Good afternoon everybody and welcome to today's uh lesson school board of education meeting of April 23rd, 2026. Will everybody please stand for pledge of allegiance? Well, I'm going to ask our uh our two uh
new board members for for a day to read the um uh district's mission which is on the board. >> Go ahead. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Um our mission statement is to
provide a high quality education in a culturally safe and nurturing environment that supports all students to live purposeful and fulfilling lives. >> Okay. Thank you. And I'm going to ask our other union board member to read our
um land acknowledgement that the acknowledgement. Can you show I'm Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Sorry. Sorry that I got you without it. Uh proper, but then you would have said
no. They'll be ready the next time they come. I'll make sure. Okay. Uh roll call, please. >> Dr. Cavana, >> present. Dr. Herd, >> present. >> Miss Leia Mckis, Mr. Lopez,
>> present. >> Mrs. Moore, >> present. >> Mr. Noiski, >> present. >> Dr. Rodriguez, Mrs. Strode, >> present. >> Ms. Williams, for Miss President. >> Thank you. Um, approval of minutes.
I have a motion to approve minutes as as received. Second. >> Been moved and second. Are there any additions, corrections to the minutes? >> Hearing none. All those in favor say I.
Oppose. Same sign. Thank you. Uh I'm going to move a report up front. Um and that would be the secretary's report. >> Thank you, Mr. President, I also wanted to add that um do we have any public
agenda comments to the agenda? We missed that. >> Oh, did I? Well, I will go back and do it after you do your report. Do your report. >> Thank you so much. So, the secretary
report is as follows. On April 29th from 4:00 to 7:00 p.m. we have our preschool and kindergarten in person registration event. To enroll, please bring your child's birth certificate, the immunization record, and your proof of residency. The location is going to be
at Dr. Eva Evans Welcome Center. Um, that's going to be 2400 Patale Avenue. On April 30th from 6 to 7 p.m., I would love for you all to join me to the woman next to my left, your right, our interim
superintendent is having a conversation about the vision for the Lancing School District. The location is going to be at our new Mount Hope, which is 1810 Harden Avenue. If you are really curious and you are so excited about what's
happening in our district, I suggest strongly that you come to this event. On tomorrow, April 24th, there is no school. So, all of our kids will be at home or somewhere, but not at school. On May 8th, again, PD day, no school. My
kid will also be at home with me for no school. Our next board meetings are as follows. On May 7th, we have a regular board meeting. On May 14th, we also have a regular board meeting which is also
held only as needed. I would urge my colleagues to really do that only as needed as May 14th, shout out to my husband, it'll be 10 years for us celebrating our wedding anniversary. Yes.
So on May 21st, however, there is a regular board meeting and an information study session and this is concluding the actual secretar's report but in however I do have to give a special shout out to
Alex on yesterday. It was administrative professional day. And I just want you all to know that you may see our faces doing a lot of work sometimes up here, but Alex is really the person that keeps us in line. He keeps us moving. He is
such a sweet person. He has great work ethic. He's always willing to answer the phone, answer an email, answer a call. And I just want to say, is he looking at us over here? Alex, we really appreciate you. So, we want to say thank you to um Mr.
Alex. And you'll have a special present coming your way within the next 12 hours. And that concludes my report. Thank you, Mr. President. >> Thank you. So, it's in the mail, right?
Okay. I I think tonight I may be corrected a couple of times because as I was telling uh Trusty Owinsky, treasurer that I went to the U eye doctor and I got some drops in my eye. So I may be seeing double or not seeing anything. So
just uh be calm. Thank you. Okay, let's go back to the uh agenda and uh public comment on agenda items. Do we have any comments? Okay. Thank you. Then we'll move on now to our interim superintendent report.
>> Well, good evening everyone. I would like to begin by welcoming back our June junior board representatives. Hello both of you. Uh Washington and Jalisa are here tonight. You might note that Jalisa, who serves as the treasurer of the junior board, is joining us tonight. Thank you for being here in place of the
vice president, Lola. And we're glad to have you both here with us this evening. Um, I am also excited to share some news about our district. Something that's brand new. Um, it's a very quiet thing. And what it is is our electric buses. Um, the reason I say they're quiet is
because if you if you've ever heard them, you they're very little there's very little noise that they make as they're going down the street. Um, as of Monday, April 13th, we officially have three electric buses on the road. And this is an important step forward for our district. Electric buses, as you
know, help reduce emissions, improve air quality for our students and our community and lower long-term fuel and maintenance costs for the district. Uh we do have several more buses that will be joining our fleet soon. And so we really look forward to continuing that transition and being a more district.
Exciting thing happening. We are actually going to hear a little bit more about that probably uh this evening. I also had the pleasure along with several board members sitting around the table this evening celebrating 20 years of monastery instruction at Wexford. It was
incredible the pre preK8 program here in Lancing and it is remains vibrant and strong and it was wonderful to see the community come together to honor such a meaningful milestone. I'd also like to say it was really great because I started my career at Wexford. It wasn't a monastery school then. Um, but it was
really wonderful to walk back through my classroom and to see the amazing like if you go there the furniture the feel just incredible. I just have to say I'd also like to extend a sincere thank you to the staff who undergo extensive training. You know anything about
Monasuri, it's just not a professional development. It is months and months and months of classwork and inschool um internships and training and that commitment is really incredible. So I want to thank all of our Waxford certified monastery teachers. Their commitment is to the specialized
approach in teaching isendmendable especially with the amount of time and commitment that it takes. It was also super fun to see the construction that's happening at Wexford. It is going up very quickly. We have three brand new classrooms, two restrooms, and then a middle school size gym which is much
much needed at Waxford. And so it's really exciting to see the construction happening. and that will be opening in December of next year. Our fire science fire science our fire fire science academy students are heading to camp Eversell from Thursday through Saturday
for a fully immersive hands-on training experience. During their time there, they will work towards CPR, AED, and first aid certification while building key fire science skills through extended learning uh sessions led by their instructors and the Wayland Fire
Department. Students will observe a live controlled prairie burn. Can't even imagine incredible that's going to be for them to see. Conducted by the Iron Creek Restoration. They're going to participate in fire response training and engage in teamwork based problem solving in realworld outdoor. They will
have an opportunity to enjoy a classic camp experience in addition to that which will fun including archery, fishing. So, I'm wishing all of our Fire Science Academy students amazing time at Eversol and I can't wait to hear about all of the amazing experience that you
have during that trip. Uh, in the coming weeks, I encourage everyone to support our students by attending our high school musicals. Eastern High School is going to be performing Mean Girls from April 24th to the 26th and Ever High School will will present In the Heights
from May 8th to May 10th. Please visit each website or you can find more information for my superintendent's newsletter for additional. It is now my pleasure to turn it over to our board junior board report.
As you know a lot of the schools are coming to an or like the year is coming to an end. The schools are not coming to an end but um so we have a lot of end of year celebrations. So first off um what is this? Oh okay I already said that part. Um, so there's a bunch of major eighth
grade like reward trips including Cedar Point from Patill, um, Bishik Adventure for Gardener and Chicago for Posttop, which I'm kind of bummed about because I missed that because of COVID. But at Everett, they're preparing for prom
and they hosted a successful H.B.CU trip while Sexton had students travel to Europe and the Hall of Justice, which is really cool. >> So, Miss Christensen didn't She didn't put eastern on here, so I had to write some things in. So, we're
planning prom. We had a career day. Um, we volunteered at Potter Park Zoo with um NHS and student council. We also um also um some students like Hang on. We um had some students go on a trip to
Greece and then the SATs, everyone is done testing for that and DP tests are starting soon. So, oh wait, I'm not done yet. Hang on. um college and career readiness. So, Eastern continues to excel in post-secary prep, hosting creative fast
flamingos and fajitas night for seniors alongside field trips to Davenport University, Douglas J, and um LCC orientation. And then positive behavioral shift. Okay. Wexford reported a significant decrease in the use of
slurs and noted that the majority of students ended the third marking period with good grades. Gardener is trying their Michigan Adventure trip directly to or tying oops there. Sorry. Gardener is tying their um Michigan Adventure trip directly to positive behavior.
And um lastly, we have facility upgrades. Um tangible building improvements underway with SEX installing new doors and progressing on their auditorium and WEX for continuing to um construct their new gym. All
right. So a lot of the schools have been cultural. Um Post Oak did a global and languages. Uh the middle schoolers
expanded their culture um engagement by entertaining a Chinese speak to a talent show. Gardener um is actively preparing um
parade of nations pep rally to celebrate the diversity within their school and Wexford is planning a decade of cultural night in the coming weeks.
Pine Girl has been doing Arabic and ex Islamic heritage uh hosted event for Ramadan and is currently recognizing National Arab
Heritage. >> Thank you both for your report tonight. Thank you very much to both uh our superintendent and our junior board centers. Thank you. So we move on to the um agenda. Now we're in presentations. So uh superintendent
>> that time of the month again. It's our visual learning boards. A really great time for the month for to have all of our schools here. This evening we are joined by Atwood. If you'll please stand. If you're from Atwood, we'd like to give you a round of applause for being here. We have Capitol Area Online
and Kavanaaugh Elementary, Guyire Park Elementary. We have Luton Spanish immersion and we have JW Sexton High School. We also have a very special guest tonight and this is the first time that this school has been here. Our Ingram
County Youth Center is presenting student artwork on the two the two boards right here behind the horseshoe. ICYC teacher Maggie McConna, if you'll hand, we want to thank you. She is here tonight to present her
students work on the Freedom Quilt Project for their school. And I look forward to many times that they'll be able to have their work presented here at the board. So, how this works, if you've never been here, is we have each of the schools stand by their board. And then we take about two to three minutes per board and give a chance for everyone
to rotate through, hear what's happening at each of the schools and see what's happening on their boards so we can all enjoy what's happening educationally here in the Lancing School District. So we join we invite all of you to join us tonight at the visual learning boards.
Well, um it was such a great uh presentations, right? Yeah. All our schools and we have two young men that did a great job of reading their u their
little paragraph on animals, right? Yes. All right. So, right here we have what's your name? >> Gabriel. Gabriel. And you're what grade are you in? >> First grade. >> First grade. Okay. You're going to read your paragraph.
>> Oh, yes. Get ready. I'll hold it for you. >> A polar bear is a what what is a polar bear? A polar bear is white.
A polar bear is cold and fluffy. When you hear a polar bear, it sounds like growl. The Arctic tundra habitat is where the a
polar bear lives. Okay. Polar bears eat seals and arctic fox. Polar a polar bear are the biggest carnivore in the whole entire world.
>> Oh, wow. >> Good job. Now we have uh your name >> Liam. >> Liam. Okay. And you're about animal. Go ahead. I'll hold it for you. >> I am going to tell tell you about a
lion. Lion's mans are so puffy. Lions are so soft and so fluffy. Lions like to roar when they see prey. A savannah
habitat is where a lion lives. Lions eat zebras in the savannah habitat. It is fun learning about lions. There they are. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you.
Thank you, parents. Appreciate it. Well, that was an unscheduled thing, but it was great. >> All right. Um, >> moving on to the the agenda. Next, we have officer reports. We have
had our secretar's report already, and so therefore, we'll go to new business. math purchase recommendation. Do we have a Oh, yeah. Again. See, I knew you were going to do it again because I I missed
it again. Can't see straight. Anyway, we have presentations now. And uh yeah. Okay. It's presentation B. special populations. >> I'd like to welcome Thank you. I'd like
to welcome uh Deputy Superintendent Sergio Kek and his fabulous, amazing, worldrenowned team, our special POPS department. And I'm going to let him introduce his wonderful staff that'll be joining him tonight.
And this will be like a 20-minut presentation, right? >> 21 minutes. >> Uh good evening. Uh it's an honor to be here with this wonderful group of uh educational leaders. Before uh we
introduce ourselves uh which have a little video to get this presentation going. So, please show the video. The Lancing School District has one of the most incredible programs that other districts don't have, and that is called
a special population programs. What is special population programs? Well, tonight you're going to see how diverse, how special, and how big these programs are for our community and for our kids.
My daughter currently is our third daughter to go through the the preschool program at Lancing School Districts. And I love that we were able to get them into a program that helped them be ready for kindergarten. >> We're seeing a lot of kids coming in already knowing their letter sounds, already being able to count. My favorite
thing is coming to school is is doing some work time and and going to the gym. >> Looking at caterpillars turn into a crystal. >> I love digging for treasure. I love a play at
school. We books and play together with friends. It's an opportunity to give your kids some structure and really prepare them for embarking on their school year. So, the bilingual department primarily
supports students who speak a language other than English. Some of the supports that we offer include EL classes that work to provide language-based instruction. Other supports that we provide to those students and their families include translation,
interpretation. We also offer extended day opportunities. This includes after school tutoring along with summer best camp. We work in collaboration with the Michigan Department of Education to offer the seal of biiteracy. And this
allows students to celebrate the opportunity that they have to showcase their home language. Lancing School District's special education program provides an expansive continuum of services and placements designed to meet the diverse needs of
students from early childhood through 12th grade. The district prioritizes the least restrictive environment, allowing students to learn alongside their peers to the greatest extent possible while still receiving targeted interventions and specialized instruction. It promotes inclusion, builds independence, and
ensures equitable access to curriculum while addressing each students unique academic, social, emotional, and behavioral needs. Lancing School District not only meets compliance requirements, but also creates pathways for every learner to thrive, reinforcing a culture of belonging, achievement, and
future readiness. ICYC is a 24 bed facility that houses juveniles and a detention center. The facility provides opportunity for these students to continue to receive education. We have two teachers there
that provide four core subject areas along with enrichment activities. Really the staff that work to there extend themselves to really make students feel like um they are successful in the classroom.
>> I saw you know they had the program for for for adult people like me. I attended high school and um I didn't feel like my math and reading was good enough. >> I have a young brother so they starting
New Year's school. So I want to be uh learning a lot English because they want to help me to her. I come here without knowing any single word in English. But for now, I can't be able to speak with anybody, anyone, you know. That's makes
me proud to be here. >> My favorite parts about it is that like we can pull creativity out of just anything. When I first came here, I didn't know how to work almost any of the machines. >> When I first joined, I didn't have any type of experience with like art at all.
And so it let me realize that like if I really wanted to do it, I could. >> You get feedback, like genuine feedback on how to like make it better or maybe like look at it from a different angle. The learning experience will really help with like college applications and like where you see yourself trying to go
after high school. >> I was 23 years old and I did not have my high school diploma. >> When I start um I have been learning with the kids. I've been learning English cuz when I came from Cuba, I didn't know any English.
>> The JMG program helped with like how to interview and how to present yourself um to the public and to potential employers. >> I have been develop leadership skills. I help the other kids, the peer mentors to my teach them
what to do with the kids, how to treat the kids. Everybody has a second chance and it's up to you to step into that second chance and everyone at that program will take you by the hand and walk you through it. >> The Native American program here in the
Lancing School District teaches the kids about their culture. >> Our son brought home the flyer and it, you know, said that there was going to be a camp. There's just so much that he learns through being with his peers in that group, having pride in his culture.
>> It gave me a lot of the skills that helped me persevere through work experiences, life experiences. >> It really kind of shaped and molded me to be proud of being indigenous.
>> My favorite thing about is I can be confident. >> I've learned walking, trotting, and taking care of a horse. understanding horse body language and also identifying like parts that we use. >> I can do it. Yeah, that's all I say
because I sometime I get really nervous and I don't want to do it but I finally I do. I started going to Eversol since kindergarten. You're really in touch with nature. There's so many trails and so many different options of things to do. The older kids do archery. Younger
kids will do paintball. We'll go bird watching or we'll learn survival tips. We'll go fishing. You'll be so busy having fun that there's no time to think about anything else. And it's worth it once you go. >> We can go and talk forever about Special
Pops. But tonight, I think there's a good opportunity for all of you and the community to learn more about what these programs do for our community. Thank you. Um, first of all, we want to thank the communication department for the wonderful job they did with the
video. And now, I'm going to everybody is going to introduce themselves and say who they are and what their roles are and then we will get this show on the road. Hi, my name is Kareem Bo and I'm the director of workforce development.
>> Good evening. My name is Nicole Namy and I'm the director of special populations. >> Good evening. My name is Tanya Brewer and I'm the senior director of special education. >> Hi, Nicole Millsap. I'm the director of career and technical education.
>> Good evening everybody. My name is Ben Botwinsky and I'm the director of the Lancing School District's Eversol Center and I also oversee the Ecoin Center. Thank you. Um so, um there are departments here that
could take a whole presentation on their own because of the impact and the large amount of staff and students and the robust services that they provide. All these programs provide services to around 5,300
students. And behind these numbers, there are students from all ages, races, backgrounds, nationalities, and abilities. And behind those students, there are many wonderful educators supporting their growth, their dreams,
and preparing them for the future. Uh before we start with special education, I'd like to also acknowledge and introduce Rebecca Ferguson from the uh bilingual department um who uh was the person who put all the
slides together and did the be beautiful art work for this presentation. Thank you, Rebecca. And uh Ben, I think you also have a person here from the Eversol Center that you would like to introduce to. >> Thank you, everybody. Yes. I'd like to
introduce Carly Haka. Carly is our education program director at the Eversawell Center. So, she uh really helps coordinate um programming for, you know, over 5,000 kids that we see a year at the Eversell Center. And uh Lennena Edson, who couldn't be with us this
evening, Lena oversees our Ecoin Center for Learning. >> Well, we're going to start with a very small program that's called special education. Okay. Thank you, Sergio. Um, tonight's overview of special education is designed to give you kind of a top view
of what special education looks like by numbers, but also by distribution across the district. Um, as you have questions, feel free to ask them. Um, but I'll go through all of the different slides and I might answer some of your questions as I go through the slides with you. Um, so
the first slide, um, talks about IEPs per building, right? And this is a number that we look at regularly um because we are constantly looking at what percentage of students with IEPs are being served in each respective school building. Um you'll notice that some of the schools with higher
percentages or higher numbers of students with IEPs are also indicative of where our programs are. So we have specialized programs in many of our schools. Um and so that does aid in that number being higher. Right? So, for example, if a building has ECSE or early
childhood special education or any of our ASD, autism spectrum disorder programs, you will see higher numbers in those particular buildings. Okay. The next one would be that distribution of SE programs across locations.
>> Yes. So, this one lists the schools but their respective programs. So those numbers on that first slide actually begin to make a little bit more sense. Then you'll see that Averil has the early childhood program in it. Um and that speaks to that number in that particular building as opposed to um
Dwight Rich which is on the second row that has quite a few more special programs in that particular building that also add to that number of students with IEPs being served. I think it's important to note that across all of our schools across the district um every school ha offers resource programs and
related services right so that is a standard every single school building has that right um and that includes speech social work occupational therapy physical therapy and adaptive physical education I do want to take this moment to apologize I am I live in a world of
acronyms and alphabet soup so please I will try my hardest not to just spit out random alphabets them work for Um on the next slide is what we probably monitor the most and that's distribution by eligibility. Um and the reason that
we monitor this particular these particular numbers is because we are looking at are we seeing a rise um in any specific eligibility and if we are seeing a rise in that specific area does it match with any national trend or any statewide trends right um so for example
you will see our top three being specific learning disability speech and language impairment being second and then autism spectrum disorder being third um we have been tracking with autism spectrum disorder um simply because across across the nation there has been an increase a trending upward
of that eligibility and so we are continuously working through to make sure that number one our assessment features are appropriate for identifying ASD but also we're staying in line with what that trend actually is. Um if I were to give you data from years prior you would notice that OI and ASD have
actually switched places. So there was a time when OI other health impairment was third um and it is now fourth um because ASD caught up to it. Um comprehensive continuum of services. One of the things that I find to be most amazing across Lancing school district
is its comprehensive continuum of services. We do serve 2300 students around every single year. Um but what that means is that we have a very strong and expansive continuum of services. everything from general education with supplementary aids and supports to
separate school, right? Um and then of course we are supported by the Ingam ISD as well as the Michigan School for the Deaf to support students that need a little bit more intensive support in specific center-based programs or the like. Um, but I do think that as you
look at the different numbers with the 800 students in the general education with supplementary instruction and services as well as the resource program, it once again will speak to that very first slide where you saw I students with IEPs being served across schools. Right? So all of those numbers
once again begin to make a little bit more sense. Um, and one of the main highlights, um, this is a program that I have grown to definitely definitely love. I am not an early childhood teacher by trade. I taught middle school and high school.
So, early childhood was always an interesting place to be. Um, but it is one of the best places to be because it actually looks into the depths of serving students and providing early intervention, which is hugely important. We are the only school district in Ingam County that can boast an early childhood
assessment center, meaning that we have an assessment team that is totally focused on serving and assessing early childhood students. Um and these numbers here provide you an in some insight as to the numbers of referrals that team actually sees. Um and when we pulled the
data for this year, we were sitting at 158. We firmly believe that we will be in the 200s close to that 221 between 221 and 244 um before the year is over because it is a rolling set of referrals, meaning that they don't stop just when the school year stops. We
continue to get referrals from Buildup Michigan as well as other places. Um and then our early childhood programs even within that we have a continuum. So we have early childhood resource program meaning students being served within GSRP with services that promotes
inclusion um as well as early childhood special education which is for students requiring more intensive supports and services in early childhood as and then finally referrals by school and grade. This is another set of data that we consistently track um and try and
make sure that we are understanding what's happening within our schools. Right? So referrals are thing are individuals or students that are literally referred to us prior to evaluation meaning that there is a suspected disability. We track with referrals because we want to make sure
that we are providing enough support and collaboration to our general education counterparts, but once again noticing any trends across the district um that are similar in nature to what we see across the state in districts that are similar to us, right? Um and so any
building that may have any more referrals or less referrals, we definitely can then dig deeper and ask those courageous questions around what types of interventions students are receiving, if they are receiving them, to what degree, and then ensure that as we are choosing to evaluate that is the
appropriate choice for the student. Um and then once again, this is probably the last slide for me and this is the highlights of compliance growth. Um, one of these stories I think should be told for Lancing School District is that there was a time when compliance was
something that got a lot of attention. Okay. Um, and so seeing that growth is just indicative of the hard work that the staff have put into it, but also the standard that has shifted in Lancing school district, right? So the idea that the compliance speaks to that. So you'll
notice B13 has gone from 64.5% to 70.3%. um the graduation rate over the course of the years um actually has beat out the state target and I think that's important to note as well. And then of course timely IEPs consistently going up
attempting to meet that 100% benchmark. Last year it was 99.23% and we are very confident that we will be able to reach that 100% this oh B13 I apologize that's transition. So every IEP um that has a transition
component in it is reviewed um for compliance and so that is where we sit in terms of compliance for the transition assessment and P IEP. >> So uh thank you Miss Brewer. Um open for questions for special education
>> near one. Okay well let's move on. >> Okay. We may have questions at the end as well. >> Perfect. >> We are going to go to Dr. Namy and bilingual education. Oh no, you need this. >> Good evening everyone.
>> There you go. >> Thank you so much uh for having us here this evening. I think what we're hoping to do is to give you a snapshot of the various programming um that we do. Um I'll be speaking over several programs,
so I'm here for a bit. So, uh what I'd like to do is maybe go through each of these and then at the end of each of the um sections um feel free to ask questions that you might have. To begin with, we have the bilingual department. Um, our bilingual population within the
district consists of close to about 2,000 students that speak a second language. Of those, we have 15 almost 1,600 students that uh are still considered to be multilingual learners and are receiving services through uh
specialized instruction. The top countries that we have representing uh include the Democratic Republic of Congo, Afghanistan, um Central African Republic, Cuba and Mexico. Um the top languages include
Arabic, Burmese, Farsy, Kin Rawanda, Poshto, Somali, Spanish, and Swahili. Our Spanishspeaking countries consist of Mexico, um let me check my notes. Cuba, Nicaragua,
and Honduras. Over the past five years, we've had wonderful growth in terms of graduation rates. I think what this demographic shows is that in alignment with the district growth, our ML students are performing at or above their peers once
they reach a certain proficiency level. So last year we were proud that um our graduation rate amongst MLS um are reflective of 95%. The bilingual department has a central focus of ensuring that MLS receive high
quality instruction and language support for academic success. The department is focused on ensuring that we are in compliance with state and fiber federal requirements, but we are also ensuring that we have responsive programming, meaning we are attending to the needs of
our students and their families. Part of that programming includes things like uh translation interpretation. Um, we have a student- centered program focused entirely for newcomer uh, students that are focused on middle and high school
um, students. We provide instructional supports that include out of time I'm sorry out of time school time programs uh, which are afterchool tutoring and um, summer
programming through our best camp. Um, and over the past two years, we've really shifted our focus in trying to also strengthen district-wide implementation of SCOP, which is the sheltered instruction observational protocol framework. And this is focused
on working to embed supports um in all content areas. And what we're really hoping to do is to build uh capacity through a train the trainer model so that if we're able to get instructors um trained in the SCUP model uh they then
can be the leaders in their own school to support uh the MLS within their own population. We do a lot of this in partnership with MSU, the Ingram ISD, uh the IRC and MDE.
Over the past two years, we have implemented and launched the newcomer center and this has been a dynamic program. Um and we are I think maybe um there are maybe three or four of these throughout the state. So, I'm very proud
that the Lancing School District is one of the locations for this uh type of programming. This year, the newcomer center focused on providing half-day supports for high school students and full day programming for middle school
student. We targeted those that students that were uh scoring between the one and 1.9 on the WEDA and had been in the country less than three years. WEDA is the standardized test that students take to determine English
language fluency and that's administered every year in uh the spring. Um the mission of the newcomer center really has been to provide accelerated language development in a sheltered instruction that allows for them to focus on improving English language
development but also understanding the academic language of content areas. So understanding um you know in chemistry language around the you know chemistry um content uh things like uh
understanding what realworld applications uh mean within the context of the US-based classroom. Um this year they've also implemented trying to provide um real world opportunities such as field trips and
bringing in community partnerships to really expand their understanding of their um community but also really fostering a place of belonging. The partnerships that that have come into the newcomer center this year is one church that has provided um hands-on um
crafts that students were able to do. uh the MSU ARCA program that provided um a lot of SEAL programming for high school students, the Todd Martin youth leadership to provide tennis um opportunities and learning how to play tennis um for middle school students,
the Ingram County Health Department um and the King Scott engineers that came to do hands-on um activities with the students as well. For instruction, we've really focused on um narrowing it down to language acquisition and providing the academic language supports needed in
order to be successful in their home schools. This year, we also launched the ML pre-alggebra course along with the Ingam ISD, we developed a class that really targeted um helping our students fill in the knowledge gaps that they
might have, especially at the high school level in order to be able to be successful. um in their math sequence. Um I think some of the dynamic things about the program include that uh it has
supported 92 students throughout this entire year. So as students acclimated and were able to increase proficiency, they were then sent to their home schools. Um we're very proud of our out of school time programming and this is also led by
the wonderful Rebecca Douglas. Um she has worked really hard to develop out this um these programs. Um this year we've implemented before and after school tutoring. That includes um for some schools coming in before classes
start and being able to provide tutoring for students um ahead of time, especially for those early starts. We also received a grant this year to develop out the soccer program at uh gardener in collaboration with real um
soccer program and that has been so successful. um if you haven't had the opportunity to see them play, there's about 200 kids on the fields um out at Gardener preparing um to be the soccer champions of uh the regional area. Um
and finally, our biggest summer program includes Best Camp, which uh allows for 250 students um to continue to receive academic services throughout the summer. The multilingual learners um exist in
almost all of our schools, but the highest concentration exists at Gardener um Everett and Eastern. Um, our high schools um do a phenomenal job in supporting our students and we have uh language assistance programs in the K8
program where we really try and funnel students to um attend in order to receive the concentrated services that are available to them at those schools across the district. Our Rita scores um really give us an indication of where
students are at with their language ability and the highest concentration of that is at the entering phase. Um I'm happy to say that we had 51 students exit the program last year. Um within our program that is significant because
in order to exit you have to have a scored 4.8 on the WEDA. Um I think what this has allowed for us to do is uh to concentrate a lot of the services on the entering and emerging in order to get them to place um to be successful in
moving um on any questions for bilingual at this time. >> Yes. >> Go ahead. >> Hey, thank you. Um, I'm wondering, excuse me, if families who are involved in the new center, if there are any
resources available to them for legal services. >> We partner with Merc, who is uh the local agency here that works to support um with immigration um and really guiding families in terms of whatever
legal services they may may need around immigration. >> Oh, Justin Whiskey. >> Uh yeah, thanks. Have we seen any trends in uh the number of families or students uh through the refugee program or immigration services? I know the federal
government seems to be admitting fewer. Are we seeing fewer? >> Yes. Uh this year we've seen a significant uh decrease due to um this current administration and the limitations in which they're allowing for migration. What we have seen is an
an uptick in second and third migration. So families that have landed in the US at some point and have decided to come to the Lancing area. And so that has been probably the biggest population that we've received. So they're still MLS um still uh receiving services but
are coming from other states within the US. >> And do we have any forecast for what next year might look like given the current trends or >> hard to tell? um we still saw a a good number of students that came in and so I think I believe we enrolled close to 131
students this year. Um and so it's not that we're not receiving any new students um I think those services still exist. I think also one of the things that um is important to remember is that even if students are here uh it really
it really takes a while for you to be so proficient in English in order to be successful. So while we don't have new students, we have plenty of students here that still need that continued service and support. >> Thank you. Uh, Trustee Moore.
>> Yes, >> those are primarily focused. Well, it's grant funded and so it's primarily focused at our language assistance program schools. >> You know, trustee Dr. Herk, >> at what point in the grant cycle are we in?
we applied for our renewal. We receive money based on the um amount of students that we have. So we re receive both federal and state funds. Um this is probably renewable based on numbers that
we receive from the previous year. So that is what uh state the state looks at in determining the amounts that we >> Thank you. Um,
Trusty Washington, >> the state and federal government gives you money based on like what the numbers we see this year. So, do you think that will this like the um like decreased immigration from out of country would affect the amount of money we get next year?
some of it would um I think so for federal funds so the ones that come from the big government in in Washington that has a great possibility of being decreased just due to this administration shift and what they want to focus but the state funds really look
at our numbers on a whole and part of something that I can say that we're proud of is that there haven't been too many students that have left the district so if they've come they've stayed and those are still counted in our numbers Um, and I think we've still received
students. I mean, what I what I think I recognize in speaking with families is that they feel like this region has a lot more supports offered than other places in the US and so they feel a comfort in coming here. Plus, also it's
affordable. >> I'm sorry I can't not say one more about this specific uh population. Okay. Uh, a lot of the scenes that you have asked are very important questions. Dr. Namy, um, you have really truly grown into this area that I don't need to answer
any more questions, but the the federal grants that we receive used to come from the Department of Education. The money will continue to come, but they moved it from the Department of Education to the Department of Labor.
Um so um the other thing that Dr. name mentioned the schools have a lot to do with the reason why we have second migrations because a lot of the families that are coming are family members of
the families that we already have and because the schools have provided so much support for these kids and families for so many years that some of them might experience going to Georgia in one year they come back because I'm not
saying anything better about Georgia. Okay. But we do have good services. So Dr. Rodriguez, >> thank you. Thank you very much and appreciate your words. Garner is the one
who having more population. What kind of culture we are having there? What kind of the structure? What kind of poor? How this school is different? That's a great question. Because we have such a high population, I think
historically um the district decided that Gardner would be a centralized um place for building a a multilingual program. And so a lot of the resources that we have go to Gardener. Um the
staff there is wonderful. they have the highest number of endorsed um teachers um to support their English language um population and also we work quite closely with them in order to ensure
that they have the supports that they need. Um Miss Burroughs and her team do a wonderful job and engaging the students and their families in a lot of um programming outside of school as well. So they host a lot of um parent
evenings. Um they have a lot of specialized evenings that support making sure that families feel comfortable at that school. And so um a lot of resources have been given um to gardener in order to ensure that they're able to
provide quality programming. And they do have a lot of language second language speakers from the we got cultural brokers that are people that came from the communities that come and support the school. Therefore, the hallways, the bulletin boards, the events are all
related to the people they serve. Any other questions for for this section? >> Hearing none. Um, continue, sir. >> Dr. Namy, >> yes. We'll move on to adult education.
Um, this program has grown and really shaped um, programming with all the heart that that they have. Um, this team is wonderful and um, I'm so proud of the work that they've done this year. Um we
currently have about 387 um adult education students and of those 181 are pursuing um support with English uh as a second language and 206 are
pursuing uh their GED or high school diploma. Um that number also includes us providing uh GED classes at the Ingam County uh correctional facility. We have two teachers there that provide uh GED
classes for inmates that are reside there. Um this year we are so proud that we will have um two well we're not done yet but as of today uh we have uh 49 students that will be graduating during
adult education. Very proud of them. Um this is just an an overall snapshot of the demographic um over the past number of uh six years. Um in what I
think is significant is that we typically have about 459 participants that enroll. of those uh we have 252 that actively complete uh
enrollment in ESL, uh 135 that participate in the ICCF, which is the Ingam County Correctional Facility, and um 68 that pursue uh AB or GE.
What has been wonderful over the past couple of years is the robust programming that they have created. Um this year we initiated rolling out a program uh for our ESL students that works to provide in giving them
certification to be a community interpreter. So they go through a certification process uh in partnership with 7C Lingo. We currently have nine students that are participating in that certification program. Um we also
launched the med medical front office specialist certification in collaboration with LCC and we have 12 students that are currently pursuing this certification. And I'm so proud of them because they are both learning English uh and also pursuing uh an area
of focus um so that when they exit the program um they come leaving not only with uh a language-based um uh improvement but also a pathway into a career. Um we have various community partners that work to support throughout
the year and um I think that they have been really the ones that have influenced a lot of what we're able to do and leverage a lot of what we're able to do. Um the program itself really hopes to expand their un the
participants understanding of all that's uh available to them. So that includes having them participate in manufacturing day, going on field trips, um going to the capitol, um learning about the museums locally. Um we're really
creating an opportunity for adults to engage uh um civically within their community. One other thing that I did want to say about the program is that we have uh child care available to uh the adults in the program and that program has grown
tremendously. uh they have their own cohort and so we have about eight um mini students in our child care in the morning and about eight mini students um in the afternoon and they are um just so excited to be at school and I'm so
thankful that our uh students get to um have access to child care um as a way to remove a barrier that may have been um preventing them from pursuing their education. Um, so I would like to invite you all to attend our graduations. We
have the Ingam County Correctional Facility graduation that will be on May 21st at the Mason facility. And we also have our adult education graduation on May 27th um at Dwight Rich. And this is um extending uh an invitation to you all
uh to come out and support those students. Yep. I will make sure to send a formal invitation to the board. >> Thank you. Any any other question? >> Are you I'm sorry. Okay. Uh any other
question on adult education? Okay. Hearing not. Let's let's continue. >> Um the next program that I'd like to focus on is the Ingam County Youth Center. Um ICYC is a 24 bed short-term detention facility for youth. uh we are
obligated to provide educational services to students so that there's a continuum of um academics that exist for them because the site is located in um in in Lancing. Um our district provides
the educational services there. We have two teachers that support um ELA and social studies along with math and science. We also have a transitional specialist that works as a liaison uh
between the the schools um and also the courts and does a phenomenal job at ensuring that um there is a continued connection between the district and the students that are located there. We also have a student support specialist that
works to embed supports for our special education students while they are housed in the detention center. Um, I think that in collaboration with the Office of School Culture, this the Lancing School District students that are at the
detention center, um, once they are able to leave the center and return to, um, their school, we work in collaboration with OSC to ensure that, uh, there's a seamless transition for them to be able
to return uh, schools if they are eligible. Um, and the programming that they've done there has been phenomenal. Um, I think this past year, the two programs that I'm so proud that that staff was able to do was to hold a career fair. Um, they worked with the
students weeks in advance and really focused on preparing them in how to interview, how to prepare a resume, how to network, um, what questions to ask employers. And then during the career fair um we worked with Junior
Achievement and they brought over close to about nine um entities within the community to come and not only share uh vocational opportunities for students but really took the time to engage with the students and made them feel like you know this is what a job interview should
look like. Um so they were shaking hands, they were asking questions. It was wonderful um to see both the community and the students get an opportunity um to have an opportunity um and really focus on career pathways. The other program that I'm so proud that we
were able to do is that we had um one of our students from Saxton that was um in detent detained at that time um completed their credits and we were able to hold a graduation ceremony for them um at the detention center. uh we got to invite their family and we were also
able to invite Sexton staff to come in attendance and um really just be proud for the work that that student did while they were there. And it was really meaningful and very touching that um so many people came out to support them
while they were in the center. >> Yes, actually uh Dr. Kavanagh was one of our speakers this week um along uh in Miss McCh's class and so um we're thankful for your time.
>> Any questions on this segment? I >> I do have a question. >> Yes. >> So County Youth Center for obviously youth from the countywide, but we provide education
and and how long they're there. Who knows, >> right? >> So, how does that impact maybe it's question how does this impact the school district in terms of um this overall?
Well, they are they are counted in terms of services that we're able to pres to provide, but they do have homeschools and so while they are at the center um we are supporting them with instruction,
but in oftentimes they are eligible to go back to their home school. So, unless they are Lancing School District students, um they're still tied to hold, they're still tied to Waverly or wherever it is that they're coming from.
Um we also have students that uh don't have a home school, in which case they've been out of school for so long that they are no longer tied to any school at all. Um they do have the option, I think they work with the courts to determine what their best placement would be after they're
released. And so, um, we still got credit for the graduate that we were able to produce while they were still there. Um, and I think it just depends at what point in their academic um, pathway they're at in order to ensure
whether or not they're counted within our >> Yeah. Okay. Just Okay. Go ahead, Dr. Co, and then come back. >> Hi, just to be annoying and provide some additional context. So, in my in my day job as a juvenile justice researcher at MSU, I work with ICYC. So, I have some
like kind of more concrete numbers I can offer. Um, so last academic year about 75% of kids in ICYC came from the Lancing School District. Um, and um, as Dr. Namy was mentioning, some about 15%
um, had been out of school long enough that they were not enrolled anywhere. And then the remaining 10% uh, came from other districts. So um I was asking about the impact the overall district uh success
is it a positive thing for the schools I it's positive to provide education obviously but in other terms how would you helping with this maybe doing something some
all the time. So >> I think there's a couple things we have to take into consideration. One is what Dr. Kavanaaugh was talking about is those are our students. So for me having a place where you know even though they're incarcerated that they're going to be getting that education I think is
incredibly important because some of the students we haven't been to able to engage school in a very so I'm not sure in the way of positive and negative um you know we can talk about qualitative talk about the qualitative really happy
to have them in a place that not that they're there not happy about that obviously but we're happy that we're able to impact their education while they are there especially in the four core areas critical. The other thing that I would say and I wish she was here this evening um she has something that she has to take care of with her family
but um Cordia Black our executive director of school culture would also say that when students are released from ICYC there is a transitional um programming that happens. I met with the courts just a couple of weeks ago and we're talking about even how we can fine-tune the ways that we transition
students. We want to make sure that there's minimal time from the time that they're released and the time that we could engage them into different programming. One of the ways that we've talked about doing that, for example, is doing that on the front end of when they come into school versus once they're released so that there's no lag time.
Um, and then we do try to match them up with the best programs possible, whether it is our hub program or whether the offense was minor enough that they can re-enter then into their traditional high school setting. So, it really depends. I don't have the graduation rates in front of me. We do know that that has
been challenging in the past because many of these students are credit they enter ICYC. So that would be information >> provide you but that's more the quantity. >> If I may um just to follow Dr. Kavana
and superintendent going to be this. Yes, 75% of the kids were from the Lansing School District, but not necessarily all of them continue to be in the Lansing School District. I think what when we receive
we we get weekly information about ICYC and there there are four groups of kids that we receive. the kids that are currently enrolled in the Lansing School District, the kids that are outside other districts, enroll in other
districts in the county, a large amount of kids from Ingam Academy, and then the kids that have no enrolled in any other schools. So, a lot of kids at one time also were Lancing School District, but that does not necessarily mean that they continue to be Lancing School District
kids. Am I in the right track? Oh. Oh, go ahead. Um, sorry. U Miss Benvdes mentioned uh graduates. There were five graduates in the last uh three academic years. >> So I I guess the the the positive thing
is that um compared to history, I think we're doing a much better job. I think the the work u with with the courts it's it's more tight I think >> uh from what I've seen. So I think that
the progress we've made is because we have people that really want to make it uh a positive thing for for the students who happen to be there. And so I think to me that's a positive thing. I think we can talk about quality and it's qualitative and so on and so forth. uh
do they drag our graduation or attendance down all of that but uh the important thing is that students are getting education and that's the the big part. Uh Dr. Kavanagh Oh I'm sorry docu Trusty Moore.
>> Yes it is. >> I >> sorry everybody I'm cheating. I have a I have a PowerPoint that I made earlier this year for the board of county commissioners that has a lot of this information. So, I'm I'm not just pulling it out of nowhere, I promise. Um, so the the gender split, it's
majority male. So, I'm looking at last academic year. Um, and it looks like Oh, this isn't in percents. This is the numbers. Um, but it's it's majority male. I'd say probably about 80% male, 20% female. Right. So, the the thing and I I I'm going to lean over to you too because I
know you have even more detail than I would. um for the students that are going to be entering back into the lancing school. Those are the ones that we are in charge of the transition for and it will go through the office of school culture and then we evaluate what would be the proper placement where would we be able to offer the most
intense services um is it a right fit to go back to the high school would more benefit from our hub. So if you can is there any other details you'd like to add? >> I think that's exactly right. Um, I think that was a really big part of
students transitioning back is being able to work with the office of school culture to determine where that placement might be because it may not be back at the school that they were at. And so, um, I think those are made on a case-byase basis. I will say I think part of the education that students
receive, um, at ICYC extend beyond the instructional piece. It's really learning how to be a student for students who had year sometimes years and days of school just being absent from school. And so um
what I have noticed really is that students um are finding success in a small classroom with teachers who are attentive to them with staff who they can connect with and really building up their confidence in being able to be a successful student. And that's really
where I see the most amount of growth. >> We are just one component of the services that they're being provided inside the youth center. There are other through the court system. They're receiving other services that are dictated I believe by the judge or or
their um probation officer. >> Yes. And I'm sorry. I really don't mean to hijack your presentation. >> No, no, no. would need to uh but I've got a list of I think there's 16 different community partnerships um and programs that ICYC works with. Um and so some of those are relevant to education, right? Like including what the district
offers and transition back. Um but a lot of those touch on education but are not primarily education based. Um and so all of those partnerships play a role in making sure that youth at ICYC are able to transition out because bear in mind ICYC is short-term youth detention. Uh
so the average time in placement is about 17 days. Um and so a lot of kids are only there for a few weeks. Of course, some are there much longer. Um some are there for many months. Um but a lot of kids are kind of in and out. And so you can imagine how disruptive that is to your education to basically get pulled out of your school for a couple
of weeks. Um, and so the goal here is for the district, the other community partners that work with the county, uh, and staff at ICYC to make sure that that transition, um, presents an uninterrupted educational experience for those kids so that they don't fall
further behind they already be. >> Yes, sir. Junior board member Washington, >> how much students are attending um, ICU in total? So that's the amount of students that
they can have at one time. >> Thank you. >> Trust in the whiskey. >> Yes. I'm just hearing the complexity and the many partners involved. At a high level overall, does the district get a net financial uh payment for this or are we
subsidizing this program as a district or other partners who are utilizing this? >> So the funding for ICYC is actually it's more complex there. There's actually a couple of different funding sources. As you all know, for my 90 days um in the
district and analyzing this, the district does put forward general funds support this programming. It's in the amount of over $100,000. Actually, that's something that deputy s um deputy superintendent Sergio Kek, that was a mouthful, uh and I are actually working
with when I met with the courts about three or four weeks ago, we discussed um what is the funding because I feel like if we are the the source of the um services, it should be a net zero for the district. One of the things that in conversation with them that we were
talking about was um part of the conversation was well, you do get the per pupil for those However, what that means for our district and it's a said it's complicated is we also don't intend for our student up at so what that means for us and that's the
conversation that our deputy superintendent and I need to have with the court system and with our funding even at the state is are we are we filing correctly? Are there pots of money that we need to know about? We've looked at other districts even that have um countywide programs and the net the
net funding does seem to be zero. So there's something in my mind that here um when we look at per pupil funding we have already utilized the per per pupil funding to offer a teacher at their high right and so then it's almost like we're double dipping on that funds we're
trying to put a teacher at ICYC also that students that I'm glad you asked that question because that is something that um met again today about who are the right people to make the contacts with because in my mind asendant I'm curious about how that burden falls
on the school district, especially being a countywide. So, that's something I'm thinking about as well. >> Thank you. I appreciate you looking into that. It seems like we should seek ways to get it to net zero. So, does that indicate then that the roughly 25% of students are not enrolled in the
district, those per people funds are still going to those districts? So if they're there during the count day and um during that time period, yes, they're recaptured by the school district because they're like you said, they're only there for a short amount of time. And so how per per pupil funding
works is you don't get it just for the entire year. It's prrated. And so the time that those students are not with us, we would not be able to collect that funding. And so when it's a very short amount of time, even if we're able to count count the count day funding, which often we're not because not there during
October, it does make it more tricky. So, are other school districts contributing to this program that >> No, it's countywide. >> It's a county. Okay. Thank you. >> So, the commissioners >> Yes. >> help with the funding of it.
>> Well, first of all, it's wonderful that we can have a little bit of time to talk about these programs that we never really discussed. Um we also receive title 1D which is um the county jail and the youth center receive funding for
that. We also get reimburse some of the general funds through something that's called section 24 and as superintendent Benavid has said we're looking at the how do we make sure that we get to zero and we want to also
talk to the core because the court system um has put a lot of money into youth right and I got to be careful how much I say because Dr. cabinet is like she this is her baby. So um but yes we
are looking at the opportunity of making sure that we can balance this program but the most important part also outside of the money is we make sure that the the instructional model that's gone inside there is as effective as it can
be with students that can be there for two weeks or they could be there for five or six months. And remember during co they kept the kids in there for a long time. And then there's another issue and Dr. Cavana please correct me if I'm I hope this has improved but for
a long time there were no beds available in other placements of the students. So a lot of kids stayed at ICYC because statewide there were not enough beds to provide the kids with some of the needs that they needed. So it's got a lot of
layers. start peeling the onion. Okay. Um, thank you for for that information. And there's probably more questions, but we'll talk about them later. Uh, want to move to the Native American education program. >> Yes,
>> this is um a program with all the heart. Uh this is one of my favorite programs and it has grown tremendously over the years and I believe we came to the board earlier this year and showcased um the program and so um this is just an opportunity for you all to revisit it
and um also understand um who it is that this program is serving. Uh there are 367 students that self-identify as Native American within the district. uh they represent over 13 uh different tribes and this year we're proud that
there are going to be 22 graduates um from uh who identify as Native American and as such the elders in the community along with the coordinator of the program Ramona Henry um will be holding an eagle feather ceremony uh that they will present to those students on May
27th at the Ava Evans Welcome Center and we extend an invitation to you all as Um, one of the wonderful things about Native American programming is that it extends not only to help in building up the identity of the students that are
participating, um, but it also is an extension to educate all of, uh, the district and the students involved. And so we have a lot of opportunity to do outreach and advocacy um, within our district. One of
the wonderful things that uh this program receives is in collaboration with the Kiwa Bay um tribe is that they send um pallets of gifts in order to support a holiday event that the Native American
program has in the fall. And as a result, um because it's so many gifts that they send, um that we really try and distribute to um other schools, um in the district, uh and they are recipients of some very generous supports um from the Native American
community. Um they also get to host cultural events such as a back to school event, a ghost supper, the eagle feather ceremony, and cultural classes. Um, a lot of these cultural classes are supported by the elders in the community that come in to teach um the the the
classes and are so involved with um the programming that exists. Every Wednesday there is a parent meeting and parents of um students that are within the district come to do um to plan out cultural programs and prepare for um events that
are upcoming. Their big program is in the summer and it is a Native American summer cultural enrichment camp. Um they get the opportunity to learn how to cook native foods. Uh they get to learn anishab um as a language. Uh they learn cultural
dance and then get to participate in cultural cla crafts such as sewing, drum making, beading and ribbon skirts. Um, also for those that may not know, lacrosse is derived from the Native American community and uh the students get to learn how to play lacrosse. And
so it's a wonderful program and we thank um the board and especially super superintendent Benvitas for supporting this uh camp for our students. >> Any questions for the trustee Williams? What
do you think? I I thank you. Yes, I will take it back to the parent group. They're the ones that chose that date and ask to see if they'd be willing to change. >> Any other question? >> Okay, we'll move on.
>> We go from one Nicole to the next Nicole. Miss Nicole, >> thank you. And just so everybody knows, we refer to ourselves as Nicole squared is our nickname in the department. Okay, CTE time.
Okay. Um, so last time that I was here when I spoke to you all, um, we talked a little bit about how one of the things that's unique about CTE in this district is that our students get the opportunity to choose amongst four different CTE options in terms of locations and the
programs that are offered. Um when we go when the staff goes in and we speak directly to students, you know, we talk to them about how career and technical ed is a viable pathway to graduation. We try to dangle the carrot and mention how you can um if you successfully complete
the course, you can get science, math, English credits. Uh we're going to get you out of the classroom out into the workforce. We're going to help you to be able to connect with professionals in the field and you're going to get credentials. Credentials. So, there are lots of carrots that we try to dangle when we're speaking directly to um
counselors, to district staff, to parents, to community members. One of the things that we like to lift up when we're thinking about these four different options is that um it's not just like a one-time opportunity. CTE, because there are so many different
options and locations, it can easily be a multi-year journey because we have multiple entry points into CTE. You can get into CTE as early as 9th grade at our Lancing Tech campus. Um, one of the other things that I like to talk to
parents about, um, being a parent myself is this idea of readiness. Everybody's not always going to be ready at the same time. So maybe if you're not ready as a ninth or a tth grader to enter, you know, the world of CTE and to deal with the rigor and the demands of that, that's okay because 11th and 12th grade
year, CTE could easily be an option for you. So there are those multiple entry points which is nice about the options that our students in the district have about CTE. We also of all the districts in this uh tri county area we have the most robust
offerings for our students and again that goes back to the idea that there are four different career locations that our students can choose from. Um when you're looking at the programs, you'll see that they range from um graphic and print technician, fire science, emergency medical technician. We have
students enrolled in aviation, technology, bioscience, careers, um, education, you name it, we have students that are enrolled in it, which is nice because we can also boast that our CTE students that are enrolled this current
year are enrolled in programs that cross over all six of Michigan's career zones, um, which are identified by the Michigan Career Development Model, which is what we like to uh, jokingly refer to as our CTE Bible, but it's the document that
the state of uh Michigan provides to us that tells us you want to make sure that you're hitting these zones, that your students have these opportunities at these grade levels, that there is that awareness, that exposure, and that students can really get those empowering experiences. And so, we do a really nice job of making that available to our
students. Um, here's some of our um data that kind of gets at our uh points of pride. I've been scrubbing grades um third marking period especially, but going back through uh previous marking periods and this data is just specific to the kids
at the Hill Center because those are the kids that I work directly with. But when looking at the grades for all three marking periods thus far, three out of four of our students have earned A's and B's, which is absolutely astounding. And so one of the things that we like to do for our students is at the end of every
marking period we hand out certificates based on uh grades, based on attendance, based on work ethic, based on you know what you come in every single week with a positive attitude. No matter what happens, you have grit, you have perseverance. We really try to celebrate
those things that students are achieving. That's not just grades, but grades are a nice bonus. Um so far this year with our students at Hill uh close to 70% of our students have earned um free college credits. They have earned stackable credentials.
So more than one um many of them especially in our patient care tech and our fire science academy. Those students have already earned upwards of 15 credentials that they'll be including in their portfolios at the end of the year when they go out to interview and to continue their education.
And because it's just April and we still have a few more months, we're knocking out more credentials. And so we anticipate that this percent will be higher at the end of the school year once our uh construction students finish their curriculum and they're able to take their exams. Um as well as some of
our students in our insurance programs. Attendance in our fire science and our patient care tech programs is absolutely amazing. Um and I want to give a special shout out to Sexton High School. We have five students in our fire science academy that have perfect attendance for
this entire year. all five of our kids from Sexton and we have never seen this before. Um, but outside of that, their entire program, both of those programs, our students are showing up. Um, which shows us that they see the urgency. They see the importance and they see that what they're learning is valuable. We
also run Saturday school. We have kids who say, you know what, you help me talk to my boss because I know that I need to be here. The money is important, but I know that this matters and this is going to help me tomorrow. So, can you help me talk to my boss? and we're like absolutely we want to see you at
Saturday school. Um so far this year we have 259 applicants and these are juniors or rising juniors and seniors for next year's cohort of students that are enrolled in our Hill programs. And of those numbers, 72% of our juniors
have applied for year 2, which lets us know that again they they appreciate what they're receiving. they value the education that they're receiving and they're looking to come back and to continue that with us, which is nice. Um, lastly, and this is the biggest and
the most exciting news, um, we have received through the 61VCT expansion grant through the state of Michigan, we have received funding to start three new half-day programs. And so, cosmetology, as most people in the room know,
everybody's been asking for it. Everybody from everywhere and every subgroup has been saying when are we bringing cosmetology back and so um launching this fall we're looking to start a half-day program cosmetology we're also looking to expand our grow your own efforts and start a halfday
teacher academy and also a business management and operations uh program which will be a nice addition in addition to our insurance programs that we currently run. >> Questions? Um, Trust Williams.
>> Yes. >> Really? Okay. I was not aware of that, but No. Okay, we'll talk. I did not know that. We're out there. Okay. >> Any other question?
>> All right. Let's move on to workforce development. Good evening everyone. Waiting on um again my name is Ce Milo. I'm director of workforce development. Um, this is the first year that we've had an
official workforce development department and um, I'm very excited about the start that we've gotten off to and the things that we are uh, taking on right now and moving forward with with the district. So on this particular
slide, we have the WEOA youth program which services up to 150 students. Right now we have 138 students. That particular program receives funding through the Department of Labor um and partnership with Capitol Area Michigan
Works. We have a program and staff that is phenomenal that is housed at Michigan Works on Cedar Street. Um it is very uh important that we provide opportunities to students who haven't been successful their first try in terms of uh
traditional education. So this gives them another pathway for high school completion in order to earn their GED. So those students in that particular program, we pay them $14 an hour to get their GED and we also provide them with work experience opportunities through
various partnerships that we have. Some students they work uh at Boys and Girls Club, they can work at Quality Dairies um all over the city and many of them uh are hired in afterwards. So, and to make
sure that we are providing students through our inschool and out of school programs with the best opportunity to be successful and uh what we do is provide them with a robust work readiness training and assessment prior to placing
them. Um we also have a peer mentoring program. This is uh we brought it back. It it came out a couple of years ago and we didn't do it last year because of some funding challenges, but we were able to get the peer mentoring program
going again this year. It was very successful. We had 27 peer mentors that worked uh we had students from Everett that worked at Kavanaaugh. Students from Ston worked at Willow Riddle. Um, and students from Everett worked. I'm sorry,
which one of the Eastern Eastern students went to Patillale, excuse me. Um, we our work experience program this year we provided 63 total work experience placements. We pay students that are in school and out of school $14
an hour and we place them uh things related to what their uh educational development plans are in some instances but entry level positions that provide them with softskll development. And we are excited about the new urban forestry
grant we have. We received $1.2 million through a partnership which I will talk a little bit more about on this next slide. So this urban forestry grant uh Lancing school district board of water and light city of Lansy Michigan State University and another branch of
Michigan State University which is called Mass Timber are all engaged in this particular project. And the focus of it is to help the community understand how uh healthy urban forestry uh tree canopy affects uh the overall
health of the community and the careers associated with maintaining that. So we have students that we are able to provide internships for that are going to be working with these various partners to have those opportunities and learn more about the career paths. and
some of those things are spelled a little bit more here. So, high school students, we will be hiring. Um, we'll be working with the DNR, LCC, and uh Irene Cahill is one of our partners with the city of Lancing. And our first
event, which we'll talk about a little bit later, uh will be May 1st at Patentill where we'll be doing a tree planting and some beautifification. And over the course, well, this is the second year of a 5-year grant. We'll also have a drone piloting program as
there are lots of applications for drone use related to uh forestry and also agriculture. So they'll be learning about those skill trades and that particular program will culminate with students having an opportunity to
receive their FAA 107 drone pilot license which you can earn by the age of 17. I mean 16, excuse me. and LCC has a partnership that it will culminate with them going through a dual enrollment program. Those particular students that
get that license, um students are being hired out of that program with the drone pilots license, which is a class. It is one class less than a semester. They're in a $70,000 range. So, these are some of the opportunities that we are
providing for our students in our district. There's also a pocket forest at North um that is being developed. We will be providing stipens to the students and providing them with some early workforce development opportunities for the their work with the pocket forest. Eversol is going to
be partnering with us to come and push into the school and provide some more educational opportunities related to forestry. And we also have a partnership with Mass Timber that where they will be working with our career tech program. So students that are in that program, a
little bit about Mass Timber, it's a arm of Michigan State University that when wood is cut in a community, they're working throughout the state to make sure that that wood is utilized within the community to for rebuilding and that
is something that's going to be happening within our community as there are other developments that are taking place. So Mass Timber is already connected with CTE. they've come over and started to have meetings together. So, we're excited about what that will turn into for CTE students and they will
also be paid for their work to build uh to use that harvested wood. Um this is a flyer which we will also make sure that it is provided to the board um for our first official event through this
partnership for our urban forestry program and this will be uh related to Arbor Day. So there's no school the day before. So this I'm sorry May 1st which is next Friday. Yes, I had to get it's kind of been a
busy time. May 1st, next Friday will be our first event. Um, unfortunately, I personally will not be there. My daughter's graduating from MSU uh on that day. So, um, but I have a great staff and a a bunch of students that
will be working to support that uh initiative as well. So, we're excited about that kickoff. Our second event will which is not in the slides will be uh Junth set up and a planting event that will take place at St. Joe Park that will be
on June the 18th and uh students there will go and provide uh be provided with uh food um and they will do planting and do the setup for Junth. So that'll be our second event and we are identifying
other uh planting events. Now in addition to that we have students that will work at Potter Park um through and through at North School throughout the summer as a part of this particular funding. Um, going back to our peer mentors program this year, one of a
standout, he would mention in a video, but Leo Bettincor, a student from Everett, uh, was recognized for his participation in this particular program and received an honor for our jobs for mission graduates program as being youth
of the year. He will be recognized on April 30th at Sagenol Valley and receive an award. U, we're excited about that. Our jobs for Michigan graduates program is one of the funding uh one of the grants that is funded programs that is funded through our grants under the WEOA
youth program and that is available to all students throughout the district at the high school level. Um last but not least, we have our next big upcoming event. We will be hiring about 50 students. our job fair, summer
job fair will be this coming Monday at Michigan Works. Um students that uh we these particular posters you need a need a job posters are posted throughout the district and high schools. Students are able to scan the QR codes and they
submit an application. We have an interview process. Um those students are able to RSVP. So far, we've had over 40 students that have RSVP to come to our uh job fair, and we intend to hire uh 100% of the students that have been that
have RSVPd at this time. So, um a couple of other notable things, the partnerships that we've developed are really yielding some great fruit. One of them that I would like to mention is a partnership that we've developed with uh LaughCube. There will be an inschool
credit union coming to Ever High School uh in the fall. That will be a credit union that will be built out by Laugh Cube, paying the total expense for it. They will also pay the expense for students that will be hired to work in
that program. Um they will earn their high school math credit by participating. They'll be paid $14 an hour and that credit union will be run by students for students. So, um just a few of the things that we're doing. Um I
entertain any questions at this time. >> You much of my favorite programs. You say that you have had 138 students and you have a great staff. How many people in the staff are working? How
many people are working with you? >> So, we have a staff of six, um, including David Aldrich, uh, who does our co-op component. So, uh, co-op is the old school term, but basically students that are working during the
school day that have the credits they need are able to earn additional credit. >> You you got six people. >> We have a team of six and we have volunteers. >> Where are they located? Uh the majority of them are located at the Michigan Works location um 2110 South Cedar and
David Aldress works out of the Hill Center. >> And the 130 students are they senior, juniors and how how many hour they work and how many hour they stay in the school. So that 138 students just
represents the WE owe a youth program and that is a combination of inschool and out of school youth. About uh 50 of those students are inschool youth and the rest are out of school youth which are in our GED program which serves
students that are 14 to 24. But through our additional uh we have additional funding through programs our YPP which is young professionals program. We have 50 additional uh employment opportunities for them. Um we have through the forestry grant we will hire
35 to 50 students per year over the next three years and then our laugh partnership there will be 40 students 20 per semester that will be able to be served through that program. >> Thank you. and by superintendent. I
think that program is a brilliant future for our students and I don't know how this board can help even to enrich modify helping you dreaming the
best for all many other students and I think that maybe we had more knowledge and what really this program is dreaming because used to be less than what you are telling us today and and I
think the future for our students is in some way there especially students who need more than just regular regular steps going into society. >> Absolutely. I totally agree. We're very passionate about what we do. Um in a
nutshell, occupation by graduation is the goal for the program. We want to make sure that every student has an opportunity if they don't choose to go into the traditional college track that they can enter the workforce and earn a living wage right out of high school if
possible. >> Williams, did you have a question? >> Absolutely. I want my drone license, too. We can go together. We do we we have a great network of programming, one of which you've already heard of with adult ed. So typically,
and we're trying to firm it up a little bit more, that we would kind of funnel students that are re-entering education. So we receive students and we're able to serve them up to 24. Anyone above that age, we refer to the adult ed program,
which has done a phenomenal job at servicing those students as well or adults rather. >> Any other questions? >> Thank you. Um, Dr. Rodriguez, you you mentioned about this program. I think this is a model of
how programs can wrap around kids. When you ask how many uh employees do they have this program is because they don't give up on the kids. The way it was created, they have until the age of 24 that you got to keep calling the kid if
it doesn't come back. You got it. This is like the last support that we have for students to be able to achieve uh an academic degree in high school. And this is why it's so special to >> and and that is what they dreamed how to
prepare them for the future. At the same time, we connect them to the learning process in the school because it's a learning for everybody. Even they are not in classes, they should be learning. Okay.
>> So, next we have Mr. Bam Bwinsky. Uh I know that you have a wonderful presentation and um one of the most enjoyable parts is when you tell the story about why why do we have never solo? How how did that happen? What Okay. >> Yeah, of course. Thank you Sergio and
thank you to the board for this opportunity. Um, you know, sitting at the end of the presentation or toward the end of the presentation, one of the things I'm thinking about is just what an honor it is to sit at a table with so many really incredible leaders who are doing so many
incredible things for kids in our district. I think one of the through lines that I've heard tonight has to do with uh the people um and the student and family centered programming that we offer here. And I kind of hope to continue with that throughine in my
presentation. Uh Mr. Kek had asked me to speak about the history of the Eversol Center a little bit and and for those of you who don't know, maybe you're newer to the board and don't have this kind of institutional knowledge. Um it's it's an interesting story. Um in the late 1960s
across uh the country, uh the environmental education movement was really beginning to grow. And at that time in this district, there was a very small group of intrepid teachers that were taking students out to go camping
at Yankee Springs, you know, and um to just tent camping, rustic camping, you know. Um and this program, because of the dedication of that group of people, this program grew uh from that, from those very humble roots of tent camping
in Yankee Springs. Um and uh to the point where the district started to say, "Well, geez, maybe we should start thinking about, you know, trying to acquire some piece of land or or some sort of assets that would help enrich this type of programming." And so
they kind of put this word out to the community and the Olds family as an Oldsmobile stepped up and said, "Geez, we have this piece of property. It's 158 acres. it's actually just down the road from Yankee Springs and we'd love to
gift it to the district for you to provide this type of programming to students. And of course the district, you know, said great, we'd love to have that. And and so they acquired this piece of property and at that time there was nothing there. It was an old like fishing and hunting shack and that was
it. Nothing. and they were bringing kids to tent camp there late60s into the early 70s and in 1975 the board of education of Lancing school district said geez this has grown to such a point where we're going to invest
in some proper infrastructure this place began construction of the at the at that time it was called the Lancing school district environmental education center and on July 11th 1977 the Lancing school district environmental
ation center opens it its doors very first time to school districts that's 48 years ago this July will be the 49th birthday of the Eversaw center and in 20127 little over a year from now the Eversol Center will celebrate it in that time
it's served over 200,000 students we're seeing third generation campers seeing grandparents who are coming to chaperon with their kids who came there as campers it's an incredible thing. And before I before I move on, I just want to share there over close to 500 school
districts in the state of Michigan. There are only there's a handful that own ecoin centers and there's only four that own an environmental education center, but no school district in the state of Michigan owns both of these types of facilities. These are
worldclass opportunities. These are very very unique opportunities for our students to have access to resources and facilities like this. And it's um credit to the board, credit to all those those giants whose shoulders we're standing on
to kind of you know keep this kind of place um as an asset. I know one of the question we're always thinking about is is it worth the I'll try to make I'll try to prove that it is in if you Okay. Um, talking about people, I do want to just
um give a big shout out uh to um the really dedicated people that help make that this happen for our students. Carly and I, uh, Carly Beck here and I are the only two full-time employees of the Eversol Center. Everybody else is a part-time employee or only works when
campers are on site. So, we have Miss Jill and Miss Allison up there. They're both part-time naturalists for us. We have Miss Robin and Miss Evelyn. Those are two really dedicated health officers. You see me, you see Clay. Clay is an ABM employee, but he's the only
person who maintains 238 acres of of land. There are 56 toilets at the Eversaw Center. There are 17 furnaces at the Eversaw Center, right? So, there's kind of this this one person who kind of runs point on all of that. And then we
have tremendous support from service at the Eversol. the Everall Center and still our bread and butter are on-site programs. Those happen um through what we call extended day programming. So long days with us, not an overnight experience. Then of course overnight
experiences and there we focus on things like environmental education, team building, stewardship opportunities. We also do a bunch of outreach programming and this is kind of what we call like basically the Eversol Center Road Show. we come to your school and we
do every all of the things we could do at your school, but we do that in your school year. And that's incredibly powerful for two reasons. One, we found a very direct correlation between doing outreach programming in schools and then getting those schools to be able to eventually come to the Eversol Center
because as as all of you know, we don't force any teacher to bring any student to the Eversol. And so part of what that requires us to do is build relationships with those teachers in order to for them to say, "Yeah, I'm going to bring my students out to the center." Right? Um
the other thing that's also very very powerful about outreach programming is we work with teachers to help them understand how to use schoolyards to teach kids about environmental education ideas and concepts, team, etc. Um virtual programming. This was something
that took off during COVID and actually just kind of stuck around. There's there's a quite a a few um classrooms in the district, not just at our online school, but there are quite a few classrooms that we connect with virtually, either for pre-trip visits, post-trip debriefings, or for a unique
programming offered through our um through our virtual programs. Special events and rentals is a small but growing segment of programming that takes place. As many of you know, you've recently invested in lots of facilities and so we now see wedding showers,
weddings, um you know, baby showers, graduation parties, um you can rent cabins at the Eversol Center. Now, this is a small but growing kind of segment of programming that takes place there. Um and one that we could really um you know, uh if if given the right kind of
support, I think there's quite a bit of demand in that. We're located between Grand Rapids and Kalamazoo. there's there's massive population growth on that side of the state. So there's lots of there. Um mentoring programs. This is a relatively new thing probably the last
five or six years or so. Um this largely occurs through weekend programming but through our credit recovery programs. This year we've also invited um our newcomers um to come. We've invited the junior board to be out. So, it's these these are kind of unique enrichment programs that we do on the weekend
specifically focused towards some of our older students. And then finally, summer camps. Everybody's aware of our summer camp opportunities. We have very, very robust offerings from kindergarten all the way through 12th grade this year. Um, just in the ones that we've programmed alone. This doesn't include
all of our band camps and the other groups that visit as part of their summer camps, but we have programming for close to 700 students every summer. And those are those are free opportunity. This is uh uh you know one way to measure success I guess at the Eversol
Center right and in a very important way right because again like I said when I started the presentation one of the questions you must always be asking yourselves and I know our executive team and I know any anybody who's uh a member of the district who's wants to be fiscal good fiscal stewards is are these
programs worth it? are these programs impacting our students? Um, we have programmed um actually a little more than that now, but for over 5,000 students this school year. Um, the last time and and again I don't mean to sound like I'm bragging, but I want to brag
for our programs. The last time there were 5,000 students that received programming from the Eversell and the Lancing School District 1990s when the do when the school district had 20,000 students in it. So um we've really been able to achieve a achieve a lot there.
We're really making huge I think a huge impact on students um and we see it as an extension of the classroom. So we're working very closely with teachers around helping them further their curricular goals when they come to the Eversol Center. Um happy to answer questions about that in just a minute.
Um, so I would what I would say is that uh numbers like this and charts like this tell one kind of a story and it's an important story and I don't want to dismiss that story but I think an equally powerful way to understand the impact of the Eversol Center is here um
about a single experience and so I'm going to use this this um picture here to tell you a story. I'm going to call it the Stevie story. One of the things we take great pride in at the Eversol Center is that we provide students with lots of opportunities to experience firsts. The first time going on a field
trip, the first time spending the night somewhere other than in my own home or with my family. And we do this in very safe places, right? The first time catching a fish, the first time skiing, snowshoeing,
laying in a hammock. It could be that simple, right? One of the things that we really proud of that we do, not with every group, uh, w with certain groups, is we give them a chance to use the Eversol Center as a springboard for an ext an extended trip where we take kids
out to Lake Michigan. And when we do that, we go to Sagatuk Dune State Park. And at this park, there is an inland dune that we climb. And when you get to a certain point of this dune, get up above the trees and you can look out and
then everything you see in front of you is is the lake. So here's a a story about the power of this place. Last year we were with a group of fourth graders from Patgill. This young man named Stevie is one of the students that's marching up this hill. And it's not an
easy thing to get to the top of this hill. And uh we get to the top as a whole group and everybody's celebrating and cheering and I look over and there's Stevie standing all by himself at the ridge of this of this sand dune. Um and I walk up to him and I realized that he
has tears in his eyes and I said to Stevie, "What's going on, bud?" And he was just overwhelmed. He had never seen a sandune. He had never, you know, uh he had never there was so many things that he had never done that he was doing. And I think he was just emotionally
overwhelmed. And he looked out and he said, "I can't see the lake. I can't see the lake." And I looked at him and I was I was trying to figure out like like how can you not see the lake, right? Like everything in front of you is the lake. So I sat with him for a
moment and I was kind of really clumsy about like know it's like from this side to this side that's all you know and like he he wasn't getting. So we sat there for a minute and you could see the waves washing up on shore. And so I was at, you know, look at the white ripples of waves.
And in this moment, I saw him light up. Because what had happened is up until that moment in time, his mental model for what a lake looked like was something like this. And in that moment,
it forever changed how he understood the place where he lived. Right? That's the power of the Eversol Center. It creates these core memories for our students. I
would say, you know, there's a lot of really wonderful things happening in the district, but dollar for dollar, it's the best money we spend district terms of impacting kids and changing their lives. Um, and so that's my Stevie story, right? Uh, that's that's that's
just one and I could tell you these for hours. Um, it's just one. Next thing I want to do is talk a little bit about our Ecoin Center for Learning. Our um, again, just an equally impressive uh, facility.
Um, Lena, who who couldn't be here with us this evening, Lena does a tremendous job. She runs the day-to-day program. Um, I'm the director of the program, but honestly, Lena does everything. She's absolutely incredible and she also has a very small team. So, when we're talking
about good bang for our buck here, efficiency, um, she has two staff members, right? So, it's Lena and two other people um, who work for work for her. Um, Charlotte and Taylor. Charlotte does a lot of the more programming side,
more of the studentf facing side. Uh, Taylor does more of the horse side. um and and and all of the herd care and and barn coordination. At the equin center, we have field trips uh tons every week, you know, you go to
the ever or go to the equin center and you're going to see kids there learning about horses, doing ecoin assisted activities, etc. um the Beakman Center. Despite the changing nature of our relationship with that facility, we continue to provide
services to the Beakman Center, both to the Lancing School District students that are physically located at that place, but then also to the countywide students that are attending at the Beakman Center and also now helping us generate a little revenue um to offset some costs associated with some of that
programming. So, ISD's continued to be great partners with us there. We have a a really strong community rider program. So these are opportunities for um children and adults to go and ride at the at the Ecoin Center. Um again, small
revenue generating stream for us. Um but really important in terms of continuing to connect with community and with families events. So they've started to offer all kinds of really uh great ways to engage and get people into the Ecoin Center. um
you know, Halloween specials. They've done movie nights, uh all kinds of really wonderful things to get um students and families there. There are Len has done an amazing job creating partnerships um with Michigan State University, uh the other university in
the state of No, I'm just kidding. Um M and and lots of other really wonderful community partners. um right all the other really wonderful community partners and those are just so so mutually beneficial. Our staff learn,
our students learn, MSU students are learning um getting a chance to interact with our with our herd and then of course again another really robust set of of summer programming. Here are our numbers at the equin center. Again uh kind of growing um
trend here. we still have, you know, six or seven weeks worth of school and then another three weeks of summer camps to add to that. So, Glenn and I are fully confident we're going to get close to 4,000 students um at the Ecoin Center. Again, good bang for our buck
programmatically there. The last thing I wanted to share with everybody is just some of the unique work that we do related to connecting with other special populations groups. So, um, as I said at the beginning, I'm really honored to sit at a table with such a wonderful group of professionals and we work really well
together and that's a growing those those relationships continue to grow. Um, so of course we have a number of our students with IEPs who are attending camp just as part of their classroom trip or their school's trip. But we also do very specific events with um some of
our self-contained classrooms um to give students opportunities to come out and enjoy the um the outdoors, to learn and play outdoors just like everybody else. Uh I was sharing with another group earlier this week that we've really never met um a student that we couldn't accommodate uh them on site at that
facility. We've we've cut bunks in half so that we could get kids to be able to sleep there, right? Like if you know, we have bunk beds. We had a student that was in a wheelchair and they had to be lifted in and out of the bed. They couldn't do that with a bunk. Great. Fine. We just cut the bunk in half and
now you have a bed, right? Like we just we're figuring that out for kids, right? Um making that happen. Again, bilingual. We had a a very special newcomer camp just a few weeks ago. We host best camps in the summer. Our prek programs, um for those of you who don't know, prek field
trip experiences are very limited. Um there's a there's a whole bus requirement. the places they go. There's all all these unique requirements for pre-K. Every preK student in the district goes to the Ecoin Center and every preK student in the district gets um an outreach program from the Eversol
Center to begin building. And then again, I've talked a little bit about credit recovery and some of the alternative education, but the truth is it's kind of beyond that. We work with all of our comprehensive high schools around credit recovery and those other mentors
that I'm taking Any questions for Mr. Bwinsky? Justin Winsky. >> Yes. Uh I'm ardent supporter of what we do at the Eversol Center and Ecoin Center. My family has greatly appreciated all of that. I'm wondering uh to think about the revenue side and
the history you gave of uh passionate people starting this program and then philanthropists in the community donating the land. Uh do has there been any attempt in the past to reach out to the community and say sponsor a camper like many organizations do or something like that where people could kind of
give some support to this? I know we don't charge student directly and that's phenomenal. I don't think you'll ever find a thing like this um in other districts, but are there maybe ways where we could um approach the community in a way to generate funding because state formulas and things don't really
have this in mind when they fund a school district. So, how has there been that has that been done in the past um that you're aware of? >> Yeah, wonderful question and one that we're constantly thinking about. We've really worked hard to try and increase revenue.
We've done that a little bit through some of the other kind of competitive grants we have in the I'll give you an example. um those grants because this type of programming is supplemental, those grants will allow us to kind build back um the cost of the fair market
value of an experience like this to offset. So we've been able to do that with our magnet grants with team grants in the past. Um we just received recently a new grant um called gear up grant in another
set some cost for us. The forestry grant as um Mr. Milo talked about earlier is another grant that can offset some costs. We used to have the Everestell Center used to have a a a foundation and that foundation would provide
scholarships, individual scholarships for or if teachers applied offset some of those costs. So that has happened historically, but I think many of you know the um Eversaw Foundation recently dissolved. They made a very generous to
and um and so I think what you're thinking about are things that we we have not done a ton of that very generous and very supportive and the truth is it's probably time to start thinking about what that can what those
types of partnerships to offset some Thank you Dr. Dr. >> Thank you. Thank you very much. Um our students are rural students. They are
not in the in the farms. They don't see animals very frequently. Uh Michigan State is a L grand university and has programs all over the state.
How and you mentioned already you are working with them. How we can improve or use Michigan state facilities, Michigan state um resources that they have many and maybe in the
future and and the Michigan College of the Agriculture how we can improve that. Yeah, again kind of just tremendous thinking around some of these types of things. These types of partnerships are great and I there are more opportunities um
that are that are available to us today that are allowing us to expand programming. A example, it's not a Michigan State specific example. I'll talk to you about Michigan State in just a second, but DNR um has just recently launched a program called Nature Awaits or Nature Awaits.
and it's a program that's offering to offset just the transportation costs associated with um bringing kids out to these types of natural spaces. And so that's a grant that we just piloted a Nature Awaits program this year and it's something that we could think about
scaling up moving forward. Um there's a very specific set of locations that they have in mind for if you do take advantage of that program. They want to drive people state parks and so it's not necessarily to the Eversol Center but we have great relationships with the DNR
and we've been talking potentially about you know you know thinking considering other sites um available to our students at this point Dr. Rodriguez, our relationship with MSU has been largely about technical assistance related to
maintaining the spaces that our students are in helping us better understand developmental progression of programming that might take place through comparable types of programs like 4 that you helps guide uh throughout the state. So, we
haven't thought about them as a partner to offset direct costs associated with providing this type of programming. But again, those are those are things that I think we as a the district and our team specifically at Eversell should begin thinking more about moving.
>> Thank you for your presentation and you do know that I am obsessed with the Eversol Center. um how many band camps and choir camps and things that done um there and it's just a great space. I wanted to give you a platform to brag
about you. You talked about the bunk beds and that kind of experience, but you also have some more verbal kind of looking things, right, that are more apartment style. Um which leads me to my final question. Can you brag about that first? >> Sure. Yeah. Well, look, the credit's due
to the people sitting around the horseshoe here, right? or your predecessors and the the really wonderful people sitting at executive. Um since uh 2021 or so, um we the the district's invested
um close to half a million dollars in new facilities out at the Evers. They're massive invest on trivia. Those investments were made largely to expand some of our um some of the the accommodations that exist for not
necessarily for students but other people might be using the center. Um so there are most of you have been there are new cabins that on site. These are very posh places like by camping
standards these are very beautiful um spaces for for spend time in. Uh there are opportunities for people to rent those. Um where we see that happening most often is, hey, my my um grandson is
going to be graduating from Whan High School. That's the district center is located. They're doing their graduation party at the Eversol Center and grandma and grandpa are coming from out of town and they want to piggyback a rental on the back of renting the facility as part
of the park. Right? That's the kind of thing that we're seeing at this point. We've had a couple there's many of you around the around the table there who have written PhDs. We've had um people reach out to us and say, "I just need a quiet place to write for a week without my family, without my kids. Can I rent
the place?" And then they just go and and they have a kind of place of solitude finishing that. That's the the extent that we've seen. But we the truth is we've not marketed this a whole at this point. It's really been kind of word of mouth. It's been
through connections that people have with and and the truth is if we want to lean heavily into that space, we're going to have to think about how to staff up to support that type of of really robust programming. Our team
right now, there's only two of us, right? And and we we we we do programming all year round. Um, we this this year we work eight weekends. I'm not complaining. I'm blessed to have this opportunity.
But if we're going to lean in, you could rent the Eversaw Center every weekend. You could rent it every weekend for profit. We just need somebody to help us manage all of it and coordinate, right? And some staffing. So, so it's just, you
know, getting a strong vision for what that can making sure we're we're ready to do that, but I but I it can be specifically that type of a could be um getting us closer to uh out of the red. Right now,
we run in the red. It's an investment, but I think with more of that type closer. >> Thank you. And I you really spoke to a lot of my second question and that was going to be what is your vision for um
bringing us into a space because when we were there recently um places where someone might want to get married. It's gorgeous what you've done uh with the deck places where people like you said might want to vacation. I understand the staffing and things but I wondered um as
you're sitting here today I know you've been dreaming about things eversaw for many years. Um, in your perfect world, um, what in a snapshot does the Eversol Center look like and how do we, um, market it
to the Lancing community to be a part of that community? It's like, hey, nature awaits, if you will, drive from Lancing. This is our space. What does that look like for you? >> I think there's a couple of um, things that we would need to do.
very first thing I I would start to think about is how we want people from the from the community to use the center in a kind of a forprofit. What are the ways? It's
tough to say, hey, let come to my Sexton High School graduate graduation party at the just that's a that's an unreasonable thing to think. So the the population of people that we probably have to tap into are probably
based or some of the the real forprofit stuff. But if we want to think about how to get community members out there and what I'm thinking about I think this is an aging infrastructure. Dina can tell you like as wonderful as
the Eversol Center is and as much money as we've pumped into that place there are still. So if we really want to get serious about the kinds of things have to happen, we have to start thinking about including it in some larger,
you know, financial plan has to offer. Yeah. I I think kids can be really wonderful advocates for us in this way. But I think the other thing is we have to start finding ways to get out there. Maybe it's, you know, four or five times a year we just haven't like, hey, a bus
is going to be here. If your family wants to go to the Eversol Center, we're going to drive you out and you can spend the day as a family at the Eversol, right? And it's kind of open to you. We'll do kind of a barbecue style meal, but at least four, five, six times a year getting family out there. That's
going to be an important go and ask them for money. We need people. And while we've served for 200,000 students, not every, you know, there's a lot of mobility, right? So not everybody um who is an adult a voting
adult city has had an experience of it if they could even if it's madam superintendent do you feel that this board has empowered you enough to at least begin these conversations and vision casting for what is really the
crown jewel of our district broad >> so they've heard me tell this story when I was a fourth and fifth grade teacher for 14 years. All 14 years that I was a teacher in the Lancing school district, every year we went to every and um at that time it was not free to students to
go. There was a a nominal fee. It wasn't huge, but we did a lot of fundraising on our own, but a lot of chocolate bars to to go to Eversell. And of course, we scholarship kids. There was no kid that was not going to um I would say, have you empowered me enough? I'm just getting started.
So I would say, you know, as I'm closing out my 90 days here as interim superintendent and doing the cost analysis and looking at the various programmings, these are things that I think you absolutely come and um you know that'll be forthcoming as far as what are the investments need to make in
certain programs. How can our our community and our schools most likely benefit from that? I felt completely supported by this. So I think anything that I do ask or anything that comes in the future I know that you may ask questions but you're you're right behind
that work in this know the vision that we're trying to head in. So I think as those things come forward um you know like I said just closing out my 90 days so I do have some ideas and thoughts about this but all of the programming that you're seeing tonight is is world class. you don't see
this anywhere in the collectively and so I appreciate question very much and I do think that brainstorming that these individuals have done from every department from left to right um testament toward support >> thank you my final question Mr.
president about this is we've been having so much talk about student achievement as of late. Um, how do we frame this conversation where we don't end up seeing these great programs as frill because they are not literacy,
mathematics in the traditional sense, but going to our community and helping us as a board to see these things as essential parts of a well-rounded education, not as things that are dispensable when times get hard, and they are going to get hard.
>> Sure. that and I think that um through the achievement committee that would be a a topic but you're right I mean when you go to everol kids go there they learn nature they learn math they learn reading they do all those things that
helps them enhance their um uh reading skills so forth uh Dr. You had a question? >> No, I just um we received about 80 acres two or three years ago donated. What happened to them? >> Yeah, right now we're using that
property to generate revenue. Um so we're leasing that land to a farmer. Um we did for a while lease the farm house that was there again for revenue. Um the house was deemed unfit, uninhabitable.
And so, um, we right now we're we're just we're we're happy with just kind of generating the revenue that it is. I think there could be some some real long-term plans for what we do with that space from a programmatic perspective. Um, that I think could be really
incredible. But for now, the re the revenue that we're generating is really nice to offset some cost associated. I might just add one other thing real quick. I just I'm so sorry. I want to add one other story. I was Thank you for your question, Dr. Burden. I'll just
share you um one other thing that I think is important to tell you. When I started at the Eversell Center, I walked into a Lake Michigan or I walked into an MSUFCU and I had a shirt, an Eversaw Center shirt on and the bank teller from across the room sees my shirt and waves me over. I walked to her window, her
teller window, and before I could even say a word, she begins telling me about all the things she did at the center. She was at least my age at the time, but she was in her early to mid4s, but had been several. She had been there as a third grader. She talked for 20 minutes
without stopping. She told me every single thing she had to eat. She told me every single activity that she did at the Eversaw Center. When she was finished, I asked her what school you go to, and she told me her school. And I asked her what the name of
her teacher was. She couldn't name teacher. She spent an entire year in this teacher's classroom and she couldn't name her teacher. But she told me what she had to eat at every meal at the salsa. That's the power of a place like
this. That's the kind of thing that we're giving. >> Thank you. Hold on. I think did you want to see? Hold on. That matters. >> There's just a couple of things I want to add. One is that um I've had the opportunity really to work most closely
probably well with everyone really but just because I was in charge of summer school for many years and I know that in each of the programs sitting at that table all of the four core are being are are incorporated there's a whole literacy camp we did words in the woods
I remember one of the summers and so they do infuse all the four core areas into the things they're doing which I think is incredible but I think one of the things that I want to lift that I think the community needs to know and understand about the Lancing School District is the core is really
important. You know, ELA, math, science, social studies are great. The two things that I know about this board and about myself, two of the things that we really I think pride ourselves and we really want to see grow is a sense of belonging for kids. And I think the opportunities
sitting at that table give those opportunities for a sense of belonging. Not every child uh thrives in the four walls that they're every day in their schools, but they find an increased sense of purpose in the programming that's sitting. I think that's one. And I also think a
sense of joy and engagement is another that we've all talked about. Um just the stories even that Ben has shared today and I know if I went down the table, every single one because I've heard them, every single one of them could tell a story very similar what we heard
from the Eversaw Center today. And I think those are the experiences that are incredible that you just when you sign up for a school district, I don't even think you understand that those doors await for you. And I think those are the doors that await us in the Lancing
School District that I don't know that anyone can compare. And I think those are the stories that we have to tell. Um from students who I've heard reading to horses and have increased their literacy course because they get to read books to who gets to do that? I don't even know
that I've read to a horse to be quite honest. I'm looking forward to that. There is a little mini pony with my name on it. Um because I, you know, it might be my size. I think that's why I got signed up for her, but that's okay. I'll take it. Um but I think that we need to
to really think about the impact of outside of those four walls. And I think that's what we have to offer it. It's the multiculturalism. It's the cultural wealth that we have. It's the experiencing that experiences that we're
giving to children even to be leaders. I think of Yo youth with mentoring. Think of the programming that we have for older students to translate to younger students. Think about our special education students who work with each other. Our our programs that um where we have students that take take it upon
themselves to have a course where they can actually mentor special education students who are in self-contained classrooms. I think about kids who graduate from the fire science academy and they're right in a job with um populations and communities that want students of diverse background and we
have that to offer and then of course everything that you've heard about from a love of nature all of the things I think those are the things that the four core are important but that's those are the things that impact kids those are the things that take them into postgraduation which I know are the
things that we are most concerned about now we've we've hit the graduation rate. We know that that can happen and now we need to talk about how are the programs that we are offering helping impact lives and that's where I always say that the Lancing School District is one of the things that impacts the larger
community and all of the experiences that we heard tonight take kids into adulthood which I think is just incredible and I really value the fact that the board is the value in all of these programs. Um, and I'm I'm really happy to hear that the emphasis, of
course, we're going to, you know, have our kids reading and writing and doing math and science and social studies, but those day-to-day things just don't happen. And then the caringness and the expertise incredible. So I just appreciate that question opportunity to be able to speak
to that but the joy of learning and the sense of curiosity and knowing that that's not just from textbook dayto-day things from you know like you talked about with kids that have zero uh missing days coming to school just doesn't happen unless you fall in love
with the proud of the land for offering those opportunities to be able to connect students unique opportunities then they might be the next director of Eversaw or next fire chief for the city of Lancing.
So, I just think that we you're really on fire here. And I I just honestly when I talk about proud to be LSD, these are the things I'm talking about. Anybody can offer reading and writing and a basil and a textbook curriculum and all the things can't offer these.
So, thank you again to It speaks to who we are. >> Thank you. Thank you for those words. Go ahead. >> As Benvdas just said, like as a student myself, I find it like really important
like with Eversaw like all stages of my life like when I was like first came to Lancing School District, middle school and then now high school. Like even though like I've grown up, right, I haven't grown out of the memories I made before. And I think that's really important because you can't really put a
monetary value on memories. So having not just like Eversaw but also all of these like you can see that like people come together like I have friends from Eastern and I have friends from Sexton and I have friends from Ever that I went to camp with all the way back in first grade camp ever. I know people that go
to CTE and stuff and they connect with people and they like bring back culture and like like clothing like they share like fashion and like careers like they create companies. Like I have a couple friends that teamed up with a bunch of people from Sex and Everett that are running their own clothing brands. So
it's like really like is like they're really passionate and if they can like work in like communities and programs that can like benefit like that like style of like community and unity, right? not just with their peers but with people who have never met who they
are are going to want to meet or want to know in the future is really beneficial. So, I think that all these programs are very very beneficial, very progressive, you know, just a great opportunity for all students because I know at a lot of a lot of other schools, they're really like a close-knit community like a
Ferville or Mason. No shade, but like like they don't really get out that much. Okay. So it's like like every time Eastern comes, right, they're like Eastern or Sex ever or like anybody from the Ling School District, they're like always so like it's always so perplexing
to see like how their community is so different than ours and how like not it's like bad, but like how open the Lancing School District is to a lot of different ideas and like how they you know thank you James
>> um I'm but trustee um but I also you're not gonna find his wife too far away. I'm just going to be honest. She I would Actually, I
have start having generate start having right have people that have a lot of
however haven't heard Talk about every last one. Follows all of his. Oh yeah. A lot of our kids are getting first opport but
I hear talk about money of this program. I love this. There's nothing. are the bill. >> Thank you. Any other questions or comments? >> Yes.
>> I just I'm probably aging myself, but I did attend all in 1978. I just moved right I just moved here from Moskegan, Michigan and I met my first set of friends from Harley Franks. We left from Harley Frank school. So camp ebisaw is a
gym and I will always remember the experiences that I had. >> Good job. >> Well, thank you very much. I think um Mr. Kek or any any last word? Uh
>> well, thank you so much for all the kind words from the board, from the superintendent. Um these uh leaders right here are a pleasure to be working with uh as we season in this profession.
It is very important. That's why today I prefer not to talk too much and let everybody else uh expose their skills and they do a lot of work. Now out of all the good things you said about them and all that, how am I going to keep managing these people and this is going
to cost me a lot. Okay? Because everybody here uh should feel very very good about what the board has said about you and about your programs and what the superintendent has said. Um these are this is what makes the Lansing School
District different. But without the kind of leadership that you provide, these programs would not be as good as they are because we know that sometimes programs and people go together. and um just want to let you know that you are
very special group of people. So um we're getting closer. Um Universal Preschool uh this is not a K- through2 district. This is a prek through adult district. Uh Miss Angela Bry is not here
tonight and she wishes she could be here but this is another Jude of the district. Um we still continue to have 31 classrooms. We have uh schools in 14 buildings. We have tw 12 classrooms with children's
with IEPs. We have classrooms that we have blended Head Start and GSRP blended classrooms. We have 475 students as of last week. The enrollment over the years for this program, look at how this has fed our
school district. We were close to 500 kids. We hit 508 two years ago and um in 2024 we went down a little bit just for the fact that uh the governor announced the prek for all and every single school
district started receiving money for free preschool. But look, we didn't take a hit. I mean, we only went down like 20 or so. Um so this is important. Um, Miss Barry wants to uh make sure that she uh
highlights her accomplishments and all her classrooms are filled with full-time people and that you know how education has been in the last several years. Filling classrooms with certified people
can be a little bit challenging. Um every single person in that program is is trained with a high scope curriculum. All the all the child care centers all their licenses are in perfect shape. Uh
running preschools can be a complicated things with licensing. Um the quality uh they have to do a rating for their grade star quality improvement status. All of them are high. If you don't score high, you don't get the money.
And um the early childhood specialist, they have specialists that support every single classroom to make sure everything is implemented. So this this is a very successful program. The retention data, I think this is special. Look at the
year 202425 where we were almost at 85% of the kids that came preschoolers that came to us stay in kindergarten and that is our goal to continue to grow that number.
So if anybody has a question about preschools anyone? >> Okay. Oh uh >> not a question just a just a data point. Um so to to Mr. Kek's um earlier remarks in the in the first graph that we saw
right we see a slight reduction from the peak of enrollment in 2324 to currently 2526 but because our retention um is now so much higher we have actually netted more students so the program has grown because of those retention efforts so
the retention graph um demonstrates that the program has grown >> thank you Dr. Cabana >> uh trusted and whiskey. >> Uh yes. I just want to ask so preschool right now is for four year olds. Is that correct? Yes. >> And has there been any effort at looking
at three-year-old or where is that in the process? >> It's a conversation that we are having with the whole community. >> It's a little complicated three-year-olds the requirements and the space the licensing it's but we are working. Our goal is is
as a community that hopefully Head Start can continue to provide more of a three-year-old and ask we continue the four-year-old. On top of that, we are working with the Ingam ISD that they basically um do all the funding for preschools to make sure that we um
create blended programs, early childhood, special ed. I mean all the the links and the layers of early childhood is something unbelievable and we are getting better and better of and
finding the gaps in the community. For a long time, we had gaps finding four year olds. We're getting pretty good between Head Start and us. We're getting pretty good, but our strategic plan as a county is where are the gaps? Where how do we
continue working? How do we find our early childhood special kids into more inclusive classrooms? We need to have our kids in classrooms where they can learn behaviors from other kids. and that's the best way to do this. So, I
don't know if I answer your question completely, but u it's it's a very special program. >> Any other question or comment? >> Okay. >> Well, okay. So, we're getting closer. We have something that's called the junior board and uh it really really great
idea. I mean trusted her and many people from the policy committee and all that how we were pushing and making sure that our junior boards were more involved in um I think this is pretty good involvement and all right you're this is your first time here I hope you enjoy it
I hope you go home I hope you go back to your school and you talk about all the programs that that you learn your comments always continue to be great you know you you're staying right online you're doing good all right So um we have 12 schools actually that
are part of junior board. Um that's representation for many many schools in this district and your voices and the voices of junior board continue to be an impact on the decisions that adults are making. So we appreciate you.
We appreciate all your colleagues or classmates and we hope that this continues to go. and Miss Kerry Christian, we appreciate the work that you do supporting this program and we appreciate the board members. We also have the policy committee under
this umbrella and Miss Stro, Dr. Rodriguez, Dr. Her, they're all part of the committee that look into language and make decisions about how palaces should be. So
yes, we have come to the end. Once again, I I just want to say thank you so much for the time and thank you for the people and thank you for your support. There's been many board members. This is many years of board members supporting
special pups and superintendent. So we appreciate it. It's good for the kids. >> Thank you, Dr. Rodriguez. >> Thank you. >> Wait a minute. We're not done. I go I like to go back to special education. I think that is the more important
and when I see referrals cases I see some schools have more referrals than I see kindergarten, first grade, second grade, fourth grade the majority
and and then my one of my question is why we go having a child for six, seven years without knowing that he is in a special education or maybe he's not in a special education. I think we need to the
president to really spend time and do data and how what kind of background are having the families is is by region is by whatever I don't know but I think that we need to spend
some kind of scientific approach to the special education. >> Yes. Thank you junior board. Thanks for being here. Okay. Yes. Well, is there a question and and there's an answer?
>> I have a little bit of an answer that I can provide. Um, so some of that work is being done currently. So, currently what you see is the overview of referrals right now. And we wanted to give you the numbers in the background. We do look at referrals by school and we look at demographic data. We look at where they went to school prior, all of those
different components to see what is entailed in that particular student's referral. Um, in addition to that, we are also looking at whether or not there are interventions that have been provided. Much of what you see when you see referrals being high in the grade levels of kindergarten, first, and
specifically third grade, that is typical to the national trend. And the reason for that is because most schools in most situations are giving students an opportunity to experience school. So, if we don't see them in our early childhood programs, which is a possibility, their first time encountering school is kindergarten
where we will begin to see what type of learner they actually are and if there are any issues. Same thing with first grade. It dips off a little bit in second grade and then picks up again in third grade. Um, and then that's when you get into the testing grades, right? So, all of that plays a part in why we're seeing referrals at different
grade levels, specifically at the earlier grade levels than any other grade level. Um, but like you said, we are looking at referrals a little bit more in depth, particularly by school and then by grade level to break down all of the specific data related to each individual student to determine what if
anything is there uh that can respond to that. >> Thank you very much. Um, what I looking is to find characteristics of these students and these families. We can help the administration in the buildings, the teachers in the
buildings, the whole spirit of the school to help and have that as not a problem but something we had in the school and we had to deal with >> uh Williams.
of those. >> Um, so to answer the first part of your question, yes, the numbers that you see here are a combination of both um either SST student study teams or parents or any other staff within that school. So, it's a combination. I can give you the breakdown at a later date for what those
numbers actually look like. And then from there um there are do collect the data related to how many referrals result in an evaluation because we do as a public agency have the right to testing for a variety of reasons and then how many go through with evaluation and then from evaluation how many
students are eligible. I can definitely get you that particular data at a later date. Um, so some of that would be the context of kind of years prior to my arrival. I would say that what we are looking at in years to come as we expand programs, the
buildings that you see that have a lot of programs in them, we obviously will not put any more programs in those particular buildings for the purpose of providing equity and access to all of the programs across the district. Um the context as to why I would assume as I've
been given some historical context is resourcing, right? Um because we are looking at different staffing shortages and things of that nature. uh we can resource towards for example speech and language pathologists towards certain schools when they have programs in them. Same thing with social workers and the
like. That's part of that assumption in terms of the historical context. Moving forward, our goal is to look at which schools have the highest percentages and not place any additional programs into those schools and then spread out to other schools that do not have any programs in them.
Thank you. Any last question? Any less burning question? Well, gracias. Thank you very much for the report. very um enlightening for
many and um and I hope that people are watching on TV or do this later will understand the many programs that we have that other districts don't have for our students. So, thank you very much. Thank you, Superintendent.
I hope I don't make another mistake here. Okay. Yeah. We're to item eight, new business, and this is math purchase recommendations. So,
President Kevra, Vice President. >> Oh, you're going to give us some information on this. Okay. >> All right. Good evening, everyone. Uh the the math bid pre the math bid that you're um the purchase recommendation for this evening is for our math curriculum. So last year, you may say,
"Hey, already did that." Um, we did, we just did one year of it last year. You remember correctly, we had two outstanding programs that we recommended last year for our kindergarten through 8th grade students. They were Reveal and math. Um, we found that um, we had
piloted last year. They fell in love with these programs. They felt super passionately about both of those. and they are a different approach to math, more traditional and one is more hands-on. And so we let the schools choose. No, they voted last year which
of the programs and then we did a year of a pilot through pilot really every child in that had that program. Uh we had the data come back to instruct instructional council the end of this year and the
data showed that both programs were is successful and both were recommended continue next seven. And so what we have before you proposal to purchase both reveal math for originally that and then
illustrative math the other school that so the cost million dollars we have two million out of general fund and have profession continuing professional development know that's really critical and important for in the amount of $100,000 that is coming out of title
that's where the recommendation is under bid we had actually budgeted more than this in case we had decided to go um but we found that these the perfect fit and was recommended by instructional
counsel by me go to recommended questions. Council make the night if at all possible because these have to be ordered this don't We have the school.
Me look one moment. I think these are bundled by grade level. They are they're not bundled by school. I can give some examples. I know Guyer Park for example is IM. I know we have gardener is illustrative of math. Um we have capital area online
is illustrative of math. Those are so I I guess I want I do want to backtrack. I do not want to give the um impression that reveal does not do hand on a little bit more of a traditional approach where IM starts with more of an
inquiry based question at the beginning of their lessons. These all have been aligned to common core states and this year. Um and I would say that the schools that chose reveal and the chose
IM are fully steep in those models. They are making the recommend not want to curriculum. They have been instructionally coached in those models. um schools. We had between three and six coaching,
but actually the data and the results from both programs were test. I would just I want to I can
I'm just I I So my concern as the instructional leader of the district is that if we were to choose one or the other, these are teachers that have are steep
and believe believe in path models. I do think it would set the district back if that's just my instructional opinion. Um this is our second year now with these programs. pilot them um by grade level the first
and now they are fully K8 second year with an entire year of coaching and modeling and data collection. So I just want to caution the board that we have our curriculum directors have um poured over this material. We have our steering committee our math committees and then
there was a a very strong there was no um way in the boat for instructional counsel it vote vote in way. So I just want to caution the board that we have people 800 teachers well not 800 K8 programming. So I would say closer to
probably 500 teachers that are just want to caution the board that while I completely respect your opinion and I would love for you to materials. We have had open house or if you visit our school for the material just want to make sure that we also are
um honoring the practice of our teachers recommendal over an hourong meeting pouring over the data and looking If that's the way that the board moves, that's fine. I want to caution us that longing this more could put us behind in
getting this material ordered and in >> uh Trusty Burke. >> Thank you. I I I don't know if um I share the same opinion but I I have asked in the past um just because I'm
new to the board um these things come before it is our function knowing this is kind of money we need um and I know um instructional counsel all too well um and that these people are experts space um in ways that many
of us are not going to be have other jobs we come from different um backgrounds. How do we um is there a way or you have your steering committees, you have instructional counsel. Um, is there a way to get perhaps student
achievement somebody in the nook without us shunning our board function which is not to come over and be academic specialists with that's not what we're here but so that we are when we get these proposals perhaps there's been um
a more robust conversation about what it means. I remember us having some talk about a curriculum change since I've been on the board. Um, which now this seems to be a change even from that. Um, and I might be remembering that wrong,
but I remember us having a very robust conversation I believe last year about curriculum. And the thing was, hey, you know, we get this in time to have our board packet to come to a meeting to make a really big decision. Um, and I don't think it's a lack of trust or calling people incompetent. I don't
think it's that at all. Um I wonder if there's aformational thing like before the deadline like it's got to be done tonight um or else we'll be behind. Is there a way that in future we might be able to build something in perhaps with student achievement so that they have
had a chance to ask the questions much like what trustee Williams is saying. I don't think the answer at this point because of where we are is for us to move this to another week. Um and I also don't think that we need to step on you as the superintendent about, you know,
um academic matter. But I do think in making such a decision um like this that maybe more information sooner um for us to have conversations if there are >> Yeah, I think that's that's a very thoughtful response. I think both you
and and Trusty Williams are are looking at you know knowing more about the models I think is really critical are on the board. I think you should know kind of the ins and outs of the group maybe not to make around which ones
experts area I I would welcome having even a board openhouse where the various materials that have whether they're coming up for pilot or um for implementation or just if you want to know more about CKLA for our ELA
programming or what my perspectives look classroom I think there's an opportunity to look at the materials and then I think there's an opportunity where I could take classrooms. I think that could be powerful for you to one thing to
but another to walk into a classroom and action you know capital area tonight there's a model of the illustrative math that you and several of the models that over time but there have been and illustrative math last year when we came
to the board recommendation was to pilot both of these for a year and the decision was one of either at the end of the year data was overwhelming for one or the other that would adopt one program or if the data was um conclusive that both programs and
teachers both found both programs beneficial that we would vote for both but not switch curriculum I'll give an example for Guyire Park they were all in for illustrative math I am call it in the call it kdum because that's part of the platform that we use and um it was
never that park then change from I am to repeal and keep district. So it was either going to be one repeal districtwide, I am districtwide or buildings opt to stay with the curriculum.
So, I just want to make sure have that >> only followup question and I'm going to vote yes on um but my only follow-up question is with two different curricula at work. If I move to the west side from
Guyire Park, which is on the northeast side, um I know you said this is paced the same way, but if it's a different pedagogical model that my child was not used to across town, how does the pacing keep them in lock step so that my child
does not bend? That's >> an excellent question. So the first thing is it is paced by standard. So your child would not lose ground as far as standards, but we do have it where if you're um learning for example digit multiplication at a school has
illustrative math if you were to move would not miss topic our pace um lock step. Second thing I would say is a lot of the tools that are used IM it starts with a a more open-ended question but the actual comput strategy are not
different. there are manipulatives that are associated math and IM math. Um and that is something actually wondering about however we have seen one our mobility is not as high as
and secondly have students that transfer pedagogy five to actually not a gap. We also instructional have taken strategies for illustrative math and we shared those
common grade level better practices lift those practices um it's not a perfect because I do that there there could goodness are we start we're not starting with
the other part is really are all in on this type of pedagogy really I think it's something that area it's level of
professional acument help to know their so again there could be but the Mr. Mr. President, I think the the one thing for me I'm again going to vote yes on this. I think this great for um that these systems are at work. Um the one
thing that I would suggest and would appreciate is if maybe at level two um or three when this proposal has left instructional counsel and finally makes it to the superintendent's desk for uh to bring to the board that the board be
given it. It's a couple of this went on. This is what we got. so that at a time so that we can come prepared um and be able to ask the student questions offline before we get here um just to feel I think that we've made and
educated as much as we can not being experts um I I think it's more of a need to know so that we can feel comfy not wanting to do the superintendent's job for her I I think you're u well by the way you took my question I was going to
ask that that particular question Um I I don't know if there's a need for a policy uh in terms of um when we're we're doing the or we're going to have a change in in math or whatever else that there be
either a policy or procedure. Um the policy doesn't have to be very strict necessarily but simply saying that whenever this happens the board will do or have XYZ information before
recommendation board as a whole so that uh it will be embedded in our our policies and and then the the the the um the policy and then you call it the procedure then you know the
superintendent but it's just to ensure embed the fact that that the board needs or should know um about this not that we don't know about the change coming but
if the board wants a little digging into that that we have that opportunity part of our best practices Uh, Dr. Olig, >> thank you president. Um, I'm good to go.
Yes. I hope that we can go out of this buying books and we take care more about the curriculum standards. Um, AI is going to hopefully make the
books disappear soon later. Both of these additions probably are are done following the curriculum standard. Both of them are that. But this
um and I hope that they cannot replace they cannot replace the curriculum standards that should be taught in the classroom. This material should be just helping helping the students.
Now it's a lot of money $2 million that and my only question I have that is K2A. What happened to continuation 9 to2? They had different books, different
materials or we are going to be aligning K through 12. >> So last year we adopted the 9 through 12 inulum for the next eight years from that was one that the high school um
teachers came together and they really felt that envision was the right program. They did they had um several programs that they piloted. They were all in unified termination, but Envision was the one they only recommended one to go to
instructional counsel. And so that has already been determined for the eight years. The kindergarten through 8th grade was very when we went to instructional council last year, it was an absolute split vote. We're talking 49 to 51% of teachers. One wanted IM other
half of our teachers wanted review. And so that was why we wanted to take an additional year because did not feel that having teachers that felt very strongly about one curriculum or the other did not feel confident instructional council to have those 49%
of teachers then take on a curriculum that they felt their other one was better suited students that was voted that way last high school was a was in 100% agreement about the curricular tool
have adopted envision district for the next eight years. Last year we did the split curriculum between the two and that's why the gap of proposal to match adoption of >> well this excuse me any other
>> yes Mr. Ninski >> yes uh I appreciate you addressing the question about student mobility because I had that as well. I'm wondering also about teachers changing from school to school andor when we do professional development um we have a math coach I think that coach then has to know two different curriculum does that put any
stress on the or how do we approach that when we're training >> so uh yes our coaches actually are steep in both of the our math coaches um but the other thing that I would say is when we have had um teachers move from one
building to the other because we do have teacher openings we do make sure that they're also aware of which and which they might make because some of them that feel really strongly about either IM or reveal they would pick school based on that. So I think that's also part of the
decision making when we have teachers mobility particular uh that would happen the other thing I would say is we do have robust or for and in the proposal we have over $100 in
coaching opportunity, professional development, but would just have to make sure that our student if they were moving from Thank you. And can you confirm this is a one-time cost? This does the entire
8year period or is there still consumables from year to year that the district will need including future? No, this is >> okay. Any any other just just maybe ask the question. So this
uh program they align our high map purchase last year or whatever >> that we have in high school right now. When you say align, do you mean is the
same programming or because of >> give me both? >> Okay, I'd be happy to. So it is not the not it's not reveal to reveal or I am you have a different
high school and then um but as far as state yes it's have students that would um state standards by grade level kindergarten through Uh this uh makes me think of the um
conversation we had years ago. The kids graduated from high school going to have to integrate they it didn't align the way. So that's that's what I'm saying. uh maybe it's not a line but
when they move from high school they will know the concepts that are being taught in and they will that will not be an >> no in fact there's >> it shouldn't be an issue >> no it should not be and we also have programs that are within like a pre-alggebra
that we are with we even have even robust opportunity to be able to even I think align it more closely differentiating that may need more opportunity. >> Any other questions? Is there a motion?
>> Mr. President, I move that the board of education accept the math purchase recommendation as presented. >> Second. >> You move to second to adopt the recommended purchase of math materials. Any other discussion? Okay.
>> Yes. I I just want to say because I'm a math teacher, I was interested in this. I was able to go to the math night. I know they were available. I don't know how many people took advantage of that a couple years ago as a parent, as a board member. And um then to kind of see this through just because that was my interest. I do, you know, trust the
process. I do am concerned about having multiple curriculums and I think that is something that maybe we should have a broader discussion about because of the concerns that come with it. both cost, training, changing teachers, students, you know, moving from grade to grade and different building configurations where
you're going to encounter different things. So, I think that would be an interesting just philosophical conversation. Um, I don't recall the board approving the CKLA. So, I think this is an improvement in that we are discussing this and having this conversation. Um, and I do agree with
some of the thoughts uh, you know, of having more involvement of the board into the the final steps of the So, I just want to lift up those concerns, but I do support moving forward. >> I think we're going to do a voice vote.
>> Roll call. >> Dr. Cavana, >> yes. >> Dr. Herd, >> yes. >> Mr. Lopez, >> yes. >> Mrs. Moore, >> yes. Mr. Niski, >> yes. >> Dr. Rodriguez,
Mason Williams. >> Okay. Thank you. Uh motion carries. Uh moving on to uh bid recommendations and purchase recommendations. I know there was a uh facilities committee meeting and um uh
Professor Kavanaaugh and Williams were were at the meet speak to >> Yep. Um these these should be all relatively straightforward. Um a lot of these have to do with um some improvements that are being made to like kitchen and food services uh which is part of our spendown that is required by
law of our food service budget. Um, so this is a great opportunity to do some of those uh kind of changes, renovations in that space. Um, you'll see that uh with few exceptions, the lowest bid was selected in the two exceptions um to that. It's because the bids that we got
were withdrawn. Um, so they came in incomplete and then were withdrawn by the vendor. Um, and so uh otherwise the the lowest bid was chosen. Uh, as you can imagine, especially for like that kind of specialized kitchen equipment, there's not always um a ton of different
options. And so, the district was glad to have gotten the number of bids um that they did. It's always good to have a competitive bid process. Um I don't know, Christina or Roslin, am I missing anything? Okay. >> All right. Um
Oh, then we need a motion. >> Yes, sir. Um the majority of this money is coming food services one coming from capital project. So all of the cafeteria and food service pieces are coming from food services and
syncing fund. And then there's one purchase recommendation for four trucks and four service vans. Um so a few things I've brought before in the past have been our aging fleet um our operational fleet. So these additional vehicles are to replace um an additional fleet. So this is money that was already
earmarked in capital funds. It wasn't an additional outgoing transfer from general funds. It's already money that we had in capital funds. Um several of these vehicles and service vans have rotted floorboards and are open. I like to call them our Flintstone vehicles. Um, so it's about time. They're from the
late 90s and early 2000 2000s. Um, and we need to replace them um so that we have operational equipment to service our grounds. >> Uh, Dr. Dr. Trustinsky, >> uh, just on that topic, I'm curious as we talk about electric school buses
tonight, was that uh, entertained or did any vendors consider that? Is that an option for these kinds of vehicles have electric some of them, yes, but they're exponentially more expensive. So, it's just not not in our current budget goals. But it is something that I would
like to explore, especially the service vans. The trucks themselves need to be quite heavy duty. Um, and we have not found a vehicle, an electric vehicle that's really ready to handle what we're doing with them and driving over our grounds. Um, but potentially some of the
service vans where our mechanic like our building mechanics, HVAC, those types of people are potentially in the future. I think it is something we need to explore and I always appreciate you green initi. >> Yeah, I think that's great. I think there are some maintenance offsets that might come with the cost and then as we're able to produce energy, we're not
able to sell it back at retail market rates, we should use it in any way we can. So, this could be another opportunity for some vehicles. Okay. Um I'm going to >> I think we two had two motions. One for the cafeterias and the other one for the
vehicle. >> Well, I'm looking at the one for vehicles and I was going to pull it pull it out number one because I'm going to recuse from that. This family of mine works for La Fontaine recommended vendor. Well, I'll put that for that and for other reasons.
Um, but it's so that's just the vehicles you're talking about. >> So then, Mr. President, I recommend that the board of education accepts item A through only as presented. >> Second.
>> You moved and second approve um of its uh noted. All those in favor say I. I. >> Oppose. same sign. Thank you. Motion carries. Melt. >> Mr. President, I move that the board of education accept item I purchase
recommendations for um the the four trucks as presented. >> We have to second discussion comments. Um as I've said, I'm going to recuse myself from this. So um for all of the uh the rest of the board, all those in
favor say I. I >> oppose. same sign. Okay, motion carries. Well, thank you. Moving on to uh agenda, we have uh item C uh new business or new
business with recommendation S1850, food service management company. Oh, current. Um, so we What was Um, just a few additional things to add
to that. Thank you. Um, a few things to add to that. The bid for Chartwells, um, that we are putting before the board today is actually less than we're currently paying Sedexo. So, not only was it the lowest bid of the bids that we received, but it's less than than we're paying now. Um, and Chartwells is
is a known entity. Most of the districts in the area use it. So, East Lancing, Holt, uh, can't remember all the districts that we talked about, but a bunch of the area districts um, use Chartwells. Uh, so it's not like it's an unknown entity that we're taking a chance on because they were the lowest bid. They were both the lowest bid and
also are widely used in this area. >> Any other comment uh, from administration at all? Okay. Um, >> Mr. President, I move that the board of education accept the food services management contract with Chartwells as
presented. >> There a second. >> Second. >> Move to second that we accept the proposal from Chartwell. Um, any other discussion? >> Yes, sir. >> What did our students when we allowed them to try the vendor?
So, as part of the food service bid, we have to go directly through the Michigan Department of Education RFP processed. Tasting food is not allowed as part of that process. Unfortunately, we did reach out to get clarification on that because we wanted to make sure we follow the rules. Um, they literally walk us
through step by step everything must do. Scoring rubric, all of our posting dates, our actual RFP they read to make sure appropriate. Um, so that is not allowed unfortunately. How long um how long will we end there?
>> It is a one-year contract. Um so all food service contracts are always one-year contract and then we have the right to re-up for four additional years, one year at a time and then we would have to go out for full RFP again after the fifth year. >> Well, I'm going to vote yes for this,
but can we make a a conscious effort to at least uh the very least have June board tell us the real about what they really think about our new food service um choice so that when we're making
decisions about our next four years, we really have had good student voice the way that is lawful >> 100%. And I would like to say that we did get student voice about our current food service company and that is part of the reason that we went out for bid. >> Oh, I know. Oh yeah, I know. That's why
that's why my question. >> So yes, 100% Dr. Herd. >> Thank you. Uh, Mr. Mwiski. >> Yes. Then just to clarify, I saw a renewal increase of 5%. Would that mean if we extend for another year, that's what the increase it?
>> Okay. >> Yes. And that's within MDE's regulations as well. So, they're only allowed to increase a certain percentage. 5% is the cap. Um, so they're not allowed to go any above that. That's usually what you see everybody put in. Sometimes they go below it. >> But that's a decision we have to make year to year.
>> Year to year. Every year we would vote to renew their contract, but we can only do that four times and then after that we have to go out to full full RFP again. >> Or we can choose to do the full RFP if we want. >> Correct. Like we could stop earlier. >> Yes.
>> Thank you. Well, and this is probably going to sound very trivial, and I know that business is business um and that we're we're making changes that are best for our district, but what does this severance look like with alumni
um for going away from Exo Magic in such a prolific now not really having that company um servicing at all? What does that trend I'm going to answer it in the most technical way possible. I think there, you know, it's always a different
It's cutting out. Um, so there's a couple of different pieces here. Um, part of Chartwell's bid is that they will retain all non-administrative staff and give them a 3% raise. So, that is part of it. Um the other part of it is they and this happens with most food
service companies, they choose to bring in their own administrative staff. Um one of the other things is with Chartwells having hundreds of districts in the state, they have a larger buying power. Um which I think attributed to them having a lower bid. Um they just
have that buying power. Um we will be working very closely with Chartwells and with our current staff to see to work through what that transition looks like. um to make it as easy as possible. Things like this don't always go seamlessly. There will be hiccups along
the way. Um but our team will be working very closely to make sure that we make it happen and that kids are not affected negatively. >> I appreciate Thank you. >> I have one quick question. Oh, and this is you know the one that's
right in there. Um so they all met the the basic um requirements. >> How far above was Chartwell in our current >> in our scoring? Yep. So I can that um so
Chartwell scored a 98. Um our current vendor scored a 78.79. The second highest bidder scored a 906. The third highest was 84.52. So they were almost eight points above even the second arts was above the
second bidder. There were five total that submitted. So we had seven participate in the walkth through but only five of those companies actually submitted a bit. Well, I I guess just a comment is that uh we're we're making decisions for our
kids and I think that uh we still accept um our most famous uh person uh we'll accept his donation support in any way but we we're doing this for the
kids which is our charge. Oh, okay. There be no other questions. I think we need roll call. Um, roll call. Dr. Kavanaaugh. >> Yes. >> Dr. Herd.
>> Yes. >> Mr. Lopez. >> Yes. Yes. >> Mrs. Moore. >> Yes. >> Mason Niski. >> Yes. >> Dr. Rodriguez. >> M. Williams.
Okay, motion carries. Thank you very much. Okay, we're getting closer to the final of our agenda. Recommended motion. Okay. Um, we're now to public comment on the agenda items. If you wish to speak,
please fill out a a form that's back of the room. Uh we do have uh Ellison McCann that's going to speak to us about the reporting professional bill of right. What it costs to actually support a
family here in county. The living wage in Ingam County for an individual without children is $260 and for a couple two adults with one child is 29. These are not statewide averages. These
are our local numbers directly MIT living wage calculator that work 52 weeks a year or 280 hours. The beginning hourly wage for an instructional assistant, one type of ESP
in this district is $18 a month. Most support staff do not work 52 weeks a year or 40 hours a month. When we compare those numbers, it clearly shows a significant gap between what it takes to truly thrive in this community and
what many of our support staff are currently. This gives us a clear objective metric to understand the urge of this campaign and why your support matters. ESP Bill of Rights is a statewide campaign led by education
support professionals across Michigan to establish baseline standards of dignity, stability for the people who keep schools running. It calls for a thriving wage that reflects the real cost living in each community. affordable health
care, safe working conditions and modern equipment, access to training and professional growth, retirement security, job stability so students see consistent trusted adult schools. This is not a mandate or demand placed on
this board is a framework, a shared commitment to work collaborative toward contractual improvements locally while building momentum for broader legislative ch change statewide. What we are asking from you tonight is your support. Whether it's as an individual,
as a board, or both, so that we can work together towards solutions that strengthen both our workforce. Education support professionals, children and grandchildren every single day. They are not extras. They are essential
public education. When support staff cannot afford to live in on one job students experience that instability when they are supported expected able to stay in their long term thrive. We are
asking you to stand with the people stand with our children every single day and help lead the way. Thank you. >> Thank you very much. Is there any other public comment? All right, we're down to two uh comments
from the board. >> Dr. Ludigus. >> Thank you for the president. I was really impressed by the presentation today. I think the pebborn me to have a kind of the agenda
the programmatic agenda and what we want to be informed during the whole year that we don't go here and there and there but we have a kind of programming a program that we get infor and the public gets informed in very organized
way today was great but I think the I don't know if we are going to have the retreat or not But when we have it, I would like the board talk together and see if you can come or how kind of the topics or what kind of the general things we want to know. That way we will
can talk about the what we were talking today how to adapt books that we should have the kind of plan the board has the plan or the information that we need and we want to do our job.
I think we need to develop that and and don't today we got to be this to next week is going to be else something that puts an order in our knowledge and doing better for Thank you very
>> uh trust more >> yes president Lopez first I want to commend the presentations today they were amazing thank you so much we were focused a lot on our children which we should but I also enjoy enjoyed the public comment that just was mentioned
about supporting our peer professional. So I my ask is that us as a board consider the comment that was just made. Um we do a great job with supporting our peer pros but I think supporting
pair professionals as a whole would say a lot about our district. So once again, thank you intramz for all that you're doing to move our district forward. I appreciate the work. >> Thank you.
>> What is the salary? And I I didn't hear about the salary how we pay them. She was talking in general. Not not us. Oh, not us. And that's why first of all said we treat our folks well. At least, you know, we gave them a
raise and But it's for other workers. Um, oh any other uh trusty heart I also agree that nice priest so nice
I share Dr. um sentiment have some micro doing to chew on each one of the still won't be done um and we got all six of them uh and some um I know I'm
going to leave full today but love the idea of programmed um presentation that is over u several months where we'll be hearing from people not losing touch with the others while we wait. Um but kind of micro doing um some of the great things that
are happening and also keeping face of the board. Um I also want to piggyback on what Trusty Moore said about the student centered nature um of this meeting. I know I've put that in my comments for the last couple of times. We seem to only like to talk about kids
these days. love that for us. Um because I believe that's all of our why for being um is because we district and serve them. Um and I I want to just say thank you to the faculty staff at
Wexford who invited us today to see your program. Um, I was in the Lanc district and served for a long time and I feel like I worked everywhere, madam superintendent, but never been inside of that ever. And so it was a new experience for me. Everyone was
prepared. It is such a wonderful program. I'm looking forward to hearing more about what we're going to do. Um, Mr. President, I went to one of my schools this I went and visited Everett and um got to see our students hard at work going toward the finish line toward
graduation. And I wanted to commend um Principal Boils, all of her um support administrators there and the staff. Um I they came to this board for more hall support um mentors in the hallway and
things and I got to see them hard at work when I came um in. They were on post. They were encouraging kids. Um yes, there was a hall sweep. You got to have that. Um, but they were encouraging kids and had things ready to go to get
kids um, held accountable for being late, but also activated to get into the workday and whatever they were headed toward. I was there between fifth and sixth hour. Um, and we all know uh, that can be a pretty transitional time and it was very smooth. Um, great things were
happening. the principal happened to have been out, stepped out for a meeting and even so um the building um the school community was still running like a school and I was very happy to be there. Um I also am thrilled about their upcoming performances
um and our emphasis on what um our students are are doing here uh in the city and um wanted to just commend all of our arts um faculty that have performances coming up. also um at
Willow. I went to see the violin program at Willow and they have a big program coming up on May 14th. Um and shameless plug in collaboration with Transcendence Performing Arts Center at Willow. Um and they're going to have lots of singing and dancing and our kids front and
center um doing amazing things including the only string program that exists in this district right now um is at Willow and we are so grateful for the work that Dr. Beard doing there. Um really I mean I'm convinced as a parent with kids
getting coming of age now to come to Lancing schools. I'm I think I'll send my babies here too and I think you should at home. It's high time that you come home. Have a great night. >> Thank you. Thank you, Trusty. Uh, Trusty Williams also have
I'm not an actual me, Friday, Saturday, and check out me on Sunday celebrating African. Uh, uh, All right. Want to make
How's the day? letters have all mess. Okay. I'll just say that um I agree with uh trusty heard about the Wexford was a very nice program today. Uh it was nice
visiting with the teachers. Uh they gave us a tour. Uh they they wanted us to stay for the program but obviously we couldn't stay. So I guess just a message to all the schools try not to program stuff on Thursdays that is a board
meeting. Okay. To all schools please. This way we will make every effort to be there and and not have to come to a meeting. I and I want to just point out that the city falls in its newest issue has all the
art from our school district from Everett from Eastern from the middle schools from the elementary. It's full of art from the lens school district kids. So pick up one of their issues and take a look at it. Very nice. Thank you
very much. So nothing there be no other business. This meeting is adjourned at 100 10:00 or 10:06. I can't see that part.