quiet it down before I said anything. Welcome everyone. Thanks for coming out in this weather and uh joining us in this uh wonderful meeting today. We have a lot to cover. So, we'll go ahead and get started. My name is Anupam. I am
covering for President Christensen. So, we'll go around and ask my board colleagues to introduce themselves. >> I'm an Ahmed. Welcome. Thank you for coming out and stay warm. >> Hi, I'm Cheryl Peard. Thank you for coming and it's nice to see everyone. >> Hi, I'm Patrick Kio. Thanks for joining
us on this chilly evening. >> I'm Judy Wester. Thank you for coming out tonight. >> I'm Jennifer Voss and it's very nice to see you. >> And I'll ask SBA members. >> I'm Arjent Swaminatan. I'm a sophomore at K High School and SBA co-chair. Thank
you for being here. >> I'm Josh Patterson, Plymouth High School senior and student voice and action co-chair. Thanks for making the perilous journey out here tonight. >> Dr. Merritt, could you introduce yourself and your team? >> Yes. Good evening, Superintendent Monica Merritt. Welcome. It's great to see everyone. I'd like to begin by first
introducing Miss Diane Robertson, my executive assistant. We want to thank her for being here to capture our minutes. We also want to thank Mr. John Kger, that voice of PCCS for being here to take care of our technology needs. I'd like to ask the remaining members of the team to introduce themselves to you.
>> Thank you. Good evening, everyone. I'm Jill Minnik. I serve as chief finance and operations officer. >> Good evening. I'm Jen Curry and the chief academic officer. >> Welcome Liz Vartanian Gibbs, assistant superintendent, student and family engagement. >> Okay, I think that covers everyone.
Let's stand for the pledge. And Arjun and Josh, could you lead us to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice
for all. Okay. Um, we're moving on to part A of the agenda. If you're following along, I'm looking for a motion for adoption of the agenda. Approval of the consent agenda. >> Madam President, I move that we adopt the consent agenda and adopt and approve the consent agenda. It's action item
260133. >> I'm looking for a second. >> Second. >> Okay. It was moved by Treasure Kho, seconded by member Ahmed. Are you Dr. Merritt, could you walk us through the consent agenda? >> Thank you, Vice President Sudu. This evening, our consent agenda consists of human resources transactions since our
last time together. We have new hires for your consideration. We also have leaves and resignations as well as a layoff for your cons consideration. We have the approval of minutes. This is from our regular meeting on January the 13th, 2026.
Thank you. I'm looking for a motion now to approve the agenda and consent agenda. All in favor say yes. >> Yes. >> Yes. >> Any oppose say no. >> Okay. Motion passes 6. Is Mr. Medun here with us to go through Oh, >> Dr. Liz.
>> Thank you so much. Good evening everyone. I would like to welcome um first of all a new teacher to Hovind Elementary School, Courtney Shepard. Courtney, welcome to Plymouth Canton Community Schools. I know she's not with us here this evening, but we are so thankful that she selected our district.
Next, if Ruben could stand up, we have with us Ruben Danwart, and he is he currently works in our district in the technology department, but we are so thankful that he applied to be the PUP master scheduler, and he has accepted
that position, and that is a new position here for him. So, congratulations, Ruben. We are so thankful. Come on up. You can grab a candy bar. You will need that as you create the master schedule. >> Got a big job ahead of you, Ruben.
>> Byebye. I got to get to work. >> Is that it? Thank you, Dr. Liz. Congratulations to the new hire and to our new position. All right, we are now moving on to one of the funnest parts of our meeting, which is celebrating
success. And uh that would be Secretary Wester. >> Good evening. Tonight the board would is of education is proud to recognize Plymouth High School teacher Nicole Shami. Am I pronouncing your name right?
>> Shammy. Okay. um as this evening's extra mileer award recipient. Nicole, will you please join me at the podium? At Plymouth Canton Community Schools, we are deeply grateful for the dedication of our teachers and staff demonstrate each day as they support the individual
success of every student. We are also proud that many of our educators extend this commitment beyond the classroom through professional development, continued learning, and teaching opportunities that further strengthen their ability to serve students. Mrs.
Sheami is a shining example of both. Mrs. Sheami leads the Pep Journey program, an initiative designed to support students who need additional assistance in developing the academic and personal growth skills necessary for success in high school and beyond.
Through this program, students improve their grade point averages and build a strong foundation for the remainder of their high school careers. In addition to her work in the classroom, Miss Shami is a twice published author. Both her education practice brief and her book
first do no harm, teaching and learning resilience emphasized the importance of both teaching and learning resilience as a critical life skill. Mrs. Shami was invite was nominated by the staff at Plymouth High School. In their nom nomination, staff members highlighted
her genuine care for students, her commitment to building strong relationships and effective educational practices, and her unwavering belief that all students can thrive in the right learning environments. Joining this evening is Plymouth High School assistant principal
Amy Willacer Brown. Will you please join us? Share a few words. >> Yeah, thank you. Um, I'm Amy Willer Brown and one facet of my role as an assistant principal at Plymouth High School is providing leadership to the growth programs department. Growth
Programs was once called alternative ed for those of you who remember that. Um, it's the home of classes and interventions designed to support all kinds of students from freshmen who struggled in academically in middle school to seniors headed off to prestigious universities on their path
to becoming leaders. um our students become leaders in their community, leaders in their school, and leaders in their own lives. Miss Shammy is the teacher leader in the growth programs department, and she's a skilled clinician, a resourceful instructor, and a dynamic collaborator. She shares her
knowledge of community resources and institutional best practices generously with our department. She balances a strong commitment to continuity and tradition with an investment in responsiveness and open-mindedness to our students ever evolving needs. Perhaps most admirably, she exemplifies
in her own life the elements that we strive to instill in our students. Miss Shammy's passion for learning and personal growth and care for her community have shaped many aspects of her journey. From deepening her skills in one-on-one interventions, broadening her practice to include professional development and trauma-informed best
practices for educators, and to the notable accomplishments that bring us here today. Um, as a leader, I'm grateful for your service to our students. As a colleague, I'm grateful for your expertise and perspective. And as a person, I'm grateful to have learned from your example. And I'm so glad and honored to
have this opportunity to join Plymouth High School, PAP, the PCCS school board, and the Plymouth Canton community in honoring you for all of the regular miles and the extra one. On behalf of the Plymouth Canton Community School Board of Education, it
is our honor to recognize you for your outstanding service and dedication by presenting you with the Mary Beth Carroll Extra Mileer Award. Congratulations. Would you care to say a few words? >> I never turned on a mic, I'll tell you
that. Um so obviously the focus of my career has been really a gift um in learning to build systems for kids that build resilience for kids whether that is with academic growth or personal
growth. Um and then that extends also to working with teachers um and helping teachers become more resilient in their practice. The journey program is certainly um the
focus of all of that work and I'm really grateful because I I wouldn't be able it's been 31 years um and I wouldn't be able to do that work if I if I hadn't been empowered by all of you
um by you and many of you here. Um, I'm very grateful for the trust that you put in me to support the kids of this district. It means the world to me. They mean the world to me. Um, and you know, I'm really lucky to get to work with
like the coolest, smartest, most awesome kids ever. >> Um, and I still look forward to going to work every day. So, >> I appreciate you all. Thanks for trusting me to do that work. This concludes tonight's celebrating success segment. Uh would you please
join uh Dr. Liz Vartanian Gibbs and myself in the hallway to take a few pictures. >> Thank you for your service, Miss Shammy. All right, we will move on to the board committee reports starting with the
president's report. So, we have um a section for shoutouts for our board members who attend community events because that's part of our goal this year. So, we'll start with Treasure Kiho who attended the middle school robotics showcase at Canton Little Theater. I
Yeah, >> that was a great event. Take Okay, >> I was at the tail end of it because it was after FNO, but yes. >> Okay. Thank you for supporting the students there. I had the honor of attending Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. community celebration at Canton Village
Arts Theater where we had our students families. We had one student who had a beautiful uh poem that he recited. We had amazing artwork by our students and I kept looking at Dr. Mayor. I was like, what else can we do with these students? I mean, it was there's so much talent
and gift. We also had a choir group, amazing students who were singing beautiful songs and a great community that came out when Dr. Merritt spoke along with some elected officials. So, it was a great evening all around. I want to thank everyone that was involved. I know there's so many people behind the scenes that work with you on this. So, I want to thank everyone
publicly for that. Um, President Christensen is still working on trying to secure a facilitator for our goal three. As we talked about last time, we have a lot of work to do in our board governance documents that we haven't started yet. So, she will continue to look for a
facilitator. More to come on that later. That is all I all that I have for the president's report. And I know Judy's outside, so I will move on with the policy committee update while we wait for her. So, we just had our policy
meeting before our board meeting. It was one of our lengthier meetings. So, pardon me while I give you a whole 15inute uh overview of of the meeting. So, we actually had um two presentations from Trune Policy and Miller Johnson
Policy Service. We're looking to see if there is another organization or policy company that could help us with our policy work. We have we've talked about over three 400 policies. They've just sort of built and layered on one another. We are in the process of going through
um a deeper dive in looking at all of our policies, trying to update them. So, we wanted to see are we going to stay with our current uh policy provider or do we look for a different one that can give us more benefits. So, that was part of that discussion and no decision has been made because we still have a lot of
homework to do in terms of digging deeper into those um companies. They will send us sample links that we will look through and then at the next policy meeting we'll dig deeper into both of these companies and see where we want to go and the board will be involved in a final decision before anything happens. So I just want to give everyone an
update on that. Then we had um a pre-Laboray start discussion. Some of you may know um there's a law that prohibits public schools from starting before Labor Day unless you have a waiver from the Michigan Department of Education. And this was that discussion. So, we had
citizens and students present for this conversation with the Michigan Department of Education and based on a presentation that was sent to the Michigan Department of Education as well as that presentation being provided to all of us. I'm going to go through some of the main reasons and if I miss any,
Dr. Merritt, please fill those in for me. All right. So, the district is requesting a waiver for the 2627 school year. And also keep in mind that calendars are negotiated with the teachers union. So regardless of whatever happens with this waiver, no
date has been settled yet because that is going to be negotiated. So the main reasons for um requesting a waiver for a pre-LOR day start our dual enrollment early middle college program. As you know, this is our second or third year into that where our students take
college courses. So this helps us get in more alignment with the college start dates. Uh this year, actually next school year, Labor Day is late. And that means if we start after Labor Day, our school will end the third week of June.
So it just by law, we have to have 1,098 instructional hours in 180 days. So if you switch that a week later, you end a week later. But if you look at the calendar, where we started this year with dates will be what we start next year, except next year. if that calendar
is approved, it will just be before Labor Day. So, it is a shift for families. Um, but again, no decision has been made. This is just for me to provide an update to you, the board members, and the public. Um, the other thing that allows this uh waiver allows the district to do is to have more
flexibility during the calendar year. And, um, with that approval, it covers three years. The district does not have to start pre-Labor Day all three years. it can choose one year out of the three years to start before Labor Day or two
or all three. So it just gives the district flexibility after the discussion and students were part of this discussion. Community members were part of this discussion which is required by MDE. MDE did approve a pre uh pre-Laboray start. They gave the
district a waiver for three years. Now it is up to Dr. Merritt, her team and the teachers unions to figure out what the calendar will look like. So that's the update. I know there was a lot. Um, >> you did. Perfect. >> Okay. Did I miss anything for the people that were there? Okay, great. And so
that took up pretty much all of our meetings, so we did not have any policies that we discussed today. Our next policy meeting will be Tuesday, February 24th at 5:30 p.m. Please join us in the room down the hall. All right, we will now go back to Student
Performance and Achievement Committee with Secretary Wester. Uh, madame vice president, uh, the student performance and achievement committee has not let met since our last board meeting. Our next meeting is on Wednesday, February 4th at 5:00 pm in
this room. We welcome citizen involvement. So, please come um and you will receive a warm welcome and hear some interesting topics. >> All right, next on to finance and operations with Treasure Kho. >> Great. We met last Thursday afternoon or
evening at 5:00 pm here in this um in this room and we reviewed a few items that'll be on the agenda this evening including the uh PFO purchase of a pavilion at Smith Elementary and we really appreciate the support from our PFO community for that and I think it'll
be a great addition to Smith. We also had a great presentation from one of our citizens representatives on the FNO committee, Peter Rodrig, uh who gave us an economic outlook presentation. So, helped us to understand some of the uh broader economic conditions and how those things may affect the district as
we go forward. And lastly, uh we reviewed the uh financial reports for the month of December. And our next FNO meeting will be Thursday, February 5th at 5:00 PM. And we encourage the community to join us here in this room. >> Thank you, Treasure Kho. Next up is
Student Voice and Action and I will ask Arjun and Josh for an update. >> SBA has not met since our last board of education meeting, but we are very excited for our upcoming meeting which is on Tuesday, February 17th. So, a little out of the norm from our normal Monday meetings um at the Pioneer Media
or Pioneer Pioneer Middle School Media Center. Um we can't wait to see everyone there. >> Thank you. >> All right, now on to superintendent's report. >> I am so excited I can't sit in my seat. So, if you will give me two seconds, I'm going to move to the microphone.
>> Good evening, members of the board of education, colleagues, students, our families, and our community members. Tonight, when I say I'm excited, I am beyond excited to finally be able to share in a public setting what I believe
is a very important milestone for Plymouth Canton Community Schools. I think this is one that reflects both the strength of our community partnerships and our unwavering commitment to preparing our students for the future for jobs that don't even exist. At the
start of this school year, probably early September, our administrative team began engaging in conversations that led to promising discussions with our community partners of decades. formerly the community financial credit union.
Now excited to share they are the ORSA credit union. We talked about incredible opportunities connected to our new innovation hub. You know that that is currently being constructed on the grounds of Canton High School. These
conversations were super exciting. Um really um it's a visionary conversation, many iterations, but it really boiled down to a shared vision on how we might collaborate in an important way that expands meaningfully opportunities for
our students while aligning with our dynamic plan with our focus on innovation and relevance and again preparing our students for future readiness. So through these discussions came up an opportunity that would include the naming rights for the
innovation hub in exchange and I'll share uh in a moment for a significant investment um which is a financial investment paired with a collaborative effort with our curriculum team. The goal of this collaboration is to create unique
learning experiences for our students that will build pathways for future success. pathways that reflect the skills our students will need as we align in our uh learner profile for them to thrive in this rapidly changing
world. Before I go on further, I want to take a moment to recognize and to thank our ORSA Credit Union leaders who are with us this evening. We are honored to welcome first Miss Tanley Stern. She is the president of ORSA Credit Union. Mr.
Elri Amarza, chief of staff. Miss Ashley Batakoleti, the chief gra growth officer, and Mr. Yir Kgalli, our Orsa board treasurer and secretary. Just thank you for being here.
I honestly from the bottom of my heart, thank you for your commitment to our community and to the success of our students. We could not do this without you. I am going to also thank Mr. Frank Ruggerella who never wants praise but as our former director of community
partnerships and engagement, our current executive director of communications. He was very instrumental from the beginning in terms of bringing these incredible minds together to the table and keeping us on track because we get so excited we're really talking and talking and talking and just keeping us focused on
the goal. So Frank, I thank you for that. I believe that this is legacy building stuff for our students. As you know, we have partnered as a district with community financial now Orsa Credit Union for decades. And over that time, they have been instrumental
in supporting our students through financial literacy programming, including inschool credit unions and hands-on learning experiences that help our students with financial habits. who in here as a parent hasn't had your students first account come through community financial here at the school.
I know I am included. Um our team has worked so closely with them. They have worked with our teachers, our educators, our staff to ensure that learning is meaningful and age appropriate and impactful for our students. So this new iteration of a partnership again is one
that is going to continue that legacy in the most powerful way. I am so proud right now and honored and just I can't even use the I can't find the words to share that Orsa Credit Union has committed $5 million over 25 years in
support of this partnership. This investment will impact our students from kindergarten through 12th grade and beyond in ways that we cannot even define. So please join me and thanking them for this commitment.
I would like to invite Miss Tharns up to the microphone at this time to share a few words on behalf of the credit union. >> Thank you Dr. Merritt and thank you school board and community members. I came back to Michigan after having lived all over the country for this dream of
leading a credit union in June of 2022. And very early on that journey, I had the opportunity to meet Dr. Merritt and she came on my podcast and shared her story. And truly, our school partnerships are one of the reasons I took the interview. Credit unions for
years have been complaining about the fact that we haven't attracted the next generation of members. This credit union well before my time didn't complain, they did something about it. We have branches in over 50 schools across this
great state. And sharing nearly a parking lot here makes this partnership so impactful. My mom taught English for 30 years, so education is in my blood. It means everything to me because we know that
students and all of us have bright and dark moments in our lives. And when you think about it, cretine, you might start to fall asleep and say, "Why would I care about that?" Well, those bright and dark moments all have a foundation in financial knowledge and choices.
And as Orsa Credit Union, we stand with Michiganers. You'll notice that gorgeous nose on our bear that we call Daisy, which puts back to our roots, guides people forward. We don't stand in front. We walk with our members toward those
dreams. And this partnership is about the longevity of an organization that will be walking with you for the next 25 years and well beyond. We're celebrating our 75th anniversary this year as we become ORSA and we are planning for the
next 75 and that is grounded in walking with students toward their bright futures. This partnership means everything to us. We're very very grateful. And what I hope you'll see in the way that we are bringing this hub to life is that we have dreams about today
and five years from now, 10 years from now, 20 years from now, something even more bold will come to life because we are doing this collaboratively. And that's what credit unions do best. Thank you so much. >> Thank you.
truly I think is the example of the power of partnerships when we look at our dynamic plan and uh really one of our pillars to make sure that we are engaging our community. We all are invested in our students. So the power when we come together and the possibilities that are endless. I just
want to spend a few time uh moments just talking through our board policy. So this is very important although we have been months at these conversations just because of the nature of that that is we were working without being able to discuss that publicly. So again this is
our first night being able to have the public discussion you have before you this evening which is a first reading of that um agreement in terms of this partnership because of board policy we're operating under 7250. You know
that 7250 has two versions. 7250 is the naming of new policies. We also have 7250.01 which is the mascot logo so on and so forth. But in 7250 we're we are allowed to work with uh commercial naming rights. We still uh want to follow that
process of allowing the board to ask the questions have this information out there. It is a two-month period in which you take action. So we will be back quickly in March um and ask you to actually take action on this agreement just inord in accordance with that uh
policy that governs how we name new district facilities. So again at this this evening that action is not required but we do want to open this up for any questions that you may have. I know that I've been able to talk with you individually and you're equally as excited but having an opportunity to
either share feedback or any questions that you may have at this point. Thank you, Dr. Mayor. And thank you, Orsa. Now, right, you go by Orsa. Thank you for this investment. Um, I'll open it up with starting with member boss.
>> Thank you very much for this investment. Um, I just have a couple of questions. Um, I'm wondering, will this bring future naming opportunities to the district? Will this open things up for future?
>> That is a great question, Mr. Rougeello actually wrote this policy his first time with PCCS um in terms of this commercial uh naming opportunities and we have yet to actually explore that. So this really does open the door especially as we've been talking here at
the board table about that uh financial cliff and all the struggles that we have in public schools. So looking at ways that we don't always have to cut but we can also invest in our schools and our programs with the help of our community and possible partnerships. So I think that uh this has definitely opened our
eyes to say how do we continue to work with many of our partners that are so in uh invested in our students. So I believe that this could be the beginning of a whole uh generation of some new thinking around uh partnerships. >> And does the the funds that are coming
in do they go directly to the the STEM? >> Yes. >> The things that are happening in that building? all programming things related to our innovation hub um and that again this is this will be developed over time but we are earmarking those for the
innovation that's why I speak to K 12 and beyond so this innovation hub although it is located at the high school campus this idea is that this will be a a place for our entire community our school community our um
partners at ORSA as well as our greater Plymouth Canton community. And so, um, we will work with our educators, with our team, with our curricular team to develop, but all financial resources are earmarked for, um, all things program around that space.
>> Thank you. >> Great questions. >> The questions pretty much echoed uh, member bosses. So, but I'm excited to see what uh, what this will bring for our students and for our district and for our whole community. So, first I want to thank uh formerly
Community Financial, now ORSA for uh their support, their longtime support for for Plymouth Canton. It's been the heart of the community from a financial uh perspective. I've been a member since 1976. So, um and my kids were members before they were going into school. So,
it's it's a great program and I really appreciate it. I did have some questions around timing. Um the when when are we looking to actually do the I know you talked about this would come forward for the board for a vote in uh in March. When will we actually apply this to the building? I
know we're getting close to finishing the construction. >> Yeah. So we'll uh talk through in terms of the logistics of the signage and what that looks like. And so I think uh we'll be ready to roll. What we anticipate is spring. I think April. Um and we definitely want we were over there
today. The weather was not great of course. So, we're looking forward to an official ribbon cutting where we can bring in our partners from ORSA, our community here at Plymouth K. All you as board members have an official ribbon cutting and we'll talk about what that signage uh looks like and hopefully we
can have that installed uh soon after that time and we'll be ready to go. The uh innovation hub is coming along just beautifully. I don't want to get in front of myself to call it the ORSA hub, but the ORS upcoming ORSA hub is just coming along beautifully. So definitely it'll be in the in the spring.
>> Fantastic. And the last thing I had is um and I know that this is probably going to be in the details, but what's the timing of the uh investment? Does that happen all at once? Does that happen over the 25 years? >> So over the 25 years. So we're uh really spelling out that investment year
overyear of the 25 years. And we've talked about, you know, could be times right here in the beginning that we can negotiate how much of, but the idea is that each year we would have a consistent amount through the 25 years for to get to the 5 million. >> Fantastic. And thank you so much for the support and I look forward to uh to this
and future uh naming uh rights. >> That's right. >> I just want to thank you for the offer and I know you've been in the community for a long time and so have I, but so my kids. So, thank you. No questions, but thank you very much.
Really appreciate this and very excited about the I've always admired uh I guess I can call it ORSA, right? That's official. Yeah. >> Yes. So, always I've always admired the community rootedness uh from the small things like giving a small prize to a
child making a deposit to being present at community events. And so, I'm really excited about this. Thank you so much for your generosity. >> All right. Thank you. >> Yes. All right, we will be back very soon. Oh, sorry. >> Um, first of all, again, thank you as
everyone has said for your commitment, investment, and um, just a little story as you talk about your um, partnerships in schools. We had our first conversation with our little son probably in third grade in elementary school when all of that opens up for students in Plymouth Canton in terms of
savings. So having those conversations start early was so critical for him to understand financial literacy. So thank you for doing that because that's so important especially today. So I hope those conversations are still happening um and all the investments that you put
in particularly this one. So in relationship to this one, what is your hope and expectation with this investment? I know you outlined a little bit, but do you have uh like other things that you want to work on in partnerships or you you're
going to work on a plan that develops the details? One, we first want to continue to demonstrate our commitment to this community. So, that is first and foremost. It's what cooperative finance is all about. Secondly, we have been invested, as I mentioned, in schools for
years and years, and the world's changing very quickly. And one of the things that I heard from my daughter McKenzie, she was in the sixth grade when we moved here and we were in her school. And when I asked her what that was like, she said this. We have to continue to grow our
curriculum. And one of the things that we've talked about with Dr. Merritt is that our curriculum has to adjust with the world and with students today. And what we hope is that we can co-create in this space. And so as we grow our curriculum and look to be relevant for
the next generation that we are doing that alongside you. We believe that the students can be a big part of that and we're very enthusiastic about how that will allow us to be more relevant for all of our children. >> Great. Thank you. >> Thank you. I I'll just add on, you know,
as this um as uh Tanley shared that as the world continues to evolve, we know that we're preparing for STEM, for CTE, but having that ability also to look through artificial intelligence and virtual all of these things. Um we really see that as a piece of a that
that hub as a think tank and having opportunities to come together and create and I think that that can continue for years and years and years. >> Great. I love that. Thank you again everyone. Oh, I'm sorry. Students, thank you. Yes, we want to hear from the
students. What do you think about this? >> Uh, first I want to thank you for both your support in my education and also this um support through the innovation hub. Um, I also wanted to bring up like I I was actually it's really crazy like kind of full circle today. Um, I got the
notification that the name changed and it had me thinking like, oh my god, like I was actually thinking about the impact community community financial had on my like early education and how I was excited to like work with them and all that stuff. So to see this tonight was just even better. So thank you for all your support both in personally and then
also for this district. I remember um in seventh grade volunteering with Community Financial during lunch and I think I still have that little like squish squish toy I got. Um but yeah, I mean it's been
great. Uh it's a really good program. Teaches students a lot, but it'll still be community financial in my heart. >> Yeah, I love it. >> Same with my kid. he still has those community financial um logos and gadgets that he picked up.
>> I I I love just hearing the feedback and we know the value of continued partnerships of decades and decades of working together and the lifelong impact and the difference that made in the lives of students and knowing that we again will continue on that for
students. Um, I will say the whole idea is many of us won't be in the seat for 25 years, but this partnership and the investment in our students will continue. So, we're so proud of that and just thank you for that feedback. >> Um, actually that reminds me given that we're looking at 25 years, will they
will there be anou that sort of outlines some of the details? Yes, we've been working with legal through all of that. We've been doing that's what our four months it's been around the due diligence working together to just ensure that the contract that exists between us is not person specific that that continues as people rotate in and
out of seats. Great. >> Thank you. Thank you again. This is so exciting. >> Thank you. >> And thanks Frank for all of this behind the scenes work. I know you're a big part of this. >> Y >> Y
I know Dr. Merritt's been talking about this on the side. She's like, "Don't say anything to anyone." I we have a date coming up where we announce this. So, thank you so much. >> Thank you. >> All right, we are at that moment of uh citizens comments
and we have 30 minutes allocated for this section. If there is an overflow beyond 30 minutes, we will put that toward the end of our agenda. And let me quick read to you. I have notes so I don't forget some of
the important concepts of citizens comments. First, I want to thank people that come here and share their thoughts and perspectives and advocacy for students and our community. It takes a lot. So, thank you for doing that. So, as we go through the first portion of this, um, you have three minutes. Each
citizen has three minutes to share their comments and there will be a timer up on the screen. We ask people respectfully adhere to this time. Please do not mention anyone's names, especially if it's concerning an issue or their uh particular classroom behavior. And you
can always mention if there's an accolade you want to shout out to a teacher, that's great. Um but if it's a a performance issue, we ask you not name that person out of respect for that person. And if a comment does require a follow-up from Dr. Merritt or her team, she will take note of that and follow up
with you. And we appreciate your engagement and understanding during this time. Thank you. So, we'll go ahead and get started with Sarah Kazinski. >> Uh, hi. Um, Sarah, mother of two, concerned citizen. Uh, I appreciate the
space to speak. Uh, I want to take this opportunity to thank the school board and the entire Plymouth Canton Community School District for their support of our immigrant students and their families. If there were ever any doubts as to the
fear that these people are experiencing, that was assuredly erased as we watched ICE agents gun down American citizens in Minneapolis. In these dark times, as we watch atrocities unfold on the streets of
these United States, your support means more than it ever has before. I encourage you as board members, educators, faculty, and community leaders to continue to openly support
our immigrant students. Please increase your outreach efforts to let their families know that they have a safe and supportive space here in our district. To any immigrant families in this audience or who may be watching the
YouTube broadcast, I would like to say that you are all valued members of our community. We see you, we love you, and we will fight for you. For any allies who may be listening, and I know there are many, if you cannot
stand on the sidelines any longer and you want to take action, stand up, speak out, and make a difference. Right now, groups are building a network of donors, volunteers, and community partners who will stand together in
solidarity and compassion. The need for mutual aid is very real right now. You can help deliver meals to families that are too frightened to leave their homes to go to a grocery store or a local food bank. You can provide transportation to vital appointments for those too scared
to take public buses. There is also a growing need for those with specialized talents. Those who can provide translation services, tutoring for children afraid to go to school, and pro bono legal counsel to families with
detained loved ones. If you want to help, I strongly encourage you to reach out to a local group, your church, or school official. You can even ask to be connected to someone from my team.
Whatever feels right for you. Just know that now is the time. The need is great and anything you can contribute will mean the world to the people that you touch. Thank you so much.
>> Thank you. Next up is Michelle Mustakus. >> Michelle. >> Okay. Good evening. My name is Michelle Mustakis. I live in Canton. I'm a member of Western Wayne Indivisible and of P
Flag. And I am heartbroken and angry that our children are growing up in a country which no longer stands for the values that we're asked to pledge allegiance to. I'm going to talk about Alex Prey tonight. But first, I'd like
to thank Dr. Majun for the very productive meeting that Sarah and I had with him last Wednesday. He went above and beyond in spending time with us, listening to our concerns, and sharing with us what he could. Thank you, Dr.
and please give him our thanks. I'm talking about Alex Prey tonight because who he was and what happened to him represents a choice that we need to make in our country, in our community, and in our schools.
What do we want to be here? What values do we want to be instilling? And by the way, we had the same discussion in church on Sunday. No one rolled their eyes. No one shook their head or made disagreeing noises.
I expect the same respect here. This is our choice. On the one side is Alex. He was a son, a brother, a hiker, a guy who loved his dog and took him everywhere. He was a beloved ICU nurse
in the Minneapolis VA hospital, taking care of critically ill veterans. He was deeply concerned about his neighbors being victimized by the cruel tactics of our government agencies. While exercising his legal right to film
an ICE operation, he went to help a woman who had been shoved to the ground and pepper-sprayed. While helping her, he was pepper-sprayed and taken violently to the ground by at least five agents while being restrained by these agents. One of them took his gun, which
he had the legal right to carry, and began to walk away with it. Only after he was disarmed, did the shooting start. Initially four bullets, three into his back.
Then another six shots as he lay dying on the ground. No aid was administered. Instead, a doctor who managed to get through testified that the agents had Alex on his side counting the bullet holes. Alex died and was slandered
relentlessly by the president and all his minions. On the other side, we have the government agents who killed Alex. What do we know about them? Nothing. Not even their names. They operate in secret, faces covered, unaccountable after killing loved ones. In fact, we
are told they still on the job, but move to another location for their safety. So, what's our choice? I ask you to consider this. Alex was woke. The federal forces who put 10 bullets into him as he lay on the ground were not. Which of these types of people do you as
parents and educators want to send out into the world as they graduate? Thank you. Thank you. Next up is Lori Mayors. Uh, Dr. Merritt, Vice President Sudu, and members of the board. My name is Lori Mays and I'm president of P Flag
Plymouth Canton and a longtime Plymouth resident. It has been difficult in the last three days to stop scrolling through the horrible news from Minneapolis. The murder of protester Alex Prey on Saturday followed that of Renee Good on
January 7th and at least four other fatal shootings by ICE in the last year. We hope and pray that these Gustapoike forces never descend on our community, but we need to be aware that arrests of law-abiding immigrants are happening
here. Bridge, Michigan reported yesterday that ICE arrested 2,349 people in Michigan from January through October 25, nearly triple the number arrested in the
state in the same time frame in 24. According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement data, ICE has detained more than 3,300 people at its facility in Baldwin, a small village in northwestern Michigan from
January through October. Most of them most of them did not have a criminal charge against them when they were booked. Bridge reports the vast majority of them were from Central and South America. We know that Northville Public Schools
recently warned staff of increased ICE activity in the area. We remind the board that the US Supreme Court ruled in 1982 that all children in the United States, regardless of their immigration status, are entitled to a free public
education. We ask that PCCS make sure that every staffer from bus drivers to teachers to secretaries are fully informed of PCCS protocols if immigration authorities descend on our campuses. We must take
all possible steps to protect our students from the brutality we are witnessing in Minnesota. Thank you. Thank you. Next up is Judy >> Oldfield Wilson. >> Did I say that right?
>> Oldfield. >> Yeah. Okay, great. >> Like a field that's old. >> Good evening. This year, my family will celebrate 50 years of continuous participation in Plymouth Canton Schools. My sisters, classes of 89 and 92, me,
class of 2001, my niece and nephew, classes of 2020 and 2023, and my daughters, who are currently in preschool and first grade, plus my mother, who taught for 19 years in this district. But one thing that makes my family unique is that my first grader,
Adelaide, was born in Aman, Jordan, because that's where we were living at the time. I try to keep most of the news away from her, but kids are perceptive and she has heard about ICE. When Adelaide hears about ICE taking people who are born in other countries, she
gets visibly upset. She cries, she shakes, she is afraid that because she was born in Jordan, they will come take her away. And I hold her and I say, "No, baby, you're safe." And my child probably is. But the next time she hears
about ICE, the same thing happens again. So I can only imagine how the children of immigrant families in our schools are feeling. It is for those kids that I am here today. For those who do not have the white-kinned privilege that my family has, who may be too afraid of the
spotlight shining on them to come forward and share their own stories. I have seen nothing public from this school district addressing those concerns. In Adelaide's Myar, it says that she was born in Jordan. I have received no reach out from the schools
personally or in mass communications. Aaron May Quaid, Minnesota state senator representing the suburbs, recently described life in her town of Apple Valley, where ICE, and I quote, just drive around looking for kidnappings of
opportunity in communities like mine. They wait for black, brown, or Asian people to go out walking their dog, going into gas stations, taking out their trash, sitting with the kid at the bus stop, and they will swarm that person, kidnap them, and take them away.
Schools have had to close because ICE shows up and pepper- sprrays kids or circle the block or target bus stops or kids who are walking to school. She warns that this will come to other states, places like our suburbs here in Michigan. If you won't listen to us as a
measure of public safety, then at least listen as a matter of public relations and community trust through attending board meetings, coffee with Monica, parent action committee, and private meetings. I have no faith that this school district is taking appropriate measures against the threat
of ICE on our playgrounds, at our sports games, at our bus stops, or on our field trips. You showcase our school's diversity when it benefits you. Dangle children of color on pamphlets and social media on the posters in this room, but are you actually protecting
them? I don't feel like you are. Matt Moleberg, the chaplain to the Minnesota Timberwolves, wrote on Instagram after Renee Good's murder, "Unity isn't neutral. Unity that refuses to name violence is just loyalty to the ones holding the weapons."
>> Thank you. >> Next up is Dennis Furlong. Hello. Um, I'm Dennis Furlong. I'm here with my wife, Cheryl Furlong. Um, when our daughter Maggie Furlong, who was a sophomore at Plymouth High School, died in 2010, we took all the funds that people donated in her memory and worked
with the EF to establish um two funds, a scholarship for the Plymouth Girls Golf Team and a general fund, which we've been able to do a STEM lab at Fen with that money, working with the EF um which is now the Plymouth Canton Educational Foundation. Um, so we had a very
positive relationship with the PCF until three years ago, but since then it's been a very bad relationship. Um, our communications with the PCF board routinely go unanswered. Um, and we've been looking to get financial statements just understand what's happening with those two funds. Um, who the donations
have been, where the expenses are, where it's going to, um, which we've been getting every year up until three years ago, and we haven't gotten one since 2021. So, in order to get a response, one time we had to wait downstairs to run into a board member. Another time we had
listened support of the district to try and get some response. But even after both those times, communication drops off again and our emails go unanswered and we can't get any communication. Um, and we had a commitment to get a financial summary um in March and our emails every couple months go
unanswered. So, we understand that the PCF is a volunteer organization and the board members are doing what they can to support it. Also understand that they're going through a reorganization that's taken a lot of time and the support has been limited. However, after 3 years of
getting no response or very limited response, we feel it's an unacceptable situation. Um, it's disrespectful to us and to all the people donated money for the Plymouth and Canton Community Schools and students. is um dishonors in memory of our daughter and it really
does prevent us from helping out the students of the Plymouth and Canton Community Schools. So, we're just um feel that if they can't have enough support to do what the PCF board needs to do that they need to hire somebody very quickly to get to do the basic
level of support or to get board members who do have the available time because we understand that the current board members are volunteers and if they don't have the time they need to get some people in there that do have the time to do the basic level of support. So just asking the school board to work with the
PCF to try and get it so that they can be a basic function functioning organization with the main intent in order to support the Plymouth Canton students and teachers as their charter states that they should be doing. Thank you. >> Thank you.
>> Next up is Rachel Hayes. Hi, my name is Rachel Hayes and I'm a Peep Lake board member and a member of Western Wayne Indivisible. Tonight I will be talking about the hellscape that is now Minneapolis and the well-being of children here who are watching, learning, and living through some
terrifying headlines. A mother, Renee Good, was murdered by ICE shortly after dropping her child off at school. An ICU nurse, Alex Prey, was murdered in the street by ICE while trying to protect a woman. And a 5-year-old boy in a blue bunny hat was taken by ICE and used as
bait to get to his father. ICE is depraved, and what they are doing is horrifying. Minneapolis may be far from Plymouth Canton, but what's going on there does not stay there. These horrors and others, brutal intimidation, families living in fear, children being pulled from the safety of their school
routines are warning signs of what will happen here if ICE isn't stopped. And in our district, immigrant students, students of color, and students in vulnerable situations are already watching, already afraid, already listening. I'm here to remind anyone who
may have forgotten that the adults in this room are supposed to be their champions. When you as board members and administrators hear someone at this podium speaking of tragedies caused by the current regime, you look horrified, sad, heartsick at the senseless
brutality. Most of you do, but not all of you. One of you has a very different reaction. And let me be clear. When you, an elected board member, roll your eyes and scoff at the suffering of families, the fear of children, and the lived
reality of our most vulnerable, you are dismissing human pain. Rolling your eyes at suffering isn't opinion. It's cruelty. It is shocking, disgusting behavior coming from someone who was elected to look after the best interests of all children in this
district. It is disturbing and it is not what leadership looks like. Because here's the truth. You don't get to say you're here for kids while mocking the concerns raised about their safety. You don't get to claim you represent this community while dismissing the voices of
the most vulnerable in it. And you don't get to call yourself a leader if your response to hard truths is disdain. Leadership in this room shapes the reality our children live with every day. For better or worse, schools are not just where kids learn. There's supposed to be safe spaces. There's
supposed to be places where every child knows they are protected, valued, and seen. It is the job of every board member to make sure this is the reality. And it is our job as citizens to hold leadership accountable when their behavior undermines the work to create
that reality. I want to thank the board majority for consistently showing up with empathy, integrity, and a commitment to doing right by all our students, and for working with us to protect our immigrant students. That is what you were elected to do, and that is
what true leadership looks like. >> Thank you. Um, that concludes our citizens comments. As a reminder, the board nor the superintendent respond during this time. We have taken notes and you will get a followup from Dr. Merritt with some of the concerns that
were raised today. Okay, we are moving on to section F, administrative reports and recommendations. We'll start with student and family engagement. Do you want to introduce Dr. or just go right to Okay. >> Good evening, Vice President Sedu,
Superintendent Dr. Merritt, and members of the board of education. I am Dr. Liz Vartanian Gibbs, assistant superintendent of student and family engagement. And it is a privilege to share the vital work of the department. Work that strengthens connections,
builds community, and empowers family. With me this evening is my extraordinary team. Stand up. Hey, thank you. I have Patrice Williams, nurse manager.
Sierra Marshall, nurse specialist. Kathy Grotus, psychologist, mental health manager. Jennifer Beck and Eric Stampford, teacher engagement specialists, and Charlie, our therapy dog. And Charlie Rome,
>> we have aligned our work to strategic goals A, B, and C of the dynamic plan. We pursue these goals through five strategic areas. Early childhood education, family academy programming, wraparound services, mentoring
relationships, and robust wellness and mental health support. This logic model outlines a comprehensive student and family support system that leverages dedicated staff, community partnerships, and essential
resources to deliver coordinated services addressing students and their famil family's holistic needs. The department builds meaningful connections with students and families through strategic planning, collaborative meetings, and professional development.
By monitoring student growth and delivering wraparound services, we promote academic achievement, health, and wellness, and welcoming school communities. I am delighted to share the remarkable growth of our great start readiness program, GSRP, which continues to expand
access to high quality early childhood education for our youngest learners. Through GSRP, we are providing students with a developmentally appropriate curriculum that meets children where they are and nurtures their natural curiosity and love of learning. This
program supports the whole child, fostering social, emotional development, early literacy and nume numeracy skills and critical thinking abilities that create a strong foundation for future academic success. As GSRP grows, we are
reaching more families and giving more children the opportunity to enter kindergarten confident, capable, and ready to thrive. The positive impact we're seeing in our students school readiness and enthusiasm for learning demonstrates that investing early in
early childhood education truly transforms lives and sets the stage for lifelong achievement. We have expanded from eight classrooms last school year to 18 GSRP classrooms this school year and we are looking to add two more in
the 2627 school year with a total of 20 GSRP classrooms in our school district. Now, Eric Stamper, teacher engagement specialist, will share informations about our familymies. >> Thank you, Dr. Vartanian Gibbs, and thank you board for allowing us to
speak. We're excited to share our work with you today. Um, I'm going to talk with you about a couple different aspects of our work, uh, family academy programming as well as wraparound services that we provide. So beginning with family academy programming, we know
that when a teacher's expertise in the classroom meets a parent's expertise at home, we create the most powerful team in a student's life. We started these workshops, these familymies with this simple idea in mind. When we support a parent or a caregiver, we're giving a
child their best possible advocate. Whether we're talking about some of our family academy programmings for nurturing little minds or littlest learners like infant and toddler milestones or helping a teenager um with other family academy programs helping a
teen teenager navigate their mental health. We've built a cradle to career support system for our families. We get the ideas for our familymies directly from the community and we take those ideas and on and what the need is
and we we create and implement familymies based on that need and desire from the community. So just a few examples of some of the programs that we that we have created and run. Um we have our my grown-up and me series where um child and parent come together to these
sessions and hands-on learning together. Um, we've done book studies. Um, Jennifer Beck has run a couple book studies based on the work of Dr. Becky Kennedy from the book Good Inside. Um, currently we're um, implementing a new book study where it's going to be a
parent and child book study together based on the work of Jonathan Height and The Anxious Generation. Um on December 30th, he and Katherryn Price released uh a new book called The Amazing Generation, which is kind of geared more toward um children, so like third through 8th grade. Um so this book right
here. So we are Jennifer and I are creating a book study for parent and child together with this book. Other types of familymies, we have like sound baths and uh mindfulness that we we have created both for adults as well as students. We work a lot with the the
student group over at the park. um the Warriors for mental health. Um some other fun activities like cookie decorating, more serious ones like how to stop vaping. Um Jennifer and I have a um a three-part workshop right now for parents called nurturing emotional
well-being. Um which really dives into the science of emotional regulation and how to implement regulation strategies both within themselves as parents and to their children as well. But really beyond these activities or the topics of our familymies like the what's actually
happening during themies is much deeper than that. So we're seeing that parents and caregivers realize that they're not alone in finding that aha moment or you know being provided with a new set of lenses with which to look at a situation at home or change their mindset in some
way. So really ultimately thesemies are about building a community where every parent feels equipped and every student feels seen. So the slide in front of you here, this is some of the data surrounding our familymies since the implementation of our
department back in the 22 23 school year. And what's been most exciting is seeing the sheer momentum of this program of our family academy program. So just a few years ago we were offering 50 sessions um familymies a year and last year we were at 77 familymies
and this year we're we're on on target to to reach over 80 familymies. But really it's not just about doing more. Our department isn't focused on doing more. It's really about a couple things. One are we meeting the needs of the community? And two who are we reaching?
Um so in just three years our attendance you can see has tripled. Um, and we're now welcoming over 2400 participants annually. But the best part, even as our department has grown these familymies this quickly, our families are still giving us the same high marks. Um, so it
proves that and it tells us gives us information that we're not just getting bigger or doing more, but we're actually uh getting it right for the families that we serve. So that was our family academy stuff. Another part of our work in the student and family engagement department is our
wraparound services. And this is really the heart of our work in our department. Our wraparound services are here to make sure that every child that walks through PCCS doors is truly ready to learn. We provide comprehensive support for both
students and their families. um helping with basic needs such as clothing or ongoing food support, toiletries, um other essential services like dental appointments, eye exams, um and on and on. So we recognize that education
doesn't happen in isolation from basic needs. The two are handinand and that we bring about a holistic approach um trying to remove as many obstacles as possible um that can prevent students from focusing on their academic growth.
when families have access to these resources, students can then focus their um efforts on their learning rather than thinking about these basic needs. So, we look at our wraparound services not just as a support program, but rather a commitment. So, this is a commitment to
the dignity of our community, ensuring that when our students enter schools um enter our PCCS schools or they sit down at their desk that they're truly ready to better themselves um and succeed. So that was just a little bit little bit about a couple aspects of our work. Our
our family academy programming as well as our wraparound services. Um our PCCS nurse manager, Patrice Williams, she's going to share a little bit more more about our role in the health and wellness of our PCCS students and families. >> Thank you, Eric. With a combined 279
years of nursing experience and 69 years specializing in school health, our nursing staff is dedicated to providing comprehensive health management essential to keeping students safe, healthy, and ready to learn. Currently 20 currently 28% of our students have
documented health concerns requiring management of a total of just over 8,200 health conditions. with just over 2300 requiring formal written health plans. Health plans require coordination of care from our nursing team. This
includes input from medical providers, from caregivers, from educators, and oftentimes from the students. Care plans address health barriers, symptom management, care instructions, and documenting, training, and communicating the plan.
high-risisk diagnoses such as diabetes, seizures disorders, cickle cell anemia, bleeding disorders, severe allergic reactions, and others require increased nursing coordination. And we have seen a steady rise in documented health
conditions, those requiring health plans and serious diseases throughout the course of our department. Our clinic volume is equally demanding. Since the start of the school year, we have recorded over 22,000 clinic visits.
These visits include supporting student mental and mental health and well-being, routine illness and injury management, preventing and responding to communicable diseases and providing frontline health care in schools. In
addition, the number of scheduled daily medications administered in clinics throughout the district has seen a 65% increase since 2022. This increase does not include those medications that are administered as
needed or in emergency situations. It also does not include the daily care that's required for students with complex chronic illnesses such as our students with diabetes. These students often require multiple clinic visits throughout the day, including blood
glucose monitoring and medication administration before meals and activities, as well as managing signs and symptoms of high or low blood sugar. Diabetes represents our most res resource intensive diagnosis, requiring
the highest level of specialized intervention to keep our students in the classroom and ready to succeed. I am incredibly proud to announce since the inception of our department that all of our K12 schools, Allen Early Learning
Center, and the goals program have all earned the My Heart Safe designation. This recognition awarded by the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Education, and the American Heart Association in partnership with Michigan High School
Athletic Association and Michigan Alliance for Prevention of Sudden Cardiac Death of the Young acknowledges schools that have taken rigorous steps to prepare for cardiac emergencies. To achieve this, our district has met stringent criteria, including
maintaining written cardiac emergency plans that are reviewed annually, ensuring medical emergency response teams are CPR, AED, and first aid certified, and ready to respond to cardiac emergencies, recognizing the
signs of sudden cardiac arrest, and responding quickly by calling 911 and using CPR and an automated external defibrill until EMS MS arrives. We also strategically place AEDs to ensure a
response time of 3 minutes or less from any location in any of our buildings to the site of a medical emergency. And we conduct annual specialized cardiac emergency drills. Our commitment to safety is backed by significant data. We
currently maintain 65 AEDs across the district up 39 units just up from we had 39 units sorry just three short years ago. Our nursing team in partnership with athletics ensures every unit is
inspected and rescue ready. We also have over 400 CPR certified employees with our own district nurses serving as American Heart Association instructors to ensure by annual compliance. And we've extended our
training to students, certifying 120 career and and technical education students this school year. In addition, we provide hands-only CPR training to 100% of our ninth grade health classes, reaching 32 classrooms this past fall
with 30 more scheduled for March. Our impact reaches the broader community as well. Our school nurses have trained over 100 community members in CPR in the last 12 months. And I am thrilled to report that our next class offered on
February 3rd has 79 participants registered. Finally, in accordance with board policy, our nursing team has led the charge to ensure that every building in the district is equipped with Narcan and that staff are trained in the administration of an o opioid
antagonistic. This ensures we are prepared for every facet of student and community safety. Kathy Grotus would like to share mental health initiatives at this time. Before I begin, I want to thank our superintendent, Dr. Merritt, for your
continued support and leadership and prioritizing mental health and wellness across our district. That support allows this work to move from vision to action. Thank you, Dr. Merritt, and thank you board members for your support. Tonight, I'd like to share how we support
students and families through prevention, connection, and evidence-based mental health care. One way we do this is through our family presentations offered in partnership with the Pen Theater. These free events have welcomed more than 300 attendees
since the end of September and are guided by family input and what we're seeing in schools. Some topics have included suicide prevention, the truth about vaping, social media, empowerment and resilience with Zack Gowen from the World Wrestling Entertainer, and in
partnership with the University of Michigan, the musical Painless, addressing the opiate and substance use crisis. On Saturday, March 7th, in partnership with McKascal Family Service, we will host a free workshop for parents,
teachers, and caregivers on neurodeiversity with a focus on ADHD, dyslexia, and autism. Some of the breakout sessions will include executive functioning, understanding and recognizing dyslexia, helping youth
navigate life transitions, and what neurodeiversity is. Through a partnership with New Hope Center for Grief, we provide yearround grief support for students and families. New Hope support is free for all families during the school. This
includes an 8-week grief support group and one-on-one support. This year alone, more than 100 instances of direct support were provided to students, families, and staff during times of loss,
including eight instances of immediate crisis support. At the student level, we continue to expand prevention and support programs. We've secured a grant fund through Growthworks to implement the Bey program, which focus on mental
health awareness and suicide prevention. Staff training is underway and the program is being rolled out at the middle and high school levels including Starkweather. I'd like to share a brief update on our suicide prevention coalition which
reflects how we approach this work together. We recognize that mental health does not stop at our district boundaries and that we cannot work in silos. We collaborate with 10 different districts, local hospitals, and community mental health agencies to
share evidence-based tools, resources, and coordinated supports. This ensures alignment and prevention efforts and consistent response across our systems. From this collaboration, the student verse stigma was formed. Th this group
brings together students from 10 district 10 dis sorry 10 districts to reduce stigma normalize conversations around mental health and promote peer-led prevention in ways that feel authentic and student driven. And Josh
Patterson is on that coalition. Our alternative to suspension program called empowering youth self-care and prevention offers a prevention focused researchback approach that keeps students connected to school while
addressing underlining needs developed in partnership with face addiction now leavonia save our youth growth works recovery action network in Michigan rivers bend and the Canton police department and a grant that we secured
through face Addiction now in Leavonia. Save Our Youth. This program empowers our students through education, coping skills, and access to resources aimed at preventing substance use and addiction. We know that when we work with students
early, we can prevent addiction. In addition, students have access to peer-to-peer recovery groups between sessions, providing ongoing connection and support. The impact of this work has been significant. Leavonia Save Our
Youth began a coalition to help support Wayne County Schools to help start this program from our framework. This framework has now been adopted by other districts including three high schools in Leavonia, two in Gross Point, and in collaboration with Detroit public
schools across 30 high schools and highlighting the leadership and innovation of our district to strengthen safety and early intervention. We continue to provide ongoing professional development. staff are trained in comprehensive school
threat assessments and the Columbia Suicide Severity Rating Scale. Both are evidence-based tools that help us identify risk and respond consistently and effectively. We also have a partnership with Hera Health, allowing a
clinical team to come on site for urgent requests for services. And I think one more slide. Oh, sorry. I'm supposed to Thanks. Sorry. Finally, I want to share about our
mental health and wellness fair, which is entering its fifth year and will take place April 25th from 10 to 2 in the Kellogg Park. this fun, welcoming, interactive event where students, caregivers, and community members can explore resources, ask questions, and
make connections in a relaxed and supportive and fun environment. Last year, we welcomed over 3,800 attendees. The fair brings together more than 150 mental health and wellness agencies, creating meaningful partnerships across
our district and communities. Families don't just learn about resources, they're able to connect and and get support immediately. One family shared that they walked into the park during the fair, were connected with a psychologist that same day, received
immediate urgent support, and believe that intervention saved their loved ones life. The impact of this work continues to grow. Our school districts, other school districts have reached out to learn from our approach. And this year I had the
opportunity to meet with leaders from Eastern Michigan University, including the director of higher education student affairs and well-being and the director of the student mental health research collaborative to share our mental health and wellness fair framework. Eastern
Michigan used our framework to host their mental health and wellness fair in October and it was successful. This demonstrates how our model can strengthen communities well beyond Plymouth Canton. Together, these initiatives reflect our district's commitment to supporting the whole
child, empowering families in creating a safe, informed, and compassionate school community. And the student and family engagement department wants families to know that you're not alone on this journey and we're here to help you navigate that. Thank you. And now, the
Dr. Vartini. So, I will um conclude with just a couple more slides. Plymouth Canton Community Schools partnered with Carales to provide care coordination services for students and their families. This partnership allows community access to
mental health care and supports student well-being and learning. Care Solace provides live multilingual assistance 247, 365 days a year, helping students and their families find quality local
mental health services, substance use programs, and counseling services. Their care navigation system taps into a vast database of mental health resources to provide a match with therapists and programs based on insurance, location, mental health concerns, and other
parameters regardless of income level. And this slide provides the data of the usage of care solace since the beginning of this school year. In closing, the Department of Student and Family Engagement provides valuable support, resources, and programs for
students and our families. The Workforce Development Series equips parents and guardians with career opportunities, resume building skills, and practice interview sessions. Parents who attend all five sessions will receive a five $150 gift card so
they can buy an interview outfit. and we are providing daycare and we watch their kids in the evening so that they can participate in these sessions. We had a fa family fire safety presentation in partnership with Canton Township and it provided families with essential knowledge to keep their loved ones safe.
Community food drive that took place at multiple locations in our school district in November and all the food was donated to our Salvation Army. The therapy dog program brings certified therapy dogs into our schools to provide
comfort and reduce stress. These specialty trained dogs and handlers visit schools, classrooms, and common areas, offering students and staff a calming presence throughout the school day. We have 11 therapy dogs in our district. And there are their pictures.
They're throughout our district. We have Charlie here with us this evening. He's a member of our department. Charlie, one of the district's therapy dogs and a member of our department, has completed over a year of comprehensive training and is fully certified to work in schools. Since September, Charlie has
supported more than 5,000 students in meaningful interactions, providing comfort and emotional regulation during individual sessions, group sessions, and in times of increased stress. Research shows that therapy dogs can reduce anxiety, improve social emotional
skills, and support overall well-being, making Charlie and all of our therapy dogs an important part of our mental health and wellness efforts. We would like to demonstrate with you a couple of ways that Charlie and all of our therapy dogs provide supports when working with students. Do I have a board member who
would like to volunteer? Come on. We can do too. Um, Miss Sedu and Miss Bard, come on up. You have to come up here on the floor. >> So, we are going to show you when Charlie goes to classrooms what he does. Go on
all the way up. And you do have to sit on the floor with your legs facing this way. Got to tell you that part. Yep. >> You're going to sit right there. Rar Num's perfect. And just have your legs straight out. And excellent. Now, we have kids that could be stressed. They
are upset. staff members. Maybe they left a a baby at home that wasn't feeling well. But Charlie will bring you the love and what you need. So, this is what he does. Charlie can cuddle. He will stay with you as long as his handler tells you to
stay. And when he will give you He's going over here because Kathy the handler said >> and now he's cuddling Miss Peard. >> And this is what our therapy dogs do. Now, Charlie's going to walk around to the back of all the board members in
administration. And when you touch the top of Charlie's head and you pet him, you will just feel how much calmer you are because you had a moment with a therapy dog. And if and we tell our kids, if you're not comfortable, please just smile and we will make sure that
Charlie or our therapy dogs will just see you, but you don't have to touch them. And I have talked to everybody on this table and they would love to say hi to Charlie. They've already gone around one time. Why Kathy does that? Who's the Charlie's handler?
I would like to share with you. I'd like to thank you for your time this evening and your continuous support. We invite your questions, feedback, and ideas to help shape our path forward. And thank you to our two volunteers. He's
going to go around each person. >> He's so cute. >> Thank you, Charlie. So cute. >> Thank you. Doing a great job. So, as I look around the room, I see a lot of smiles. This is the benefit of a therapy dog. It
just does something to you whether you like to touch an animal or not. But just that just the face, the interaction. He's so calm. My dog is not like that. He hasn't he's had a year of training. >> And that concludes our presentation.
>> Thank you so much. >> Yes. Um I just want to make sure we're ready for questions because Charlie's made us rounds out the board table. So why don't we start with the students? Um, I guess it's probably more directed
to the um, health and wellness services, but um, I was curious if there were any methods of feedback for students to give to the nurses um, and people administering their care like a form or something.
>> Um, sorry, the question was, did everybody hear the question? Okay. So, there's no formal um way for you to give our nurses feedback, but all of our nurses that are in our clinics, they are a safe space for you to go to at any time. So, if you have anything in particular that you'd like to speak to
any of your nurses about, you are absolutely welcome to do that. Um you could also reach out to me as the nurse manager um at any time and give any feedback about any nurse. No, >> I was just curious. I was saying for like as a way to evaluate the
performance of the nurses. So for students who are getting care administered to them um way or students who've been to the nurses a way for them to give feedback. >> Yeah, we've not done that but that's something we could consider for sure. >> Thank you. >> Good question.
Um, I just want to thank you for all your support, whether it's um through the presentations at the pen theater, the mental health um fair, uh, as well as all the amazing nurses throughout the park and our district um that have supported me through random things. Um,
I just appreciate all the team effort and really appreciate all that you've done for me and then as well as the PCCS community. Thank you. >> Thank you. Thank you. All right, moving out to the side of the room with member Voss.
>> Okay, I just have a couple questions. Thank you so much for your presentation. I really value your department. Um I was wondering if do we have any kind of program that helps families who maybe
lack transportation or um with the language barriers? Are we making sure that they have access to the programs? >> So I think your um your question is about do we provide transportation for to families who might lack
transportation. So when we are working with families, one of the things that's very difficult is a lot of families need gas cards and we don't have access to gas cards but there are some ways for families to get gas cards through churches. So we might share with them that information. Also, our workforce
development series provides transportation. So, if a family member, the mom or dad or someone in the family was unable to make one of the five sessions because of transportation, we do provide transportation to get them to the event and take them home. If we are
personally working with a family and we know that they do not have access to transportation, we will go to their home. We drop off the items or we might even take them to the Salvation Army or to a food bank. So, we do all that work within our department.
>> Okay. Thank you. Um I'm also wondering um with the GSRP with it growing, do we have like long-term sustainability in the district for that to continue?
I do feel that we have a long-term plan for the great start readiness program. That is the program that in the state of Michigan is free for families of four-year-olds and um the spots are available for the next two years currently. You know, the government
could change their mind on that, but currently we are really trying to secure as many spots as possible. We have so much support of the leadership here in the district. our tuition program. We have six classrooms of tuition program which I did not speak to today, but
those are not as popular because parents have noticed and have learned that you can go to GSRP for free now regardless of income level because they have opened that up to everyone. So, >> okay. >> Yeah. >> Um
I noticed that there was no like funding slide. So, I'm wondering how Does everything get paid for? >> So currently we are paid we use the general fund as well as 31A
for most of our programming and staff. >> Okay. >> So through a grant and the general fund. >> So is 31A the one that is going to go away for us? >> Correct. Okay. >> Sorry about that. >> That's okay. We will make a new plan.
>> Okay. Good. Um, and the last thing I was wondering is if we have any community partnerships that support immigrant services. >> So when we are working with a family and we know they need that type of support,
we will connect them with who they need. So, um, for example, we could be working with a mom who is struggling through a situation at home and we will make sure she is connected with the right resource
that she needs to help her through that. >> Thank you. >> There is so much good going on. It's it's wonderful to see and I hope that it continues far in the future and reaches many more families. I know that PCCS is kind of a model for many of the
districts in the state. Um my question is around the family academy program. What is the split between like preschoolers, elementary students, middle schoolers, and high schoolers in terms of programming? >> Sure. So we provide programming for all
levels. And many times we will ask families and parents and guardians, what would you like to see? and we look at that survey data and we plan around that. So we have planning around family presentation nights that are at the pen theater. We are very specific who can attend that because some of the programs
are a high school student level or older. We have a program called nurturing little minds when we looked at the data here in our district. We had kindergarten students coming to kindergarten 25% below a typical kindergarten student. So we started organizing this program called nurturing
little minds where parents are coming to programs with their child birth to four or five years old and we're giving them these opportunities. So we really just designed programming for every level. >> Okay. Thank you. >> So thank you for all the good
information. I'm really glad to see the program growing like it is. >> Thank you. So, thank you for the presentation and the help uh very helpful to provide a lot of data for us on this. It's an example of one of the areas that as part of our dynamic plan, we're focused on innovation and it's good to be
recognized for the innovative programs that we're doing. Um I'll be transparent. Sometimes this group and this program is one of the areas that oftenimes gets negative feedback from people in the community, from people in our staff um in terms of not really
understanding what they're doing. I wish those people were here to see this program tonight and to see some of the details. I know sometimes you can't really speak to some of the success stories that you've had because of Furpa and because of privacy requirements, but I've caught glimpses of that through uh
conversations and activities and work that I've done in the community and it's really made a huge difference in the families. So I I guess one of the things I think I would like the district to do and is to see how can we do a better job of publicizing this work without
breaking those uh those confidentiality barriers because there is amazing work that's happening here and sometimes that is not um not not well seen by the community. >> Thank you for your feedback. >> Thank you.
Um couple questions. I'm going to pick up where member Voss asked about immigrant families. Given um everything that's going on, are there any proactive sessions to inform immigrant families of their rights and what to do if something were to happen within their community?
So, you are being proactive in that area. >> So, I will share with you we have not formed a family academy on that topic and through our survey data um we have not had anyone come forward and saying that they would like that. I'm not saying that. That doesn't mean we cannot
do that. We do help people with filling out applications. We help them with um they come to our school, they need to register. When they register, the people who are registering them say they need support immediately and we are right there helping them. We are not helping
with legal issues. I'm not quite sure where you're >> That's the kind of stuff we're not helping with though. >> In terms of fear, you have fear. What do you do? Where do you go? um or you need um support with language understanding what's happening.
>> So we have available to us language line. If we need to work with any of the families in their language, we connect with language line and we will speak to them that way. We also will drop off things at their home. We know what they need because someone has referred them to us and they complete a wraparound
form. We also will connect them with care solace which is a care coordination program which will give them counseling services, social services connection. So if people are seeking and asking there are ways to get the support they need.
>> Okay. Um in a few other questions you talked a lot about parents coming to you >> in different areas. Have there been any outreach efforts for you to go to different communities because the parents that are coming to your families
that are coming to you know about this? >> I'm guessing that there's lots of families that don't know or again transportation challenges or may feel like I don't need to go. So one thing that is taking place is that our counselors and our building
administrators and our teachers know the families that need support because they are closer to these students. They refer them to us and then we start connecting them to what they need. We we call them on the phone, we email them, we might be
texting them, but we get them what they need based on what they share with us. So, um we do have a variety of people coming to our events. We have tried to have events different places throughout the community. The summit ones at St.
John Newman right now, the Penn Theater. We have them in schools all over the place. We just spread oursel around the district. We have worked with a couple of apartment complexes to try to have events at their clubouses and it's more
diff it's more difficult than you think. They might not have Wi-Fi. That clubhouse might not be big enough. >> But we are willing to do whatever it takes. >> Okay. Last question. In terms of you have data in terms of numbers, what
you've done with events, students, what metrics are you using to evaluate the success of some of these programs with academics? So some of the students that we are working individually with, we will we actually write out plans and we track their success throughout the school year
almost through a progress monitoring um form. We also look at all the students that we are supporting through an absenteeism initiative and we will look to see if there's improvement. We also look to see if there's improvement with behavioral referrals.
Some of the students we are working with have multiple challenges multiple. So if we see a little bit of growth we are celebrating a D minus to a C minus we are celebrating.
>> Okay. Um just as a going back to um Treasure Kho's comment about communicating the impact of this work, it would be great to have sort of an impact slide that could be on a website, but I would like to see it for ourselves. And you don't have to name
the students, but you could say in K5 we had 10 students that went through this program and this was the progress that we saw. whatever numbers you could give us um the impact of that work particularly when we talk about academics um because that's hard to get
to because you're dealing with such a big group of people from K12. >> Sure. >> And so we'd be happy to put an impact slide together and we will um work on that so that um others have another way to look at how we do our work.
>> Yeah. I mean this is phenomenal work in terms I'm I'm writing all this stuff down. what you're doing is touching people that can't be measured. >> So that's the other part. >> You're having emotions that are hard to measure. You're having an impact that's hard to measure. Somehow we have to get those stories out there so people
understand the impact of your work. >> Sure. And I can share with you so that um people have an understanding at what we're doing. Like I can say we're providing clothing. We are actually providing clean clothing so a student can come to school because the family
has no way of doing their laundry. That's the kind of stuff we're doing. We're not just saying here's six new pairs of socks. This work is so impactful for students and their families that are struggling at such a deep level. >> Yeah. >> They call us when the mom or dad or
someone has passed away. We are the first ones there helping them. Thank you for providing the support, health, mental, um, clothing, etc. academic. Thank you for doing that. >> My question is um under uh page four on
the activities that, um, health screenings and that is that something that is done like at the school? >> Let me go to page four. Uh, Miss Picard, so I just were make sure we're speaking about the same thing. >> Okay. And you are looking at on the
logic model >> activities. The last one, health screening. >> Oh, health screenings. So, um, do you I mean there could be, for example, the reason that's an activity is there could be someone going to get a health physical and they might not be able to pay for it. And so, we would find a way
to make sure that that gets covered. So, that's what I mean by an activity. Um, a vision screening. If someone needs glasses and the family doesn't have insurance, we have a couple partnerships. We will get them the eye exam for free and a free pair of glasses. So that's what you mean by that. >> So it's more like coordinating then.
>> Yes. It's coordinating all that. We are not um we don't have like a clinic that does health screens. We are coordinating that kind of stuff with the family. >> If someone has referred them instead >> they need a dental appointment >> and so we make we find a dentist that will do it for free.
>> Oh, okay. Oh, that's nice. >> Okay. All right. >> Thank you for your question. >> Yeah. No, I was just um and then um Okay. I guess that was pretty much it and you pretty much what you had asked on the the data, you know, just on how that's effective and um I guess that was
it. >> Thank you. >> Yeah, thank you. >> Um thank you very much for your work and I'm a little bit uh speechless listening uh to your descriptions of the impact. I'm curious uh with your programming
when you collect attendance data, do you see any skewing there to like geography or to age group or to background or anything like that when you analyze that data? >> So, we're actually at the event and we
can see everybody in front of us when I with some of your question and it is representative of our school district. who's in front of us is the people of our school district and I it's the same people I see at Meyer. They're just all there. So that's one thing because we're at all these events. We work all the
events in the evening. And so what was the second part of your question? >> No, it was just around how you collect that data or analyze it. >> So we we just we know who's there because we have their name, we have their email address, we know where their student goes to school. So we know they're people from our community. And
then we have them fill out a survey at the end of every session. Not everyone fills out a survey. We have to bribe them. So that's a whole another story. But we're not collecting demographic data at our surveys. >> Okay. >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> Could be something we do in the future,
but we haven't done that. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Well, thank you so much for this really deep um impactful work. Thank you to all of you. And I know there's more behind you, so thank them, too. >> I love them all. Okay, we are um now moving on to finance
and operations with Miss Mick. Thank you. Good evening. Uh on uh the agenda for your consideration this evening is the purchase uh to uh rather a purchase of an outdoor pavilion structure for Smith Elementary School uh as part of
Smith's 75th anniversary celebration. The Smith School's parent family organization or PFO is planning to purchase and install an outdoor pavilion to support outdoor learning and school and community events. The pavilion will create a covered will provide a a
covered space uh that can be used for student activities, family gatherings, and other school functions. And in your packet, you'll see a map that's included with the intended location of the structure. The pavilion would be purchased from Game Time using the Omnia Partners Cooperative pricing for a total
cost of 68,160. That includes installation. And while the pavilion will be fully funded by the Smith PFO, the district would issue uh the purchase order so that Plymouth Kansas Community Schools would maintain ownership and oversight warranty uh and
such as well as um long-term ownership and maintenance of the structure. Uh once the pavilion is installed, the district would be reimbursed by the PFO for the cost. Um, the facilities department has been working working closely uh with the principal and uh
administration and the PFO at Smith Elementary throughout the planning process and installation is anticipated to take place during the spring or summer uh in order to be ready for the start of the school year pending final approvals and scheduling. Uh this item was reviewed at the January 22nd FNO
community meeting. Uh and with us this evening is Matt Lance, our director of capital programs and facilities to help answer any questions uh that you may have. Thank you. >> Thank you, Treasure Kho. And member Picard, you're part of FNO, right? Do you want to give
us any more background information about this? >> Yeah, sure. Church, first of all, um it was a little bit unusual because normally our parent organizations and other organizations aren't supporting these things. We really appreciate the the work that the Smith School has done and their relentless fundraising uh to
support these uh these programs. Um, this program, like anything that we're doing, has to go through the standard district processes. So, although it is being funded by an outside group, if it wasn't something that made sense for the school, um, we wouldn't proceed with it.
If it didn't match our security or ADA compliance things, we wouldn't be able to proceed with it. So, it is just as if we were purchasing this and doing it ourselves. It's just being funded by this outside group. Um, so we are really uh excited about this. there was collaboration and participation from
both the staff as well as the uh the students and the families and the principal uh at Smith Elementary School to make sure that this was both a good space and a good um uh fit for where that's going to go. They're uh looking forward to being able to use this for some uh outdoor educational experiences
and I think it's a a great example of the kind of partnerships that we've been able to establish with our community. >> Okay. >> Oh yeah. And just I will add I was wondering too like once it's there like who takes care of it and it is become under the school's um ownership that way
too and that was something that was also >> and and also towards that end there is a 10-year warranty on this and it is a steel structure that is powder coated so it's really designed to to to last and to to not be deteriorating in the
weather. sometimes have had um community organizations, parent organizations that have built temporary structures that maybe haven't followed th those kinds of guidelines and they've created maintenance nightmares for us. Um uh well-intentioned but uh you know big challenges and this is uh this is not
like that. This is a very sturdy structure and is meeting all of our requirements and we're committed to supporting this thing going forward which we don't anticipate there'll be any maintenance on. >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. Thanks for the background information. All right, we'll start with member Ahmed.
>> Um I just have one question which is do you have any similar facilities at any of the other schools? >> Uh so good evening board. Um this one will be a little unique kind of in in its shape and size. Uh this is a larger structure. It's it's about 30 feet long.
So it's really going to provide a large exterior kind of classroom classroom space. My apologies. um we don't have anything that's really this size. We do have other classroom spaces that do have structures though. So I think while it's consistent with what other things have
um other schools have, it is a little bit larger in size. That's probably the primary difference. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Oh, I was just going to add too and also we were told too and I've seen it there's not a lot of trees and um shade at school. So that will help with that
too. Um would uh you said this is one of the first times we're doing this sort of collaboration. Would this open up opportunities for other schools, other um parent groups to bring something together? >> I would welcome if if proposals came forward, we would go through the same type of process to to kind of get buyin
from the PFO or any organization that brings it forward, bring it through the school's process and we would follow the same track. I I think as a school board we're generally open to it as a as a as a facilities director here. >> Okay. What what I might add is I'm very appreciative of the process and working
together. We have um had in the past which is well-meaning but we've had uh groups that maybe will donate rec um something here but we don't have knowledge. It hasn't gone uh through the school's process. And so then if there's problems with damage, then it's who is
responsible, you know, that we might not even have keys to that. So we're really trying to bring this in and and ensure that everything is with process so that we can ensure that it's up to code and all of these things. So I definitely appreciate that. >> And there was actually a robust conversation around that same uh point
because one of the community members that got that chance to experience the excitement of FNO was asking questions around that exact uh uh point and he's he's interested in going back and advocated for us to um to let make sure the booster clubs know that these are
options and that uh that these are things that they could do. They just have to follow a process. >> Great. Very good. Well, thanks for being the pilot of this process. Um any more questions, comments from you, Treasure Kho? >> No. >> Okay. Um I'm really excited to see this
built. I do have one question though on um we've worked really hard in this district to make sure that all of our schools are equivalently, you know, have similar um playground equipment, have similar facilities, all of the rest of
that. And I'm thinking about going forward, how are we going to ensure that if more schools um have a booster club or a PFO club that is going to do something similar, >> we have a number of schools in our
district that don't have as solid for whatever reason don't necessarily have the same economic base that >> Smith does or that the same >> support from the community that Smith does. So what are we going to do going
forward to make sure that all of that hard work that we've done on equity >> in terms of facilities is going to be maintained. >> Excellent question. I was thinking that too. >> I I think it is a very good question. It's you know you have that we have the
conversation around what is the standard that we have identified for all schools. So that is what our school district general fund is supporting. So if we say when we look at playgrounds, you know, what is the the the standard for PCCS and then we do uh you know work with our
uh PFOS or partners that would um really uh supplement that or you know still there's kind of some sitebased decisions allowed there. So it might not mean that every school gets that supplemental. Uh but I think it definitely is a good question. If there is something that is
lacking, you know, we could always look to our community partners. those are opportunities that we may be able to help schools explore other options if they don't necessarily have um the financial support available at their particular school. So I I think it's
kind of scratching the surface now that we're bringing really that process and procedure. I think opportunities can be talked about more and we can assist uh where possible. I think we have a community that really is even if it's uh if the individual PTO or PFO is not able community that is invested in our
district. >> Thank you. Could I add to that just for Yes. Well, and also too, I mean, I don't I'm not familiar exactly how they raise that money or if it was just people just gave money, >> but I know like for other activities and things, a lot of times the students will do a fundraiser, you know, like I know
like Lacrossei did the mulch thing and you know, different things like that and that would means the kids are doing the work. So, there's always opportunity for kids to, you know, even like our um playscape, you know, that was a whole community effort, you know, way back when. And but I mean there's other ways
that they can come across those fundings too. So I don't but it would be interesting to maybe know how they did it did do that. >> So I can speak to that a little bit. Uh speaking with the principal over there. Um this is a couple years kind of in the making. It's something that the PFO had kind of targeted. We we wanted to do
something for the 75th anniversary was coming up. They wanted to do something kind of landmarked to really kind of put in. So um it's a significant amount of money. No no one's overlooking that. Um, but it it was a snowball that they got moving a couple years ago and they always kind of had some idea of we have
this vision, we want to put something out here that could benefit the community as a whole with the soccer fields behind it, lack of trees, you know, just kind of bring it all together. So, so while this was a great great great large thing they've lifted and I think it's fantastic, um, that I
think that's kind of how we got here. >> Yeah. So the the lesson I'm taking away is for people that want to start thinking about other schools contact you to at least get the process going or get clarity. >> That is that is usually what's happened.
So this is the fourth or fifth um principal that's kind of contacted me. I've sat down with three or four of them and it's generally work with your group. What is your idea? What is your concept? Bring it to me. I'm the first. Does it pass the the facilities test? Does it
pass the materials test? Does it pass the location fall zones of equipment? All the other stuff. Once it gets to that, then I bring it to uh leadership through core or whoever else. Generally, I go through academic first and then we go through the core. But yeah, we start that process and um yes.
>> Okay. Thanks. Um member of boss >> um I just was wondering as I've been listening so is this available for people other than Smith school people to use or is it just the Smith school community?
>> It will be so so I'm going to say it's the community but I know the soccer fields and those types of areas behind it um are also used for youth sports. So I think it will benefit all of them because as it was mentioned earlier and I'm sorry I'm don't remember who mention
there are no trees. So it is uh it will be a large benefit to the other children that play youth sports there. Uh beyond that I don't know as far as rentals if that's what you're leaning towards. I don't know. >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Okay Josh.
>> Uh my all my questions have been answered. Thank you. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. All right. This is a first read. So if you have any questions beyond this, please send them to Dr. Merritt and President Christensen. All right, moving on to the action item.
I'm looking for a motion for action item number 26-01-34. Madame President, I move that um that we consider approval of a resolution to purchase two John Deere Gator utility uh vehicles. This is action item 260134 and this is a final
reading. >> Second. >> Okay. Okay, it was moved by Treasure Kho, seconded by Secretary West. We went through this last time, but any other questions, comments for this action item? No. Hearing none, I'll call for a vote.
All in favor say yes. >> Yes. >> Any oppose say no. >> Okay. Passes. Uh action item 26-01-34 passes 6. >> Okay. We're moving on to another action item. I'm looking for a motion for that. Madam President, I move that we consider approval of a resolution for bid package
EL4 Gallomore Elementary addition and renovation in Hoben Elementary renovation. This is a final reading and the action item is 260135 >> for a second. >> I'll second it. >> All right. It was moved by Treasure Kho,
seconded by SEC Secretary Wester. Any discussion? Oh, it was sec seconded by member Voss. Thank you. Any questions, comments on this one? >> I think there's >> which on the >> This is on EL4. >> Yeah. >> Do you want to cover it, Cheryl? >> Um,
>> this isn't on the Salem one yet, though. >> This was just a >> Oh, it's on Pep 4. I'm sorry. I misspoke. Yeah. No, no, no question. >> No questions, comments on this one. >> I have one question. >> Sure. >> Um, I understand that this is for the actual construction of the concessions. Will
>> No, this isn't concessions. This is >> this is the elementary school one. They're both They're both four. This is the elementary. >> They're both four. >> Oh, I see what you're saying. >> This is EL4. The other one will be H or Pep 4. So, >> okay. Sorry, I I saw the wrong number. Okay. No questions.
>> Y. >> Okay. Call for a vote. All in favor say yes. >> Yes. Yes. Any oppose say no. >> All right. Action item number 26-01-35. Passes 6. Okay. Another action item. I'm looking for a motion.
>> Madame President, I move that we consider approval of a resolution for bidpack HS7 uh Salem High School edition and Pep 4 Canton High School baseball soccer concessions. This is a final reading and the action item is 260136.
>> Looking for a second. >> Second. >> Okay. It was moved by Treasurer Kho, seconded by Secretary West. Now questions, comments? >> I have a comment, but did you have a question? Go ahead. >> Okay. Well, I just I had just received um an email which was I thought was very
good. Um a couple questions from somebody who graduated just in 2025 and was asking if the merchandise if there's still going to be, you know, that there wasn't anything really labeled on there on merchandise being sold. Was that
something that was, you know, with the um where it used to be behind the bathrooms? Was that going to be was that going to still happen? So, when the new concession building is complete, that'll have a new merchandise office in it. Uh, the existing one will be remodeled to uh
needed storage space. So, we only have one merchandising unit. >> And is that at the entrance way then or is that at the >> the new merchandise unit will be in the new concession building and the existing one that's over all the other buildings are, that's when will be closed. >> Okay. All right. And and then the then
there was a question on the two um concession stands and I pretty much understood that as that would be for both areas because of the lines were always so long too because once when you enter enter and then when you and then the old the old entrance was going to also be
>> my understanding the intents never have both of them open you'll have you'll still have one concession stand for your football games uh and the items that are on that main field and then the other one will be um for like baseball games, soccer games, which kind of goes with the other two schools that have their
own separate concessions for the baseball fields. >> And then um one one um suggestion was to to maybe with the new one because there was an understanding on that was to possibly maybe have like a vendor. Was there any room for vendors to come in
for where the new concession is going to be built? like that was just an a thought like would they like a Jimmy John's or like I know we've had the um burger spot had come before and things like that. So I is there any opportunity? Sorry.
>> No, that's a good question. Yeah, that was his question. >> I might offer that the high school administration, the athletic administration might consider those kinds of things. I think they have talked about that before. Um I'm not aware of a recommendation for that quite yet. There's currently a contracted vendor providing concessions for
football games. Um, and I also just wanted to mention for your previous question that yes, that was part of the conversation was that the lines are so long for concessions that potentially they could be both open both depending on the games probably. And then um one more little thing um one other thing
that was um suggested was to put a bench bench seating around the east turf area. So like people I guess you know he was saying noticed a lot of people standing around which they do but it's a place where kids can sit if they're waiting for a pickup or something. You know he had a little picture I could share with
you. >> I think that's a great suggestion and I think it's something we'll bring up with safety and security and and just kind of get their their ideas and their recommendations around it. Um we'll definitely take it under advisement when we're all done when we >> see kind of the final placement and final usage >> after. Yeah, that would be something we
could be add later like picnic tables or something like that in there for people. Absolutely. I think it's a great suggestion. >> Yeah, I thought that was really good too that he that he had. So, okay. Thank you. >> Okay. Any other questions, comments? >> I had one um which isn't necessarily
around the construction, but I'm just curious in terms of overall usage of our facilities and sustainability uh with these concessions and actually other things also. Are there any plans to incorporate recycling um and other plans?
I will take that to the team because I don't know. >> Okay. Thank you. Appreciate it. It's a great question. I know there's been some community effort to increase recycling at Plymouth Canton. So, thank you for that question. >> We've struggled with the quality of the waist stream and recycling. Um there's
been a lot of conversations we've had in FNO about this. There's been some work in trying to address it. But the struggle that you have is is that when you have um the recycle stream be contaminated um uh with non-recyclable products that are in there or food waste
or things like that, it ends up making it so the entire um the entire batch is is ruined. Um, so it's not that it isn't a good idea, but you know, we really struggle with uh with adherence and consistency when people are doing that,
especially in in big spaces like cafeterias and um uh sporting events like that. There's not always people that are paying attention to what happens. So, it comes up often for us in FNO and how we can try to address those kinds of problems. And I'm not sure what
the right answer is. I mean, one thing that comes to mind is that I think if we build a culture around it right from the beginning, it might help because then you'd have a lot more ambassadors who are already used to doing it. Like I know personally in my home initially when we started
composting it was you know like there was contamination for sure but slowly over time now even the most skeptical of the people who live at my house now very eagerly uh sort their food waste. those >> I agree with you wholeheartedly at home
it's been uh much easier transition but I see it even in um events and activities where people are like-minded and they are recycle friendly and they just put stuff in the wrong container because they don't have the muscle memory of or this is the recycling one.
>> So it's it there's a lot of work that needs to be done and maybe maybe we start that process but >> that's >> and and maybe it's the recognition that for a while we're going to have contaminated streams and not actually get a benefit of it. Um but maybe we'll start to get things going to the right
direction. >> I would say let's put recycling as a separate topic um for a future meeting because it's a great conversation. Josh, any questions, comments about this? >> No questions or comments. Thank you. >> Okay. All right. Are we ready for a vote? Okay. All in favor say yes.
>> Yes. Any oppose say no. Okay. Action item number 26-01-36 passes 6. We have another action item. >> Busy night. >> Looking for a motion. >> Madam President, I move that we consider approval of a resolution for a filter
first water bottle filling station purchases. This is a final reading and the action item is 260137. >> Looking for a second. >> Second. >> Go ahead. >> All right. It was um moved by Treasure Kho, seconded by member Picard.
Questions, comments? I think we were all really excited about this one too last time. All right. All in favor say yes. >> Yes. >> Yes. Any post say no. >> Okay. Action item number 26-01-37 passes 6. >> Thank you.
>> Moving on to teaching and learning. Miss Curry. >> Thank you. We are doing a final reading. Um I'm looking for a motion for this action item. Madame President, I move that we consider approval for a resolution, I'm sorry, of a resolution for a course
revision for the digital media arts one and two. This is a final reading and the action item is 260138. >> Looking for a second. Okay. Was moved by Treasure Kho, seconded by Secretary West. Any questions, comments on this one? >> Super excited.
>> Yes, we were really excited about this one as well. Thank you for bringing this forward. All right. All in favor say yes. >> Yes. Any oppose say no. Okay. Action item number 26-01-38 passes 6. All right. We are moving on to the
overflow of citizens comments which we have none of. So we can pass move on to the next part which is discussion. I don't really have uh much of a discussion but I did want to give an update to a board notes that uh superintendent
Merritt sent us. The Michigan Association of School Board is offering a virtual learning opportunity for February 6th and 7 as part of their winter institute and they're offering online CBA courses so you don't have to travel. So that's the best part of it. And the courses are focused on effective
governance and leadership. If you are interested, please send an email to Superintendent Merritt and U. President Christensen. Once uh they have that information, we will have Diane register you for that. So that's coming up soon.
So I would suggest u look at the course offerings and send in your information >> for the winter institute. Do we have to register for the whole thing or can we register for just one or two classes? >> I believe you can register for one or two classes. Yep.
>> Okay. >> Um I have a question. >> Sure. I meant to bring this up during the um when we're talking about the concessions and stuff and the I I think there was a law passed for um that you that schools will have to pay will allow cash I guess at games or something. So I
can find that out. I I read it. >> I should have wrote it down but >> yeah there was something about having to now allow it at events to have people be allowed to pay cash. So that could change I mean like the ticket booth or I don't know. >> Yeah, if you could share that >> with um superintendent mayor and I'm
sure we will get legal counsel to look at that and give us information. >> Change the booth a little. >> Yeah, I if I may add a comment to that. Um I believe there would still be an opportunity to scan those electronic tickets uh and and make similar use of that ticket booth even if it's not selling a ticket.
>> Okay. Yeah, thank you. It's a great point though. >> Yeah, forgot about that. >> All right. I have a note from Diane that says there were no follow-up questions from the last meeting. Thank you for this. Do we have any followup from this meeting that we need to jot down?
>> Just um being able to share the presentation on student family engagement. >> Yeah. >> Um more broadly throughout the district both internally and externally. >> Yeah. And if we could get more data with like an impact slide at least as a start
for us to look at and we can provide feedback because I think Dr. Liz you heard great work is happening. There's a lot of impact happening. How do we crystallize that for our community? >> Okay. Anything else? I just wanted to
know um with the approval of the of the um waiver to start school before the the um Labor Day, could we do I know that there's still work to be done with the boards and all that, but it has been an
interest a topic of interest in the community. Could we do some kind of um post could Carly put out a post or something like that on social media saying this is kind of the direction that we're pursuing? Yeah, I definitely uh believe that um the work that they
will do will uh go relatively quickly. They're at the table right now, but the conversation is really around discussing the calendar separate from that negotiation so they can get the information out. We really talked about the education when you're looking at change and making sure that the families have that information ASAP. So, I
anticipate they will get there quickly and we can begin communicating very relatively soon. >> Awesome. And I have to say students from SVA that were part of policy, they asked such great questions and had great feedback. So um I'm so proud of the qu the students that come to our meetings
and provide feedback. Thank you for the time that you put into these meetings. It's a lot. So we are at the end of the agenda and we will adjourn at 9:10. Thank you everyone for coming. Thank you.