. I went to the dance competition also, spent about an hour there, and the talent of those girls, it's just phenomenal. It's phenomenal. If you ever went, you should go. You can tell it takes hours of practice for what they were doing. All in sync, all doing the same move at the same time, was very, very good. So this is what I wrote. I just said what's happening with social media and and meetings.
So I wrote I've given a lot of thought to what's been happening at the Board of Education meetings over the last five months. It's disheartening. On top of this, a distruthful podcast loaded with false information was posted on social media discrediting four board members in order to protect the superintendent. My response is simple. I re I re recommend you check out the school transparency page on the district web page located by clicking the mitten. There are three years of budgets listed. You can judge for yourself if the superintendent has been fiscally responsible.
You will see ending in June 2024, the district had a zero fund balance creating a deficit. I think this truth is important for the citizens to know. This is a fact. Hazel Park Schools is back on the Michigan Treasury Oversight Watch List. Why you ask? The law requires schools to have a 5% fund balance. In order to accomplish this, the board hired the school municipal advisory service facilitated by Don Sobe because our current balance is only at 1% equal to 1,200,000.0
fund balance according to the auditors. When we voted to hire Don Sobe, it was not a unanimous vote. However, when this happens, it is expected everyone abide by the outcome. It is important board members do not and should not undermine their fellow board members, and they cert certainly should not insult or embarrass the person who was hired to help us as this happened at the last meeting. I came across, the strategic plan for 2324.
And the one thing under resources, the number one thing was to implement zero implement zero based budgeting. All of a sudden, it's taking everybody's time and they don't have time when the board voted for zero based budgeting. We didn't get it off the ground because our auditors quit, our finance director quit, and so we couldn't get zero based budgeting going. And so now we have somebody to do it, and all we hear is the reasons we can't do it and the complaints that we can't do it.
And it's just really sad because we don't have that fund balance, and, he deserves some respect. He didn't, we put him in that position. And and I just would like everybody to cooperate and get along on on it because he's not going away. He has a contract and he was hired. And so that's it. I wanna know, are we meeting at the high school? That's where we usually meet because of, I think we recognize the athletes. We were not planning on doing so. And I'd like to copy that because I believe my board president just said that
I did not spend fiscally appropriate. And I also so that is a I will give it to you. Okay. Motion to withdraw this way. Support. Bye. You should be That's that's that's you violated my rights, sir, Bill.