##VIDEO ID:3A2li0UxkVU## e e e e e e e e oh there we go uh just want to start by saying thanks for having us and thanks Kim and John and the business office did an excellent job being ready for us as usual um very clean audit report you'll see we got a high level summary today we spent about an hour or 45 minutes to an hour a few weeks back with the finance committee and went over the whole 80 page report in detail so we'll uh save you some time unless you have questions but uh with that uh just start with a little bit about the firm if you have if you're not familiar we're Lancing base a couple miles or actually about two blocks over from here uh over on the other side of saga the been around for 100 years we do 15% of all schools in the state for audit 120 this year uh and 200 plus other governmental entities and Super Active one of our most important interestes so we take it serious as you guys do with that happy to report you'll see uh unmodified opinions so we put our opinion on the district's financial statements unmodified or clean opinions the best opinion the district can receive so I have to report that as in the past uh internal controls no issues there obvious those are taken very seriously both on the financial statement audit and the federal compliance audit so we have no material weaknesses no significant deficiencies and you'll see when we get to the federal compliance audit there's also no uh findings related to that one part uh in the next part of the audit report is the management discussion analysis just want to point out a few things here uh this is kind of the Readers Digest 10 pages at the beginning of the audit report uh you'll see one thing to highlight here the uh people of student enrollment actual Blended FTE uh for the Last 5 Years Trend there you'll see an increased about 126 students this year so that that's great to see and then a few things that only show up in the management discussion analysis are factors bearing on the district's future so the rest of the reports really last year's information this little section is what's coming down the L down the lane um pretty exciting stuff a lot of going on tons of bond activity $130 million Bond tons of activity going around on that as you'll see as we get through the audit there's uh 15 new electric vehicle electric buses coming in the next year uh lot of solar projects at several the Schools starting as those get rebuilt as well so a lot of activity and a lot of bond activities so great to see it going on all over the district we get to the balance sheet and governmental funds you have three major funds the general fund and then your 2022 capital projects in your 2022 energy Bond on the asset side about 123 million 88 million of that's cash and Investments and then about 32 a. half million of counts receivable which is predominantly your July and August state aid payments as well as a lot of federal receivables at June 30 about 65 million of liabilities which are predominately made up of um July and August teacher pay and retirement as well as about $20 million of unearned Revenue which is for state categoricals that have specific expenditure requirements that'll carry over into the 24 25 school year on the bond side you have about 54.2 million remaining between the 22 bonds and the energy bonds available to spend for the statement of revenues and expenditures your income statement uh just under $230 million of general fund revenues 213 million of expenditures you were able to transfer 12 million for future Capital needs and still increase the general fund by about 3.4 million ending fund balance at 57.5 million so 26.92% uh fund balance when related to your expenditures so healthy fund balance but remember there's a lot of funds like $110 Million worth of Esser and various other things that are no longer available and those are those are closed out as the end of the year so there's a little the extra cushion will be able to be absorbed some of those changes things like no increase in the foundation allowance and so forth on the bond side of things you spent about $18.8 million on bond projects as of June 30 obviously significantly more than that throughout the summer after that so we'll see significant expenditures in 2425 as well for the notes to the financial statements just highlight a couple things note one it's really important but you spent 19 million I mentioned on bond projects spent about 5 million in the syncing fund uh we AED those extensively uh in accordance with the bonded construction fund requirements as well as the voter approved Bond language so have to report no issues not noted there everything was spent in accordance with what the the voters approved so U then just want to highlight your your debt millage was 4.1 Ms uh there's many districts in the state 7 to 12 even 13 I have one that's 133 Ms uh just for prospective Ingam County average is 6.41 mils so significantly lower than most districts I think there only one in the county that's lower than Lancing so on Note three just highlight your Capital assets we talked about all these Bond projects let you record those as capital assets you had about $29 million of capital asset additions in the year and $7.9 million of depreciation on those assets so ending Capital assets net of depreciation of over 214 million which is promly made of of your buildings and additions and related to that there's four bonds outstanding to be paid off through 2047 and those total 16.9 million so you'll see the 214 million of assets 160 of liabilities so you're paying off your debt much faster than your assets are depreciating which always is a good thing probably one of the most important pag here this is your budget to uh general fund budget to actual you'll see three columns in a variance if you look towards the bottom First Column was your original budget so the budget you adopted in June of 23 for the 23 24 school year uh you you anticipated a $4.5 million use of fund balance and then you had amendments and as of your final amendment in June of 24 you lowered that down to uh $3.9 million expected use of fund balance and you actually came in quite strong at a positive $3.4 million uh fund balance so 7.4 million uh favorable variance it's about 3% 3.4% of your total expenditures for the year and we put a we have a jumping pie piece there but we put it in piie shape for you the than like the numbers are right so the 7.4% is the incoming transfers the light orange is low local and federal from year to year you'll see there's a slight shift there between state and federal uh $1 million of that's Esser funds obviously Esser funds are now fully spent out but from 23 to 24 there was $11 million less of Esser funds funds spent uh in addition to obviously the $458 per pupil increase in state and a lot more categorical funds in in 24 than in 23 so there was a shift from federal to State I would expect to see that probably continued increase as Esser is now totally spent out and those total federal dollars will drop while there's still a lot of uh I mentioned the 20 million of unearned categoricals that will be spent in 24 and 25 yeah it's weird uh okay the uh expenditure side same concept here pretty consistent from year to year the there's a slight shift from a 1% from instruction to support but again it's it's a lot of capital outlay uh spent much more capital outlay in the current year as well as just a change in funding sources aser and state categorical categoricals have different expenditure requirements that shifted a little bit from instruction to support as a percentage fairly consistent from year to year the last section of the audits the federal compliance audit I mentioned that uh significant amount of federal funds you had almost $59 million of federal expenditures in the current year uh this is the summary of audit results you want to see all those NOS on the right side that's what you want to see that means there's no issues within internal controls or compliance so remember on the federal compliance audit we not only have to test for that you're in compliance with the federal programs but that you had controls over those so basically you know were the funds spent correctly but also how did you know the funds were spent correctly you can't just get lucky so we tested all those extensively uh and you'll see there's no material weaknesses no significant deficiencies no internal control findings or compliance issues at all so we tested special ed school safety and National activities and the teacher and school leaders incentive grants this year that was about $12.35 million of your total federal funds um or 21% what's really important especially with that many federal funds is this low risk audity at the very bottom that means we have to audit at least 20% annually of the federal funds if you had any of these material weaknesses noted above the next two years we'd have to audit 40% so significantly more expense and and testing would be required if you were high-risk aity so that's important that those are taken serious than they are uh along with the audit report there's two letters one's the government's letter or those letter to those charg with government or the board uh Happ to report that's pretty much a plain Jane no issues identified or difficulties throughout the audit just required letter to the board if there were issues they would be identified in there and then a management letter with one comment uh it's consistent with last year the same and I like I tell every District pretty much about 90% of the districts in the state have this uh management letter comment but Food Service funds are nonprofit Food Service funds you're only allowed to have uh 3 months of fund balance three months of your expenditures and fund balance uh when when the co hit and everyone got free free food across the state it increased most uh Food Service fund balance while over that you can see yours is somewhere around 56% uh or about $2 million over the allowable limit all that means is you'll have to submit another um I think Kim's already prepared it but spend another spend on plan to the Department of Ved on how you plan to use those funds so and and one one good way is obviously anything for bonds and I think that's what the district's food service related bonds can be paid directly from the Food Service you know equipment and stuff a couple things for the future uh nothing significant that's really for the general fund so that's good to know but uh obviously no Foundation increase for 2425 stayed at 9608 there are three new government Accounting Standards coming uh two for 25 this next audit year on compensated absences and risk dis disclosures and then a new um financial model financial reporting model improvements for 2026 having said that that has no effect none of those will have any effect on your general fund budget or general fund numbers it's additional disclosures and requirements like that that'll show up in the auto report and we can help the district through those so otherwise if you has no questions appreciate everyone's help and uh being able to work with the district thank thank you very much thank you I do know that the um as was mentioned the finance board finance committee did have a ver very thorough walkthrough of this report which you guys have all received this evening and is released Dr kavanau did you have any updates or anything you wanted to share with the board before I open the questions uh not beyond what was shared in the last meeting from the finance committee perfect thank you are there any questions from the board members this evening Mr nosky just one quick question on the general fund nonprincipal resident exemption under property taxes it's at 17.44% 18 Ms yeah so the the 18 Ms is the maximum you're allowed and it's only LED on non-homestead so anybody lives in their house that that doesn't pay that tax so it's only basically on businesses within the laning school district that would pay it obviously if you lived and had a business you would pay it on the business side but uh the max would be the 18 Ms and and the six for the commercial purp commercial personal property and right now they're at the 7.44 and 5 44 uh so so the state always assumes you love you the full 18 mils and if you if it rolls back less and you don't re go to the voters and get it back up to the 18 then that those the difference is lost funding gotcha thank you sure thing Mr superintendent uh so thank you so much uh always a pleasure to work with you guys um it's wonderful to hear that we're in such a good shape uh financially um I do want to comment on this as well and to highlight something else um to be very clear the expectation is that school districts have an 18 mil meaning they get certain amount of money for that currently Lancing does not get that Lancing gets 17.4 in change which means our children are not getting the expect uh monies that almost everybody else in the state of Michigan gets this is something really important that the board ET the community everybody listening at home I don't know how many but all of you I really really want to make sure that we talk about this and continuing to talk about this because we are at 17.44% will be a conversation ongoing but I really want to make sure and I appreciate our Auditors being here to explain this is most districts almost all districts in the state of Michigan get 18 Ms we're only getting 17.4 four which means our children the children of Lancing are getting less than what they're supposed to get in addition I appreciate that on Note One on the notes in the financial statement couple that with the idea that our debt millage is actually one of the lowest in the entire area so our debt Mill as well as our regular Mill is much lower than most of the folks in Michigan we have to recognize that we deserve our children deserve our faculty deserve our community deserves what everybody else is getting and we have to take a really hard look at how do we as Lancing make sure that we're giving the same amount of support uh that other districts around the state are getting so um this will be an ongoing conversation uh this is something that is important for us to talk about because we want to make sure that the voters of Lancing the community of Lancing understands how our children are being short changed so that we can now continue to have a conversation about what we might do uh to be able to get our children the kind of Full Faith uh and credit of what they deserve to get so thank you very much yeah i' agree totally agree with that and most districts are at the 18 because what happens when you fall below you can go back to the voters to get it reapproved back to 18 and like I said only the businesses pay it so most people that vote don't pay it and it's usually if it with an education campaign usually it they'll get passed because most of the voters don't pay it anyway so uh it is somewhere around what 845 ,000 currently a differential between the two millages so it's definitely good to look into Yeah question for superintendent sure so the uh 6 of a mill how much this it worth sure so as of today it's about 800,000 plus but the issue with the way that Headley works is that that number will actually only get bigger um because it can go from 1744 to then 174 and then 173 depending on things like inflation and house prizes but right now we are kind of leaving on the table about 850,000 860,000 what was the number I believe it was 845 I think yeah yeah so you know not insignificant that's a bunch of teachers it's a bunch of soccer balls you know we got a but yeah it's about 800,000 plus 840 and change thank you are there any other questions this evening all right thank you thank you appreciate it have a nice night thanks appreciate all the work from the team and getting us another clean audit um president yes Mr Lopez I just like to say thank you to Kim and her and her team because they've uh the last two two years at least we had really really good audit reports so thank you for work and that of your your whole team and of course our Treasurer Dr kavanov thank you all right perfect thanks so much next presentation this evening is our presentation on health and wellness update I would like to invite Dr sue Wheeler and Jennifer West to the table it'll just be better now uh tonight I'm going to provide a brief Co update as usual and then I'm going to turn things over to Jennifer West uh director of The Office of school culture for a report as well well in October we had only 15 staff cases reported which were evenly distributed across the district including the administration building and the H center student cases decreased by about 50% with 42 cases reported we did experience a short although intense outbreak at G park with 16 cases reported the 2024 covid Trends match our predictions with an uptick in September followed by fewer cases last month the co team anticipates a seasonal bump beginning this month as we enter Colder Weather coupled with holidays and increased large indoor Gathering Ing we will continue to do our part with mitigation and management to help keep our school Community healthy and in school for the year we've now had a total of 73 positive staff members and 153 positive students I'll now turn the presentation over to Jennifer West good evening I did the same thing good evening um thankful to be here this evening and give an update regarding our Behavior threat assessment and management called Bam um so I'll use bam moving forward uh Again Jennifer West director office of school culture and if we backtrack a little bit um this project and the work began for us in the laning school district in 2022 when we successfully submitted a great application for the Department of Justice stop Grant a stop School violence Grant um this came on the heels is if you're going back in time um 2021 in Oxford um and so we wrote a grant looking at um National Association of school psychologists research-based empirical um what are best practices for schools and districts what should we be doing and implementing um And in regards to be bam specifically we looked at um what are the National models what's available what could we and should we be doing so we looked to adopt a threat assessment model within our district establish a district threat assessment team we wanted to establish School threat assessment teams and then provide comprehensive ongoing training support and professional learning I think it's really important to to note that um what we did was very much empirically based and those threat assessment teams were such an important component because of um their importance in the process and having multi-disciplinary teams versus one person making a decision um so as far as an introduction to Bam the threat assessment and management process is a systematic multi-disciplinary team approach to the early identification assessment and management of potential targeted acts of violence and if I could highlight a couple of things on this slide it's about the multi-disciplinary teams we want multiple individuals coming from multiple perspectives we want an administrator we want mental health we want uh special education we want Educators and coaches or whoever may know a particular student the best to be part of that team perhaps a nurse um but the core members of that multi-disciplinary team really are an administrator a mental health professional a public safety lead um so that they're working together collaboratively which again is best practice um the other highlight would be the focus is intervention the focus is an identifying where there may be a concern and intervening this is not a disciplinary process this is not uh in replacement of an IEP or a 504 um the the BAM process is identifying that there is a concern in providing needed supports and interventions to mitigate those um those safety risks so what we did um we s training and you know I all about Lancing when we're going to do something we're going to do it exceptionally well and so we went to the best and meet Dr Reeves I wanted to get her to um do a little video call blurb or something but that didn't end up working out she literally is all over the world um but Dr Reeves is a literally world-renowned expert um she's a past president of the National Association of school psychologist um she has many years decades of experience in working in public private schools um Collegiate environment and is now an expert um working in safe uh and sound schools Sigma threat Management Associates and prepare Crisis Intervention she is if you are familiar with any threat assessment work work she is a name that you will hear ongoing um executive director black and myself had the opportunity to attend our um our threat assessment training with Dr Reeves and asked how how do we bring you to our staff we we want we don't want just the messaging we want to bring you so um through the the grant we've been able to do that and Dr Reeves um is our resident expert she probably travels to Lancing more than most people travel to Lancing um so she has been a phenomenal resource for us throughout the process in training all of our teams so it is an internal training process we actually all of our teams and staff are trained by a national and world renowned expert in threat assessment so a few updates on the process um we did all of the things the priority that we set forth we did establish that District level multi-disciplinary team that team is comprised of individuals like myself with a mental health background Dr um wheeler Department of Public Safety um special education Eileen peroda all of our spars so very much a multi-disciplinary group able to support all of our schools and we have 24 I'm ecstatic to report we have 24 multidisciplinary School level teams now there's one place that we do need to um train a team that is the Welcome Center um so if there is a situation I will give us a little Grace because we have not had Dr Reeves she's a busy lady she hasn't come back to the area yet um but she is on the docket um but if there is a situation where there is um a school by chance that does not have all of their team together that's why we have such a robust District team to be able to support and move and um assist those other school-based teams we have thus far um since the implementation trained 131 behavioral threat assessment team members now those are not individuals who are participating in the process process but individuals who have gone through rigorous training um basic and Advanced Training and are able to when there is a concern of safety come together with their colleagues um and follow a standardized process to ensure the safety um of all students in staff and also to be able to provide students the necessary interventions again we have those annual basic and advanced bam trainings provided by Dr Reeves we um and I think that when I mentioned the the pieces about the intervention a core component to intervention is mental health um so if you're thinking how does this fit into the health and wellness um we provide QPR which is question persuade refer uh zero suicide um training youth Mental Health First Aid suicide intervention trainings and those are done at a minimum of three times annually one of the things that I'm thrilled to report is that next week Eastern High School students in the student leadership course um will be completing their own Teen Mental Health First Aid training we will have again H 100 it's just ironically about the same number 133 students who will receive these Teen Mental Health First Aid certificates um because they have participated in a six- week rigorous um course learning about um how to a support appear in a potential Mental Health crisis um which is an important piece of intervention identifying if you see something say something and being able to know how to access assistance so all of those pieces are um pertinent and then again that ongoing expert consultation and support we call Dr Reeves all the time um just wanted to highlight really quickly some some of our key uh Partners in this work I know that um Sigma is actually one of the um training partners with the Michigan State Police office of school safety that has brought uh Behavior threat assessment trainings to many school districts around the state we continue to rely on the Michigan State University School of Social Work our team's Grant um to be able to provide that necessary mental health support for students in schools QPR Institute um they have trained several myself included um staff on zero suicide and intervening um to prevent suicide and I put Junior board up there as well because they are a partner in raising awareness if you all receive the parent Square alert um They are promoting the importance of accessing needed supports as well prevent to protect um through the Michigan State University University um adolescent targeted violence um prevention project works with students and they're a a tremendous partner as is okay to say um again going back to we want students and staff if you see something say something and I know that director um person is going to be talking more about the um okay to say campaign next month when we get to to come back and so I always love if anyone as we're entering or exiting October um if you got to see any Halloween costumes whether in your neighborhood your own children grandchildren um I thought this was just the best picture um so I think November when I got to select which month I was going to be able to present I love November whether it's you know it's adoption awareness month it is soon to be Veterans Day um it is indigenous uh we're able to celebrate our indigenous people with Native American Heritage Month um next Wednesday is National kindness day so there are so many things to be thankful for um I appreciate the time I should have wrote mine down because then I start talking and I'm off in a rabbit hole I apologize they say I talk a lot I don't know um but really appreciate all of you the work that you do um and I feel like she's just giv you a shout out I don't know I saw it like that's just literally what I what I thought so thank you again any questions I know it's a lot and I they only give me like I don't know three minutes or something just miss Williams good evening thank you for your report um I do have a couple of questions and then I'll shift to my concern um with the BAM program um what data or numbers are we seeing that's being used with that that's my first question um what defines a threat or act of a threat in that um and in this training why are families not included in this because again a lot of it is happening in in the homes and maybe encompassing every part of that child that we're interacting with can benefit in this program I do see that we're utilizing Eastern but students District why because I I see that leadership is doing it but not all students in leadership roles are the students that are the ones that can Channel or change that so how are we selecting the students so these are my questions and concerns nope I took notes thank you um so to answer I didn't bring specific numbers of um situations that have come up let's say that have Arisen for this school year for instance we do have um like I said in that standardized process every school if a student um a staff member if there were a concerning um writing on a school wall um or a student made an expression of a planned Act of targeted violence toward um the school every situation is investigated I can certainly um get that information to executive director black and then we can bring that back to the board um but what I can say is that historically having been in the district for 24 years um sometimes decisions were previously made in isolation it may be based on one one person's opinion or experience with a student the adoption of bam specifically is to eradicate that it means that every time there's a situation it's not just one person making a decision about is this a viable threat because there is a big difference between a child making a threat imposing a threat and so walking through this process having train only specifically only trained individuals on that team um is critical to ensuring that students um are not this again this is not a disciplinary process this is about what is going on for the student uh do we need to provide interventions um such as counseling supports do we need to um provide um check-ins and checkouts at school do we need to um give them different passing times or whatever it may happen to be it's different again for every student um so I will get the the numbers what I would say about the and you said something about I wrote active and threats and I'm not sure what the second question oh right right we right um so how that is there's an initial screening and again because I only have a a short period of time um I would certainly be happy to speak to the board you know another time regarding the actual steps of the BAM process there is an initial screening in which if you saw on the one slide where it says low to high risk there's a multitude of questions um that the team actually goes through several data points um and to ask about families one component is family contact um parents are a wealth or caregivers are a wealth of information about what's going on with their children or within their home their neighborhoods um recent stressors for a potential student um that could be impacting worrisome behavior um they can give lots of information that a school may not have otherwise that have access to um what we don't want is for if a student makes a statement that we say oh go to this Outside Agency and have an assessment we as a school often have access to the most information about a student we see students every day we know um if they've had changes if they've had disruptions we know their friends we know how their grades are going their attendance patterns all of those other pieces so how how that process is it it varies determining between if there is um if a threat is made or if there is a high risk or potential for violence um and it's based on all of those data factors um and that is why we want to have multi-disciplinary teams and not just one person making making a decision or making that call um as far as the the All Families in that process if a concern is raised all families are always involved in in the process um the ban process itself is a it's a school it's it's a procedure for when there is um a concern raised about safety a targeted act of violence um so all families would be involved in that piece the opportunity to participate in QPR trainings and youth mental health those trainings will be available to all schools we did have a partner that I failed unfortunately to put their icon up their um Hope Network they actually had a grant they had funding to Pilot in one school to see how it went um and Eastern was just the the first to be able to step forward because they at that time had um the mental health supports in place to be able to um pilot the program our goal is now that since they were so generous and trained laning School District faculty to be able to offer the curriculum that will be able to do this exponentially and we'll be able so the students who were the class it's not an AP class the student leadership class is open to all students and it's every single hour um with this one teacher so we're certainly looking and hoping fingers crossed put that on the agenda that we want to um to expand I would love for every student in high school um it is an adolescent curriculum but I would love for every student to have the opportunity to participate in the curriculum um so I think that covered your your four questions thank you Dr Rodriguez I think that you answer part of my question because I wanted to know exactly how the ban work here in Easter high school and what is the protocol the process and I would talk until probably about 11 right um which I know not allowed to do so I would I would be more than happy to come back and and you know bring some documents and tell you you know a little bit more about the process but essentially the first thing is identification of a concern and so that's where that okay to say um if someone has a concern about a student or they hear something they see something concerning posted on social media um something in writing a friend of a friend I hear something something uh oh I think I heard Sue say this and they bring it to a a trusted adult in the school and then that team convenes and then they walk through the process um and again it's not a disciplinary process to suspend that student it is what do we need to do to support the student and what's going on just to clarify this is not violence against the student to another student in the school no this is not regarding retaliatory violence or um a planned fight or anything like this um this is instances such as an Oxford um a you know just acts of targeted violence essentially where there um may be any type of threat honestly but um I would say that if there just like if there were a situation where we knew that one student had a concern with another student we still want that brought to Administration or to a teacher a coach someone to be able to intervene but it doesn't necessarily mean that we would be putting together the entire bam team right right I just want to clarify that because not like a scuffle in the hall or something like that right because people hear violence you know and you can say violence like what right and so I just want to make that clarification yes thank you I appreciate that now the the the other uh question I have uh do you or does the district um have any um uh contact with uh NIH uh National Institute of Health and naida of drug abuse prevention um to date we have not um doesn't not necessarily mean that um that that wouldn't be a partnership or that we would not be able to to to collaborate in the future cuz doesn't fund programs that to deal with drug abuse prevention but it also includes mental health you know it's it's one of those things that it's kind of all uh you know um in wine you know and obviously alcohol abuse or substance abuse uh may be due to a mental issue so I'd recommend that that you would uh at least look at n and all the programs they offer to see if there are some that would be helpful to students absolutely I think that comorbidity is is critical yeah thank you thank you any other questions I just have a comment that I think that as having uh utilizing experts in the field to give us EV evidence-based assessments tools is is critical and I'm glad that we're doing that so I'm I'm really happy that we have this as a resource in our district so thank you all right next on the agenda this I think this might be the latest we've had you go for your superintendent report Mr schoner good evening everyone I will uh try to make it brief um but I do want to comment certainly on the presentation that was just made um one of the things that's really important that we've been trying to do for a while now is not just bring in experts to the field but to bring in systems and structures bam is the gold standard for how you do this and what's happened sadly when you look around the country when bad things happen in schools around schools near schools is that if you don't have a system in place then people kind of freak out but when you have a system in place you know what you need to do and you're able to do that and so when you read about uh horrible instances of violence in in in other districts what you sadly see are districts that don't necessarily follow gold standard protocols and so by doing this by having a system a lot of the tragedies that have occurred really wouldn't have occurred if those other school districts followed these protocols and I certain don't want to throw shade on anybody but the reason why you do this the reason why you focus on this the reason why you spend hours and hours in training is so that you're ready if something like that happens and so I just really want to thank uh you know Cordelia and and Jennifer and Sue and just the entire office of school culture uh for putting this first and then when you couple this with our Alice training and you couple this with our Rave system and when you couple this with all the other again systems and structures that we're putting into place Safety and Security becomes pretty uh pretty apparent that we're doing but safety goes further than that as we all know it also is the physical buildings so you know we have metal detectors at our schools and some folks when when we talked about this uh you know it's oh you you know you're doing this because you you think the kids are criminals it's it's the exact opposite it's we want to make sure that everybody is safe uh and what we've heard over and over again from our from our families and our students is they feel safer in our schools than they feel pretty much anywhere else and that's really important we also have secure vestibules we have um a film that's on some of our Windows that's a special bullet resistant film so if heaven forbid something happened just in the outside uh where there was an errant something uh we're able to protect our kids and our staff um and so you know I didn't think I was going to say so much about safety today but I think it's really important for the community to hear I was on a a call this week uh on Wednesday with this great organization Lancing 360 and a parent was on the call and she said in essence you know know we you know we want to make sure our kids are safe right I mean that's a great thing to say you know what is the district doing and when we listed out all of the things that we were doing there was kind of a a a really positive surprise from a lot of folks because they they recognize how much we're investing in safety and something as simple as just having a fence around our schools something as simple as having an ID system right when you come into our building you've got to give an ID if you're visiting we run that through a background check you know there's a lot of things that we do uh that you might not see because you're not necessarily in our buildings um but even the way that we're building some of our structures making sure that there's only one way of getting into a building in the morning that's a safety protocol something that was new to this District right we used to have five seven 10 do where kids would come in that's unsafe um and now that we have an ID system where kids come in through one door or two doors in some of our much larger buildings that's something that's important so you know I think that all of us all of us have seen what's happened in America what's happened with uh school shootings with violence with just general things like that but please rest assured that that in some respects the safest place you can be in this city is in one of our schools and that's thanks to our incredible uh work of the office of school culture and our teachers and our faculty and our and our system really taking this for granted uh not taking it for granted for actually doing the work so I really appreciate that um what else I would I would share is um you know we're you know we're now in November uh you know we've had two full months of school um we're really trying to move uh you know to get to Thanksgiving strong uh we have the new curriculum our ckla curriculum is really in full force so any parents out there listening you know please you know we are we've invested so so much time so much hours so many just just focused on making sure that all of our kids are on grade appropriate standard based instruction and so please if you uh have any questions about what we're doing for ELA um we've really invested heavily in this so hopefully your students are telling you so hopefully you're seeing different kinds of work different kinds of expectations um you know our teachers we know can do it but we have to give them the right tools and the right tools is standards aligned grade aligned High Caliber rigorous instructional materials and we're doing that so as you go into the next month you know please check on the work that your students are doing please be in touch with the schools this is something that we all need to work on um you know when I got to the district one of the first conversations we had was how do we get the instruction to be better how do we get our kids to be proficient and one of the most important things is to get the right curriculum to get a highquality curriculum in the hands of our folks but also then to empower our parents to make sure that they know that they can ask about it they can they can push their own children to do their work and so please hopefully you're seeing with ckla uh we're doing that and currently we're in a math pilot and hopefully in the next couple of years you're going to see a brand new math curriculum as well that's also going to be of High Caliber uh and high quality um I will apologize I did not bring the transportation numbers today because we are working on them uh so much that I think we're going to have a pretty significant uh good uh positive thing about our our our data around our school uh buses but I will say uh that we did start our here comes the bus pilot and we have heard overwhelming support from our parents just as a reminder one of the things that our families had asked us for is is there a technology that allows you to know when your bus is coming so a you don't have to wait out in the snow if it ever snows again um or in the dark which it clearly will become dark um and we said yes absolutely and just again these kinds of conversations happened at the superintendent family round table and that was one of those huge thing the parents brought up we were able to bring it and I think this week we were able to turn it on and so hopefully if you have a student that takes a Dean bus uh you have the ability to get here comes the bus app or uh the technology there if you have any questions reach out to your school um but this is yet another way that the district is investing in technology that helps our families and it's a way that we're listening to the families to actually make tangible changes for the betterment of our kids so I'm really excited about that I've already received a couple of emails thank you for telling me that it's working well um I'm sure there'll be glit is so please let us know but again these are the kinds of either Safety and Security but it's also about efficiency of time and making sure that our kids get to school on time as well so um with that we have a lot more to get to I don't want to belver the point but I want to thank everybody um for their hard work these first two months uh and really we're going to hit the ground running in November and I look forward to um to getting to Thanksgiving uh very strongly so with that I want to turn it back over to our president thank you thank you very much I as a parent in the district actually just had conferen for my child and her teacher mentioned that there was the new literature curriculum and learning and one of the things is you know they're rolling out their first time using it and implementing it as well and my child's teacher had it all set up she's like they're not going to like this worksheet but they're going to like these worksheets and then her class surprised her and they like the other worksheets and so she's like I actually just pivoted and like so it's really exciting to um see those things rolling out um any other comments or questions for superintendent Mr noisy yeah yes Madam BR just on that same topic I'm curious there been any thought yet to like a parent night or a curriculum night for the community to learn more about that new language absolutely it's it's something that I've been wanting to do honestly for years and now that we finally have the curriculum I think we can do it um so we're probably going to be working with the superintendent uh family Round Table to kind of set that up but you know and I can certainly defer to to Jessica but one of the things we really want to do is share with our families not just like hey there's a new curriculum but actually bring the families in to understand what is the standard for third grade what is the standard for fifth grade what does that look like so um you know we're going to see about maybe doing it before uh the winter break but we we wanted because it's the first year we're using it we wanted to make sure like we kind of knew it um but yeah and I don't know Jessica if there's anything you want to add but it's just this is It's really exciting and we know that our parents are huge Partners in this and we want to empower them to even even in the in the most little way of saying hey I know you have homework you need to do it and I know about CK and kids go what you know and even that is really important because we want we want to do that so thanks for bringing it up and yeah we're definitely working on it um again we wanted to make sure that we saw how it worked uh first and now we're going to try to really share it with the families so thank you thank you Mr Lopez mam sureair absolutely um just on on your comments uh Mr superintendent um I think when when we do that we need to really make an effort to get to those parents that don't come because everything that we do you have to basically the parents that that either have the time or the desire you know and they don't have any other impediments so we need to uh make sure that that that we do a good job in in touch and Bays with all our parents and and uh ensuring them that that it would be very important for them to attend absolutely and what we find is that the best groups of people to really share the information is on the school level you know if the superintendent does something it's unclear if anybody cares but when the the principal of their school does it or has a night at the schools a lot more families come but what we've also noticed and I want to give a good shout out to uh our comms director Ryan is that a lot of our families might not necessarily come to a meeting but they'll engage in social media or they'll engage in on the internet and so the idea of making videos the idea of explaining things and sending it out via text so you're 100% right we as a school district we can't just say well we had a meeting and five people showed up what we have to say is we had a meeting 100 people showed up and we sent a video out to a thousand families we put it on social media Etc because you know again a school district's responsibility is to make sure sure our parents engage it's not the other way around it's not just saying well we did it and they didn't listen that's not the job so I really appreciate you saying that and and you're right and we also will make sure that it's translated we'll make sure that we uh uh impact our families in the way that that they can best get the information so thank you madam president so with the new curriculum are they only doing it on digital online or are the students also being given worksheets or whatever they need to do the homework oh yeah no so this is actually very much uh kind of Hands-On uh curriculum so there are uh books there are uh digital there's manipulatives there's all sorts of kind of amazing things so I don't know Jess I mean you you know I mean I've been in the classrooms and seen it but it's it is definitely a a a curriculum that's built for how kids learn it's not just digital yeah there's consumables that we use too in the classroom so they do have physical copies of the books from K all the way to 12 so are they allowed if need be to take these books home or is there resources that they are provided if they need to take you home to have that additional time yes yep thank you any other questions comments okay seeing none um that brings us on to our routine matters this evening next up we have our Personnel report Miss Moore vice president Moore yes madame president I yield the floor over to trusty nowinsky who will be giving our Personnel report this evening perfect thank you thank you the Personnel committee met on Friday November 1st trustees Moore and I were present along with CEO slate and HR Director Ross uh reports were provided on the following topics first uh Recruitment and hiring updates a WX publication highlighting the need for teachers in the district was shared that included our staff responses uh questions were asked about District managed and other programs available to assist people with obtaining certifications uh surveys are being developed to gather midyear feedback from staff on work climate to inform Recruitment and Retention efforts it's HED that responses can be encouraged in collaboration with the lsca the October reports of staff resignations and new hires which are in your packet were reviewed and and questions were asked about current policies and procedures for reviewing criminal history and child abuse neglect registry information for applicants employees and volunteers uh the next item was District level grievances we heard that over half of the current lsca grievances received have been responded to formally and the remaining grievances are under investigation for formal responses uh the next topic was on bargaining unit contract status updates negotiations continue with Las a and tentative Agreements are under review by Lea and the district for other status of Transportation contract negotiations continue with Dean transportation and I was able to share a a company's information from the Michigan Association of school boards to see if they can provide any quotes that the district might want to review and then on the monthly report on teacher certification that we've brought up before work is still ongoing to compile that information uh due to some HR staff changes but that's still hoped for in the coming months and the question was raised on previous meeting uh from a previous meeting on survey feedback from staff who attended the orientation sessions in August uh director Ross is going to seek uh any information that might be available from that the next committee meeting is scheduled for Friday December 6 at 11 o' at the administration building thank you and I believe Miss swinsky noted that but we do um have continued to have that separated reports on the um consent agenda this evening we have the approval of the new hires as a separate report um any questions for mrki Dr Rodriguez thank you mad president um when we had the new hires we had the no teachers in the first BCE are no teachers and then new hire teachers why we don't have the same thing in the res in the resignation or retirement do we can have teachers for or not teachers first and teachers in them we can see the relationship is your request to see the resignation section separated out it's not big problem big deal but see we had one in one way you have both to be consistent sure I person a response to that may be that and that's part of the questions we raised before that are now on the list for the policy committee to study is that the resignation policy in the uh policies is different for professional staff than it is for nonprofessional staff I'm not sure that's exactly why the report structured this way we I don't think we've discussed that but that is one thing we're looking at is why are resignation policies different for those two is that a statutory reason or just a legacy policy reason would you apply that would you apply that to the first part too yes and so that is something the policy committee has to look at is when we we have different policies on hiring and resignation and they're different for those two different groups okay perfect perfect um okay any other questions or comments this evening well guess what Dr adriz she still on the floor because next on the agenda is our isoa update thank you Madame President I am going to report about our meeting with the i s i a s a iio the we had last Wednesday as 8 o00 and was a different meeting this time because um we had the visitation of the Wilson Talent Center we spent 1 hour and a half visiting the Mr Wilson Talent Center and before I say anything we had to recognize Mr Wilson Mr Wilson was a great leader in our community a great leader in honoring in the commission of C I mean mat Luther King and many other African-American organization and for justice and laning for many many years and then he became to be a board member of the ISD then now in his honor this Talent Center is called Wilson on taling Center I'm going to pass to you all the information that they gave us um this enrollment and it's all about the talent Center is about CTE CTE programs and they have you you will find out how many programs they have there how many students for the 12 different district is are in different programs we have 56 student from from laning in the program too then and um even we have our own program because past history I don't need to go back but um still we have 56 students and you will see how many other districts because they don't have as many students we do they use iisd to prepare this student in C then I'm going to pass to all of you and you can go and do your own research here and um can you pass thank you uh I think that was very impressive and it benefit any students in our in in our region or in the Michigan or in United States is our student then I am pleased to say that that they are doing a good job and and giving training to the all students around us and S of our students too um I think I express that before M president the the way the board knows more about what is going on in the kids is visiting the programs is going to the schools is to spend hours with the schools with what is going on and to meet just once or twice a month here doesn't mean the board member knows exactly what is going on in the district then one more time before I leave um I think we should visi in the schools when we were talking about the curriculum today and other things the best way is to go in person and visit and receive explanation from the president and the and then maybe in the future we can do it but I think that not to criticize but to learn and how to work together and how knowing more we can do better thank you mad president thank you so much Dr arriz and I am glad that the district has increased its utilization of the Wilson Talent Center for opportunities for kids as we've continued to grow our own CTE program as well so um thank you for that update any questions for Dr Rodriguez sure thing vice president Mo um do students need to provide their own transportation out there no they they no they has some bues at different times in the morning in the afternoon okay and also there are many that they drive but they they had that was my question to them too okay thank you that is a very very good question and they they provide transportation okay it's incredible and and how much can learn from each other is the best way to do it but um we we are improving our own services and I think we appreciate that thank you thank you for the question mam yeah um what is the um capacity of the uh Wilson Center student capacity and how much is uh lensing allocated okay um the right now they have 900 156 students attending all day long uh almost they can have um few more students in every program but really most of the program they were as capacity and now Lan in school district have 56 students and um but you know because what happened before in the millage and all that um we had to pay to put our students there then we have our own program we are improving our own program and I think you know that we are going to be and and in the next few months of of or two or more years or less than two years in a very good position to to get the same services and L in school district but the other District like they don't have the capacity they we have they need to have a place to send all this um all this students to there and they had also connection of universities and Delta and other Ling even I ask then about L Community College do you have any and they don't have a lot they don't we we have more than they do but um that was my question to them because luning Community College is is the center for all these neighbors all this um for the region then that was the question but it's almost to to the Limit and they go in the morning and they go in the afternoon they have yeah morning and afternoon classes yes yeah my question also was how they receive 18 credit for graduation and they are receiving credit because also incorporate in in the teaching CTE incorporate some of the goals and objectives Math Science and Etc any other questions right see none that brings us on to our agenda item of the consent agenda may I have a motion Madame President Mr Lopez I move that the Board of Education approve the consent agenda presented which includes one approval of October 24 24th 2024 regular meeting minutes and number two approval of October 2024 new high I second thank you it's been moved by Mr Lopez supported by vice president Moore all those in favor signify by saying I I oppose same sign motion passes 60 next speaking of all of our taxes and finances and liabilities and levies and all that jazz we have a responsibility to pass a resolution annually if we want to collect any um taxes that we Levy so we have a resolution before us this evening to make sure that we collect our summer 2025 property taxes and all of our applicable is this for all of our applicable jurisdictions so our applicable jurisdictions which is the cities of East laning and where it is in East laning Township Delta Township and dit areas where we collect taxes may I have a there is somewhere townships of Delta DET yes Rachel can read Eaton County is included in there sorry about that uh may I have a motion Madam president I moveed that the Board of Education approves the annual resolution to Levy property Texas for the summer 2025 as presented it's been moved by trusty Williams supported by Dr Kavanaugh any questions or comments Madam president sure thing Mr noesy yes this question came up in the summer as well when we had to Levy the other 50% for some of the jurisdictions um that we don't Levy 100% for in the summer and my understanding from some of the courses I took at the Schoolboard Association conference was that you know we ask for those 100% to be levied to help us get some of that income uh in the summer so we don't have cash flow issues and don't have to take loans and incur those debt costs I do think it's important um to look at potentially from an equity lens though why we uh seek 100% from the city of Lancing East Lancing and 50% spread out over both tax bills for the townships just to know why that is it sounds like that's been a long-term understanding I don't know the history of that I think we need to look into it though it certainly is a change for taxpayers to have to pay at one time as opposed to two but certainly that was done with some of the taxpayers in the district and not others so I think it would be important for the board for now until next year or maybe even the summer period whenever that change needs to be made to look into this um talk to those U collect municipalities find out if there's any reason it would cause any issues for them and then try to have that conversation with the taxpayers potentially to find out why we have a difference between the two because I wouldn't want to see any of our residents being treated differently for an unknown reason but with that withstanding you know I support continuing this today as is and just researching that for a future thank you that is a wonderful question that I wish Shirley Rogers was here to answer um so we certainly can look into that um or trun yeah the lawyers great great question Mr oisy um any additional comments or questions this evening I wish that our eastern girls who made it into the championship first round yesterday were playing next next door where we're hearing all that cheering for volleyball but nonetheless may I uh have a roll call vote for the motion on the floor yes Mr Lopez Mrs Moore yes Mr noisy yes Dr Rodriguez yes Miss Williams yes Mrs willes yes motion passes 70 that brings us to new business we do not have any new business before us this evening although our action item was really new business but nonetheless I'm going to fix that one day Mr nosky nonetheless we do have our a closed session request this evening may I have a motion Madam president move at the Board of Education recessing close session for the purpose of considering material exempt from disclosure as permitted in the open meetings act thank you it's been moved by Miss trusty Williams supported by Dr Kavanaugh questions comments and board members may I have a r oh sure Mr Lopez do we have uh many public comments we have one public comment register is it possible to hear the public comment before going to uh it is the if if the board desires I don't have a problem moving that around is there any objection to moving public comment ahead of the closed session oh wait I have a motion on the floor so technically I have a motion on the floor so we want to do that we actually need to vote the motion down and then okay so I need to make a motion no I have a motion on the floor I got to call the question call the question then all right any questions specifically about the motion Mr nosky well I move to lay the motion on the table for the pending request to adjust the agenda second thank you now I can do it okay so there is a request to delay the motion on the table that was uh entered by Mr nowinsky supported by Dr Kavanagh I have to take it now I can take a vote on that right all those in favor of delaying the motion signify by saying I I oppose same sign motion passes 70 now we can entertain uh Mr Lopez's uh recommendation that we change the order of the agenda um is there any objection to us calling the action or our agenda item Roman numeral 16 um ahead all right seeing none we are going to move action item or agenda item 16 public comment on non agenda items to our current position on the agenda so I would like to invite Mr Jeffrey Kramer to the our makeshift Podium here Mr Kramer you have three minutes to address the board the time will start whenever you're ready and as a reminder the board does not typically respond to public comment thank you madam president thank you board for your time my name is Jeff Kramer I am here in my capacity through Edge staff as a subcontracted employee in your school district I've worked in and around education for the past decade and have been inside hundreds of schools and dozens of districts in my capacity as an americor member third grade teacher in Patterson in Newark New Jersey doctoral student in education policy at MSU analyst and Grant officer for Detroit nonprofit foundation and finally most recently as a substitute in this area to learn more about the greater laning schools and districts I have never had to act as a mandatory reporter to report obvious signs of trauma abuse and El until I worked at AAL elementary school on Tuesday October 29th after filing my legally mandated Report with mdhhs I attempted to inform my supposed employers at EDG staff but they took little to no interest until I literally demanded that they receive my report and information regarding this since they care so little and have willfully ignored a plain text reading of the mandatory report or law to receive my written report I feel as if I have no choice but to inform you directly of the situation my written report is available here and includes the details of three physical altercations the students got into in just five classes on that Tuesday the Blas attitude of the staff and administration towards violence in their school a textbook incident of neglect and abandonment and the overall culture of violence and neglect at AAL Elementary I was there at AAL because I chose to focus on Elementary School age assignments due to rather negative experience having my phone stolen ransomed and then receiving a death threat earlier in October at Dwight rich and it literally pains me to have an experience that dwarfs any and all of that nonsense later that same month I do want to add that in both incidents I've referenced administrators of the schools chose to retaliate Against Me by fabricating stories about me and seemingly blaming me for these situations occurring which is indicative of cover up and sweep problems under the rug style of leadership that I genuinely pray is not replicated here or moving forward I am very used to a baseline level of disrespect as a substitute teacher however your administrators have gone above and beyond in attempting to financially retaliate by removing my worked hours these relatively minor personal concerns pale in comparison to the seriousness of the situation at AAL Elementary so for the remainder of my time I will read from the DHS 3200 report I have filed and we'll be leaving with you thank you Mr Kramer I just want you to be mindful even though you're a mandated reporter you do have to follow confidentiality laws and so you can't disclose any identified information of anybody involved in a CPS report I totally understand thank you while I understand that no school can outright admit that its students have a propensity for violence there are tactical ways to ensure that problems can be solved as previously mentioned in this report most schools at the very least Supply their teachers with key cards and keys to re-enter the building many schools would have supplied me with a walkie-talkie or other way to communicate with school support staff many schools would have also responded adequately any of the times that I reported and witness violence in their school however AAL Elementary is unfortunately not most schools it is unquestionably and obviously a place where violence committed buying against children must be the norm and must happen on a regular basis their accusations against me instead of looking inward point to a culture that seeks to blame others for their obvious problems going so far as to generate novel accusation against against me in the hopes that I will simply go away and not talk to this about this with anyone lest I perhaps get in further trouble this is not normal and it should not be acceptable the administration and staff of the school is complicit in this violence and their lack of attention to it has unequivocally reached the point of neglect and an urgent investigation is needed to ensure the safety and students at AAL Elementary thank you for your time okay thank you thank you okay now we have um Madam president oh thing Mr noi I move to take from the table the motion to uh recess and to close session second thank you it's been moved by Mr nowinsky supported by Dr Kavanaugh that we bring our motion back to the table all Dr cab okay all those in favor signify by saying I I oppose same sign motion passes 70 that brings motion that was originally made by trusty Williams and Dr Kavanagh to convene back into into close session that brings it back onto the table any questions or comments seeing none will the clerk please call the role Cabana yes Mr Lopez yes Mrs Moore yes Mr noes yes Dr Rodriguez yes Miss Williams yes Mrs Willis yes motion passes 70 and at 7:22 we are in close session