Good evening those present and those watching on TV. Welcome to uh school board of security meeting of May 7th, 2026. Um we'll start with the pledge of allegiance. Will you please stand?
To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic, one nation under God, indivisible. >> Dr. Rodriguez, can you please read our uh district's mission? >> Thank you. to provide a high quality
education in a culturally safe and nurturing environment that supports all students to lead purposeful and fulfilling lives. >> Thank you. Vice President Kavanaaugh, did you read our Len Claus?
We collectively acknowledge that the Lancing School District occupies the ancestral, traditional, and contemporary lands of the Anesab Three Fires Confederacy of Ojiway, Odawa, and Badawatami peoples. >> Thank you. Roll call, please. >> Dr. Kavana,
>> present. >> Dr. Herd, Miss Leia McKisk, Mr. Lopez, >> present. >> Mrs. Moore, Mr. Noiski, >> present. >> Dr. Rodriguez, >> present. >> Mrs. Strode >> present. >> M Williams
is present. >> Thank you. >> Do we have any public comment on agenda items? Okay. just like to mention that um uh trustee Lemieux Mckis indicate that she was not
going to be able to be here and um uh trusty Moore is not able to be here either. I believe uh trustee Dr. Herd was also uh having some uh
conflicts. So just so that public knows So move to approval of minutes. May I have a motion? We move to second. Any comments, corrections, deletions, additions to the minutes?
Hearing none. All those in favor say I. All same sign. Thank you. Carries. We now move to presentations. Um, Superintendent Benevas. >> Good evening, everyone.
We have a very special honor to um give to one of our staff members this evening. Um, I know she could not be here, but we wanted to make sure that we acknowledged her just the same. This award is to Sherry Edwards, and she has served 40 years in the Lancing School District. We can please give her a round
of applause. Sherry is a current instructional staff member at Kavanaaugh and she is an absolutely wonderful special part of the team and we're just so thrilled that we can honor her tonight with 40 years of service to the Lancing School District. That is quite an accomplishment. I'd say
that I wish her 40 years more, but I'm not sure that, you know, that's that would be the best thing for her. she might deserve a a little bit of a break after that, but we appreciate every year that she's been with the Lancing School District and for as many years as she wants to be to come. So, thank you.
>> Thank you. Very nice. Um, as well, we u um and best wishes to all our teachers and uh folks working out in our schools in the school buildings. Thank you for your service.
We move to reports. First report is um report from the secretary. >> Thank you. The secretary report is as follows. We want to help shape the future of our schools by completing that Lancing school district survey uh via
the link in your parent square email. Your feedback is completely confidential. You need to have your child's student ID ready to participate. Um, we really rely heavily on those surveys so that we can know how well we're doing in supporting our students.
Join us for the Lancing Technical High School open house. That is on May 13th from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. at 58:15 Wise Road to explore our 4-year CTE tracks and win some prizes. Juniors and
seniors. Yes, juniors and seniors, discover your future at RCTE program showcase again on that's going to be May 14th from 5 to 7:00 p.m. at the same location, Wise Road, 5815 Wise Road.
There is no school tomorrow, May 8th. There's also planning and records half day for elementary only on May 22nd. On May 25th, it's Memorial Day, so no school. Our next board meetings are May
14 is a special board meeting. May 21st is a regular board meeting and an information study session, and June 4th is a regular board meeting. That concludes the secretary's report. Thank you. >> Thank you very much for that report. Uh
we're going to item B on the reports committee, equity committee. uh cross this road. >> No updates. Thank you. >> Okay, moving on. Uh facilities committee. I'm going to pass this on to Trusty
Kevin. Trusty Williams. Do we have a >> We did not have >> We pre We presented um the information at the last board meeting from the last facilities committee meeting. >> So there's no report Uh item four, personnel committee. >> Personnel committee meeting. The
personnel committee meeting for this month is scheduled for this coming Monday, uh May 11th at 12:00 p.m. If you're interested in attending, that will be here in this boardroom at 12:00 p.m. on Monday. And we will have um more to report to the board after that meeting.
>> Thank you. Oh, I'm going to finance. Trusty uh Ninsky, finance report. >> Yes, thank you. Uh before I read the treasures report, I'll just share that the finance committee did meet and look over the financial statements as we usually do and we did discuss and looked
at some uh other formats of reports that was requested by the board. We looked at some districts that had just a listing of all of their transactions with really no summarized reports or information. Um, some that just had a one-page budget statement for year to date. Some that
had several pages similar to what we have but but uh maybe a little differently formatted. Um, so we are working with staff to potentially um add sort of a cover page is our thought that would explain some of the reports in our current document, help us understand
what they are, what they mean, where to look for each, uh, typical thing on which page. So that'll kind of help us walk through that and help the public know that as well. But, uh, I think in that review, the the very detailed full report that we we get and is posted online is far more than some districts
are, uh, currently getting. So, thank you to staff who've been doing that for many years and we'll keep working on that and bring it to future board meetings once we have time and would appreciate your feedback when we try some of those new uh formats in the future. But for now, we're continuing with our uh traditional format. The
details treasures report for the period of March 1st uh through March 31st, 2026 is attached to this evening's agenda. The following are the highlights of the report. The beginning cash and investment balance was 69,24,034. Receipts totaled 16,557,147
while dispersements equal 22,259,892. Net interf transfers total $920,479 in interest from fund investments to the student and bond funds as well as journal entries to remove the due to due from and all funds. The monthly transfer to the general fund for bond expenses
was $752,127. The ending general fund cash and investment balance on March 31st, 2026 was 65,173,895. Donations received during the month of March 2026 totaled $3,993.
Uh special thank you to United Way Capital United Way uh for their donation to RIFF and LFCU for their donation to the Everett baseball athletic banners. Several others came through regular employer giving and amounts. This uh Mr.
President, this concludes the March 2026 treasures report. >> Thank you very much. Any questions? Uh Trusty Rodriguez. >> Thank you. There's no question but thank you for follow up asking to see if you can find new forms or new but you the
the the thing that you are coming back to us and telling us that you are looking the board is looking at that. I think that that may how good we can communicate and follow up things. I think it's one of the first time in many years that I really feel happy to see
that the voice of the board is listening. Thank you very much. Any other comment question? Hear none. Thank you very much for the report. Uh trustwinsky. Uh moving on, we have a policy committee.
>> Mr. President, but before we do that, can we entertain the motion? >> Oh, that's right. Go ahead. >> Mr. President, I I move that the board of education approve the expenditures as presented for March 2026. >> Move to second. Any other discussion?
Hear all those in favor say I. >> I. >> All the same sign. Thank you. >> Now we're back. >> So the policy committee update. We actually are scheduled to have a meeting on next Tuesday, May 12th, from 12 to 1:30 p.m. here in this building, room
305. Um, currently the following items will be included on that agenda. We're going to be talking about Niola's spring update, um, the policy 5512, the youth, uh, the use of tobacco for our students. Um, technology devices and a policy update for discussion, which I'm sure
you all will be hearing about that. um policy 5136 which is personal communication device that last update was 2016. We will be looking at the policy 7545-01 that's on the electronic device use as
well as policy 7540-03 again student technology acceptable use and safety. Thank you so much. That concludes the policy report. >> Thank you. Any questions for uh Trusty Stro?
Hearing none, we'll move on to recognition of the committee. Uh Trusty Williams recognition met on April finalize the sele Michael, any nominated
budget for celebration. Our next >> Thank you. Questions. Okay, hearing none, we'll move on to our next report is uh student achievement committee trustee Dr. Rodriguez.
>> Thank you, Mr. President. Um the student achie committee going to meet next week sometime but I am going to share with you our agenda and I'm asking please if you have something that you want also be
included let us know. Number one, we are going to be study district stud development plan and curriculum teaching for 2026 2027. The second thing we are going to be
study is the lancing uh no the strategic plan for student achievement if we are we are going to be talking about that. Number three and also we are going to be talking about Lancing School District strategic plan ending. I have a copy
here ending in 2027. Can believe it that we created that in 2023 and it's going to end next year. Then we are going to see we review the board. We what we are doing is to study points
that we can present to the whole board for them to make decisions and maybe to study this plan and reorganize for the next three years or something that we can do together. But what our board is do our committee is doing a study what
we can present to the whole board that they can make decisions. Um also we want to create an student achievement strategic plan. We are going to ask for data. We celebrate the 3.5
um students and we want to know how many we had 3.5 to 2.5 2.5 to 1.5 and then compare and see how the grades
in our district look like for the 12th graders and maybe the ninth graders and that is going to take time. Um we are going to talk about the steering committee's role and relating to the student achievement
and finally review all the topics of the previous meetings and see consistency that we can present to the board this this point then I ask him for ideas and that is what we are going to be discussing to
present to you in the next meeting. Mr. President, thank you very much. Any questions? Uh, Dr. Rodriguez on the report. Uh, Trusty Williams, do you have anything else to add? Okay. Thank you. Um,
again, I'm going to I know that that we get the agendas for all our committee meetings. So I ask our board members, trustees, if you have any question, concern or an idea to share with another committee like with our finance or
facilities to get a hold of the of the chair of the committee and ask them to address any of whatever concern or question you may have from that committee report, etc., etc., so that we can all have good communication.
And um don't wait until we come here to to the board meeting and then we have all these questions. We haven't had good but you know it's just a way of communicating and being uh in touch with um our committee work.
Okay. Our item C interim superintendent uh report. >> Good evening everyone. It's a pleasure to be uh speaking with you tonight and filling you in on some things wonderful that are happening in the Lancing School District. The first is I wanted to thank
uh the board members, all of you for attending the community engagement forum that we had last week at Mount Hope. We had over 50 people in attendance which includes students, parents, staff members, community members, of course, our board members, and it was a really wonderful chance to talk about the
vision of the Lancing School District. The community asked really wonderful questions. Um, I was really happy to have that level of engagement from our community to be talking about the future of Lancing and it was an honor to be there with all with all of you. So, thank you for setting that up for us and
just really thank you to all of the community members for being there. I look forward to many many more engagement sessions like that. I think the one thing that I said maybe too many times, but I definitely said it over and over again was we cannot do this alone. We need to do this together and it's
going to take all of us. And I think that these are things that we can accomplish in the Lancing School District, especially being a part of the Capitol City. We have a lot of people very invested in our youth. That was definitely um present in that meeting. And I look forward to many more
dialogues in the future about talking about how we can improve the education and the environment for our students and the bright future that this board and I have planned. So, just want to thank you all for coming out to that community uh engagement session at Mount Hope.
Uh second, I want to give a huge shout out to JW Ston. We uh launched today. I'm going to show you my poster. We'll post it uh definitely somewhere in the boardroom. But I wanted to just acknowledge JW Sexton staff and JW
Sexton students as they are leaders in the cell phone pouches. So it's something that we launched today. It's a pilot system and um as we know there's a new law coming into effect here in the fall which uh limits use of cell phones to um so that they're not active during
instructional time. We wanted to pilot the pouch system now because if this is something that we wanted to launch in the fall, we wanted to make sure that we had all of the kinks worked out. We wanted to get feedback from parents and students and staff and JW Sexton staff was on board from the very beginning. So
we are really really thankful to the staff for embracing this and I just have to tell you how incredible our students are and what leaders that they are. I know the principal and I were talking today along with many of the staff members because we were all we were all
there this morning and our students are leading the way for the rest of the school district. They're going to be able to give us feedback. They all showed up this morning with pouch in hand ready to go. They um so the the community understands what this means. There are some pouches that
they're called yonder pouches. So you can look those up. Um what that means is students are assigned their own personal cell phone pouch. And with the cell phone pouch, what you do is you walk into school, you go through our metal detectors, check in, you take your cell
phone, you put it right in the pouch, you lock it up, and then you scan into school, and on you go. And it's a cell phone free education. That's what we're offering for our students. We know that that's going to be better focus. It's going to be better relationships and better achievement. And so this is our
way. Thank you, Sexton, for being leaders in this and being able to do this over the next three and four weeks to be able to give us the feedback that we need to figure out how that we can roll this out to our other schools. I just was so impressed this morning. Our whole staff was there. Um, and I have to
tell you that um when you're looking for relationships, JW Ston excels at that. They knew every single one of their students names. They knew um what activities they were in. They greeted them in the morning. Um JW Sexton is just a great place to be. So I just want
to say thank you to the staff and to the students of JW Sexton um for piloting our yonder pouches and we look forward to seeing how that progresses over the next several weeks. This week is teacher appreciation week, one of my favorite weeks of the year. Uh
we have tremen tremendous educators in the Lancing School District. I think we have world class teachers in the Lancing School District. Um, they are teachers that come at rain or shine for our students. They spend additional hours of their own. They spend their own money in
their classrooms. They are dedicated individuals who come every day prepared with love in their hearts and with a lesson plan book full of amazing engagement tools for our students. And so, I want to say happy teacher appreciation week. I think every week should be teacher appreciation week in
our school district. I always think it's a shame when we have these days or these weeks that that we call because every day we should be appreciating our educators for their dedication. We also had school nurse day this week and so celebrating our nurses in the Lancing school district. They not only help with ice packs and immunizations but
everything in between and so we just appreciate their commitment keeping our students healthy and happy in our school. So happy school nurse day to all of you out there. Um, we are celebrating all of our staff members tomorrow at
1:30 at the Don Johnson Fieldhouse. I do want to thank the Office of School Culture for all they do to put that uh event together. Thank you, Office of School Culture. Um, and we're going to have food, fun, and celebrations for our staff. It's a wonderful time for our staff to be able to connect. um being a
large district such as ours to have 24 schools, our schools are really good at connecting, you know, in and of themselves, but they often don't get a chance to see each other and celebrate each other. Um for people like me who've been in the Lancing School District for 20 plus years and probably taught or was
an administrator at several schools, it's a great time for our staff to be able to see each other, reminisce, and just connect. And so we're really looking forward to the um celebration tomorrow at the Don Johnson Fieldhouse. So again, thank you to our teachers, our
school staff, and our community. We couldn't do it without you, and that's one of the many reasons that we are proud to be LSD. Thank you. >> Thank you very much for the report. Any questions of our superintendent? Okay,
moving on to the agenda. Welcome to new business. Item seven. >> Mr. President. Yes. I would like to recommend a motion um with comment of course, but I move to authorize the
president and the vice president to enter into contract negotiations with Jessica Benvitas for the position of the Lancing School District Superintendent. You >> moved and second. You have any questions, comments? Uh, Trusty Strode,
>> of course, I have a comment, but it's not going to be from myself. This board was presented with an email maybe about a week or so ago, and I'm going to read this without giving uh the confidentiality of the person that sent it. This person reached out and said,
"This is for Jessica Benvitz. as part of her community and listening tour and having children in our district in this district. She is amazing. Her passion and commitment and history with LSD make her perfect superintendent beyond her
interim period. I look forward to seeing the word interim removed from her title. >> Thank you. Any other comments, Dr. Trust? >> Thank you very much. I appreciate the letters from others, but I think that
this board are going to do the right decision to select Mrs. Jessica Venides to be the next superintendent of the Lancing School District. Her dedication to this district, her dedication to our community, our
students, teachers, and her motions for what we have in this district is not comparable to anybody. Then um our hope and the community hope that we want for her the best and the
next few years the transformation of our district will be in her schedule. Thank you Mr. President. >> Thank you. Any other comments? Uh yes, I'll just add to that that I think, you know, we're very fortunate as
a district to have this opportunity to have an interim superintendent who knows the district so well, brings such a wealth of experience. Uh you know, often in a transition period, boards have to pay quite a bit of money to recruit candidates and go through a process and hope we get answers, you know, in an
hour or two that we like and can try to judge the character of the candidate. But here we've had decades long interview maybe, so to speak. And um not only on that, we've had, you know, 90 days to see the superintendent fill this role and I've been impressed in so many
ways uh the communication, the openness, the honesty with community, with staff, with this board about uh things that are going well, but also things that uh need improvement and the willingness to have difficult conversations already, make difficult decisions. And I really appreciated uh what Superintendent
Benvid said during the community forum when a community member asked, "How will you go about making the difficult decisions? That's really what we're hiring somebody to do is not just take credit for the the nice things." But and she said, "It's always going to be centered around what's best for kids."
And when you make the decision on what's best for kids, it'll be the right one, even if it's difficult. And so among all the things that I've seen uh for the last couple of years and in this 90-day period that stood out to me and I look forward to uh seeing the contract come back to us for approval.
>> Trusty Williams, >> I am I will going to be some that are going to happen. But what was I going to
Don't Don't open. more. >> Thank you. Anybody else? Well, I'm going to say that um this 90 days have been great meeting with uh Jessica Venovidas
talking about the issues district um very transparent tells it like it is um and uh you know there's going to be things that have to be done and uh we're going to do them and I think as long as
you you give us the the um the nuts and bolts and the nitty-gritty In other words, be transparent and she has been all all along. I have enjoyed this time um meeting with her and going through the
the um things that are going on in the district and what she has done to uh improve different facets of of the district that she has inherited uh or she will inherit you know permanently when we come back
with the contract. So, there's been a motion and a second made. Uh, we're going to have a roll call. >> Dr. Cavana, >> yes. >> Mr. Lopez, >> yes. >> Mr. Niski, >> yes. >> Dr. Rodriguez,
>> yes. >> Mrs. Strode, >> yes. >> Miss Williams. >> Thank you. Motion carries. Applause. Congratulations. >> So, now we're going to have sit down and and get some dates together with with
our vice president and and yourself and I talk about the contract. And so, we'll be doing that, you know, this coming week, getting some dates down and and moving forward. Thank you very much. So we continue and
now we have item B. I received a a request from um electrification coalition and it this was basically to ask me as the president to support their advocacy
for um electrification um electrical EV charging stations and um electric buses. I know we're we have the electric buses and we uh we're doing charging stations,
but I as the president I didn't think that I I I didn't want to first of all to just go ahead and say yes even though we're doing this. I I wanted to share it with I shared it with the administration and then I've shared it with the board
because I want all of us to be on the same page and not have to then have to explain what I've done. um on behalf of the school district. So if um if this coalition is still accepting um support
from districts, I will respond positively and uh knowing that um the board is aware of this. Are there any questions on this? If not, thank you. This information
item, I will go ahead and and respond to their request. Uh item C, change order. >> Mr. President, I move that the board of education accept the change order for Wexford Monastery as presented. >> Second.
>> We moved and second to accept the change order. Any questions in regards to this, concerns? Hearing none. All those in favor say I. I. >> All same sign. Thank you. Motion carries.
Uh item D we have in inum intermediate school district 2026 27 proposed general fund budget. Uh Dr. Rodriguez, Trusty Rodriguez. Second
>> be moved and seconded to um support the inter intermediate uh budget. Questions, concerns? Uh Rustin Williams. Okay. Do we have a anybody have a a thought on that?
>> I guess um I would want to hear exactly the area that you have questioned. Um I was able to attend on yesterday morning the ISOA meeting and it was one of the agenda topics and they broke down a couple different things surrounding the bond. So um if you want to ask anything
specifically or we can talk after um I would certainly be happy to answer any questions. and I do miss I might have some mixpure we talked about the bond and the fund here so this both areas were topic and I'll be happy to share the uh details that were provided on yesterday's
meeting thank you >> thank you um I think That is a good question. But um I think we had now 54 students from Lancing School District attending the services in the Wilson Center, but is a little bit more than we
had before. But um they welcome our students and we had to also to promote inside our students if they want to go and provide this the transportation and everything else that they need to go over there. I
think we can improve in both sides. Thank you. Any other comment? >> Okay. I think the uh the questions we can um look into them and and come back with u more information, but we do have
a motion on the floor. We moved in and second to u support the budget. Um I think we need a roll call for this. Roll call, please. >> Dr. Kavanaaugh. Yes, >> Mr. Lopez. >> Yes, >> Mason. Niski.
>> Yes, >> Dr. Rodriguez. >> Mrs. Strode. >> Yes, >> Ms. Williams. Motion carries. Thank you very much, folks. Now, we're into uh public comment on non-aggenda items. And we do have one
card. We have two cards. Okay. Um the first one is from Jenny Metsmaker. I hope I didn't mispronounce it. >> I just Yeah. Okay. Uh so my name is Jenny Metsmaker. I am the founder director of a dancing nonprofit called
Positive Somebody. Uh we teach um emotion regulation and positive coaching skills and we distribute positive coping tools. We were just given a grant from the community foundation to put more of our positive packs in the Lancing school district. So we are already in about
seven schools right now with some of them. Uh we received enough money to but maybe 50 school or wherever you the need for them. The positive packs have a hardcover journal journal writing activities. It comes with a breathe
stone breathing activities. Uh it has information about nutrition, hydration and sleep. It comes with a sleep mask. It has a fidget um positive affirmation bracelet and positive affirmation. It also comes with a pamphlet for other resources in the area. Um I would love
to talk to the Lancing school district about ways that we can put more than 50 in each school. Uh we've have a lot of great feedback. We are in 48 schools in um Michigan right now. And the feedback that we hear from counselors, social workers, teachers is amazing. Uh lots of
kids are starting to journal right and starting to use their breast stones. I've heard from um teachers at Dwight Rich. are using them there. They really are working. So, I would love to um talk to you about getting more of them in the schools. Uh we do have a few other grants out that we're hoping to get. I
would love to get more in the With that being said, we also have other programs that we are piloting. We have a social emotional learning program called the weather within. We teach emotion regulation, other emojis. We also teach positive skills with that. We have a six
series and love to talk to you guys about that in the future. I feel like kids that are unable to um regulate their emotions, understand their emotions and regulate them and cope in a positive way are not able to learn. I would love to talk to you guys more about getting social more social
emotional learning program or we make kids learn academic. And I will leave this with you guys so you can see um what we have coming. Uh just received the funding. It takes a little while for us to get everything packed. We do have Pekkham School
Vocational Center packing our packs now. So, we not only distribute co, we are teaching job skills. I will leave this with you guys and hopefully I can get with you guys soon to be able to distribute them. I'd love to talk to each school on how to present them,
stuff like that. >> Thank you. >> Thank you very much for that. >> Our next speaker is Marie. I u don't want to mispronounce her name. So, Howie. >> Okay.
>> So, I've come to you guys today. I've gone and I've talked to the school. I've reached out last week at the last meeting you guys also had in regards to the situation I have with my daughter. Um, it extends back to when she was suspended back in December. We had a meeting in January. The meeting in
January stated that she was to get school work. We were supposed to go to another schooling to get such. The school never gave it, never turned it over. Um, my daughter ended up failing trimester three and four or two and three due to it trying to do play catchup game. And I'm here to you guys
today to try to figure out how to get her where she needs to be, get her the help that she needs. I have been lost. I have been dealing with the school continuously not getting any whatsoever. Um, my daughter, yes, what she did was what she did to get herself in trouble in December. She knows she was very
wrong. She's trying to write that wrong. Um, she is doing going to school, doing her school work. She also is feeling very unsafe at school due to a situation that happened early March. Um, I've discussed that with the principal as well. He's not finding any way to make
her feel safer at school or taking in figuring out what we can do to get her the credits that she has lost due to them not giving her her credit or her school work so she can get it done. So, I'm at a loss. I'm coming to you guys for help.
>> Thank you very much. We don't respond to public comment, but I'm sure the superintendent will get a hold of you either herself or through that person. >> I just needed it out there. I needed help somewhere and get me where I needed to go. >> Okay. >> Thank you.
>> Thank you very much. Um, is there any other public comment? Thank you. We're now to comments from the board. Uh, Trusty Stro, >> I'll be quick.
I promise. >> Three minutes, >> not even three. Two things. Um, I was able to attend a United Way lunchon on yesterday with our lovely interim superintendent. She was one of the uh key speakers. um and she really poured
into that room and she had a nice whole couple of tables of our uh district uh support staff, principles and others. And so I just publicly wanted to let you all know um and say thank you to those who came yesterday to support and um I
was very very impressed uh with how she gave the information and connected into the room and it was really a nice time to be really proud to be LSD. So I just wanted to highlight that. Um and then the second part it is teacher
appreciation week. Um, and I'm going to challenge everybody here on the board like I'm in the classroom. I want you to think about your teacher and your childhood who you appreciated. And for me, it was Miss Meyers. Miss Meyers
poured into me, this young girl from Detroit with a big world in front of me. And she literally poured so much into me that I would not be who I am without Miss Carissa Meyers.
That's all. Thank you, Trusty Williams. >> So, uh, um, our super has been burners. They are hurt. Um, next week, next week, next week
having our first black student celebrate at East. Then on Wednesday the 13th we shall be at night where we have student at 1:30 on Thursday. Um some of us will
be at each night with have a special Friday is our team and it um I say we have a so know that we are out
and to you that's I feel I actually her son they do understand
so I do challenge and I still any other comment Dr. >> Thank you Mr. President, I think that whatever we can say about the teachers is not enough. Um, especially in these days when this
profession is not appreciated enough the way they should be. They are the one who really spend hours and hours because their vocation with the kids. they are the one who form our future societies and still we don't
have then a number one profession in this country. Um I think every day has been no day they don't have the students that they don't come to tell me they they are what they are thanks to a teacher definitely about their parents
no question about but the second one is there many cases their teachers and we here one few minutes ago here but thank you to all the teachers and I hope that we the people who are responsible for the budget responsible for the education
they had the consideration that the boss the most who support the teachers is the better to create a better nation. Thank you very much Mr. President. >> Thank you. Anybody else? Uh Trusty Ninsky.
>> Yes. Uh I want to start with a difficult topic which is uh violence and gun violence in our community. Uh when we were last here after we adjourned, we learned there was a mass shooting just a couple blocks uh from our building here and um I'm sure you've seen the
reporting of an in uh of violence outside of one of our school buildings. Uh we have work to do uh in our community and surrounding communities. You read about swatting and other violence issues affecting students. It's become all too real, all too common all too often. And we've said this, we know
this. We keep talking about it. Um it's frustrating. It's disappointing. Uh it's disheartening. Uh but there are efforts being made to try to address it. So I invite uh colleagues and anyone listening to the Lancing Empowerment Network meetings which is in place uh to
address cyclical uh and retaliatory gun violence just as we've continued to see. Unfortunately, they meet every Wednesday at 12:00 uh at Rio school or online to talk with the police department. And I and I do want to share that Chief Bakis
uh has commended the school district on the response to that incident uh outside of our school. I really applauded the openness and the collaboration between all the parties that needed to be involved. Talked about how that was one of the smoothest incidents uh that you know he's been involved with and so
kudos to our staff who did ensure the safety of our students uh and did the right things and responded. But it takes more than that. It takes the community to to do the mentoring work to um there's now a critical response uh incident team that's been forming and in place for years and continue is
officially putting plans in place where there are community members and organizations that respond in the hot zones right after an incident to to keep it from growing any worse than it it it might start. uh also in the warmer zones with families in their homes then and at the hospital and all the things that
result from gun violence and in what we might call the cold zones where it's going to impact people for weeks, months, and really their whole lifetime. So, there's places for for people to plug in uh in all different ways and and not everyone should be called to go in the midst of a hot zone, but as a
community, we have to keep talking about this. Uh you know, Trusty Herd has done great presentations are still available. this the district is making available locks and asking everyone to check backpacks, but we have to keep working at this. Uh we can't just read the headline, think about it and let it go
and wait for the next situation to happen. So really invite you to those meetings. If you can't make Wednesdays, it's the third Saturday of each month. And then the third Wednesday is a specific task force on cradle to career that looks at education outcomes from all stages uh and not just Lancing, but
the entire uh tri county area really. So, a lot of work to be done. Invite everyone to to engage in that and actually find ways that we can make a change. Um, you know, this is a cultural issue. It's a spiritual, philosophical issue. It goes so deep and unfortunately
we keep seeing it spill into our schools in a variety of ways. Then I'll switch to positive things. Um, we recently had a presentation on enrichment. I just wanted to lift up how encouraged I have been to see things in the superintendent's newsletters uh about uh
the arts and athletics uh across the district and lift up a couple of those. The kid run kids run lancing program that we approved. Um I've been able to go to the last couple of those meets with with my child. It's just fas, you know, just it's really exciting to see young kids starting to learn not just
about physical education in general, but to actually see how a track meet works and learn the field events and see how a feeder program uh will have results for varsity athletics years down the road. And I know we're putting those in place for a variety of sports, a variety of opportunities, but that kind of work
that maybe we took for granted in the past or we've seen in other districts is starting to get put back in place here in Lancing. So, that's really exciting. Um, also on the athletics, I think a couple of at least new formats for us. The Capitol City Classic where all of our baseball teams will get to play each
other at Jackson Field. Very exciting opportunity on May 23rd to really ask the community to come out and support that. And this coming Monday, I saw a track and field invitational with all three of our high schools. So, like another great way to come out and support all of our students all at once
in one place. Uh, also there's a poster with all of the various arts presentations. So, choirs and bands and drama. Um, look at the superintendent's announcement. I was able to go to The Little Mermaid put on by Mount Hope. Very well done. Great production. Exciting to see middle schoolers engaged
in theater uh and getting those opportunities. And then also, we talked with the Eversol Center and the Ecoin Center, and I know their uh signups are out for their summer camp opportunities and the enrichment opportunities there. And so when I step back and look at that as a district, I think uh how um you
know how fortunate we are to allow our students to have that many opportunities and such a variety. I can't think of any other school district in in the state who can offer those kinds of experiences to their students uh to pick from and choose from and be continuously engaged
in. So just very excited to see all those enrichment things. It's right in line with our strategic plan and I look forward to hearing uh positive things uh from all those events. Uh and then also I just wanted to lift up last meeting we heard from uh the education support
professionals bill of rights and I know we got some additional information. And so I wanted to keep that in front of the board to look at, consider signing that individually and then, you know, potentially I'll let President Lopez know if if you would support, you know, the board taking action on that as a whole so that we might know if that's
something we should put on a future agenda to support as a as a board. Thank you. >> Thank you. Boy, a lot of things going right. Again, you know, I u like to um
emphasize what u superintendent said about uh we cannot do this alone and trusty Nissi also mentioned that and there's things happening in in our schools that we're responsible for. we take care of it, but there's things
happening in the community that we have no control over except when they come to the So, we need help obviously from the parents, but also the city leaders
and uh I I think we need to start a conversation with our u quote unquote city fathers and mothers uh to see how we could uh come together as institutions to look at what's happening in the neighborhoods and how
we can address that and and how can the schools help as well. Uh two-way street kind of a thing. So, uh there's a lot of work to be done. Uh trustwinsky mentioned what's going on with those committees, but we also know that there
are other groups that are trying to help as well. So I think we need to garner all the energy who works toward the same goal and even though it is the goal is the same but the energy is not all there together to
make it more robust. So a lot of things to work with and a lot of decisions we have to make as a school board going forward. So thank you very much and there being no other business this meeting is adjourned.