You are live. Alright. We're live. I'd like to call to order the, truth in budgeting hearing of the Rochester Community Schools Board of Education. We'll start with a roll call. All members are present except for Andrea, who is absent with notice. We have one item on this hearing agenda, and it is the truth in taxation and budget hearing item. This is an informational item. Matt Matt McDaniel, executive director of business operations. You wanna just set it to table? Might that'd probably work a little easier. Right now?
Oh, there we go. Alright. So, tonight's presentation, we first look at the taxation piece and then we'll take a look at at the budget. So to start off, we'll we'll begin with the truth in taxation, hearing. We can move to the next slide. We'll look at, taxable values. And this is, broken out by category, homestead, industrial personal, commercial personal, and non homestead. Overall, you'll see that, taxable values increased from 2021 to 2020. Overall about 4.4%, with the largest being industrial personal. You'll see a 921% increase. That's related to,
par pharmaceuticals. And these numbers are provided by the Oakland County equalization. On our next slide, we'll take a look at this by municipality. You'll see increases, in taxable values, for each municipality. Orion Township being the largest one. The Parr Pharmaceuticals increase, was related to the city of Rochester. So you'll also see an increase in the city of Rochester. And again here, 4.4% increase. If we take a look at the next slide, the non homestead operating millage, six mills and then 18 mills. This is the the local portion of our $8,529
that we received from the state. The millages will be levied at 50% in the summer and 50% in the winter. And, due to Headley, the millage reduction factor, the current authorized millage is 18.5431 mills. However, we are limited or capped at 18 mills. And this is a ten year millage that expires 12/31/2024. And and again, this provides the local portion of state aid at $8,529 per pupil. And state aid payments from the state begin, in October of each year.
Next, we'll look at, the extra voted millage. So we have debt retirement as well as the sinking fund. We only have two issues of debt, the 2,016 building and site bonds, series one and series two. The series one is levied at one point o eight mills with the series two being levied at point five six mills. We also have the sinking fund that was approved in November, 2019 by voters. This is also reduced by the heavy reduction fraction. So that fraction for this year is point $9.09 $0.05 mils. It expires in 12/31/2029.
And, for the current year sinking fund, 1.4732 mills. History, going back to 2013, you'll see, previously, we had just the debt millage in addition to the non operating homestead millage. That millage was 6.7 mills in 2013, hovered about around six mills until 2018, and then the debt millage started decreasing, in 2018. For 2021, 1.64 mills, and then the single fund, 1.4732 mills for a total of 3.1132 mills. So what does that do for revenue,
these tax rates? When we look at general operations, debt retirement, and the sinking fund, you'll see that there's a decrease overall, down to 38,500,000.0. This decrease is related to debt retirement, and we had two bond issues that were extinguished. So we we just have the two, twenty sixteen bond, series one and series two. And, the other increases for general operations and sinking fund are related to increases in taxable value. Any questions on the taxation part of the hearing? Any questions or comments from the board? I don't think so.
Well, I guess I I would just say I mean, obviously, based on the prior slide, we're doing our job and maintaining and working and doing the best we can with the money because we are decreasing our millage to our community, but maintaining our services. Is that correct? Correct. We had a unique opportunity that, we had four bond issues that were falling off, over the course of a couple years that we were able to, have the sinking fund without a a tax increase overall. And, as you said, Michelle, and you can see from the numbers that that overall millage is is down to
3.3 mills that had been six mills, in previous years or higher. Any other question or comment from the board? Alright. Alright. So next, we'll have the, the budget portion of this presentation. As every as the board's aware and the administration, we had a, a long work session in May on May 17 where we went through these budgets in detail. But just to recap, here were some of our priorities, balance and equitable spending plan that's sustainable, team based approach. COVID had an impact on this budget and will continue to have an impact on future budgets with the availability of resources, emphasis on maximizing operational efficiencies,
use of fund balance responsibility. And, you know, we hit on it a lot at that work session one time COVID nineteen funding that we have now, but it's not sustainable and as we use it, won't be replenished. We can move to the next slide. The budget must be approved by the Board of Education by 07/01/2021 in accordance with state law. This budget is based on a series of assumptions. At this point in time, we don't know student count. We don't know the foundation allowance. We don't have a state budget for next year. So here's our current assumptions. Maintaining current enrollment levels based on our fall two thousand,
'20 count, per pupil funding decrease of $65 this was consistent through the three proposals, at the house, the senate, and the governor. Though, you know, that may change by the time we get to an actual, approved budget. We went back to the traditional membership blend of 90% of the current fall count and 10% of the prior spring count. And then we're also assuming that there's no additional one time COVID nineteen funding and that we return to a closer to normal, school year next year. And we'll align general fund expenditures with budgeted revenue as best we can.
However, there are annual contractual increases, benefit increases. You know, there's other increases in this budget, but there's also the reduction of one time COVID nineteen funding, with the probably one of the largest examples being the 5,400,000.0 in, coronavirus relief funds that we received, in August 2020 to offset a reduction in state aid for the nineteen-twenty year. You go to the next slide. This is kinda small, but this is, again, is the budget that was presented for the general fund at the May 17 work session. We presented that budget in detail.
And then on the next slides, we'll talk a little bit about, the budget, just some some higher level information here. You'll see the the proposed budget for 2122, almost 185,000,000. Total expenditures of almost 187,000,000 or 1,800,000 use of fund balance for the '20, 2122 school year. So if we can move to the next slide, you'll see the history going back to 2011, that revenue had exceeded expenditures, beginning in 2016. For '21 and '22, we expect that expenditures or budgeting for expenditures to exceed revenue by about 1,800,000.0.
And then on the next slide, you'll see what that does to general fund, fund balance overall. A decrease in '21 '22. However, that net fund balance is above the 17.5%. Alright. Here are the other budgets that we presented on May 17. There are no material changes to any of these budgets. And I think our next slide is any questions on those budgets. I know we we spent a lot of time on it in May. Any questions or comments from the board? Mike. Yeah. I think it's just a comment, Matt. I'm you know, I don't think anybody's happy that we're in deficit spending.
You know, a million 8 out of, fund balance for two years. I don't think we had much choice in the matter. And as I look at your budget, it's pretty clear that you're looking at it at a very worst case scenario as I would expect you to. So I'm good with what you're showing. And I know that as things move along, it'll probably get better. Yeah. This time last year, we didn't have a state budget, and we wouldn't receive a state budget until September 30, right, three months into our our our fiscal year.
So we went, you know, three months without knowing what that budget was gonna be. We're always conservative and we'll continue to be conservative. But, the overall fund balance, the position that this board and administration have put the district in to continue to or to have grown that fund balance to that level over the course of the last five years, enables us to to make a decision like this, especially if there is no, increases coming in. But, it's hard to say where that's gonna be. Signs seem to be positive that there will be increases, but, nothing official at this time. Any other questions or comment from the board on the truth in budgeting information before
we move on? Any public comment on the truth in budgeting information? Alright. Seeing none, we'll close the hearing, and I'll take a motion to adjourn the hearing at 07:04PM. Moved by Michelle, seconded by Kevin, and we are adjourned. Alright. Let's call to order our regular meeting of the Board of Education at 07:05PM, and we will begin with, the pledge of allegiance. Good evening. Welcome to the public regular meeting of the Rochester Community Schools Board of Education. To those gathered here in person and to those watching us on YouTube live,
we are grateful to serve this community and happy to have you here. We have several ways for the public to engage during our public meetings. First, members of the public can request to be on our agenda. Tonight, one member of the public has made that request. There's a form on our website for those who are interested in the future. Second, at the end of the meeting, we do have time for public comments. To participate, please fill out a yellow card, which is on the table over here and hand it to someone on the end of the table. When you're addressing the board, you have three minutes to speak. We'll let you know when you have thirty seconds remaining. 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. Please refrain from behavior that is in temperate, abusive, defamatory, or discourteous, or or that otherwise interferes with the orderly conduct and timely completion of the board meeting. We reserve the right to exclude from our meeting an individual who engages in conduct that constitutes a breach of the peace. We will not be answering direct questions or responding to comments tonight. We'll make sure someone follows up with you to address your questions or concerns. Yielding time or otherwise giving time to a speaker to extend the three minute period
by another person shall not be permitted. And on behalf of my colleagues on the board, we are grateful to serve this community, and we appreciate the support. So, getting on with our meeting, our first item is roll call. All members are present except for Andrea Walker Leedy who is absent with notice. And our first item is spotlight on success. Laurie Grime. Yep. There we go. Thank you so much. Even during a pandemic, we have so much to celebrate at Rochester Community Schools. From our Highlander Helping Hands program to the Try High Charity Week and Reuther Kindness
Club to ensuring our students have access to technology, food, and a sense of belonging, we are proud of how our community has joined together to provide hope, inspiration, and love. To showcase some of our shining moments and honor the outstanding work of our students, families, staff, and community partners, we have compiled a video to share with you this evening. I hope you enjoy it. So I decided to do the helping hands program because I just really like being able to help kids and, like, help them, I guess, learn more as they grow up.
I just saw, like, an opportunity that I thought would be really fun I definitely don't hear. For me. You know, like, if we had to, like, do school at home, then we just, like, stay at home all day. We don't have really anyone to see. Like but now that, like, with the helping hands program, we got to see Will. It helped with quarantine because every week, we would always have someone to talk to and So I decided to do the helping hands program because I just really like being able to help kids and, like, help them, I guess, learn more as they grow up. I just saw, like, an opportunity that I thought would be really fun both for the boys and for
me. Yeah. Like, if we had to, like, do school at home, then we just, like, stay at home all day. We don't have really anyone to see. Like but now that, like, with the Helping Hands program, we got to see Will. It helped with quarantine because every week we would always have someone to talk to and, like, say what we've been doing over the weekend or, like, in school, what's happening. For me, like, mentoring kids means, like, I remember specific people in my life that really helped me, like, grow up and learn. So I guess just being that person for someone else is really,
like, important to me. National School of Character, and I really think that fits with this school because, I mean, I was new here in seventh grade, and I immediately felt welcomed, and I was able to, like, make new friends, and I just felt that, like, everyone was so, like, nice and kind. And even if I was struggling, like, I could get help from people that I didn't even really know. And so I feel like we really do show, like, that we have good character and that we did that we did deserve to and win this season. Through your hard work and your leadership, we have an important announcement. Without further ado.
So appreciate your hard work in in very difficult and arduous times. You know, we often talk about our compelling why in education, why we do what we do, right? And it's a really important question to ask yourself throughout life. And you definitely you definitely communicated your compelling why about Charity Week and and how you wanna support the community in a in a really, really important cause. As we come out of the pandemic, I think we're gonna find out that, that the mental health and mental health support and social emotional wellness is gonna be critical to to us growing and moving forward,
and your support for that is so critically so critically important. I can say this year that I think I am the closest I've ever been to my families. I have seen a peek inside their homes. They've seen a peek inside mine. They've got to see kind of a peek behind the the scope and sequence, how we teach, how we get from point a learning letters and sounds to readers and writers at the end of the year. I have seen resilience in Rochester community schools this year everywhere. I've seen it from my fellow staff members who have gone above and beyond trying
out new instructional strategies. I've seen it in my students who have not even skipped a beat. I've seen it in the parents who have become my co teachers this year, who have worked harder than they ever have. I've just been impressed across the board with how much everyone has committed to the school year. As I sit and reflect upon this last school year, I think the thing that stands out to me the most is just how, amazing the teachers are from the online learning to remote learning to transitioning to in person but social distancing.
I remember in the early days stopping by to pick up materials and being surprised there were crafts, supplies for an online Zoom party so the kids didn't miss out. The teachers just really pumping them up and looking forward to it and to now being back at school and transitioning to having things like virtual field trips in the classroom. But I think the thing for me that's the most remarkable is my daughter's first grade progress in reading, and her teacher has just simply been remarkable remarkable and amazing. And I am so grateful for all that she's poured into her this year and,
that she's heading off into second grade, a secure reader. They just continually went above and beyond, and I am so grateful to be in this district. It really actually helped me lead to, like, actually what I wanna do, and I just came to really enjoy the process of researching and dissecting things. And I, like, learned that from your class, and I learned that from you. I'm gonna leave my whole essay surrounded by things I've learned from your class. Like, I to tell, like, you are literally the foundation of, like, what I wanna do and who I wanna be when I grow up. I swear to you.
So I just appreciate, like, that opportunity and, like, the relationship you need to build with me and, like, the confidence that I can be able to. In order to ensure learning continued in a remote, virtual, and in classroom environment, Rochester Community Schools deployed over 11,000 Chromebooks in a matter of nine or 10 mass deployments. During that time, we had teams of our technology services staff, our assistant principals, principals, teachers, retired teachers, secretaries, counselors, paraeducators,
safe ed. Our custodial staff brought pallets of devices to our mass deployment areas. Our technology services team came together along with our paraeducators and our Safe Ed team to unbox all of those Chromebook devices. We had them inventoried, labeled, and enrolled into the system, and we're able to provide those to our students. Our ILS has created a family technology support page found on our district website to help parents and students with this initiative. We are exceptionally grateful to our police liaisons who hand deliver devices to students' homes
to those families who are not able to come to those mass deployment days. We are thankful for our team for coming together to provide our students with one to one devices. Well, from the beginning of the pandemic when we transitioned to feeding kids, from the curb, side, we each building had their own plan and had a list of volunteers. And the volunteers included teachers, principals, board of education, administrators, safe ed, and our own staff. With such uncertainty, you know, which way to go, we were pivoting, we were making decisions on the fly, we were transitioning,
very quickly, and we felt vulnerable in some ways, but then our staff, like, cream rises to the top. They were so supportive with such changes, and we were, you know, able to deliver these meals in a new way. We were able to adapt and move forward and provide nutritious meals for our community. Well, the kids have been absolutely amazing, from the beginning. We the buildings were eerily quiet as we were preparing food and feeding them from the curbside. It was just a a strange feeling. And then to get them all the way back is just it's I can't explain
how happy it makes all of us to see their faces coming through the line for lunch and breakfast every day. I am so very thankful to have such an amazing band director like mister Urig to bring the bands together again after a long time in quarantine. He really glued our family back together after COVID and piece by piece put together an amazing season. One thing I really liked were the jazz band clinics that none of us were able to experience before, and I'm so thankful he was able to pull everyone together,
all three schools to come at festival and perform for the Michigan College band directors. Hi. I'm a senior at Stoney Creek High School. This year was something that we did not anticipate coming. It was definitely different than any other years previous to it. But I know with sports and athletics and with football that we were very wary on whether or not we would get a season. And, I was just very appreciative that the district pushed for us to be able to have a season, especially for football and especially for wrestling,
that we were they pushed for us to be able to have season. I ended up having the honestly, the best seasons of my life playing sports at Stony this year. And it was something that I didn't think was gonna happen. And so with that effort from the district, I was just thrilled that I was able to come to fruition. Then with then with school, just school in general. We were we were online for the first semester and everything. We we weren't sure if we were gonna get that connection back with friends that we used to have in school and with with in person learning that just that
atmosphere that's there. And so the district second semester came around, and they were pushing for us to get back into the building for us to be able to have a better learning experience with our teachers, for us to be with our friends. And we ended up getting that second semester, and it's honestly something that was great for us, I believe. It helped me a lot with school. And seeing my friends was something I thought I wasn't gonna get to do again in school. So that I was so glad that we got to do that. And then as a senior, I know that they pushed for us to be able to have honors convocation and
prom and everything. And I was so happy that they pushed for that because we know that we we didn't expect anything, you know. So having to actually get it from that something even though outside same time as convocation, they made it something special for us. And I'm just so appreciative that the district took the steps even though that they may not have knew what was was gonna happen or end up coming out of it, that they that they pushed for us and for all the activities for all grades across to all levels of education. So from the bottom of my heart,
thank you. Thank you. I love that video. Thank you for putting together that highlight video of our school year and showcasing all of the positive things. That was a surprise. I didn't know we were gonna have that, so I really like that way to start this meeting. Next up, our meeting agenda, communications. Item 4.1, secretary Michelle, tell us about our communications. Good evening. The Board of Education received five email communications that were sent through the RCS website since the previous meeting. We received emails from community member Ed Wright, who contacted the board regarding the Administration Building.
District parent Cara Burgess contacted the board regarding sharing a teacher appreciation letter, and district parent Jessica Offert sent three emails to the board. One was regarding COVID case reporting. One had questions regarding the total number of students quarantined in the 2021 school year, instructional time loss, and recovery plan. And the third was regarding board policy to responding to questions. In addition, we also received three emails that did not go through the RCS website, and those included, ones from Kara and Mike Burgess, who shared a letter of appreciation for their child's fourth grade teacher,
Marissa Norris, one from Julie Stalker, who contacted the board regarding her statement at the June 7 board meeting regarding dyslexia and instruction for it, and one from Mark and Lisa Lisa Band, who content contacted us asking whether will there will be any restrictions due to COVID when students return in the fall. And I think that's the extent of our communications. Thank you. Next is item 4.2, citizens requesting placement on the agenda. Tonight, there is one citizen that has requested placement on the agenda, Andrew Weaver. So my name is Andrew Weaver. I have two sons in Brooklands.
So here we'll start with some numbers again. So we are officially at three hundred and eighty one days since the community has last been surveyed. And, again, as we stated, that was not a well done survey. It was a phone survey. It was not conclusive to everyone. Our superintendent stated there would be one done and after Christmas break, that was never conducted. Yet, no one on the board is pushed to have one done. Parents have been, again, asking for real dialogue, real input. Three hundred and eighty one days. Are we ever gonna get an answer to why that is? Are we ever gonna get anyone held accountable for not asking the community for their
input? We then recently had two announcements of principals at elementary schools. One of them is at Brooklyn. Again, no community input. Something that is done in other districts where there are broad community input. Yet, again, we see the practice is not being done in RCS. Thankfully, as parents, there is better dialogue that have been able to put politics aside and actually look for the common goal. Parents have absolutely shared concerns of what the new principal brings to Brooklands. So absolutely, we will continue to dig into that.
We have people that are being handpicked based on their allegiance to the leadership of the district, not the best interest of the students. It's actually very encouraging. The parents are willing to share and be honest with dialogue, something we continue to not see from the district. The district continues to do things that we saw in that last video. It borderlines on propaganda at this point, wanting to put forth just the good, handpicking, cherry picking one or two stories. How many third graders are looking at potentially being held back because they're not reading at grade level? Where are those numbers? It's not about being negative.
It's about being honest and addressing the problems that we see. The district also want the last meeting wants to continue to trumpet their successes being district success successes. While it said we've they fought to get us back in, I I think the superintendent listed out eight different criteria options to say, look at what we've done, and we've been back in school longer than others. But, again, had to have many asterisks next to it. When, again, there are schools in the state that have been back since the start of the year. Then we'll hear people up here say over 15,000.
So here, let's actually break the numbers down. At the elementary level, the average building, 377 students. Middle school, 720 schools. 720 students per building. High school, 1,385. So when it's a failure to provide instruction to quarantine students, that's the building's fault. That's the teacher's responsibility to figure that out on their own. When it's time to get kids back in school, why weren't the principals empowered to do that as well? Why if a building could figure it out for 377 students, were they not allowed to have their students back?
Sadly, it's because we have principals as well that saw their careers as more important. Just make sure they say yes men and yes women and move up instead of taking principal stands. At the end of the day wrap up, mister Weaver. When it was time to hold people responsible for providing instruction to quarantine students, again, that was a building responsibility, and the teachers didn't get it done. That's not that's not the truth. The district didn't get that done, and the district did not get our students back at the beginning of the year like they should have. Next item on the agenda. Item 4.3,
members of the board of education. Do any board members have any communication that wasn't already mentioned that you'd like to talk about? Seeing none, we will move on to the consent agenda. All items on all matters listed under the consent agenda are considered to be routine in nature by the board and will be acted upon by one motion. There'll be no separate discussion of these items. If any member of the board or any citizen request 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. Item 5.1, board of education meeting schedule for twenty twenty one,
twenty twenty two. Item 5.2, approval for Michelle Butel and Barb Anas to to attend the OCSBA annual awards banquet on June 16 in the in the amount of $70 from the general fund. Would any board member like to remove an item for discussion, or would any member of the public like to remove an item for discussion? Seeing none, I will take a motion to approve the consent agenda. All those moved by Mike, seconded by Kevin. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed? That's a six zero vote.
Next item is reports. We have one report, and that is this report on the school meal prices. Is that is that Matt? Okay. Go ahead, Matt. Thank you, madam president. Just a quick update. So in past years, at this point in time, we're typically required by the USDA to calculate meal prices for next year. They provide a paid lunch equity tool, a PLE tool, that determines what school lunch and school breakfast prices should be. Just to let the community know, there was a waiver by the USDA, so meals will continue to be free for the entirety of the 2122 school year.
Thank you. Thank you. Any questions or comments from the board on that? Michelle? Yeah, Matt. I just wondered, will the a la carte items be available next year, or will it be just the standard lunches? Yeah. As of right now, our plan is to return to a much more normal operation, which would include the a la carte items. Great. Good question. Any others? Alright. Appreciate that report. New business. We have several items under new business tonight, and we will start with item 7.1, extended COVID nineteen learning plan recertification. This is an action item, and I will turn this over to doctor Shaner.
Yes, madam president. Not much to report on this. This is a, perfunctory matter as we wrap up the school year. So we just ask the board to, for their consideration or their approval. Thank you. Thank you. I'll take a motion to approve the extended COVID nineteen learning plan recertification as presented. Moved by Barb, seconded by Mike. Any discussion on this or comments from the board? Michelle? I just wondered if we heard anything yet as to whether this will continue into next year. No. This is a continuation of the, the budget discussion at the state level. I've had multiple conversations with senator McMurro as well as representative Tisdale over the last
couple of weeks regarding that, and I'll keep you posted. Thank you. Any public comment on this item? Seeing none, we'll call for a vote. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed? That's a six zero vote. Next item on the agenda is item 7.2, human resources report. This is an action item, and I will turn this over to our chief human resources officer, Beth Davis. Thank you, madam president. This evening, we have resignations of two REA bargaining unit members, Christy McAllister, APPS teacher at the John Doctor. John Schultz campus.
She submitted her letter of resignation effective at the end of the year and has been with the district since August 2017. Sarah Rowe, school psychologist at MacGregor Elementary, submitted her letter of resignation also at the end of the school year. And she has been with the district since August 2013. We have four retirements at the end of the school year. Tracy Allen, kindergarten teacher at North Hill Elementary. She had been with the district since January 1998. Thomas Blue, choir teacher at Adams High School. He had been with the district since September 1987.
Victoria Ryder, third grade teacher at the virtual campus. She had been with the district since August 2008. And Sarah Smith, third grade teacher at Baldwin Elementary. And Ms. Smith had been with the district since August 1996. We have several recommendations for administrative appointments this evening. The first is appointment of the executive director of secondary education. We are recommending the appointment of Neil DeLuca as the executive director of secondary education. For more than seventeen years, Mr. DeLuca served the RCS students and families.
For the past six years, he has served as principal of Rochester High School. Prior to that, he was assistant principal social studies teacher and teacher leader at Rochester High. Mr. DeLucas currently pursuing a doctor of education degree in organization leadership excuse me, from Oakland University. He earned an education specialist degree from in leadership from Oakland University, a master of arts in teaching from Wayne State University, and a bachelor of arts degree in political science with a minor in history from Oakland University.
He is a graduate of the Aspiring Principles Academy at Oakland Schools. And in 2018, Mr. DeLuca was inducted into the esteemed Gerstacker Fellowship Program at Saginaw Valley State University. After, multiple interviews with many stakeholders over the course of about five weeks, the district is recommending two, elementary principal appointments. The first one is, the appointment of Sarah Crowley to the position of Brooklyn's elementary principal. Sarah has over twenty years of experience as an educator.
She's worked in Rochester Community Schools since 2012, first as a paraeducator, then a teacher, learning consultant, and this past year assisted the Hugger Elementary principal with managing daily administrative duties while serving as a learning consultant. Prior to coming to Rochester Community Schools, she was a dean at Taylor Exemplar Academy, as well as an elementary teacher in several schools. Ms. Crowley holds a master's degree in k twelve administration from Michigan State University and a bachelor's degree in elementary education from Eastern Michigan University.
We are also recommending the appointment of Tamara Jones Jackson to the position of North Hill Elementary principal. Tamara comes to Rochester Community Schools with over twenty two years of experience in education. She is currently principal and director of GSRP at eCourse Public Schools. And prior to that, she held administrative positions at Taylor Public Schools and Detroit Public Schools. Tamara is currently pursuing her PhD in Special Education Leadership from Capella University and earned
an education specialist degree in administration from Capella University, a master's of arts degree in counseling from the University integrated studies from Cambridge University, and a bachelor of science degree in special education from Central State University. And this evening, we have Mr. DeLuca and miss Jones Jackson here. And, unfortunately, Sarah Crowley is on a plane on her way back from vacation, so she wasn't able to join us. Thank you very much. I'll take a motion to approve the human resources report as presented. Moved by Barb,
seconded by Michelle. Board discussion, and then we certainly will want to, board discussion on on this action item, and then we'll certainly want to Oh. Report two. Sorry. Please go on. Yes. Go on. Okay. Forgot there's another page. I'm I apologize. That's okay. Don't apologize. Every year in June, we bring to you the recommendation to renew for one year the administrative contracts of those in the Rochester Administrators Association, as well as the employment manuals for nonunion administrators. Each of those,
documents set forth contract terms for each administrator based on their probationary or non probationary status. We're recommending the employment contracts of administrators listed in the report below be renewed for condition for an additional one year period. This renewal is, for a term of the administrative contract and does not impact the condition of employment, like wages and benefits, which are governed by the collective bargaining agreement and the personnel manual in the case of nonunion groups. Thank you.
Alright. Now I will take a motion to approve the human no. That's fine. Human resources report as presented. Moved by Michelle, seconded by Barb, for discussion on this. Barb. As as a point of clarification, Beth, when you're looking at, hiring staff specifically at a principal level, what is part of that process in terms of a committee of folks and who is that comprised of? Sure. We do a paper screening. We in this in this cases, we, did a paper screening. We also did a phone interview, another,
interview via Zoom. We had in person interviews with groups of administrators and stakeholders. And, then we had a final interview with a building team made up of the PTA, president or their designee were invited to participate, as well as, teachers, Doug Hill as the REA president, other administrators, building administrators at the elementary level, as well as central office administrators. In addition to that, prior to the interview process, we survey the staff and the PTA to determine,
their desires with respect to what they're looking for in a principal and what their, needs are, and, that's great, Kate. So there is stakeholder input. Absolutely. Yeah. Great. Thanks for clarifying that. Mhmm. Any other questions or comments from the board? Any public comment on this? If you have comment, plea I saw I saw a hand up here first. Yep. Yes, please. You can have time to finish filling out your card too after you speak if you want. We just wanna make sure we get it on the record. You can go ahead and hand it to Scott. Go ahead. If you can just state your name too and your relationship to the district.
Thanks. Thank you, board of education and administration. My name is Michelle Chittick. I'm the parent of a student at Stoney Creek High School. My question is related to the contract renewals. So I heard you say, Beth, you're extending the probationary period for those, employees, bound by their contract. In reviewing the data, today, I did notice that there are, two elementary and three high school, employees that were only, given a one year contract renewal. Is that because they are on their probationary period, or are there,
evaluation, issues? I'm just trying to understand based on, you know, like for like. So, you know, middle school, principals, it looks like everybody, got the two year contract extension. So I'm just trying to understand what the what the rationale is between a one, two, and three year contract renewal by position. Yep. We'll follow-up. We'll follow-up on that Okay. With you. Yep. Okay. And then also, yeah, I guess it would parlay into that. The three year contract extensions all appear to be, direct reports of,
the administration. So I'm just trying to understand what the decision point is. And then lastly, what is the evaluation model? So I didn't see on the RCS website what the evaluation model is for each one of these positions. Okay? Thank you so much. I appreciate it. So it was nice of a board member to ask a clarifying leading question so we can get an answer. So stakeholders would be everyone in the community. We have the ability to email. You have the email addresses of every parent that goes to the school.
We have to fill them out. Right? We know because people reach out to some of them. So why would the consensus be that we only reach out to ones that are able to be involved with the PTA? Why do we keep trying to make the circle as small as possible? Why do we keep restricting communication? If you want the feedback from the community, you can get it. But, again, we'll go back to three hundred and eighty one days without surveying the community. Actions speak louder than words. Right? We heard that from aunt Jenny. So let's stop kidding ourselves that this is about communication or actually seeking to have
involvement from all stakeholders. Stakeholders is every parent that has a student at RCS, not just the ones that are able to be involved in the PTA. That's great, the ones that can be, but there are single parents. There are parents that have restrictions and that have issues. Not everyone can be involved in the PTA. Their voices matter as well. Why are we not expanding the circle? It is possibly to be done. I mean, again, we saw all the great technology that was used, but yet we keep acting like we have to keep the circle small. If you want the circle bigger,
it would be bigger. It is intentionally kept smaller by this administration. Why is our board okay with that? Yep. Well, again, just as we're here now, there are legitimate questions that the whole community Would like to hear the answer to, and we get from the superintendent, someone will get back to you. Why can we not get actual dialogue for the full community? Board, you condone this. You are making this okay. Any other public comment or board member comment? Seeing none, I'll call. Yeah. I I wanna say, thank you for everything that you do. You know, I have, we have principals, from all of our schools here today.
I see Doug back there. The video at the beginning of of, the meeting was appropriate. Right? You guys should be proud of what you've done this year and what you do year in and year out. You're doing everything that you can for the kids of this district, and you're doing a great job. So thank you, and and we're happy to renew your contracts. Thank you. I'll call for a vote to approve the HR report as, as presented. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed? That is a six zero vote. And I'm excited that,
that that we can officially, congratulate mister DeLuca, missus Crowley, and missus Jones Jackson. Please stand. Please stand. Thank you. Welcome aboard to both of you. Yes. Welcome to RCS. Missus Jones Jackson, excited to, get to know you. Missus Crowley, congratulations on, on this move for you. I know you're you'll watch this later, I'm sure, when you get off the plane. Mister DeLuca, so you have very big shoes to fill, and you also, you have big shoes to fill in your new role, and you're leaving behind very big shoes to fill. So, we're really excited for this opportunity for you.
Great things are gonna are are going to be ahead. So congratulations. Congratulations to all of you. Thank you. Next item, 7.3. The 2021 tax rate certification. This is an action item. Matt McDaniel. Thank you. The 2021 tax rate request includes an 18 mill levy on non homestead property for the general operations of the district, 1.64 mills on all classes of property for debt service obligations and 1.4732 mills on all classes of property for the Sinking Fund that was approved by the community in a November 2019 election.
As you know, the community approved a 1.5 mill levy for the sinking fund. However, as we mentioned earlier, sinking funds are subject to the heavily rollback restriction, which reduced the mills the district has authorized to levy for sinking fund purposes. We recommend approval for the tax rates as presented for the twenty twenty one, twenty two fiscal year. Thank you. Thank you. I'll take a motion to approve the 2021 tax rate certification as presented. Moved by Mike, seconded by Kevin. Discussion or questions from the board on this item? Any public comment on this item? Seeing none, I'll call for a vote. All those in favor, please say aye.
Aye. Opposed? That is a six zero vote. Next item on the agenda, 7.4, approval of the twenty twenty one, twenty twenty two fiscal year budget. Matt. Thank you, madam president. Attached to the 2122 budget resolutions, you should find detailed schedules for each fund. There have been no material changes to the proposed fiscal year 2122 budgets since they were reviewed in detail at the 05/17/2021 Board of Education work session. In the general fund, budget revenues totaled 1,000,800 $1,084,872 $879,162
dollars and budgeted expenditures totaled $186,713,191 for projected fund balance of $34,891,095 Moving on to the Debt Retirement Fund. Projected revenues totaled $9,555,749 and debt service requirements totaled $10,819,769 Estimated debt service fund balance totaled $1,273,685 at 06/30/2022. In the Capital Projects Bond Fund,
budgeted revenues totaled $75,045 projected expenditures totaled $11,681,776 for an estimated ending fund balance of $5,293,516 at 06/30/2022. Capital projects include additions and or renovations at various sites as well as technology infrastructure and equipment, furniture and other improvements. In the Capital Projects Sinking Fund, budgeted revenues totaled $8,517,091 and estimated expenditures and other financing uses totaled $10,413,600
for a projected fund balance of $2,101,148 at 06/30/2022. This is the second year for the sinking fund. Estimated revenues in the bookstore fund totaled $98,000 and estimated expenditures, also totaled $98,000 for projected fund balance of $58,981 Projected revenues for the new or for the Early Learning Center or Caring Steps Fund totaled $1,303,784 and estimated expenditures totaled the same amount. Projected fund balance totaled zero at the end of the twenty twenty one-twenty two fiscal
year, the third year of operation. Foodservice Fund estimated revenues totaled $4,000,527 and estimated expenditures totaled $4,033,880 for projected ending fund balance of $1,207,501 at the end of the fiscal year. As a reminder, the district is actively using fund balance to comply with federal regulations that require a decrease in the district's food service fund balance. Estimated revenues in the Student School Activity Fund totaled $2,343,656 and estimated expenditures expenditures,
excuse me, totaled $2,249,684 for a projected fund balance of $1,158,042 at 06/30/2022. Are there any questions? Should we take a motion to approve? We'll take a motion to approve the, budgets as presented and then discussion. Moved by Mike, seconded by Barb. Discussion or questions for Matt? Did I see your hand up? No? Okay. Alright. Just making sure. Kevin. Just real quick. I just wanna say thank you to you and your team. Please pass that along. And I think I know you well enough now that you'd say,
well, it's my job. And, so that is the case. So thank you to all of you for doing your job at a very high level. Thank you, Kim. Yeah. I think we had a so just to clarify, I think our work session where we we reviewed this was maybe three hours long or almost three hours long, and this is everything that we're voting on is unchanged since that work session, just to clarify. Madam president, just one other point of clarification as we talk about the budget. The state budget still has not been done. So this is what Matt said earlier,
this is based on assumptions that we hope to come true. We hope we have budgets sooner than later. This is the second year in a row that, our legislature and our governor has not been able to deliver us a budget sooner than later than we would, call upon them to do so. Thank you. And to clarify, we are required by law to have this budget approved by July 1 Yes. We are. Regardless of yeah. Correct. Any public comment related to this? Yep. Go ahead. And you can fill out your yellow card afterwards. Thank you. Yes, please. That's yep. Hello, board again, administration. My name is Michelle Chittick,
proud parent of the Stoney Creek High School student. Not sure we can, have a a conversation about this, but Matt, Dana, and I have talked in great length about budgets in the past. I do have some questions about the, twenty twenty one, twenty twenty two budget. While I understand I'm a finance person as well, these are based on assumptions. I am concerned about the $3,400,000 decrease from the twenty twenty, twenty twenty one into the twenty twenty one, twenty twenty two year, in instructional staff support. That is significant.
So I'd like to better understand that. So perhaps offline, we could discuss that as well as, the caring steps program as to how increased revenue is being addressed when there is a severe staffing shortage and wait list over at caring steps. So unless you have the staff to be able to, you know, educate the kids or the daycare portion of it, watch the kids. I'm not quite sure I understand how that's achievable and then some other areas. So those are my, points I'd like to discuss. If we could schedule some time again like we did,
that'd probably be most helpful. Thank you. Yep. Thank you. We'll follow-up. Any other public comment? Seeing none, we'll call for a vote. All those in favor of approval of the twenty twenty one, twenty twenty two fiscal year budget as presented, please say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion pass it passes. That is a six zero vote. And we are on to item 7.5, approval of the twenty twenty, twenty twenty one fiscal year budget amendment. Matt. Thank you, madam president. Again, attached to the budget amendment resolutions, you'll find, detailed schedules, proposed budget changes for the general debt service capital projects bond,
capital projects sinking, food service, early learning center occurring steps, soon activity and bookstore funds. Again, all of these amendments were presented in detail at the 05/17/2021, Board of Education work session. The proposed General Fund amendment includes an increase in budgeted revenue of $2,600,289 and an increase in budgeted expenditures of $2,548,991 The net effect of these changes is a decrease in budgeted fund balance of $1,797,470
for an estimated ending fund balance of $36,731,324 The proposed amendment to the debt service fund includes an increase in budget revenue of $49,592 and an increase in budgeted expenditures of $11,000 The net effect of these changes is a decrease in budgeted fund equity of $204,404 for an estimated ending fund balance of $2,537,705 The proposed change, the capital projects bond fund includes a decrease in budgeted revenue of $202,752
and no changes to expenditures. The net effect of these changes is a decrease in budgeted fund balance of $18,683,919 for an estimated ending fund balance of $16,900,247 The proposed change to the capital project sinking fund includes a decrease in budget revenue of $21,082 and a decrease in budgeted expenditures of $638,517 for an estimated ending fund balance of $3,997,657 during its first year of operations.
The proposed amendment to the Bookstore Fund includes a decrease in budgeted revenue of $56,000 and a decrease in budgeted expenditures of $43,205 Net effect of these changes is a net decrease in budgeted fund balance of $17,795 for an estimated ending fund balance of $58,981 The proposed amendment to the Early Learning Center Fund or Caring Steps budget includes an increase in budgeted revenue and expenditures of $62,699 the net effect of these changes does not impact fund balance and fund balance remains at zero, at 06/30/2021.
The proposed change to the food service fund includes an increase in budget revenue of $420,133 and a decrease in budgeted expenditures of $41,180 The net effect of these changes is a decrease in budgeted fund balance of $305,577 for an estimated ending fund balance of $1,240,862 As I mentioned earlier, the district is actively using fund balance to comply with federal regulations that require a decrease in the district's food service fund balance. The proposed amendments to the Student School Activity Fund budget includes a decrease in budgeted
revenue of $1,298,481 and a decrease in budgeted expenditures of $874,144 the net effect of these changes is a net decrease in budgeted fund balance of $199,602 for an estimated ending fund balance of $1,064,070. Thank you. Thank you. And I'll take a motion to approve the twenty twenty, twenty twenty one fiscal year budget amendment as presented. Moved by Michelle, seconded by Kevin. Discussion or questions from the board? Again,
this is, unchanged from our, work session, and and pretty straightforward. Any public comment on this item? Seeing none, I'll call for a vote. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Opposed? That is a six zero vote. Item 7.6, renewal of the district membership to the Michigan High School Athletic Association, the Michigan Association of School Boards, and the and the MASB Legal Trust Fund. This is an action item as well. Matt. Thank you. This resolution, as you mentioned, is to renew the district membership to the Michigan High School Athletic Association at no
cost. The Michigan Association of School Boards in the amount of $9,492, and the MASB Legal Trust Fund in the amount of $493. Thank you. I'll take a motion to approve these, membership renewals moved by Barb, seconded by Scott. Questions or discussion from the board? Comments? Public comment on these items. Seeing none, I will call for a motion to approve this item as presented. I'm sorry. I'll call for a vote. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. That is a six zero vote.
Item 7.7, twenty twenty one, twenty twenty two organizational items. Matt. Thank you, madam president. All organizational items remain the same as the current school year with the following revisions. On page one, the sinking fund account has been added. And on page two, Bank of New York Mellon and U. S. Bank have been removed from bond debt service accounts. I'll take a motion to approve the organizational items as presented. Moved by Mike, seconded by Michelle. Discussion or questions? Again, a lot of formalities at this meeting. Any public comment on this item?
Seeing none, we'll call for, a vote. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Motion passes six zero. Additional business. Citizens present at the meeting. Any citizen wish to comment? If so yep. Go ahead. I saw your yep. I saw, okay. If you can please state your name and relationship to the district, and then go ahead. Good evening. My name is Karen Steininger. I have an upcoming second grader at Longmeadow, and I have a four year old joining pre k four this fall. But she tells everyone she's gonna be a fourth grader. I wanna start by thanking all the teachers,
the staff, the administration, and the school board, for all of the efforts that you have undertaken under this remarkable year. We appreciate everything that you do. We look forward to continuing to demonstrate the reputation of excellence that this school district has in the coming year. With that, as I reflect on this past year and look forward, I'd like to request some additional goals and some reporting transparency that the board and the district can set for themselves to demonstrate improved accountability
beginning in this next year. And I have six points, so I'll go through those. The first is that I request that we tangibly report out on the actions that we take in response to community requests received through commentary either at board meetings as well as questions or requests submitted through email and talk to us. A number of the times, we hear comments here, and we don't get to hear the answers to them even though they are of interest to us as members of the community.
Secondly, I would ask that we maintain an ongoing list and tally of the votes by our board members by topic and representing how each member votes. This would allow our community to better understand which board members represent our personal perspectives, in order to be more fully and appropriately informed when electing individuals to these roles, which are designed to represent the interests of the voters. Third, I request that we establish a standard time frame within which members of the board
and administration will respond to community members who raise questions and or requests during these meetings, or through other avenues. I know that through this meeting, it's not always possible to respond immediately, and so that may be helpful so that everyone knows when they can anticipate a response. For point number four, I I would like for the district to publish a copy of the annual self assessment that is completed by the board on the RCS website, allowing the district to see the annual goals,
metrics, and benchmarks set by the board to define and measure success. Help us understand what we view as success. Help us understand how we're performing according to those standards and how we can work together to improve in the future. For point number five, I would like us to define specific information and or content requirements for meeting agendas, including topic, applicable individuals, and dollar impact on all agendas going forward. I thought we did a really nice job with that this evening,
and that helps the community to understand when there will be a discussion coming up for any spend and allows us appropriate notice to be able to be present and represent the point of view as needed. If you can please wrap up, and we will take a a copy of your remarks if you have them written as well. I I will be happy to submit them or give you this page. I have one more comment. Finally, I ask that we publish and maintain an up to date comprehensive project plan by which the district plans to explore, discuss,
and determine solutions related to the soon to be former administration building and original Rochester High School, which I am a proud graduate of. Not this one, the one over there. Ensuring that the community has clear, timely, and complete information throughout this process so that, again, we can decide if we feel we need to speak out and or share our perspectives. I believe these steps can help form a foundation by which we can collectively strengthen the foundation for all stakeholders in this community, and we can work together productively and in our best shared interests.
Thank you for your time, and have a really nice summer. Any other public comment? Oh, yep. Hello again, Board and administration. My name is Michelle Chittick, proud parent of a Stony Creek High School, student. So I would just like to say thank you to the Stoney Creek High School administration, teachers, everyone involved with the school there. Difficult, difficult year, but I will say, honestly, I I was so impressed with, some of the situations that, you know, my daughter unfortunately had to deal with. And I just wanna say thank you. Thank you. Thank you for everything that they did. Brian Shelton,
Nick Merlo, acting, assistant principal, Laura Matthews, and all the teachers. So, thank you so much. I appreciate it. Any other public comment? Members of the administration. Madam president, just in wrapping up the school year, I just, wanna take a moment and thank, all of our staff, our support staff, this board of education, everyone sitting at this table with me, and everyone that can hear this for a very, very difficult year, but by by many indications, a successful one. I also wanna take a moment just to, shout out to all of our high school administration teams, our elementary school administration teams,
and our middle school administration teams. One of the very few school districts that has, our our entire administration team available at, at graduation, including our special education team. And that's that's really indicative of our entire organization. And I also want to, to thank all of the support staff, particularly, the, the gentlemen. I think it's all gentlemen in the trenches in terms of, driving the trucks and moving all the gear. It was an extremely, extremely hot day. As a matter of fact, I think mister DeLuca would, testify to that. It's the first time in a long time that I've seen him break character at
graduation. So I was right there with you, Neil. But an an awesome awesome day, celebrating our kids, celebrating our community, and celebrating our school district, and, making DTE, everything that, that the 0 Arena normally is. So, again, thanks to everybody, and thanks to the board of education for their support, and thanks to the community for, for sticking with us and their patience this school year. We, we hope we intend to open up as a normal school year as much as humanly possible. I don't have a crystal ball,
but it is our intent to do that, and I fervently hope that that's the case. Thank you. Any other administration comments? Members of the board of education. Michelle. I guess I would just like to comment. We we all know this has been a difficult year, a challenging year. This is our last board member of our board meeting of the school year. And while it has been, at times, I'm sure, frustrating and challenging for staff, parents, teachers, board members. I really appreciate how, the district has come together and persevered through that and,
provided, some opportunities, especially towards the end of the year, for the students to make it seem as normal as possible. And I really look forward to, hopefully, as you said, Doctor. Shaner, having a more normal year and that this will be, you know, one in a century type past year, that we don't have to deal with this again anytime soon. But amazing graduation ceremonies that we attended, the way the administration teams put those together, the student participation in the bands and the choir, and just to be able to celebrate, all of those students' accomplishments was,
a great way to end the school year. So, I appreciate the ability to do that. Thank you. Any other board member comments? Mike. It's just I'm sorry, Mike. You have that thing where I I think you're gonna say something. Scott, Barb, Kevin? Yeah. I was just making sure this thing was working. I think it's is it oh, I know you're playing with that button right there. Is it going? Is it still going? Yeah. You're cool. Okay. Hey. One thing I just wanna say about the about this year, which is very interesting, is just all of you, the faculty, the students, the teachers, everybody, is, one thing I've learned about in life is when you go through really hard things
like this, I mean, we're all in the furnace one way or another. You learn a lot about yourself. You learn a lot about other people around you. And I think that the thing that is a positive of all of this is, you build strong bonds when things aren't going well. If you've ever been in the military, if you've ever been on a sports team or in a family or something like that, you learn a lot about everybody and you build stronger bonds when things get hard. That's when you build them, not when they're easy. Right? So, the things that I have seen people go through,
and how they've handled such crazy circumstances. Hey. You know, we can all play Monday morning quarterback. And, of course, there are things that we look back and say, man, we could've done that different. But make no mistake, when you go through something like this, when we go back to this space of normalcy, you can bet that we're also gonna take an accounting on the things that we did during this course of time that we learned that we can bring with us too, things that will be helpful. Right? Just, you know, I was talking about some folks at work about this the other day. It's like, look. What are some things that we had to do to be nimble and find success
in this rapid environment of change. Well, when we go back to work, what are we gonna take with us based off what we learned? Let's not be too hasty and close minded about, oh, let's just exhale and get back to the way it was. Let's learn from this. And I think that everyone's aware of that. So I'm not saying anything you already know, but just looking at the entire body of work and the things that people have gone through and the things that we learned about each other and as a crew. I look forward to what this school just will accomplish in the years to come because of the bonds and the trust that has been forward with this group of
leaders, not only just in this room, but all of our buildings. That's all I wanted to say. Thanks, Scott. Do you wanna say something, Barb? Yeah. Just to piggyback on what you said, Scott. You know, reflection is important when you go through what we've been through. And I think what would be really interesting to see, and acknowledge is and I I said this at the beginning of well, it was about a year ago that we can choose to use this, experience as something that we grow in, and grow from, especially when it comes to to teaching and instruction and how that content is delivered
to students. And so to your point, I'd I'd be really fascinated to see in the year ahead, how what teachers and staff had experienced, this year, helps inform them as we transition into hopefully a very, quote unquote, normal year. Because I think there are a lot of opportunities, I would have no doubt, probably, that educators would say they they learned a lot about, delivering instruction, and I just would be so curious to hear about how they can utilize that in a positive way moving forward. So just just my thoughts. Thank you. I'll just echo what my colleagues say.
I really can only say thank you to the people at this table with me. To, missus Fragamani, deputy superintendent Fragamani, and doctor Shaner, our superintendent, thank you for your leadership. I really loved what the student what the boy said in the video, the Stony Creek boy who said and I paraphrase that he went into the school year with very little expectations because of the global health situation around him and how grateful he was. And and I think that that is, something that's felt district wide right now.
Thank you. That's all I can really say. I'll take a motion to adjourn the meeting at 08:16PM. So what time it is? 08:16PM. Moved by Barb, seconded by Kevin. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. It's a six zero vote. Thank you, everyone. Oh my gosh. I'm so sorry. I am getting the worst migraine, everyone. I'm sorry that I was, like, totally off.