Good morning. I call the meet or good afternoon, good evening. Call the meeting to order at 07:02 if you join me in the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance 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. All board members are present with the exception of Kevin Beers, Kristen Bull, and Scott Muska, who are absent with notice. Welcome to the public meeting of the Rochester Community Schools Board of Education.
I'm Michelle Butel. And, I'm filling in tonight, so I ask for a little patience and grace. This is a public business meeting of the board. However, we welcome public comment at various points on our agenda. If you wish to speak tonight and have not already filled out a form online, please fill out a yellow card, which is located on one of the tables, I think, in the back. And please hand it to our do we have a safe Ed officer? Okay. Please hand it to the safe Ed officer over here on the right side. Yes. When it's time for public comment,
we will direct you to the microphone located right over there on the right hand side of my right side of the auditorium. When addressing the Board, you will have three minutes to speak. We will let you know when you have thirty seconds remaining. Please be mindful of this time limit out of respect for all members of the public who wish to address the Board. When addressing the board, please state your name and your relationship to the district. Please address your comments to the entire board and not to individual board members, the superintendent, or other school district employees, or to members of the audience. We reserve the right to exclude from our meeting an individual who engages in conduct
that constitutes a breach of the peace. This includes in temperate behavior. On behalf of my colleagues on the board, we are grateful to serve the community and appreciate your support. We are moving to communications. And I believe, Secretary Patel, you have some communications to share. Thank you, Madam Treasurer. The board and, good evening, neighbors. The Board of Education received 10 email communications since the previous meeting. A district student contacted the board regarding an enrichment program. Community member Deanna Harless contacted the board regarding the treatment of those who addressed the board at the July 25 meeting. District parent Megan Madigan contacted the board regarding the microphone not working during the July
25 meeting. District parent Lynn Keller contacted the board regarding gun safety. District parent Amanda Bauschers contacted the board regarding the Be Smart program. District parent Jessica Offer contacted the board twice regarding the removal of sixth and seventh grade advanced language arts and the fee of the FOIA associated with this information. District parent Sky Thieton contacted the board regarding the B Smart program. Community member Jamie Hope contacted the board inquiring if Rochester has paid authors who consult
on DEI to speak in the district. Mike Axtell contacted the board, mistakenly thinking it was the Rochester, Minnesota Board. We were very happy to forward that note to the Rochester board. I yield back, madam treasurer. Thank you. Thank you. Do have any other members of the board have anything to share at this time? Okay. We are now moving on to the consent agenda. All matters listed under the consent agenda are considered to be routine in nature by the Board of Education and will be acted upon by one motion. There will be no separate discussion of these items. If a member of the board or any citizen requests discussion of an item,
that item will be removed from the consent agenda and will become the first item of business under the new business portion of the agenda. 4.1 current bills payable for 07/01/2022 through 07/31/2022 in the amount of $10,799,234.64 4.2 Board of Education Truth in Hearing budget meeting minutes for 06/27/2022. 4.3 Board of Education regular meeting minutes 06/27/2022. 4.4,
board of education regular meeting minutes, 07/25/2022. Approval for MASB twenty twenty two delegate assembly, Barb Annis and Michelle Butel. This basically allows us to vote on any MASB business. 4.6, approval for Barb Annis and Michelle Butel to register for the MASB annual leadership conference at a cost of $369 So first I need a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented. Moved by Barb Annis Support by Jessica Gupta Is there any board discussion?
Okay. And now I did hear some public, comment. If you could come forward, please. Good evening, John Markle. I have two children who graduated from Rochester Community Schools. I have lived here twenty years come November, and I respectfully request that you remove the consent agenda item for the $10,700,000 Thank you. Thank you. All right. We will remove 4.1, and that will become the first item of business under new business. So at this point, if there's no other discussion, we will vote on items 4.2 through 4.6. All those in favor,
please say aye. Aye. Opposed? I voted yes for that in case I'm sorry. Thank you. Alright. So now our next, for our new business, we will have, it will become, I guess, 5.1 is the current bills payable from 07/01/2022 through 07/31/2022 in the amount of $10,799,234.64. Can I have a motion to approve that line item? So motion Can I have a second for that please? Jessica Okay, any discussion from the board?
And at this point, public comment on that, please? I live in the Oakland Township. And this this packet right here is from our last board meeting. That says $156,000.26 $26.54. That's 120 I'm sorry. Dollars $156,026.54. And here are the 40 supporting pages that go along with it, explaining exactly what each check is for. Not check is for, but who the check is to, the account number that comes out of it,
and so on. When I went through your package today, this is what I found. One page with a line item that says, yeah, dollars 10,799,000.000. That is a 69 x over what Little Oakland Township gives me in every board packet if I want to take a look at it. So I spent quite literally my whole lunch hour trying to find the bills for this $10,700,000 on the Rochester Community Schools website.
And to be frank, for a guy who wrote his master's degree basically off of the Internet twenty years ago, because it was so new, what I did for my master's degree, I find it laughable that you would sit here this evening, and you would spend $10,700,000 and not even know what's in there. Not me, you. I find it interesting that the sit if if the money if the information is there to the board that the citizens don't have it, I find it to be offensive,
actually, especially when I have four business owners, five, six, seven, actually seven business owners, a finance person, two MBAs, a lawyer, a statistician on your board. It's offensive that I have to spend an hour of my time to try and find out how you're gonna spend $10,799,000. So accountability and transparency, this is what we're talking about. Thank you. Thank you. Is there any other discussion from the board?
At this point, all of those in favor to approve the current bills payable as listed, please say aye. Aye. Opposed? That's a four-zero vote. Thank you. Next, we have our Human Resource Report. And I think, Mr. Murphy, that's you. Good evening, Doctor. Schaner and Mrs. Butel, members of the Board, members of the community. The Human Resources Report contains the following items for approval this evening, retirements and resignations, new hires, and a district wide professional development advisory committee. The following REA members have submitted a resignation since the last Board of Education meeting.
Katie Clark, Baldwin Elementary. Colleen Cromie, Stony Creek High School. Chelsea Goen, Doctor. Schultz Educational Campus. Joe Harmson, Reuther Middle and Rochester High. Julia Hogan, North Hill Elementary. Sarah Holmes, virtual campus. Courtney Lukasian, Rochester High School. Cameron McConnell, International Academy. Colleen Mestaw, Brooklyn's Elementary. Jillian Moss, West Middle. Alexa Picarro, MacGregor Elementary. Kara Petrovsky, MacGregor Elementary. Catherine Rabideau, Virtual Campus. Michelle Reich, Longmeadow Elementary,
Caitlin Rose, West Middle, Jessica Stickle, Hamlin Elementary, and Anna Tansey, Doctor. Schultz, educational campus. Also, the following REA retirement, Kirsten Griffin, third grade, Hugger Elementary. Ms. Griffin submitted her letter of resignation effective August 31 and has been with the district since August '99. Also asking for approval this evening for the following REA new hires. Kaye Linda Bauer, CI teacher, Delta Kelly. Michelle Bordon, English psych teacher, Adams High School. Jason Cybulski, science teacher, virtual campus.
Shannon Donellen, counselor, Stoney Creek High School. Kira Duncan, EI teacher, Longmeadow Elementary School. Brittany Dunford, fourth grade teacher, Hamlin Elementary School. Madison Fuldesee, Fuldesi, second grade, MacGregor. Jason Gendreau, business, Rochester High. Wendy Graves, math science, Van Hoosen. Kayla Estefu, social worker, Hart and Reuther. Pamela Kramer, first grade, MacGregor Elementary. Maria Lemones, social worker, Hampton Elementary and our non public schools. Melissa Littlefield, speech pathologist at North Hill.
Brian Marchand, ESL teacher, excuse me, at Rochester High School. Melissa Martin, ASD teacher at Doctor. Schultz Educational Campus. Claire McLaughlin, social studies, West Middle School. Paige Myrnick, resource room, Longmeadow Elementary. Robert Mele, resource room, West Middle School. Alex Panson, psychologist district wide. Sean Peklow, social studies teacher, Reuther Middle School. Abby Power, language arts teacher, Van Heusen Middle School Emily Quain, second grade teacher, Delta Kelly Elementary Rachel Robinson,
second grade teacher, Baldwin Elementary Sandra Russo, Spanish teacher at the International Academy. Devin Schafer, fourth grade, University Hills. Lila Shekelhoff, to be determined grade level. I'm sure she knows, but I don't. Munson Elementary. Katherine Sites, ASD North Hill. Emma Smith, language arts and history at Rochester High and Reuther Middle. Taylor Solwald, fifth grade teacher, Longmeadow. Emily Stowe, Spanish teacher, Adams High School. Lauren Townsend, first grade teacher, MacGregor Elementary Bailey Warren,
ASD teacher, Van Hoozen and Christy Wood, EI teacher at Stony Creek. Also for approval this evening, the follow following administrator resignations, Kristi Beekie, Director of Financial Services at the Administration Building, and Matthew Fairchild, Assistant Principal at Van Hoosen Middle School. And finally, this evening for your approval, asking for approval of a district wide professional development advisory committee. This committee has been formed in accordance with an MDE rule that allows the district to use certain that under certain guidelines,
the district can use district provided professional development for teachers as instructional time. One of the guidelines is that the board must approve the district wide committee. This committee is made up of teachers from every level, including special education, administrators, non teaching staff and parents and attached is the list of the recommended members for the twenty two-twenty three school year. That completes the HR report. Thank you. Thank you. At this time I need a motion to approve the human resource report as presented. Moved by Jessica Gupta,
second by Joe Patel. Board discussion questions. Barb? So, Dave, I had a question regarding the professional development advisory committee. The second page, you have on the right side, the majority is not filled in. Is that something that you're going to be working towards, doing throughout the school year? And, my second question is, was there a percentage required for parents versus administrators and staff, to be a part of this committee? No. Mrs. Sun? Yeah. Just that the majority be of the teaching staff.
So the reason it's they're not blanks on the second page. Those are the parents and administrators currently on this committee. And that the majority have to be instructional staff, that's why that continues down the middle column through page two. Okay. Thank you. Anyone else? I guess I would just ask a general question with, all of the retirements, resignations and new hires. Where does that put us as we start the New Year next Monday? We have under 10 openings currently. We had a late resignation at elementary school, which we'll be working on filling tomorrow.
There's already a recommendation for hire there that would fully staff every elementary building. We have all but, I think, two Gen Ed, secondary positions staffed. And the remainder of the under 10 would be special education positions, including speech therapists and resource room teachers and EI teacher. And do we have some, resumes? We do. Those are also the shortage shortage more of a shortage area. So we're recruiting and trying to find more in those areas of a limited supply.
But yes, there are a couple of recommendations that came my way today and for speech therapists, so we'll be working on filling tomorrow. So we'll do our best to be fully staffed to start school year. And Dave, that includes ParaPros or what is the situation now? No, this is REA staff, ParaPros. Would you mind? I don't I'd have to get to I'd have to total up the number of ParaPro openings currently. We had a job fair on the tenth, great showing for it, which resulted in multiple hires. But again, there are more openings in the ParaPro lane than we are able to fill at
this time, and we'll continue to recruit for those as well. Okay. Thank you. Anything else? Alright. All of those in favor to approve the human resource report Oh, I'm sorry. Thank you. Any public comment? Mister Merkel? I'm just trying to understand how you recruited parents for this committee. And the reason I'm asking is because there's forty nine forty nine Rochester Community Schools staff, either teachers or administrators. And dos, that's two for the user who don't speak Spanish. Two,
parents. And it makes one wonder how we went about advertising for this, setting it up. Because I'm gonna tell you right now, every time I logged on to your website today to try and find the information, every time I went forward or back a page, I got a big block that said, hey, guess what? We're hiring. We're hiring. We're hiring. Every time until I looked down in the corner with my bad eyes, I'm getting older, and I saw a little spot that said, don't ask me this question again, or don't show this to me again on your web page. Every time I tiled one way or the other,
switch windows, it asked me. It told me you were hiring. So my question would be to the board members, to your HR person, how did you get two people? And how did people even know that this was going out? Thank you. Mister Marco, we'll have someone we'll have someone reach out to you tomorrow to get you an answer on that. Is there any other public comment at this time? John Tenney. I got three kids in the district. Out of the 27 new hires, how many were therapists? And why do we need so many extra therapists? We're losing 16 teachers.
We're hiring 27, and most of them are therapists. That just doesn't seem to correlate to me. And and the other thing is this district wide committee, is that to help teachers figure out how to teach? What what's what's the purpose of that committee? Those are my two questions. And do you guys have an answer? We if you fill out a yellow card with your information, someone will give you a call tomorrow to give you the answers to those. Go figure. Okay. Any other public comment at this point? Okay. From the board, anything? Alright. The motion to the citizens who requested placement on the agenda,
Douglas Nickel. Hi. Good evening. I'm Doug Nicole. I'm a local resident. You know what, Doug? I'm sorry. I I apologize. I failed to reread these notes here, so I wanna make sure I do my job. We're going to begin the public comment portion of the meeting with those students who have requested placement on the agenda. For those who wish to do so in the future, there is a form under the Board of Education portion of our website. Those requests are due by noon on the Wednesday prior to our meeting. Meeting. This will then be followed by those who filled out the yellow cards to speak. If you haven't done that,
those are in the back and you can bring them forward. When addressing the board, you will have three minutes to speak. We will let you know when you have thirty seconds remaining. Please be mindful of this time limit out of respect for all those, all the members of the public who wish to address the board. When addressing the board, please state your name and your relationship to the district. Please address your comments to the entire board and not to individual board members, the superintendent, or other school district employees or members of the audience. We reserve the right to exclude from our meeting an individual who engages in conduct that constitutes a breach of the peace, including behavior that is intemperate.
As I mentioned earlier in this meeting, because this is a business meeting of the board, we will not be answering direct questions tonight. We will, however, make sure someone follows up with you to address your concerns if they have not already been addressed. Thank you. Sorry about that, Mr. Nickel. I figured I'd sit. I wasn't not sure how long that would take. Yes, I know. My name is Doug Nickel. I'm a local resident twenty five years yes, twenty five years now, a local business owner and a forensic engineer. A few months ago, I see you guys for a little summer homework, and in their discussion about the five whys.
People ask, why are some of the residents upset? Why are they a little aggressive? I kinda hope that the board would have taken that little project on over the summer. I don't know if anybody did. I hope you did. Because in a way, you know, nobody gets a perfect 10 out of 10. There's always room for improvement. And, I don't want anybody to think that we don't have any issues. Everybody has issues everywhere you work. There's always room for improvement. The other month, two months ago, sorry, I forget which board member, they felt threatened from a meme that was online, something about if you feel the heat. That's not a threat.
I think that's just being on point. People are upset. People are coming after these seats that are will be open this November. I think you should be aware that they are upset and they do speak for a reason. For example, I got Carol, Beth, Dennis and Andrew. They've been coming up for long as I can remember questioning the board, which is their due diligence and their due right to. But then every time I speak, I never get a reply from the board. No. Hey. No. Wait. No. You know? But, you know, that's room for improvement.
That's what builds some of the contentment from the students, the parents, and the spectators here. Nothing's being followed up. And if you do that, maybe it might work out a little bit easier during these meetings. A little less of a question. Oh, by the way, this is my gift to you to the folks, this pedestal, I've asked twice to have one up here, so I went out and bought one. Please have it available in the future. Thanks. Thank you, Mr. Nickel. Next up, we have Brandy Broadbent. And after that is Monica DuPont. Hi.
I'm Brandy Broadbent, mother of Elise Broadbent, fourth grader at University Hills, and Mikaela Broadbent, eighth grader, at West. I'm speaking as a concerned member of the community regarding the gun violence problem in our area. The tragedy that took place in November at Oxford High School is but one horrific example of what can happen when unsecured firearms are available to impulsive children. In addition, this spring, a 13 year old Grand Rapids boy was killed when he and a buddy were playing with an unsecured firearm. We, sadly, have had many similar unintentional death incidents in Michigan in the last twelve months.
In 2021, there were at least 17 unintentional shootings by children in Michigan, placing it among the five states with the highest number of such shootings in a year. Seven of these shootings in Michigan last year resulted in death. In The US, firearms are the number one leading cause of death for children and teens. How can we help families in our community keep our kids safe? I believe it is by teaching parents about gun safety. Children cannot be relied on to exercise caution around guns. Their immature brains do not permit them to make reasoned decisions. It is on us,
the adults, to make sure that guns are stored and used safely. The Be Smart educational campaign was developed to reduce the deaths, injuries, and trauma that result when children gain access to unsecured firearms. The program emphasizes that secure storage is always the adult's responsibility and encourages individuals to take five simple steps to keep kids and families safer. Secure guns in homes and vehicles. Model responsible behavior around guns. Ask about the presence of guns in other homes, recognize the role of guns in suicide,
and tell your peers to be smart. Be smart also has printed and digital materials that can be sent home to every family in the district with the message. Right now, our volunteers are inviting our school districts, PTA organizations, and school communities to join us by enforcing school safety by reducing the risk of threats on school grounds by doing the following: Share the Be Smart website as a resource regularly. Offer regularly scheduled Be Smart presentations for families and educators. Distribute or send home Be Smart or Safe Storage information to district parents.
Pass the Safe Storage Resolution at the board level. The following school districts in Michigan have passed secure firearm storage resolutions since 12/01/2021. Troy, Grosse Pointe, Oxford, Roseville, West Bloomfield, Southfield, Plymouth Canto, Royal Oak, Birmingham, and Bloomfield. They are implementing these policies effective immediately. I am asking our district to stand up for our children's safety and be brave leaders in the safe storage policy. Thank you. Thank you very much. Monica DuPont? Hi. Good evening. My name is Monica DuPont.
I am a parent in the district. And I want to thank the board for their time and services, volunteers, the community. And thank you for your attention to what brings me here tonight. So this is my first time here. I have a child starting kindergarten in a week. And as a parent of a couple small children, I have been really concerned about the effects of gun violence on children and the safety of our community as a whole. Gun violence is now the leading cause of death for children and teens in America. And in Michigan, firearms are the second leading cause of death among children and teens.
I do not want to see it become number one in our state. In an average year, twelve hundred people die and three thousand five hundred people are injured by guns in Michigan. And we lose ninety children, on average, who die every year from gun violence. At least 30% of Michigan households have at least one gun. So it's not uncommon for people to have guns in their household here in our community. With gun ownership comes enormous responsibility, and guns must be stored safely. Future incidents can be deterred if the opportunity isn't available. And guns are stored securely 100% of the time.
Be Smart is a nationwide campaign created to educate parents and adults in their community about safe gun storage. It's specific about what safe storage means, and it raises awareness that there are guns in the community. This is about teaching and reminding parents about gun safety, which is securing guns and demonstrating responsible behavior around guns. It's normalizing the question that parents may need to ask if there are guns in other homes and recognizing the role of guns in suicide. Sadly, over eighty percent of child firearm suicides involve a gun belonging to a family member.
And it's telling others and continuing to have a dialogue about guns. Many of our neighboring districts, including Troy and Oxford, have already issued safe safe storage resolutions, sending home secure storage information and requiring parents to acknowledge the receipt of that information at the start of the school year. And I've also heard that Lake Orion is in the process of maybe distributing information soon. So I don't want to leave a gaping hole in a greater community where our CS students are not protected. With guns as early as one cause of death now for children,
doing nothing is not an option. That's why I urge the board to consider a similar resolution for RCS. I would really love for our district to send home materials to every family in the district and ensure that that message is received. This is about child safety, our community, and the public interest. Thank you. Now we have several people who would like to make comments. Dana Cadman, if you could come forward. And then after that, Karen Reynolds. Good evening. Dana Cadman, parent of two former RCS students. I'm here because I'm asking because I was doing some research on the Internet trying
to find the duties and responsibilities of the board trustees. I found the information on the websites of Rochester Life, Rochester Patch, the Oakland County Times. I did not find it on the RCS Board of Education website. So I got curious. I looked around at some other Board of Education websites. I found the duties and responsibilities clearly displayed either on the front page or from a link that was clearly displayed on the the front page. In addition, I also found the application to become a trustee, the process to become a trustee, the timeline to become a trustee,
information that was also absent from the RCS Board of Education website. So I was wondering if before well, actually, when we meet next time, could you get an estimate from either the IT department or communications department when they could put that information on the website. And I'm not asking that it be completed by the next meeting, but can we get an estimate? When could this information be made available? I'm a former web developer. The updates should take about sixty to seventy five minutes. So I was just wondering if we could get that information uploaded to the website.
The other question I have is where in the world is Scott Muska? Thank you. I apologize. Thank you, mister Kidman. Karen Reynolds. Hi. I'm Karen Reynolds. I've been in the district thirty nine years. Both daughters have graduated through from Rochester High School. After, the shooting in in Oxford in November, I got much more involved. And I'm involved with the Be Smart program, and I really strongly encourage you've heard all of the statistics from Brandy and Monica I strongly encourage the board to be brave.
And, because safe storage creates safer kids and safer schools. And I found and it reduces the chance of impulsive suicides. Our kids don't have the intelligent brains to make a permanent decision, and a gun makes a permanent decision for them. So if things are stored safely, I think parents need to take the the important step of being told to store their guns safely. Thank you for your time.
Thank you. I have a yellow card here, Brandy, for you. Was this from before? Thank you. I have Stephanie Van Dale, and she'll be followed by Andrew Weaver. My name is Stephanie Vandell, and I am a taxpayer for the district. I think it is completely disgusting that this district would use the digital ticketing service golf ban. I think it is sad that this district, in all of the money that is sloshing around, to charge people
a 16.7% fee to support their students or their classmates during a sports event. For me, it smacks of one more way to get rid of parents. For the kids, it's just one more way of limiting school participation. I do not find it to be a way to build a community. For some parents struggling in this current recession recession economy, no matter how much Joe Biden says that it's not a recession, it is a recession. And watching every single penny,
dollars 5 plus any kind of service fee is a lot of money. You have every single economic situation in this district. This new system is not equitable. It is the furthest thing from equitable. And where in the world is Scott Muska? Thank you. Mister Weaver? And followed by that, mister Tenney. So I'm Andrew Weaver. I have two sons at Brooklands. So the conversation around gun violence is one that needs to be had. Asking the school to push one,
group's one nonprofit's message is probably not the right way to have that conversation. It probably needs to be an open, honest dialogue. But if we wanna talk about what really keeps our kids at risk, it's the lack of accountability within our district. Number of teachers have reached out to me to say they are not able to hold students accountable for behavior issues primarily. And that this generally comes from the office of the DEI department is pushing that down. And so unacceptable behavior, which our teachers are more than qualified to manage their classrooms,
are undermined, which leads to, again, out of control behavior going unchecked. This leads to elementary students being stabbed with a pencil and nothing happened. So again, we have to deal with the issues that are within the school district. Political issues, societal issues need to be handled through the proper channels, which is through elections, through legislation. It is not the school's role. But when students are being stabbed with pencils and there's no accountability for that, that's a problem. When students are threatened in the high school cooking class with a knife,
and that student is not removed because they cannot be held accountable when when kids are going to the principal, saying that they're scared is not accountability. We have to reestablish common sense. We have to reestablish standards, expectations, and holding people to those expectations. Most of the employees of Rochester show up and want to do a good job. But when teachers say they are not able to hold students accountable, not able to manage their classroom, and we say a political ideology is gonna be the way to teach them to do it, that makes no sense. That is condescending to our professional teachers.
The ones that have taught and done a good job and made this district what it is. So we continue to see the decline in standards. We see the decline in enrollment. We see good educators leaving the district. And yet, we have no accountability, do we? When does something change? This November, something can change. Mr. Tenney? Yeah. As far as gun safety and the B Safe program, I'm totally against that. I don't think the government needs to be involved in the messing with the Michigan constitution. Especially school districts should not be messing with the Michigan constitution,
which clearly lays out what guns are permitted and not permitted for parents to have. As far as I'm concerned, my uncles brought their rifles to school, just over in Farmington Hills. It was not that long ago. Guns is not the problem. It's the way that the curriculum is laid out that goes against the constitution federally, Michigan constitution. You guys stand up and pledge your allegiance, but yet you do not even uphold a pledge because you're pledging your allegiance to under God and to a,
republic. But you guys do not teach nor do you uphold any standard of a republic. Nor do you guys teach or uphold that there is a God or one that we need to stand accountable for at the end of life. So as long as you teach kids that they came from Lagoon to Zoo to you, then they're not gonna have any value for life. So life is not gonna have any meaning. Guns is just a way to eliminate the chaos. It's not the gun's fault. Be safe program is not the answer. It's proper education that would be the
answer. Carol Beth Lecui. I'm Carol. I have two kids in the district. Yeah. I'm I'm really sad because we need to stop the decline. There's been a decline in enrollment, a decline in academics, and a decline in teachers. I was surprised to see that we've lost 400 students in our district since the 2019 school year. That's about $3,500,000 who are leaving our district. Many of them have been with our district less than five years. We have to wonder why is this happening. There's been an abuse of power in our district. We saw with Elena DiVerno's lawsuit that our superintendent and our assistant superintendent have called
up parents' employers on multiple occasions to complain about them. And in June, our board of education unanimously voted to renew the contract of our assistant superintendent, as well as two of the other people who spent about 70% of their time on social media compiling those posts. And, when I went to chat with the board earlier, the board members who were there recognized that it is wrong to call parents' employers and complain about them. But they admitted they still renewed those contracts. And as a result,
nothing has happened. There's been no apology, no acknowledgment, no firing, nothing. So what do we do about this? We really need board of education members who are willing to speak openly, who are willing to hold the district accountable when necessary, who are willing to ask questions and listen to the community in a meaningful way, and ask those questions. Why are teachers and families leaving the district? I've heard from a lot of parents and teachers too. And I agree with Andrew. We need clear policies, because that helps protect everyone.
We need transparency. We need to use common sense. We need to use curriculum that's independently peer reviewed. We've also heard problems from other parents and teachers I have about the Lucy Calkins literacy program that's being used. The balanced literacy is it's got lots of flaws. So I've been hearing from people. I've been hearing from our community, and I want to advocate for you. And if you're a parent or teacher in our district, please reach out. I want to listen, and I want to brain storm ideas on how I can better advocate for you
and help fix what's broken, because I love our district. And I want to restore it and make it the best it can be. It's a great place to live, and I love Rochester. John Markle. Good evening. This one's a tough one for me on gun violence. I've seen gun violence. I've known people who have been basically, they've had gun violence taken down on brought down on them. And so it sounds good to say, you know, that we need to have a, we need to talk about safe,
safety and locking up your guns and so on. I agree 100%. My firearms are locked up at my home. They always have been. Make no bones about it. As I told a Romanian border guard one day, I had several. And he asked me, Several? And I said, Yes, several. How many are several? I said, It's none of your business. They're all in the state of Michigan. He didn't need to know how many I had. But I think the thing that we really need to understand is that if kids are killing themselves, they're going to do it whether they have a gun, whether they have a rope, whether they sit in the garage and start their car up.
They're gonna kill them whether they run into an abutment at a 100 miles an hour on the side of I-seventy 5. They are going to want to kill themselves. The gun happens to be the application method. The mental health of the person is the issue. So to spend school resources, to send things home, to pass another useless resolution doesn't do any good. If you wanna have real conversations, then have real conversations with people. Knock on doors. Talk to them about it. Say this is a problem. They say twenty two veterans in this country kill themselves every day.
The problem with statistics is that number is not even accurate because the state of Michigan doesn't count whether or not a person who commits suicide was a veteran. So the statistic in the state of Michigan is actually not correct. That's a problem. Police departments don't have to report anything through to the FBI. That's a problem. So the FBI comes out with their great big statistical database. I love looking through it, by the way. Thirty seconds. Interesting. But the fact of the matter is, the data is only as good as the information they get.
The last thing I will tell you was this. I learned gun safety at the right hip of my father. He shot a rabbit. It didn't die. I had to use a shovel to kill it. It was breathing seconds before that. You don't need to descend things. Moving on to any additional comments from the members of the administration. Thank you, Madam Treasurer. Just real quickly, first and foremost, I want to send out our deep gratitude to all the custodial crews and the construction crews that are working diligently across the district and all the different projects.
The district looks great and we're ready to take kids back. Had a great conversation with the custodian at the Administration Building this morning. He was talking about how much how great the terrazzo floors at Hart Middle School looked and it really encouraged me to go see his work over there and we really appreciate all of them. Bus drivers have been working hard doing their runs and getting trained up and we appreciate their hard work as well. We had, we are bus driver Kevin, give our new teachers a bus tour that I was able to narrate, and we had a great time with that and,
really appreciate his hard work and all of our support staff across the district. And we really look forward to having our staff back on Wednesday and having our opening day. And I wanna make sure we, we show gratitude to everyone that's worked so hard in bringing, doctor Clinton in and to be able to have a panel with our teachers and and really, really celebrate celebrate the art and profession of teaching. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Schallen. Thank you, board members and Doctor. Shaner. It's been a very exciting time, of year for our teachers, our administrators, our support staff, as we prepare to welcome students back to school on Monday,
August 29. On Wednesday of this week, as Doctor. Schoenher mentioned, our colleagues will join together for a day of professional development and learning, where the theme will be igniting passion, growth, and a love of learning. During the training sessions, we will discuss how our meaningful relationships do indeed impact our students, enable the deepest learning possible. Our staff will also be reviewing safety and security practices and processes in-depth to provide for the health and well-being of our school community.
The Community Schools Foundation premier fundraiser, the Hometown Hustle, is scheduled to take place on Saturday, September 17. Individuals of all ages are invited to support this treasured community tradition. In addition to the five ks loop this year, the RCS Foundation has added a one mile superhero color run. Both courses will begin at the site of our generous spa sponsor, Chief Financial Credit Union in Rochester. Community members can visit the district website to find out more about how to register.
Finally, our student volunteers have been working really hard this summer, developing their leadership skills and creating new opportunities to Welcome our sixth and eighth graders to their new school buildings. Through our district peer mentoring program, our students at our middle and our high school levels are building relationships with new students to help ensure a transition. This past week, the student mentors made personal phone calls, created welcome signs, provided tours at the school, and shared helpful tips that can support a student's academic,
physical, Well, we've been doing this for a while, and it's been a in a high priority. And at the crux of it is connections and relationships. Connections and relationships. So what you'll see across our secondary schools is mentorship programs, students helping students getting ready for high school and middle school, and really having some fun with it too. There you can see that, many of our middle school students today are spending time making signs, getting ready to welcome those sixth graders. Our staff are thinking of, of fun things they can do with kids to welcome them and make them feel comfortable and to build those relationships within the schools so they can come and really focus on academics because they're comfortable.
When we connect with the mentees, we, take them on a tour of the school, get them familiar with all the of their classes, their lockers, play games, and really just have a fun time. Anytime that you have students helping students, it creates a support network that really gets to be broadened throughout the school year. So if someone's struggling or someone that needs help or simply they need to have some fun together and plan for a weekend event or plan for for any kind of project in school that might be challenging. They can work together and support one another. So we made we made really some intentional work out of our social emotional initiatives,
and, again, it started with relationships and connections. And so we often we often spend our first bit of time with students and with each other, getting to know each other, getting to know each other's story, and being able to support each other because we know each other's background and we respect it. Our staff's a critical component to all of this, whether it's our teachers, whether it's our counselors, our social workers, right down to our bus drivers. This is an entire district initiative where we always wanna build connections and relationships with kids first and give them a really comfortable and respectful environment to learn in.
We hope that we have strong enough relationships that when a student is in need, we can, connect them with the the right adult. We can also have students support them and encourage them to seek out that that adult contact. We're just so very proud of all of our programs here at Rochester Community Schools, in particular, our social emotional initiatives to make sure that we approach the whole child and make sure every child feels safe, valued, and respected. And, everyone gets into the swing of things next Monday. And leading into that, I have several announcements. Next Monday, August 29, is the first day of school.
It's a half day for all students. August 30 is a full day for students in grades one through 12 and for our adult transitional what's the P stand for? Program. Adult transitional program. But the TK and kindergarten will only report, they'll have I think it's a half day, isn't it? They'll have a half day for names starting A through M. That's on Tuesday. On Wednesday, August 31, it'll be a full day again for grades one through 12 and the adult transitional program. But TK and kindergarten will have a half day and only those with last names
starting with N through Z will attend. September 1 will be the first full day of school for everyone throughout the district. September, there will be no school for Labor Day recess. September 6, classes resume. September 12 is the next Board of Education regular meeting at 7PM here. And then on September 17 is the hometown. A second? From Joe. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? We're adjourned. Thank you.