Call to order. The time is now 06:00. It is 09/22/2025. Miss Griffin, please call the roll. Clark? Here. Colbrink? Madison? Here. Perriman Kaines? Here. Rogers? Here. Scott? Here. And Tyler? Tyler is excused for the day. Alright. We are now at item number two, swearing in and seating a newly appointed member, Andrea Rogers. Can you please stand, please? And raise your right hand. Repeat after me. I do saw these Oh my. Okay. I have pictures of you too. Sorry. You want me to stand up too?
Yeah. Alright. I got it. Ready? Yeah. I do solemnly swear. I do solemnly swear or affirm or affirm that I will support the Constitution of The United States That I will support the Constitution of The United States And the Constitution of the of this state And the Constitution of this state And that I will will faithfully discharge And that I will faithfully discharge the duties of the office The duties of the office. Of member of board of education. Of member of board of education. Of the Oak Park Schools. Of the Oak Park Schools. According to the best of my ability.
According to the best of my ability. Thank you. Okay. We will now go to number three, approval of the agenda. We will unanimously approve the agenda if there are no objections to doing so. Are there any objections to doing so? Okay. Agenda is passed. We will go to item number four, approval of consent agenda. We will unanimously approve that if there are no objections to doing so. Are there any objections to doing so? Okay. The, consent agenda is approved. We will now go to number five, reports.
For me. Oh, I'm sorry. Alright. Superintendent. Yeah. In all regards. Thank you, president Madison. So I just have a few things to report out. I feel comfortable reporting out some of the preliminary, enrollment numbers. If you recall, our goal was, a 100 net students net gain. Although we re we gained way more, we had to replace the outgoing nearly 300 students plus those that transferred out and moved. So we have currently enrolled a 115 and counting net gain.
So we've already, exceeded our goal for enrollment, which is a good thing. And if you recall, when you all approved the budget was with a zero student gain. So these 100 students will be a net gain to our fund balance or our budget overall because those 100 students in theory, if you take $10,000 per pupil, 10,000
times a 100 students is a million dollars. Mhmm. Alright. So that that is a a gain there. Also, I know there's a lot of things going on with the with legislature and budgets and, they're bumping heads with with the house side, with the senate side, and, they have until September 30 before government shuts down for, legislature. But what that means for schools is that if they don't pass a budget, then
that October 20 state aid could be in jeopardy. Right. You know, so we that's how we get our revenue through our state aid. The good thing is that we have enough cushion, I would say, four to six months. But that would deplete all $12,000,000 that we have, all 20% of our fund balance. So we'd probably deplete it all. Some districts are not as lucky and they have to go to commercial, banks to get money. But we've been prudent in our in our finances over the last three plus years,
and we always talk about we don't know what's what's looming, so we always wanna save money for a rainy day. This is, potentially a big rainy day, if they can't get their things together. We've advocated for complete funding, but they're constantly arguing with each other over, you know I hear different things from taking some of our, school aid fund to fund the
roads or different projects. And, the biggest issue with me is the categoricals that they wanna eliminate. That's where we get the majority of the extra grants that we apply for. Eliminating those would hurt us significantly. Okay? And so I've been advocating. I will continue to advocate. I'm meeting with with some folks tomorrow, and I've gone to Lansing and and talked to some people, anyone that will listen to us. The good news is we could weather, hopefully, the storm four to six months.
After that, we might have to go we'll have to go to you to approve us to go to commercial, banks to borrow money. The bond work is ahead of schedule. So we are, nearing the December target goal for opening up our athletic center. Opa's finishing up with their phases, but what we also have identified is a significant need in Opa for cosmetic things that have not been, taken care of over the
years. Paint, furniture, little things that you would hope that they would be modern moderner I can't say that. Modernized. Yes. Okay. They have not. We also, in our walk through, identified Einstein as, another issue that we wanna target. Unfortunately, the bond work doesn't support that, but we do have some sinking fund money and some other grants that does support that. The bond work predates me and the majority of you.
I believe one board member was on on on that. So we are doing the best that we can without the last thing that you wanna do is tap into your front mount for stuff. You don't want it. That's like your last resort. So we're trying to use what we're what we have with sinking fund. The contingency money that we save from bond work, we could use some of that. That's between 5 and $700,000 that we've managed to save. Other districts are blowing their budgets with bond work.
We've actually are coming under, and and I attribute that to our construction management, our, owner rep, plant Moran, Cresta, Rockford Construction, and all the all the different unions that have really gone above and beyond to help us. AP classes. So we are those of you that know we are we test for about 25
APU classes through CASA, just Center for Advanced Arts and Studies, which those of you that don't know, it's a consortium of seven school districts. Seven school districts including Oak Park send our students to Casa to get classes that otherwise they wouldn't be able to offer in their own school districts. We are nearing 300 students, which is pretty good. That's actually, that's real good. They also offer 13 AP classes and I I don't wanna give you an inaccurate
number on how many AP classes that we offer at Oak Park High School itself. Yeah. Oh, Alright. So, part of that, I do wanna address, some things with and I know some of you guys are getting hit with these state scores.
State scores are, a glimpse in a moment of time. And it's one measuring tool when it comes to testing our students' growth and proficiency. And you are gonna get a thorough presentation with all the different systems that we use to test growth and proficiency at the October 8 board meeting, and that is open to the public. Unfortunately, that that is where we are, and that's the report that that is what
it is. And and so we're not oblivious to it. We get it too. We see it too. But I I do want to ensure anyone that's listening, including the board, that not only are the teachers working hard, all staff are working hard, central office. No one is happy where we are and everyone wants better for our students. No one comes to work and says, I just want my own students to fail.
I've not encountered any employee in this district that comes to work and says, I don't want my students to succeed. Unfortunately, we are getting what we're getting and we're working hard at trying to buck that trend, but that's one one leg in a stool that has three legs on it. There are other testing mechanisms, that you will be presented with.
We also had an amazing opportunity to attend an urban conference to, learn how to provide support for our black and brown students, which is crucial in understanding the gaps that exist in society, and they do exist. And anyone that tells you they don't exist is not telling you the truth. They do exist. And our goal has been from day one is to level the playing field, to
give our students a fair and equitable experience in school. That's not just textbooks. Those are other experiences that students deserve and you have afforded us the luxury of supporting that. That's why we infuse real life experiences with field trips and other avenues of, understanding social emotional learning and the gaps that exist there with capturing kids' hearts.
All of that ensures that we address what the mission and vision of the district is, which is the whole child, the whole child. We don't just pay. We'll take this child, but not this child because this child can't perform, this child can't perform. We welcome people with open arms, and we we meet our students where they are. And we we push our students, and we push each other, and we push our staff. So I just wanna be clear because sometimes when people don't have the facts, they
say whatever it is that they wanna say. So I'm I'm done just going off there. But it was a great learning opportunity. I had the opportunity to go with president Madison, trustee Tyler, with a great, experience. We got to learn some fun things about Los Angeles and not so fun things about Los Angeles, and I'll just leave it at at that. And I wanna remind the board that you do have the MASB conference coming up,
that's in Traverse City, and I believe it's the October or November. But Pat and I are working on giving you the data on that to see if someone, or many of you are interested. I I do encourage you to attend because this, is is a great opportunity for you, to learn and grow as a team and to learn and grow on understanding what it's like to be a board member and what it requires. So Pat and I will work on that.
And with that, President Madison, that concludes my long presentation, you know, reports. Alright. Thank you. We're gonna go to item five b. Q conference, superintendent, touched on it a little bit. Like he said, we were able to go. Me, trustee Tyler, and superintendent, It was very informative. Caller Colin Kaepernick was there. He told a little about a little about his, educational journey. It was it was great. I bought some gems back from the classes that I attended, and I'll briefly touch
on them during my communications. Alright. We are at item six, public participation. Trustee Permanente. Public to comment. Because the OPMG Board of Education values public meetings, not just meetings in public, we welcome public comments on school issues. Speakers are asked to express themselves in a civil manner with due process for the dignity and privacy of others who may be affected by public comments. The public comment portion of the meeting cannot be used to make personal attacks against school board member or school district employee.
That disrupts disrupt the order of the meeting and are totally unrelated to the manner in which the member or employee performs his or her duties. Speaker should be aware that if a statement if statements violate the rights of others under the law of defamation or invasion of privacy. Such, comments may result in legal liability. Most comments can be concisely stated in three minutes, and the board respectfully asked that comments remain focused on a topic or issue and not be directed at a specific
personnel or board members. K. Any public participation? No. We will go to item seven, information items seven a. So, this is those of you that, are new, typically what we do when we ask for an action item, we bring it before you as an information item to talk about it. Waste management is a is our waste collection, contractor that comes out and picks up,
you know, our our, trash. And and so we are in talks to renew the contract. We're happy with them. And so before we present you the the contract at the next board meeting, we bring it up to see if there's any questions that you would like us to ask. I do have, some some information, but not all. Unfortunately, our, Tiffany, had an emergency at home, so she couldn't be with us today.
But but one question I did ask her is, is this an increase in our contract year over year? She said, the contract's the same. You have a decrease in one proportion of it, but then increase another portion. Mhmm. So she said it nets itself out. Cost per pickup has gone down, a few dollars, but other areas have gone up. But it and then that contract that we paid, which I believe was about $70,000,
is gonna be the same. But there's there's a difference on how they're getting that $70,000. You will get that full contract before you during, a weekly update, and then you will get that, prior to the next board meeting. But if there's anything that you want me to ask regarding voice management, you could ask me now and then I could take you back to Great. That's it. Can you repeat what you just said about the the give and the and the
take and the give and the give and the cash and the give? Yeah. So what she was sharing with me is that the net the net charge per pickup, because they charge us per pickup for dumpster, has gone down. But there's other portions of it that have gone up. Maybe that's recycling piece or other pieces. So they net each other out. In the end, you're paying the same, but it fluctuates. It it went from so you did see a savings here, but then you got an increase here.
In the end, it's the same. But I will I will have the breakdown of what has gone down by what amount. So it'll be marked in red for you so you can see, last year they charge us, let's just say, hypothetically, per pickup, $54 a bin, hypothetically, or a $100 a bin. These are hypotheticals. This year, it might go to $98 a bin. So that's a $2 savings per bin per week per we have maybe 500 bins.
So we think, oh, wow. We saved. But then they might charge us for the bigger dumpsters and increase cost. Hypothetically, let's say, from 500 per dumpster per month, it might be $6.50 or 700. Net is to wash out, but you'll have those numbers. Yeah. Go ahead. The other question is, are you aware of, like, the extra pickups? Because, you know, sometimes, you know, we might need extra pickups. Yep. So we we have that in in the contract. Yeah. Because, yeah, if we if we call for a special dumpster.
For example, right now, I'm getting ready to present you what we're discarding. As you know, board policy states that anything that I need to discard from the district, I give you, an accounting of it. We can't just throw things out without it. So for things like that, if we're discarding items, then we have to call for a special dumpster to come up, maybe a special recycle if they're computer technology pieces. So I'll share those out, but I'll have the breakdown. Do we have to pay for, for them to be locked if they are locked?
The computer? Like, the technology? The dumpster. You know, sometimes that there's a locks on dumpsters and then so, you know, people Oh, on the the door. Yeah. I'll just ask. I I don't know. I'll find out though. I'll find out. Okay. Is that all, superintendent? Yep. That's the only thing that you have coming up at the next board meeting. Okay. Great. We can go to, number eight, communications. Any communications from the administration? So just a reminder, you have, a few presentations the eighth.
So it might be a slightly longer meeting because we have a couple presentations. So good afternoon board and to our public audience. We know we've seen a lot of things on our message boards in the last couple of weeks. We will be having a presentation to share all of the different data points, related to the hard work that our educators and our families do every day here in Oak Park Schools. And as our superintendent said, academic data is just one data point. Right? But we know that the children that we serve, that we have entrusted, families have
entrusted to our care, we do things well and above and beyond what a single data point in the academic test can tell us. Right? So we'll be sharing that data, and oftentimes we know that when these different things are released, it is, disproportionately negative. Right. On districts like ours who serve children that have to overcome many other obstacles that some of our counterparts don't have to do, right? But we take that as a badge of honor. We take our service to our children and to our families, with pride. We are proud to serve in the Oak Park School District and come here every
day to do hard work, including our board, who've invested in our community in this way. So we're staying true to our mission of educating the whole child, one child at a time here at Oak Park Schools. And, it does just remind us that success cannot just be measured by one data point. It is a data point that gives us information, but it's not the complete picture. Right? And so, our our mission here is profound. We take great care in the in the service that we provide to children and families. It does give us give us information about the things that we can improve upon. We take our kids education very seriously here.
So it's information. Right? All data is just information. How do we get better? But we also contextualize that knowing that we're big apples and oranges are being compared in so many ways. Right? But we're taking care of children emotionally, spiritually, socially, and all this financial, physically, and in all of the ways that many other places don't have to attend to. So our educators work hard, our families work hard, they overcome a lot of obstacles to make it here, to the Oak Park School District. And they come here with the belief that this is a better outcome and a
better situation for their children. And we take great pride in that in offering that. So, we invite you and the public to, tune in on Monday, October 13 for our comprehensive data presentation related to all of the things that we do to support and to raise of the children of the Oak Park School District. Thank you. And I and I do want to say one more thing. The the thing that really troubles me is when I hear people say, Oak Park students, they're not residents of Oak Park, therefore, you know, they're they're students of Oak
Park School District. They are Oak Park students, period. You know, this it really it it hurts me to read and hear that because you're you're painting a, a picture that's that's not factual. You know, people choose Oak Park Schools. That is a badge of honor. They could go anywhere. They come to Oak Park Schools. And a reflection of that is the increased enrollment that we've had every year.
And we do have strict, extremely strict guidelines on what it takes to enroll. And some of you guys will attest to that because I've worked with some of you who have reached out to me regarding enrollment. And and you know that is they dig deep into the records to decide if you will join Oak Park or not. And so this narrative that we'll just take because we're chasing money or we're doing
this, that that really bothers me. Because and I will remind anyone that's listening that Oak Park Schools help me with this, Charice. Oak Park Schools is the only district in Oakland County that did what? Stay stay with the fund balance. And last year, we didn't increase it at all. So we did not increase our assumptions where other districts, all other districts in Oakland County did assumptions three hun 390 plus.
Per student. Per student. And we didn't take that into consideration. That's not what drives us. That's not what drives me. I know that's not what drives you. What drives me is ensuring that our kids have the same opportunity that the suburb districts offer, if not more. And so that will continue to drive me and if it drives me, it's gonna drive my team. Sorry. I'll stop. Alright. Thank you. Any other communications from the administration? Any communications from the board?
Go ahead. I have two. And excuse me if I don't sound like my usual effervescent self. I'm recovering from a cold. I got the opportunity to go to the Pepper Open House last week. And thank you to Mr. Haley for providing a lot of information to the parents as far as Title one schools and the newly created, well incoming created of a parent advisory council People he called it something different but parent advisory councils all I could think of right now.
But it was great to see the teachers, see the parents. It was a great turnout. It was, you know, it was it was a great environment. People seemed excited. Now I want to read something that I wrote because my brain is just not right now. When most of us started, something that came up was what is our why? Why are we are here? What we're doing here? Why we saw this office? We are meant to be here for our children and for the future of Oak Park. And lately there's been a lot of outside noise and disruption which distracts us from
our mission and what is required of us. There has been a lot of conversation about the Oakland County report that has been making waves on social media. Literacy is the foundation of every subject and Mr. Abdul has already touched on this. The numbers are a reminder of how much work still lies ahead of us. And like many of you, I was really disappointed when I saw the results. But those numbers do not tell the full story of the dedication of teachers and staff that bring every day work every day to help children grow. What they do tell us is that we must stay focused and that is going
to take all of us, the board, the administration, teachers, families, and community working together to support our children. We cannot let these test scores define our children. And I believe in the potential of our students, the dedication of our teachers, and the strength of this community. The collaboration in all of this is key to this. Our superintendent was selected for this job. He has taken on this role with dedication, vision, and a deep commitment to our students. And it is our responsibility to support him as he works tirelessly disrupting our schools
and empower our teachers and our children. He needs our full support to lead this district forward. That means not only supporting him as a board, but also ensuring that teachers have the resources they need and families have the tools to help at home. The work is not about politics or personalities, it's about our children. And when we lose sight of that, we lose sight of our purpose. I want to thank our teachers for the hard work that they do every single day. Because they show up for the children under difficult circumstances or not. But gratitude alone is not enough.
We must continue to support them as best as we can so that they can continue doing what they're doing, which is helping our children to succeed. We cannot allow test scores or social media chatter to define Oak Park. What defines us must be how we respond with urgency, with accountability, and with unity. The community is looking to us for leadership, and the children are looking to us to make the choices that will shape their future. My hope is that we set aside distractions and keep our focus where it belongs, on raising student achievement, strengthening our schools, and ensuring that every Oak Park child, whether
they live here or not, has the opportunity to thrive. We owe them nothing less. That is all I have. Great. Thank you so much for that. Any other communications from the board? No? Yes. Hello. Hi. I just wanna take the time right now to thank you all for, voting me and then trusting me that I can fulfill this position to the best of my ability. I am Oak Park. The city, the community has raised me, the administration, school administrators, as well as the schools of teachers that I matriculated through, made me.
And I look forward and honored to give back. So thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Any other communications from the board? Okay. I will go last. First, I want to acknowledge the children of this district because they are the reason why I am here. Our test scores show show that we have work to do, and I'll take that seriously. One solution that I am focused on is a stronger community engagement. Parents, teachers and leaders working together to lift our students. I have a few ideas that I learned from the conference, that I went to in LA, that I will introduce introduce to the rest of the board.
I also want to invite, like they said, everyone to our next board meeting on October 13, where the administration will present a full presentation on the test scores and improvement. I wanna, add something that our assistant athletic director Brandon Jowell said. And, he said the effects of socioeconomic status are not just academic. Exposure to early adversity is linked to challenges in behavior, attention, and emotional health. All of which can impact learning.
These are systemic issues, not reflections of teacher effort or district commitment. We have to keep that in mind when, comparing our kids to Birmingham kids and and kids who have better resources and things of that nature. Now, I need to address the negativity surrounding my leader my leadership. In my first prep first meeting as president, I asked for guidance. So I'm trying to use that against me. And leadership is not pretending to know everything.
It is about making sure things are done right and in order. And while people have been busy criticizing, here's what I've done so far in my twenty nine days as president. I partnered with our high school and middle school leadership to engage students directly through fun challenges, reading, and activities. Represent our district at the cube conference in Los Angeles. Stepped up as a team mom for the open football team because leadership extends beyond the boardroom. So, schedule our in district workshop titled working as an effective governance team, which is something that we clearly need to strengthen this board moving forward.
Let me also make this clear. No one can influence me. I've been a leader my entire life. Yes. I may come off of fun and approachable, but when it comes to my children, the children of the whole district, I become a different person. I will fight for them, and I will not bend, break, or back down. Something else I learned from the QUE conference is that education is not, should not be politics. This school board should never be a stepping stone for personal agendas or political careers. This is my first and last time addressing anything that does not directly impact the children of this school district.
We need to make sure our students and our staff have the resources that they need to succeed. The time is now 06:34. When is the next board meeting? The next meeting of the Board of Education is scheduled Monday, 10/13/2025 at 6PM. Boardroom in the Boardroom of the Administration Building. This meeting is adjourned.